Email Example

I've had a few people comment, in real life, about how I talk about how some emails take awhile to respond to, which is why answering emails can be such a long process.  I can easily spend 2+ hours a day on email, and sometimes not even touch all the new emails.  So, I wanted to share an example of that with you, an email and then the response (which took 30+ minutes to write out):

Email:

Hi,

I sort of "inherited" two female chins, both of whom turned 5 around late August/early September. That is to say, my daughter got the chins, and then left to go to school in England. She did try to rehome the chins, but the girl who got them did not take good care of them, and once we realized they were being neglected, I took them back. They were pretty traumatized, and had become quite reclusive and unsure. I never have handled them as much as my daughter did, but they've come to respond to me fairly well, tho they've never loved being picked up or, really, being petted. They don't bite, however. Recently I've been trying to get them more used to petting and touch with some oat hand feeding, and they are pretty eager for that.

However, due to the amount of supervised play time they require, they really take more time than I have, and they definitely take more of my time than my husband would prefer! He is quite insistent that I find someone to take them. My daughter has since graduated and is living with us until she sorts things out (trying to return to England for work and fiance), but hasn't been really taking care of the chins anymore, or interacting with them, (and when she does, it's pretty clear they now prefer me) so it seems to me they would be better off in a loving home with someone who truly wants to spend time with them. However, therein lies the problem: how to find such a home? They've already had one bad experience, and I do not want to subject them to that again! Tho they do not get a lot of socialization from me, they do get out of the cage playtime (and I talk to them every time I go in to see them), great toys and chews, and are generally well taken care of and in perfect health, as far as I can tell. So part of me is quite reluctant to give them up if I don't know for sure they're getting a better deal.

I like what I've read on your website so far, but I'd like to ask how you socialize the chins?  One thing that made me very nervous was reading that you'll ship the chins by air to any major US airport. I don't trust airlines! I know they've killed several dogs, and with chins being on the anxious side and much more fragile than dogs, I'd really not want my chins shipped by air. Is there any way to request that they not be? Do you adopt to families with small children? What would disqualify someone from adopting, and how would you find out this information?

So, info about my chins: female, bonded pair, one is a "violet", the breeder said, uniform grey with white belly, and the other is black, tho shades of grey may be seen in her fur. Their cage, fully decked out in wooden shelves and stone lined wire shelves, a double occupancy hidey hut (wooden, from Twilight), is 54" tall, 36" wide, and 24" deep. They also have two thick cardboard tubes hanging from the top of the cage. The grey prefers the higher levels and the tubes, the black prefers the first two floors of the cage. Healthy, as I said, and don't bite, but also don't really want to be picked up (they'll run). When I let them out to play, I use a pet carrier, and when it's time to go back in, I set down the carrier and they'll (one at a time) get in to go back. Or, if the carrier is out and they want to go back, they'll run in to the carrier to let me know it's time to go back.

Food: they get Oxbow pellets, timothy hay, the occasional alfalfa cube (tho they don't really eat a lot of that). I hand feed Old Fashioned Oats. They get a few rosehips a week. (I get my toys and other extras from Whimsy's Menagerie); they get apple and crabapple twigs and sticks (she prepares them carefully, scrubbing and boiling) and various types of chews, from different pumice stones and antler tips, to wood, vines, and sea grass twists. I use Care Fresh bedding, and no, they never chew on it. They will, however, rip up cloth, so I'm not sure fleece is a good idea. They also get a small handful of "confetti cuisine" from Whimsy's, which is crispy leaves (they LOVE those), various Chin-safe herbs and flowers, and the occasional small thin slice of dried carrot. Plastic water bottle because I had a bad experience with the glass when it stopped dispensing water (!), so I put a subway tile between them and the bottle so they can't chew on it.

That's probably more than you wanted to know... :)

So, i hope you'll answer my questions. How long is your surrender waiting list right now? Thank you for your time, and for being there for all those chins! :)

Response:

Hi,

Let me start by saying that I'm happy to hear that when your daughter stepped down as far as the care for the chins, you were able to step up and take her place.  Too often, I hear of cases where the original owner either lost interest or became ill (or whatever the cause), and was unable to care for the animals, and unfortunately, no one in the house stepped up until the cage stunk to high hell and something had to be done, so kudos to being there for the critters.

You asked how the chins are socialized.  Many that come in are at a decent level of socialization.  Not so much the ones that are left uncared for and such, of course, those require more effort and socialization, but we do get a fair amount of chins that are reasonably young and someone gave up due to allergies or getting married -- basically, chins that came from a good home that worked with them a lot to start with.  Those chins stay at the rescue with me, and they are interacted with and handled daily when I go around to feed.  The chins that need more specific one-on-one work as far as building trust and being comfortable with people, those go out to one of our foster homes.  We keep the number of rescues small (usually under 20), between the chins that are here and the chins that are in foster homes, that way there's more time to be able to spend with the rescues and help them become the best chins they can, so they can find a great home.  The fosters that we have mostly just have the one chinchilla, so they can devote pretty much all of their time to that one, and to working with that one, which really helps a lot as far as making progress.

As far as shipping, I'm happy to put that certain chins cannot be shipped.  To be perfectly honest though, it would be pretty unusual for the chins you mentioned to be shipped.  Nothing against them, of course, but most of the chins that I ship are $600-800 pedigreed animals that are basically "specialty" type chins.  The last two we shipped were a baby curly chinchilla and a young blue diamond -- both super unusual.  Of course, I'm not saying that an adult pair of chins couldn't have someone interested in them farther away... but for a more common color chin, most people don't care to spend the money to get them shipped.  It costs these people $200-250 to ship, so it's not for the average pet owner.  The airlines take very good care of our pets.  I acknowledge that dogs have died, though you may notice, they died in the summer due to the heat.  Due to chin-specific regulations (that sounds almost funny) that the airlines have, we can't ship them if it's over 80, but to be safe, I don't ship them if the weather is over 70, and I've never had one have any problems shipping.  I work with another breeder that is a partner on chinchillas.com -- they ship their chins worldwide, and have also never had a problem with a chin getting ill or passing.  My guess would be this has something to do with shipping during cooler temperatures.  I'm not saying this to sway you or anything, but I just want you to know that I wouldn't put a chin's life at risk if I thought shipping was dangerous.  If it's too hot or something like that, we just simply do not ship.  Not worth the chin's life or even overly stressing the chin for that matter.

We do adopt to families with small children.  If the family is looking for a pet specifically FOR the small child, as in... the kid wants to hold and pet the chin (and likely, squeeze and love on it a bit too much...), then I will steer them towards a more cuddly pet like a guinea pig or rabbit.  However, if the family is looking for a family pet, and has small children, that's not a red flag.  I always avoid in my ads, saying that chins are or aren't good with kids, because I firmly believe that that depends as much on the kids as it does on the chins.  Some kids are well-supervised by their parents and are taught how to appropriately handle and pet small animals.  Others are little terrors and I wouldn't want them around my small animals, any of them.  I do believe, though, that kids taught how to properly handle and pet small animals are not a danger to the pets, and can benefit from being raised around chins.  A lot of little kids enjoy sitting in a playpen with chinchillas and letting them hop up on their legs and laps, while being told to not reach out and try to grab them.  It's cute to watch even.  When we have families come over with small kids, I have never yet witnessed a family that does not seem to have the pet's best interest in mind.  Usually the parent or a teenager is holding the chinchilla, and the smaller kid is gently reaching out to pet.  With the thought that this continues at home, I don't have a problem with this.

We do have an adoption form that gets filled out before someone can adopt.  It's available online, if you'd like to see it.  Here -- http://www.nwichinchillas.com/adoption-form -- If the potential adopter already has a cage or gets one from somewhere other than here (we sell cages and all supplies), we ask for a picture of the cage so we can see what is in the cage and advise.  As far as things that would disqualify someone, usually that info would be found in an answer to one (or more) of the questions on the adoption form.  Of course, sometimes in talking with someone, we learn of something that would be harmful to the chinchilla, and it can happen that way as well... but usually, the adoption form is the first step in finding out if someone would be an appropriate home or not.  A few examples (questions truncated, you'll get the idea):

Question: Own or rent?  If rent, allowed pets?  People have actually put that they rent, and no, they are not allowed pets.  Bye bye.

Question:  There's a section on name and address and whatnot.  This doesn't apply to chins specifically (I suppose it could in some areas), but for example, in Hammond (where I live), rabbits are illegal to own.  When I have rabbits up for adoption, I put in their listing a note as far as this, mentioning that people in Hammond will not be able to adopt.  People in Hammond still apply.  Sorry, denied.

Question:  Are you planning on moving?  If yes, what happens with the chins?  The answer should not be that they'll drop it off at some random shelter or list the chin on craigslist.  When people adopt, they sign an adoption contract which states that if they cannot care for the chin or no longer are able to keep it for whatever reason, it must come back to the rescue.  I actually took someone to court over this once, to get the chins back.

Question:  What would you do if you had to move somewhere where pets are not allowed?  The answer should not be, sneak them in.  People really do sometimes answer these questions that way!  Ideally, the answer should be that this will never happen, but if it did for some reason (say, due to old age and infirmary, moving to a nursing home), the animal would come back.

Question:  Is this chin for you or someone else?  It's one thing if they put it's a family pet, or it's going to be the teenage daughter's pet, but the parents are going to oversee the care.  The answer should not be that the chin is a gift for a friend or that sort of thing.

Question:  Do you have funds to cover vet care?  Answer should not be no. 

Questions:  We ask what brand / type of pellets / hay / dust / bedding.  All to ensure that they put down safe options for these items, to ensure the chins are cared for correctly.

Question:  Where do you plan to keep the chin cage?  This is a big one.  I don't really care where they put it, but it has to be inside.  Not many people put down that they're going to keep their chins outside, but a random few do, and if someone puts something like that, we're not even going to have a chat about it, just flat out denied.  Because at that point, I won't believe them if they say, oh ok, well, since you said, I'll keep them inside.  No way to verify that for the life of the chin...

There's more questions than that, feel free to check it out, but those are ones where sometimes there can be a variety of correct answers, but there often is one incorrect answer where it's a significant red flag, and depending on what it is (for example, if they put down the wrong bedding, I'm going to educate, not say they can't adopt... unless they want to stick with the un-safe brand), that's when someone would get denied from adopting.  It doesn't happen overly often, but there's some people out there that are stuck in their ways... they want to keep the chin outside, and they want to sneak it into their apartment that doesn't allow pets, and so on so forth, and the and care of the chins is paramount, so that's not going to happen.  I won't put chins through that.

It sounds like your cage and supply setup is great for the chins.  I love Whimsy's!  Lots of healthy treats and I love her stones and bones toys.  Such creative stuff!  I order from her periodically, for the stuff that I don't make myself for the chins.

Right now, the waiting list isn't super long.  I want to say there's maybe 5-6 people on it?  Of course, getting chins in requires chins here being adopted, so sometimes it goes quickly, sometimes not so much.  Also, since you were talking about socialization and such, if you decided you wanted to bring the chins in, and further wanted to request that your chins go to one of our foster homes so they'd get more one-on-one attention, we could totally do that.  I would just mark down on our waiting list that you'd be waiting for one of our foster chins to find a home, and then once that happened, we would schedule a time for you to bring the chins either to one of our fosters, or directly here for a foster to come pick up (depending on which foster and where you're located, and such).  

Talk to you soon! 

Now, I acknowledge, not all emails are that long, but I get quite a few, and I do mean quite a few, per day that are that detailed and info intensive, and those are the ones that "hold up the line," so to speak.  Just wanted to share an example...