Today... and a bit from the other day.

Forgot to put this in from a few days ago..... I called someone back, who called maybe an hour or two ago and I missed the call.  Oh, they no longer need the chin, they got a puppy like an hour ago.  Um... ok.  So clearly, not all that set on that chin then, eh?  And actually, I hear this quite a bit, I wish people would think a bit more about what they want to get, BEFORE calling.  Won't happen, but just would be nice.

Today was busy, but got a lot done.  Had a 11 am adopter who left with our brown velvet female, and our 12 noon adopters left with two chins -- a mosaic and a beige, and a whole ton of supplies.  Literally, like they got 25 pounds worth of food, 20 pounds of dust, 10 pounds of hay... the works.  Which is always good.

Moving along, I got a phone call from a previous adopter asking if we had any cages for sale, so I told em we still have all of the new cages, plus I texted him a pic of the used cage that I told him, I could fix up if he wanted.  Was a black cage on a stand.  He liked the cage, so he said he wanted it, and I went to work on fixing it up.  And then he came by, bought the cage, got toys, some supplies, and so on and so forth.

Which brings me to the price of the used cages.  I've had, over the years, quite a few people ask why they're "so high."  Now, to me, I don't think they're high, but then, I see all the work that goes into them.  So, let me explain.  Let's start with the cage itself.  It's beyond rare for anyone to donate, or bring with their chins, a clean cage.  Usually they have quite a bit of grime built up, need to be scrubbed, soaked, what have you.  This on in particular, had gunk on a lot of the bars.  So, I had to scrub down the cage, and after that, went over the entire cage and stand with alcohol wipes to sanitize.  The shelves inside this cage were metal mesh (not good), so those had to go (but more on that later).  The cage itself isn't a bad cage, but is supposed to hook together and only does so... so well.  So I got out the o-rings and ring pliers and went around the cage ringing away at the joints, to make it more sturdy (after asking the people, of course, would the cage fit as one piece in their car... and yes it would [and did]).  The cage also had quite a few small doors, like how birdcages do, where they lift up.  So those got ringed closed, so chins can't escape.  And then, even the big doors just lift up, so I got two spring latches and attached those, so no escapees that way either.  Then moving onto the shelves.  Since the old ones were not chin-safe, those all had to be replaced.  This person said they were ok with some used shelves, so I put in mostly used shelves, some new.  Even for used shelves, they have to be sanded and prepped, so there's still work involved.  And lastly, we come to the pan.  This pan was a black pan but had a lot of white on it, which is from deposits in the urine.  I washed the pan, poured in some vinegar and let it soak.  Scrubbed after maybe 30 minutes, and a good majority did come off.  Dried off the pan, and then had to deal with the crack.  There was a crack on one of the corners of the pan that went through the upturned corner down and maybe 2 inches into the pan.  Got out the JBweld, mixed that up, and applied.  Set the pan where it could dry and not touch anything.  Cable tied the cage to the stand, and done. The cage ended up being $115ish with all of that -- cage was 30 x 18 x 36, stood maybe 5' tall on the stand.  Does that seem a lot?  I don't really think so, considering it had a ton of shelves in it and was nice and sturdy and like new after the clamps and JBweld and all that.  But some people think it should be, like, a $40 cage.  I wouldn't sell the cage, uncleaned, unfinished, unshelved, for $40.... so I don't think $40 done will be happening anytime soon... but everyone's got their opinion.  But anyway, the guy was happy with the cage and the price and that's what matters.

In case you'd like to see:

Before...

After (no pan in the pic, JBweld drying still)

Moving along, I wrote up the listings for Bigfoot, Jordan, and the black velvet male, and got those put up.  Got started on Lee's listing -- as far as figuring out what the cage itself would add to the cost if the potential adopters get the cage.  The cage will be cheaper if it goes with him, versus if it goes separately.  But it was getting late and I didn't want to be down there forever, as I have paperwork up here to do still, but at least I have the cage part figured out.

Moving along, that same person who couldn't come to Hammond because they said they were gonna get shot... is coming next weekend.  Lookie dat.  Anyway, the chin they originally wanted got injured by another chin, so they decided on a different chin, and decided they want a spare CN that I have sitting around, but wasn't sure how they wanted to go on shelves, so I told her I would put in shelves and take pics and get it back to her with a price, so she could see what she thought.  So I worked on that today.  The pans are kinda dusty as is, since that's the same cage that sat and sat and sat while that one girl made excuses about not paying me for it for months on end, and they look bad in the pic, so I told the girl if she ends up with the cage, I'll clean the pans, and if I have better ones, I will swap them out for the better ones (I know I have another set tucked away somewhere because someone had their bass pans on top of the regular cage pans... and those survived much damage).

Just in case you wanted to see:

Top CN

Bottom CN

Didn't have enough room to get a straight-on pic, but I think it looks pretty decent with the shelving. 

In case you missed it from the other day, we now have a new toy -- the ring of pumice.  It's a 7-8" diameter circle (14" stretched out) of anything-goes-pine and pumice stones.  $8 each.  May do a colored one at some point (with the wood colored), but one thing at a time. 

Wrote up the ad for Paco, just need to get it posted everywhere.  Then I think the only other currently-available chin that I need to work on will be Lee.

There are some chins I check everyday, it's on my to-do list as "check for adoptability" -- some need to gain weight, some should be ready, but dropped a lot of weight and need to regain it, etc etc.  So every day or every other day (depending on how they're doing), they get checked until they're ready.

I think that's about it for tonight... I'm going to work on editing Paco's photos and finishing her write-up and getting that all posted, and then maybe doing some paperwork, and then going to bed.  Til next time.