Cutting Back

I need to cut back on the chins and other rescues.  I need to stop getting suckered into every sob story.  I always tell people, "you can't save them all," and then I still try to.  Well, sadly, the reality is, they can't, and I can't either.  I cleaned all the runs today, with a face mask on.  Took it off, and not 5 minutes later, had to come upstairs cause I was wheezing.  It's besides the fact that I have a cold and I'm congested.  I was trying to sweep, and I had to move 5 cages around because there's random critters in them that don't fit anywhere else.  I adopted out two chins today and still have no room to move any chins anywhere, cause both chins were in runs.  So maybe I can move some of the chins in the random floating cages into the runs.  Cause at least those aren't smack dab in the middle of the room.

Plus, I can't even keep up with the website anymore.  The closest it ever gets to up-to-date is that the list of chins will be accurate.  But most of the available ones won't have descriptions, because by the time I get home from work, I'm too tired to take pictures all the time, and answer all the emails.

I have fleece liners, but can't ever get any volunteers to go and wash them.  Or volunteers to do anything for that matter.  The things that help so many other rescues run is the volunteers.  Every time the rescues come into the pet store to set up adoption events, its volunteers coming in.   A lady came in today to set up an adoption event for one.  She's just the go-to-volunteer between some marketing person for the rescue and the store.  The rescues that come in usually have several foster homes show up with the critters.  Versus it's just me.  And on lucky days, I can get one of my co-workers to feed the store-rescue-chin on my day off.  That's about the extent of my volunteers.  People donate money occasionally, and that's wonderful.  Don't get me wrong.  The food for the chins costs money, and it has to come from somewhere.  But no amount of money can give me the energy needed to care for all these animals by myself.  I'd much rather have bodies.  Shit, I've TRIED to pay people to come help clean cages.  Take stuff to the laundromat.  Too busy.  No one wants to do that stuff.  Really?  Cause for all those people crying poor, you sure think a few would want a few bucks, tax free, but apparently not.

So, once / if I ever get down from the insane amount of animals I have, I'm going to do my best to get rid of at least one FN.  Baby steps.  I don't know which one, cause I like em all, but I think one's gotta go.  Even a handful less chins would be helpful, because it's less fur flying around, two less cages to clean (top and bottom).  And I WILL learn to say no.  As much as I want to help, I can't be the safety net for everyone.  I took in 7 chins within the last month or two from people moving out of country.  Out of COUNTRY.  And mind you, all those chins were brought to me mere DAYS before these people literally boarded a plane out of the US.  No planning whatsoever, it was a hail mary effort on these people that I would take their chins.  Now, I'd hate to see what would happen if I said, no, I can't.  But the reality needs to be -- no, I can't.  If I'm full, I need to be full.  Period.  Anymore, I can't even breathe down there.  Doing laundry on the other side of the basement has become a chore, cause you know, breathing's kind of important.  And it's taking in the extras and having them come out my ears that really is what gets me stressed and pulling my hair out.  And if the rescue's gonna stay open, that has gotta stop.  I have gotta set limits. 

To round out the day.... before my last appointment got here, I decided to clean cages.  Dumped out all the run pans and refilled... vacuumed the FNs.  Right before they came, I thought, hey, I'm going to see how the baby's doing.  Weigh her.  Bout that.  So, when putting the clean shavings in the pan, I had pushed the pan back... and she was behind the pan.... and the pan was about flush with the front of the cage when I was done.  So I realized that, yanked the pan forward, set her down on the shavings.  Her back half looked a little squished...legs behind her, dragging.... but she still was moving around... so I left her alone.  Panickedly texted some people, cause I apparently can't keep bad news to myself....

...and then my people arrived.  First things first, we went to put the cage in their car... didn't fit.  Ended up deciding, we'll take it apart, but naturally I couldn't find a pair of clipping pliers, so we had to manually yank all the O-rings off.  What a pain.  Anyway, got it apart, and they wanted a water bottle.  So, I'm currently out of put-together stoppers and glass tubes.  Which I usually put together in spare time (ha!), because they're easy to break when you're in a hurry.  Yeah, bout that.  So, as they're watching me put it together, the tube shatters, cutting the hell out of two fingers.  I go run upstairs to try to find a bandage, wrap those up, get back downstairs.  Thankfully, the guy had the tube in the stopper by the time I made it back down.

Unfortunately, if you've ever shattered one of those water bottle tubes, you know they shatter in itty bitty tiny little miniscule glass fragments, so once the people left, I had to unwrap the fingers and dig out any remaining glass shards, to end my night on a nice painful note, before wrapping em back up.  Because, you know, the day couldn't get better.

Well, on an ACTUAL positive note... since it was about midnight about that point, and WAAAAAAY past the time when the lights naturally shut off via timer in the basement, I had to head back down if I wanted to turn off the lights, or they'd stay on all night.  So I headed down, and checked on the baby chin.  And... she's using her legs!!  Who-hoo!!  So all, please, fingers crossed for the little girl, that she continues to do well.  

So to wrap up the multiple posts, today, Myshkin, Puff, and Mama & Baby went to their new homes.  And I cleaned cages, cut my fingers, and squished a chin.  And completely unrelated, but since hh gregg didn't call to tell me what time they're delivering (but I know they're coming), I assume I have to be up early.  I'm going to bed now.