Shameless Plug for the Boyfriend's Creations

Now, I know some of you have caught on that I finally snagged a boyfriend.  He's cool, if you come by my place you may meet him someday...

When I first met him, he mentioned he really doesn't like critters... but that said... he now has started making squirrel / wildlife feeders, and you gotta admit, these are ADORABLE.

Feasting in the Forest

Patio Zen

Picnic in the Park

Mike (the boyfriend) has his own Etsy shop, Custom Critter Feeders, where you can purchase these and get them shipped to you, or alternatively, they can be picked up in Portage, Indiana.  They are available for $15-20 natural, or $25-30 stained / painted.  Normally, you just get the feeding station itself, no corn, and no squirrel included (sorry, I know you wanted the squirrel, heaven knows I do...)... BUT if you mention that you saw the squirrel feeders here (on this blog), we will throw in a free ear of squirrel corn for you (must mention Free Corn Through the Blog Posting).

Items Back in Stock

 So, if you've been following along, you've seen in the one recent post where I talked about making more items available again.  I may have mentioned this one part already, but our muncher's delight toy is back available, as are our fleece tubes...

...but even better since then, is that our fleece tubes are available on both Etsy and on our website.

Also now available are some fleece tube covers, as well as fleece hanging houses.  Are you excited???  Cause I'm excited!!

Fleece hanging houses --> here

Fleece tubes and fleece tube covers --> here

I also bought a hole saw kit.  In case you missed it (and you all may have, as I'm not sure whether or not I posted it), I brought my drill press back to NWI back a couple months ago.  Well, it's at the house, and I finally ordered a chuck for it, so that I can change what's attached to the drill press.  Currently attached is the 4.25" hole saw, which cuts the large holes for the houses as well as the holes in the hammock shelves and whatnot.  But the NEW news, is that I bought a hole saw kit, with multiple sizes in it, so I can again begin to cut the houses, tunnels, and more fun stuff like that.  I haven't done anything with it yet, haven't yet opened it even, but I have it, so one of these days.

Also hopefully soon coming back are... goodie bags!

One thing that will take a bit longer is chinchilla dust.  You see, the only place I can obtain that is from in Ohio, and until I take a trip there, it's not worth it for me to just go and get dust.  Sorry... but really not sorry.  It just is what is is right now.

Guinea Pig Update!

 So, let's talk guinea pigs.

The one female guinea pig that we had available -- Valerie -- was adopted on Friday.  She went to a great home where she lives in the little boy's room (well, he's not so little) with three new guinea pig sisters.  

Here is Valerie:

And here she is with her new guinea pig family:

So, Valerie is happy in her new home.  However... we have other guinea pigs available!  So if you're looking, don't go too far!

We also have Rocky & Reno!  These are a father / son pair of guinea pigs.  They are American / Abyssinian / Teddy mixes and are very sweet!  Dad is about a year old, son was born June.

And we have Williard!  Williard was born 7/30 and is also looking for a new home!

If you'd like to adopt any of these cuties, go to our website, read the care packet and fill out the adoption form!  Here --> https://www.nwichinchillas.com/guinea-pig-documents

What's Going On Now -- October 30, 2020

 So, I know it's been forever since I've written anything, my bad, I know.  To be honest, while I can tell you about what has gone on with my life, not a ton has changed on the NWI Chins front.

The last time I wrote was at the beginning of September, and many things have changed since then.  To start with, if you've followed along on facebook, you saw that I did close on my Hammond house, and moved to Chesterton.  

Chesterton has been great.  The neighbors that I have met (well, the one neighbor that I have met, 40000 times, you know who you are!) have been nice and friendly.  Two houses down, the people have free range chickens which occasionally make it onto my next door neighbor's yard, so I get to oggle the cute chickens and say, "oooh look at the chickens!!!"(something I DEFINITELY could not have done in Hammond).  This has spurred fun conversations about putting trails of chicken scratch into my yard so they come closer this way, so I can oggle from less of a distance.  The neighors behind me aren't assholes about the dogs -- in fact, they have their own crew of three dogs -- looks like a shepherd, a lab, and a something -- who also bark all the time.  Nothing I've left outside has walked out of my yard as of yet.

It's just good all around.

The reason I haven't written much is, there's not much going on with the rescue front (and I'm sure most of you aren't all that interested in my personal life).  The property has a pole barn, which I believe I mentioned earlier... which needs plumbing, cement, HVAC, and electrical work done before I can bring the chins (or any animals) back into the place.  I've had the place about a month now, and as of yet, nothing has been started yet.  Apparently it's the end of season, and every place is busy... go figure.

Minor things are still happening though, just not on the scale they were before.  We did adopt out some young guinea pigs this month / last month, and today I get to meet another potential adopter at 10:30 (at the foster home) to see if she is interested in the last of the ones from those litters.  We also have a father / son pair of guinea pigs that are available (but have never been listed, in case you're like... "but I've never seen them anywhere!").  I believe we have found a home for them as well, and the person interested in those cuties will be coming by (to the foster home) next Friday to see them.  In the meantime, she will get ready.

My current worker, Alex, convinced me that he needed to foster some guinea pigs that I was going to add to my waiting list, so I agreed to let them come in, provided they would only be at my place for dropoff.  You see, other than my dogs and a lone hamster and non-furry friends, there will not be chinchillas / guinea pigs in this house.  Anyway, I spoke with the person wanting to drop off the guinea pigs... these were guinea pigs adopted from NWI back in March-ish...and asked they bring a cage.  Now, if you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that I normally still have a cage ready, just in case that doesn't work out, but right now, well... I don't.  So, you know they brought the wire for a cage, but not the base... so last night was a bit of a scramble (but I hear it is taken care of).  I do have someone else who was interested in some young guinea pigs, so I will give these guys a little bit to settle into their foster home, and will reach out to that person.  If, for some reason, she is no longer interested, they will be posted for adoption when the time comes.

In the meantime though, with very few animals (and almost none except my dogs and a hamster in my direct care) to worry about, we have been working on unpacking and re-stocking!  It's almost funny, because I have about everything I need unpacked to live in the house... and I am in the mode of, "how much do I really need the rest of this crap?"  So my to-be-garage-saled pile is growing.  Not a bad thing -- decluttering is a good, real thing!

With the barn currently unfinished, all of the power tools (aka mess-makers) such as the two miter saws, drill press, sanders, etc... are all out there.  The band saw will make it's way out, once we get the new blade put on.  Originally, these were all going to be in the house, and we were going to build a shop in the basement, like a dry-walled room... but upon further thought, the "wood shop" -- strictly for cutting and such -- will be out in the barn, and the "workshop" will be in the house.  I've taken all of my shelving units, which used to be in the basement of the Hammond house, and they have all been set up in the Chesterton basement, on the workshop side, to hold boxes, supplies, and so on.  Also went to Menards and grabbed 6 more shelving units, so I have places to put my own household storage, like holiday decorations and whatnot.  So, that's coming along.

We've taken a few trips to storage, and probably have at least 1/2 of everything in there, back at the house.  We would have more, but without the barn done, there's nowhere to put the chinchilla stuff, so my shed is getting filled with some of that (that somehow inadvertently keeps making its way back to the house), but the large pieces will stay in storage til the end.  Plus, of course, the entire semi-trailer full of chin-stuff and cages is still at Jims.  But about half of both storage units has been moved, and a decent amount (maybe 1/2 of what's been moved) has been unpacked.  Coming right along!

In moving things and doing orders, we've had requests for more things, so for example, someone asked about the muncher's delight toys.  Well, now that I had a place to put a bag of hay cubes again (if you missed it, the last bag got wet the last time the Hammond basement flooded, so that was trash), so we went to the feed store and bought two bags of hay cubes, and made more of these toys!  They are now available on the website.  Also, we've put together all the fleece tubes that I currently can, and those are listed on etsy.  Those will also be listed on the website (nwichinchillas.com) as soon as I am able, and we are going to get our toys back up on Etsy, as soon as I can get a group picture, so I can do one listing which will include all of them... rather than individual listings, which honestly hasn't worked out so well.

And, as more time goes by, and we find more of the supplies that we need for different things, keep an eye out for out herb jars to come back, more of the out-of-stock toys to come back, fleece hanging houses to come back, and so forth!

Well, I just heard from the boyfriend that plumbing needs to come out to the house today, so he's going to head over there, as I need to be on my way to Munster, to care for some guinea pigs with Brad, and meet my potential adopter.  

Hope you all have enjoyed the update -- hopefully will have more to update soon! 

What Happened with Animal Control?

 Someone pointed out to me that I never shared what all happened with animal control... at the time, there was a reason for that (and since then, well, I guess I forgot).

My court date was scheduled for August 20th, which was a Thursday.   I called animal control (AC) the Friday prior to that, knowing that Sue (my favorite ACO ever) would be out of the office and would call me back Monday.  Which she did, and scheduled her visit to come out to my house Tuesday.  This visit was so that she could verify that all the animals were, in fact, gone, and that I was no longer running a business out of the house.

What helped tremendously was that that Monday was the day that the house was scheduled to have pictures taken for it's listing.  So, myself, Nikki, and Mike killed it on Sunday patching, painting, cleaning, staging, and organizing everything.  Monday, myself and Brad washed all the floors and walls and removed the last couple of things prior to pictures being taken.

...and then Tuesday, Sue showed up.  I already had the McColly "for sale" sign in the yard, and actually, at that point, already had an offer on the house (without it even being listed yet).  So Sue and another ACO came over, verified that I have no animals (I currently have a hamster and Kailey) and said yep, looks like the business is gone.  

At that point, I had also already put in an offer on a house.  If I remember right, the inspection was scheduled, but not yet completed, and I wasn't ready to share with the world that there even WAS a potential house, before I knew that it would stand up to inspection.  But, Sue asked if I knew where I was moving, and I shared the info that I had put in an offer on a house and it had been accepted.  I talked to Sue some more and she said to try to get to court early so maybe we could get this settled without having to go into the courtroom.  Check, would do.

The next day, Wednesday, myself and Brad are at my house, weeding and doing outside clean-up, in preparation for the showings later that day, when I get a call from animal control.  Sue's calling to tell me that if I give them the address of where I am moving to, that will verify that I'm moving out of the area, and the prosecuting attorney will agree to drop the case.  Address given, all that gone and done with.

...which, as someone has since brought up, proves that they really didn't care that much about a monetary fine or anything like that, but what they really cared about was just getting rid of me.  How nice.

... that said, I'm not complaining about there not being a fine.  So anyway, that's what happened with AC.

Where's the New House?

So... since my last post, I've been inundated with emails / phone calls / texts of people asking, where is the new house?  What does it look like??  Is it on land???  Is there a barn???  Is it unincorporated?????

Well... I'm good at jinxing things.  That's why most of this info has not yet been shared, and will not be shared until after closing.  Which is still a ways away.  Patience is a virtue.  Not one that I have, mind you, but I recommend trying it out 😁😆😂

What I will tell you is this....  the new place is still technically in northwest Indiana (at least, I consider it to be).  It is less than 3 miles off two major roads / highways, so it is easy access for all of the out-of-towners.  AND it unincorporated.  YAYYYYYYY!!!

It does need some work to be done, both minor things inside the house, and more importantly, in the barn.  Yes, there is a barn.  

...and that is all I will say.

Newest Update for You All

Since you've all been waiting patiently, I thought I would share with you all that we are moving forward with moving.

We have found a house, made an offer, and had that offer accepted...

AND

we have listed the Hammond house, had multiple offers, and accepted one of those offers.

...and now we wait.

After these offers were accepted, next thing was the home inspections.  One was done on both the house I am purchasing and the house I own.  My realtor and I provided the homeowners with a list of things that we wanted repaired, and I was provided with a list of things that the to-be-Hammond-homeowners wanted repaired in my Hammond house.

Most things for the Hammond house are minor --

(1) the plug in the garage should be changed over to a GCFI plug -- Mike (boyfriend) will do this

(2) the garage door will be repaired (it was off it's track at the time of inspection) -- a garage door company has already come and repaired this

(3) low water pressure issues throughout the house would be evaluated by a licensed plumber and repaired -- as I write this, the plumbers are cleaning up after having been here for about 7 hours, re-plumbing the entire damn house with copper lines

(4) gutters need cleaned -- Brad (worker) will do this, as soon as I borrow a ladder 

(5) furnace will be cleaned / have a maintenance check -- furnace company came and did this last week

Other than the plumbing job which is costing a small fortune, the other repairs aren't a big deal.  I asked for a bit more major stuff for the home I am buying, such as repairing / replacing a (possibly non-working) furnace (there are two furnaces and two AC's for the house, due to there being an addition), having an electrician come out and fix all the non-grounded outlets in the home (which was most of them), and having the well shocked to eliminate the bacteria.  Thankfully, the person who owns that home has agreed to make all the necessary repairs.  Yay.

So, at this point... we wait.  I am working on the repairs on my end -- the garage door was done last week, the furnace was done a few days later, the plumber was here the same day as the furnace guy to get an estimate... and today they were here working on the plumbing.  When the plumbing is wrapped up, all that will be left to do here in Hammond (as far as repairs) will be the GCFI outlet and cleaning the gutters.

Well... sort of.  Let's note, the plumbers were here due to low flow issues on two pipes.  One pipe, yes, did have low flow issues.  The other area... they said the faucet is bad, and that's why there's low flow.  Maybe I can get Mike to throw a new faucet on that sink for me.

I would also like to accomplish some minor yard work, cleaning up the backyard, and of course, I still need to remove everything from the house.  There's not a LOT here, but there's stuff that I can't be without until the very end... so that stuff will wait, and in the meantime, Brad and I are still churning out orders, and making runs to the storage unit, to stash stuff away.

I have (at least temporarily) removed my drill press from Ohio to a friend's shed in Portage, so I can still make those (clearly) beloved hammock shelves that I can't seem to keep in stock, and I'm looking to get a chop saw in the near future, which will probably also be in Portage until I'm able to get into the new place.  My friend Colette, who helps sew hammocks / tube covers / hanging houses / etc... she just shipped me a box of hammocks along with some tube overs and hanging houses... those will be listed soon, as soon as I grab some tubes out of storage, to put the covers on.  So... until closing, business is more or less as usual here.  It's awfully quiet, without all the people coming and going, and it's weird seeing the house so empty... but good things are on the way.

Update Regarding Court

So, if you've been following along, you know that I was advised to call Sue at Animal Control and set up a time for her to come see the house and verify that the animals and business-related-stuff was gone.

If you've talked with me over the past few days, you're probably aware that I've had a discussion with everyone on the planet about what exactly falls under "business related stuff."  Because let's be honest, technically, just about everything can be business-related, if the city wants to be turds.  A desk?  Oh, well you use that for business.  Printer paper?  You use that to print out labels... and so on so forth.

So, Wednesday (yesterday), I called up Animal Control.  Sue was out on a call, so I left a message and they said she would call me back.

This morning, I noticed I had a piece of mail (I saw this in my email notification) from the court system.  I found that a little odd, but whatever... I saw this when I wasn't at home, so nothing I could really do, and couldn't really look at it til I got home.

Took two trips to storage today, and on the way back from the second one, got a phone call from Animal Control.  Talked to Sue, and she told me that she can't set up an appointment to come out and verify that the animals and business stuff are gone until closer to the next court date.  Wait... what next court date?  So I asked, my next court date is August 20th, which is a Thursday, and she said she could probably come out like that Monday prior, to see that everything is gone.  She said then, we go to court on that Thursday, and she will tell the judge that yes, everything is gone, and then we will see what the judge says at that point.

Here's the insane part -- prior to this last court date (a week ago), I point-blank asked Sue, if I have the animals gone prior to court, should I call you, so you can come verify they are gone, so on and so forth? And she was like, no, it won't make any difference, you will need to come to court.  Now, she is telling me to do exactly just that!  WTF?  

Oh, but it gets better.  Because, after all, this is Hammond, let's not forget.  I drop off Brad, get home, open the mail from the court.  I see the court date is now moved to August 20th, like Sue said... but get this... the reason for the court date extension to 8/20 is due to "defendant's failure to appear."  Um, EXCUSE ME?  I was THERE!  Sue was the one who told me, no, you don't need to go into the court room, call me and we'll schedule the appointment, we are done here.  If this isn't trying to set me up to look bad, I dunno what it is.  But wtf Hammond???

So, now I have my calendar marked to call Animal Control the week prior to court, to talk to Sue about coming out and all of that, and court is set for 8/20.  *sigh*

Doctor Visit

So, this was probably from a week or so now, but it was an interesting moment, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

My family doctor is a doctor I was referred to when I was in the ER for something... they said, hey follow up with this guy, and I did.  At that point, his office was in Hammond, on 174th and Columbia.  I wasn't living in Hammond at the time, but this didn't bother me.

Fast forward a couple years (apparently 2012 I found out), and he and the physician he was working with moved into a Highland office, and added a couple more physicians to the roster.  A few years later, the same group of physicians opened a Munster office (which I have now been to, and is very fancy).

Well, long story short, I needed to go see the doctor to get prescriptions filled and all that jazz, so I was there about a week ago, and this doctor knows I have the chinchillas and supply business and all that... so, as is typical, he asked me how that's all going, with covid and all that. 

So I told him I'm moving, he asked to where...  and he reminded me, that he used to be in that office on Columbia.  We talked about how Hammond has really gone downhill in the last 10 years (and I don't disagree), and he said said that when he originally started out (80's / 90's), he couldn't afford an office in Highland / Munster, so he got the Hammond office.  And originally that was fine, but then he said as time passed, he would get patients referred to him from the hospital and people didn't want to follow up in Hammond... so in 2012, he got the Highland office location (and eventually, a couple years later, the Munster location).  He said that since he's moved, he gets more people following up and more returning patients, than when he was in Hammond, and he said he hopes the same goes for me.  We talked about how it's one thing to live in an area that isn't the greatest, as you can ignore the neighbors and keep to yourself, but having a business in an area like that is more difficult... and he said he hopes things pick up when I move.  I hope so too!

I had actually kind of forgotten about his Hammond office (though I pass it on the way into Munster all the time, it's four blocks south of here), but this was an interesting convo and sort of a success story in relation to moving to a different location, so I thought I would share it with you all.

Court Today!

So today, at 2 pm, was court for our 5 animal citations.  We got there early, about 1:30, and checked in.  We were told to sit out in the lobby and the animal control officers (ACOs) would be out to talk to us.

Sue (the ACO handling my case) and another ACO came out and made their rounds and talked to everyone, wanting to see what the status of the cases were.  When Sue came and sat down next to me, she asked if I had all the animals out of the house, and I said yes.  I explained that I only had my two dogs and a hamster left, and I said that everything else had been moved out, since I am moving.  She remembered that I told her that (about myself moving), and she said that she had talked to code enforcement -- apparently in Hammond, you need a business license to run a business out of your house, and she said that had I not been moving, code enforcement would have issued me a ticket / fined me for this, but with me moving, it's sort of a moot point (glad they think so).  I mentioned to her that I have never needed a business license when I have lived anywhere else, and she said well, that's fine, but in Hammond, you do. 

Sidenote (hence why it's in italics) -- I looked this up (about business licenses) on Hammond's City Ordinances, once I got home from court... this would be a mess if I was staying.  The businesses have to have set hours, they have to be open for inspection by the health department, police department, fire department, etc etc.  If the building where the business is located doesn't meet fire codes, safety codes, etc... it may not be granted a license.... and this goes on to say that a pet related business falls under the category of "other businesses," which requires an additional special permit to operate ($50 fee for permit).  It is possible that the location may not be correctly zoned, and if not, sorry, no permit for the animal business.  I could go on, but here's a fun zinger -- 

Each and every operator of a pet shop or cattery must give a bill of sale with each dog.  The bill of sale must reflect the approximate breed, color, sex and age, together with a statement as to special conditions regarding sterilization operations and inoculations, if any, and must further show from whom the animal was procured by the dealer, whether by purchase, by his or her own breeding thereof, or otherwise, giving the name and address of the person from whom he or she procured the animal in his or her possession.  Each bill of sale must be numbered consecutively and made up in triplicate, 1 copy shall be given to the purchaser, 1 copy shall be given to the Police Department, and 1 copy shall be retained by the seller.  On the back of each bill of sale there shall be a diagram showing special markings on the pet sold.

I bet this all would have been my "next steps," if somehow I was trying to stay here.  How about... no?  

Sue and the ACO continued to make their rounds, and we all thought we were ready to go into court, and then Sue came and sat down next to us again.  She asked if we rescheduled the court date to August 20th, would I have all the animals gone by then?  I think there was a misunderstanding somewhere here, because we went over this same thing about 3 times in a row, but eventually I got across that the only animals here at the moment are the two dogs and a hamster.  She made the comment that she would need to come to the house and verify that the other animals were no longer here, and then upon doing that, she would talk to the judge and see if I need to come back to court or not (possibly it could be resolved outside of court?).  She said that if the animals are gone, she thought there might be a possibility that there wouldn't be any fines, though she mentioned that that is up to the judge to make that decision.  So we shall see. 

She said to call her (and I will Monday) and we'll set up a time for her to come out and see the, well, lack of animals, and we will go from there.

So, kind of an uneventful day.  Never actually "went" to court, just talked to Sue in the lobby of the complex...  Until next week when Sue comes to visit!

Dust? and Other Webstore Listings

Did you notice that some of our listings on our website show up as sold out?   Or did you now just go look?  Yeah, that's cause we're out of dust!

Well, we have a couple pounds here, but we need it.  But no longer do we have enough to sell, and with clearing out the house... dust is not something we want around, cause, well, it's messy! 

So, our listings for dust, as well as the listings that include dust (the care packs and value packs) have been marked as "sold out" for the time being.

Sorry to all who this inconveniences, but we will not have dust available until after we are done moving.

At some point, we may need to close the shop entirely, until we have moved... that is yet to be seen... At this current time though, no dust, and also, once we run out of the currently-made houses (and the few more that are cut up, waiting to be made), that will be all of those that we offer for the moment as well.  Why?  Because if you try to throw a glued wooden house in a sweltering hot storage unit... it will warp.  So, we need to get down to only things that can survive storage, and that's not one of them.

Current Status Update & Ponderings -- part 4

So today we're talking about Step 7, which is sort of the final step before everything (here) opens back up.

Step 7 is getting the house ready for chinchillas.  Except, if you have talked with me lately, you know that's, well, not quite the plan. 

The new place is going to have a barn.

It may not have one, initially, though that would be considerably easier if it did.  If there's no barn, then yes, there will be a basement, and initially, chinchillas will go down there.  However, as I'm not getting any younger and my back and knees aren't getting any more forgiving of carrying 50 pound sacks of feed down (and bags of trash back up) stairs everyday, if there's no barn, there won't be rescues until there is a barn.  Same reasoning -- not hauling in and setting up all those cages downstairs, only to haul them all back up and put them in a barn later.

Obviously, the barn will be insulated, heated, and cooled for the comfort of our furry friends.  It's be great, too, if I even had a generator just in case.  But, as I am not a millionare... maybe one thing at a time, shall we?

Little more about the new place, since I feel like I kind of got away from that, in the post where I talked about the "where" we are moving to --

It's going to be on a minimum of an acre.  Top contenders right now for that are Valparaiso, Crown Point, Portage, Chesterton, and beyond.  Note, these are all a minimum of 45+ minutes from here, going east-ish.  Think rural-ish for the smaller ones, and farm property for the slightly bigger ones.  I have something like 20-ish houses favorited... some of these places look damn neat, and I can't wait to go start seeing houses (and their barns / buildings).... but first, need to keep working on getting this place ready to sell.

Current Status Update & Ponderings -- part 3

So, where are we moving to?  Well, we don't know.

That's the simple answer.

The long answer is this -- there's a lot to be done, prior to figuring that out.  Have I looked at home listings?  Well sure.  Have I found some dream homes?  Sure.  Have those dream homes sold the first day on the market?  Also sure! 

...but again, not quite there yet.

If you follow my (personal) facebook, you may have seen that I now have two storage units, and one is packed about to the brim.  So, I have been moving stuff out.  I somehow managed to snag someone to work for me, amid the pandemic.  A high school student named Brad -- he's been super helpful with moving stuff and packing and all that.  Anyway, we've been moving stuff out, but before I can do any major cleaning of downstairs, the animals need to go.  That's step 1.

Step 2 is removing the rest of the crap, upstairs and downstais that needs to go out to storage.  I'm amazed at how much we've taken already, and furniture we've cleared out... but there's still more!  I even sold some furniture, to avoid taking it with me.

Step 3 is cleaning.  I have dogs, so the walls need to be lightly washed, holes need to be patched from hanging pictures, that sort of thing.  The stove needs to be cleaned, the fridge, all that fun stuff.  The floors need to be washed.

Step 4 and beyond are less in my control.  The house needs to be listed.  Once listed, I get to go see all these houses that I have favorited and see if I find one I like, so that...

Step 5, once the house sells, I hopefully already have one in mind to buy, and can put an offer in on the house.

Step 6, hopefully the offer is accepted, and I'm able to close on that house within the right amount of closing time, so there's overlap... so I am not "homeless" if my house sells and closes... and I haven't yet bought another.  Hopefully there will be overlap so I don't need to worry about that.

Step 7, getting the new house ready for chinchillas.  We'll talk about Step 7 in the next post.

Current Status Update & Ponderings -- part 2

So, where are all the animals?

Well, right now, I have my two dogs (Kailey and Misty -- the rest are at Jim's), a handful of chins, and a hamster here with me.  My guinea pigs, snakes, frogs, and geckos are at my parents' place, and Jim has all the chinchillas, doves, and prairie dogs.  The chinchillas will all be gone by this time next week, and the hamster and dogs will remain here with me until the house sells.

Where did all the animals that were here, go?  They got adopted!  Other than the currently sold chinchillas, we have one chinchilla (Sybil) in foster care in Iowa, dealing with some health issues... but other than her, everyone here has found a home!

We stopped taking in rescue chins mid-March or so, so we do now have an extensive waiting list of people wanting to bring their animals in.  We have advised everyone... we have no idea how long everything will take.  We don't know when exactly we will move, or even, once we get the new place, how long it will be before we can take in animals.  But we can add people to the list.  And we have been.  We've also been referring people to another local rescue that can take in small animals, for those that can't wait.

Though I don't know (no one does) how long this all will take, I can imagine that by the time we are ready to take in animals, many of the people on the waiting list will have fallen off the face of the earth.  And that's ok.  The nice part is, we will be starting fresh... all our cages will be empty, so we will be able to take in a lot of animals at once.

Did you hear that though?  We will be starting fresh.  We pitched all the shelves and many of the accessories and whatnot that were gunk-ified in those cages.  So when we get the new place and get the cages in (which have to be powerwashed and set up), we do have to create completely new set-ups for them.  Again, this is why I say, just because we have the new house, that doesn't necessarily mean we will be taking in animals on day 1.

However, should anyone want to volunteer their time or effort, this will be a great opportunity where we will need help.

... believe me when I say, I would like to get animals in again... soon.

The more the impending exodus of the chinchillas comes closer, the more of a "rush" I feel like I am to hurry up and get this house ready to go, so it can be placed on the market and I can find a new place.

Current Status Update & Ponderings

Hi all.  I see it's been since the beginning of March when I posted last, sorry about that.  The pandemic hit, I got hit with the citations for my dogs, prairie dogs, chinchillas, and doves, and decided to pack up and move, and, well, here we are.  Lots of things have gone by the wayside, while packing... notably, I haven't written a blog post in forever, but today brought up a lot of interesting thoughts and I wanted to update everyone with where we are and where we're going, and all that sort of good stuff. 

So, rather than make one, super long, super rambling post, I'm going to break this down into a couple of days.  I'll post today about one thing, maybe skip a day so you all can get back on the bandwagon as far as reading this stuff, and then post about something else currently going on, until we're all caught up, and I can actually do update posts...

So, today....why today was a "big deal."  If you've talked with me anytime in the last month or so, you know that court was moved a couple times, and now sits at 7/16 (10 days from now).  Because court was pushed back, I decided I wasn't going to get the animals out, too too early, and a couple of weeks ago, I said I wasn't bringing any more in.  To be fair, I haven't brought rescues in, probably since mid-March.  Until about two weeks ago, when I talked to Jim and he oh so casually told me that there was a blue diamond and black velvet that I could sell.  Well crud.  I hadn't wanted to take any more chins home, and at this point, most of my chin cages were already gone, but I said I would see once I got there.  I ended up packing up and bringing home 10 chinchillas (this was about a week and a half ago now).  When I put them in their cages, I immediately took pictures, knowing they would need to leave quickly, and I decided on the 12th (this upcoming Sunday) being the last day for pickup.  That way, if any remainded, I would have time to get them back to Jim's, prior to court.  I had a few people inquiring about chinchillas, so those people got the list of chinchillas and pictures first, and the first two had deposits that day (and have since gone home).  Following day (I think), they were listed on my website, a few more people got inquiries, and more got deposits.  Today, barely a week from the day they came home, 7 of the 10 have already gone home, and the three that remain have deposits on them and will be picked up this week.  As of this morning, I had one left -- a black velvet female.  I did have someone inquire about her the night before, and fill out an adoption form.  I had emailed them back specifying that she would need to be picked up on or prior to the 12th, but hadn't heard back yet.  Well, long story short, they came by today and adopted her.  As all the other chins have deposits on them, that means I have brought in the last chinchilla, ever, that will be brought into this house, and also, I have also already sold / pre-sold (with deposit) the last chinchilla I will ever sell (here).  Let me tell you, that is a weird feeling! 

...it'll be even weirder when the last chinchilla leaves.

Foster Chins -- Introducing Henry!

Henry is another chin of ours that is currently in a foster home.  He is fostered in Chicago.  He was not initially a chin that was a candidate for a foster home, as we usually send the problem chins.. .but then he decided he wasn't comfortable here at the rescue, and started losing weight and eating less.  Long story short, after moving him to a foster home with more schedule and consistency, he has gained weight, is eating well, and is doing awesome!

Henry is the chin who's been here the third longest, after only Livia / Miracle and Cheechee.  He was born 6/2013, which means he is currently 6.5 and will be 7 years old in a couple months!  He is an awesome little guy! 

Because he didn't do well in the busy rescue, we don't believe he'd do well in a super busy household with a lot of kids / pets / things going on.  Here's what our foster had to say about him

Henry is a very vibrant and energetic chinchilla. He loves to cuddle and play outside his house with his humans in a safe play space. He’ll need to go to a home that has the time and energy to devote to him and he’ll require a chin spin (wheel) for his extra energy. Since he seems to love human interaction, I’ve found that he is happiest when at the very least I give him scritches when I walk by and spend a few minutes with him on a consistent basis. He’s really good at begging for attention with this super adorable face (he wins 9 times out of 10)! He’s been good with children 7 and up.

And of course, some recently updated pics of him below!

Henry is available for adoption for $65 during our current sale.  This guy wants a nice home of his own... is it you??

Foster Chins! -- Introducing Livia & Miracle

Hi all!  Our longest chins here at the rescue right now are a pair of chins in a foster home -- Livia and Miracle.  They have been here the longest... by a bit actually.  On our Petfinder account, we are able to see how long ago we listed chinchillas... Livia and Miracle have been listed for 7 months... the next longest chinchilla has been only listed for FOUR!  (that's Cheechee, for anyone wondering).  And while Cheechee still chilling here for a bit makes sense, due to her winning personality (hahahaha), Livia and Miracle still being here doesn't make sense. 

Let me tell you why.

Livia and Miracle are a mother / daughter pair of chinchillas.  They are both hetero beige chinchillas, with mom being a furchewer.  We know that Miracle (the daughter) was born in April 2017, which means she will be upcoming on 3 years old soon!  Unfortunately, Livia (mom)'s age is unknown.  Here's the sad thing... based off my notes, this pair came in in April, so come April 2020... this pair will be here for a year.  Come on, no one wants to take them home?

We were initially told that Livia occasionally bites... but our foster home said this is not the case and only got minorly nipped once, on the first day.  Why do we mention this?  Because we are transparent and don't hide things, the way others might. 

These girls are fostered in Iowa, but they can be brought back to our rescue for adoption, or adopted out directly from their foster home.  They are very sweet girls and enjoy playtime and chilling in their cage.  Want to know more?  Their listing is on our website, on this page -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/available-chinchillas-1 and of course... photos below (showing up kinda odd for me, sorry)! 

These girls are available to adopt for $200, and that will drop down a bit more during our upcoming sale (shh, you didn't hear it from me).

Things We List in Our Ads

Wanted to bring this up, because I am totally aware that our animal ads are long, and things can get lost!  I can definitely be guilty of including too much info, to the point that people may skim the ads, I get it!

...but rest assured, the one thing that we always include -- the location!  You see, we're not only concerned about our own time -- but also yours!  Of course, I want to help everyone as much as possible.  There's a very nice lady in Washington state who calls periodically asking for chin-advice, and we talk about what's going on, and I'm happy to lend an ear, and give suggestions / advice.  But note, that's suggestions / advice.  Unfortunately, it does little good to have hour-long conversations about adopting if the person is far away and has no desire to set up some sort of transport for the animal.  It takes away time from other potential adopters for us, and just as important, it means that whatever pet ultimately will get adopted by that family, has to wait longer, as often that family does not realize that they're not in the same general locale as the rescue they are conversing with.

Now, our rescues are pretty centrally located.  We are primarily a home-based rescue, and we have a couple foster homes as well.  Most animals are located here, in Hammond, Indiana.  Our one foster is in Chicago, and the other is in Iowa.  What this means to you --> all animals are within a 3 hour radius of northwest Indiana (yes, even the Iowa one). 

Is that intentional?  Yes and no.  While we don't restrict how far out our foster homes can be, we do require them to come to the rescue to pick up supplies, and also, to bring the chinchilla back here within 3 days, should an adoptive home want to adopt directly from the rescue (as opposed to from the foster home).  This tends to result in foster homes that aren't ridiculously far away, because otherwise this is an undue burden on the foster home to accomplish this.

At the end of the day, we are called NWI Chinchillas -- NWI meaning northwest Indiana.  We don't have foster homes in Texas, as we are not Texas-based.  However, we do understand that our ads can have quite a far reach, and we often DO have people apply to adopt animals from far away.  Heck, as I write this, I am getting ready to prepare three chinchillas / supplies for a trip to Ohio with me later this week, and then going on a transport to Pennsylvania, a couple days later, to their new home. 

This all is why all of our ads have location on them. 

Now, on our website, all animals are presumed to be located here at the rescue, with the exception of the ones that specify, this animal is at a foster home located in [city].  I try to make the website not as long and cluttered, but our stand-alone ads (think, petfinder, hoobly, adopt-a-pet, rescueme, and so on) all include much more info including what comes with the animal, contact info, and of course... location!  In fact, it's usually right above the adoption fee, and specifies, for example, "this chinchilla is located in Hammond, Indiana.  Sorry, but we do not ship."

I guess to me, this is pretty straightforward, no?  I suppose if you get to that line and read it, yes.  But, if you have skimmed it, you maybe didn't see it.  But just for your knowledge... I promise, in every ad, there is the location of the chinchilla.

If we can prevent just a couple people who message, all interested, all super stoked to adopt... and then they message... ok so where are you located?  Oh, Indiana?  I'm in California... so how am I going to get the chin?  It will be worth it.  Can't hurt to have it in there anyways!

Now that I've yapped on about very little for this long... I'm going to bed.  Goodnight.

Some Toy Changes & Additions!

So... if you've been here at all recently, you may have heard that we are expanding our toy line a bit and making room for more toys on our toy-wall.  We cleared out another one of those white chests-of-sterilite-drawers, so we have somewhere to put the mulberry toys (when we have some, none in stock at the moment) and some of the other things we have in mind coming up.

We've also had requests to revive our critter's delight toy.  Remember these?

Well, we can no longer get those cardboard circles, and unfortunately, the cardboard tubes that are are occasionally donated (the ones we cut up for putting in goodie bags) are not nearly large enough to try to replicate this toy with.  I have left them up on the site, marked "sold out," just in case we might find some alternative, and so up until recently, nothing.  BUT!!!... we may have found a solution (one that may require a slight raise in price, but albeit, a possible solution).  Check back for that...

I'm also trying to make my life easier.  I know, hahahahahahahahahahaha right?  But seriously... I've looked at some things we do here, and I have tried to figure out, how can I make it so that I'm not constantly stressing out about so many things.  One of those things that tended to cause frustration, was our one toy, the zany loofah toy.  This one:

--no idea why the pic is sideways, but you get the idea--

... ah... but now, going forward... also...

...you know why?  Because it is absolutely impossible to dye / color the exact same number of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple loofah.  So, undoubtedly, what happens is that we dye / color loofah, make some toys... and then are out of (for example) green.  So, we dye / color more green.  Well... then we end up with way more green, then run out of red.  And the cycle continues.  Which is fine, except you can imagine, we'll have tons of dyed loofah, yet we'll be missing one of the specific colors required to actually MAKE one of the "original" zany loofah toys, and then someone will order one, and we will scramble.

For our last order that included a zany loofah toy, Jennifer got the fun job of digging through our colored loofah bags (you know, the four packs) to find appropriate colors... and then had to re-pack them, so we can still sell what's left.  Pain in the ass.  Double the work, for really no gain.  And to her credit, when we talked about changing this toy over to a whatever-colors-we-feel-like-it toy, she did point out that it's called the ZANY loofah toy, so in that theme, it could totally vary what colors are included.  So from now on (well, as soon as I update the listing), our zany loofah toy will be "colors may vary" (and the photos will show some of the possible color options, which are actually quite endless, as we have many more colors than shown).

We also have a toy in the works that hopefully looks like a cupcake.  Another that may have some antlers on it... well, we shall see!  We've got some ideas!  Now just to have the time to work on them.  But for the moment, we are working on re-stocking the current toys we have, cleaning up downstairs, and slowly moving forward.

Leaving Voicemails

Hi all!  I know it's been awhile since I posted, and I hate to make the first post something that's like... please do this... sort of thing, but I've noticed this lately...

A lot of people call from one number, but want me to call them back at another.  Often, the first number is like their work number or whatever, so I totally get it!  But then, the second number is completely mumbled so that I have to listen to the message 10x to try to figure out what that number is.

I had one of these instances.  I thought I had the correct number... called... nope!  Wrong number.  The last two digits, I thought, were 2 and 8.  Swear the last one sounded like an 8.  My phone (where it writes out the voicemail) thought the last number was a 0 instead of an 0 (doesn't sound like a 0 to me, but ok).  So the next number I called was the one ending in 2 and 0, and left a voicemail for them.  However... if that's NOT the correct number...

I'm pretty sure of the first slew of numbers.  It's that last number (which I would have SWORE was 8) that was really mumbled, and which was the hard-to-understand number.  Long story short, after I left a voicemail for the number... and then had the thought about... I could technically call 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 29 still (as the last two digits), a friend chimed in and said, try calling back the number they called from.

Now, normally, if you ask me to call a different number, I do, simply because often people don't want calls at work or whatever, but in this instance, I might have called a ton of different numbers, so I did call that original number, and got the person I wanted to.  So that all worked out.

But long story short... and I suppose I could have totally summarized this all in one sentence -- please, PLEASE try to speak as clear as possible when telling me what phone number you would like me to call.  If you think of it, even REPEAT it  (if I've ever called you and left a message, you may notice, I repeat the number twice, juuuuust in case you didn't get it the first time).  In fact, the best thing you can do would be to leave relevant info twice (if you're feeling generous lol).  So, "hey, this is Chris, my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx, I'm calling about a white female chinchilla, please call me back.  Again, this is Chris, and my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.  Thank you!"  I tend to repeat myself at the end, but if I know I've called someplace before that has a very short recording time, that ^ is exactly what I do, and it's a good thing to practice!

That is all.  Thank you!!