Goings Ons

So, it's been reasonably busy lately. 

The people who took Cumberpatch on a trial run came and adopted a different baby chinchilla.  Suzi and Stella went home.

Someone came to look at the rats.  They seemed to like them, but a few days later, I got an email saying they decided not to adopt at this time.  Which, hey, at least they let me know.  That's more than I can say for most people.

Because of these recent adoptions, I was able to finally email the first person wanting to bring their chins into the rescue -- someone who's been on the waiting list since December.  Granted, it's only been a day or two, but I haven't heard back from them yet.  Which is about par for the course, as it seems, when people decide to take their chins elsewhere or rehome them, they don't let me know.  I tell people, when I add them to the waiting list, that if they decide they no longer need to be on it, to let me know.  The reason being, I give people 7 days to get back to me.  If they don't get back to me in that time frame, I move to the next person.  But that means, if the first 6 people flake out (and none of them actually, you know, let me know), the 7th person on the list isn't contacted until 7 weeks after I started contacting the first person. Versus, if these people would receive my phone call / email and call back / email back and say, you know, we no longer have the chins, or we no longer need them to come into the rescue, or whatever the case may be, I can move to the next person quicker. 

Speaking of which, the first person on my list was given longer than 7 days, because I forgot to include that in my first email to them.  When it hit the final day, I let them know, they lost their spot.  I usually don't send an email like that, but they had chins from here, so that was a bit different.  This was the email I got back -- "Ashley, Apologies for not responding more quickly. [name of daughter] has had to take the responsibility on this. So, hopefully she will continue doing what she should do.
Thank you, sorry to keep you hangin"  -- now... who can tell me what exactly that means?  And why she couldn't have responded to my July 9th email, but no, had to wait until my July 21st email to say that?  Ok, back to what does that mean. I mean, really, what does it?  I emailed back, asking,

"What does that exactly mean?  That she's keeping them, at least for now?  Should I take you off the list until I hear from you again?  Or....?  Let me know, thank you."  Because to me, I really don't know.  Maybe that's more clear to some of you, but not to me.  Of course, nothing back yet.  

Moving along.  I had someone text me at 1:29 am, asking if I'm looking for a home for some chins.  And then they said, sorry to text you so late.  Now, first, people have no common courtesy.  But anyway, I figured, I was still up, so I texted back.  At 2:36 am, they text me back.  Well, I was asleep at that point.  I texted back this morning, nothing yet.  There's something to be said about people anymore.  Would you call your plumber at 1:30 am?  I think not.  So, why are you texting me?  

Another thing -- I feel like I repeat myself umpteen times -- you people need to learn some common courtesy.  Even though those rat people didn't adopt, I appreciate that they got back to me and let me know.  To me, that's a big thing.  You know why?  Because I have a ton of people who never get back to me.  I've had multiple emails lately asking 4000 questions and then asking, based on what they've said, which chins I think would be good for them.  So I write out a response, email them back, and... nothing.  Even if they could say, thanks, now's not a good time, we'll adopt later, that would be good.  The people who adopted Suzi and Stella were like that.  About a year ago, they took different chins on a trial run.  They liked the chins, but decided, not the right time.  They said they'd let me know when they wanted to adopt.  Now, I've only heard that a million times, but these people actually did contact me recently and let me know they were ready now... and came and adopted.  Now, was that so difficult?  I mean, even if they'd never come back, they at least were nice enough to email and say, hey, we're not going to right now.  Not difficult.

 

One last thing.  I don't have a lot of volunteers, but except for one family that always simply asks, "does this weekend work?" most volunteers email and say,  they're free all week, or any night after 5, or whatever, when works for me?  So, I take that as, they're free all week, or any night after 5, and say, ok, how bout this day at this time.  Oh, that day doesn't work.  Wait, what???  If you want to volunteer, it doesn't bother me if you want to email and say, I can volunteer, but the only time is Wednesday at 2.  That's fine.  That is perfectly fine.  If I can't work around that, then I just can't, but at least we're not playing email or phone tag trying to find a good time.  But it's super frustrating whe you tell me, oh whenever is good, so I pick a day, and it's not good.  If it's not good, clearly, whenever isn't good.  I'm not going to get mad at you when you tell me, the only time you can come is a certain day at a certain time, but I will get frustrated when I try to pick a day 5 times and none of those work for you, after you've just told me, any day this week after 5.  I get things change.  But I'm pretty good about emailing people right back, and if you email me at 5 and I email you back at 5:05 and you've magically got plans for every day except Friday night, which all developed in the last 5 minutes?  Suspicious....