Adoption Requests

I'm all for chins and the other random critters finding good homes.  Don't get me wrong.  And I do entertain some adoption requests.  For example, people that want pairs to stay together, I will not split the pairs unless they injure each other, or give me another reason to think they should not be together.  But that said... I can't just entertain every request people have.

Lately people been a little bit specific with requests.  Chins should only go to homes with older teenagers, no younger kids.  Chins should only go to homes if they're going to be with other chins.  Ok, here's the problem with that.  That could mean denying that specific chin an awesome home... just because the family had a new baby.  Does that make any sense?  No.  Same with the chin to a home with other chins. 

Now, if there's a valid reason for a request, that's different.  We legitimately, awhile back, had a chin come in that would literally have a seizure around large, dark-colored dogs.  For the health of the chin, it mentioned this on the ad, and I asked potential adopters, if they had a dog, what kind, what color. 

But these other ones are akin to whims.  Sure, if there's no young kids in the house, hopefully the chin isn't handled roughly (though, there's no promising that adults and older teens won't handle roughly or kill the chin either).  If there's other chins in the house... well, you would hope the family could afford it, but I see a lot of families with multiple chins that spoil them less.. cause they can't truly afford that many chins, so the chins just have the basics.  Pellets, hay, water, a chew toy.  Which is fine, but wouldn't it be better to be the only chin and be spoiled?

Also, another reason for telling people, I can't promise anything as far as their request, besides practicality, is simply effort.  The average chin is at the rescue for 3 months.  Some are here up to a year, occasionally multiple years, if for some reason they're less adoptable.  For every chin that's here, I probably go through 20 people who either email/call/text saying they want to adopt, some get the adoption form, some question me for an hour and I never hear from em again.  Now, imagine for all those 20, I have to also ask em about their home life.  Do they have any small kids?  No.  Ok... are they planning on having any small kids?  Cause I mean, just cause they don't have em now, doesn't mean they'll never have another kid, right?  And then naturally, people ask, "well, why do you ask?"  Think about how it says, if I say to someone, "oh the previous home only wants these chins to go to a home with older teenagers.  So you can't adopt them."  If there's a valid reason for it, sure.  Otherwise, it's akin to discrimination based on some arbitrary factor.  

Last thing.  Practicality.  Try dropping off your dog at the humane society, or even your cat at a cat-based-rescue and asking for them, with no valid reason behind it, to only adopt to a family without kids.  Oh and make sure to mention, your dog / cat is perfectly fine with kids, doesn't bite, declawed, bombproof.  Oh but they CANNOT adopt out to a family with kids.  Now, I'm not saying they're going to purposefully adopt out to a family with kids.... but if there's not a reason to keep the cat / dog away from kids... that's going in one ear and out the other.  Other rescues would never think of entertaining thoughts like this.  And often, those rescues, especially cat and dog ones, have a lot more volunteers, actual paid staff in some instances... so if they wanted to, they probably could.  And they still don't.  And here, it's just me.  Which is fine, but because of that, and because the rescue consumes my life... I just cannot go along with every little request.  Especially when there's no valid reason for it.