I just don't get it.

I just don't get it.

So many people tell me, oh the rescue's doing these awesome things.  I will, for sure, be getting a chin from you, when I get one.  I'll get a cage from you too, awesome deal.  And then they text me one night when I'm at work, want to come over RIGHT THEN (because, you know, I have nothing better to do and can drop everything I'm doing to run home and sell you a cage), to get a cage.  I can't make it, I tell them, will be out of town the rest of the week, we can schedule for next week.  They say ok. 

I get my work schedule and text them back (cause I was waiting for that to know which day I could do).  Asked them, were they wanting a chin or a cage or both, cause their text wasn't super clear.  For sure I thought cage but maybe chin also.  Oh, they already got a chin and a cage.  What?  Thought they were so gung ho about getting one from the rescue.  Now they just want to come over for food.  Which is fine, but a $6.25 sale of food isn't going to pay to keep the rescue open. 

And this is just one example... this happens a lot.  It's sad, actually, how much, but these people just can't seem to wait a day or two to bring a 15-20 year pet into their lives.  Which I think is utterly ridiculous, because people think I can just drop everything to accomodate them.  Someone want to give me a million dollars to live off of, and I can sit home and run the rescue and do nothing else, and basically be at everyone's beck and call.  But until that happens, I have a real job that requires 50+ hours a week, and I can't drop everything cause someone needs a cage right now.  Sorry. 

If I call one of the contacts in  my phone, or even all the contacts in my phone, and say, hey, let's go out to lunch.  Not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.  How many of them do you think will drop what they're doing to go out to lunch with me?  I guarantee you, probably no one.  Probably, mostly, because.... wait for it... they're all at work and can't drop everything for the whim of one person.  And no one would expect them to, because people would say, oh they're working.  So why do people think it's ok to ask me to drop everything for them?  Is my life not worth anything because I have a rescue, and that should come before anything else in my life?  Why is that thought ok? 

It's maddening on this end.

Adoptions have pretty much slowed to a halt.  Now, dropoffs, ha.  Exact opposite.  I've never had a longer waiting list, and I've never had more people that have to get rid of their chins by yesterday, and need them to go somewhere.  But people wanting to adopt?  Not so much.  Chins are spending inordinate amounts of time at the rescue.  In January, Mama & Baby will have been at the rescue for a year.  That's sad, considering, if you leave Mama alone, and enjoy holding and playing with Baby, you have a happy pair of chins.  In March, Snickers will have been here a year.  There is nothing wrong with these chins.  They're just not freaking babies, which is all anyone seems to want anymore. 

I know, I know, you go to a humane society, and they have oodles of puppies and kittens.  But that's not how it works in chin rescues.  Ask any one of em, your average chin is at least 3 years old, if not older, and often is not the poster child for the ideal chin.  That's just how it is.  There's not oodles of baby chins waiting to be adopted, and some of the ones that are available come with attitudes or health problems.  Not all, but some.  But that doesn't mean they deserve homes any less!