As with anything, there's good and bad wording. There can be a way to make something sound more attractive and a way to make it sound less attractive. For example. I can write:
this chin has quite the personality and is talkative when you go to pick her up
...or I can write...
this chin has attitude for days and barks when you try to handle her.
Now... which do you think makes the chin more likely to get adopted? Hopefully you said the first one, and you would be right.
Thing is... wording affects how I view adopters as well. For example. I have an email today that has the subject as one of the chinchillas that's here, and the email says: are you still looking to get rid of your chinchilla if so....[and so on]
This communicates several things to me. Can potentially be several different things, actually. First, makes me wonder if these people actually read the ads, because I, personally, would never word something like that to a rescue (well, to anyone, actually). But it doesn't make me think they know this is a rescue, which means they may not have read. Second, this starts me off with a bad taste in my mouth, because even if I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and think they're just wording it badly, I don't want to "get rid" of anything, except maybe literal garbage that needs to be put on the curb. I emailed back and I actually said something to the effect of, I wouldn't quite say I'm looking to get rid of her, that's not the wording I'd choose, she is up for adoption. Which is the case. Semantics? Maybe. But keep in mind, I'm the one that chooses if people adopt or not, so if people right off the bat don't give off a positive vibe, that doesn't help them.
And don't get me wrong, I do understand getting emails asking if the chin is still available. I do my best to keep the website and other sites updated as to what chins are available. Sometimes I fall behind, I'm human. So I get not wanting to necessarily tell me your life story and how much you're dying for a chin, only to find out that the chin you wanted has already found a home and I just haven't taken the ad down yet. But that said... there's still nicer ways to put it. For example, "hey, I'm interested in your chin, the ____________ one, and I was wondering if she's still available?" I dunno, but for me -- "get rid of" -- when talking about a living, breathing pet, just doesn't quite sit right.
Just saying.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Discounts. And other things.
This is a post from 4/22. Not sure what happened, but it never posted, so I'm posting it today, 4/26.
So, discounts are fine. I get emails all the time asking, hey, can this adoption fee be lowered. Some people have budgets.
But I'm starting to ask, do they already have all the stuff for the chin? Cause I had someone this morning tell me they had a budget of $150, could I lower the adoption fees. It wasn't clear if they meant a budget of $150 for the chin itself or for everything. Well, all the chins they were interested in had adoption fees of $175. I told them, I can reduce those adoption fees down to $150. But then asked, do they already have a cage and everything they need? Because if they don't (and I told them this), the setup for a cage and supplies often costs as much, if not more, than the chin itself. And if they're hoping to get everything for $150 (couldn't tell from the way it was worded)... that can be hard to do. They'll have to find a cage on craigslist, fix it up themselves, get in the wood shelves themselves, and end up with a grey adult chin. Not one of the white babies that they mentioned they were looking at.
Which brings me to another thing. Discounts really are fine. Within reason. $175 chin for $150, not the end of the world. A good home is a good home, regardless of $25. But a lot of people want these deep discounts. I literally get emails saying they want the $175 chin plus a cage plus toys, plus everything they need to start out.. for $200. Um... considering even a used cage is $100 and figure in at least $50 for some basic supplies... all for $200... that means they'd be looking at a discount of $125. When petstores bundle stuff, they often do 10% discounts. Like I remember we'd put together a fish tank with accessories and stuff and add up what everything cost and it'd be 10% less if they bought everything together. So instead of $300 it'd be $270. But in this case, a discount of $125 off of $325 is 38.4%. Um... most of my margins are WAY lower than that.
For example. I had someone, awhile back, asking about if they could get the large cage for $100 with shelves and everything (it's $163). Let me share something with you. For me to purchase the cage costs $102. So if I sell it for $100, I'm losing $2 that I paid for the cage, plus I'm not getting paid for the $43 worth of shelves that I put in it. Um... no.
I totally can do discounts. Mostly, the discounts come on the animals themselves, or on used cages. Want to know why? Because those are typically things I either paid for way back when (not a current cost on my expenses sheet) and am not going to get anywhere near what I paid, or the cost is not set (like an animal... put a price on it). Now, I'm still not going to cut the price in half for you, but those sort of things have more wiggle room.
Moving along, if you are on facebook and ever wonder why some people I will immediately start talking to about adopting and offer the care packet and adoption form and all that, and other people I will say "the price is on the pic" or whatever.... that's another thing. There are people in the chin world, who do not follow through. Again and again and again. There's someone on facebook who I think I have emailed my care packet and adoption form to at least 3 times. Over numerous different chins. They have never gotten back to me. Every time I post a chin pic for sale, they want to know about it. The description is under the pic, and time has shown me, they're not likely to adopt anyway, so they can read, versus me regurgitating the info over and over. And... they don't adopt.
I'd like to think I'm nice to everyone. I try to be, anyway. The people who ask for discounts (reasonable ones) are treated just as nicely as the people who pay for everything full price and don't blink an eye. The people who fill out adoption forms wrong are treated just as nice as everyone else. But where I draw the line with going above and beyond to help you, going out of my way to be nice, is when I try to help you and you consistently do not email me back or contact back. I can't make you email me, but when these people ask, oh email me this, oh email me more pics of this chin, etc etc etc, you're taking time away from other adopters. And if you adopt, that's great. If you decide that chin's not for you, that's fine. But there's a clear difference between those people who decide they want to wait for the perfect chin and those that are clearly just wasting my time. And I'm not being mean to them, I'm just not giving them the sort of time that I would give other people.
Moving along again to pairing up chins. I know a lot of breeders / rescues won't let you bring your chin with you to their place. We're different, you can bring your chin. The reason being, if your chin and our chin don't get along, it's easier for you to walk away from here with no second chin, versus otherwise you have to separate the two, return our chin, and so on and so forth. Plus, in general, we have more of a neutral environment. If two chins aren't getting along in a neutral environment, chances are, they're not going to get along at all. In a neutral environment, neither chin thinks it's the top chin. So, they're on a more level playing field. That's why, if you bring your chin here to find a buddy, I will pull out a cage that neither has been in. Because neither knows the cage and it will be new to both of them. And if it doesn't work, well, then it doesn't work, but at least you know.
Some people don't want to bring their chin by, which is perfectly fine as well. The only thing is, then, the dynamic is a bit different. A lot of people only have one cage -- the cage their chin is in. Which is fine, but their chin knows that it's that chin's cage, and they are the top chin in that cage. So, typically they will be dominant, even possibly aggressive. That's why you may hear me tell people that if they're going to put both chins in that cage, to rearrange the cage. Move around shelves, toys, etc, so the original chin doesn't recognize the cage as much. It's not quite the same as a different cage, but that helps a bit. Sometimes, people take home a chin and it works out wonderfully. I have one person who took home a chin a few weeks ago who sends me pics of the two chins snuggling. Sometimes, it doesn't work out so well, and people tell me they had to separate the chins because the one went after the other. 9 times out of 10, it's the original chin going after the new chin, because of what I've just talked about. But everyone has the choice of bringing the chin or not. I just offer the option of bringing their chin because I find it easier. But to each their own.
Moving along again. Patience. I know I mention this with some frequency. But lots of people have no patience. So I told you all that I emailed back the person who was asking about the discount and adopting and all that. Maybe 10 minutes later I get a text message saying that this person sent me an email this morning and they hadn't heard back yet, and could I please respond to them. Jim has worded this perfectly, in saying that "these people think their time is precious and your time is worth nothing." Yes. Exactly. Someone emails me and I'm expected to jump and answer the email, or phone call, or whatever. But then, when they go to respond to me... they may take a week to get back to me. But then when they finally do, I'll get two emails 20 minutes apart, saying, oh did I get the first email? Cause they didn't hear back.
Let me address this for all of you, very simply: I have somewhat of a life, and, perhaps more importantly, other people inquiring about adopting other than you. I try to go through emails in the order I receive them, with the exception being if you email me about something and you've got an appointment to come by the rescue later that day (then I check it because I don't know if you might be cancelling or need something or what). But in general, first email in the inbox is first read. Same goes for chins going on hold. You email me at 10 am and get me the adoption form and cage pics and everything looks good and such, I will mark the chin you want on hold. Someone emails me at 10:01 and wants the same chin, sorry, it's on hold. And I should literally screenshot these emails, because some of these people are hilarious. You should see people try to convince me why I should just "forget" that the chin is on hold for someone and that they're the better home and I should go with them instead. Really? If I approved someone to adopt, chances are... that means I think they're a good home. If I had questions or doubts, I would have asked questions, and if something is really eating at my mind, they won't be adopting. Doesn't happen super often, but it does happen. But trying to convince me you should adopt instead of them... when you don't even know them.... unlikely to succeed. Now, if you'd like to donate a few hundred dollars or more to the rescue, along with your "I should adopt instead of ________" I may think about it. Lol. That never happens though, in fact... a lot of those people want a discount. I get a lot of "hey, so I see that chin is on hold... but I really want it... and I was wondering... it's listed for $175... but I only have $150...." Yeah.
So I heard back from the person who wanted to adopt for the discounted $150. They wanted to adopt at the expo this weekend. The expo doesn't allow for on-site adoptions. And I told this person that. So they said, ok, can they adopt in the parking lot. NO. What is it about these people. So I told them, if the expo people saw, they can ban the rescue from the expo. Obviously not something I want. So they said, let's meet at Starbucks. Let's not. The main reason for not meeting is because people drop chins all the time. If someone drops one outside a Starbucks, there will be no catching it, ever. And I told them that. And I actually told this person, nicely, that they're not going to find a Humane Society type place that's going to meet them at a starbucks. Most places require you come to the rescue to adopt. It's different than getting a chin from someone on craigslist who's rehoming their personal pet. So, long story short, we end up discovering she's not as far away as she thought, and she would be willing to come to the rescue. And she wanted to get a cage and everything for an extra $100. So she asks where she can get stuff at a price like that. Well, no pet store is going to have anything at that sort of price, but I figure up some stuff and tell her, well, I can manage a little cage, used food bowl, used water bottle, few pounds of food, etc etc... all for $100. So $250 including the discounted chin (which is actually very reasonable for everything she would be getting). Well, she ended up saying it sounded good and she wanted to go that route. Which was good, because I did have to figure out what all I could manage for $100 so she'd have a little of everything... and probably needless to say... days later never heard from her.... yeah.
So, discounts are fine. I get emails all the time asking, hey, can this adoption fee be lowered. Some people have budgets.
But I'm starting to ask, do they already have all the stuff for the chin? Cause I had someone this morning tell me they had a budget of $150, could I lower the adoption fees. It wasn't clear if they meant a budget of $150 for the chin itself or for everything. Well, all the chins they were interested in had adoption fees of $175. I told them, I can reduce those adoption fees down to $150. But then asked, do they already have a cage and everything they need? Because if they don't (and I told them this), the setup for a cage and supplies often costs as much, if not more, than the chin itself. And if they're hoping to get everything for $150 (couldn't tell from the way it was worded)... that can be hard to do. They'll have to find a cage on craigslist, fix it up themselves, get in the wood shelves themselves, and end up with a grey adult chin. Not one of the white babies that they mentioned they were looking at.
Which brings me to another thing. Discounts really are fine. Within reason. $175 chin for $150, not the end of the world. A good home is a good home, regardless of $25. But a lot of people want these deep discounts. I literally get emails saying they want the $175 chin plus a cage plus toys, plus everything they need to start out.. for $200. Um... considering even a used cage is $100 and figure in at least $50 for some basic supplies... all for $200... that means they'd be looking at a discount of $125. When petstores bundle stuff, they often do 10% discounts. Like I remember we'd put together a fish tank with accessories and stuff and add up what everything cost and it'd be 10% less if they bought everything together. So instead of $300 it'd be $270. But in this case, a discount of $125 off of $325 is 38.4%. Um... most of my margins are WAY lower than that.
For example. I had someone, awhile back, asking about if they could get the large cage for $100 with shelves and everything (it's $163). Let me share something with you. For me to purchase the cage costs $102. So if I sell it for $100, I'm losing $2 that I paid for the cage, plus I'm not getting paid for the $43 worth of shelves that I put in it. Um... no.
I totally can do discounts. Mostly, the discounts come on the animals themselves, or on used cages. Want to know why? Because those are typically things I either paid for way back when (not a current cost on my expenses sheet) and am not going to get anywhere near what I paid, or the cost is not set (like an animal... put a price on it). Now, I'm still not going to cut the price in half for you, but those sort of things have more wiggle room.
Moving along, if you are on facebook and ever wonder why some people I will immediately start talking to about adopting and offer the care packet and adoption form and all that, and other people I will say "the price is on the pic" or whatever.... that's another thing. There are people in the chin world, who do not follow through. Again and again and again. There's someone on facebook who I think I have emailed my care packet and adoption form to at least 3 times. Over numerous different chins. They have never gotten back to me. Every time I post a chin pic for sale, they want to know about it. The description is under the pic, and time has shown me, they're not likely to adopt anyway, so they can read, versus me regurgitating the info over and over. And... they don't adopt.
I'd like to think I'm nice to everyone. I try to be, anyway. The people who ask for discounts (reasonable ones) are treated just as nicely as the people who pay for everything full price and don't blink an eye. The people who fill out adoption forms wrong are treated just as nice as everyone else. But where I draw the line with going above and beyond to help you, going out of my way to be nice, is when I try to help you and you consistently do not email me back or contact back. I can't make you email me, but when these people ask, oh email me this, oh email me more pics of this chin, etc etc etc, you're taking time away from other adopters. And if you adopt, that's great. If you decide that chin's not for you, that's fine. But there's a clear difference between those people who decide they want to wait for the perfect chin and those that are clearly just wasting my time. And I'm not being mean to them, I'm just not giving them the sort of time that I would give other people.
Moving along again to pairing up chins. I know a lot of breeders / rescues won't let you bring your chin with you to their place. We're different, you can bring your chin. The reason being, if your chin and our chin don't get along, it's easier for you to walk away from here with no second chin, versus otherwise you have to separate the two, return our chin, and so on and so forth. Plus, in general, we have more of a neutral environment. If two chins aren't getting along in a neutral environment, chances are, they're not going to get along at all. In a neutral environment, neither chin thinks it's the top chin. So, they're on a more level playing field. That's why, if you bring your chin here to find a buddy, I will pull out a cage that neither has been in. Because neither knows the cage and it will be new to both of them. And if it doesn't work, well, then it doesn't work, but at least you know.
Some people don't want to bring their chin by, which is perfectly fine as well. The only thing is, then, the dynamic is a bit different. A lot of people only have one cage -- the cage their chin is in. Which is fine, but their chin knows that it's that chin's cage, and they are the top chin in that cage. So, typically they will be dominant, even possibly aggressive. That's why you may hear me tell people that if they're going to put both chins in that cage, to rearrange the cage. Move around shelves, toys, etc, so the original chin doesn't recognize the cage as much. It's not quite the same as a different cage, but that helps a bit. Sometimes, people take home a chin and it works out wonderfully. I have one person who took home a chin a few weeks ago who sends me pics of the two chins snuggling. Sometimes, it doesn't work out so well, and people tell me they had to separate the chins because the one went after the other. 9 times out of 10, it's the original chin going after the new chin, because of what I've just talked about. But everyone has the choice of bringing the chin or not. I just offer the option of bringing their chin because I find it easier. But to each their own.
Moving along again. Patience. I know I mention this with some frequency. But lots of people have no patience. So I told you all that I emailed back the person who was asking about the discount and adopting and all that. Maybe 10 minutes later I get a text message saying that this person sent me an email this morning and they hadn't heard back yet, and could I please respond to them. Jim has worded this perfectly, in saying that "these people think their time is precious and your time is worth nothing." Yes. Exactly. Someone emails me and I'm expected to jump and answer the email, or phone call, or whatever. But then, when they go to respond to me... they may take a week to get back to me. But then when they finally do, I'll get two emails 20 minutes apart, saying, oh did I get the first email? Cause they didn't hear back.
Let me address this for all of you, very simply: I have somewhat of a life, and, perhaps more importantly, other people inquiring about adopting other than you. I try to go through emails in the order I receive them, with the exception being if you email me about something and you've got an appointment to come by the rescue later that day (then I check it because I don't know if you might be cancelling or need something or what). But in general, first email in the inbox is first read. Same goes for chins going on hold. You email me at 10 am and get me the adoption form and cage pics and everything looks good and such, I will mark the chin you want on hold. Someone emails me at 10:01 and wants the same chin, sorry, it's on hold. And I should literally screenshot these emails, because some of these people are hilarious. You should see people try to convince me why I should just "forget" that the chin is on hold for someone and that they're the better home and I should go with them instead. Really? If I approved someone to adopt, chances are... that means I think they're a good home. If I had questions or doubts, I would have asked questions, and if something is really eating at my mind, they won't be adopting. Doesn't happen super often, but it does happen. But trying to convince me you should adopt instead of them... when you don't even know them.... unlikely to succeed. Now, if you'd like to donate a few hundred dollars or more to the rescue, along with your "I should adopt instead of ________" I may think about it. Lol. That never happens though, in fact... a lot of those people want a discount. I get a lot of "hey, so I see that chin is on hold... but I really want it... and I was wondering... it's listed for $175... but I only have $150...." Yeah.
So I heard back from the person who wanted to adopt for the discounted $150. They wanted to adopt at the expo this weekend. The expo doesn't allow for on-site adoptions. And I told this person that. So they said, ok, can they adopt in the parking lot. NO. What is it about these people. So I told them, if the expo people saw, they can ban the rescue from the expo. Obviously not something I want. So they said, let's meet at Starbucks. Let's not. The main reason for not meeting is because people drop chins all the time. If someone drops one outside a Starbucks, there will be no catching it, ever. And I told them that. And I actually told this person, nicely, that they're not going to find a Humane Society type place that's going to meet them at a starbucks. Most places require you come to the rescue to adopt. It's different than getting a chin from someone on craigslist who's rehoming their personal pet. So, long story short, we end up discovering she's not as far away as she thought, and she would be willing to come to the rescue. And she wanted to get a cage and everything for an extra $100. So she asks where she can get stuff at a price like that. Well, no pet store is going to have anything at that sort of price, but I figure up some stuff and tell her, well, I can manage a little cage, used food bowl, used water bottle, few pounds of food, etc etc... all for $100. So $250 including the discounted chin (which is actually very reasonable for everything she would be getting). Well, she ended up saying it sounded good and she wanted to go that route. Which was good, because I did have to figure out what all I could manage for $100 so she'd have a little of everything... and probably needless to say... days later never heard from her.... yeah.
Volunteers!
This was a post from 4/18... somehow never got posted. So, posting it today (4/26):
So, this morning I had a supply pickup. Someone who just randomly emailed me about supplies one day (versus the average person who buys supplies in person is usually someone who has adopted) stopped by today for some food, loofah, and some other stuff. That was the first thing in the morning, and then I had a rabbit dropoff.
In case you missed the facebook post, this rabbit was dropped off:
Her name was Nightmare... now has been changed to Cookie. Apparently, someone bought her as a gift for the 2 year old in the house, the 2 year old moved out (don't ask, I don't quite know), and left the rabbit behind. And the adult couldn't care for her. So here she is. I'm actually in a decent mood, so I won't go into a rant about how stupid of an idea it was in the first place to get a rabbit for that young of a kid, but.... usually they don't move out, usually they lose interest, but either way... not a good situation. I gave Cookie some veggies and carrots and she immediately had loose poos. Which means, they likely did not give her any leafy greens. They did bring a cage with her and maybe 5-8 pounds of extra food. I have another donated bag of rabbit food (thank you Christine!) that never got used (cause the rabbit -- a different one -- never got dropped off) and after that, I have most of 50 pounds of MannaPro, so the rabbit will definitely not go hungry. But I will need to pick up some more veggies. Got another pound+ of carrots, so good on that front as well. I think when I go back down, I'll dig out some toys for her. I have the guinea pig and rabbit stuff in the same tote, and need to go through there and give her some more play things.
Moving along, Kevin (volunteer) showed up at 11. Saturday is cleaning day, so first he helped clean out all the runs, and then we brought down all the food and wood from the garage. That would be 250 pounds of Mazuri, 100 pounds of Tradition, 50 pounds of hay cubes, 20 pounds of squirrel corn, and a ton of 6' boards of pine. So all the food is stacked where it goes now, the wood is in the shop.
So then Kevin left, and then Allison and Kendra (who adopted Oreo the rabbit) stopped by. They brought Oreo by so I could see her (she looks very nice and healthy!) and then Allison stayed to help volunteer. We started out refilling toys. Moved onto handing out apple wood sticks, spooning out some lavender and alfalfa pellets, and filling hay cube holders.
At some point, I had set up the rabbit in the cage they brought, and then I realized, I'm trying to clean up the rescue and that just takes up more room, so I scrubbed out my red guinea pig cage (the one on the stand) and got her in there. Also cleaned the hamster cage and got him all situated.
Scrubbed as many bowls / water bottles / pet accessories as would fit in the three dish drainers that are next to the wash tub.
So, this morning I had a supply pickup. Someone who just randomly emailed me about supplies one day (versus the average person who buys supplies in person is usually someone who has adopted) stopped by today for some food, loofah, and some other stuff. That was the first thing in the morning, and then I had a rabbit dropoff.
In case you missed the facebook post, this rabbit was dropped off:
Her name was Nightmare... now has been changed to Cookie. Apparently, someone bought her as a gift for the 2 year old in the house, the 2 year old moved out (don't ask, I don't quite know), and left the rabbit behind. And the adult couldn't care for her. So here she is. I'm actually in a decent mood, so I won't go into a rant about how stupid of an idea it was in the first place to get a rabbit for that young of a kid, but.... usually they don't move out, usually they lose interest, but either way... not a good situation. I gave Cookie some veggies and carrots and she immediately had loose poos. Which means, they likely did not give her any leafy greens. They did bring a cage with her and maybe 5-8 pounds of extra food. I have another donated bag of rabbit food (thank you Christine!) that never got used (cause the rabbit -- a different one -- never got dropped off) and after that, I have most of 50 pounds of MannaPro, so the rabbit will definitely not go hungry. But I will need to pick up some more veggies. Got another pound+ of carrots, so good on that front as well. I think when I go back down, I'll dig out some toys for her. I have the guinea pig and rabbit stuff in the same tote, and need to go through there and give her some more play things.
Moving along, Kevin (volunteer) showed up at 11. Saturday is cleaning day, so first he helped clean out all the runs, and then we brought down all the food and wood from the garage. That would be 250 pounds of Mazuri, 100 pounds of Tradition, 50 pounds of hay cubes, 20 pounds of squirrel corn, and a ton of 6' boards of pine. So all the food is stacked where it goes now, the wood is in the shop.
So then Kevin left, and then Allison and Kendra (who adopted Oreo the rabbit) stopped by. They brought Oreo by so I could see her (she looks very nice and healthy!) and then Allison stayed to help volunteer. We started out refilling toys. Moved onto handing out apple wood sticks, spooning out some lavender and alfalfa pellets, and filling hay cube holders.
At some point, I had set up the rabbit in the cage they brought, and then I realized, I'm trying to clean up the rescue and that just takes up more room, so I scrubbed out my red guinea pig cage (the one on the stand) and got her in there. Also cleaned the hamster cage and got him all situated.
Scrubbed as many bowls / water bottles / pet accessories as would fit in the three dish drainers that are next to the wash tub.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Today
I dunno where today went, not a ton got done.
My appointment to adopt the dark ebony female went well, they came and adopted, so that's one more extra cage open.
I checked the location of my package for the lava bites and it's now in Ohio. Ohio. Right. So, mind you, it went from California to Utah to Nevada to Iowa... to Ohio. Funny, cause it passed me up. I get that sorting centers can't be in every single state, but surely there's one between Iowa and Ohio? I mean it went to like mid-Ohio by Mansfield. Not just a tad bit over the border. So, now the date for delivery has been moved up to Friday, instead of Tuesday, but still. Stupid.
Maddie's to-be new home sent an email saying their deposit is on the way. So I went on the various sites she's listed on and either took her off listing or (on the sites it's available) marked her as adoption pending. Cause even if this home falls through, I have another right behind it (who's upset she didn't get to adopt... though both homes weren't able to adopt for 2-3 months at the time they originally contacted me... so it was kind of just a waiting game to see who was ready first). So yay for Maddie.
On another note, somewhat unrelated to chins in general, Amber (of Wheeker's Guinea Pig Rescue) asked if I'd be able to make some guinea pig mixes. Similar to the herb sampler and supplement, and so I spent some time looking that sort of thing up, and talking it over with her. So, still working on that, but NWI may carry some guinea pig / rabbit herb / treat mixes eventually if all goes well.
And then I got a funnel! You know how when you're young and get to go on a playdate or something, you're thrilled, well, when you get to be a bit older and have a webstore that packs some products in jars, you get happy over this sort of thing (which just tells you the level of excitement with which I go through life lol).
So that's the funnel. It's meant to help put stuff in Ball jars, which I use for the current supplement and herb sampler. I typically use a stainless steel coffee scoop to put the mixes in the jars (and pack them down), but if you've ever seen me try to scoop the mix into the jars (a very small handful of people), you know that not everything makes it into the jars, which is frustrating. But this is made specifically for those jars and I think it'll be awesome!
...and now that I've shared just how exciting a life I lead, I'm going to bed. Night.
My appointment to adopt the dark ebony female went well, they came and adopted, so that's one more extra cage open.
I checked the location of my package for the lava bites and it's now in Ohio. Ohio. Right. So, mind you, it went from California to Utah to Nevada to Iowa... to Ohio. Funny, cause it passed me up. I get that sorting centers can't be in every single state, but surely there's one between Iowa and Ohio? I mean it went to like mid-Ohio by Mansfield. Not just a tad bit over the border. So, now the date for delivery has been moved up to Friday, instead of Tuesday, but still. Stupid.
Maddie's to-be new home sent an email saying their deposit is on the way. So I went on the various sites she's listed on and either took her off listing or (on the sites it's available) marked her as adoption pending. Cause even if this home falls through, I have another right behind it (who's upset she didn't get to adopt... though both homes weren't able to adopt for 2-3 months at the time they originally contacted me... so it was kind of just a waiting game to see who was ready first). So yay for Maddie.
On another note, somewhat unrelated to chins in general, Amber (of Wheeker's Guinea Pig Rescue) asked if I'd be able to make some guinea pig mixes. Similar to the herb sampler and supplement, and so I spent some time looking that sort of thing up, and talking it over with her. So, still working on that, but NWI may carry some guinea pig / rabbit herb / treat mixes eventually if all goes well.
And then I got a funnel! You know how when you're young and get to go on a playdate or something, you're thrilled, well, when you get to be a bit older and have a webstore that packs some products in jars, you get happy over this sort of thing (which just tells you the level of excitement with which I go through life lol).
So that's the funnel. It's meant to help put stuff in Ball jars, which I use for the current supplement and herb sampler. I typically use a stainless steel coffee scoop to put the mixes in the jars (and pack them down), but if you've ever seen me try to scoop the mix into the jars (a very small handful of people), you know that not everything makes it into the jars, which is frustrating. But this is made specifically for those jars and I think it'll be awesome!
...and now that I've shared just how exciting a life I lead, I'm going to bed. Night.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Less busy day
So, we had another chinchilla go home today. Someone had contacted us about a standard grey female that we had available, one of the young ones, but she was already taken. But, I had just weaned a standard grey female from one of my pairs here, who wasn't going to be staying here, so they decided to wait until she was ready and get her -- and came today to do so.
Some good, positive news -- the rescue finally has some open cages, so I was finally able to take the statement off the rescue page that said, we are full, yadda yadda, can't take in animals right now, and so on so forth. Now, hopefully there's not a huge influx of them, but it's nice to not be full at the moment.
Anyway, nothing yet, and it's been hours, so I suppose that's a good sign. No one waiting with baited breath to get their critters in.
...or out for that matter. My 11 am was supposed to be guinea pig adoption time. They literally texted me at 11:05 and said, oh, work called them, they can't come. Do you think, just maybe, they could have given me just a TAD BIT more notice? Oh that frustrates me. So they said, well if the pigs are still here in a week or two, maybe they'll come adopt then. I doubt I'll ever hear from them again.
I actually feel bad for the guinea pigs. Yesterday, I told them they were going home, cause those people had seemed so sure they were going to adopt. And then this morning, I told them, ok, well at least they're going home today... and then those people cancelled. Poor little fuzzballs. Their home will come in time, they're very sweet pigs, but it's too bad these all fell through.
So, since I didn't have that appointment to mess with, I went to work doing stuff at the rescue. From the last few days, I'd sold a ton of herbs and such, so I went to bagging up herbs and such. Literally I had no more bagged up of at least half of the herbs I sell. So, I got out my ziploc bags and scale and herbs and started bagging.
Also made some more kit bags -- the bags that go home with young chins (under 6 months). These are the "baby" version of our goodie bags -- just chew stuff, rather than treats. There's a cardboard bagel in there, hay cubes, some pumice stones, birch wood sticks, and apple wood sticks. So I made several of those. Would have made more, but ran out of hay cubes. Need to add that to the list.
And then I started shaking out drawers. If you've ever looked at the other side of the room (the side without chins), we have several of those tall plastic drawer-d cabinets. They hold everything from office supplies to medication to water bottles to stuff we sell etc etc. Well... the window is open a good portion of the year, so we get bugs, dust, all sorts of crap, that makes its way in the drawers. And, they get cluttered. The thing is, everything has a place, but when you're in a rush (which is always) things get put in the drawers, but not always neatly. So, every few months, I will empty them out, drawer by drawer, shake out the drawer, wipe things off, and put everything back. And that shaking of the drawers get out any bugs, cleans and organizes the drawers, and as an added bonus, tends to lessen the clutter that can be removed.
For example. One of the drawers has stuff that goes in goodie bags, such as shredded wheat squares, oats, among other things which we have here. For awhile, someone was selling these thin little wood coins (think dime-size thin and dime size, like literally) for $22/pound I think. Well shit, at that size, there were a ton of them in a pound. They eventually changed it to 4 for $1, which was not a good deal, as the chins go through them like candy, but I still have some of those in that drawer. So I handed two out to every chin here. I also had a jar with some dried stinging nettle in it (a dried herb?... not sure if it's classified as an herb... maybe just a plant) that chins can have as a treat. Well, there wasn't much there, and I hate having jars with just a tiny bit in them, so... on top I keep other jars with supplement and other things that can be given daily and there's typically one that is sort of a mix of whatever's around. So that jar was empty, so I put some of the stinging nettle in it, and a few 1/8 cup scoops of an oat supplement, shook it all up to mix it, and handed that out as the supplement for today. There's a little left, so that will be part of tomorrow's as well.
And I'll do this with whatever small amounts of things that I can't easily use elsewhere. For example. Have you ever bought hay cubes? I don't mean like in a 2 pound bag from here or another online vendor, I mean like the 40 pound bag from a feed store. If yes, you may know where this is headed. If not, let me explain. So you get a 40 pound bag of hay cubes. Only, it's probably really 30 pounds of hay cubes and 10+ pounds of hay cube dust. Those of you that know are now nodding in agreement. Literally, there's hay cubes, and then there's what looks like ground up hay cubes. Now, I've had guinea pigs in the past that really have liked that finely ground hay dust, but most don't, so here it just gets pitched.
In fact, when you order hay cubes, I literally scoop out hay cubes, dump it in a tray, and pick out the hay cubes and put those in a bag, so you end up with just literal hay cubes and not the hay cube dust. Cause I want to make sure, if you order 2 pounds of hay cubes, you get 2 pounds of useable hay cubes.
Anyway, point is, just about everything you order has those "fines" at the bottom of the bag. Good luck finding any use for them if you don't use a supplement, but I mix them in with whatever I'm giving. I currently have several supplements here from either other people's chins that have come in, or from when Winx was on everything under the sun, or those sort of things, and the one I have still has a good amount in the original container, though I have also one of those jars on top with it in there as well. Well... the amount in the original container has a lot of the fines in there along with the actual supplement, so when I put the supplement in the jar, I sift it to remove the fines. So, the other day, the had those supplement fines added to their normal supplement.
Since today I did the bagging of the different herbs, I have oodles of herb fines. Rosehips I won't pick through, because those seeds are freaking sharp, but just about anything else I will. The rosebuds have a TON of petals and little flower pieces at the bottom of the bag. They're not sellable, but I'm not going to pitch em either. Those will go into the supplement in another day or two. And then when I bag up hawthorn berries, when they oxidize, they can start to turn white on part of the outside of the berry. Nothing wrong with it, just gets a little white, like a banana turning brown. Well, when I bag those up, because some people would see that and panic (and I don't feel like including a note with every bag explaining), I sort through the hawthorn berries and pick out the ones that have the white and put those on the side for myself. Those will go in the supplement one of these days as well. And so on and so forth. At some point, I must have ordered from Fuzzies Kingdom, because I had a sample of one of their supplements that had hibiscus, hawthorn berries, and other herbs in it. So, that'll probably get divided into 2-3 days and added in. Sometimes, I have nothing to add and they get just the plain supplement (which they like just fine), but it works nicely to use up the random extras and give them a little treat.
Now, for the globe flowers... for most of the herbs, I try my best to pick out whole pieces. Rosehips occasionally end up with broken pieces, but for the most part, you don't end up with half a hawthorn berry or a lot of petals for the rosebuds. But globe flower petals fall off like no tomorrow. So, rather than pick flowers out of the bag and then have 20 pounds of petals left over at the end, I use a scoop to bag those. That way I get a more even (hopefully) mixture of the flowers and petals.
Anyway, as I go through the drawers, I also find stuff to pitch. Like in my one drawer, I had a tube of non-toxic sealant (to seal up cage cracks). The cap was off and the bottle was rock hard. Ooook so that was pitched. Some of the medications I have no longer looked good. Pitch. Some drawers had random empty bags in them that looked like they'd been through the war. Pitch.
And some stuff has just been bagged for so long, the bags are like dry rotting, so I had to move them to another bag, because the bag was literally falling apart. Stuff was in wrong drawers. I had run shut-offs in two drawers. No wonder I could never find my smaller ones. So, things get organized.
So I went through the four tall drawer things. Also, it helps because I see things that I can go, ok, I need to do something. For example, I got to the drawer with the apple & oat cookies, and it was half empty. Well, if time permits, I try to keep things stocked up, because then it's easier to pack for expos (and be ready for customers' orders), so I bagged up some more of those. Looking down further, I have two jars of supplement... no jars of the herb sampler. Need to make some of those, but another day, since it's already late.
When I ran across my list of the herbs that go into the herb sampler and herbal supplement, I went and got them all out and laid them all out, to see what I have. Because I still haven't done the loofah order, because I needed to see if I needed any of that stuff. Turns out... nope, I don't. I have at least 2-3 pounds of everything and I don't go through it very fast, so that's plenty. Knowing that, I can now (sooner or later) put in that order.
So, I finally got Chili & Chico's posts up. I had thought, in the back of my mind, that I had a father / son pair of chins here, and it turns out, it was them (I found their surrender paperwork). So they are now officially listed on the website and everywhere else. And that means I am currently up to date with all animals being listed. Yay.
The bass pan came the other day, so I need to get that unpacked and put on the cage downstairs. I did at least take the box downstairs, but that's about as far as it got.
For all those who are wondering about that sapphire chin, he is just fine. He's eating and pooing and dusting and everything. I had to give him more food (thank God he has a hopper and I don't have to open the cage) because he ate it, and I gave him some supplement, and he was eating that too, last I checked. Looking at him, he's somehow cleaned up his head pretty well (well, and I did fix it a bit before he went nuts yesterday), you almost can't tell anything happened to him. So, he's fine. Some people told me they were praying for him. Thank you for your prayers. He seems to not be any worse for the wear. Though I did talk to Jim today and he will be going back.
After this weekend and multiple people wanting to buy houses -- I am out of everything I made again. So.... I could use some volunteers if anyone's got some time. With two people who are good at wood working, we can crank out about 3 per hour. Which would be awesome, compared to my one-per-hour rate by myself. If that, the big ones take even longer. Regardless, I need to make more of those.
When I dye things, like those birthday cakes, I always end up with extra dye left over, so I end up dying random pieces of wood. So I made some colored anything goes toys, and I am debating if that's something I want to put in the store or not. At the moment, they're available (if you're physically at the rescue) because I have them made, but not sure if I want to like permanently add them. If I do, I think the only way to not make it an insanely miserable custom item would be to just say, it may be a combo of any of these following colors. Otherwise, I can just see people saying, well they want one with one purple block and two blue pieces, oh and a yellow, oh but they want a green triangle on top.... and that would just be a headache. So we will see.
On another positive note, I was dying wood for the holiday toys over the last few days. If you saw my hands, that was not blood all over, that was red food coloring. Anyway, so I put together like two of them... and I think both sold to people who were here over the weekend. But on a positive note, I was able to turn that item back on (so it's available) on the webstore. And I also put the pinesical back as available on the webstore as well. And I turned back on the chinnie mobile and chinny motorhome. Just because those aren't ordered enough that they're (hopefully) not going to give me a headache if I leave them turned on. So I believe the only items that aren't turned on right now are the houses. But you know, baby steps. I'm getting there....
So, I'll share something new that we're going to carry -- because I've had so many people tell me, they get supplies here and then go to the pet store and buy lava bites... we're going to start carrying lava bites! Yay! I'm waiting for my package of them to get here... I ordered a ton so that I can use some for the chins here (cause we all know they love em) and then I'll have some to sell. I ordered them on the 9th (which seems forever ago), and they're in Iowa now, so tracking says they should be delivered Tuesday the 21st. Not sure why it's supposed to take another week to get from Iowa to here, but that is FedEx for you. Hopefully it gets here sooner than that.
In the meantime, I did get Tradition up on the webstore. There's the flat rate option, by the pound option, and I've created care packs that include Tradition as well. Also added Tradition to the Supplies for Sale page... as a food listing, and as an option on the Starter Package.
Another thing... not sure if I ever posted it, but we got in the wrong size bowls awhile back (they say I ordered them wrong, I say the shipped the wrong size... naturally, I'm wrong). I called in the order, so I have no record on my end, so naturally they say they're right. Anyway.... I have 3" food bowls. They're really to small to use as a regular food bowl, unless you literally want to fill it twice a day, but they're a useful size for treats or supplement. I've been using a few of them for supplement bowls around the rescue (because putting supplement in food tend to end up with chins digging for it), and I do think they're quite useful for that sort of thing. Treats as well. So those will be listed sooner or later.... they will be $3 (regular bowls are $4).
So...the other day I sold the second large cage that I had here... so I just went and purchased another. And because the place currently has a discount, but the max discount is a certain amount, I placed a separate order for the other cage I needed. So I could get the discount twice. Hehe. They think they're sneaky by only allowing a discount up to so much, but for those of us with big enough orders, we can just do multiple separate orders. Now, I haven't needed to order guinea pig food (oxbow) in forever, but when I did, I'd do the same thing with that. I wanted the free shipping, but free shipping was only 60 pounds or less. But I'd want like 3 bags (this was back when Oxbow sold 50 pound bags of cavy cuisine), so that'd be 150 pounds. So, I'd put in three separate orders, one for each bag. Get free shipping on each, cause each order would be over the minimum amount for the free shipping, and so no extra shipping charge. I mean, yeah, I guess they make it more work, but like with these two orders I just put in for the cages, I saved $18.38 by doing two separate orders (so I could use the discount twice). For a few cents, I wouldn't bother, but for almost 20 bucks, I think I can manage to type in my card a few times and go through checkout a few times.
Anyway, that's it for tonight. Probably more tomorrow. Fingers crossed, I believe the dark ebony female (another one who was held back from going home, before, because she had loose poos, but they have cleared up now with medication) is supposed to go home tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Some good, positive news -- the rescue finally has some open cages, so I was finally able to take the statement off the rescue page that said, we are full, yadda yadda, can't take in animals right now, and so on so forth. Now, hopefully there's not a huge influx of them, but it's nice to not be full at the moment.
Anyway, nothing yet, and it's been hours, so I suppose that's a good sign. No one waiting with baited breath to get their critters in.
...or out for that matter. My 11 am was supposed to be guinea pig adoption time. They literally texted me at 11:05 and said, oh, work called them, they can't come. Do you think, just maybe, they could have given me just a TAD BIT more notice? Oh that frustrates me. So they said, well if the pigs are still here in a week or two, maybe they'll come adopt then. I doubt I'll ever hear from them again.
I actually feel bad for the guinea pigs. Yesterday, I told them they were going home, cause those people had seemed so sure they were going to adopt. And then this morning, I told them, ok, well at least they're going home today... and then those people cancelled. Poor little fuzzballs. Their home will come in time, they're very sweet pigs, but it's too bad these all fell through.
So, since I didn't have that appointment to mess with, I went to work doing stuff at the rescue. From the last few days, I'd sold a ton of herbs and such, so I went to bagging up herbs and such. Literally I had no more bagged up of at least half of the herbs I sell. So, I got out my ziploc bags and scale and herbs and started bagging.
Also made some more kit bags -- the bags that go home with young chins (under 6 months). These are the "baby" version of our goodie bags -- just chew stuff, rather than treats. There's a cardboard bagel in there, hay cubes, some pumice stones, birch wood sticks, and apple wood sticks. So I made several of those. Would have made more, but ran out of hay cubes. Need to add that to the list.
And then I started shaking out drawers. If you've ever looked at the other side of the room (the side without chins), we have several of those tall plastic drawer-d cabinets. They hold everything from office supplies to medication to water bottles to stuff we sell etc etc. Well... the window is open a good portion of the year, so we get bugs, dust, all sorts of crap, that makes its way in the drawers. And, they get cluttered. The thing is, everything has a place, but when you're in a rush (which is always) things get put in the drawers, but not always neatly. So, every few months, I will empty them out, drawer by drawer, shake out the drawer, wipe things off, and put everything back. And that shaking of the drawers get out any bugs, cleans and organizes the drawers, and as an added bonus, tends to lessen the clutter that can be removed.
For example. One of the drawers has stuff that goes in goodie bags, such as shredded wheat squares, oats, among other things which we have here. For awhile, someone was selling these thin little wood coins (think dime-size thin and dime size, like literally) for $22/pound I think. Well shit, at that size, there were a ton of them in a pound. They eventually changed it to 4 for $1, which was not a good deal, as the chins go through them like candy, but I still have some of those in that drawer. So I handed two out to every chin here. I also had a jar with some dried stinging nettle in it (a dried herb?... not sure if it's classified as an herb... maybe just a plant) that chins can have as a treat. Well, there wasn't much there, and I hate having jars with just a tiny bit in them, so... on top I keep other jars with supplement and other things that can be given daily and there's typically one that is sort of a mix of whatever's around. So that jar was empty, so I put some of the stinging nettle in it, and a few 1/8 cup scoops of an oat supplement, shook it all up to mix it, and handed that out as the supplement for today. There's a little left, so that will be part of tomorrow's as well.
And I'll do this with whatever small amounts of things that I can't easily use elsewhere. For example. Have you ever bought hay cubes? I don't mean like in a 2 pound bag from here or another online vendor, I mean like the 40 pound bag from a feed store. If yes, you may know where this is headed. If not, let me explain. So you get a 40 pound bag of hay cubes. Only, it's probably really 30 pounds of hay cubes and 10+ pounds of hay cube dust. Those of you that know are now nodding in agreement. Literally, there's hay cubes, and then there's what looks like ground up hay cubes. Now, I've had guinea pigs in the past that really have liked that finely ground hay dust, but most don't, so here it just gets pitched.
In fact, when you order hay cubes, I literally scoop out hay cubes, dump it in a tray, and pick out the hay cubes and put those in a bag, so you end up with just literal hay cubes and not the hay cube dust. Cause I want to make sure, if you order 2 pounds of hay cubes, you get 2 pounds of useable hay cubes.
Anyway, point is, just about everything you order has those "fines" at the bottom of the bag. Good luck finding any use for them if you don't use a supplement, but I mix them in with whatever I'm giving. I currently have several supplements here from either other people's chins that have come in, or from when Winx was on everything under the sun, or those sort of things, and the one I have still has a good amount in the original container, though I have also one of those jars on top with it in there as well. Well... the amount in the original container has a lot of the fines in there along with the actual supplement, so when I put the supplement in the jar, I sift it to remove the fines. So, the other day, the had those supplement fines added to their normal supplement.
Since today I did the bagging of the different herbs, I have oodles of herb fines. Rosehips I won't pick through, because those seeds are freaking sharp, but just about anything else I will. The rosebuds have a TON of petals and little flower pieces at the bottom of the bag. They're not sellable, but I'm not going to pitch em either. Those will go into the supplement in another day or two. And then when I bag up hawthorn berries, when they oxidize, they can start to turn white on part of the outside of the berry. Nothing wrong with it, just gets a little white, like a banana turning brown. Well, when I bag those up, because some people would see that and panic (and I don't feel like including a note with every bag explaining), I sort through the hawthorn berries and pick out the ones that have the white and put those on the side for myself. Those will go in the supplement one of these days as well. And so on and so forth. At some point, I must have ordered from Fuzzies Kingdom, because I had a sample of one of their supplements that had hibiscus, hawthorn berries, and other herbs in it. So, that'll probably get divided into 2-3 days and added in. Sometimes, I have nothing to add and they get just the plain supplement (which they like just fine), but it works nicely to use up the random extras and give them a little treat.
Now, for the globe flowers... for most of the herbs, I try my best to pick out whole pieces. Rosehips occasionally end up with broken pieces, but for the most part, you don't end up with half a hawthorn berry or a lot of petals for the rosebuds. But globe flower petals fall off like no tomorrow. So, rather than pick flowers out of the bag and then have 20 pounds of petals left over at the end, I use a scoop to bag those. That way I get a more even (hopefully) mixture of the flowers and petals.
Anyway, as I go through the drawers, I also find stuff to pitch. Like in my one drawer, I had a tube of non-toxic sealant (to seal up cage cracks). The cap was off and the bottle was rock hard. Ooook so that was pitched. Some of the medications I have no longer looked good. Pitch. Some drawers had random empty bags in them that looked like they'd been through the war. Pitch.
And some stuff has just been bagged for so long, the bags are like dry rotting, so I had to move them to another bag, because the bag was literally falling apart. Stuff was in wrong drawers. I had run shut-offs in two drawers. No wonder I could never find my smaller ones. So, things get organized.
So I went through the four tall drawer things. Also, it helps because I see things that I can go, ok, I need to do something. For example, I got to the drawer with the apple & oat cookies, and it was half empty. Well, if time permits, I try to keep things stocked up, because then it's easier to pack for expos (and be ready for customers' orders), so I bagged up some more of those. Looking down further, I have two jars of supplement... no jars of the herb sampler. Need to make some of those, but another day, since it's already late.
When I ran across my list of the herbs that go into the herb sampler and herbal supplement, I went and got them all out and laid them all out, to see what I have. Because I still haven't done the loofah order, because I needed to see if I needed any of that stuff. Turns out... nope, I don't. I have at least 2-3 pounds of everything and I don't go through it very fast, so that's plenty. Knowing that, I can now (sooner or later) put in that order.
So, I finally got Chili & Chico's posts up. I had thought, in the back of my mind, that I had a father / son pair of chins here, and it turns out, it was them (I found their surrender paperwork). So they are now officially listed on the website and everywhere else. And that means I am currently up to date with all animals being listed. Yay.
The bass pan came the other day, so I need to get that unpacked and put on the cage downstairs. I did at least take the box downstairs, but that's about as far as it got.
For all those who are wondering about that sapphire chin, he is just fine. He's eating and pooing and dusting and everything. I had to give him more food (thank God he has a hopper and I don't have to open the cage) because he ate it, and I gave him some supplement, and he was eating that too, last I checked. Looking at him, he's somehow cleaned up his head pretty well (well, and I did fix it a bit before he went nuts yesterday), you almost can't tell anything happened to him. So, he's fine. Some people told me they were praying for him. Thank you for your prayers. He seems to not be any worse for the wear. Though I did talk to Jim today and he will be going back.
After this weekend and multiple people wanting to buy houses -- I am out of everything I made again. So.... I could use some volunteers if anyone's got some time. With two people who are good at wood working, we can crank out about 3 per hour. Which would be awesome, compared to my one-per-hour rate by myself. If that, the big ones take even longer. Regardless, I need to make more of those.
When I dye things, like those birthday cakes, I always end up with extra dye left over, so I end up dying random pieces of wood. So I made some colored anything goes toys, and I am debating if that's something I want to put in the store or not. At the moment, they're available (if you're physically at the rescue) because I have them made, but not sure if I want to like permanently add them. If I do, I think the only way to not make it an insanely miserable custom item would be to just say, it may be a combo of any of these following colors. Otherwise, I can just see people saying, well they want one with one purple block and two blue pieces, oh and a yellow, oh but they want a green triangle on top.... and that would just be a headache. So we will see.
On another positive note, I was dying wood for the holiday toys over the last few days. If you saw my hands, that was not blood all over, that was red food coloring. Anyway, so I put together like two of them... and I think both sold to people who were here over the weekend. But on a positive note, I was able to turn that item back on (so it's available) on the webstore. And I also put the pinesical back as available on the webstore as well. And I turned back on the chinnie mobile and chinny motorhome. Just because those aren't ordered enough that they're (hopefully) not going to give me a headache if I leave them turned on. So I believe the only items that aren't turned on right now are the houses. But you know, baby steps. I'm getting there....
So, I'll share something new that we're going to carry -- because I've had so many people tell me, they get supplies here and then go to the pet store and buy lava bites... we're going to start carrying lava bites! Yay! I'm waiting for my package of them to get here... I ordered a ton so that I can use some for the chins here (cause we all know they love em) and then I'll have some to sell. I ordered them on the 9th (which seems forever ago), and they're in Iowa now, so tracking says they should be delivered Tuesday the 21st. Not sure why it's supposed to take another week to get from Iowa to here, but that is FedEx for you. Hopefully it gets here sooner than that.
In the meantime, I did get Tradition up on the webstore. There's the flat rate option, by the pound option, and I've created care packs that include Tradition as well. Also added Tradition to the Supplies for Sale page... as a food listing, and as an option on the Starter Package.
Another thing... not sure if I ever posted it, but we got in the wrong size bowls awhile back (they say I ordered them wrong, I say the shipped the wrong size... naturally, I'm wrong). I called in the order, so I have no record on my end, so naturally they say they're right. Anyway.... I have 3" food bowls. They're really to small to use as a regular food bowl, unless you literally want to fill it twice a day, but they're a useful size for treats or supplement. I've been using a few of them for supplement bowls around the rescue (because putting supplement in food tend to end up with chins digging for it), and I do think they're quite useful for that sort of thing. Treats as well. So those will be listed sooner or later.... they will be $3 (regular bowls are $4).
So...the other day I sold the second large cage that I had here... so I just went and purchased another. And because the place currently has a discount, but the max discount is a certain amount, I placed a separate order for the other cage I needed. So I could get the discount twice. Hehe. They think they're sneaky by only allowing a discount up to so much, but for those of us with big enough orders, we can just do multiple separate orders. Now, I haven't needed to order guinea pig food (oxbow) in forever, but when I did, I'd do the same thing with that. I wanted the free shipping, but free shipping was only 60 pounds or less. But I'd want like 3 bags (this was back when Oxbow sold 50 pound bags of cavy cuisine), so that'd be 150 pounds. So, I'd put in three separate orders, one for each bag. Get free shipping on each, cause each order would be over the minimum amount for the free shipping, and so no extra shipping charge. I mean, yeah, I guess they make it more work, but like with these two orders I just put in for the cages, I saved $18.38 by doing two separate orders (so I could use the discount twice). For a few cents, I wouldn't bother, but for almost 20 bucks, I think I can manage to type in my card a few times and go through checkout a few times.
Anyway, that's it for tonight. Probably more tomorrow. Fingers crossed, I believe the dark ebony female (another one who was held back from going home, before, because she had loose poos, but they have cleared up now with medication) is supposed to go home tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Busy eventful adoption day
So, today started out rather slow, with the first appointment getting lost, me giving them directions, and them eventually finding their way here. They had come to adopt Snickers (Joker) and China, so two of the rescue chins went to their new homes! Who-hoo! And they purchased with them two of our small animal carriers (used ones), so that frees up some room. Those sort of things take up a lot of room just sitting around.
That was followed by Ozzie's new mom coming by to pick him up. I'd emailed her the night before to let her know that he still had loose poos and to see what she wanted to do. Well, she opted to try to treat him at her place, so I gave her medicated supplement and he went home as well. Ozzie will be re-named Percy in his new home. Hopefully all goes well with his medication, if not, I'm sure I'll be receiving a phone call for assistance.... but kudos to her for trying to work with this herself.
The next family picked out the cutest tiniest little runt of a black velvet female to take home. As well as 20 pounds of Tradition (pretty much clearing me out! Tuesday can't come fast enough), 10 pounds of dust, and 2 of just about everything else the chin-store carries. Plus, I got to sell one of my used cat carriers (and on top of that, one that I had JUST cleaned the night before!).
My following appointment had actually re-scheduled to the day before so I had my 1:30 open... until about 9 am, when I got an email from someone who had been thinking about adopting, but ended up getting a chin elsewhere. But she still came here for supplies, so I thought that was awesome. So she came at 1:30 and picked up a few things.
The next person was someone who'd messaged me over the months on facebook and settled on wanting to come and look for a female to pair with their chin, Angel. I had told her that she could bring her chin by the rescue, and we could see if they got along, and that seemed to help seal the deal. So, I thought she had cancelled her appointment because she was sick the night before, but apparently I missed a message that she was going to come anyway because she was feeling better. Naturally, I had left my computer upstairs on the facebook screen, so it had appeared to her as if I had read her message. No biggie, I was home, she came at her appointment time. Just when she got here, I was like wait... either my next person is awfully early, or.... But anyway, one of our cutie pie mosaics got along well with Angel, so they took her home.
The next people had originally wanted to come for the guinea pigs for the one daughter and a chin for the other. Well, when they got here, the one daughter got emotional because the guinea pigs looked so much like her other ones. So, she didn't want to adopt the guinea pigs, but decided she wanted a chin. So, their mom called their dad, and instead of leaving with one chin, they left with two, plus a cage, plus all supplies for that second chin.
And then my last person fell in love with a precious dark ebony male, so she took him home.
But I suppose I should mention the demon-chin, which happened at the time the people were here for the guinea pigs and chin. They wanted to see the various chins, one being the sapphire male, who I went to pull out. Well, he went berzerk in his cage, and flew out of the cage. I followed him over to the steps, where I grabbed him by his tail and carried him back that way. Then noticed I had a trail of blood leading the way I was walking. Turns out, he'd somehow hit his head on something sharp in his cage, and so when I was holding him about upside down, it was bleeding. Not gushing, and only really bleeding when he was upside down like that, so I put him back in the cage.
So, everyone leaves, like all the appointments, and Kevin (volunteer) was still there, so I wanted to look at the sapphire before he left, in case he escaped again. Well, he escaped again, had to be chased again, and I went to look at his head. A little bit of matted fur, but the wound is like tiny tiny. Like as if someone stuck him with a pushpin and it bled. That's it. Naturally, it freaked out everyone that was here at that time, cause he was dropping big drops of blood everywhere (kudos to Kevin for cleaning that up for me), but not a bad wound. So, I was trying to look at the wound, I had my foot on his tail, and gloves on both hands, and this chin was alternating between trying to attack my shoe, lunging for my gloves, taking BIG chomps out of my gloves... and this is after he bit me twice this morning (before he was even injured, so he had no excuse then). And then, trying to get him back in the cage, the first time, we got him in, he sprung back out. So, we caught him again. Little demon chin. So, I go to put him back in again, and the stinker gets his leg caught in the bars on the way in. And as much as I'm not a fan of this chin, I still don't want to break it's leg, so I had to use my glove to distract him and let him chew on it while Kevin pushed his leg the right way through the bars to free it. Now he's in his holding cage, with his duster in, and I will not be getting him out until Tuesday, when the psycho will be returned to Jim's.
Notice, he is no longer on my list of up and coming chins, because a chin like this that's nuts and on speed and a biting maniac will never get adopted. But I do still have a 10 month old brown velvet male if anyone's still looking for a young one. Need to list him. He's energetic, but a confident owner can hold him just fine. Had a lot of nervous people today that made him even more nervous, but I can hold him no problem. He doesn't bite, he just wants to be supported and not held by a wishy washy omg-he's-gonna-bite-me person.
And from now on, I'm going to number these chins from Jim, cause I was just going through paperwork and I have like 5 "mosaic females." Um....for sake of paperwork, it could help to have something more descriptive. Ever been on chinchillas.com and wondered about the chin numbers? For example: "15178 Blocky Brevi Type Premium Production Quality Standard Female" - do you know what that means? Not the description, but the number proceeding. I finally asked. The first two numbers are the year. So, 15 for 2015. The last three numbers are the animal number for that year. So, that animal is the 178th auction animal in 2015. Ahhhhh. Makes sense now. So, I feel that's a number system I could manage, and I've already found homes for up to 15020 in Jim's chins. I'm sure this is all thrilling to read, but when you have this many pass through, without names, this sort of thing can be SUPER useful.
Ok, so the brown velvet is now listed. All the donations from the last month or two have finally been added to the donations page. Still tons of paperwork to go through, but you know, one of these days..... Still need to list the other pair of males (Chili & Chico). I have their ad written, I have their pics taken, I just need to crop and re-size them... but it's like 2 am now, so that won't be happening today. But it's on the to-do list.
Oh and so tomorrow, I have a 9:30 am coming to pick up a standard grey female, and then an 11 am for the guinea pigs! I had someone text me the day after the people had originally asked about the guinea pigs, and I told her I'd let her know if they didn't adopt. Well, they didn't adopt, so I let her know, and amazingly, she hadn't fallen off the face of the earth yet, and still is interested. So she's coming at 11. Fingers crossed all goes well. Night.
Oh and isn't this the cutest....
That was followed by Ozzie's new mom coming by to pick him up. I'd emailed her the night before to let her know that he still had loose poos and to see what she wanted to do. Well, she opted to try to treat him at her place, so I gave her medicated supplement and he went home as well. Ozzie will be re-named Percy in his new home. Hopefully all goes well with his medication, if not, I'm sure I'll be receiving a phone call for assistance.... but kudos to her for trying to work with this herself.
The next family picked out the cutest tiniest little runt of a black velvet female to take home. As well as 20 pounds of Tradition (pretty much clearing me out! Tuesday can't come fast enough), 10 pounds of dust, and 2 of just about everything else the chin-store carries. Plus, I got to sell one of my used cat carriers (and on top of that, one that I had JUST cleaned the night before!).
My following appointment had actually re-scheduled to the day before so I had my 1:30 open... until about 9 am, when I got an email from someone who had been thinking about adopting, but ended up getting a chin elsewhere. But she still came here for supplies, so I thought that was awesome. So she came at 1:30 and picked up a few things.
The next person was someone who'd messaged me over the months on facebook and settled on wanting to come and look for a female to pair with their chin, Angel. I had told her that she could bring her chin by the rescue, and we could see if they got along, and that seemed to help seal the deal. So, I thought she had cancelled her appointment because she was sick the night before, but apparently I missed a message that she was going to come anyway because she was feeling better. Naturally, I had left my computer upstairs on the facebook screen, so it had appeared to her as if I had read her message. No biggie, I was home, she came at her appointment time. Just when she got here, I was like wait... either my next person is awfully early, or.... But anyway, one of our cutie pie mosaics got along well with Angel, so they took her home.
The next people had originally wanted to come for the guinea pigs for the one daughter and a chin for the other. Well, when they got here, the one daughter got emotional because the guinea pigs looked so much like her other ones. So, she didn't want to adopt the guinea pigs, but decided she wanted a chin. So, their mom called their dad, and instead of leaving with one chin, they left with two, plus a cage, plus all supplies for that second chin.
And then my last person fell in love with a precious dark ebony male, so she took him home.
But I suppose I should mention the demon-chin, which happened at the time the people were here for the guinea pigs and chin. They wanted to see the various chins, one being the sapphire male, who I went to pull out. Well, he went berzerk in his cage, and flew out of the cage. I followed him over to the steps, where I grabbed him by his tail and carried him back that way. Then noticed I had a trail of blood leading the way I was walking. Turns out, he'd somehow hit his head on something sharp in his cage, and so when I was holding him about upside down, it was bleeding. Not gushing, and only really bleeding when he was upside down like that, so I put him back in the cage.
So, everyone leaves, like all the appointments, and Kevin (volunteer) was still there, so I wanted to look at the sapphire before he left, in case he escaped again. Well, he escaped again, had to be chased again, and I went to look at his head. A little bit of matted fur, but the wound is like tiny tiny. Like as if someone stuck him with a pushpin and it bled. That's it. Naturally, it freaked out everyone that was here at that time, cause he was dropping big drops of blood everywhere (kudos to Kevin for cleaning that up for me), but not a bad wound. So, I was trying to look at the wound, I had my foot on his tail, and gloves on both hands, and this chin was alternating between trying to attack my shoe, lunging for my gloves, taking BIG chomps out of my gloves... and this is after he bit me twice this morning (before he was even injured, so he had no excuse then). And then, trying to get him back in the cage, the first time, we got him in, he sprung back out. So, we caught him again. Little demon chin. So, I go to put him back in again, and the stinker gets his leg caught in the bars on the way in. And as much as I'm not a fan of this chin, I still don't want to break it's leg, so I had to use my glove to distract him and let him chew on it while Kevin pushed his leg the right way through the bars to free it. Now he's in his holding cage, with his duster in, and I will not be getting him out until Tuesday, when the psycho will be returned to Jim's.
Notice, he is no longer on my list of up and coming chins, because a chin like this that's nuts and on speed and a biting maniac will never get adopted. But I do still have a 10 month old brown velvet male if anyone's still looking for a young one. Need to list him. He's energetic, but a confident owner can hold him just fine. Had a lot of nervous people today that made him even more nervous, but I can hold him no problem. He doesn't bite, he just wants to be supported and not held by a wishy washy omg-he's-gonna-bite-me person.
And from now on, I'm going to number these chins from Jim, cause I was just going through paperwork and I have like 5 "mosaic females." Um....for sake of paperwork, it could help to have something more descriptive. Ever been on chinchillas.com and wondered about the chin numbers? For example: "15178 Blocky Brevi Type Premium Production Quality Standard Female" - do you know what that means? Not the description, but the number proceeding. I finally asked. The first two numbers are the year. So, 15 for 2015. The last three numbers are the animal number for that year. So, that animal is the 178th auction animal in 2015. Ahhhhh. Makes sense now. So, I feel that's a number system I could manage, and I've already found homes for up to 15020 in Jim's chins. I'm sure this is all thrilling to read, but when you have this many pass through, without names, this sort of thing can be SUPER useful.
Ok, so the brown velvet is now listed. All the donations from the last month or two have finally been added to the donations page. Still tons of paperwork to go through, but you know, one of these days..... Still need to list the other pair of males (Chili & Chico). I have their ad written, I have their pics taken, I just need to crop and re-size them... but it's like 2 am now, so that won't be happening today. But it's on the to-do list.
Oh and so tomorrow, I have a 9:30 am coming to pick up a standard grey female, and then an 11 am for the guinea pigs! I had someone text me the day after the people had originally asked about the guinea pigs, and I told her I'd let her know if they didn't adopt. Well, they didn't adopt, so I let her know, and amazingly, she hadn't fallen off the face of the earth yet, and still is interested. So she's coming at 11. Fingers crossed all goes well. Night.
Oh and isn't this the cutest....
 |
| I love when they hold things with their little pawsies!! |
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Adoption & Volunteer
So, I had an early morning supply pickup today, and then my volunteer came over. While I continued to make room for the new chins coming and worked on cleaning more water bottles and such, he cut up an old towel. So yay, I have more rags!
He also helped me take chin-related stuff in my garage down to my basement, which saved me umpteen trips, and now my garage mostly has garage stuff in it. Ok, I lied, it has a lot of junk still, but now there should be no chinchilla stuff in it.
He also helped me take some recycling upstairs and get it in the recycling trash can, and we took downstairs a recycling bin, so from now on, I can actually just throw stuff in the bin, and when the bin is full, take that upstairs, rather than creating a pile every few days that needs to go up.
Also, started dusting the chins. Got about halfway done, will continue that tomorrow.
Had to run and mail out two packages before my 5 pm appointment, so two more people are getting their packages today. Could have mailed a third, except the person hasn't called with their credit card info for payment yet, and I can't ship it until I get that. I think I'll send them a reminder email tomorrow in case they forgot.
Then my 5 pm came and adopted the beige male that everyone thought was oh so cute on the website. Let's all say "awww."
And I think that's about it for today.
He also helped me take chin-related stuff in my garage down to my basement, which saved me umpteen trips, and now my garage mostly has garage stuff in it. Ok, I lied, it has a lot of junk still, but now there should be no chinchilla stuff in it.
He also helped me take some recycling upstairs and get it in the recycling trash can, and we took downstairs a recycling bin, so from now on, I can actually just throw stuff in the bin, and when the bin is full, take that upstairs, rather than creating a pile every few days that needs to go up.
Also, started dusting the chins. Got about halfway done, will continue that tomorrow.
Had to run and mail out two packages before my 5 pm appointment, so two more people are getting their packages today. Could have mailed a third, except the person hasn't called with their credit card info for payment yet, and I can't ship it until I get that. I think I'll send them a reminder email tomorrow in case they forgot.
Then my 5 pm came and adopted the beige male that everyone thought was oh so cute on the website. Let's all say "awww."
 | |
| "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" |
And I think that's about it for today.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Nothing cranks up the gears like panic....
So, I had someone come by to adopt in the morning today, they took home the cute little blazed white mosaic female, the one that couldn't be picked up last week because of soft poos. Those had cleared up, and she went home.
So, after they left, I was walking past the cages and noticed that both Maddie and Ozzie have loose poo. Nooooo. The person who's been talking to me about Maddie for awhile wouldn't be picking her up for another month, so I have time to deal with that, but Ozzie is supposed to be picked up Saturday. Naturally.
And so I went to get my medicated supplement for the loose poos, which was in a glass jar. Note the word "was." I say "was," because I knocked it over and needless to say, am not giving supplement laced with glass shards, so I had to let Jim know that I need more. Typical. Sets things back again.
Well, so the hard thing with loose poos, is it's hard to say what causes it. Only Ozzie and Maddie are affected, but a few other chins have poo residue on their food bowls, so that made me go into panic mode. I pulled all the food bowls for the ferret nations and the rat stack (which does have chins in it at the moment), and swapped those out for clean ones. Washed the ones that were on the cages.
Then started in on water bottles. In case it's somehow my water, I disassembled my katadyn filter, scrubbed it to death, reassembled, and ran fresh water through it. Got almost all the bottles done on the ferret nation cages.... over the course of the day (I noticed the poos in the morning). See, even though I sell the bottles, I try not to have 4000 extras for my own use, because it's rare for me to want to change over all the bottles at once (short of something like this, of course). So I had a few in my drawer, I had to wait for the water to go through the filter, then filled those up, back on the cage. Got most of the edstrom bottles done as well. Kept adding water to the filter, and taking the clean water out, to keep switching out bottles. Got most of the ferret nation cages done. Need to work on the plastic water bottles, runs, and rat stack tomorrow. And of course, spent half the day washing water bottles.
So then, I have more chins coming in tomorrow night, and some cages with them, so I needed to clear a space on my table for the cages. Well, if you've seen that table anytime within the past few months, it's sort of been a collect-all table. You know which one I'm talking about. So I started moving things around, trying to clean it so I could fit the cages on the table. Well, I found my blu-kote.
Not sure if I posted it here, but we had a tail injury here (the little white female that went home today) and I needed blu-kote. For the life of me, I could not find my bottle. And I have TWO and I could not find either. I have a drawer specifically for medical stuff (well, two of those...) and neither drawer had it... and I was getting frustrated, til I remembered that Jean (TJ's) had donated an emergency kit. Which, naturally, I'd never looked through (and still haven't... though this was a few days ago), but I thought, I bet she thought to put blu-kote in. And she did, a tiny little spray bottle of it. Score!! So I sprayed the girl's tail and she's fine now.
Anyway, that was a few days ago, but today... I found the blu-kote! I had both bottles in a quart sized ziploc bag that was zipped closed. Good thing, cause one had leaked everywhere. Ok, now, if you've ever had blu-kote leak / spill / get on you or anything it's not supposed to, you know what a pain that can be, so let's all collectively "ugh" groan in disgust. Ok, one, two, three.... UGGGGGGHHHHHH. Believe me, if you've ever spilled it and had to clean it up, or gotten it on your hands, or anything of the sort, you are groaning right along with me. The one bottle was almost completely blu-kote free, the other was purple. And still wet. So... I got on plastic gloves, opened the baggie... got the clean one out with a rag, and then got the other one out. Laid it down, sprayed it down with my cage cleaning mixture (simple green concentrate, vinegar, water) and started wiping. Got a new rag, wiped some more. Sprayed some more, wiped some more. Sprayed even more, wiped even more. Dropped the bottle (ahhhhh!!!), cause come on, slippery, cleaned up that mess, sprayed some more cleaner, wiped some more. Eventually, I did get it mostly clean, though the bottle still is a bit tinged purple (it should be yellow). But that's better than the entire bottle being dark purple. And even with the gloves, I got some on one of my hands, so that'll be there for like a week.
If you've never dealt with blu-kote, it's a farm-animal antiseptic. You can find it at tractor supply. It's like neosporin for people, except you spray or dab it on. I generally dab it on with a q-tip, but sometimes the spray is useful for larger areas (plus, when spraying, you're not opening the bottle, which eliminates the chance of you accidentally dumping the entire thing). It's supposed to prevent infection and help keep the wound clean. It works wonders... I've had chins heal from things with the use of blu-kote that I never thought they would... it really does work and helps keep the wound infection free. The main ingredient in it is gentian violet, which is dark dark purple, almost black in color (until you spill it on something -- then you see the purple). It stains ridiculously quickly -- you will never see me use blu-kote without either a junk towel, standing over a (mostly filled -- so, wide open) garbage bag, or something of the sort. Cause it somehow always manages to get everywhere. I've had bottles of the stuff slip, I've had animals knock it over (both out of my grasp and knock it over when it's sitting somewhere), it you're covering any area larger than a q-tip head, it will drip.... It works nicely, but it also causes a mess if you're not careful. So I typically do it over a towel, or in the case where I was spraying the chin's tail, over a garbage bag. Because when it gets on something... good luck getting it off. It stains almost immediately. Rubbing alcohol helps some in getting it off, but since it stains so quick, you pretty much have the bottle of the rubbing alcohol sitting next to you for it to do any good. You spill the blu-kote, you dump down the bottle of rubbing alcohol. That is your best shot for getting it off of whatever you spilled it on. Otherwise, you will likely have a purple stain for life. I have learned, if I'm going to mess with blu-kote (and dyeing toys, and other things that involve things that will stain), I better put on some gloves (as in, like the disposable latex kind). Cause you can throw those away... versus good luck explaining why all your fingers are purple to the second knuckle to your boss at work. Those gloves work wonders.
Now that I'm finally upstairs for the day, the table is 2/3 clean. I got ready a supply order that's picking up early (early enough I don't want to get up even earlier to get it ready), and found the paperwork that I already wrote out a few days ago for the pickup of the beige male (tomorrow as well).
Now I just have to look at my list of people and see who's coming when, and work on getting those people's stuff that they need ready...
So, after they left, I was walking past the cages and noticed that both Maddie and Ozzie have loose poo. Nooooo. The person who's been talking to me about Maddie for awhile wouldn't be picking her up for another month, so I have time to deal with that, but Ozzie is supposed to be picked up Saturday. Naturally.
And so I went to get my medicated supplement for the loose poos, which was in a glass jar. Note the word "was." I say "was," because I knocked it over and needless to say, am not giving supplement laced with glass shards, so I had to let Jim know that I need more. Typical. Sets things back again.
Well, so the hard thing with loose poos, is it's hard to say what causes it. Only Ozzie and Maddie are affected, but a few other chins have poo residue on their food bowls, so that made me go into panic mode. I pulled all the food bowls for the ferret nations and the rat stack (which does have chins in it at the moment), and swapped those out for clean ones. Washed the ones that were on the cages.
Then started in on water bottles. In case it's somehow my water, I disassembled my katadyn filter, scrubbed it to death, reassembled, and ran fresh water through it. Got almost all the bottles done on the ferret nation cages.... over the course of the day (I noticed the poos in the morning). See, even though I sell the bottles, I try not to have 4000 extras for my own use, because it's rare for me to want to change over all the bottles at once (short of something like this, of course). So I had a few in my drawer, I had to wait for the water to go through the filter, then filled those up, back on the cage. Got most of the edstrom bottles done as well. Kept adding water to the filter, and taking the clean water out, to keep switching out bottles. Got most of the ferret nation cages done. Need to work on the plastic water bottles, runs, and rat stack tomorrow. And of course, spent half the day washing water bottles.
So then, I have more chins coming in tomorrow night, and some cages with them, so I needed to clear a space on my table for the cages. Well, if you've seen that table anytime within the past few months, it's sort of been a collect-all table. You know which one I'm talking about. So I started moving things around, trying to clean it so I could fit the cages on the table. Well, I found my blu-kote.
Not sure if I posted it here, but we had a tail injury here (the little white female that went home today) and I needed blu-kote. For the life of me, I could not find my bottle. And I have TWO and I could not find either. I have a drawer specifically for medical stuff (well, two of those...) and neither drawer had it... and I was getting frustrated, til I remembered that Jean (TJ's) had donated an emergency kit. Which, naturally, I'd never looked through (and still haven't... though this was a few days ago), but I thought, I bet she thought to put blu-kote in. And she did, a tiny little spray bottle of it. Score!! So I sprayed the girl's tail and she's fine now.
Anyway, that was a few days ago, but today... I found the blu-kote! I had both bottles in a quart sized ziploc bag that was zipped closed. Good thing, cause one had leaked everywhere. Ok, now, if you've ever had blu-kote leak / spill / get on you or anything it's not supposed to, you know what a pain that can be, so let's all collectively "ugh" groan in disgust. Ok, one, two, three.... UGGGGGGHHHHHH. Believe me, if you've ever spilled it and had to clean it up, or gotten it on your hands, or anything of the sort, you are groaning right along with me. The one bottle was almost completely blu-kote free, the other was purple. And still wet. So... I got on plastic gloves, opened the baggie... got the clean one out with a rag, and then got the other one out. Laid it down, sprayed it down with my cage cleaning mixture (simple green concentrate, vinegar, water) and started wiping. Got a new rag, wiped some more. Sprayed some more, wiped some more. Sprayed even more, wiped even more. Dropped the bottle (ahhhhh!!!), cause come on, slippery, cleaned up that mess, sprayed some more cleaner, wiped some more. Eventually, I did get it mostly clean, though the bottle still is a bit tinged purple (it should be yellow). But that's better than the entire bottle being dark purple. And even with the gloves, I got some on one of my hands, so that'll be there for like a week.
If you've never dealt with blu-kote, it's a farm-animal antiseptic. You can find it at tractor supply. It's like neosporin for people, except you spray or dab it on. I generally dab it on with a q-tip, but sometimes the spray is useful for larger areas (plus, when spraying, you're not opening the bottle, which eliminates the chance of you accidentally dumping the entire thing). It's supposed to prevent infection and help keep the wound clean. It works wonders... I've had chins heal from things with the use of blu-kote that I never thought they would... it really does work and helps keep the wound infection free. The main ingredient in it is gentian violet, which is dark dark purple, almost black in color (until you spill it on something -- then you see the purple). It stains ridiculously quickly -- you will never see me use blu-kote without either a junk towel, standing over a (mostly filled -- so, wide open) garbage bag, or something of the sort. Cause it somehow always manages to get everywhere. I've had bottles of the stuff slip, I've had animals knock it over (both out of my grasp and knock it over when it's sitting somewhere), it you're covering any area larger than a q-tip head, it will drip.... It works nicely, but it also causes a mess if you're not careful. So I typically do it over a towel, or in the case where I was spraying the chin's tail, over a garbage bag. Because when it gets on something... good luck getting it off. It stains almost immediately. Rubbing alcohol helps some in getting it off, but since it stains so quick, you pretty much have the bottle of the rubbing alcohol sitting next to you for it to do any good. You spill the blu-kote, you dump down the bottle of rubbing alcohol. That is your best shot for getting it off of whatever you spilled it on. Otherwise, you will likely have a purple stain for life. I have learned, if I'm going to mess with blu-kote (and dyeing toys, and other things that involve things that will stain), I better put on some gloves (as in, like the disposable latex kind). Cause you can throw those away... versus good luck explaining why all your fingers are purple to the second knuckle to your boss at work. Those gloves work wonders.
Now that I'm finally upstairs for the day, the table is 2/3 clean. I got ready a supply order that's picking up early (early enough I don't want to get up even earlier to get it ready), and found the paperwork that I already wrote out a few days ago for the pickup of the beige male (tomorrow as well).
Now I just have to look at my list of people and see who's coming when, and work on getting those people's stuff that they need ready...
Now THIS is interesting
So, this is definitely a new one. Got a call today from someone in Michigan. Said their chinchilla died a bit ago and they were giving away their chin cage and supplies on craigslist. Said the had someone contact them, and tell them they were adopting a chinchilla named Rico from NWI Chinchilla Rescue. Uh-huh.
So, being smart people, they went to my website, and noted their was not a Rico. So, they called me, gave me the first name of the person who called them, and asked if maybe Rico was a chin not listed, and I really was talking to someone of that name, who was going to adopt.
Nope, and nope.
No Rico (I have a Chico and Chili -- but no one has asked about them in a few weeks at least), and definitely no person with that name. I even went and checked the few emails I had in my inbox that I hadn't gotten to reading yet, in case it was someone who sent me one email and then was just assuming I'd approve em... but still, no person with that name.
The lady I talked to said she wanted to prevent someone from just getting the cage and re-selling it, she wanted it to go to someone who really was getting a chin. And in all reality, this is why people shouldn't lie about things like that. I mean, I think nothing of it if someone calls and asks, "hey is someone named ______ adopting?" Saying yes or no isn't giving out any personal information, even if I tell them what chin, or whatever. But the thing is... this stuff can be verified, and people are smart enough to actually call and say, "hey, just wanted to check...."
Guess that person isn't getting that cage and supplies after all....
So, being smart people, they went to my website, and noted their was not a Rico. So, they called me, gave me the first name of the person who called them, and asked if maybe Rico was a chin not listed, and I really was talking to someone of that name, who was going to adopt.
Nope, and nope.
No Rico (I have a Chico and Chili -- but no one has asked about them in a few weeks at least), and definitely no person with that name. I even went and checked the few emails I had in my inbox that I hadn't gotten to reading yet, in case it was someone who sent me one email and then was just assuming I'd approve em... but still, no person with that name.
The lady I talked to said she wanted to prevent someone from just getting the cage and re-selling it, she wanted it to go to someone who really was getting a chin. And in all reality, this is why people shouldn't lie about things like that. I mean, I think nothing of it if someone calls and asks, "hey is someone named ______ adopting?" Saying yes or no isn't giving out any personal information, even if I tell them what chin, or whatever. But the thing is... this stuff can be verified, and people are smart enough to actually call and say, "hey, just wanted to check...."
Guess that person isn't getting that cage and supplies after all....
Monday, April 6, 2015
More Adoptions
So I didn't get a lot done today, but Saturday was super productive.
The first person brought a chin to see if we could find a buddy for her chin. She ended up taking home the older violet male.
Second person adopted a standard female, 3 months old, and got some supplies.
Third person came here to get a violet male (the younger one) and then decided she wanted a pair of chinchillas, so we intro'd him to our white ebony male, who wasn't even listed yet (who-hoo! saved effort!), and they got along, so she went home with both of them and oodles of supplies.
And then I had a supply pickup, that went good.
And then someone came to look at chins and put the beige male on hold with a deposit, so that's good as well.
My 4 pm that day was unable to come, because their car broke down, but that was ok, cause they came today. They had a cage put on the side for them, so I knew they were getting that today, but they decided they also wanted to adopt today. So literally, I put up the ad for the pink white female on my site, petfinder, all the other rescue websites, she comes 20 minutes later and adopts her. Lol. I told her, as I was upstairs copying her paperwork, I saw in my email, two more emails from people that wanted that female. Good timing on her part, I guess.
And then someone else put the mosaic female on hold, so I think just about every young chin I have here at the moment is on hold for someone.
But I did do a few things today, I fixed up two used cages. The one is the long rabbit cage on wheels that was donated awhile ago... finally got it all wiped off, cleaned up, and got shelves and houses in it. The other was one of the purple and black large cages that I sell, used of course. Cleaned it up, fixed some broken bars, and put in shelves. Went and ordered a new pan for it, which unfortunately upps the price of that cage by $25, so it's just shy (by like $3) of the price of that cage new. But, that said, this cage is fun looking. Should have taken a picture, didn't, but should have. It's worth the price, and with a metal pan, there will be no chewing through it. Obviously can't sell it until the pan gets here, and Bass's site says orders are taking 7-10 days just to ship, so it'll be a bit.
And then the critter nation that's here, someone had told me a bit ago they wanted one, so I marked it down, so when I got one, I would let them know. Well today, I finally finished cleaning it, getting shelves in it, and all the stuff they wanted, and got a total for them. So now that it's finished, it can actually leave at some point. I can complain all I want that it's in the way, but until I finished it... not going anywhere, lol.
My one volunteer sanded some wood pieces the last time he was here (and cleaned cages, who-hoo!!) and so I went through the wood pieces and separated out the ones that needed re-sanded (not too many, but enough that I will point them out, because he wants to improve). The others I drilled and sanded after I drilled, so those will be ready to make into toys in the next few days. Speaking of which, I drilled into a piece of wood today... with a titanium drill bit...and BENT IT. Guess there was a hidden knot? Yeah so I pitched that piece of wood, and picked up some new drill bits that size when I went to the store.
Then lastly, one of my to-be adopters wanted extra large shelves 23 x 17 to fit into her cage, so I went and found wood that big and bought it. Need to cut it, but at least now it's here.
Finally started taking upstairs some of the plastic junk that's been sitting around that needs to be recycled. For some reason, under that "desk" (dunno what it is, but it vaguely looks like a desk) in the woodshop, I had a pile of plastic shelves. Well, I rarely, if ever, sell a cage with plastic shelves (when I would would be like if a ferret person was buying it). But the only time that happens is when I have so many used cages they're coming out my ears, and I try to list them multiple ways. Well, I'm short on used cages right now, so that isn't happening at the moment. So those went into recycling, as will much more stuff as I cart it up here and there.
Let's see, what else. I answered a boatload of emails from people wanting to come or talk about chinchillas or adopt or whatever. So now, I have someone picking up their chin (one of the ones that had loose poos) tomorrow morning. The other person whose chin had loose poos still does have them... so still medicating her. And then I have a supply pickup scheduled for Wednesday, along with the pickup of the beige that's on hold. And then Saturday, China & Snickers will be going home. Ozzie will as well. Someone will be coming to see if one of our chins will work as a companion for theirs. And then someone else will be coming to look at chins, and then I have one more appointment scheduled, which might move to Friday, just waiting to hear back about that. Going to be a busy weekend again.
Took pics of Chili and Chico and of the beige male that one person asked about, so I suppose I should list the pair and email that person the pics.
The person who's coming tomorrow for the mosaic female is getting oodles of herbs for her, so I got those ready.
So I will be all set for tomorrow. Thing is, I gotta get all ready for the weekend, cause one of them needs a cage (new) and wants it set up, a lot of them are getting supplies. But that will be another day, as it's already after midnight.
Oh and good news! Nellie, a standard grey female who I won in a raffle at Shindig, had a baby today! He will be MNWI E3. The dad is Squishy, one of my grey males, so the kit is a grey, of course. Very large male, at 64 grams! If he grows and continues to stay this large, he will definitely be kept and shown. We shall see!
The first person brought a chin to see if we could find a buddy for her chin. She ended up taking home the older violet male.
Second person adopted a standard female, 3 months old, and got some supplies.
Third person came here to get a violet male (the younger one) and then decided she wanted a pair of chinchillas, so we intro'd him to our white ebony male, who wasn't even listed yet (who-hoo! saved effort!), and they got along, so she went home with both of them and oodles of supplies.
And then I had a supply pickup, that went good.
And then someone came to look at chins and put the beige male on hold with a deposit, so that's good as well.
My 4 pm that day was unable to come, because their car broke down, but that was ok, cause they came today. They had a cage put on the side for them, so I knew they were getting that today, but they decided they also wanted to adopt today. So literally, I put up the ad for the pink white female on my site, petfinder, all the other rescue websites, she comes 20 minutes later and adopts her. Lol. I told her, as I was upstairs copying her paperwork, I saw in my email, two more emails from people that wanted that female. Good timing on her part, I guess.
And then someone else put the mosaic female on hold, so I think just about every young chin I have here at the moment is on hold for someone.
But I did do a few things today, I fixed up two used cages. The one is the long rabbit cage on wheels that was donated awhile ago... finally got it all wiped off, cleaned up, and got shelves and houses in it. The other was one of the purple and black large cages that I sell, used of course. Cleaned it up, fixed some broken bars, and put in shelves. Went and ordered a new pan for it, which unfortunately upps the price of that cage by $25, so it's just shy (by like $3) of the price of that cage new. But, that said, this cage is fun looking. Should have taken a picture, didn't, but should have. It's worth the price, and with a metal pan, there will be no chewing through it. Obviously can't sell it until the pan gets here, and Bass's site says orders are taking 7-10 days just to ship, so it'll be a bit.
And then the critter nation that's here, someone had told me a bit ago they wanted one, so I marked it down, so when I got one, I would let them know. Well today, I finally finished cleaning it, getting shelves in it, and all the stuff they wanted, and got a total for them. So now that it's finished, it can actually leave at some point. I can complain all I want that it's in the way, but until I finished it... not going anywhere, lol.
My one volunteer sanded some wood pieces the last time he was here (and cleaned cages, who-hoo!!) and so I went through the wood pieces and separated out the ones that needed re-sanded (not too many, but enough that I will point them out, because he wants to improve). The others I drilled and sanded after I drilled, so those will be ready to make into toys in the next few days. Speaking of which, I drilled into a piece of wood today... with a titanium drill bit...and BENT IT. Guess there was a hidden knot? Yeah so I pitched that piece of wood, and picked up some new drill bits that size when I went to the store.
Then lastly, one of my to-be adopters wanted extra large shelves 23 x 17 to fit into her cage, so I went and found wood that big and bought it. Need to cut it, but at least now it's here.
Finally started taking upstairs some of the plastic junk that's been sitting around that needs to be recycled. For some reason, under that "desk" (dunno what it is, but it vaguely looks like a desk) in the woodshop, I had a pile of plastic shelves. Well, I rarely, if ever, sell a cage with plastic shelves (when I would would be like if a ferret person was buying it). But the only time that happens is when I have so many used cages they're coming out my ears, and I try to list them multiple ways. Well, I'm short on used cages right now, so that isn't happening at the moment. So those went into recycling, as will much more stuff as I cart it up here and there.
Let's see, what else. I answered a boatload of emails from people wanting to come or talk about chinchillas or adopt or whatever. So now, I have someone picking up their chin (one of the ones that had loose poos) tomorrow morning. The other person whose chin had loose poos still does have them... so still medicating her. And then I have a supply pickup scheduled for Wednesday, along with the pickup of the beige that's on hold. And then Saturday, China & Snickers will be going home. Ozzie will as well. Someone will be coming to see if one of our chins will work as a companion for theirs. And then someone else will be coming to look at chins, and then I have one more appointment scheduled, which might move to Friday, just waiting to hear back about that. Going to be a busy weekend again.
Took pics of Chili and Chico and of the beige male that one person asked about, so I suppose I should list the pair and email that person the pics.
The person who's coming tomorrow for the mosaic female is getting oodles of herbs for her, so I got those ready.
So I will be all set for tomorrow. Thing is, I gotta get all ready for the weekend, cause one of them needs a cage (new) and wants it set up, a lot of them are getting supplies. But that will be another day, as it's already after midnight.
Oh and good news! Nellie, a standard grey female who I won in a raffle at Shindig, had a baby today! He will be MNWI E3. The dad is Squishy, one of my grey males, so the kit is a grey, of course. Very large male, at 64 grams! If he grows and continues to stay this large, he will definitely be kept and shown. We shall see!
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Holds and other things
Let's cover holds, and what they do and do not entail. If you email me, say you want a specific chin, you want Ozzie, and you are coming tomorrow to adopt him -- I will put him on hold (whether or not it says that on the site, if you have a set appointment to come get one specific chin) and he will be here for you. Per our policies, I will hold a chin for 7 days before I require a deposit.
Let's break that down further. That's 7 days to pickup. Not 7 days to a trial run, where you don't know if you want the chin or not. Not 7 days for you to convince "mom" that you need a chin (psst! that never works!). If you need more than 7 days, you have the option of putting down a deposit (50% adoption fee or $50, whichever is more) and that will hold the chin for 30 days. Should you not pick up the chin in 30 days, your deposit is not refunded. That rarely happens, but it does happen, mainly with people who (due to no fault of my own) keep rescheduling and rescheduling. But in that 30 days, if you should need it, you have an entire month to accomplish -- waiting for your cage to arrive, getting it set up, etc etc. It's definitely do-able. But mind you, this is all if you have one specific chinchilla picked out.
On the other hand.... I've been having a lot of people want me to hold oodles of chins for them. Oh they want a young female. Let's say, for sake of argument, I have five of them. They want to come in 7 days... and they want me to hold all of them so they can pick between them all. Or better yet, right now I don't have some chins listed, and this person asked me to not list the chins until they come see them. Now, again, if it was one chin and they were pretty positive they wanted that one, that'd be one thing. But we're talking multiple chins that they want to pick from... multiple days in the future, after multiple other people are coming to look at the ones already here.
But in some situations... they want to see if their chin will get along with one of these chins. I'm sure you've heard me talk about how there's no guarantees, no way to know. Even if your chin and my chin have always gotten along with other chins in the past, they may hate each other. So, no way to know until you try. Well, the problem with that is, say I don't list the chins as available. She's only getting one, so one of them would lose out on a week of potential adoption time. But let's say her chin doesn't get along with either. Then I've wasted an entire week on both chins' potential adoptions, and for nothing.
Which again, is why holds are only for people who believe they are going to adopt that specific animal when they come here. I say believe, because sometimes people decide on a different chin once they get here. Not often, but it happens now and then.
One more quick thing just because I find it funny. I think my adopters all get together and email wanting to come the same time. Cause I kid you not, I have emails from 3 people wanting to come Saturday at 12. I think they're ganging up on me!! But no, it'll be a good Saturday, because Snickers and China are going home, so is Ozzie, and we'll see, maybe more!!
Let's break that down further. That's 7 days to pickup. Not 7 days to a trial run, where you don't know if you want the chin or not. Not 7 days for you to convince "mom" that you need a chin (psst! that never works!). If you need more than 7 days, you have the option of putting down a deposit (50% adoption fee or $50, whichever is more) and that will hold the chin for 30 days. Should you not pick up the chin in 30 days, your deposit is not refunded. That rarely happens, but it does happen, mainly with people who (due to no fault of my own) keep rescheduling and rescheduling. But in that 30 days, if you should need it, you have an entire month to accomplish -- waiting for your cage to arrive, getting it set up, etc etc. It's definitely do-able. But mind you, this is all if you have one specific chinchilla picked out.
On the other hand.... I've been having a lot of people want me to hold oodles of chins for them. Oh they want a young female. Let's say, for sake of argument, I have five of them. They want to come in 7 days... and they want me to hold all of them so they can pick between them all. Or better yet, right now I don't have some chins listed, and this person asked me to not list the chins until they come see them. Now, again, if it was one chin and they were pretty positive they wanted that one, that'd be one thing. But we're talking multiple chins that they want to pick from... multiple days in the future, after multiple other people are coming to look at the ones already here.
But in some situations... they want to see if their chin will get along with one of these chins. I'm sure you've heard me talk about how there's no guarantees, no way to know. Even if your chin and my chin have always gotten along with other chins in the past, they may hate each other. So, no way to know until you try. Well, the problem with that is, say I don't list the chins as available. She's only getting one, so one of them would lose out on a week of potential adoption time. But let's say her chin doesn't get along with either. Then I've wasted an entire week on both chins' potential adoptions, and for nothing.
Which again, is why holds are only for people who believe they are going to adopt that specific animal when they come here. I say believe, because sometimes people decide on a different chin once they get here. Not often, but it happens now and then.
One more quick thing just because I find it funny. I think my adopters all get together and email wanting to come the same time. Cause I kid you not, I have emails from 3 people wanting to come Saturday at 12. I think they're ganging up on me!! But no, it'll be a good Saturday, because Snickers and China are going home, so is Ozzie, and we'll see, maybe more!!
Friday, April 3, 2015
Totally jinxed myself
So, you know how the past few days I've been saying "oh its been busy..." and that has entailed mostly me just doing stuff around the rescue... well, I guess the world wanted to show me what busy really is... because tomorrow....
I have a 10 am appointment for someone who is bringing a chin to hopefully find a companion for.
I have an 11 am appointment for one of the young standard females to be adopted.
I have a noon appointment for someone to adopt the younger violet male.
Also at noon, my volunteer is coming by to help.
I have a 1 pm appointment for someone who wants to come by and look at chins.
I have a 2 pm supply pickup.
Somewhere around 4-4:30, I have someone else coming by to purchase a cage (already have it on the side for them) and to look at chins.
Going to actually be a busy busy day.
So to head off the disaster that will invariably happen when the first person comes shows up a half hour late and the second person shows up a half hour early and throw everything off right from the start.... I am trying to get some paperwork in order... now. The two chins that I KNOW are going home, I have written out their pickup forms, adoption contracts, and (what I know of) their invoices. Already got a care packet printed out and paperclipped to those.
For the other available chins, I'm writing out pickup forms, so even if they do end up adopted and I need to do more, I won't be hunting for birthdays (cause that's listed on the pickup form). I believe (*fingers crossed*) that all of my older rescue chins that are available already have pickup forms done. I guess I will find out tomorrow.... Printed out four more care packets just in case I don't have some downstairs (and if I do, hey, I have extras!), and also got three more adoption forms, because three of the people want to decide if they want to adopt before filling it out. Alrighty, well, I have it ready should they decide to adopt.
I need to baggie up some mazuri in the 2 pound bags and I was going to do that today, but then realized that that would require me taking a bag of food down... so that will happen in the actual morning before these people come.... but for now, I'm going to go to bed....
I have a 10 am appointment for someone who is bringing a chin to hopefully find a companion for.
I have an 11 am appointment for one of the young standard females to be adopted.
I have a noon appointment for someone to adopt the younger violet male.
Also at noon, my volunteer is coming by to help.
I have a 1 pm appointment for someone who wants to come by and look at chins.
I have a 2 pm supply pickup.
Somewhere around 4-4:30, I have someone else coming by to purchase a cage (already have it on the side for them) and to look at chins.
Going to actually be a busy busy day.
So to head off the disaster that will invariably happen when the first person comes shows up a half hour late and the second person shows up a half hour early and throw everything off right from the start.... I am trying to get some paperwork in order... now. The two chins that I KNOW are going home, I have written out their pickup forms, adoption contracts, and (what I know of) their invoices. Already got a care packet printed out and paperclipped to those.
For the other available chins, I'm writing out pickup forms, so even if they do end up adopted and I need to do more, I won't be hunting for birthdays (cause that's listed on the pickup form). I believe (*fingers crossed*) that all of my older rescue chins that are available already have pickup forms done. I guess I will find out tomorrow.... Printed out four more care packets just in case I don't have some downstairs (and if I do, hey, I have extras!), and also got three more adoption forms, because three of the people want to decide if they want to adopt before filling it out. Alrighty, well, I have it ready should they decide to adopt.
I need to baggie up some mazuri in the 2 pound bags and I was going to do that today, but then realized that that would require me taking a bag of food down... so that will happen in the actual morning before these people come.... but for now, I'm going to go to bed....
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