I know it's all been negative posts on top of negative posts lately, but people... that's what's been going on. I've had people actually contact me and say, "post something positive." Like what? That I cleaned cages and fed the animals? Because since the last post, I've gotten 5 more emails about people wanting to surrender chins and exactly 0 emails about people wanting to adopt. No one coming to help. No one donating.
Not to mention, the person who was going to foster the rabbits, never got back to me about when would work for them to come by. So I messaged them the other day, asking if they still wanted to help. They said, oh yeah, and we set up a time, for today, between 10-11. Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, it's 11:43 now and they're still not here. Besides this being total and absolute bullshit, you know what I call this? An utter waste of time. For someone to say, oh, between 10-11ish works for them, I will make sure to be here between 9:30 and 11:30. Not that there's not stuff I can't do at home, but it almost never fails, the days I need to hang around here, waiting for people to show up (who never do show up), are days I need to be out and about doing things. And they never showed up, so certain errands never got done, and now I need to go to work. And still, those rabbits are here.
I find this very disappointing. I'd like to think, in general, people are good, people are helpful, people really do want to help. But then, no one shows up to volunteer, no one shows up to foster, people waste my time, no one returns my phone calls, when I call people back -- 90% of the time, the same day, they've already gotten an animal elsewhere cause they couldn't wait an hour for a return phone call -- remind me again why I'm doing this? And don't say "for the animals" cause they bite me make my asthma horrible and I really can't say I even like the animals all that much anymore. These people have ruined this for me.
Also, another thing that's going on that, probably because of all of the negativity currently going around, is rubbing me the wrong way. Who's seen the story of Freeway, the chinchilla that was thrown from a vehicle onto the freeway? If you're on facebook and in the chinchilla groups I'm in, you likely have. Well, they started a chip-in for him (or whatever they call it now, now that half those sites have closed down), and at the time I'm writing this, they've raised $512. http://www.youcaring.com/pet-expenses/freeway-s-fresh-start/248201 Don't get me wrong, I think that's great that people care and want to chip in. But let me ask you -- why is it that people will run to donate to a single chin that had a bad time at life, yet when actual rescues need help, no one lifts a finger or opens their pocketbook? When I posted about how horrible the rescue was doing, lack of sales, lack of adoptions, lack of time to do orders so people are backing out of them, one person -- ONE PERSON -- donated. And I thank that person, I really do. But if you look at that chip-in, that $512 wasn't one or two people, it was a lot of people donating a few bucks here and there. It's a lot of little donations that help. Unfortunately, we're getting almost none of those either.
Same with when I had my rescue at the Pet Supplies Plus. I'd talk to the people about how expensive it is to care for these critters, they wouldn't donate a freakin penny in my donation box, but then would go to the cat donation box and donate $20. Wtf? A lot of people that day even donated the change from their purchases.... to the cat or dog rescues. That change adds up. But we don't even get that.
We used to have multiple people purchasing food and supplies from here. Now, we routinely have two families that stop by for food and hay. And both do donate a little extra every time, which I greatly appreciate. But it doesn't make up for how it used to be when 20 families consistently purchased food and hay from here. I don't even get it -- it's CHEAPER to buy from here than to buy from the pet store, and most of these people are SUPER local, yet they go to the pet store and pay 3x the price to get the same item. When we had that many families consistently buying supplies, I didn't need as many donations. But now, when sales are pretty much nil, something has to pay for the critters.
But it still boggles my mind how everyone can bond together over one chin, and donate gobs of money for one chin, when chinchilla rescues are full of TONS of chins from bad situations. Maybe not the same situation, but bad situations nonetheless, and pretty much no one cares about those chins.
One person who wanted to help, well, their daughter wanted to help, said they couldn't bring their kid any further north than Crown Point. I hate to sound like an ass, but what good does that do me? They never adopted chins (and returned the rats they adopted anyway), so, no offense to them, but they wouldn't be any good to have at an adoption event at the PSP store, cause they have no idea about chin care... which is the basis of the rescue. Now, if I was going to bring rabbits to a chinchilla adoption event, I'm sure they'd do fine. But I typically bring chins, cause hello, this is a chin rescue. Other than an adoption event at the store, this is one of the people who said, oh, bring stuff by their house and they'll do it. Yes, because the prep time for me to do that is nothing. Nada. Oh wait, prep time to bring houses so they can sand them... prep time is at least 50%, and if I can barely keep cages clean, having houses made 50% of the way, multiple all at once, not happening. And I get that gas costs money and people's time is valuable, but think about what it says to me when you say you don't have time to bring your kid any further than just a bit of the way from your house to volunteer? To me, that says you just don't care enough to volunteer. Those people are fosters for some rescue, not sure which one off the top of my head. They said they could foster for my rescue. But while my work is flexible, I'm not going to be bringing rabbits and cages and whatnot to work, for them to pick up, because they can't come out to the rescue. I can't push it with my work, and for fosters, they have to come here to pick up food and supplies as well -- I'm not about to start lugging food and hay and whatnot to work all the time because people won't come by the rescue. Fosters are supposed to make my life easier, not more difficult.
I have the rescue in my house. My house smells like small animals 24/7. Pretty much all my free time is devoted to fuzzy small animals. I'm doing my part. But no one else feels like doing anything.
And all of you that keep saying, oh you'll bring the cage and you'll bring everything with. I don't fucking care. Are you going to move in too? And help clean the cages and keep everyone fed and watered? Because if you're NOT, I don't have the TIME. I could fit about 50 more cages in my basement. But those animals would sit in filth because there's not enough hours in the day to keep everything clean, fed, watered. So it makes no difference that you're going to bring everything with the chin, because if I don't have time, I don't have time. I can't make myself 48-hour-days just cause they would be useful.
One more thing. I've had several animals returned lately because people have found them to be "too much work." I have, right now, four guinea pigs, 5 rabbits, something like 40 chinchillas, 2 prairie dogs, 2 dogs, and a pac man frog. And some plants. If I can do it all (while complaining, but still can do it all), I find it almost lazy to hear people say that that ONE rabbit has become too much work. You know what it makes me think? You simply no longer feel like cleaning the cage, making the effort to feed and water the animal, and so on and so forth. Because it's not that hard.
I'm done with this rant for today.
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