Let me start with the thing that's on the top of my mind. Adopting. Let me share with you a few snippets of emails just from this morning:
Hello my name is Anthony I would like to adopt a chinchilla but I would like to know if I have to pick up the chinchilla.
and
I live in Brookfield, Wisconsin 53005, I was wondering if there is a way you can bring a chinchilla here for adoption, or...
...keep in mind, these are just from this morning. As in, give it a week and I'll have a minimum of 10 emails or messages or texts asking this. Here's the short answer:
YES, you have to come to the rescue to adopt.
The only, and I mean ONLY time when that would not apply would be if I was going to a show, and you happened to be going as well, or lived in that area and were going to meet me at the show or at my hotel near the show. So, in a year, you'd have maybe 5-7 opportunities for that, and you would need to be in either central Ohio near Jenera (well, I'm there all the time), near Madison, WI, or near Auburn, IN. Otherwise... you're outta luck. And for example, that WI one... is once a year. You miss it by a week or two (for example, I don't know where Brookfield, WI is, but even if it's close to Madison... they shoulda emailed me a few weeks ago when I was in the area...), and you're outta luck, cause I won't be back until next year.
Here's the thing. If you can't drive to the rescue or find some way to get here, what is there to make me think that you're going to drive to the vet, if needed? Yes, I know, you can ship in all supplies, whether from me, or from Amazon, or whatever. But you know what you can't ship in? Vet care. If your chin gets sick, yes, I realize, a cat and dog vet can come to the house if you pay enough (though, you usually see this in cases where the animal needs to be put down, not emergency care). If your chin needs an x-ray, or fluids, or a wound sewn up, do you think a vet is going to do this in your living room? The answer is no, they're going to tell you to bring it in. And if you say you can't, well, they're not going to be able to help you.
I feel that coming to the rescue is an important part of adopting. It shows effort on your part. You want everything handed to you and the chin delivered? That shows lack of effort, to me.
For the persistent people, I have told them, I can bring you a chin, that you have paid for in full and filled out all docs for beforehand, for 50 cents per mile roundtrip. So if you're 30 miles away from here, 60 miles x $0.50 = $30. Which would also need to be paid ahead of time. No one has ever taken me up on that. No, they want free delivery. And mind you, most people that I'm talking about aren't 20 minutes away. No, they're 4 hours away, so 8 hours roundtrip. That is an absolute minimum of $50 worth of gas, if not more. And that's just gas, we're not including that I probably need to eat sometime in that 8 hours. Plus, it's 8 hours of my time. Plus, I either need my phone or a gps to find your place... none of this is free.
Let's just say all we consider is the gas, which is $50. For someone adopting a baby standard grey, which are on sale for $110 right now, that brings the price down to $60 that the rescue gets. $50 currently adopts you a senior chin, $75 (down to $65 right now for the sale) adopts you a standard grey adult. So by delivering you a baby standard grey and eating the gas cost, I've basically given you a considerably more expensive chin for about the price of a senior. If you can give me some awesome reason why I should do that, by all means, I'd love to hear it.
To be perfectly honest, here's the reason why it's not worth me eating the gas cost and using my time and paying for food and the effort to bring that chin to you (unless you really are going to pay mileage) -- because I could drop the chin cost and have someone else drive to my door to get it. Do I want to eat the $50 and 8 hours of my time and deliver it to you? Or do I want to list a baby standard grey as $60 and watch people flock to my door to get it? I think, if that's all I'm going to get out of it, I'm going to do the second, and never have to leave my house. Hence, mileage, if you want me to drive.
Personally, I don't care if you think it's reasonable or not. You want a plumber to come out to your house? $60 service call. You want the electrician? $75 service call. Why should a rescue be any different? In fact, you're likely going to be paying the rescue LESS for the chinchilla than you would ever pay these service people, who charge you a fortune to come out to start with... so why should we not charge anything for our time? They have no problem doing it, and most people have no problem paying it.
Moving along. In case you didn't hear, the blue cloud mine has been shut down. Apparently, it was on Bureau of Land Management land, and some environmentalists didn't like that they were mining on BLM land, so once the current supply of blue cloud has been exhausted... we all very well may be out of luck. The blue sparkle mine is still running, but blue cloud has stopped. Just so everyone's aware. I don't sell blue cloud, so this really doesn't affect anyone buying dust from me, but affects people showing.
Moving along again. Went to the claim show in Ohio on Saturday. Brought a beige male who got phase champ (best male in the dark beige phase), and Pancake, who got another 2nd. Their main comment was simply that she's not big enough, and she is a bit smaller than some of the show bunnies, but I was talking to Jim and he looked at her and said she's definitely still too nice to sell as a pet, so she's likely going to go with either that one chin I have that looks like his butt was dipped in white paint, or a pink white male that I have here.
I also want to post about the change in my sales policy and health guarantee, and I will do that, but either later today or maybe tomorrow. Too long to add to this post and I need to get some other stuff done...
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