For once, we have good and bad (well, neutral) in this post today, instead of the typical posts lately where nothing's going right.
Still haven't gotten to the store to order my hardware for the shelves. Well, I mean, I've gotten there, but the one guy who I've been dealing with regarding this is on vacation and I need him back. Like yesterday. So, still hardware-less. Once I get the hardware in, I can (soon after) make those shelves back available on the website again.
Remember that person that asked about those four shelves and the pricing and then didn't email back? And if you recall, I said how much of a pain it is, after I've packaged the box, and then I get to unpack it, put everything away... and then occasionally the people re-appear and want it? Oh yeah. So, 14 days, yes 14 days, after I gave her the price quote, she says she wants the shelves. Which of course, now I gotta pull out new ones, sand em, package em, etc etc. Doing it all again. She's sending a money order, and to be perfectly honest, I'm going to wait until I have that money order in hand before I package up anything. But grrr that makes me mad.
Still waiting on payment for the, like, ONE, order that didn't flake on me from back when I told people it would be a few weeks.
So, the first person to hear about the 7 day hold policy had asked me about how to put a chin on hold, and didn't respond, so I emailed them asking if they wanted to put the chin on hold. They didn't respond. So, yesterday, that chin was officially off hold, and someone else took it home. Ya snooze, ya loose. And see, had I had the 14 day policy, that chin would still be on hold. But Cloud went home.
Frito #2 also went home today, not sure if I ever posted about that, but those people did come through with their adoption form on day 5. I gave them 5 days to get a completed form to me, because I had someone else interested in Frito (the people who ended up with Cloud), and they got it to me. Even paid in advance, which I would imagine would ensure that I kept the chin here for them. But I did tell them, I would, as long as I got that adoption form in on time.
So those two chins went home yay!!
Even better.... back when, I had a nice lady adopt Nyler, a mini rex male rabbit, for her daycare in East Chicago. Well, her grandson lives with her, and he liked Nyler and wanted a rabbit of his own. This lady had called me up a bit ago asking if I had any rabbits or cages and at the time, I didn't. So she called again earlier this week, just asking for cages, and I told her, I have this one rabbit cage here. So she said she wanted to come look at it, and I told her, it wasn't clean, but I could clean it if she wanted it clean (if she wanted to buy it). So she came with her grandson and they wanted to get the cage and then they saw Oreo & Zoro.... and they're going to adopt the rabbits!! Yayyy!!
Oh and I want to use her as a good example of what TO DO. She recently moved to a new apartment, and she was unsure if she could have rabbits. So when she was here looking at the cage, she told me, she needed to check with her apartment, and I advised her, mention that they're caged pets (because, when I was looking for apartments with my chins, a lot of places didn't know if it was like loose like a dog or a cat). So she said she'd ask and get back to me, and I asked that she let me know, either way. So, she asked her apartment, and they said that rabbits were fine to have. And she called me to let me know. Now, that is what adopters are supposed to do. BEFORE they go out and get an animal, they're supposed to check to see if they can have one. And then, either way, let me know. Which she did. And I appreciate that. They're set to pickup the rabbits tomorrow. We don't have a time yet, but I have no doubt these people will be coming by.
Oh, and I just wanted to mention something. If you've read this blog any number of times, even sporadically, you notice I talk about the people I come in contact with a lot. If it's you, hey, maybe this is your 15 minutes of fame. Someone mentioned the other day, what if I'm talking about how dumb someone was and they read the blog. Well... they read the blog. They probably don't like me very much after that. Similar cases happen all the time, but chances are, if it's you I'm writing about, and you read that post... you probably realize I'm talking about you. But really.... you're probably the only one. No one's going to be on the street and be like, oh that's the guy who never returned her phone call about that cage!! I don't add in that much detail as far as who's who. And really, it doesn't matter. Cause who cares if the person who adopted Cloud is tall, short, black, white, stupid, funny....
But really, here's the thing. I don't write this to upset anyone. Chances are, if you made the blog, and it wasn't because you adopted an animal (as in, the rabbits are getting adopted, here is their story, here is their new family), it was probably because of one of two things. Either (1) you made a really good example of something either that people should or shouldn't do (see above for positive example), or (2) you made me feel a really strong emotion (usually aggravation, but sometimes I dabble in others) while dealing with you, and you made me want to share it with these fine people who read this blog. Either way, I've had people get upset. Which is fine, it's their right to feel however they want to feel. But keep in mind, these just are my opinions of people. You don't have to share them. You can read this and think, "man, what a judgmental bitch!" I love when people tell me, "you have no idea what's going on in my life." No, I don't. I admit that. But you all don't know what's all going on in mine either. I try to keep my personal life separate from the rescue (though, that does become difficult when most of my friends either run rescues themselves, breed chins, or are otherwise tied to the animal world). I try to only write about rescue stuff and not let daily life creep in. So while I have no idea what else is going on in your life, you have no idea what's going on in mine. So, we can all judge all we want because none of us know what's going on in each other's lives.
And you know, we can all start blogs. I used to tell my friends these stories. And if you are my friend that hears these stories even more than what I write on here, I'm sure they all sound alike with very slight variations. You should see what happens when I get together with my rescue buddies. Occasionally there's a story shared about something that went great, or an awesome donation, or something like that, but more often, it's commiserating about the people we have to deal with. Or even the larger shelters that we occasionally get animals from that really should leave the small animal rescue to the small animal rescue, because they just have no clue. But it's just life. I'd love to say the rescue is awesome, things always go great. And it is nice to see the animals get adopted into their (hopefully forever) homes. But, there's a lot more to it than that.....and that's why there's a blog.
I don't know what this is from, but I like quotes (and while I may not remember what I had for breakfast, I can remember these things like no tomorrow), and this one fits, especially in the context of the rescue and having the happy customers photo page:
"You never see the hard days in a photo album, but those are the ones that get you from one happy snap shot to the next."
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Scheduling appointments.
I try to be flexible. I really do. But at the same time, I feel the people wanting to come by need to be flexible as well. If you ask me, on Monday, what's my schedule look like for the week, I probably have days wide open and you can have your pick of times. I may even allow you to come at the crack of dawn, even though normally I wouldn't be up that early. Why? Because if I know in advance, I can plan for it.
I have one person who has been wanting to adopt. They wanted to adopt a chin that was, at the time they emailed, already on hold for someone else. While the pickup of the chin has not happened yet (should be tomorrow), the person actually adopting the chin has already paid for the chin in full (and some supplies) and I have no doubt I will be seeing them soon.
As for this other person, they seem nice enough, I have nothing against them, but every time I email about when they want to come, they ask if they can come the next day. Which would be fine, except "the next day" almost never works. See, I need more notice than that. The last time, I thought the day was free, but then family plans changed, and it turned out it wasn't. We never actually scheduled a time for the person to come, but I had to email them and say that we couldn't do that day, and would have to reschedule.
Well, since then, I hadn't heard from this person for a few days. So I emailed yesterday and asked if they still wanted to come look at the chins. They said yes, did I have anything available tomorrow (which is now today). Because I don't sit at the computer and just wait for these emails, I didn't see their email until late at night. So I replied to it that I will be home until about noon today.
I got up earlier, like 8ish, and checked my email. Nothing from this person. So I went about my day. Checked again at 9:15ish, and I have an email that asked if he could come at 9:15. Really? The email was sent at 8:28.
Rather than re-hashing the entire thing, I'm going to copy and paste the relevant part of what I replied so that I can reference it:
I apologize if it seems like we're having difficulty finding a time for you to come by. It's typically much easier though, if you ask for more than a day in advance, because I don't sit at my computer all day waiting for an email regarding what time to come. Had I known more in advance, I would have been up and ready.
So here's the thing. There's a million and one things that need to be done at the rescue. There are always cages to clean, chins and critters to feed, orders to fill, paperwork to be done, etc etc etc. This means I'm usually up on my feet doing something, rather than sitting in front of the computer answering emails. Though I do do quite a bit of that as well. And if you catch me while I'm sitting here, then you'll likely get an immediate response if you email about adopting or setting an appointment. But if that email hits my inbox when I'm not in front of my computer, it may be a few hours. Yes, I have a smartphone, and I do check it, but I'm more likely to open it up and play Hay Day for a few minutes than I am to check rescue email every 5 minutes. Why? Because it wastes time (we won't even get into Hay Day, lol). No, but seriously. If I opened up my phone every 5 minutes to check if I have new emails, that would constantly make me stop what I'm doing and check, and then if I was going to immediately respond -- I tend to do longer ones on my computer because I can type faster on an actual keyboard -- it's just not happening. It would take too much time away from the already-not-enough-hours-in-the-day problem that I have.
And that's the problem with such a short time frame. 45 minutes isn't nothing, I grant you that. I can accomplish a lot in that amount of time. But here's the thing. That's not a lot of time for me to go without checking my email. And maybe this person thinks I'm being an ass, but I'm not trying to be -- it's simply that there's better things for me to do than constantly check my email. While adoptions are definitely a priority -- heaven knows -- they won't happen if I don't have animals fed and cages cleaned and paperwork in order -- all that has to happen as well. And I have to have time to do that.
Another thing -- if no one's coming over, I may not have the rescue swept or things in order. I try to keep it neat, I do. Because when something gets out of place, and I can't find it, turning everything upside down TO find it doesn't solve much...especially when I can't find it. I can think of an example from last week when I couldn't find my hobby knife to cut the holes in the hammocks for the grommets. Searched and searched, and had someone coming who wanted to see hammocks. At the end, I went through my medical drawer and had a scalpel, which has a similarly small sharp blade, and worked in a pinch to cut the hammocks and let me insert the grommets. Granted, I made a mess looking for the original hobby knife. But I never did find it. I bought another one and the scalpel will be cleaned and go back to the medical drawer. And.... that person never did show up.
But point is, things like that happen, even without people coming. If I need a scraper for the pans and can't find it, and I have a box full of random shit, it may all end up on the floor or on a table. Someone calls 5 minutes later and wants to come -- that stuff's still on the table. I try my best to clean it up for when people come, but the truth is, I use a lot more stuff at the rescue than what's easily visible when the place is completely clean. When all that stuff is sitting out somewhere, it looks like a pigsty. I could sweep 3 times a day and that floor would never be clean of chin poos. So I sweep about once a week, or, if someone's coming, that day I sweep as well. So if you email or call and want to come in 10 minutes -- I turn into a chicken-with-head-cut-off and madly start sweeping and cleaning. Because the reality is, having this many animals is too messy to constantly keep it ready-for-the-public. It's not bad, don't get me wrong. There isn't 4 inches of feces on the floor. It's nothing like that. But the few times that I haven't swept and people have come by, people have actually accused me of not caring for the animals. Now, I'm sure, had they actually owned a chin, they would have known that that amount of poo takes almost no time to accumulate. But without knowing, all they saw was those little chocolate tic tacs littering the floor, and thought "how could she?!??!" So I try to tidy the place up for people. But you all give me very little time when you email and want to come right away.
Several friends I have run small animal rescues. There's not that many of us, so I suppose we all band together. Anyway, she has a new rule that appointments must be made two days in advance. For me, I'm not sure that would work, simply because I have a lot of people who come "tomorrow" or "the next day" and it works fine for me. But the thing is, I can't drop everything and keep checking emails or waiting for someone to get back to me... cause some people never do.
This guy that emailed back this morning -- he just as easily could not have emailed back -- so had I been obsessively checking my email, I could have turned up nothing. Going along with that, this entire time I've spent writing this blog, I've had my phone in front of me and I've been refreshing the email, in case he emailed back. He hasn't emailed. Which is fine, no big deal, but it's different when I'm sitting here, versus actually doing something. When I get up from here and let the dogs out again and go back to cleaning and organizing and whatnot, if this person emails then, I won't see it.
And he may think I'm being difficult. But I just can't sit there and obsessively check my email hoping someone emails about the chins. Sometimes several days go by and I get no chin emails. Other times I get 20 in a day. But if I checked every 5 minutes for those days where no one emailed, that'd be wasting a lot of time. And that's why I told him, if I knew more in advance, it'd be different. Had I known, last night, that he wanted to come at 9:15, I'd have been up, ready, and he could have come. But, depending on how I'm feeling, I may sleep in if I'm tired, need some rest, or don't feel well. Obviously, I can't do that if I have a job, but right now I can. And if I need to be up for an appointment, I will be up. No problem. But I need to know someone is coming to be up and ready.
This all said -- it is different if you've been here 30 times for supplies and you've seen the place a bit messy... which I've allowed because you, at one time, saw it clean. But new people always come to a clean rescue. So please, think about what it might involve for me, when you ask if you can come "now," or "soon."
I have one person who has been wanting to adopt. They wanted to adopt a chin that was, at the time they emailed, already on hold for someone else. While the pickup of the chin has not happened yet (should be tomorrow), the person actually adopting the chin has already paid for the chin in full (and some supplies) and I have no doubt I will be seeing them soon.
As for this other person, they seem nice enough, I have nothing against them, but every time I email about when they want to come, they ask if they can come the next day. Which would be fine, except "the next day" almost never works. See, I need more notice than that. The last time, I thought the day was free, but then family plans changed, and it turned out it wasn't. We never actually scheduled a time for the person to come, but I had to email them and say that we couldn't do that day, and would have to reschedule.
Well, since then, I hadn't heard from this person for a few days. So I emailed yesterday and asked if they still wanted to come look at the chins. They said yes, did I have anything available tomorrow (which is now today). Because I don't sit at the computer and just wait for these emails, I didn't see their email until late at night. So I replied to it that I will be home until about noon today.
I got up earlier, like 8ish, and checked my email. Nothing from this person. So I went about my day. Checked again at 9:15ish, and I have an email that asked if he could come at 9:15. Really? The email was sent at 8:28.
Rather than re-hashing the entire thing, I'm going to copy and paste the relevant part of what I replied so that I can reference it:
I apologize if it seems like we're having difficulty finding a time for you to come by. It's typically much easier though, if you ask for more than a day in advance, because I don't sit at my computer all day waiting for an email regarding what time to come. Had I known more in advance, I would have been up and ready.
Giving
me a 45 minute window between the time you send the email and the time
you want to come -- that's fine if I'm sitting there watching for it --
but if in not at my computer or checking my email, that's a very short
time frame and it's easy to miss the time with that small of a window.
I was up earlier this morning looking for an email, but then went back
to what I was doing and only checked again now. I have a million and one
things to do at the rescue, and while adoptions are definitely a
priority, nothing would get done if I constantly checked my email for
emails regarding adoptions. That's why more notice is helpful, I can be
more prepared.
If
you get this soon and still want to come sometime before noon today,
please let me know. I will be occasionally checking my email.
So here's the thing. There's a million and one things that need to be done at the rescue. There are always cages to clean, chins and critters to feed, orders to fill, paperwork to be done, etc etc etc. This means I'm usually up on my feet doing something, rather than sitting in front of the computer answering emails. Though I do do quite a bit of that as well. And if you catch me while I'm sitting here, then you'll likely get an immediate response if you email about adopting or setting an appointment. But if that email hits my inbox when I'm not in front of my computer, it may be a few hours. Yes, I have a smartphone, and I do check it, but I'm more likely to open it up and play Hay Day for a few minutes than I am to check rescue email every 5 minutes. Why? Because it wastes time (we won't even get into Hay Day, lol). No, but seriously. If I opened up my phone every 5 minutes to check if I have new emails, that would constantly make me stop what I'm doing and check, and then if I was going to immediately respond -- I tend to do longer ones on my computer because I can type faster on an actual keyboard -- it's just not happening. It would take too much time away from the already-not-enough-hours-in-the-day problem that I have.
And that's the problem with such a short time frame. 45 minutes isn't nothing, I grant you that. I can accomplish a lot in that amount of time. But here's the thing. That's not a lot of time for me to go without checking my email. And maybe this person thinks I'm being an ass, but I'm not trying to be -- it's simply that there's better things for me to do than constantly check my email. While adoptions are definitely a priority -- heaven knows -- they won't happen if I don't have animals fed and cages cleaned and paperwork in order -- all that has to happen as well. And I have to have time to do that.
Another thing -- if no one's coming over, I may not have the rescue swept or things in order. I try to keep it neat, I do. Because when something gets out of place, and I can't find it, turning everything upside down TO find it doesn't solve much...especially when I can't find it. I can think of an example from last week when I couldn't find my hobby knife to cut the holes in the hammocks for the grommets. Searched and searched, and had someone coming who wanted to see hammocks. At the end, I went through my medical drawer and had a scalpel, which has a similarly small sharp blade, and worked in a pinch to cut the hammocks and let me insert the grommets. Granted, I made a mess looking for the original hobby knife. But I never did find it. I bought another one and the scalpel will be cleaned and go back to the medical drawer. And.... that person never did show up.
But point is, things like that happen, even without people coming. If I need a scraper for the pans and can't find it, and I have a box full of random shit, it may all end up on the floor or on a table. Someone calls 5 minutes later and wants to come -- that stuff's still on the table. I try my best to clean it up for when people come, but the truth is, I use a lot more stuff at the rescue than what's easily visible when the place is completely clean. When all that stuff is sitting out somewhere, it looks like a pigsty. I could sweep 3 times a day and that floor would never be clean of chin poos. So I sweep about once a week, or, if someone's coming, that day I sweep as well. So if you email or call and want to come in 10 minutes -- I turn into a chicken-with-head-cut-off and madly start sweeping and cleaning. Because the reality is, having this many animals is too messy to constantly keep it ready-for-the-public. It's not bad, don't get me wrong. There isn't 4 inches of feces on the floor. It's nothing like that. But the few times that I haven't swept and people have come by, people have actually accused me of not caring for the animals. Now, I'm sure, had they actually owned a chin, they would have known that that amount of poo takes almost no time to accumulate. But without knowing, all they saw was those little chocolate tic tacs littering the floor, and thought "how could she?!??!" So I try to tidy the place up for people. But you all give me very little time when you email and want to come right away.
Several friends I have run small animal rescues. There's not that many of us, so I suppose we all band together. Anyway, she has a new rule that appointments must be made two days in advance. For me, I'm not sure that would work, simply because I have a lot of people who come "tomorrow" or "the next day" and it works fine for me. But the thing is, I can't drop everything and keep checking emails or waiting for someone to get back to me... cause some people never do.
This guy that emailed back this morning -- he just as easily could not have emailed back -- so had I been obsessively checking my email, I could have turned up nothing. Going along with that, this entire time I've spent writing this blog, I've had my phone in front of me and I've been refreshing the email, in case he emailed back. He hasn't emailed. Which is fine, no big deal, but it's different when I'm sitting here, versus actually doing something. When I get up from here and let the dogs out again and go back to cleaning and organizing and whatnot, if this person emails then, I won't see it.
And he may think I'm being difficult. But I just can't sit there and obsessively check my email hoping someone emails about the chins. Sometimes several days go by and I get no chin emails. Other times I get 20 in a day. But if I checked every 5 minutes for those days where no one emailed, that'd be wasting a lot of time. And that's why I told him, if I knew more in advance, it'd be different. Had I known, last night, that he wanted to come at 9:15, I'd have been up, ready, and he could have come. But, depending on how I'm feeling, I may sleep in if I'm tired, need some rest, or don't feel well. Obviously, I can't do that if I have a job, but right now I can. And if I need to be up for an appointment, I will be up. No problem. But I need to know someone is coming to be up and ready.
This all said -- it is different if you've been here 30 times for supplies and you've seen the place a bit messy... which I've allowed because you, at one time, saw it clean. But new people always come to a clean rescue. So please, think about what it might involve for me, when you ask if you can come "now," or "soon."
Monday, July 7, 2014
really slow lately
It's been really slow lately. And I suppose, you all should have sort of gathered that, based on the posts about how everyone's canceling, backing out, asking about a cage for sale and then finding one elsewhere. Had another guy call and want to come that day, to look at chins with his kid. My parents were here helping me trim the trees, and I told him, not a good day. He said the next day would be fine, and he'd save my number and call me. Surprise, no call. Had someone ask about a rabbit cage. I have a nice sized one at the moment. They found one elsewhere. I never even mentioned price, just the size. I had a nice lady asking about coming to adopt a guinea pig, wanted to bring her kid. Well, her kid ended up getting sick, and she said she'd call and reschedule. She never did. The next day, I had someone come by and want to adopt all the baby guinea pigs, and I let them. And I'm glad I didn't wait on the first lady, cause this is weeks later and she's never called back. Or I just got an email in response to the rabbit ad I have up right now -- "I'd like to just adopt the black and brown bunny." Funny, because I just opened the ad and it says, "They can only be adopted out as a pair." *sigh*
And that's everyone. And on the other side of the equation, I have had people on my waiting list waiting..... wait for it.... 7 MONTHS to bring their chins in, because I don't have any room.
Not to mention the orders from people who want something, I tell them, it will be at least a few weeks, and they say, oh yeah, that's fine. So it's a few weeks before I get to theirs, I make their order, and they fall off the face of the earth. After I've spent several days just on their order.
And finally, not to mention the rescue account. Prior to this slow time, we had roughly $4-5,000 in the chin account. This was nice, because it covered small and large vet bills, it covered if we needed to stay in a hotel for an expo, etc etc. Well, with no adoptions and super limited supply sales and everyone backing out of their adoption and supply sale, we're now down below $1000 and it's still dropping.
I'm not working right now. I can barely afford my own mortgage and bills, and I just got a notice from my bank that I've made "excessive transfers" from my savings to my other accounts (I dunno, to pay the bills and mortgage? naaaaaaah). If the rescue runs out of money, I do not have the money to support it right now.
I don't know why adoptions are super slow. I usually tell people, they go in waves. And they do. Sometimes we have none, sometimes we have 5 people coming in a week. Lately we've had next to no one coming. Or the people who are coming are coming for $3 worth of hay. I had someone say, discount everything even more. Problem is, the chins are already on sale, the cages are already on sale. If people can't afford $65 for a grey chin, but $50 is affordable, I'd hate to think what would happen come time for them to spend money on vet care. Plus, the lower prices go, the less things pay for. I could sell every cage I have if I lowered them all to $20. But then, that $80, from selling all of them, wouldn't go very far. Versus right now, if I sell one at a reduced price of $105, that will last me longer and I'll have extras to keep selling. Granted, people think they're overpriced at $105, and that's for a cage that would cost $300 new, WITHOUT the wood shelves. I mean, I get wanting a good deal. I do. But this IS a good deal. It's just not something-for-nothing.
Things really need to pick up....
And that's everyone. And on the other side of the equation, I have had people on my waiting list waiting..... wait for it.... 7 MONTHS to bring their chins in, because I don't have any room.
Not to mention the orders from people who want something, I tell them, it will be at least a few weeks, and they say, oh yeah, that's fine. So it's a few weeks before I get to theirs, I make their order, and they fall off the face of the earth. After I've spent several days just on their order.
And finally, not to mention the rescue account. Prior to this slow time, we had roughly $4-5,000 in the chin account. This was nice, because it covered small and large vet bills, it covered if we needed to stay in a hotel for an expo, etc etc. Well, with no adoptions and super limited supply sales and everyone backing out of their adoption and supply sale, we're now down below $1000 and it's still dropping.
I'm not working right now. I can barely afford my own mortgage and bills, and I just got a notice from my bank that I've made "excessive transfers" from my savings to my other accounts (I dunno, to pay the bills and mortgage? naaaaaaah). If the rescue runs out of money, I do not have the money to support it right now.
I don't know why adoptions are super slow. I usually tell people, they go in waves. And they do. Sometimes we have none, sometimes we have 5 people coming in a week. Lately we've had next to no one coming. Or the people who are coming are coming for $3 worth of hay. I had someone say, discount everything even more. Problem is, the chins are already on sale, the cages are already on sale. If people can't afford $65 for a grey chin, but $50 is affordable, I'd hate to think what would happen come time for them to spend money on vet care. Plus, the lower prices go, the less things pay for. I could sell every cage I have if I lowered them all to $20. But then, that $80, from selling all of them, wouldn't go very far. Versus right now, if I sell one at a reduced price of $105, that will last me longer and I'll have extras to keep selling. Granted, people think they're overpriced at $105, and that's for a cage that would cost $300 new, WITHOUT the wood shelves. I mean, I get wanting a good deal. I do. But this IS a good deal. It's just not something-for-nothing.
Things really need to pick up....
Thursday, July 3, 2014
...and yet again
Remember the last few posts? About people canceling, not showing up, adopting from somewhere else after taking my time and effort trying to adopt a chin here? Oh yeah, wanted to share some more with you.
Yesterday, I had someone call. They got two chins from somewhere and wanted to update their cage, so they wanted hammocks, shelves, etc. They wanted to come today. So, I had a lot of hammocks that needed the hardware put in them, I made sure to put that in so they'd be ready for when this person came today. And, because I still haven't been able to get my shelf hardware ordered, I went through the wood I have and shelves I have that other people have backed out of orders on, and organized it, so it'd be ready for this person. Because they said they'd come with their cage dimensions. Yup, you got it. They never showed. Never called, either, to let me know they weren't coming.
And also again, I had someone interested in one of the chins. The person I spoke of yesterday who was going to have to put down a deposit to hold the chin long enough for them to come pick up. Oh, yeah, they had a chin dropped off at the guy's work so he adopted that one.
Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't raised to change my mind the way these people do. If I told a rescue, I'm going to adopt that chin, it wouldn't matter if it rained chins, and I could go outside and pick them out like flowers, I would adopt the chin from the rescue. Why? BECAUSE I SAID I WOULD. And to me, that means something. Clearly not to anyone else though.
I do give the guy props that he did, at least, let me know that he no longer is interested in the chin. A lot of people don't even bother to do that.
Things better pick up soon. That's all I'm going to say.
Yesterday, I had someone call. They got two chins from somewhere and wanted to update their cage, so they wanted hammocks, shelves, etc. They wanted to come today. So, I had a lot of hammocks that needed the hardware put in them, I made sure to put that in so they'd be ready for when this person came today. And, because I still haven't been able to get my shelf hardware ordered, I went through the wood I have and shelves I have that other people have backed out of orders on, and organized it, so it'd be ready for this person. Because they said they'd come with their cage dimensions. Yup, you got it. They never showed. Never called, either, to let me know they weren't coming.
And also again, I had someone interested in one of the chins. The person I spoke of yesterday who was going to have to put down a deposit to hold the chin long enough for them to come pick up. Oh, yeah, they had a chin dropped off at the guy's work so he adopted that one.
Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't raised to change my mind the way these people do. If I told a rescue, I'm going to adopt that chin, it wouldn't matter if it rained chins, and I could go outside and pick them out like flowers, I would adopt the chin from the rescue. Why? BECAUSE I SAID I WOULD. And to me, that means something. Clearly not to anyone else though.
I do give the guy props that he did, at least, let me know that he no longer is interested in the chin. A lot of people don't even bother to do that.
Things better pick up soon. That's all I'm going to say.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Landlords and other things
Would it be that much to ask, for you all to check with your landlords before contacting me? I had someone today and yesterday both, who sounded like really good adopters, talked with me and sounded good, I get them the care packet and adoption form, and then they say, oh, well, they can't work out an agreement with their landlord. Wouldn't it make sense to iron this out ahead of time? Because I started thinking, yay, adoptions! And these people weren't smart enough to check if they could have the pet before trying to go about and get the pet.
Which, I might add, is how the rescue gets some number of the animals here. People don't check if a family member is allergic. They don't look at the rental contract which says "no pets" until they have one, and the landlord says, it has to go today. Or, possibly even worse, they know it says "no pets" and they get one anyway, and then have to scramble to get rid of it when the landlord threatens to evict them.
Before I got my dog, I checked with my landlord. I was at the pet store, saw the dog, knew people in the complex had dogs, but I went back to the apartment complex and asked about what I would have to do to get a dog. I had to sign an addendum to the lease. I had to pay an additional fee per month. There were breed restrictions. Size restrictions. None of which I would have known, had I just done what a lot of people do, and thought, "oh, well I see Suzi over there with a dog, that must mean I can get a dog, any dog I want, any size, any breed, any aggressiveness level, and I won't have to do anything extra, because I can clearly tell she doesn't." Um, no.
I had one place I looked at living that charged $20 per month for every pet. That included caged pets, so if I had two chins, that would have been $40 a month. Nice place to live, but not for me. I would not have chins if I had to pay that much per chin per month to live there. But I guarantee you, half those people probably have no idea about that pet policy and bring home a pet and THEN find out, and lookie dat, then that pet is up for sale.
Moving along. Today, I had my first opportunity to tell someone about the new 7 day hold without deposit. They were going to pick up early next week, which would have been day 7. Well, turns out that didn't work for them, now they want to wait two weeks. So, I emailed them back and told them, that's fine, but if you want the chin on hold for you, to be sure it'll be here when you get here, I need a deposit. We shall see how this goes....
One more thing. I have had an exceptional number of people lately email me about adopting a baby. Note, there is a difference between adopting and buying. Adopting means getting a rescue chin, one which was either dropped off as a baby or born here from a rescue chin. Buying would be like someone getting one of my pedigreed babies that I sell. So, these people want to adopt a baby, meaning, they want a rescue that's typically under 6 months old. I went through my list of several hundred animals that have come through the rescue. Over 11 years, I have had all of 13 animals come in that have either been under or around 6 months of age at the time they came in, or been born here to a pregnant rescue chinchilla. That's it. This isn't like a humane society where people drop off their pregnant dogs, we rarely get pregnant chinchillas, and even more rarely does someone drop off a baby. The typical thought behind that is simple -- no one gets sick of a baby. As a baby, it's cute, it's fluffy, people like it. It grows up and people get tired of it. Which is why we get mostly 2-3 year (at the minimum) age chinchillas. I understand wanting to get a young one. Less baggage, less potential issues. That sometimes is true. Not always. I've seen some babies that are nasty. I'd rather have adults myself. But I can understand people wanting babies. The problem is, these people are looking in the wrong place. You may be able to get a puppy at a humane society, because dogs are horribly overpopulated, but a baby chinchilla, you probably have to go to a breeder. And let me be even more specific than that, you may even have somewhat of an issue if you go to too small of a breeder, because a lot of us show. I show my chins, which means the babies stay here until they're about 8 months, and they go to show, and are shown. Depending on how they do, they may or may not be for sale. IF I have any for sale as babies, it's likely standard greys. If that. If you go to a big breeder, they can't show everything and they can tell from early on, what won't do well at show. But I have so few, I'll show most of them. So, I don't often even have a baby for you all. But occasionally I do. On the other hand, the rescue pretty much never does. Please understand this, as I can't magically produce rescue babies because someone wants to get a rescue chin but MUST have a baby. That's just not how the world works....
Which, I might add, is how the rescue gets some number of the animals here. People don't check if a family member is allergic. They don't look at the rental contract which says "no pets" until they have one, and the landlord says, it has to go today. Or, possibly even worse, they know it says "no pets" and they get one anyway, and then have to scramble to get rid of it when the landlord threatens to evict them.
Before I got my dog, I checked with my landlord. I was at the pet store, saw the dog, knew people in the complex had dogs, but I went back to the apartment complex and asked about what I would have to do to get a dog. I had to sign an addendum to the lease. I had to pay an additional fee per month. There were breed restrictions. Size restrictions. None of which I would have known, had I just done what a lot of people do, and thought, "oh, well I see Suzi over there with a dog, that must mean I can get a dog, any dog I want, any size, any breed, any aggressiveness level, and I won't have to do anything extra, because I can clearly tell she doesn't." Um, no.
I had one place I looked at living that charged $20 per month for every pet. That included caged pets, so if I had two chins, that would have been $40 a month. Nice place to live, but not for me. I would not have chins if I had to pay that much per chin per month to live there. But I guarantee you, half those people probably have no idea about that pet policy and bring home a pet and THEN find out, and lookie dat, then that pet is up for sale.
Moving along. Today, I had my first opportunity to tell someone about the new 7 day hold without deposit. They were going to pick up early next week, which would have been day 7. Well, turns out that didn't work for them, now they want to wait two weeks. So, I emailed them back and told them, that's fine, but if you want the chin on hold for you, to be sure it'll be here when you get here, I need a deposit. We shall see how this goes....
One more thing. I have had an exceptional number of people lately email me about adopting a baby. Note, there is a difference between adopting and buying. Adopting means getting a rescue chin, one which was either dropped off as a baby or born here from a rescue chin. Buying would be like someone getting one of my pedigreed babies that I sell. So, these people want to adopt a baby, meaning, they want a rescue that's typically under 6 months old. I went through my list of several hundred animals that have come through the rescue. Over 11 years, I have had all of 13 animals come in that have either been under or around 6 months of age at the time they came in, or been born here to a pregnant rescue chinchilla. That's it. This isn't like a humane society where people drop off their pregnant dogs, we rarely get pregnant chinchillas, and even more rarely does someone drop off a baby. The typical thought behind that is simple -- no one gets sick of a baby. As a baby, it's cute, it's fluffy, people like it. It grows up and people get tired of it. Which is why we get mostly 2-3 year (at the minimum) age chinchillas. I understand wanting to get a young one. Less baggage, less potential issues. That sometimes is true. Not always. I've seen some babies that are nasty. I'd rather have adults myself. But I can understand people wanting babies. The problem is, these people are looking in the wrong place. You may be able to get a puppy at a humane society, because dogs are horribly overpopulated, but a baby chinchilla, you probably have to go to a breeder. And let me be even more specific than that, you may even have somewhat of an issue if you go to too small of a breeder, because a lot of us show. I show my chins, which means the babies stay here until they're about 8 months, and they go to show, and are shown. Depending on how they do, they may or may not be for sale. IF I have any for sale as babies, it's likely standard greys. If that. If you go to a big breeder, they can't show everything and they can tell from early on, what won't do well at show. But I have so few, I'll show most of them. So, I don't often even have a baby for you all. But occasionally I do. On the other hand, the rescue pretty much never does. Please understand this, as I can't magically produce rescue babies because someone wants to get a rescue chin but MUST have a baby. That's just not how the world works....
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
...and again
I hate to only post when I have something bitchy to say, but people are being exceptionally flaky lately.
I had one person who had their chin on hold and was going to pick it up. Ended up canceling because their kid was acting out, and they didn't want to reward the kid by letting them act out and then bringing them home a new pet. I get it, fine. So I told them, they only had a few days left to pick up their chin (out of the 14 days for the hold -- which I will get more into later). So they say ok, they'll let me know. Few days later, they send me an email, says if the game is rained out, they'll head up here. Cause they were like 2+ hours away. Well, the game wasn't rained out, and I didn't hear from them for a few more days, and it passed the 14 day mark. So I emailed them and told them, hey, the chins aren't on hold any longer, I need a deposit to hold them for you. Their response. Oh, we found chins closer to us. Thanks for the info!!
Now, that just makes my blood boil. First, they knew how far I was away. It wasn't like they realized, at the last minute, how far I was away from them. They knew that from the beginning. Second, they had waited til the very last minute to come pick up, which meant that those chins sat here for 14ish days, on hold, so anyone else who wanted them could not get them. I don't know who else may have wanted them, but who did not email because they saw they were on hold.
Had someone else email several times. Originally they wanted this one pair of chins, and they asked about how much it cost to care for chins. I literally broke it down into how much it costs for food, hay, etc etc, and sent them a book email back. Didn't hear from them for maybe a week or two, then they emailed back saying they decided maybe they wanted this other pair (which was already on hold for someone). I told them that, and they said, ok, they wanted to get this older pair instead. They said they kept coming back to that one and felt it'd be a good match. So they asked for the adoption form and care packet and I got those to them and they said that they would fax me the completed versions. Well, about a week passed and nothing, and I emailed asking if they're still planning on adopting. Nothing. Couldn't even be bothered to send an email.
Same with an order I had. People had emailed asking for an order for wood shelves, and I told them, it would at least be a few weeks, because I had (and still have) orders in front of them. Well, I skipped ahead to their order, because shelves are a lot less labor intensive than, say, a chinny-mobile, and I got theirs cut, sanded, bolted, etc etc. Emailed them because I realized I didn't have a zip code so I couldn't calculate shipping. Never received an email back. Like, could they at least email and say, hey, we decided we don't want shelves, or something? Guess not.
Had another, she wanted to know how much it would cost for two circular perches and two corner shelves with shipping. Well, the corner shelves are $6.50 each and the circular perches are $4.50 each. So $22 of the order was the shelves, and it cost $7.50 to ship all of those to her. Now, let's put this into perspective. For the average person, it costs between $7-8 to ship ONE corner shelf. Well, I guess $7.50 shipping was too much, because they couldn't be bothered to email me back either.
And notice a trend in all of this -- would it be THAT difficult to just email and say, hey, I changed my mind? When I was debating getting a puppy or not, I ended up getting a puppy. And granted, that decision came down to the night before we left to make the drive. But had I decided I didn't want to get a puppy, I would have emailed the breeder and said, hey, you know, I changed my mind, I'm sorry if this causes inconvenience. Like, at the end of the day, she doesn't know who she is, but even if she does, I changed my mind. It's ok to do that. Granted, I wish these people would do that before I make the effort to put together their order and whatnot, but at least if I would get a reply... because see, now, I have a box sitting on the side with those four shelves in it. I also have a stack of shelves for a large cage sitting on the side. I really have nowhere good to put those. I should put the smaller shelves away (the ones in the box), but then, my luck would be that the person will email 3 weeks from now and want those shelves. But if these people would just email and say, never mind, that's too much, or they just don't want it, or whatever, I would be able to put away the box and not wonder.
And people, don't wait til the last minute. I've had someone emailing about one of the chins. We've had a few miscommunications, but they've had the adoption form since early on. I had someone else email about the same chin, and that person emailed with adoption form attached. So, I tell the first person, ok, you have 5 days to get me the adoption form. Today is day 5 (well, end of tonight will be end of their chance). So they tell me they will fax over the form when they get home. I get a fax last night -- two blank pages, short of their name and the fax information that the fax machine automatically puts on the pages. Now, I know my fax line works, because I have other faxes that come through just fine. I emailed them back, told them I didn't get the fax. I looked up their number through my facebook messages and called them and told them I need it re-sent correctly. I even messaged them through facebook. Now, they have til tonight to get a completed adoption form to me. They know this. If they can't get the fax to work, and they can't scan it (maybe they can), it's too late to mail it, they're too far to drive it over.... they're out of luck. And maybe that sounds mean, but they had 5 days to mess with it, and they waited until the night before the last day. This is why they always say, don't wait until the last minute.
After all this, I have an order for someone for a custom hidey house and a birthday cake... that I am waiting on drying... I sure hope they want it. I mean, not like this stuff can't be sold just as a custom one-of-a-kind piece anyway, but it kills me when people want something custom and then they back out. So hopefully that won't happen here.
And I had an order get lost in the mail.
Now, all this said, our sales / hold policy is changing. Too many people are backing out at the end of of 14 days and wasting too much time for these animals that are trying to find homes. So, our new policy is that you can hold a chin for 7 days without a deposit. Anything over 7 days requires a non-refundable deposit. Once the deposit is received, you have 30 days to pick up your chin. If you do not pick up your chin in 30 days, you don't get your deposit back, and you don't get to adopt. We have wasted enough time already.
One last thing. Does no one know of someone who would like to welcome some senior rats into their life? We have two pairs of senior female rats. Very sweet girls. Just... they're seniors. The one pair is nearing 2 years old, the other pair is 1.5 and 2.5 years old. The first pair was a trio when they came in, but.... you get the picture. I'd rather these rats not die here at the rescue. I do my best to handle all the critters and care for them well, but it's not the same as these guys being in someone's house where they can be handled and loved on as either the only pets, or a pair out of a few (instead of large numbers, like here). I want these girls to live out their retirement days as part of a family. If you know of anyone who may want to adopt these sweeties, please send them this way.
I had one person who had their chin on hold and was going to pick it up. Ended up canceling because their kid was acting out, and they didn't want to reward the kid by letting them act out and then bringing them home a new pet. I get it, fine. So I told them, they only had a few days left to pick up their chin (out of the 14 days for the hold -- which I will get more into later). So they say ok, they'll let me know. Few days later, they send me an email, says if the game is rained out, they'll head up here. Cause they were like 2+ hours away. Well, the game wasn't rained out, and I didn't hear from them for a few more days, and it passed the 14 day mark. So I emailed them and told them, hey, the chins aren't on hold any longer, I need a deposit to hold them for you. Their response. Oh, we found chins closer to us. Thanks for the info!!
Now, that just makes my blood boil. First, they knew how far I was away. It wasn't like they realized, at the last minute, how far I was away from them. They knew that from the beginning. Second, they had waited til the very last minute to come pick up, which meant that those chins sat here for 14ish days, on hold, so anyone else who wanted them could not get them. I don't know who else may have wanted them, but who did not email because they saw they were on hold.
Had someone else email several times. Originally they wanted this one pair of chins, and they asked about how much it cost to care for chins. I literally broke it down into how much it costs for food, hay, etc etc, and sent them a book email back. Didn't hear from them for maybe a week or two, then they emailed back saying they decided maybe they wanted this other pair (which was already on hold for someone). I told them that, and they said, ok, they wanted to get this older pair instead. They said they kept coming back to that one and felt it'd be a good match. So they asked for the adoption form and care packet and I got those to them and they said that they would fax me the completed versions. Well, about a week passed and nothing, and I emailed asking if they're still planning on adopting. Nothing. Couldn't even be bothered to send an email.
Same with an order I had. People had emailed asking for an order for wood shelves, and I told them, it would at least be a few weeks, because I had (and still have) orders in front of them. Well, I skipped ahead to their order, because shelves are a lot less labor intensive than, say, a chinny-mobile, and I got theirs cut, sanded, bolted, etc etc. Emailed them because I realized I didn't have a zip code so I couldn't calculate shipping. Never received an email back. Like, could they at least email and say, hey, we decided we don't want shelves, or something? Guess not.
Had another, she wanted to know how much it would cost for two circular perches and two corner shelves with shipping. Well, the corner shelves are $6.50 each and the circular perches are $4.50 each. So $22 of the order was the shelves, and it cost $7.50 to ship all of those to her. Now, let's put this into perspective. For the average person, it costs between $7-8 to ship ONE corner shelf. Well, I guess $7.50 shipping was too much, because they couldn't be bothered to email me back either.
And notice a trend in all of this -- would it be THAT difficult to just email and say, hey, I changed my mind? When I was debating getting a puppy or not, I ended up getting a puppy. And granted, that decision came down to the night before we left to make the drive. But had I decided I didn't want to get a puppy, I would have emailed the breeder and said, hey, you know, I changed my mind, I'm sorry if this causes inconvenience. Like, at the end of the day, she doesn't know who she is, but even if she does, I changed my mind. It's ok to do that. Granted, I wish these people would do that before I make the effort to put together their order and whatnot, but at least if I would get a reply... because see, now, I have a box sitting on the side with those four shelves in it. I also have a stack of shelves for a large cage sitting on the side. I really have nowhere good to put those. I should put the smaller shelves away (the ones in the box), but then, my luck would be that the person will email 3 weeks from now and want those shelves. But if these people would just email and say, never mind, that's too much, or they just don't want it, or whatever, I would be able to put away the box and not wonder.
And people, don't wait til the last minute. I've had someone emailing about one of the chins. We've had a few miscommunications, but they've had the adoption form since early on. I had someone else email about the same chin, and that person emailed with adoption form attached. So, I tell the first person, ok, you have 5 days to get me the adoption form. Today is day 5 (well, end of tonight will be end of their chance). So they tell me they will fax over the form when they get home. I get a fax last night -- two blank pages, short of their name and the fax information that the fax machine automatically puts on the pages. Now, I know my fax line works, because I have other faxes that come through just fine. I emailed them back, told them I didn't get the fax. I looked up their number through my facebook messages and called them and told them I need it re-sent correctly. I even messaged them through facebook. Now, they have til tonight to get a completed adoption form to me. They know this. If they can't get the fax to work, and they can't scan it (maybe they can), it's too late to mail it, they're too far to drive it over.... they're out of luck. And maybe that sounds mean, but they had 5 days to mess with it, and they waited until the night before the last day. This is why they always say, don't wait until the last minute.
After all this, I have an order for someone for a custom hidey house and a birthday cake... that I am waiting on drying... I sure hope they want it. I mean, not like this stuff can't be sold just as a custom one-of-a-kind piece anyway, but it kills me when people want something custom and then they back out. So hopefully that won't happen here.
And I had an order get lost in the mail.
Now, all this said, our sales / hold policy is changing. Too many people are backing out at the end of of 14 days and wasting too much time for these animals that are trying to find homes. So, our new policy is that you can hold a chin for 7 days without a deposit. Anything over 7 days requires a non-refundable deposit. Once the deposit is received, you have 30 days to pick up your chin. If you do not pick up your chin in 30 days, you don't get your deposit back, and you don't get to adopt. We have wasted enough time already.
One last thing. Does no one know of someone who would like to welcome some senior rats into their life? We have two pairs of senior female rats. Very sweet girls. Just... they're seniors. The one pair is nearing 2 years old, the other pair is 1.5 and 2.5 years old. The first pair was a trio when they came in, but.... you get the picture. I'd rather these rats not die here at the rescue. I do my best to handle all the critters and care for them well, but it's not the same as these guys being in someone's house where they can be handled and loved on as either the only pets, or a pair out of a few (instead of large numbers, like here). I want these girls to live out their retirement days as part of a family. If you know of anyone who may want to adopt these sweeties, please send them this way.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
We. Don't. Meet.
I feel like plastering a huge banner on all of our ads that says, we do not ship, we do not deliver, we do not meet.
Who knows why we don't meet? Raise your hands. Ok, for those of you without hands raised, let me copy and paste the response to someone who, though he has a legitimate reason for not wanting to meet, does not change the fact that we don't meet.
While
I do appreciate your willingness to pay more, unfortunately, my car
gets 15 miles to the gallon, and it would cost more in gas to get to a
midway point than the rescue would make on the chin. Maybe gas is less
by you, but here, it's about $4/gallon right now -- for the cost of me
driving one hour there and one hour back (say, 60 miles each way), the
rescue could feed a chin for over 1 year. With numbers like that, for
the longevity of the rescue, it makes more sense to sit here and feed
the chins and wait for people to come here. They mostly get adopted out
in 3-4 months, so it's almost never a question of feeding a chin for a
year versus going somewhere to drop them off.
Maybe that's mean. I know, over the years, the rescue has really ticked some people off with the whole "do not meet" thing. But is it that hard to understand? You drop the chinchilla, and now all the time it's spent at the rescue, any vet bills we've incurred, any costs as far as feeding it, watering it, cleaning the cage, all that, is for nothing. We will never see it again. Not to mention, my time. Having the rescue is like having a full time job in itself. I spend almost all of my free time doing rescue-related things. There's days when it really gets old and I want to say, let someone else do this shit, I'm tired of it. But I still do it. But the second I get 5 minutes of free time, people want me to meet them. At some point, enough's enough. The rescue's great, and I love when an animal finds a great home. Don't get me wrong, that's awesome. But I've been doing this for 11 years now, and the rescue has ended a LOT of friendships, a LOT of relationships, heck, the last time I had a boyfriend was BEFORE I had the rescue. Smart guys. The rescue has kept me from having a LOT of time and fun with my friends cause I can never leave the house for more than a day or so cause NO ONE will watch 50+ animals. Ha! I can get one person to watch on dog, and that's about it. I'm almost 30 and due to the rescue, I've got like 3 friends and a million people who know my name but wouldn't recognize me if I didn't see them at a chin show or a pet expo. One from high school and everyone else I know is animal related, which means we NEVER talk about anything else, which also gets old. I have a house that I'm not crazy about, but it had the perfect basement for the rescue, so I got it. I liked others better, but the basement was too small. In retrospect, I should have gotten them and downsized the rescue, but noooo I cared too much about the animals, but I'm frankly getting sick of them. I have an ankle that's killing me because I fell down the steps to the basement, which I'd almost never go down, if I didn't have the rescue. Doctors tell me I likely tore a ligament or something, but since I don't have the money for an x-ray, much less an MRI, they can't say for sure. But, it doesn't matter, because it could take years to feel normal again if I don't stay off my feet, but wait!! I have cages to clean. Animals to feed. Orders to fill. Oh hell, that ankle will never get better. And you people want me to meet? After all this other shit I do for the rescue and give it all my freaking free time..... if I can spend upwards of 40 hours per week on rescue stuff and I'm STILL on February orders.... you all can drive 2 hours to get here if you want to adopt.
I am completely sick and tired of giving it my all and people don't want to make the slightest effort on their part.
Now, there are some people who drive. There are people who don't throw a fit. But lately every other email I get wants me to meet someone somewhere, on their schedule, at a time that's convenient for them. Usually at something like 6 am, at a location 10 hours from here (so, I guess I'd have to leave the night before and either not sleep, or spend more rescue money on a hotel... um... no). I understand this is the world of delivery, where you want a tv? You can buy it online and best buy can drop it off at your front door. But these are live animals. The tv doesn't run away if you drop it. If you drop the box and the tv breaks, you can get a new one. If you drop the chinchilla, it probably dies a horrible death out there, run over by a car, or eaten by some animal, or something, and you sure wouldn't be getting a new one from here.
I'm going to bed. Hopefully will wake up less frustrated.
Who knows why we don't meet? Raise your hands. Ok, for those of you without hands raised, let me copy and paste the response to someone who, though he has a legitimate reason for not wanting to meet, does not change the fact that we don't meet.
While
I can definitely understand why you would not want to drive a long
distance, we don't meet. Chinchillas are very fast. Unlike dogs, which
could be put on a leash to keep them contained in a smaller area, there
is no good way to secure a chinchilla other than a carrier -- and I've
even seen some chew their way out of those. No one wants to "meet" a
chinchilla in a carrier with the door closed. They can't touch it, they
can't see how it reacts when they hold it, and so on. We have
chinchillas routinely dropped at the rescue, and in a small room, it
typically takes at least 10-15 minutes to catch them. Meeting somewhere
else, out in the open, if the chinchilla was dropped, we would never
catch it, and would make all of our driving time for nothing (not to
mention, the people that entrusted the rescue to find a good home for
their chinchilla would be less than pleased). It's not even a matter of
having a good grip or having years of experience -- I've been doing
this for 11 years and occasionally one will still wriggle out of my
grasp. It's just not practical for this type of animal, they're too
fast and too easy to never see again.
Maybe that's mean. I know, over the years, the rescue has really ticked some people off with the whole "do not meet" thing. But is it that hard to understand? You drop the chinchilla, and now all the time it's spent at the rescue, any vet bills we've incurred, any costs as far as feeding it, watering it, cleaning the cage, all that, is for nothing. We will never see it again. Not to mention, my time. Having the rescue is like having a full time job in itself. I spend almost all of my free time doing rescue-related things. There's days when it really gets old and I want to say, let someone else do this shit, I'm tired of it. But I still do it. But the second I get 5 minutes of free time, people want me to meet them. At some point, enough's enough. The rescue's great, and I love when an animal finds a great home. Don't get me wrong, that's awesome. But I've been doing this for 11 years now, and the rescue has ended a LOT of friendships, a LOT of relationships, heck, the last time I had a boyfriend was BEFORE I had the rescue. Smart guys. The rescue has kept me from having a LOT of time and fun with my friends cause I can never leave the house for more than a day or so cause NO ONE will watch 50+ animals. Ha! I can get one person to watch on dog, and that's about it. I'm almost 30 and due to the rescue, I've got like 3 friends and a million people who know my name but wouldn't recognize me if I didn't see them at a chin show or a pet expo. One from high school and everyone else I know is animal related, which means we NEVER talk about anything else, which also gets old. I have a house that I'm not crazy about, but it had the perfect basement for the rescue, so I got it. I liked others better, but the basement was too small. In retrospect, I should have gotten them and downsized the rescue, but noooo I cared too much about the animals, but I'm frankly getting sick of them. I have an ankle that's killing me because I fell down the steps to the basement, which I'd almost never go down, if I didn't have the rescue. Doctors tell me I likely tore a ligament or something, but since I don't have the money for an x-ray, much less an MRI, they can't say for sure. But, it doesn't matter, because it could take years to feel normal again if I don't stay off my feet, but wait!! I have cages to clean. Animals to feed. Orders to fill. Oh hell, that ankle will never get better. And you people want me to meet? After all this other shit I do for the rescue and give it all my freaking free time..... if I can spend upwards of 40 hours per week on rescue stuff and I'm STILL on February orders.... you all can drive 2 hours to get here if you want to adopt.
I am completely sick and tired of giving it my all and people don't want to make the slightest effort on their part.
Now, there are some people who drive. There are people who don't throw a fit. But lately every other email I get wants me to meet someone somewhere, on their schedule, at a time that's convenient for them. Usually at something like 6 am, at a location 10 hours from here (so, I guess I'd have to leave the night before and either not sleep, or spend more rescue money on a hotel... um... no). I understand this is the world of delivery, where you want a tv? You can buy it online and best buy can drop it off at your front door. But these are live animals. The tv doesn't run away if you drop it. If you drop the box and the tv breaks, you can get a new one. If you drop the chinchilla, it probably dies a horrible death out there, run over by a car, or eaten by some animal, or something, and you sure wouldn't be getting a new one from here.
I'm going to bed. Hopefully will wake up less frustrated.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
More and less chins.
So, I went down this morning to the rescue, and Evil 2 (also known as "homo beige female" when I had to write her name anywhere on paperwork had passed away. I'd noticed the day before yesterday, she seemed a little off, and then yesterday she spent a long portion of the day laying down. Which, itself, is not a sign of anything, but she seemed off. I called into the vet, and neither vet that saw small animals was there, so they said come in tomorrow.
Well, I get up today and she was gone. And Benji (the male she was with) was sleeping on top of her. I went down later in the day, and he was in her cage looking for her. :(
And then I got an email from T, my rat person, saying that Catnap had chins and wanted an experienced chin person to take them, so she gave me their email. I emailed, and they called back saying they had someone who could potentially bring them all the way here (I normally try to arrange meeting points when animals are coming from another rescue, as the rescues that we typically get critters from are several hours away. I was cutting the grass, so by the time I got back inside and listened to the message, Catnap was closed, but I let it ring and ring and ring so that I could leave a message, and mid-message someone picked up.
So, the chins were dropped off here. Two females and a male. Likely mom and babies, as there was apparently an adult male chin as well, which died. The two babies were thought to be females, but nope, one's a male. So they're now all separated and housed here.
And I just wanted to share with you the perfect example of what an un-educated owner uses as a chin cage. Before anyone goes off, saying how I use the runs for the breeder chins, keep in mind that is one chin per run. They had four chins in this cage:
^ it is next to my carrier for size reference. For FOUR chins. And notice that ramp. Chinchillas can jump to that shelf, no problem, but the angle that ramp is, those chins are never walking up the ramp. Notice anything else? No? That's cause there isn't anything else. I take it back, there is a food bowl that sort of blends in with the carefresh, but there's not a single chew toy in sight. One little shelf. Nothing to stimulate them..... well, it'll be better here....
Well, I get up today and she was gone. And Benji (the male she was with) was sleeping on top of her. I went down later in the day, and he was in her cage looking for her. :(
And then I got an email from T, my rat person, saying that Catnap had chins and wanted an experienced chin person to take them, so she gave me their email. I emailed, and they called back saying they had someone who could potentially bring them all the way here (I normally try to arrange meeting points when animals are coming from another rescue, as the rescues that we typically get critters from are several hours away. I was cutting the grass, so by the time I got back inside and listened to the message, Catnap was closed, but I let it ring and ring and ring so that I could leave a message, and mid-message someone picked up.
So, the chins were dropped off here. Two females and a male. Likely mom and babies, as there was apparently an adult male chin as well, which died. The two babies were thought to be females, but nope, one's a male. So they're now all separated and housed here.
And I just wanted to share with you the perfect example of what an un-educated owner uses as a chin cage. Before anyone goes off, saying how I use the runs for the breeder chins, keep in mind that is one chin per run. They had four chins in this cage:
^ it is next to my carrier for size reference. For FOUR chins. And notice that ramp. Chinchillas can jump to that shelf, no problem, but the angle that ramp is, those chins are never walking up the ramp. Notice anything else? No? That's cause there isn't anything else. I take it back, there is a food bowl that sort of blends in with the carefresh, but there's not a single chew toy in sight. One little shelf. Nothing to stimulate them..... well, it'll be better here....
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Good day and bad day.
I ideally would like the first, and not the second, ^^, but then, that wouldn't be the way life works.
So, today was going well. Accomplished some major non-chin things in the morning, and then came home and went through quite a few emails related to adoptions. So hopefully some of those pan out. Fingers crossed.
Purchased (the other day) a one of those storage shelving unit things for cages, because I have quite a few small cages for the rescue, and always seem to need the bottom one. Set it up today and started cleaning cages before I set them on it. The one cage that must go on top due to size and won't-break-down is like this_close to the duct-work above the shelving unit. PERFECT fit.
Clipped the rabbits nails.
The guinea pigs are separated into cages, male and female, and the cage with the males is a lot smaller (because usually there's only one in it -- my male, Truffles... but now he's got babies accompanying him). All my other cages I can clean about once a week and be ok with that, but this cage needs cleaning like every 2-3 days, so I cleaned that and gave them fresh dry bedding.
Watered everyone. Discovered free water awhile back, and by free water, I mean, I have a dehumidifier running in the summer. While that water itself does not go through any filters, it is water pulled from the air, so it is relatively clean. Well, I have a katadyn filter system where you pour the water in the top and as it filters, the water goes into a bottom chamber with a spigot so you can get it out. So, when the dehumidifier is full, I pour that water into the filter. Free water. And considering, like today for example. I filled up water bottles 2 days ago. So, with only two days of use, to fill all those bottles to the top again (mind you, most were only down a little, cause it was only two days), it took almost 3 gallons. So, I can use free water if I can get it.
Organized some stuff in the basement. Had a big box of cardboard bagels that didn't fit anywhere else, so they went in a bag and went on a high shelf in the storage closet.
I bought (a while back) a four-foot table that fits perfectly between the wash-tub and the pump that pumps the water out, and bought (also awhile back) three dish-drying racks and those little drying towel things to set them on. That way, there's no more washing chin stuff upstairs and coating the kitchen sink in grime, and, with the three drainers, I can wash a lot of stuff at once. Which usually isn't an issue, but my parents weren't too fond of me washing chin stuff in their kitchen sink (they didn't have a basement sink), so it's sort of piled up. So right now, I'm working on getting the number of random things that need to be washed down to a way smaller amount. So I washed and filled the three racks.
Spent a while scrubbing down this one cage I have for the rare occasion I have mice, gerbils, or very baby rats. Still needs a good scrub, but I got enough in for one day.
I suppose all of this doesn't sound like a lot, but a lot of what I did can be summed up simply by saying: organized the basement and cleaned. Which is really what it needs right now, as the rescue is coming together, but it's still not where it needs to be.
So, the bad day part.
I was just about ready to go upstairs, and was organizing stuff on that little cart that you all see me roll around. I was standing in front of the runs and heard what could only be a baby's cry. And my first thought was YAY! But remember, this is bad news.
So, the baby was dry, and just laying there, which isn't a good sign for a baby. Picked him up, and his head was ripped open. A good quarter-sized chunk of scalp was missing right where his forehead and higher should have been. You could actually see the whitish yellow of his skull. The skin that was there on his face was ripped badly to the side. His eye-hole (in the skin) was nowhere near where his eye actually was. His ear wasn't actually attached to his body, but it was still attached to the skin on that side (the skin that was hanging off). His lower jaw was ripped in two. And he was still alive and those little paws were gripping my finger as I held him. I went and got a good size dose of pain meds, and slowly got it into him. I held him and petted him and told him he was a good chin, and he passed.
He was a big kit. 75 grams. Had he lived, at that size, I would have hung onto him to see how big he would have gotten for show.
In case you want to see -- I don't personally think it's that graphic, but then, over the years, I've seen everything, it's harder to make me panic and go "eww" over injuries than it was in the beginning, so I have provided links instead of posting the pictures...
--Head: http://www.nwichinchillas.com/ryerson_pw_baby_6-12-14_1.jpg
--Size of baby (body shot): http://www.nwichinchillas.com/ryerson_pw_baby_6-12-14_2.jpg
I get so tired of getting emails from people who want the cheapest chins they can find to breed. Everyone thinks it's all cute babies and rainbows, but in reality, this sort of thing happens. I want to say that this is the third kit to die this year, and I don't even think we're up to 10 total. The first was born stillborn, the second had an eye problem and died a few days after birth, and then this. This is not cute, this is not pretty, but this is the reality of what happens when you decide to breed. Not all the time, of course, but I just wish people who want to breed would stumble upon these sort of stories and these sort of things before they think of how many cute babies they'll have when they breed. And, while I didn't pick up the mom chin, I believe this was the only baby. I'll check her again in the morning just to see, because sometimes labor can go on for hours and hours, but in reality, she spent four months with this baby inside her, for nothing. Now, don't get me wrong, to me, I love her, whether she produces babies or not, but for someone who just sees the babies and dollar signs, to them, that's four months of gestation wasted.
Hopefully tomorrow's better.
Update: today just got worse. Got an email from someone asking about getting a baby male grey chin, and off the top of my head, couldn't remember exactly what I had here, so I went down to look at the babies. Open the cage of Lexi, a female who had her babies, oh, maybe 2-3 days ago, and there's only one baby. Wait... what? And... the run cover is off (the run cover keeps the male in the run and the mom and babies in their cage). So, basically, either Lexi or Ace (the male chin) pulled off the run cover, which allowed the male baby to get into the run, and into my other female's cage... where she ripped open his skull and killed him. Wonderful. Why is it that all my females, when another chin gets into their cage, they feel the need to maim? I had this similar situation (practically scalped), but for an adult chin (Nikki) last year when another chin got into Nikki's cage. Ugh.
So, today was going well. Accomplished some major non-chin things in the morning, and then came home and went through quite a few emails related to adoptions. So hopefully some of those pan out. Fingers crossed.
Purchased (the other day) a one of those storage shelving unit things for cages, because I have quite a few small cages for the rescue, and always seem to need the bottom one. Set it up today and started cleaning cages before I set them on it. The one cage that must go on top due to size and won't-break-down is like this_close to the duct-work above the shelving unit. PERFECT fit.
Clipped the rabbits nails.
The guinea pigs are separated into cages, male and female, and the cage with the males is a lot smaller (because usually there's only one in it -- my male, Truffles... but now he's got babies accompanying him). All my other cages I can clean about once a week and be ok with that, but this cage needs cleaning like every 2-3 days, so I cleaned that and gave them fresh dry bedding.
Watered everyone. Discovered free water awhile back, and by free water, I mean, I have a dehumidifier running in the summer. While that water itself does not go through any filters, it is water pulled from the air, so it is relatively clean. Well, I have a katadyn filter system where you pour the water in the top and as it filters, the water goes into a bottom chamber with a spigot so you can get it out. So, when the dehumidifier is full, I pour that water into the filter. Free water. And considering, like today for example. I filled up water bottles 2 days ago. So, with only two days of use, to fill all those bottles to the top again (mind you, most were only down a little, cause it was only two days), it took almost 3 gallons. So, I can use free water if I can get it.
Organized some stuff in the basement. Had a big box of cardboard bagels that didn't fit anywhere else, so they went in a bag and went on a high shelf in the storage closet.
I bought (a while back) a four-foot table that fits perfectly between the wash-tub and the pump that pumps the water out, and bought (also awhile back) three dish-drying racks and those little drying towel things to set them on. That way, there's no more washing chin stuff upstairs and coating the kitchen sink in grime, and, with the three drainers, I can wash a lot of stuff at once. Which usually isn't an issue, but my parents weren't too fond of me washing chin stuff in their kitchen sink (they didn't have a basement sink), so it's sort of piled up. So right now, I'm working on getting the number of random things that need to be washed down to a way smaller amount. So I washed and filled the three racks.
Spent a while scrubbing down this one cage I have for the rare occasion I have mice, gerbils, or very baby rats. Still needs a good scrub, but I got enough in for one day.
I suppose all of this doesn't sound like a lot, but a lot of what I did can be summed up simply by saying: organized the basement and cleaned. Which is really what it needs right now, as the rescue is coming together, but it's still not where it needs to be.
So, the bad day part.
I was just about ready to go upstairs, and was organizing stuff on that little cart that you all see me roll around. I was standing in front of the runs and heard what could only be a baby's cry. And my first thought was YAY! But remember, this is bad news.
So, the baby was dry, and just laying there, which isn't a good sign for a baby. Picked him up, and his head was ripped open. A good quarter-sized chunk of scalp was missing right where his forehead and higher should have been. You could actually see the whitish yellow of his skull. The skin that was there on his face was ripped badly to the side. His eye-hole (in the skin) was nowhere near where his eye actually was. His ear wasn't actually attached to his body, but it was still attached to the skin on that side (the skin that was hanging off). His lower jaw was ripped in two. And he was still alive and those little paws were gripping my finger as I held him. I went and got a good size dose of pain meds, and slowly got it into him. I held him and petted him and told him he was a good chin, and he passed.
He was a big kit. 75 grams. Had he lived, at that size, I would have hung onto him to see how big he would have gotten for show.
In case you want to see -- I don't personally think it's that graphic, but then, over the years, I've seen everything, it's harder to make me panic and go "eww" over injuries than it was in the beginning, so I have provided links instead of posting the pictures...
--Head: http://www.nwichinchillas.com/ryerson_pw_baby_6-12-14_1.jpg
--Size of baby (body shot): http://www.nwichinchillas.com/ryerson_pw_baby_6-12-14_2.jpg
I get so tired of getting emails from people who want the cheapest chins they can find to breed. Everyone thinks it's all cute babies and rainbows, but in reality, this sort of thing happens. I want to say that this is the third kit to die this year, and I don't even think we're up to 10 total. The first was born stillborn, the second had an eye problem and died a few days after birth, and then this. This is not cute, this is not pretty, but this is the reality of what happens when you decide to breed. Not all the time, of course, but I just wish people who want to breed would stumble upon these sort of stories and these sort of things before they think of how many cute babies they'll have when they breed. And, while I didn't pick up the mom chin, I believe this was the only baby. I'll check her again in the morning just to see, because sometimes labor can go on for hours and hours, but in reality, she spent four months with this baby inside her, for nothing. Now, don't get me wrong, to me, I love her, whether she produces babies or not, but for someone who just sees the babies and dollar signs, to them, that's four months of gestation wasted.
Hopefully tomorrow's better.
Update: today just got worse. Got an email from someone asking about getting a baby male grey chin, and off the top of my head, couldn't remember exactly what I had here, so I went down to look at the babies. Open the cage of Lexi, a female who had her babies, oh, maybe 2-3 days ago, and there's only one baby. Wait... what? And... the run cover is off (the run cover keeps the male in the run and the mom and babies in their cage). So, basically, either Lexi or Ace (the male chin) pulled off the run cover, which allowed the male baby to get into the run, and into my other female's cage... where she ripped open his skull and killed him. Wonderful. Why is it that all my females, when another chin gets into their cage, they feel the need to maim? I had this similar situation (practically scalped), but for an adult chin (Nikki) last year when another chin got into Nikki's cage. Ugh.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
While I'm up...
While I'm up, I might as well post.
It's been kinda crappy lately. Very few adoptions. Quite a few no-shows. Actually, kinda a ridiculous number. I've had more people not show for their appointments in the last two months than I've had actually show up. I find that kinda rude. I can understand the occasional person who has something come up and can't get to the internet to find my phone number, but all these people? Decide you don't want the chin anymore? Got one somewhere else? Call. I've had people flat out forget they have an appointment. Write it down? There's a reason I have a planner.
Not much exciting going on since the Lake County Pet Expo. I feel like that was around the last time I posted, but it's been slow. Just been cleaning cages and such. Still working on painting the work station type thing that goes in the basement, and once that's done, I will have the basement more organized.
Pigeon coop is working on being done, but still need to get the roofing on and need to put some sort of guards so the pigeons can't get out the sides where the coop connects to the roof. One thing at a time though.
The main thing, today, is with Cumberpatch. Cumberpatch went on a trial run a few days ago, with a family in Indy. They said she was fine the first night and then at playtime the second day, they noticed a few drops of blood. Initially, I thought she just somehow cut herself. Wouldn't be unheard of, and would just result in a few drops of blood, but then the person asked her daughter and the daughter said that something was sticking out. So I asked the person to check, and yep, something sticking out. So, the typical thought on that is anal prolapse, so I gave her the number of the vet to call and talk to and she took her in this morning. As guessed, anal prolapse. They said about 2 inches had come out -- and considering we're talking about a 3ish month old chin, that's a heck of a lot. Surgery would have been $500, not counting that this could happen again if they didn't discover the cause of the prolapse. They said that if it was parasites, that would be the easiest solution, but to determine that they would have needed to take a fecal, and since the chin wasn't pooing (which it wouldn't with a prolapse), they would need to do the surgery, or at least open her up to go in and get a poo. The alternative would be doing bloodwork, which may or may not have shown a parasite, and they said could show bladder problems, liver problems, a whole slew of different things that could have been wrong to have caused a prolapse. The bloodwork alone would have been another $200+, and that would have potentially only shown what the problem was (if it even did that), so we would have been looking at $700ish at the minimum. That's a lot of money, especially for a chin where prognosis is not good. This sort of thing can happen over and over. So, sadly, she was put down.
It's been kinda crappy lately. Very few adoptions. Quite a few no-shows. Actually, kinda a ridiculous number. I've had more people not show for their appointments in the last two months than I've had actually show up. I find that kinda rude. I can understand the occasional person who has something come up and can't get to the internet to find my phone number, but all these people? Decide you don't want the chin anymore? Got one somewhere else? Call. I've had people flat out forget they have an appointment. Write it down? There's a reason I have a planner.
Not much exciting going on since the Lake County Pet Expo. I feel like that was around the last time I posted, but it's been slow. Just been cleaning cages and such. Still working on painting the work station type thing that goes in the basement, and once that's done, I will have the basement more organized.
Pigeon coop is working on being done, but still need to get the roofing on and need to put some sort of guards so the pigeons can't get out the sides where the coop connects to the roof. One thing at a time though.
The main thing, today, is with Cumberpatch. Cumberpatch went on a trial run a few days ago, with a family in Indy. They said she was fine the first night and then at playtime the second day, they noticed a few drops of blood. Initially, I thought she just somehow cut herself. Wouldn't be unheard of, and would just result in a few drops of blood, but then the person asked her daughter and the daughter said that something was sticking out. So I asked the person to check, and yep, something sticking out. So, the typical thought on that is anal prolapse, so I gave her the number of the vet to call and talk to and she took her in this morning. As guessed, anal prolapse. They said about 2 inches had come out -- and considering we're talking about a 3ish month old chin, that's a heck of a lot. Surgery would have been $500, not counting that this could happen again if they didn't discover the cause of the prolapse. They said that if it was parasites, that would be the easiest solution, but to determine that they would have needed to take a fecal, and since the chin wasn't pooing (which it wouldn't with a prolapse), they would need to do the surgery, or at least open her up to go in and get a poo. The alternative would be doing bloodwork, which may or may not have shown a parasite, and they said could show bladder problems, liver problems, a whole slew of different things that could have been wrong to have caused a prolapse. The bloodwork alone would have been another $200+, and that would have potentially only shown what the problem was (if it even did that), so we would have been looking at $700ish at the minimum. That's a lot of money, especially for a chin where prognosis is not good. This sort of thing can happen over and over. So, sadly, she was put down.
 |
| RIP Cumberpatch |
Monday, May 12, 2014
Expos
So, this is something new I guess. The expos we typically go to in Darien, St. Charles, and Oak Lawn have now said that for us to get sponsored (so we can go for free), we need to present at each show, make a donation basket for each show, and find at least one vendor to attend. Now, presenting is fine, the donation basket is fine (we typically make one anyway, requirement or not), but the vendor may be a problem.
Last year, the person I talk with regarding these expos suggested I find myself a sponsor. So, I went to local pet related businesses, and even some that aren't, and asked for either them to sponsor the booth or to give some money towards the booth fee. Not a single place would give me even a freakin dollar towards the booth fee, much less sponsor the booth.
One place told me that they had to buy mulch (yeah, because you know, mulch is so expensive), and the others pretty much echoed a similar sentiment: with the closest show being 45+ minutes away, they didn't think anyone from the shows would come out this way to come to the businesses. Which does make sense, as there's pet hospitals and specialty pet stores out in the Chicagoland area as well. No reason for the average person to drive an hour just to go to one little shop. And I spent a LOT of time talking to businesses, to get nowhere.
The email that said these things came from someone different than the person I usually talk to, so I emailed the person I know, asking about this. I told her how I spent a lot of time this past year trying to get sponsored for the expos myself (and she should remember that), but I had no luck whatsoever. And I told her, if I have to spend weeks upon weeks to find a vendor, it's just not worth it. At the expos, we typically get about $50-100 worth of sales (over two days), $15-30 in donations, and if we're lucky, an adoption (most times, no adoption... but it does get the word out).
Now, lets assume that we have an awesome expo. We make $100 in sales, $30 in donation, and get a $100 chin adoption. Yay, right? That's $230 made in 2 days for the rescue. Yay, right? Not quite. Hotel for two days typically runs about $150. All of a sudden we're down to $80. Gas isn't free. Let's take St. Charles because that's typically a good expo. That's about 60 miles way. So, 120 miles there and back. I get roughly 15 miles to the gallon, so 8 gallons to get there and back. Let's say 10 gallons total, because we have to eat while we're there and we gotta drive to where we're eating. So, 10 gallons at $3.50/gallon is $35. Down to $44. If we eat fast food all weekend and can restrict ourselves to $7 per person per meal (not including breakfast, which is free at the hotel), we have 4 meals (dinner Friday, lunch and dinner Saturday, and lunch Sunday). 4 Meals x $14 (two people) = $56. Wait.... now we're at negative $12. And that's an AWESOME expo (for comparison, our last expo got $37.55 in donations, $50ish in sales, and a $13 rat adoption... but we still had hotel, food, gas, and other fees). Not to mention, the time spent packing at home and unpacking/setting up at the expo. And packing again at the end and unpacking at home. And getting ready ahead of time, because I have to make the toys, package the herbs, etc etc. Plus the fact that we're there (two people) for two and a half days.
Anyway, my point is, it's fine if we barely break even (or not) if we get the word out and don't spend a ton of other time (outside the expo weekend) on the expo. But if I also have to spend weeks of time trying to get a vendor to attend.... it's not worth the time. The rescue already loses money on the average expo, without losing a ton of time as well. And to be perfectly honest, if we're gonna spend weeks trying to get a vendor, for the purpose of going to an expo to get exposure.... I could just as easily spend that time working on marketing and promotion and accomplish the same thing without ever having to leave the house, pay for hotel, pay for gas, etc. And let's not forget the difficulty I have with getting people to go with me....
...and really, I'm not even sure, if I did spend weeks and weeks trying to get a vendor, if I'd even get one! We're too far out from the expos for most local places to care, and again, time is worth something. If I spend weeks and get no one, and consequently, don't go to the expo, that's a lot of time wasted, for absolutely nothing.
So, I emailed asking about this and letting her know about all of this.
But here's what kills me. And I know that the person I deal with isn't part of ownership of the company or anything, so it's not her that's money hungry, but here's the thing. It costs like $800 for every vendor who wants a booth. Pet hospitals and smaller pet businesses and the like are $600, pet rescues are $300 for a booth. Let's just say, conservatively, there's 10 vendors per show. Let's say there's 10 pet hospitals. Let's say there's 20 rescues. Admission is $7 or $6 with a coupon. They often say at least 10,000 people attend, so let's go with that. Let's just, for shits and giggles, say they all have a coupon and get in for $6. All of that equals out to $77,000. Now, granted, they have to pay for the location for two days, so even if that's $20,000, they're making $57,000 in profit. IN ONE WEEKEND. I get companies that want to make a profit, heck, I want the rescue to pay for itself, so it doesn't have to come out of my pocket (other than my time). So I get it. But you'd think with $57,000 in profit they could waive a $300 rescue booth fee. I mean, let's think about this. To get a free booth, I have to get a vendor to agree to pay $800ish to have a booth there. Versus paying $300 for a rescue booth. Hmmmmmm. Plus presenting, donation basket, etc etc. Seems that's a lot of work for a $300 booth -- not even HALF of what it costs for that vendor.
Little peeved today if you can't tell.
Last year, the person I talk with regarding these expos suggested I find myself a sponsor. So, I went to local pet related businesses, and even some that aren't, and asked for either them to sponsor the booth or to give some money towards the booth fee. Not a single place would give me even a freakin dollar towards the booth fee, much less sponsor the booth.
One place told me that they had to buy mulch (yeah, because you know, mulch is so expensive), and the others pretty much echoed a similar sentiment: with the closest show being 45+ minutes away, they didn't think anyone from the shows would come out this way to come to the businesses. Which does make sense, as there's pet hospitals and specialty pet stores out in the Chicagoland area as well. No reason for the average person to drive an hour just to go to one little shop. And I spent a LOT of time talking to businesses, to get nowhere.
The email that said these things came from someone different than the person I usually talk to, so I emailed the person I know, asking about this. I told her how I spent a lot of time this past year trying to get sponsored for the expos myself (and she should remember that), but I had no luck whatsoever. And I told her, if I have to spend weeks upon weeks to find a vendor, it's just not worth it. At the expos, we typically get about $50-100 worth of sales (over two days), $15-30 in donations, and if we're lucky, an adoption (most times, no adoption... but it does get the word out).
Now, lets assume that we have an awesome expo. We make $100 in sales, $30 in donation, and get a $100 chin adoption. Yay, right? That's $230 made in 2 days for the rescue. Yay, right? Not quite. Hotel for two days typically runs about $150. All of a sudden we're down to $80. Gas isn't free. Let's take St. Charles because that's typically a good expo. That's about 60 miles way. So, 120 miles there and back. I get roughly 15 miles to the gallon, so 8 gallons to get there and back. Let's say 10 gallons total, because we have to eat while we're there and we gotta drive to where we're eating. So, 10 gallons at $3.50/gallon is $35. Down to $44. If we eat fast food all weekend and can restrict ourselves to $7 per person per meal (not including breakfast, which is free at the hotel), we have 4 meals (dinner Friday, lunch and dinner Saturday, and lunch Sunday). 4 Meals x $14 (two people) = $56. Wait.... now we're at negative $12. And that's an AWESOME expo (for comparison, our last expo got $37.55 in donations, $50ish in sales, and a $13 rat adoption... but we still had hotel, food, gas, and other fees). Not to mention, the time spent packing at home and unpacking/setting up at the expo. And packing again at the end and unpacking at home. And getting ready ahead of time, because I have to make the toys, package the herbs, etc etc. Plus the fact that we're there (two people) for two and a half days.
Anyway, my point is, it's fine if we barely break even (or not) if we get the word out and don't spend a ton of other time (outside the expo weekend) on the expo. But if I also have to spend weeks of time trying to get a vendor to attend.... it's not worth the time. The rescue already loses money on the average expo, without losing a ton of time as well. And to be perfectly honest, if we're gonna spend weeks trying to get a vendor, for the purpose of going to an expo to get exposure.... I could just as easily spend that time working on marketing and promotion and accomplish the same thing without ever having to leave the house, pay for hotel, pay for gas, etc. And let's not forget the difficulty I have with getting people to go with me....
...and really, I'm not even sure, if I did spend weeks and weeks trying to get a vendor, if I'd even get one! We're too far out from the expos for most local places to care, and again, time is worth something. If I spend weeks and get no one, and consequently, don't go to the expo, that's a lot of time wasted, for absolutely nothing.
So, I emailed asking about this and letting her know about all of this.
But here's what kills me. And I know that the person I deal with isn't part of ownership of the company or anything, so it's not her that's money hungry, but here's the thing. It costs like $800 for every vendor who wants a booth. Pet hospitals and smaller pet businesses and the like are $600, pet rescues are $300 for a booth. Let's just say, conservatively, there's 10 vendors per show. Let's say there's 10 pet hospitals. Let's say there's 20 rescues. Admission is $7 or $6 with a coupon. They often say at least 10,000 people attend, so let's go with that. Let's just, for shits and giggles, say they all have a coupon and get in for $6. All of that equals out to $77,000. Now, granted, they have to pay for the location for two days, so even if that's $20,000, they're making $57,000 in profit. IN ONE WEEKEND. I get companies that want to make a profit, heck, I want the rescue to pay for itself, so it doesn't have to come out of my pocket (other than my time). So I get it. But you'd think with $57,000 in profit they could waive a $300 rescue booth fee. I mean, let's think about this. To get a free booth, I have to get a vendor to agree to pay $800ish to have a booth there. Versus paying $300 for a rescue booth. Hmmmmmm. Plus presenting, donation basket, etc etc. Seems that's a lot of work for a $300 booth -- not even HALF of what it costs for that vendor.
Little peeved today if you can't tell.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Babies!!
We have more babies!! Nikki had two males on the 8th (I'm behind on everything, I know...). And... I got to see part of it! See, cause they usually have babies early morning, so typically I wake up to babies. But not that day, it was like 2 in the afternoon and I opened Nikki's cage to check on her and found a baby! And got to see the birth of the second one! So if you don't want to see not-very-graphic pictures of that, go back now.
 | |
| Opened the door to find a wet mosaic male |
 |
| mosaic male, drowned rat special edition |
 |
| Nikki pulling out the other baby. If you look closely you can see a leg. Jackson looking on. |
 |
| Nikki checking out her freshly born baby. Jackson being like "mom! privacy??" |
 |
| ....and look, he's already perfected the stink eye |
 |
| ...dried off later on. |
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Pigeon Loft
I don't know why a pigeon house is called a loft instead of a coop. People ask, not quite sure. Best guess would be that it's recommended to have high up perches in the loft, and maybe that's why.
Anyway, I've had a few people comment that they really can't picture this thing, so I took some pictures. Camera phone, so not great ones, but here we go:
That's just a tarp over the top, just uncovered the front for pictures.... That top left door opens down, and is meant to do that so that it can be left open so the pigeons can fly back in.
As you can see in the picture above, the door that folds down will actually fold flat against the cage (if the other door wasn't in the way). Going to attach some snap-on chain to hold it open at a 90 degree angle so the door will form an L shape with the loft. Just haven't gotten to that yet. you can see on the bottom, the 2 x 4's... can't see it on the picture, but there is hardware cloth (same as on the doors) attached, so everything falls through, but no pigeons escape the bottom).
And last but not least, look above, you can see the inside. Need to do something about the left side, where there's no shelves, but the right has the ledges, and then upside down V perches in the middle, and there's a perch going all the way around the top of the cage. And you can see the hardware cloth on the bottom of the cage here.
Anyway, I've had a few people comment that they really can't picture this thing, so I took some pictures. Camera phone, so not great ones, but here we go:
That's just a tarp over the top, just uncovered the front for pictures.... That top left door opens down, and is meant to do that so that it can be left open so the pigeons can fly back in.
As you can see in the picture above, the door that folds down will actually fold flat against the cage (if the other door wasn't in the way). Going to attach some snap-on chain to hold it open at a 90 degree angle so the door will form an L shape with the loft. Just haven't gotten to that yet. you can see on the bottom, the 2 x 4's... can't see it on the picture, but there is hardware cloth (same as on the doors) attached, so everything falls through, but no pigeons escape the bottom).
And last but not least, look above, you can see the inside. Need to do something about the left side, where there's no shelves, but the right has the ledges, and then upside down V perches in the middle, and there's a perch going all the way around the top of the cage. And you can see the hardware cloth on the bottom of the cage here.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Pigeon Loft & Railing
So today Desi (from Wheekers) was over to help with the pigeon loft. Everyone seems to wonder why this is taking so long, but it really is one of those slow-moving projects. So, to bring everyone up to speed, the loft has the frame up, all shelves up (except for one side I still need to figure out what to do with), and the plywood sides up. No roof, no doors. So it's still being tarped when it's not being worked on. Still need to figure out that roof. But for today, we were working on the doors.
I should have taken a picture, but the front is divided in the middle, and so the right side was going to be one large door. Built that first. Cut the wood, put on the corner brackets, put in the screws, and stapled /hammered on the hardware cloth. And had loads of fun with those drill-through handles. The last cage I built had the handles with the screws on the front. Oh, no, but for this one I decided I wanted the ones you couldn't see the screws for. Yeah, those take a bit more finesse to put on. But we got it. So we got that door hinged on... and it wouldn't close. Alrighty, out comes the sander. So, sanded it until we could get it to close, barrel bolted it, and moved onto the other side. Now, pigeon lofts, from the sites I read, are supposed to have a door that can be left open so the pigeons can fly back in (when you get to that point). So, we cut a 2x4 and attached it about 8 inches down from the top. Well.... see, that woulda been super easy had I not already put up the plywood on the sides. So, we had to take a trip to Home Depot to get some brackets to attach to the one side, since I didn't want to mess with trying to drill blindly through plywood and just hope to hit the wood on the other side.
So, we get that attached, cut the door and get it all ready to attach and put it in place. And put on the hinges and everything and then realize... it is really not all that close to closing whatsoever. So, sander comes out again. In hindsight, we should have detached it and cut off a tiny edge on the saw. Because we sanded FOREVER. Or actually, Desi sanded for awhile while I tried to prep for the last door and pull weeds out of the area where the loft is going to go, and eventually we switched. So finally that one went on.
Now, for the last door, we used our brains. Instead of cutting the door so it'd fit nice and snug.... I had it where I (previously) would have thought would have been a good size for the verticals... and then trimmed off a little bit more. And amazing, only a teeny tiny bit of sanding once the door was up.
So, now all the front doors are on. I think I have a good idea of how the roof's going to attach, but if it attaches the way I'm thinking, the overhang is going to be ridiculous and needs to be cut down somehow. So, will worry about that another day. But now just about everything else is done.
Now, it took us all day to put on those three doors. From like 11 am to 7 pm, with a short food break and trip to home depot break. And she could tell you, we were working the whole time, mostly both of us working on different things at once, and it still took that long. And this makes me think of how you see people who build cages, and they have on there, it's like $500 plus the cost of supplies, and people like balk at that... and it does seem a lot... but consider... just the doors took two people 8 hours. And that's not including the frame, the grated bottom, the shelves... all that also. I've been working on this loft for what seems like weeks (and it very well may be), because it just takes awhile.
So, moving onto the railing. If you've been in the new house, you've noticed there's no basement steps railing. And I've even mentioned, I never noticed how often I used one until I don't have one. And my stairs going down have a landing. For no good reason. Like, my parents' stairs had one, but it's because they went down a bit, landing, turned to the right, and continued down. Mine go down, landing, go down some more. And it kind of throws you off, and even with how long I've been here, I still misjudge where it is. Like today.
So, I was driving Desi home and something made me think of the fact she had carrots in my fridge. And then I was like, why are there carrots in my fridge? Oh yeah, cause her rabbit was here. So, we had to turn around and get the rabbit. So, we're making our way down the basement steps, without the stair light on (cause the basement light was on, and you could see... but not well), her in front of me, and I'm (stupidly) reading a text out loud to her and not watching the stairs (both hands on the phone). I thought the next step was the landing, and stepped forward (instead of down). Yeah, so the landing was actually two steps down. In that time it took me to realize I made a mistake and that I'd stepped on air, I wildly grabbed for something to hold onto, but there was no railing. Landed on the toes of my right foot pointing down, like ballerina style, one step down, which then that foot sort of collapsed under me, and I fell forward. I suppose, I should be thrilled I had that landing, cause had I not landed on that, I would have continued tumbling down the stairs. With the loud thud (and probably the fact I stopped reading the text), Desi came running back to check I was ok (had to sit there for a few.... I actually thought, originally, that I might have broken something, but the pain's considerably dulled down to more a badly twisted-type pain). And of course, it would be my right foot. Anyway, moral of the story -- after taking my own tumble down the stairs, I will be looking into that railing sooner rather than later.
I should have taken a picture, but the front is divided in the middle, and so the right side was going to be one large door. Built that first. Cut the wood, put on the corner brackets, put in the screws, and stapled /hammered on the hardware cloth. And had loads of fun with those drill-through handles. The last cage I built had the handles with the screws on the front. Oh, no, but for this one I decided I wanted the ones you couldn't see the screws for. Yeah, those take a bit more finesse to put on. But we got it. So we got that door hinged on... and it wouldn't close. Alrighty, out comes the sander. So, sanded it until we could get it to close, barrel bolted it, and moved onto the other side. Now, pigeon lofts, from the sites I read, are supposed to have a door that can be left open so the pigeons can fly back in (when you get to that point). So, we cut a 2x4 and attached it about 8 inches down from the top. Well.... see, that woulda been super easy had I not already put up the plywood on the sides. So, we had to take a trip to Home Depot to get some brackets to attach to the one side, since I didn't want to mess with trying to drill blindly through plywood and just hope to hit the wood on the other side.
So, we get that attached, cut the door and get it all ready to attach and put it in place. And put on the hinges and everything and then realize... it is really not all that close to closing whatsoever. So, sander comes out again. In hindsight, we should have detached it and cut off a tiny edge on the saw. Because we sanded FOREVER. Or actually, Desi sanded for awhile while I tried to prep for the last door and pull weeds out of the area where the loft is going to go, and eventually we switched. So finally that one went on.
Now, for the last door, we used our brains. Instead of cutting the door so it'd fit nice and snug.... I had it where I (previously) would have thought would have been a good size for the verticals... and then trimmed off a little bit more. And amazing, only a teeny tiny bit of sanding once the door was up.
So, now all the front doors are on. I think I have a good idea of how the roof's going to attach, but if it attaches the way I'm thinking, the overhang is going to be ridiculous and needs to be cut down somehow. So, will worry about that another day. But now just about everything else is done.
Now, it took us all day to put on those three doors. From like 11 am to 7 pm, with a short food break and trip to home depot break. And she could tell you, we were working the whole time, mostly both of us working on different things at once, and it still took that long. And this makes me think of how you see people who build cages, and they have on there, it's like $500 plus the cost of supplies, and people like balk at that... and it does seem a lot... but consider... just the doors took two people 8 hours. And that's not including the frame, the grated bottom, the shelves... all that also. I've been working on this loft for what seems like weeks (and it very well may be), because it just takes awhile.
So, moving onto the railing. If you've been in the new house, you've noticed there's no basement steps railing. And I've even mentioned, I never noticed how often I used one until I don't have one. And my stairs going down have a landing. For no good reason. Like, my parents' stairs had one, but it's because they went down a bit, landing, turned to the right, and continued down. Mine go down, landing, go down some more. And it kind of throws you off, and even with how long I've been here, I still misjudge where it is. Like today.
So, I was driving Desi home and something made me think of the fact she had carrots in my fridge. And then I was like, why are there carrots in my fridge? Oh yeah, cause her rabbit was here. So, we had to turn around and get the rabbit. So, we're making our way down the basement steps, without the stair light on (cause the basement light was on, and you could see... but not well), her in front of me, and I'm (stupidly) reading a text out loud to her and not watching the stairs (both hands on the phone). I thought the next step was the landing, and stepped forward (instead of down). Yeah, so the landing was actually two steps down. In that time it took me to realize I made a mistake and that I'd stepped on air, I wildly grabbed for something to hold onto, but there was no railing. Landed on the toes of my right foot pointing down, like ballerina style, one step down, which then that foot sort of collapsed under me, and I fell forward. I suppose, I should be thrilled I had that landing, cause had I not landed on that, I would have continued tumbling down the stairs. With the loud thud (and probably the fact I stopped reading the text), Desi came running back to check I was ok (had to sit there for a few.... I actually thought, originally, that I might have broken something, but the pain's considerably dulled down to more a badly twisted-type pain). And of course, it would be my right foot. Anyway, moral of the story -- after taking my own tumble down the stairs, I will be looking into that railing sooner rather than later.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Lately....
Ok, so I just posted a post that I forgot to hit "publish" on, about a week ago, so there is another new one under this one.
Ok, so few things.
I really find I'm losing my faith in the world when someone calls wanting a chinchilla, I call back soon after, and they've already gotten one. Ok, wait, scratch that. I'm losing my faith in the parenting of humanity. Because when I was growing up, kids had to work for something. Things were not handed to me, and I sure didn't say "I want this" and got it today. But that's what I'm seeing more and more of lately, and frankly, it's getting a bit old. Parents that tell their kids, oh you can get a chinchilla (or whatever) and then, if the place they call doesn't call them back in 2 minutes, or isn't available that day to get it, they move on. And I mean, I feel it's different depending on what it is. If you need a car battery and Walmart is out, you go elsewhere. But this is a live animal. This isn't my full-time job (though, if anyone would like to donate enough money so that I could just sit around and do rescue stuff for the rest of my life without having to work another job, by all means, I will take it). I cannot just sit around and wait for phone calls and then jump the second it rings. This is not like a coach where they say, "jump" and the players say, "how high?" I don't work for you. I don't get paid from you. At least, not enough to make me that super excited to stop my world to answer every phone call. Well, really, I get nothing. The money from adoptions and sales of this stuff goes right back into the rescue. I took a chin and prairie dog to the vet the other day. Cost me $612. That's a LOT of adoptions and supply sales to pay that back. I don't get a cent. And yeah, I want to adopt the animals out, but not badly enough that I can just always stop everything I'm doing to answer your phone call and then to drop everything I'm doing so you can come over and pick out a chinchilla.
Another thing -- and this isn't even chinchilla related -- but I'm starting to think teens are really stupid. Not all of them, but a lot of them that call me, when I call back, have a voicemail message that goes something like this, "Hi, this is ________, either I can't answer my phone right now or I'm just ignoring you....." I don't know if you all think that's funny, but I lose a lot of respect for someone when I hear a message like that. You have that out there for the WORLD to hear. You want a job to hear that? Or someone you called, like me, that has to think you're a decent person so you can adopt? Maybe it's funny, or, my bad, "phat," "cool," whatever, to your friends, but those of us in the real world don't think so. Yeah, I have some numbers saved in my phone for the SOLE purpose being so that I DON'T answer when they call. So I do understand. I totally get it. That's not the point though. But actually saying that in the voicemail? Sorry, respect lost.
....and I kinda wonder, if you say that in the voicemail.... do you say everything you think? Gonna have a hard time keeping a job if you tell the boss, well, you would've done the work, but you didn't feel like it.
Moving on. Please, people, do not call me saying you're on your last pellet. I mean, by all mean, you can call, but again.... I'm getting a bit tired of jumping for people that aren't smart enough to call before they run out. Now, if you want to pick up pellets, that's fine. But this applies to those who want me to ship it. In other words, they're out of pellets, and they think I should jump and pack it right now and ship it 5 minutes later. Um... how bout we get some planning skills? I don't just sit here bored waiting for orders to come in just so I can jump and get them out. Plan, please.
And then, is it that hard for people to listen? I had this conversation yesterday (relevant part):
Me: oh yeah he's a sweet boy (referring to the prairie dog)
Her: oh, how long do they live? how old is he?
Me: they live 10-15 years in captivitiy, 3-5 in the wild. He's 6 years old.
Her: Oh ok, so you've had him for...
Me: 4 years.
Her: Oh, ok, how long do they live?
Excuse me while I go strangle some people. I'm tired of these conversations.
But let's switch to positive things.
At the Oak Lawn Chicago Pet Show, we had a record amount of donations (for an expo), $37.65. Yay! We sold a decent amount of stuff, not as much as usual, but not too bad. Presented twice on chinchillas, and it was a decent show. And, had someone ask about rats the first day, and come to the rescue and adopted some rats a few days later. Yay.
Unfortunately, this year's Lake County Pet Expo was kind of a let down. The expo itself was fine, but our booth was kind of in a bad spot, and except for the people who had already told me they'd come to the expo to pick up supplies, we sold about $20. Not a ton of donations, and we didn't see all the local people we usually see at this expo. No one asking about adopting (other than the prairie dog), lots of dogs putting their muddy paws on our tablecovers (that are washable, thank god), and an excessive number of rude people that said that either (1) we should have left the prairie dog in the wild and we're basically horrible for keeping him as a pet, or (2) they used to hunt him and he shouldn't be here. Kind of both similar but still. Dude. KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. You never hear people say, to a pit bull rescue, "oh I used to fight those dogs. They made me lots of money and a shitload of em died, but now I'm rich" So why is it ok for these people to tell me, "oh I shot those stupid prairie dogs every chance I got?" I don't really even care if you did, that's fine. But keep it to yourself.
So, I guess my attempt to make things positive didn't turn out that well cause people have just really been asses lately.
What else. Um... LOTS of people who want to adopt end up getting a chin before I can call them back, an hour or so later. So adoptions are down. I have orders I need to work on, but the basement's still not finished, and the saw's still not in, so all the wood orders are still waiting. I had a pair of young males get into it and are now separated. LOTS of chins are available to adopt, if you know of anyone who wants a chin, contact.... I need to list them, but for now, I'm going to list their sale prices on the website and hopefully that might attract some people in the meantime....
Ok, so few things.
I really find I'm losing my faith in the world when someone calls wanting a chinchilla, I call back soon after, and they've already gotten one. Ok, wait, scratch that. I'm losing my faith in the parenting of humanity. Because when I was growing up, kids had to work for something. Things were not handed to me, and I sure didn't say "I want this" and got it today. But that's what I'm seeing more and more of lately, and frankly, it's getting a bit old. Parents that tell their kids, oh you can get a chinchilla (or whatever) and then, if the place they call doesn't call them back in 2 minutes, or isn't available that day to get it, they move on. And I mean, I feel it's different depending on what it is. If you need a car battery and Walmart is out, you go elsewhere. But this is a live animal. This isn't my full-time job (though, if anyone would like to donate enough money so that I could just sit around and do rescue stuff for the rest of my life without having to work another job, by all means, I will take it). I cannot just sit around and wait for phone calls and then jump the second it rings. This is not like a coach where they say, "jump" and the players say, "how high?" I don't work for you. I don't get paid from you. At least, not enough to make me that super excited to stop my world to answer every phone call. Well, really, I get nothing. The money from adoptions and sales of this stuff goes right back into the rescue. I took a chin and prairie dog to the vet the other day. Cost me $612. That's a LOT of adoptions and supply sales to pay that back. I don't get a cent. And yeah, I want to adopt the animals out, but not badly enough that I can just always stop everything I'm doing to answer your phone call and then to drop everything I'm doing so you can come over and pick out a chinchilla.
Another thing -- and this isn't even chinchilla related -- but I'm starting to think teens are really stupid. Not all of them, but a lot of them that call me, when I call back, have a voicemail message that goes something like this, "Hi, this is ________, either I can't answer my phone right now or I'm just ignoring you....." I don't know if you all think that's funny, but I lose a lot of respect for someone when I hear a message like that. You have that out there for the WORLD to hear. You want a job to hear that? Or someone you called, like me, that has to think you're a decent person so you can adopt? Maybe it's funny, or, my bad, "phat," "cool," whatever, to your friends, but those of us in the real world don't think so. Yeah, I have some numbers saved in my phone for the SOLE purpose being so that I DON'T answer when they call. So I do understand. I totally get it. That's not the point though. But actually saying that in the voicemail? Sorry, respect lost.
....and I kinda wonder, if you say that in the voicemail.... do you say everything you think? Gonna have a hard time keeping a job if you tell the boss, well, you would've done the work, but you didn't feel like it.
Moving on. Please, people, do not call me saying you're on your last pellet. I mean, by all mean, you can call, but again.... I'm getting a bit tired of jumping for people that aren't smart enough to call before they run out. Now, if you want to pick up pellets, that's fine. But this applies to those who want me to ship it. In other words, they're out of pellets, and they think I should jump and pack it right now and ship it 5 minutes later. Um... how bout we get some planning skills? I don't just sit here bored waiting for orders to come in just so I can jump and get them out. Plan, please.
And then, is it that hard for people to listen? I had this conversation yesterday (relevant part):
Me: oh yeah he's a sweet boy (referring to the prairie dog)
Her: oh, how long do they live? how old is he?
Me: they live 10-15 years in captivitiy, 3-5 in the wild. He's 6 years old.
Her: Oh ok, so you've had him for...
Me: 4 years.
Her: Oh, ok, how long do they live?
Excuse me while I go strangle some people. I'm tired of these conversations.
But let's switch to positive things.
At the Oak Lawn Chicago Pet Show, we had a record amount of donations (for an expo), $37.65. Yay! We sold a decent amount of stuff, not as much as usual, but not too bad. Presented twice on chinchillas, and it was a decent show. And, had someone ask about rats the first day, and come to the rescue and adopted some rats a few days later. Yay.
Unfortunately, this year's Lake County Pet Expo was kind of a let down. The expo itself was fine, but our booth was kind of in a bad spot, and except for the people who had already told me they'd come to the expo to pick up supplies, we sold about $20. Not a ton of donations, and we didn't see all the local people we usually see at this expo. No one asking about adopting (other than the prairie dog), lots of dogs putting their muddy paws on our tablecovers (that are washable, thank god), and an excessive number of rude people that said that either (1) we should have left the prairie dog in the wild and we're basically horrible for keeping him as a pet, or (2) they used to hunt him and he shouldn't be here. Kind of both similar but still. Dude. KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. You never hear people say, to a pit bull rescue, "oh I used to fight those dogs. They made me lots of money and a shitload of em died, but now I'm rich" So why is it ok for these people to tell me, "oh I shot those stupid prairie dogs every chance I got?" I don't really even care if you did, that's fine. But keep it to yourself.
So, I guess my attempt to make things positive didn't turn out that well cause people have just really been asses lately.
What else. Um... LOTS of people who want to adopt end up getting a chin before I can call them back, an hour or so later. So adoptions are down. I have orders I need to work on, but the basement's still not finished, and the saw's still not in, so all the wood orders are still waiting. I had a pair of young males get into it and are now separated. LOTS of chins are available to adopt, if you know of anyone who wants a chin, contact.... I need to list them, but for now, I'm going to list their sale prices on the website and hopefully that might attract some people in the meantime....
Fun at the hardware store
So, I wanted to share my somewhat humerous experiences at the hardware store today. Several select people know that I'm building a pigeon loft. Those people are the ones that have come to my basement and been like, "oh, you have pigeons!" Otherwise, you really don't know.
Anyway, so its like a chicken coop, but designed for pigeons. So, up til this point, I was building it in my garage, but it got to the point today where, if I was to connect the front and the back in my garage... there would be no getting it out of the garage without help (which you would totally understand if you saw the amount of stuff in my garage at the moment).... and my ability to convince people to come and help me with this stuff is sort of lacking. Ok, in reality, most of my friends live too far to ask them, so mostly it's just me, with no help.
So, I took it outside. I cut a few things that I needed, and attached the front to the back outside. I had thought ahead and had purchased some corner braces to help keep this all together. Well, somehow my head had worked out that there'd only be four corners, instead of 8. Oops. So I put on what I could and got as much worked out as possible. Attached front to back. Put up support in front and back. Put up side supports. Attached these all with nails and braces. Well, then I was at that point where I really couldn't do anything else without purchasing other items.
So, I went to Home Depot cause I needed to pick up some more 2 x 4's, so shelving for the inside of the loft, and a few other random things. Got everything I needed (or so I thought), and I had a lot of 8' wood on one of those wood carts that is huge. So there was no going through self-checkout. Well, it seems that, at least in the times I've been there, Home Depot thinks most people can self-checkout, so there's only one other cashier. And if I have just small items and no wood, I will use self-checkout. But not with a cart full of wood.
So I go up to the one cashier, who happened to be counting the money in the drawer and was having issues with it. I wasn't sure what was going on, but 10 minutes later, she's still counting, and I'm starting to get impatient. Finally she called over management who told her, worry bout the money later, take care of the customer first. Smart management.
Anyway, so I know that I had 5 of the 2 x 4's, I had 6 of the 1 x 2's, I had two 1 x 12 x 8", and four 1 x 8 x 6'. So I tell her that. And I don't expect her to look em up, but if I say I have 6 of this item... the typical employee types in "6" and scans the item. Or at least counts the item and then puts in "6" and scans one. Nope, she apparently didn't believe me, and scanned everything one by one. Which was fine, I didn't have that many items. But then she got back to the screen and looked and wasn't sure she got everything. So she went back and counted everything several times just to be sure. So finally we get to the point where I'm ready to pay. I swipe my card. She asks to see ID. Now.... my order was under $100. It was large pieces of cheap wood. If I stole someone's debit card, I sure would go and purchase more "fun" items. Even Home Depot has more fun items that I would purchase if I had someone else's card.
Anyway, that's beside the point. She apologized several times about taking so long, and really I wasn't in a huge rush, but I was kinda happy I don't typically get someone like that.
So I go home, put more of the loft together. It starts getting dark and so I stop cutting the wood and start putting together what I have. Finally it's dark enough I'm not going to get much accomplished without some light source, and I'm not looking to get eaten by bugs, so I call it a night. And I realize, the sander I bought is apparently only useful to sand dead skin cells off someone's feet. I apparently bought a polishing sander, not what I intended. So I figured, I needed a few more things, I could go back. Let's note, that this was at least 4-5 hours after I was there the first time (and I live not even 5 minutes from Home Depot, so it's not a drive).
So, last thing I do before I leave is measure the loft so I can get the plywood cut. Before I leave the house, I take the spare tire / donut out of my vehicle to give me more room for the plywood. So I get to the store and exchange my sander and get a clamps for the tarp. Finally find someone to cut the plywood. Very nice, asks what I'm making, and we talk a bit. The one piece of plywood was cut to 46". Well, that's almost a full sheet. So the convo goes like this:
Him: what kind of vehicle do you have?
Me: SUV
Him: Large?
Me: Small
Him: This gonna fit?
Me: Oh yeah
Him: You sure?
Me: I measured before I left
Him: Okay. (in that disbelieving tone)
Ok so we get to the checkout. And who's there but my favorite cashier! The same one from earlier. So, she rings me up considerably faster at this point in time, and made a comment about how she's happy to see me back after how long I waited last time. I told her, it wasn't that bad, and she seemed happy. If I'd had my phone the first time, it wouldn't have been so bad, I would have at least amused myself. Anyway.
Ok, so we get the plywood outside and I pull up my blazer under the contractor roof so we can load. Another guy comes out to help load. It's three sheets of plywood, I think I could have done it myself, but you know. So I open the back and
Them: This isn't gonna fit.
Me: It's gonna fit.
Them: Uh.....yeah.
Me: I measured this at home, it's gonna fit.
**both guys stand there, looking at me heavily skeptical**
Me: It's gotta go in at an angle. This isn't a pick-up bed, there's not room to lay it down flat. So it needs to angle up to this side *motions* and it'll fit
**still looks skeptical, but one guy lifts up the biggest piece**
....and it fit.
The guys that were there were super nice, so I just thanked them and left, but had it been anyone else, I was secretly dying to say that I KNEW it would fit. I'm not usually the told-ya-so type, but this would have been the perfect instance for that.
Anyway, so I get home, and there's some lightning, and I think, ok I better get that tarp on before it pours. So I stand up the loft, get the tarp over, and use the newly purchased clamps to hold it down. Get inside, and it starts pouring. Awesome timing. Lol.
Anyway, so its like a chicken coop, but designed for pigeons. So, up til this point, I was building it in my garage, but it got to the point today where, if I was to connect the front and the back in my garage... there would be no getting it out of the garage without help (which you would totally understand if you saw the amount of stuff in my garage at the moment).... and my ability to convince people to come and help me with this stuff is sort of lacking. Ok, in reality, most of my friends live too far to ask them, so mostly it's just me, with no help.
So, I took it outside. I cut a few things that I needed, and attached the front to the back outside. I had thought ahead and had purchased some corner braces to help keep this all together. Well, somehow my head had worked out that there'd only be four corners, instead of 8. Oops. So I put on what I could and got as much worked out as possible. Attached front to back. Put up support in front and back. Put up side supports. Attached these all with nails and braces. Well, then I was at that point where I really couldn't do anything else without purchasing other items.
So, I went to Home Depot cause I needed to pick up some more 2 x 4's, so shelving for the inside of the loft, and a few other random things. Got everything I needed (or so I thought), and I had a lot of 8' wood on one of those wood carts that is huge. So there was no going through self-checkout. Well, it seems that, at least in the times I've been there, Home Depot thinks most people can self-checkout, so there's only one other cashier. And if I have just small items and no wood, I will use self-checkout. But not with a cart full of wood.
So I go up to the one cashier, who happened to be counting the money in the drawer and was having issues with it. I wasn't sure what was going on, but 10 minutes later, she's still counting, and I'm starting to get impatient. Finally she called over management who told her, worry bout the money later, take care of the customer first. Smart management.
Anyway, so I know that I had 5 of the 2 x 4's, I had 6 of the 1 x 2's, I had two 1 x 12 x 8", and four 1 x 8 x 6'. So I tell her that. And I don't expect her to look em up, but if I say I have 6 of this item... the typical employee types in "6" and scans the item. Or at least counts the item and then puts in "6" and scans one. Nope, she apparently didn't believe me, and scanned everything one by one. Which was fine, I didn't have that many items. But then she got back to the screen and looked and wasn't sure she got everything. So she went back and counted everything several times just to be sure. So finally we get to the point where I'm ready to pay. I swipe my card. She asks to see ID. Now.... my order was under $100. It was large pieces of cheap wood. If I stole someone's debit card, I sure would go and purchase more "fun" items. Even Home Depot has more fun items that I would purchase if I had someone else's card.
Anyway, that's beside the point. She apologized several times about taking so long, and really I wasn't in a huge rush, but I was kinda happy I don't typically get someone like that.
So I go home, put more of the loft together. It starts getting dark and so I stop cutting the wood and start putting together what I have. Finally it's dark enough I'm not going to get much accomplished without some light source, and I'm not looking to get eaten by bugs, so I call it a night. And I realize, the sander I bought is apparently only useful to sand dead skin cells off someone's feet. I apparently bought a polishing sander, not what I intended. So I figured, I needed a few more things, I could go back. Let's note, that this was at least 4-5 hours after I was there the first time (and I live not even 5 minutes from Home Depot, so it's not a drive).
So, last thing I do before I leave is measure the loft so I can get the plywood cut. Before I leave the house, I take the spare tire / donut out of my vehicle to give me more room for the plywood. So I get to the store and exchange my sander and get a clamps for the tarp. Finally find someone to cut the plywood. Very nice, asks what I'm making, and we talk a bit. The one piece of plywood was cut to 46". Well, that's almost a full sheet. So the convo goes like this:
Him: what kind of vehicle do you have?
Me: SUV
Him: Large?
Me: Small
Him: This gonna fit?
Me: Oh yeah
Him: You sure?
Me: I measured before I left
Him: Okay. (in that disbelieving tone)
Ok so we get to the checkout. And who's there but my favorite cashier! The same one from earlier. So, she rings me up considerably faster at this point in time, and made a comment about how she's happy to see me back after how long I waited last time. I told her, it wasn't that bad, and she seemed happy. If I'd had my phone the first time, it wouldn't have been so bad, I would have at least amused myself. Anyway.
Ok, so we get the plywood outside and I pull up my blazer under the contractor roof so we can load. Another guy comes out to help load. It's three sheets of plywood, I think I could have done it myself, but you know. So I open the back and
Them: This isn't gonna fit.
Me: It's gonna fit.
Them: Uh.....yeah.
Me: I measured this at home, it's gonna fit.
**both guys stand there, looking at me heavily skeptical**
Me: It's gotta go in at an angle. This isn't a pick-up bed, there's not room to lay it down flat. So it needs to angle up to this side *motions* and it'll fit
**still looks skeptical, but one guy lifts up the biggest piece**
....and it fit.
The guys that were there were super nice, so I just thanked them and left, but had it been anyone else, I was secretly dying to say that I KNEW it would fit. I'm not usually the told-ya-so type, but this would have been the perfect instance for that.
Anyway, so I get home, and there's some lightning, and I think, ok I better get that tarp on before it pours. So I stand up the loft, get the tarp over, and use the newly purchased clamps to hold it down. Get inside, and it starts pouring. Awesome timing. Lol.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)