I suppose now's a good time as any to share my thoughts on this. If you're in some of the select facebook groups that have 500-comment threads on this right now, you know what I 'm talking about, but in case you aren't, 330 chinchillas were seized from a home in Waukesha, Wisconsin. 24 were dead, and the rest were in poor conditions. The house had such strong ammonia that it was declared unliveable.
Articles:
http://fox6now.com/2015/03/29/300-chinchillas-removed-from-waukesha-home-fire-official-says-its-the-worst-hes-seen-in-30-years/
http://www.wisn.com/news/waukesha-woman-considered-hers-business-a-chinchilla-rescue/32116076 -- with video
I have the unfortunate experience of knowing who this is, and it is Tricia Rees. When I first met her, she told me she had 10ish chinchillas, and they were pets. She had come to me to adopt a trio of chinchillas. The family seemed very nice, and really, 13 chinchillas for one person isn't all that many, in the scheme of things. I remember, they were going to Ryersons and the Lemler's on the way here (well, to my parents' house, as that's where I was living at the time) and asked if I needed anything. They picked me up O-rings from Ryersons (and something else, but I don't remember what) and a little pink white female that I would later name Gypsy from the Lemler's. And their parents had a winery so I purchased some wine from the parents, and they brought it to me. One of the bottles had a chinchilla label on it, which they gave to me (and I still have, with wine still in it).
Anyway, so they seemed perfectly normal at the time. The woman had told me that the reason she stayed home (and was able to care for all the chins and pets) was that she had a disability. That's all that was said about it, and I'm not one to be nosy (curious, maybe, but not nosy), so we left it at that.
So the family adopted those chins. Fast forward to the following year, and I had a chinchilla surrendered with a bad leg injury, Rochelle. Before she was even healed, Tricia had volunteered to adopt her, and I still had no reason to think anything negative, so she adopted her.
And maybe a year or so after that, all hell broke loose. Tricia had been asking me about breeding when she was at the rescue, and so I showed her some of the show chins and explained what the difference was between those and the pet chins. And I showed her examples of good fur, bad fur, etc. So I knew she was looking into getting breeding chins, but we had talked and she knew she was not to bred those rescues she got from me, and I did believe her that she wouldn't (and would like to still believe her, but I just don't know).
But anyway, about the time she started openly purchasing breeding chins, she started complaining about her health. Now, I knew she had health problems, but she had never felt the need to share them with me, which was fine. Until one day she just randomly started posting on facebook about how she had all these health problems. Next she had narcolepsy. Next she was dying. Next... whatever. Well, then came Nationals that year, and she was getting blue diamonds and sapphires and violets from some big name breeders. Well, she showed the ones she got, along with a few of her chins, and none of them did very well. As in, 4ths, 5ths, and I think some got "no award." I believe she came to another show that year, and then I didn't see her again until the following Nationals.
In between, she decided she wanted a chin store, and started selling wood, supplements, all sorts of things. And getting all sorts of complaints. People were getting unclean wood, gunk in their supplements, and so on so forth. I suppose, looking back, it might make sense that this stuff was not clean, based on the home situation. After all, hindsight is 20/20. But at the time, rather than assume it was her house that was the problem, people were just assuming her products were not up to the standards that we hold in the chin community.
The following Nationals, she did no better in terms of ribbons / awards, but continued her "omg poor me, I'm dying" campaign. Until it just sort of randomly stopped.
I hadn't seen a post in her group pop up on my newsfeed for months, and hadn't seen her say anything for months either. Another sort of "odd" thing was that you would never see her sell any of her chins. You'd here her say that she got this chin or that chin or whatever from some breeder, but she never had any for sale, you never saw someone comment about how they got some awesome chin from her. I suppose, again, hindsight will say, this should have made people wonder about where they were going. But then again, maybe not, because some chins that I have here never actually are listed, due to people calling and wanting something, or due to being on my waiting list for something specific (I get it in, let them know, it appears like the chin was never here to an outsider). Well, that's possible, but it's also possible that's why she had the 300 that she did. While they don't breed fast, by any means, if you're never selling babies, you could definitely end up with a good amount more within a year.
The last time I saw her, two Nationals ago, I believe she told me she had 150 chins. That was March 2014. Even if you figure only half those breed, and give you one kit each, you're still looking at 75 extra per year (and in reality, probably more than that).
I, and some others in the chin community, wondered if we'd see her this year at Nationals. She wasn't there. I wondered about it, but didn't really think much of it. Considering she hadn't done well at show, it really wouldn't have surprised me if she'd gotten discouraged and gotten out of breeding/showing. Clearly, little did I know.
Well... until this happened. I was out in Ohio when I was facebook tagged in a post by one of my friends. It was a link to the first article. Well, I immediately texted them and asked if they thought it was Tricia... and obviously it has turned out to be her. And they're thinking about pressing criminal charges. Oh boy.
Ok so anyway, this would be hoarding. It's unfortunate that it got this bad, and I feel bad for the chinchillas. Thankfully, there are some knowledgeable chinchilla people right in this area who have been helping out the humane society. The latest post I saw regarding that was that the humane society has said that they are throwing away any food given to them that contains the fruits / nuts / veggies / seeds. So this is already progressing way better than the Valley View PETA situation from a bit ago.
People in the chin community have mentioned that Tricia was inquiring about buying chins as recent as a few days before this article aired. Holy cow.
Sadly there's really not much to say about this actual situation. If she was looking to buy more, she clearly saw no problems with how everything was right then. And they said the house was UNLIVEABLE because of the high ammonia levels. From the pictures and videos you can tell there was just filth everywhere. It would be one thing to say, she got in over her head, but then, you'd hope she'd go down to lower numbers. But no, she wanted to get more.
Unfortunately, a lot of people are lumping together what she does and what all rescues and breeders do. In different places, she listed herself as a rescue and a breeder, and I suppose she did probably believe she was both. What is likely to happen, though, is that people will see this situation, and think that all breeders are hoarders and all home rescues are this badly kept. In reality, that's not the case. I have nowhere near this number of chins, but just to keep them fed, watered, cages clean, takes hours per week. If I don't change out a fleece liner, I will at least make sure to vacuum out the poos. Sweep the floor. Even if you came to the rescue right now, there's a big bag of trash in the middle of the floor, but it doesn't smell and the floor is relatively clean. Some shavings, sure, but not poos everywhere.
Just because she had that many animals (or anyone who has that many chins) does not, by any means, automatically mean they are not well cared for. When we show our chins, they have to look good. You can tell the care given by how the chins look. If they're dirty, that can be due to the chin laying in its own pee, but it also can be from the owner not cleaning the cage often enough. If they're not dusted often enough, it shows in the way their fur looks. Some of you know I've been out in Ohio helping out at one of the large ranches and those chins are cared for better than half the pet chins I get in at the rescue. And there's thousands of them, yet they're fed daily, cages cleaned once weekly, medicated if necessary, etc etc. Versus half these pet people who surrender a sick chin they can't afford or bring a cage with that's got 2" of stuck down feces. I would actually venture to say that many times, these big breeders and ranchers actually care for their chins better, and more consistently, than the average pet owner. Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good pet owners who care for their pets well. But keep in mind, I also deal with all the people dropping off rescues, plus all the people who contact me who never actually drop off a chin, and those people are the ones I'm talking about.
What definitely does not help the image that we're all hoarders is the way chins breed. Ok, let's back up for a sec. Breed two rats. What do you get? In 30 days, 12-20 babies. Breed two guinea pigs. In 60 days, you get 3-5 babies. So for a lot of those, you don't need a lot of animals to get a lot of babies. Say you want 50 babies and you have one pair of rats / guinea pigs. That's (roughly) 3 months for rats, 10 months for guinea pigs. Now let's think about chinchillas. Say a chinchilla gets pregnant today. 120 days from now, give or take, it will deliver. That's 4 months. The babies will stay with mom an extra two months before they're weaned. So that allows about two litters per year. They typically have 1-2 babies per litter, so at 1-2 babies per litter, you're looking at at least 12-13 years to get 50 chinchillas out of one pair (and that's assuming you have two per litter -- which breeders know, getting 1 per litter is just as likely). And, for chinchillas, the mortality rate hovers around the 20-25% range, so about that percentage of babies will either be stillborn or won't survive. The thing is, if you want to show, you have to have something to show. And many people feel it's not worth it to bring one chinchilla to the show -- and it's really not -- you can't compete for breeder awards and you can't showcase what you've worked so hard for. But every baby that's born is not going to be awesome. Even if you put two grand show champions together and they breed (ha! as if) and have a baby, it could still be pet quality. So, to have enough chinchillas born that are good enough quality to show... takes having a lot of chinchillas.
One last thing. I've seen a lot of comments on the cages shown in the video. The cages aren't the problems. The standard looking ones are called "runs" -- I have 8. They are super useful when breeding and are standard in the chinchilla industry (though they may not all look the same, the idea is the same across the board). The problem here isn't the cages though -- it's the fact that these chinchillas were allowed to live in filth. Not be cleaned. In the one video, it shows that she had 2 feet, TWO FEET, of chinchilla poos piled against the foundation of her house. Now, I'm not even sure how she got JUST the poos, unless she wasn't using any shavings (very possible, I suppose), but if you have that much... there's a problem. I hope that Tricia gets the help we all know she needs (and have known for quite some time, though not to this extent), but really, I feel bad for the chins. Because while she chose to live this way, they didn't.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
So, another busy day today
So, I was supposed to have a chin pickup today, but unfortunately, their chin developed loose poos, so that has been postponed.
But I still had a pickup of shelves and supplies, and another pickup of food and dust today.
Emailed two people quotes on shipping for their orders -- one will be sending a money order in the next few days and the other wants to pay by credit card, so I'm waiting for her to call me. Actually was kind of funny, cause she said she wanted to call with credit card info, and I was all like, "ok, go ahead...." and she's like, "so I need your phone number." Oh yeah. Lol. She never did call today, so watch her call tomorrow while I'm driving. At least, that's usually how it goes....
All the chins and critters have been fed and watered today, and I cleaned the guinea pig cage.
Need to package up another food order and load those into the car, for mailing tomorrow sometime.
I'm working on a wooden litterbox for someone, so I cut a few more pieces of that today. Need to work on that more when I get back, it was getting late.
Also cut up loofah today!! Yay!! And I'm still picking it off me, despite the breathing mask, full eye wear, ear plugs, smock.... I hate cutting up loofah. So I cut it all up. I think I had 5 or 6 or maybe even 7 large ones.... so of course, since now I'm out, and really that didn't cut up to as many pieces as I would have thought, I have to go order some more. Had to dig out login and password for the place I get it from, and I did find it, which I am happy about. Apparently awhile back I had the genius idea to save it in a word doc, cause originally I just had it in an email from way back when... and that would eventually disappear.... Not going to order today, partially cause I don't need it just quite yet, but because I will wait until I'm back and then go through the other items I get from that site, so that I can make a larger order (if needed). Cause if I don't, next week I'll run out of oatstraw and be like, '"well darn it, I just ordered the loofah..." But anyway, I did check, and the site does still have the loofah... which is great, because also usually my luck is that the stuff I use gets discontinued.
But I still had a pickup of shelves and supplies, and another pickup of food and dust today.
Emailed two people quotes on shipping for their orders -- one will be sending a money order in the next few days and the other wants to pay by credit card, so I'm waiting for her to call me. Actually was kind of funny, cause she said she wanted to call with credit card info, and I was all like, "ok, go ahead...." and she's like, "so I need your phone number." Oh yeah. Lol. She never did call today, so watch her call tomorrow while I'm driving. At least, that's usually how it goes....
All the chins and critters have been fed and watered today, and I cleaned the guinea pig cage.
Need to package up another food order and load those into the car, for mailing tomorrow sometime.
I'm working on a wooden litterbox for someone, so I cut a few more pieces of that today. Need to work on that more when I get back, it was getting late.
Also cut up loofah today!! Yay!! And I'm still picking it off me, despite the breathing mask, full eye wear, ear plugs, smock.... I hate cutting up loofah. So I cut it all up. I think I had 5 or 6 or maybe even 7 large ones.... so of course, since now I'm out, and really that didn't cut up to as many pieces as I would have thought, I have to go order some more. Had to dig out login and password for the place I get it from, and I did find it, which I am happy about. Apparently awhile back I had the genius idea to save it in a word doc, cause originally I just had it in an email from way back when... and that would eventually disappear.... Not going to order today, partially cause I don't need it just quite yet, but because I will wait until I'm back and then go through the other items I get from that site, so that I can make a larger order (if needed). Cause if I don't, next week I'll run out of oatstraw and be like, '"well darn it, I just ordered the loofah..." But anyway, I did check, and the site does still have the loofah... which is great, because also usually my luck is that the stuff I use gets discontinued.
Emails and More Emails
Now, I've noticed, that a lot of people are asking me questions that they know the answers to. For example, it says on my site, expect to spend at least $150-200 minimum for chin and supplies. Says that on the Available Chins page. Right after it says that, this page is linked -- http://www.nwichinchillas.com/suppliesforsale.htm -- which breaks it down further, and you can see that even on the low end (spending under $200), that's assuming you're getting a low priced rescue chin (that would be like getting the $60 rescue chin).
The hard thing is, there's no way to break that page down to say, well, if you're going to get a chin that costs $100, the cost will be x. Because the way that page is figured out is that the low end is all the low end numbers added up, and the high end is all the high end up numbers added up. So the high end of $300-something isn't because the chin is so expensive, it's simply assuming you're going a more expensive route in terms of cage, care, etc.
Well, I had someone email me asking about what chins I had available, her kid didn't like red eyes. She had originally emailed about a chin that's already on hold, that she'd seen the ad about, and was asking about. Well I told her that one wasn't available, and told her, ok, these are the others that I have available. Of the ones I told her, only one of them wasn't on my site (but was the same color, sex, and age, as one that is on my site, so it's reasonable to say that the average person could figure out the adoption fee). Well, she comes back with "How much are you asking for a chinchilla. I saw on your website that we can expect to spend at least $150-200 for the chinchilla and all the supplies. We have all of the supplies, so just wondering what it would cost just for the chinchilla."
So I just nicely replied and linked her to the price comparison page, and told her, the only way you could stay under the $150-200 range (for chins and all supplies) would be to get an adult rescue, small cage, minimal supplies. Which is true, for that price range, you could get:
I find it interesting that she asked how much just the chinchilla is, when she clearly read an ad that says, the adoption fee for this chinchilla is x. It says on the ads and the website that they come with some food and a goodie bag to start you with, so no reason for her to think that anything higher priced comes with anything else. But people, I'm not stupid. This happens all the time. I routinely get people calling, "so I'm looking at this ad for this chin of yours, and I see it says he comes with this and this, and blah blah, and how much is he?" I don't know if people think by asking, I will lower down the cost of the chinchilla, but what's listed is pretty generally the price. Now, that said, there's room for negotiation. I'm not going to halve the price of an animal for someone, but I've had people ask if I'd take $20 less, and that's not unfeasible, on most chins. Now, if they're asking that on a $75 chin, I feel like there better be a reason for it, because if the people don't have $75 to adopt, it makes me wonder if they can afford chin care. But it's different if they're looking at a baby chin, which is more to start with, and want a discount. Not unheard of. But a lot of people just act like they're stupid and ask the price, when it's right in front of them.
Another trend in emails lately. "Hi, I want to come by this day or this day to look at your chins." Thank you for the assumption that I just sit around waiting for all of you. The even better ones are "I want to come by Monday at noon." Number 1, thanks for assuming I have no job, and #2, thanks for assuming I'll drop everything for your schedule. Do you call the doctor and say, "Hi, I want to come see the doctor at noon on Tuesday, make it happen." Didn't think so. Or at least, I sure hope you don't, because they're probably as frustrated as I am. Even if I was just sitting home waiting for chin people to come around, saying you want to come at a certain time on a certain day seems to forget one thing -- you're probably not the only person coming by. I may already have a noon on Tuesday appointment. Now, it's different if I've just told you, "I'll be home all week, pick a day and time and I'll make sure to be here." Now, if I say that, by all means, pick a day and time. But in the instances where 95% of these people are saying they want to come Tuesday at noon, that's in the first email, where I have never talked to them yet.
Also people, let's talk about discounts. I'm open to discounts. I am. But you people are f-ing nuts. I had one person who asked for a discount on one chin, a $35 discount. Said ah, what the hell, sure. So, she's getting a chin for cheaper, $140 versus $175, not a big deal. Well, then she said she was curious about getting too, so I said, offer a price. She offered $225. For two chins that total $375 without any discount. That would be a discount of $150 total. No offense, but... I don't think so. Even if we look at it as the first chin is $140... that makes the second chin, original price $200, down to $85. I can sell a standard grey adult for $75, so there's really no reason for me to discount a perfectly healthy baby almost 60%. Sorry, just no. I tell people, I can do discounts within reason. But $150 discount on two chins is not within reason. Sorry.
One more thing. Patience. I know apparently no one has it anymore. I sat down this morning 2 hours ago to answer emails. I'm still answering emails. Before I went to bed last night, I responded to almost every email that had to do with chinchillas in my inbox. Some of those people have since emailed me back, and one person in particular emailed me back last night at like 3 in the morning, needless to say I did not respond. Well, I start at the oldest emails and work my way towards the newer ones, and I was a few emails away from her 3 am email, and I see that she sent me a message on facebook. Guys. Patience. I can only type so fast. And today, I have a million and one other things to do... just cause I didn't reply to your email yet doesn't mean I'm ignoring you, it just means.... wait for it... I might be doing something else.
Well, and another thing. Everyone's opinion of value and price is different. Some people look at a $75 adult chin and think that's too expensive, others don't blink an eye at handing over $250 for a less-common-colored baby. And people all over in between. So I get a lot of emails that say, "I want a baby and it has to be reasonably priced." That's fine and dandy, but begs the question, what is reasonably priced, to that specific person? So I always end up messaging back and asking, what do they consider reasonably priced. And, when they say they want a baby, what do they consider a baby. A chin isn't really an adult until somewhere between 8 months and 2 years, depending on who you ask. So even at the average chin-person's (and by that, I mean someone who's in the industry, not someone who has one chin as a pet) estimate, a baby could be 8 months old. Granted, the pet person may not say that's a baby. But... that's why I ask. Being specific is wonderful. Just like the person above who asked how much a baby chin is. Well, it depends. Be more specific. How old do you want, what color do you want? The thing is, there will always be the possibility that I don't have what someone wants, even if it's something basic. Occasionally, I have no adult standard females, and that's what people want. Or I may not have something as low priced as someone may want. I get people all the time that email and ask about what the chin comes with (2 pounds of food and goodie bag). I tell them that, and they come back with, "well, there's a chin on craigslist for $100 that has a cage and 6 months of food and this and that.... can you throw in a cage and all that other stuff I mentioned for the extra $25?" No, I can't, because the money from the sale of supplies is what pays to keep the rescue running, but they're welcome to go to get that chin and stuff off craigslist if they'd like. What I never quite get about that situation, specifically, is that they want everything garage-sale-cheap, but they want to get it from a rescue. Like those two things are somewhat mutually exclusive. Like you don't go to Saks looking for a $5 t-shirt. So why would you come here looking for garage-sale-priced chins and supplies? Just don't get it.
So I had someone ask about shipping chins. Which, it says RIGHT on the ads, sorry, we don't ship. But no one reads. Well, so I tell them, no, we don't ship. But they're in California, so they ask about alternate shipping options. I tell them about uship, but tell them, they have to arrange it all, I stay out of it as far as transport, because I'm not the one paying for that. Well, they ask me on facebook again, if there's any option to transport other than airline shipping. Again, I tell them uship. And I did explain, the first time around, that they would have to post on their and ask to see how much it would cost, that I don't do any of that. So this last email I get from them, they ask how much the transport will cost *bangs head against wall repeatedly*. Ugh.
Also, I don't know where people are getting this stuff, but I have gotten a lot of requests lately for royal blue chinchillas. I looked it up, and apparently it is a sapphire x black velvet cross. Also known as a TOV sapphire. I told all these people, they're unlikely to find a chin like this, simply because most people aren't breeding for them, and those that are are ending up on chinchillas.com for thousands of dollars. And even if they do, they can expect to pay super super high prices for one. Even when I go to the chinchilla ranch, the rancher has one. Note that -- ONE TOV sapphire. If someone with a probable total of 3000 chins has only ONE, the chance of the average pet person finding one for sale is pretty much zilch. Just saying.
Orders are like nuts lately. Literally. Like I had to go pick up some chin chow yesterday because I ran out, and brought the bags home. Went through 50 pounds (2 bags), plus what I had in my food storage container, just filling orders. Someone wanted a holiday toy, so I made one up. Need to cut up loofah but I'll do that after my person leaves tonight.
The hard thing is, there's no way to break that page down to say, well, if you're going to get a chin that costs $100, the cost will be x. Because the way that page is figured out is that the low end is all the low end numbers added up, and the high end is all the high end up numbers added up. So the high end of $300-something isn't because the chin is so expensive, it's simply assuming you're going a more expensive route in terms of cage, care, etc.
Well, I had someone email me asking about what chins I had available, her kid didn't like red eyes. She had originally emailed about a chin that's already on hold, that she'd seen the ad about, and was asking about. Well I told her that one wasn't available, and told her, ok, these are the others that I have available. Of the ones I told her, only one of them wasn't on my site (but was the same color, sex, and age, as one that is on my site, so it's reasonable to say that the average person could figure out the adoption fee). Well, she comes back with "How much are you asking for a chinchilla. I saw on your website that we can expect to spend at least $150-200 for the chinchilla and all the supplies. We have all of the supplies, so just wondering what it would cost just for the chinchilla."
So I just nicely replied and linked her to the price comparison page, and told her, the only way you could stay under the $150-200 range (for chins and all supplies) would be to get an adult rescue, small cage, minimal supplies. Which is true, for that price range, you could get:
- medium sized cage, used, with a few shelves - $80-100
- adult standard grey chin - $50-75
- toy - $4
- 4 lbs mazuri - $5
- 4 lbs dust - $5
- 2 pounds hay - $2
- dust pan - $2.50
- used ceramic food bowl - $1
- used glass water bottle - $3
- used wood petstore-type hidey house - $5
I find it interesting that she asked how much just the chinchilla is, when she clearly read an ad that says, the adoption fee for this chinchilla is x. It says on the ads and the website that they come with some food and a goodie bag to start you with, so no reason for her to think that anything higher priced comes with anything else. But people, I'm not stupid. This happens all the time. I routinely get people calling, "so I'm looking at this ad for this chin of yours, and I see it says he comes with this and this, and blah blah, and how much is he?" I don't know if people think by asking, I will lower down the cost of the chinchilla, but what's listed is pretty generally the price. Now, that said, there's room for negotiation. I'm not going to halve the price of an animal for someone, but I've had people ask if I'd take $20 less, and that's not unfeasible, on most chins. Now, if they're asking that on a $75 chin, I feel like there better be a reason for it, because if the people don't have $75 to adopt, it makes me wonder if they can afford chin care. But it's different if they're looking at a baby chin, which is more to start with, and want a discount. Not unheard of. But a lot of people just act like they're stupid and ask the price, when it's right in front of them.
Another trend in emails lately. "Hi, I want to come by this day or this day to look at your chins." Thank you for the assumption that I just sit around waiting for all of you. The even better ones are "I want to come by Monday at noon." Number 1, thanks for assuming I have no job, and #2, thanks for assuming I'll drop everything for your schedule. Do you call the doctor and say, "Hi, I want to come see the doctor at noon on Tuesday, make it happen." Didn't think so. Or at least, I sure hope you don't, because they're probably as frustrated as I am. Even if I was just sitting home waiting for chin people to come around, saying you want to come at a certain time on a certain day seems to forget one thing -- you're probably not the only person coming by. I may already have a noon on Tuesday appointment. Now, it's different if I've just told you, "I'll be home all week, pick a day and time and I'll make sure to be here." Now, if I say that, by all means, pick a day and time. But in the instances where 95% of these people are saying they want to come Tuesday at noon, that's in the first email, where I have never talked to them yet.
Also people, let's talk about discounts. I'm open to discounts. I am. But you people are f-ing nuts. I had one person who asked for a discount on one chin, a $35 discount. Said ah, what the hell, sure. So, she's getting a chin for cheaper, $140 versus $175, not a big deal. Well, then she said she was curious about getting too, so I said, offer a price. She offered $225. For two chins that total $375 without any discount. That would be a discount of $150 total. No offense, but... I don't think so. Even if we look at it as the first chin is $140... that makes the second chin, original price $200, down to $85. I can sell a standard grey adult for $75, so there's really no reason for me to discount a perfectly healthy baby almost 60%. Sorry, just no. I tell people, I can do discounts within reason. But $150 discount on two chins is not within reason. Sorry.
One more thing. Patience. I know apparently no one has it anymore. I sat down this morning 2 hours ago to answer emails. I'm still answering emails. Before I went to bed last night, I responded to almost every email that had to do with chinchillas in my inbox. Some of those people have since emailed me back, and one person in particular emailed me back last night at like 3 in the morning, needless to say I did not respond. Well, I start at the oldest emails and work my way towards the newer ones, and I was a few emails away from her 3 am email, and I see that she sent me a message on facebook. Guys. Patience. I can only type so fast. And today, I have a million and one other things to do... just cause I didn't reply to your email yet doesn't mean I'm ignoring you, it just means.... wait for it... I might be doing something else.
Well, and another thing. Everyone's opinion of value and price is different. Some people look at a $75 adult chin and think that's too expensive, others don't blink an eye at handing over $250 for a less-common-colored baby. And people all over in between. So I get a lot of emails that say, "I want a baby and it has to be reasonably priced." That's fine and dandy, but begs the question, what is reasonably priced, to that specific person? So I always end up messaging back and asking, what do they consider reasonably priced. And, when they say they want a baby, what do they consider a baby. A chin isn't really an adult until somewhere between 8 months and 2 years, depending on who you ask. So even at the average chin-person's (and by that, I mean someone who's in the industry, not someone who has one chin as a pet) estimate, a baby could be 8 months old. Granted, the pet person may not say that's a baby. But... that's why I ask. Being specific is wonderful. Just like the person above who asked how much a baby chin is. Well, it depends. Be more specific. How old do you want, what color do you want? The thing is, there will always be the possibility that I don't have what someone wants, even if it's something basic. Occasionally, I have no adult standard females, and that's what people want. Or I may not have something as low priced as someone may want. I get people all the time that email and ask about what the chin comes with (2 pounds of food and goodie bag). I tell them that, and they come back with, "well, there's a chin on craigslist for $100 that has a cage and 6 months of food and this and that.... can you throw in a cage and all that other stuff I mentioned for the extra $25?" No, I can't, because the money from the sale of supplies is what pays to keep the rescue running, but they're welcome to go to get that chin and stuff off craigslist if they'd like. What I never quite get about that situation, specifically, is that they want everything garage-sale-cheap, but they want to get it from a rescue. Like those two things are somewhat mutually exclusive. Like you don't go to Saks looking for a $5 t-shirt. So why would you come here looking for garage-sale-priced chins and supplies? Just don't get it.
So I had someone ask about shipping chins. Which, it says RIGHT on the ads, sorry, we don't ship. But no one reads. Well, so I tell them, no, we don't ship. But they're in California, so they ask about alternate shipping options. I tell them about uship, but tell them, they have to arrange it all, I stay out of it as far as transport, because I'm not the one paying for that. Well, they ask me on facebook again, if there's any option to transport other than airline shipping. Again, I tell them uship. And I did explain, the first time around, that they would have to post on their and ask to see how much it would cost, that I don't do any of that. So this last email I get from them, they ask how much the transport will cost *bangs head against wall repeatedly*. Ugh.
Also, I don't know where people are getting this stuff, but I have gotten a lot of requests lately for royal blue chinchillas. I looked it up, and apparently it is a sapphire x black velvet cross. Also known as a TOV sapphire. I told all these people, they're unlikely to find a chin like this, simply because most people aren't breeding for them, and those that are are ending up on chinchillas.com for thousands of dollars. And even if they do, they can expect to pay super super high prices for one. Even when I go to the chinchilla ranch, the rancher has one. Note that -- ONE TOV sapphire. If someone with a probable total of 3000 chins has only ONE, the chance of the average pet person finding one for sale is pretty much zilch. Just saying.
Orders are like nuts lately. Literally. Like I had to go pick up some chin chow yesterday because I ran out, and brought the bags home. Went through 50 pounds (2 bags), plus what I had in my food storage container, just filling orders. Someone wanted a holiday toy, so I made one up. Need to cut up loofah but I'll do that after my person leaves tonight.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
RescueMe Flagger Strikes Again
I know, I know. Either I don't blog for weeks, or you get several days with two posts per day. Yeah yeah. But that's kinda how it is here. Either everything goes on all at once, or nothing goes on for weeks.
Well, I posted some of the young chins on RescueMe.org, and again.... I have "problem reports" of "breeders selling animals posing as rescue" in my email inbox, for ALL OF THEM. You may recall, this happened last time I posted the young ones and in case somehow I didn't update about that, they left the ads up.
Someone has a bug up their butt, clearly. Cause really, let's be honest. Humane societies have puppies and kittens. How is that ANY different from a chinchilla rescue having a baby chinchilla? Oh wait!!! It's NOT.
I would love to know, how a rescue site has turned into freaking craigslist. I would expect to get flagged on craigslist (but surprisingly, that has not happened in AGES), but on a rescue site? Give me a break. It kind of makes me wonder if it's not some other breeder somewhere who's losing business cause there now are lots of fun colored babies available. On this site, whenever another rescue ads a critter in a category I belong to, I get an email. So, for example, I belong to the rodent category (as chinchillas are rodents), so I probably have emails for every animal I've added this morning. And I believe, so does everyone else who is a rescue for that category. So it could be another breeder or rescue who has an account and is seeing all these go up, who is reporting them all. Hmmmmmmmm. Is it that difficult to be civil?
When I have my own pedigreed babies for sale, or pedigreed adults, they don't get listed on petfinder or rescue me, or any of the rescue-only sites. You know why, because that's just being ethical. They're not rescues. They're chins I bred. If they're not chins I bred, then they must fit in some other category... and my ads even say, for that site, that the baby chins were not bred here, yadda yadda.
Anyway, I called up RescueMe and naturally, got voicemail (surprise!) and left a voicemail asking for them to call me back. Personally, I find it a bit ridiculous that they even ALLOW people to flag ads (petfinder would never think of such a thing). I went to look, since I'd never even noticed the flagging thing until they started flagging me, and apparently you can also flag for people not responding to your emails, people not answering your phone calls, inappropriate pictures, wrong phone number.... what is this kindergarten? I wasn't aware that when people got their butthurt because someone didn't call them back cause they said they wanted a chinchilla for their 1 year old to carry around in a death ball all day, that that's a perfectly fine reason to report them! I guess that's what the world's coming to. They offend you? Op! Report them!!!!
Anyway, I doubt they will call me back, because that's just how these sort of places are, but I left a message saying that they're not animals I bred, that it even says that on the ad, and I find this a bit ridiculous because no one questions humane societies for having puppies... but I can't have baby chins here at the rescue. So... we shall see.
In the meantime, I packaged up two packages and need to take those out to be mailed.
Well, I posted some of the young chins on RescueMe.org, and again.... I have "problem reports" of "breeders selling animals posing as rescue" in my email inbox, for ALL OF THEM. You may recall, this happened last time I posted the young ones and in case somehow I didn't update about that, they left the ads up.
Someone has a bug up their butt, clearly. Cause really, let's be honest. Humane societies have puppies and kittens. How is that ANY different from a chinchilla rescue having a baby chinchilla? Oh wait!!! It's NOT.
I would love to know, how a rescue site has turned into freaking craigslist. I would expect to get flagged on craigslist (but surprisingly, that has not happened in AGES), but on a rescue site? Give me a break. It kind of makes me wonder if it's not some other breeder somewhere who's losing business cause there now are lots of fun colored babies available. On this site, whenever another rescue ads a critter in a category I belong to, I get an email. So, for example, I belong to the rodent category (as chinchillas are rodents), so I probably have emails for every animal I've added this morning. And I believe, so does everyone else who is a rescue for that category. So it could be another breeder or rescue who has an account and is seeing all these go up, who is reporting them all. Hmmmmmmmm. Is it that difficult to be civil?
When I have my own pedigreed babies for sale, or pedigreed adults, they don't get listed on petfinder or rescue me, or any of the rescue-only sites. You know why, because that's just being ethical. They're not rescues. They're chins I bred. If they're not chins I bred, then they must fit in some other category... and my ads even say, for that site, that the baby chins were not bred here, yadda yadda.
Anyway, I called up RescueMe and naturally, got voicemail (surprise!) and left a voicemail asking for them to call me back. Personally, I find it a bit ridiculous that they even ALLOW people to flag ads (petfinder would never think of such a thing). I went to look, since I'd never even noticed the flagging thing until they started flagging me, and apparently you can also flag for people not responding to your emails, people not answering your phone calls, inappropriate pictures, wrong phone number.... what is this kindergarten? I wasn't aware that when people got their butthurt because someone didn't call them back cause they said they wanted a chinchilla for their 1 year old to carry around in a death ball all day, that that's a perfectly fine reason to report them! I guess that's what the world's coming to. They offend you? Op! Report them!!!!
Anyway, I doubt they will call me back, because that's just how these sort of places are, but I left a message saying that they're not animals I bred, that it even says that on the ad, and I find this a bit ridiculous because no one questions humane societies for having puppies... but I can't have baby chins here at the rescue. So... we shall see.
In the meantime, I packaged up two packages and need to take those out to be mailed.
Let's Continue
Let's continue last night's blog about the lying idiots, shall we?
I wake up this morning to a text that says "yes send app like to adopt" and another text that says "make appt to see." Now. #1, that's not their cage. As evidenced by the last post. And they just told me, yes, it's their cage. Sorry, they're done. #2 -- they must be too dumb to know how to read. Because I clearly texted back saying Ozzie is already on hold for someone. And what do they come back with? They want to make an appointment to see and adopt him. Ugh. Well, needless to say, they're not adopting.
And their email is their name -- so I contacted some other rescues to let them know what's gone on, because we all band together and none of us want people pulling stuff like this adopting animals... and I looked them up on facebook. Their facebook account says they work at Independent Cat Society, which is a rescue of sorts, it helps cats. And they're still dishonest. I feel bad for that place with someone like that working for them. Kind of hope they're not dishonest in working there.....
I think what kills me most about this lying about the cages is who they're lying to. Not specifically me, as a person, but lying to a rescue. The rescue isn't out there to make money or become famous, or anything like that, it's out there to help the animals. Makes me think, if they're going to lie to a rescue, they probably have no problem lying to just about anything else in their life.
I wake up this morning to a text that says "yes send app like to adopt" and another text that says "make appt to see." Now. #1, that's not their cage. As evidenced by the last post. And they just told me, yes, it's their cage. Sorry, they're done. #2 -- they must be too dumb to know how to read. Because I clearly texted back saying Ozzie is already on hold for someone. And what do they come back with? They want to make an appointment to see and adopt him. Ugh. Well, needless to say, they're not adopting.
And their email is their name -- so I contacted some other rescues to let them know what's gone on, because we all band together and none of us want people pulling stuff like this adopting animals... and I looked them up on facebook. Their facebook account says they work at Independent Cat Society, which is a rescue of sorts, it helps cats. And they're still dishonest. I feel bad for that place with someone like that working for them. Kind of hope they're not dishonest in working there.....
I think what kills me most about this lying about the cages is who they're lying to. Not specifically me, as a person, but lying to a rescue. The rescue isn't out there to make money or become famous, or anything like that, it's out there to help the animals. Makes me think, if they're going to lie to a rescue, they probably have no problem lying to just about anything else in their life.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Lying Sack-o-shit People
I'm not stupid. And the fact that people CONTINUALLY lie to me makes me think that people assume that either I'm stupid or simply paying no attention and just want to get animals adopted. Either way... it's getting reaaaaaaaalllllly old.
I'm very happy I decided to implement the proof of cage thing that I did this year. Cause it's really proving to me how many sack-o-shit lowlife liars that want to adopt. Sorry, but you lie to me about the cage, you're done. No adopting, no sorry's, I don't f-ing care what you say. You show me a cage that you don't actually have, and I will NEVER believe that "oh you've never lied before in your life." Well, now you did, and you did to the wrong person.
Now, I'm not saying I'm a saint, I'm sure I've lied before in my life too. Heck, I'm nice to people all the time that I'd like to tell them what I really think of them, and when they say, "oh, sorry I'm being so annoying," I respond, "oh no, it's fine," when really I think, "I hope you never buy anything again from the webstore cause you drove me nuts for your entire order." Ok, so that's sort of untruthful. Sort of, because at the end of the day, it really is "fine," because I do want their order (and that involves putting up with the customer who is paying for the order), because I do want to keep the store open and keep the rescue running. But in the end, that's just being civil. Providing customer service.
On the other hand, these people are lying about important things. A chinchilla's cage, they have to live in. LIVE IN. Their ENTIRE lives. How would you like it if you went to rent a house, and they showed you pictures of this awesome house...and you thought, man this looks really neat, I'd love to live there!! And so you agreed to rent it and signed all the docs and paid the deposit and go to move in, and you got there and it was really a cardboard box. You'd be like wtf??? Well, that's about my reaction to this shit. And it's about that ridiculous.
Had someone text me a picture message of a cage. Thought it looked a tad too nice and a tad too something-I've-seen-elsewhere. They sent the picture and then said they were interested in Ozzie (which means they can't read, since it clearly says on my site that he's on hold) and gave me an email to send the adoption stuff to. Well, I asked if that was their cage and also said that Ozzie was on hold.
Well, let's just say I have not heard back from this person as of yet. It's only been like 20-30 minutes since I sent my last text, and considering they took quite some time to respond to my first text (saying the cage looked fun), the may still text me back. But let me share with you the problem here.....
Here's the text (and the person should be happy I'm nice enough to block out their info):
And here's inventorspot.com's article on the Global Pet Expo from 2009 -- and here's the part showing the cage that won second place:
I'm not stupid. Sorry if you were counting on that.....
I'm very happy I decided to implement the proof of cage thing that I did this year. Cause it's really proving to me how many sack-o-shit lowlife liars that want to adopt. Sorry, but you lie to me about the cage, you're done. No adopting, no sorry's, I don't f-ing care what you say. You show me a cage that you don't actually have, and I will NEVER believe that "oh you've never lied before in your life." Well, now you did, and you did to the wrong person.
Now, I'm not saying I'm a saint, I'm sure I've lied before in my life too. Heck, I'm nice to people all the time that I'd like to tell them what I really think of them, and when they say, "oh, sorry I'm being so annoying," I respond, "oh no, it's fine," when really I think, "I hope you never buy anything again from the webstore cause you drove me nuts for your entire order." Ok, so that's sort of untruthful. Sort of, because at the end of the day, it really is "fine," because I do want their order (and that involves putting up with the customer who is paying for the order), because I do want to keep the store open and keep the rescue running. But in the end, that's just being civil. Providing customer service.
On the other hand, these people are lying about important things. A chinchilla's cage, they have to live in. LIVE IN. Their ENTIRE lives. How would you like it if you went to rent a house, and they showed you pictures of this awesome house...and you thought, man this looks really neat, I'd love to live there!! And so you agreed to rent it and signed all the docs and paid the deposit and go to move in, and you got there and it was really a cardboard box. You'd be like wtf??? Well, that's about my reaction to this shit. And it's about that ridiculous.
Had someone text me a picture message of a cage. Thought it looked a tad too nice and a tad too something-I've-seen-elsewhere. They sent the picture and then said they were interested in Ozzie (which means they can't read, since it clearly says on my site that he's on hold) and gave me an email to send the adoption stuff to. Well, I asked if that was their cage and also said that Ozzie was on hold.
Well, let's just say I have not heard back from this person as of yet. It's only been like 20-30 minutes since I sent my last text, and considering they took quite some time to respond to my first text (saying the cage looked fun), the may still text me back. But let me share with you the problem here.....
Here's the text (and the person should be happy I'm nice enough to block out their info):
And here's inventorspot.com's article on the Global Pet Expo from 2009 -- and here's the part showing the cage that won second place:
I'm not stupid. Sorry if you were counting on that.....
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Owners Lacking Money
This comes up in all sorts of groups I'm in on facebook, and my personal stance on this is simply, if you don't have money or can't, in some way or another, get money for vet bills, you shouldn't have the pet. Period. Yeah, argue all you want, you can tell me that you can provide the perfect home except you can't provide vet care... and that's great that the pet will be loved until it get sick... but then what about when it gets sick?
Not saying everyone has to be a millionare to own pets. God knows the rescue's not swimming in cash, never has been, never will be, but here's the thing. Push comes to shove, we have care credit with a decent limit on it. If I need money, I can get it. And if one of the critters needs to go to the vet, they will. Period.
I got a text today from someone asking if we take in sick chins, make them well, and fix them. As we're full, I didn't even get into the nitty gritty of this one, but basically, a college kid pooled their money with their boyfriend, bought a chin. Was told it was blind in one eye, the eye started to ooze, so they went to the vet. Antibiotic drops didn't help, and they were told it's likely an ulcer in the eye and likely teeth issues causing it.
Well now. Teeth issues are incurable, and as such, there's almost no point in even filing down the teeth, except for once, just to check if it's teeth spurs. Toby had teeth spurs years ago, had teeth filed, never had a problem since. So it can happen. But in reality, as I told this person, usually it progresses to once... to few times a year, to once a month... and at $250-350 per instance... we can't afford it either.
She's got a gofundme for the chin, and genuinely seemed to want to help him. The unfortunate thing is, if it is teeth issues, there's really not a lot that can be done. But even if it's not, we're like beyond full right now. And with my current traveling "job" situation, I couldn't give a sick chin the attention it needs as I'm not around several days a week.
Now, I do applaud her for taking him to the vet in the first place and getting the antibiotic drops. She did spend a bit of money on that, I'm sure. And don't get me wrong, I don't expect people to shell out thousands of dollars on dental care, because we already know my stance on that. But I really feel like, if you're going to have a pet, you need to be willing and able to afford more than one vet visit.
I mean if you have a kid, and the doctor gives you antibiotics cause they have a cough, and they still have the cough and its worse once treatment is done, despite the antibiotics..... surely you go back to the doctor, right? I guess with kids, it can be different, because there's medicare and all that, and there's people having kids who can't afford them either, but that's beside the point. Surely, you go back. Yeah, it's expensive for another doctor visit, but you're not like, "op, well, I spent my allowance of money for this kid with the one doctor visit, guess he's gonna have to suffer." You'd find a way to get that kid to the doctor.
And I get, it's a college kid, but this sort of thing puts a strain on rescues. Not only me, but other rescues, because just like people refer over to me, I refer over to other rescues. And yeah, we are here for when people can't keep their chins anymore, and when people can't afford them anymore, but I don't feel we should be the dumping grounds for when people can't afford it. I don't get any special discounts at the vet. If it costs you $250, it costs me $250. I'm sure some rescues do get discounts. But we don't. I'm not sure why people seem to think it, but a LOT of people seem to have the idea that rescues are just pools of money that we're swimming in, to care for their pets. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Don't get me wrong, if that was the case, I'd have actual employees here at the rescue, cages would be immaculately clean, orders would always be up to date and going out like the next day, I would never be out of stock on anything, and so on and so forth. But in reality, the money from adoption fees goes right back into feeding and caring for the pets.
And the reason I have the webstore? Not to pad my own pockets, and take up more of the little free time I have... no, it's so the rescue has more money. Not that the rescue ever has a lot of money, but by selling the houses and cages and all that, the rescue can actually support itself (or come closer to doing so) than it could with just adoption fees. If any of you were around before the store was around (probably not, but you never know), you remember that I was putting about every cent I made at my job into the rescue, and that just wasn't going to work long-term (especially now, when I have mortgage and bills, and car insurance, and lots of other things I didn't have to pay for back then). Even though I have to work to make the products the store sells, it still works out exceptionally better than putting all of my own money into the rescue.
All that said... notice something. If for every chin that comes through the rescue, I get $75, and we get at least 75-100 chins in, and $75+ per chin doesn't pay for the care of the chins currently in rescue....it can cost a lot to keep these buggers. All the work I do for the rescue is volunteer, not getting paid. The biggest cost is simply my time to do all the stuff and make all the products, so all the actual cost is in feeding, keeping chew toys full, and..... vet bills.
Not saying you have to be a millionaire, but I just feel like people should either make more of an effort to be able to pay for them... or simply not have them.
Not saying everyone has to be a millionare to own pets. God knows the rescue's not swimming in cash, never has been, never will be, but here's the thing. Push comes to shove, we have care credit with a decent limit on it. If I need money, I can get it. And if one of the critters needs to go to the vet, they will. Period.
I got a text today from someone asking if we take in sick chins, make them well, and fix them. As we're full, I didn't even get into the nitty gritty of this one, but basically, a college kid pooled their money with their boyfriend, bought a chin. Was told it was blind in one eye, the eye started to ooze, so they went to the vet. Antibiotic drops didn't help, and they were told it's likely an ulcer in the eye and likely teeth issues causing it.
Well now. Teeth issues are incurable, and as such, there's almost no point in even filing down the teeth, except for once, just to check if it's teeth spurs. Toby had teeth spurs years ago, had teeth filed, never had a problem since. So it can happen. But in reality, as I told this person, usually it progresses to once... to few times a year, to once a month... and at $250-350 per instance... we can't afford it either.
She's got a gofundme for the chin, and genuinely seemed to want to help him. The unfortunate thing is, if it is teeth issues, there's really not a lot that can be done. But even if it's not, we're like beyond full right now. And with my current traveling "job" situation, I couldn't give a sick chin the attention it needs as I'm not around several days a week.
Now, I do applaud her for taking him to the vet in the first place and getting the antibiotic drops. She did spend a bit of money on that, I'm sure. And don't get me wrong, I don't expect people to shell out thousands of dollars on dental care, because we already know my stance on that. But I really feel like, if you're going to have a pet, you need to be willing and able to afford more than one vet visit.
I mean if you have a kid, and the doctor gives you antibiotics cause they have a cough, and they still have the cough and its worse once treatment is done, despite the antibiotics..... surely you go back to the doctor, right? I guess with kids, it can be different, because there's medicare and all that, and there's people having kids who can't afford them either, but that's beside the point. Surely, you go back. Yeah, it's expensive for another doctor visit, but you're not like, "op, well, I spent my allowance of money for this kid with the one doctor visit, guess he's gonna have to suffer." You'd find a way to get that kid to the doctor.
And I get, it's a college kid, but this sort of thing puts a strain on rescues. Not only me, but other rescues, because just like people refer over to me, I refer over to other rescues. And yeah, we are here for when people can't keep their chins anymore, and when people can't afford them anymore, but I don't feel we should be the dumping grounds for when people can't afford it. I don't get any special discounts at the vet. If it costs you $250, it costs me $250. I'm sure some rescues do get discounts. But we don't. I'm not sure why people seem to think it, but a LOT of people seem to have the idea that rescues are just pools of money that we're swimming in, to care for their pets. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Don't get me wrong, if that was the case, I'd have actual employees here at the rescue, cages would be immaculately clean, orders would always be up to date and going out like the next day, I would never be out of stock on anything, and so on and so forth. But in reality, the money from adoption fees goes right back into feeding and caring for the pets.
And the reason I have the webstore? Not to pad my own pockets, and take up more of the little free time I have... no, it's so the rescue has more money. Not that the rescue ever has a lot of money, but by selling the houses and cages and all that, the rescue can actually support itself (or come closer to doing so) than it could with just adoption fees. If any of you were around before the store was around (probably not, but you never know), you remember that I was putting about every cent I made at my job into the rescue, and that just wasn't going to work long-term (especially now, when I have mortgage and bills, and car insurance, and lots of other things I didn't have to pay for back then). Even though I have to work to make the products the store sells, it still works out exceptionally better than putting all of my own money into the rescue.
All that said... notice something. If for every chin that comes through the rescue, I get $75, and we get at least 75-100 chins in, and $75+ per chin doesn't pay for the care of the chins currently in rescue....it can cost a lot to keep these buggers. All the work I do for the rescue is volunteer, not getting paid. The biggest cost is simply my time to do all the stuff and make all the products, so all the actual cost is in feeding, keeping chew toys full, and..... vet bills.
Not saying you have to be a millionaire, but I just feel like people should either make more of an effort to be able to pay for them... or simply not have them.
Productive Day
So, got a decent amount done today. Started off the day with someone coming over who was interested in a chin, but couldn't get it quite yet. They came by to see the chin and decided to put down a deposit on Ozzie. That was followed up by someone coming by to drop off a chinchilla that had been dropped off at the pet store they work at. Welcome Tytus.
And then the work started. I sanded and glued a few houses. I sanded toy parts and put together some toys (mostly anything goes, but also a critter's delight for someone who had it as part of their order). I cut up a bag of wood for the anything goes toys. I started working on cleaning some of the used cages to get those ready. Got 3/4 done on the one, found a broken bar, and got distracted, so I guess I'll resume that tomorrow.
But the biggest thing I did today.... was work on orders. Those can be a nightmare when those pile up, so I try to get them done as quickly as I can, so that doesn't happen. Well, someone had a birthday cake in theirs, and I had put the cake together the other day and then realized, after that, that the flame needed to be sanded more cause it had all sorts of pen marks. Whoops. So I sanded it, but then had to re-paint (carefully!) it yellow, without coating the rest of the cake. So that was yesterday, today it got packed up. Need to still tape that box and get an address so I can mail it out tomorrow.
Put together another order that was some herbs and herb sampler. Also need to tape and address that one.
Brought upstairs the mondo anything goes order, need to sew the hammock and that will all be ready to go.
Started putting together another order that involved some cookies, loofah, toys, water bottle, and another birthday cake. Don't have enough loofah to complete the order, so I guess now I absolutely have to cut up loofah. Which, if anyone has any simpler way to do it, please enlighten me, because the only way I've found to cut it is on the power saw. And you know how wood creates sawdust when cut, well loofah creates... best term for it is burrs. Very sharp burrs that work their way into your clothes and hair and won't come out. So I try to cut ooooodles of it when I need to cut it, so I don't have to cut it for a long time again. But I'm down to my last bag, and I need two for this order, so it is now again time. Anyway, the birthday cake they wanted, they wrote for colors, "any combination." Alrighty, so I get to be creative, they are getting a bright blue base, with orange on top of that, and lime green on top of that, and purple on top of that, and a yellow flame. It's drying now (except for the flame, which I need to sand and then dye), and I'll assemble it tomorrow. Hope they like it!
Then I have an order that I've been working out what it is with the person for a few days now. Like trying to nail down what it is they want, and I think we've finally gotten to that, so I cut wood shelves for that today, and they wanted some rosehips, so I bagged those as well. So tomorrow, I will need to figure shipping on that.
Then someone emailed me the other day wanting a standard hidey house with a bottom. Well, naturally, the one I put together today didn't want to stand level, and that wouldn't bode well for putting a bottom on, so I took one of my already done ones (and this is why they're never in stock lol) and glued a bottom on. So that's been rubberbanded and is sitting and drying now, and tomorrow I can get it in a box and figure out shipping.
And then someone wanted a wooden litter box like the one I made way back when, so they got back to me with about how big they were thinking, so I started on that. Realized I had a few questions, so had to email them back about that, but that's ok, because the first part has to dry before I can move on anyway.
And finally, had an order for some shelves and toy and scatter guards and stuff that's been sitting around here forever, so I dug out the bolts that I bought a bit ago and bolted everything and made the toy that her order was missing. And emailed her to let her know it's done, and sent the pictures of the scatter guards to someone who wanted to see what they looked like.
Had been planning to cut the loofah today, but I have a pounding headache so that's not happening, maybe tomorrow.
Took pics of the young-ish chins that are here now, just need to get those ads written up and listed. Will hopefully get that done at some point tonight.
And I believe that's it for today.... more tomorrow...
And then the work started. I sanded and glued a few houses. I sanded toy parts and put together some toys (mostly anything goes, but also a critter's delight for someone who had it as part of their order). I cut up a bag of wood for the anything goes toys. I started working on cleaning some of the used cages to get those ready. Got 3/4 done on the one, found a broken bar, and got distracted, so I guess I'll resume that tomorrow.
But the biggest thing I did today.... was work on orders. Those can be a nightmare when those pile up, so I try to get them done as quickly as I can, so that doesn't happen. Well, someone had a birthday cake in theirs, and I had put the cake together the other day and then realized, after that, that the flame needed to be sanded more cause it had all sorts of pen marks. Whoops. So I sanded it, but then had to re-paint (carefully!) it yellow, without coating the rest of the cake. So that was yesterday, today it got packed up. Need to still tape that box and get an address so I can mail it out tomorrow.
Put together another order that was some herbs and herb sampler. Also need to tape and address that one.
Brought upstairs the mondo anything goes order, need to sew the hammock and that will all be ready to go.
Started putting together another order that involved some cookies, loofah, toys, water bottle, and another birthday cake. Don't have enough loofah to complete the order, so I guess now I absolutely have to cut up loofah. Which, if anyone has any simpler way to do it, please enlighten me, because the only way I've found to cut it is on the power saw. And you know how wood creates sawdust when cut, well loofah creates... best term for it is burrs. Very sharp burrs that work their way into your clothes and hair and won't come out. So I try to cut ooooodles of it when I need to cut it, so I don't have to cut it for a long time again. But I'm down to my last bag, and I need two for this order, so it is now again time. Anyway, the birthday cake they wanted, they wrote for colors, "any combination." Alrighty, so I get to be creative, they are getting a bright blue base, with orange on top of that, and lime green on top of that, and purple on top of that, and a yellow flame. It's drying now (except for the flame, which I need to sand and then dye), and I'll assemble it tomorrow. Hope they like it!
Then I have an order that I've been working out what it is with the person for a few days now. Like trying to nail down what it is they want, and I think we've finally gotten to that, so I cut wood shelves for that today, and they wanted some rosehips, so I bagged those as well. So tomorrow, I will need to figure shipping on that.
Then someone emailed me the other day wanting a standard hidey house with a bottom. Well, naturally, the one I put together today didn't want to stand level, and that wouldn't bode well for putting a bottom on, so I took one of my already done ones (and this is why they're never in stock lol) and glued a bottom on. So that's been rubberbanded and is sitting and drying now, and tomorrow I can get it in a box and figure out shipping.
And then someone wanted a wooden litter box like the one I made way back when, so they got back to me with about how big they were thinking, so I started on that. Realized I had a few questions, so had to email them back about that, but that's ok, because the first part has to dry before I can move on anyway.
And finally, had an order for some shelves and toy and scatter guards and stuff that's been sitting around here forever, so I dug out the bolts that I bought a bit ago and bolted everything and made the toy that her order was missing. And emailed her to let her know it's done, and sent the pictures of the scatter guards to someone who wanted to see what they looked like.
Had been planning to cut the loofah today, but I have a pounding headache so that's not happening, maybe tomorrow.
Took pics of the young-ish chins that are here now, just need to get those ads written up and listed. Will hopefully get that done at some point tonight.
And I believe that's it for today.... more tomorrow...
Monday, March 23, 2015
Winx
I couldn't tell you what started it, but I'm having a really hard time today that Winx is gone. There's chins in his cage, but the setup hasn't changed. The name card on the cage still has his name, and I'm pretty positive he's still listed on my website as a current chin. But he's gone. If you read this blog with any regularity, you know he died back in December, after several days of going downhill for no particular reason. He was my baby. I got him back in 2003 and he made it a full 11 years through several moves with me. He was your typical chin, never really did like me, but I loved him to death.
I bought Winx from a pet store in Terre Haute, IN when I went away for college. My friend Tiffany had gone there with me, not looking for a chinchilla, but we saw him and had to hold him. We returned the next day to take him home.
He was here when I got Moki, because I wanted him to have a friend. He was here when I got Toby and Bailey because I thought mosaics were such a neat color. He was here when I got the Crazy Critters herd of chinchillas and started showing. He was housed with Moki, and eventually Toby, until Toby beat him up, and both chins were caged separately. When Moki died, I let him sniff her and say his goodbyes, before she was taken to be cremated. When I moved to all ferret nations (and one critter nation) for rescue cages, he got prime real estate in the top of one of them. He would have had the entire cage, but he had a hard time hanging onto weight, and I didn't want him expending it all and exhausting himself to death. He would've had a buddy, but he got to the point where he didn't even want a kit with him, so he was left by himself in the cage.
He went to the vet numerous times as he got older. He just kept dropping weight, despite eating. Once they found he had teeth spurs, and filed the teeth down. That time it helped, but closer to the end, they couldn't find anything wrong. They filed his teeth down anyway, because there was nothing else they could do, but it didn't do anything. Everything was normal on his bloodwork. The x-rays were normal.
I bought him all sorts of supplements from all sorts of places. He was on an immune booster, an appetite stimulant, some general ones, and a big push in me making the NWI supplement was so that he would have something he would actually eat. He really did like those supplements. But he was still losing weight despite eating those and eating his own food.
When Shindig came around in August 2014, and offered chin painting, I took him with me. He was already weaker than I would have liked, but he did the painting with me. That would be the last time he would leave home.
The day before Christmas, I was tending to the chins, and noticed something seemed off with him. I opened the cage and he took a flying leap out. I returned him to his cage, but something wasn't quite right. He spent that night upstairs in my room, but I felt bad that he wasn't in his own cage, so I returned him back downstairs. He spent the next few days laying around the cage, with me doting on him, and finally passed in his hanging cube / bed that he loved so much on December 27, 2014.
An impression of Winx's pawprints were taken, a necklace pendant was made from his DNA, and he was cremated.
I bought Winx from a pet store in Terre Haute, IN when I went away for college. My friend Tiffany had gone there with me, not looking for a chinchilla, but we saw him and had to hold him. We returned the next day to take him home.
He was here when I got Moki, because I wanted him to have a friend. He was here when I got Toby and Bailey because I thought mosaics were such a neat color. He was here when I got the Crazy Critters herd of chinchillas and started showing. He was housed with Moki, and eventually Toby, until Toby beat him up, and both chins were caged separately. When Moki died, I let him sniff her and say his goodbyes, before she was taken to be cremated. When I moved to all ferret nations (and one critter nation) for rescue cages, he got prime real estate in the top of one of them. He would have had the entire cage, but he had a hard time hanging onto weight, and I didn't want him expending it all and exhausting himself to death. He would've had a buddy, but he got to the point where he didn't even want a kit with him, so he was left by himself in the cage.
He went to the vet numerous times as he got older. He just kept dropping weight, despite eating. Once they found he had teeth spurs, and filed the teeth down. That time it helped, but closer to the end, they couldn't find anything wrong. They filed his teeth down anyway, because there was nothing else they could do, but it didn't do anything. Everything was normal on his bloodwork. The x-rays were normal.
I bought him all sorts of supplements from all sorts of places. He was on an immune booster, an appetite stimulant, some general ones, and a big push in me making the NWI supplement was so that he would have something he would actually eat. He really did like those supplements. But he was still losing weight despite eating those and eating his own food.
When Shindig came around in August 2014, and offered chin painting, I took him with me. He was already weaker than I would have liked, but he did the painting with me. That would be the last time he would leave home.
The day before Christmas, I was tending to the chins, and noticed something seemed off with him. I opened the cage and he took a flying leap out. I returned him to his cage, but something wasn't quite right. He spent that night upstairs in my room, but I felt bad that he wasn't in his own cage, so I returned him back downstairs. He spent the next few days laying around the cage, with me doting on him, and finally passed in his hanging cube / bed that he loved so much on December 27, 2014.
An impression of Winx's pawprints were taken, a necklace pendant was made from his DNA, and he was cremated.
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| Winx & Moki -- 2006 -- Munster, IN -- 3 years old |
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| Winx -- in college, St. Mary-of-the-Woods, IN -- 2006 / 2007 -- 3-4 years old |
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| Winx -- in law school, Indianapolis, IN -- 2009 -- 6 years old |
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| Winx, 'Kani, & Moki -- in law school, Indianapolis, IN -- 2009 -- 6 years old |
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| Winx & Toby -- Munster, IN -- 2011 -- 8 years old |
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| Winx -- posing with chin-mobile, Munster, IN -- 2011 -- 8 years old |
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| Winx -- Munster, IN -- 2012 -- 9 years old |
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| Winx (recently moved into his CN) in his favorite hanging cube/bed -- Munster, IN -- 2012 -- 9 years old |
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| Name sign made by adopter (sorry can't remember who made it right now) |
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| Winx -- at the vet (Midwest Bird), Elmwood Park, IL -- 2013 -- 10 years old |
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| Winx in his CN -- Munster, IN -- 2013 -- 10 years old |
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| Winx shortly after moving into my own house -- Hammond, IN -- 2014 -- 11 years old |
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| Winx with his bowl of supplement -- Hammond, IN -- 2014 -- 11 years old |
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| Winx doing his chin painting at the MCBA Shindig -- Auburn, IN -- August 2014 -- 11 years old |
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| Winx's chin painting -- August 2014 Shindig |
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| Winx in hammock -- Hammond, IN -- Dec. 25, 2014 -- 11 years old |
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| Winx in his favorite hanging cube / bed -- Hammond, IN -- Dec. 26, 2014 -- 11 years old |
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| Winx with supplement and extra cheerios -- Hammond, IN -- Dec. 26, 2014 -- 11 years old |
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| Winx's pawprint and ashes |
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Nationals!!!
So, this past weekend was MCBA Nationals. I took just two chins, Big Girl and one of my pink white males. Big Girl and the male had both shown at the Michigan show, Big Girl got a 1st and the pink white got a 2nd. I had also showed another pink white male (a predominantly white one) and a beige at the Michigan show. Sold the predominantly pink white and the beige, and was about to sell this one too, but decided he had the best fur and hung onto him.
So, in classic show prep, the chins were dusted daily from about a month out, and packed up Friday and taken to the show. Rough groomed them Friday night at the hotel, better groomed them Saturday morning before the show, and off we were. Well.... the male got Reserve Champion White Male! At NATIONALS of all places!!! So, for the non-chin-show-people, that means he beat out all the other white males at the show (in any color phase, so, all mosaics, all pink whites, all predominantly whites) to be the second best white at the show. So awesome! His main comments were that he was lacking size (as he is a bit small even for 10 months) and that he has a singy tip (end of his fur is like kinked), but I talked with the judge and he said to just pair him up with silky tip large females (which, really, is most chins) and he'll be fine.
And Big Girl got a second and mostly positive comments, her main comments dealt with the fact that she's a bit older (almost 2 years) so she's out of prime, and that she's lacking veiling in the neck (the darker color on top doesn't carry over evenly). I talked with Jim after the show and he said her main issue, taking into consideration her age, was the veiling. Well, she'll be put with a white likely, possibly even the male at the show, so that won't be any issue, because whites don't have veiling.
So, pictures, of course....
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| just groomed, waiting to be put on the table for classifying |
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| pink white male |
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| pink white male, after the show |
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| 7 months |
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| 7 months |
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| my poor stuck (hilarious) boy at 4 months old (phone pic) |
Busy busy busy
So, to continue the previous post (from oodles ago, since I just
realized today that this post never actually posted), I went to the
doctor today, got antibiotics. Start them tomorrow, hopefully they
cause me to feel better soon, cause God knows I could use getting out of
this coughing and rib pain misery.
Took a nap when I got home. Bad idea. Apparently I needed the sleep, but now its late and I'm wide awake. Well, so I started on that guy's shelf order. Emailed him, because I didn't have two hammocks in the color he wanted, and asked him if he wanted to pick again, or what. He picked another hammock, I went and looked... and I don't have it. Ugh. So I emailed him again.
Well, haven't heard back yet, but let me share just a little part of his email, "Will you be able to mail it tomorrow??" OMFG. Seriously? Let me tell you the #1 way to drive me nuts: put in a big order, act like your entitled, and continually ask when it's going to ship. He hasn't even paid yet, so it's not like it could ship even if I finished it right freaking now. At this point, I'm ready to box it all up, set up a video camera, light the box on fire like a freaking effigy with his name on the shipping label, and hope the smoke somehow forms a hand-shape-flipping-someone-off. I won't, obviously, because after making all the effort for this order, that would be super counter productive, but I tell you, I work hard to put out these products and people wanting me to rush, even more than I currently do (and the current wait time for orders is SUPER short), just drives me up the wall.
But all that said and done, once I know about the hammock he wants, his order is ready for me to weigh and all and get a final quote for him and get out. And I will be so happy to be done with it!
Speaking of done, I think I'm like 2-3 toys shy of completing my massive anything-goes order, and I have to sew the hammock that goes with it. Got a payment in for an order that's been sitting here for awhile (from someone I know who I told could take their time with payment) and then have another one for a porthole house from someone who emailed me... which will also be going out tomorrow. Both with Santa return address labels, cause hey, I gotta use em up and they're all I have.
Took a nap when I got home. Bad idea. Apparently I needed the sleep, but now its late and I'm wide awake. Well, so I started on that guy's shelf order. Emailed him, because I didn't have two hammocks in the color he wanted, and asked him if he wanted to pick again, or what. He picked another hammock, I went and looked... and I don't have it. Ugh. So I emailed him again.
Well, haven't heard back yet, but let me share just a little part of his email, "Will you be able to mail it tomorrow??" OMFG. Seriously? Let me tell you the #1 way to drive me nuts: put in a big order, act like your entitled, and continually ask when it's going to ship. He hasn't even paid yet, so it's not like it could ship even if I finished it right freaking now. At this point, I'm ready to box it all up, set up a video camera, light the box on fire like a freaking effigy with his name on the shipping label, and hope the smoke somehow forms a hand-shape-flipping-someone-off. I won't, obviously, because after making all the effort for this order, that would be super counter productive, but I tell you, I work hard to put out these products and people wanting me to rush, even more than I currently do (and the current wait time for orders is SUPER short), just drives me up the wall.
But all that said and done, once I know about the hammock he wants, his order is ready for me to weigh and all and get a final quote for him and get out. And I will be so happy to be done with it!
Speaking of done, I think I'm like 2-3 toys shy of completing my massive anything-goes order, and I have to sew the hammock that goes with it. Got a payment in for an order that's been sitting here for awhile (from someone I know who I told could take their time with payment) and then have another one for a porthole house from someone who emailed me... which will also be going out tomorrow. Both with Santa return address labels, cause hey, I gotta use em up and they're all I have.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Busy busy
So, it's been busy. Got some new chins in, and been cleaning up and working on oodles of things. Have 9-ish houses that I've been working on. Well, I guess more than that, since I built a porthole house for one person, and that should ship soon, and then I build a cottage house as a donation for nationals, and then I think I had 9 or 10 on top of those. So over the past few days, those were getting cut, holes getting cut, and I sanded the first one yesterday. Trying to do them sort of in waves.
Built shelves for a customer's order, and they came and picked them up.
Working on another customer's order who wants scatter guards... have most of that sanded (cause she wanted shelves as well), and realized I don't know how she wants the bolts on one of the shelves. She did say she wanted it like the last time, but to be perfectly honest, I think I remember how last time was, but I make a lot of shelves. So, going to have to ask about that, and then still need to figure out prices for the scatter guards.
Then I got this massive order from someone who wanted to know how quickly I could get it done. My stupid ass said I could start on it Saturday, which I did, very little of, since I'm still working 3 orders ahead of that one. Had a question on the order, and emailed the guy, and he wanted to know "will it be done tomorrow????" People. I am ONE PERSON. I am SICK. I have ORDERS IN FRONT OF YOURS. I do not drop everything for someone who is buying an order that comes out to some dollars and change and then rounds it up to the next dollar and says "with a 50 cent donation for the rescue." Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the donation. It's 50 cents I didn't have. But your 50 cents is not enough to make me push all the others in front of yours aside to do yours. Sorry. It's just not.
I have a doctor's appointment today and places to go. When I get home, I will work on that order. And on the orders ahead of it. And there's a few behind it as well. None of them are "special" unless someone wants to throw a $20 donation with it, and then I'll put it to the front of the pile. Sorry, but just being honest, the bigger orders are actually a bigger pain, due to the fact I never have a box to fit those 12 hidey houses or 6 - 40" shelves, and have to tape together boxes or mail it in multiple packages or whatever. I'd rather have orders of herbs anyday. So I'm sorry, but just because you're spending a large amount of money, your order is not getting done any quicker. In fact, if I have an order for herbs, I may do it first, cause I can throw it in a box and be done, versus wood orders that have to be cut and sanded and glued. If I can take an order off my list and get one less person to ask "did you ship it yet?" by all means, I will. But that happens with small orders. The big ones get worked on, don't get me wrong, but they just take way longer. That's just the nature of hand-made products. In case you weren't aware, it takes a lot longer to build a house than it does to scoop 1 ounce of herbs into a little baggie and label it.
But orders is on my list today.
I also have one chin here, Penelope, who is a little beaver. So, I had to clean his cage again yesterday. So he has a new liner, as well as the male young chins, which also do, because I had the one chin with loose poos in there. So everything in that cage got sanded down, new clean bowls, etc etc, and the sick chin got moved into a small cage. Got medication to give him, but need to start on that.
Got all the male chins together in the young male chin cage, and got weights on all of them. Cleaned out the bottom of the guinea pig / rabbit FN and put a liner in it, and the female young chins are now in there, and weighed.
I have girl scouts coming sometime in April, and I need to have a lot of those cardboard rings for goodie bags cut up, so I put on the respirator, face mask, ear plugs, smock, all that, and cut up two bags of cardboard tubes. Hate those things. They create this fine dust that gets in everything. Despite the ear plugs I was q-tipping that dust out of my ears for the rest of the night. Need to cut up some loofah, same style (and boy are loofah shavings / dust sharp!, do not look forward to that), but one thing at a time.
Have an order for a ton of anything goes toys, so I've been working on that. Cut up 1.5 stracks bags of scrap wood to make pieces for those toys, and have almost the entire order completed. Still need to cut up more (I think I have two bags left, and then Jim gave me all his scrap wood, so I have a HUGE tradition bag full of scrap wood) and get on sanding those. Working on that.
Made that house for nationals, also made two toys to be a donation for nationals, out of spare colored pieces I had from last spring. They look nice.
Someone wanted to come adopt a chin, and sent the adoption form and all, and sent a pic of their cage, with tons of chin-non-safe items. So I told em, get rid of the wheel, tree trunk, etc etc, and they said, well it all said chin safe. I'm sure it did. That's the frustrating thing, the pet stores don't care. Guinea pigs shouldn't have dairy. How many dairy themed treats do you see for them? A lot. Chins shouldn't have sugar. Same thing. So she said she's going to return those and get back to me.
Had another person from Lake Central High School email about volunteering. We're going on like 3 years now that I've been on their list as a place to volunteer, and I have yet to have one person here from there. I don't know if they think they're just going to cuddle chinchillas all day, and when they talk to me and I tell them, not likely, they're more likely going to feed, or fill toys, or make toys, or clean cages, or.... then they magically forget they ever talked to me. It would be super nice if they actually would show up, because I do get a reasonable amount of calls, but petting the chins is, unfortunately, not what I need help with.
I did have that volunteer last week, and he was supposed to come on the weekend, but was sick. He apologized, but I told him, already worlds ahead of everyone else that says they'll come and never comes, he already came once. Well, he said he felt bad and he sent a paypal donation of $35!! How awesome!!
Have someone (didn't realize it was the same person) who just ordered 10 pounds of mazuri to be shipped to them, and was emailing me about adopting. It was kind of funny, cause I had told them, when I get in the new chins, I'll let them know what I have. But I forgot I did that, so when they emailed back and said they wanted two specific chins, my first thought was "how the heck do they even know I have those??" and then I remembered. I have to check the weights on those chins today, but assuming they check out fine (fingers crossed) then I will be emailing the person back and going from there. Well, I'll be emailing them back regardless, but if they're fine, they can go home.
Out of all the chins I've brought home, the two are still on medical watch. The beige baby is the one with loose poos, and Jim gave me something to give to him, suppose I should start that. And then the brown velvet is losing weight. Eating, but losing weight. The rest are doing good.
And I keep getting these emails saying, "oh I really like this chin, what is the lowest you'll go?" or "what is your bottom dollar," or that sort of thing. Anymore, I don't even respond to them. Don't get me wrong, if the email is actually descriptive and says, oh nice family, yadda yadda, wants a new pet, yadda yadda, loves chinchillas, that may be different. But most of these emails are one liners only caring about the money, and they're inquiring about the money on chins that are either so low that I won't lower it more (if you can't afford $75, you just can't afford a chin, period), OR they want the price lowered so significantly that I just want to laugh and post it on here ("so I know the chin's $250 and I know that's probably a good price for that color, but I only have $25 to spend..."). Uh-huh.
Oh and then I just turned in the paperwork for the Lake County Pet Expo, so I need to go find items to make a basket for that, and then I thought about making a little basket for nationals, so we'll see. That will be today or tomorrow, but I need to get back to the expo super soon cause they want to at least know the basket theme. Should probably get on that.....
Anyway, gotta leave in a bit to go to the doctor's and run an errand or two, but this list of things will continue! If anyone would like to volunteer and help with all of this stuff, there is plenty to do right now. I would love to get this one lady who borrowed me two cages, her cages back. The one is clean, and covered (so it stays that way), but the other needs scooped, soaked, and scrubbed. My random table in the rescue needs emptied. The rescue needs organized. The cuddlebuddies need listed. I need to do a hammock inventory. I'm doing it all, but hey, if anyone wants to help will definitely not say no!
Built shelves for a customer's order, and they came and picked them up.
Working on another customer's order who wants scatter guards... have most of that sanded (cause she wanted shelves as well), and realized I don't know how she wants the bolts on one of the shelves. She did say she wanted it like the last time, but to be perfectly honest, I think I remember how last time was, but I make a lot of shelves. So, going to have to ask about that, and then still need to figure out prices for the scatter guards.
Then I got this massive order from someone who wanted to know how quickly I could get it done. My stupid ass said I could start on it Saturday, which I did, very little of, since I'm still working 3 orders ahead of that one. Had a question on the order, and emailed the guy, and he wanted to know "will it be done tomorrow????" People. I am ONE PERSON. I am SICK. I have ORDERS IN FRONT OF YOURS. I do not drop everything for someone who is buying an order that comes out to some dollars and change and then rounds it up to the next dollar and says "with a 50 cent donation for the rescue." Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the donation. It's 50 cents I didn't have. But your 50 cents is not enough to make me push all the others in front of yours aside to do yours. Sorry. It's just not.
I have a doctor's appointment today and places to go. When I get home, I will work on that order. And on the orders ahead of it. And there's a few behind it as well. None of them are "special" unless someone wants to throw a $20 donation with it, and then I'll put it to the front of the pile. Sorry, but just being honest, the bigger orders are actually a bigger pain, due to the fact I never have a box to fit those 12 hidey houses or 6 - 40" shelves, and have to tape together boxes or mail it in multiple packages or whatever. I'd rather have orders of herbs anyday. So I'm sorry, but just because you're spending a large amount of money, your order is not getting done any quicker. In fact, if I have an order for herbs, I may do it first, cause I can throw it in a box and be done, versus wood orders that have to be cut and sanded and glued. If I can take an order off my list and get one less person to ask "did you ship it yet?" by all means, I will. But that happens with small orders. The big ones get worked on, don't get me wrong, but they just take way longer. That's just the nature of hand-made products. In case you weren't aware, it takes a lot longer to build a house than it does to scoop 1 ounce of herbs into a little baggie and label it.
But orders is on my list today.
I also have one chin here, Penelope, who is a little beaver. So, I had to clean his cage again yesterday. So he has a new liner, as well as the male young chins, which also do, because I had the one chin with loose poos in there. So everything in that cage got sanded down, new clean bowls, etc etc, and the sick chin got moved into a small cage. Got medication to give him, but need to start on that.
Got all the male chins together in the young male chin cage, and got weights on all of them. Cleaned out the bottom of the guinea pig / rabbit FN and put a liner in it, and the female young chins are now in there, and weighed.
I have girl scouts coming sometime in April, and I need to have a lot of those cardboard rings for goodie bags cut up, so I put on the respirator, face mask, ear plugs, smock, all that, and cut up two bags of cardboard tubes. Hate those things. They create this fine dust that gets in everything. Despite the ear plugs I was q-tipping that dust out of my ears for the rest of the night. Need to cut up some loofah, same style (and boy are loofah shavings / dust sharp!, do not look forward to that), but one thing at a time.
Have an order for a ton of anything goes toys, so I've been working on that. Cut up 1.5 stracks bags of scrap wood to make pieces for those toys, and have almost the entire order completed. Still need to cut up more (I think I have two bags left, and then Jim gave me all his scrap wood, so I have a HUGE tradition bag full of scrap wood) and get on sanding those. Working on that.
Made that house for nationals, also made two toys to be a donation for nationals, out of spare colored pieces I had from last spring. They look nice.
Someone wanted to come adopt a chin, and sent the adoption form and all, and sent a pic of their cage, with tons of chin-non-safe items. So I told em, get rid of the wheel, tree trunk, etc etc, and they said, well it all said chin safe. I'm sure it did. That's the frustrating thing, the pet stores don't care. Guinea pigs shouldn't have dairy. How many dairy themed treats do you see for them? A lot. Chins shouldn't have sugar. Same thing. So she said she's going to return those and get back to me.
Had another person from Lake Central High School email about volunteering. We're going on like 3 years now that I've been on their list as a place to volunteer, and I have yet to have one person here from there. I don't know if they think they're just going to cuddle chinchillas all day, and when they talk to me and I tell them, not likely, they're more likely going to feed, or fill toys, or make toys, or clean cages, or.... then they magically forget they ever talked to me. It would be super nice if they actually would show up, because I do get a reasonable amount of calls, but petting the chins is, unfortunately, not what I need help with.
I did have that volunteer last week, and he was supposed to come on the weekend, but was sick. He apologized, but I told him, already worlds ahead of everyone else that says they'll come and never comes, he already came once. Well, he said he felt bad and he sent a paypal donation of $35!! How awesome!!
Have someone (didn't realize it was the same person) who just ordered 10 pounds of mazuri to be shipped to them, and was emailing me about adopting. It was kind of funny, cause I had told them, when I get in the new chins, I'll let them know what I have. But I forgot I did that, so when they emailed back and said they wanted two specific chins, my first thought was "how the heck do they even know I have those??" and then I remembered. I have to check the weights on those chins today, but assuming they check out fine (fingers crossed) then I will be emailing the person back and going from there. Well, I'll be emailing them back regardless, but if they're fine, they can go home.
Out of all the chins I've brought home, the two are still on medical watch. The beige baby is the one with loose poos, and Jim gave me something to give to him, suppose I should start that. And then the brown velvet is losing weight. Eating, but losing weight. The rest are doing good.
And I keep getting these emails saying, "oh I really like this chin, what is the lowest you'll go?" or "what is your bottom dollar," or that sort of thing. Anymore, I don't even respond to them. Don't get me wrong, if the email is actually descriptive and says, oh nice family, yadda yadda, wants a new pet, yadda yadda, loves chinchillas, that may be different. But most of these emails are one liners only caring about the money, and they're inquiring about the money on chins that are either so low that I won't lower it more (if you can't afford $75, you just can't afford a chin, period), OR they want the price lowered so significantly that I just want to laugh and post it on here ("so I know the chin's $250 and I know that's probably a good price for that color, but I only have $25 to spend..."). Uh-huh.
Oh and then I just turned in the paperwork for the Lake County Pet Expo, so I need to go find items to make a basket for that, and then I thought about making a little basket for nationals, so we'll see. That will be today or tomorrow, but I need to get back to the expo super soon cause they want to at least know the basket theme. Should probably get on that.....
Anyway, gotta leave in a bit to go to the doctor's and run an errand or two, but this list of things will continue! If anyone would like to volunteer and help with all of this stuff, there is plenty to do right now. I would love to get this one lady who borrowed me two cages, her cages back. The one is clean, and covered (so it stays that way), but the other needs scooped, soaked, and scrubbed. My random table in the rescue needs emptied. The rescue needs organized. The cuddlebuddies need listed. I need to do a hammock inventory. I'm doing it all, but hey, if anyone wants to help will definitely not say no!
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Funny
I think this is funny... I use rescueme.org as one of the websites where I list the chinchillas that are available at the rescue. I never list my own pedigreed chins, because, hello, they're not rescues, and I wouldn't abuse rescue-geared websites like that.
Well, I listed the babies on there. They're technically rescues, as they're not pedigreed chins, and they are breeder cast offs. Someone didn't want them = rescue.
Got an email this morning that some visitor to rescueme flagged four of my ads as a "breeder selling animals." Really? Because they're babies, no doubt, but... has anyone heard of a dog rescue having, oh, I dunno.... puppies? Or a cat rescue having kittens? I mean, rescues do occasionally end up with younger animals. I guess because they're chinchillas, well, a chinchilla rescue could never just have a rescue baby available. But you know, it's ok for people to post puppies and kittens. Those clearly weren't bred for the intention of selling on a rescue site, nooooo.
Well, unless they get taken down, they'll stay up. I can't currently edit the ads (must be under review or something), so I can't even add to them that I didn't breed them (which I didn't). I don't know how they even flagged four, as I only have ads up for three young ones. I guess, you know, chinchilla rescue is all a scam, according to this flagger. Who clearly has no life. Darn, next, watch her flag a 2 year old, because I must have bred it and waited two years and THEN sold it. Ugh. Idiots.
And you know, this would be totally different if it was craigslist. Because people are flag-happy over there, but on craigslist, everything is hunky dory, but no on this site, omg! baby!!! MUST have been bred specifically to sell on a rescue site. Yep, nothing better to do.
Well, I listed the babies on there. They're technically rescues, as they're not pedigreed chins, and they are breeder cast offs. Someone didn't want them = rescue.
Got an email this morning that some visitor to rescueme flagged four of my ads as a "breeder selling animals." Really? Because they're babies, no doubt, but... has anyone heard of a dog rescue having, oh, I dunno.... puppies? Or a cat rescue having kittens? I mean, rescues do occasionally end up with younger animals. I guess because they're chinchillas, well, a chinchilla rescue could never just have a rescue baby available. But you know, it's ok for people to post puppies and kittens. Those clearly weren't bred for the intention of selling on a rescue site, nooooo.
Well, unless they get taken down, they'll stay up. I can't currently edit the ads (must be under review or something), so I can't even add to them that I didn't breed them (which I didn't). I don't know how they even flagged four, as I only have ads up for three young ones. I guess, you know, chinchilla rescue is all a scam, according to this flagger. Who clearly has no life. Darn, next, watch her flag a 2 year old, because I must have bred it and waited two years and THEN sold it. Ugh. Idiots.
And you know, this would be totally different if it was craigslist. Because people are flag-happy over there, but on craigslist, everything is hunky dory, but no on this site, omg! baby!!! MUST have been bred specifically to sell on a rescue site. Yep, nothing better to do.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Busy Day
So, today's going to be a busy day.
Just got off skype with Joyce from Malaysia (it's almost midnight there, but with the time difference, easiest time to do it is early morning for me / late night for her). Joyce and her boyfriend dropped Snowy and Hannah off at the rescue awhile back, when they moved home, and for awhile wanted to decide if they were going to bring the chins with them or not. The decision was made that it's too hot and muggy there (and they don't have AC), so the chins stayed here, and were put up for adoption... and today's the big day that they go to their new home! I had promised Joyce that I would skype again with her (had already done it once) before the chins went to their new home, so we squeezed a skype session in this morning, with the chins in their playpen. She had requested that the new home keep in touch, which the new home agreed to do, so all's well.
Next for today, I have to go pick up some more wood, some wire for the toys, and wire cutters (cause again, mine have walked off). You know why I need these? Cause I'm getting a volunteer today!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!
And it's a GUY who mentioned that he's ok with heavy lifting, which means, sad to say for him, he's getting put to work on the heavy lifting. I still have 200 pounds of chin chow in my garage, 100 pounds of dust in my truck, and the table saw in my garage. He can help get allllll those down to the basement for me. Plus other stuff like helping make houses and that sort of thing. But you know, especially the stuff that would take me 200 trips that he can probably do in 5.
We're gonna get a lot done today!!! Ok, so I gotta go now, to get that stuff.....
Just got off skype with Joyce from Malaysia (it's almost midnight there, but with the time difference, easiest time to do it is early morning for me / late night for her). Joyce and her boyfriend dropped Snowy and Hannah off at the rescue awhile back, when they moved home, and for awhile wanted to decide if they were going to bring the chins with them or not. The decision was made that it's too hot and muggy there (and they don't have AC), so the chins stayed here, and were put up for adoption... and today's the big day that they go to their new home! I had promised Joyce that I would skype again with her (had already done it once) before the chins went to their new home, so we squeezed a skype session in this morning, with the chins in their playpen. She had requested that the new home keep in touch, which the new home agreed to do, so all's well.
Next for today, I have to go pick up some more wood, some wire for the toys, and wire cutters (cause again, mine have walked off). You know why I need these? Cause I'm getting a volunteer today!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!
And it's a GUY who mentioned that he's ok with heavy lifting, which means, sad to say for him, he's getting put to work on the heavy lifting. I still have 200 pounds of chin chow in my garage, 100 pounds of dust in my truck, and the table saw in my garage. He can help get allllll those down to the basement for me. Plus other stuff like helping make houses and that sort of thing. But you know, especially the stuff that would take me 200 trips that he can probably do in 5.
We're gonna get a lot done today!!! Ok, so I gotta go now, to get that stuff.....
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