People that are contacting me are pissing me off. And yeah, they typically always do, because there's always going to be people who don't get back to you and people who don't answer their phones and so on and so forth. But in the past two months, it has been EVERY person.
Remember that person who wanted the four chins and kept putting it off? Yeah, she still hasn't been here. I told her, she has til Sunday night to pick em up, because it's not fair to the chins or to other people who want to adopt them, that they've been on hold for her for a month. And it's not. I've had other people ask about them. They potentially could have ALL been adopted and in their new homes by now. And the people with chins on my waiting list (to come into the rescue, you all could've had your chins here if she'd come and adopted them. But no, delay delay delay. The latest one was that it was raining the other day, and since then, she messaged me that she needed my adoption form again (this has gotta be the 3rd-4th time I've sent it) and that maybe she could come this weekend. Maybe. So I told her, if they're not picked up by Sunday night, they're going to be available to anyone who wants them. Cause this is ridiculous. There's no reason it should take someone a month (and it's just a few days shy, now, from the day she wanted them on hold for her) to come here and get some chins. Oh, then she was getting carpet put in, so she had to wait to set up the chin cage. And then she asked how much three would be, but wait!! she still wanted to get the fourth, but she had to wait. Wait til what, I retire?? Cause that's about the speed this is moving at. So, if Sunday comes, and she isn't here, those chins will be posted. And again, if she's reading this, I'm sorry, but this is f-ing ridiculous. This makes me question how long it would take to get vet care cause one would probably DIE if you waited a month to get vet care for most problems.
Moving along. Had someone call a few days ago asking about a chin. I told him what we had and he said, he wanted to make sure we'd have something if he made the drive. So I told him, yeah, have several, and told him all about the adoption process and he said he'd call and we'd schedule an appointment. But I think, if I recall, he wanted to come that day, and I wasn't able to do that day, and he said he's call. But he never did. Fast forward to today, I got a phone call from him saying his other daughter wanted to get a chin. Ok, so he wants two? No, he already got one elsewhere. And he said, yeah, we talked, but I never told him at all about the adoption process. *bangs head against wall* No, of course not. Cause I didn't send him the adoption form and care packet last time or anything, nooooo. Oh wait, yes I did. So I re-sent it to him today. He wanted to come today. I can't do today because I have things I need to do, and the contractor's coming, and the dryer people are coming, I don't have time today. Oh, so he'll call me. Riiiight. Oh and the best part was that, considering I sent him the care packet and all, weeks ago, today he asked me if the cage with the plastic shelves and the slide was ok. I told him the size is fine, but those shelves and slide need to go. Apparently didn't read that care packet.
On that note..let's go back to that cage. Who has EVER seen an animal use a slide? I mean, really?
On a positive note, because I really do hate coming on here just to whine, the contractor was here and has the walls up. Working on drywall and then they will get painted and then I will be able to move the saws in and the store can open back up. Yay! Well, not really yay for me, because I have like 10 orders waiting to be made, and, like every time I open up the store, I'll get 20 more... and I'm not complaining... but this gets me way behind when I have 30 orders at once, and people wonder why I'm always behind..... because, those 30 orders, depending on what they are, will take awhile to do, and I'll get more orders while I'm doing those, so I'm never actually finished with orders.. an the cycle goes on and on and on and always behind. I'd like to not be behind, don't get me wrong. But most of my orders want shelves or a custom house, and those take way longer to do than to sit here and put herbs in baggies. So I apologize for always behind behind, but blame the fact that everyone orders all at once, rather than me. I am one person, have to care for all the critters, am still moving in a house... and I'm sorry if I'm not looking forward to the influx of orders.
And I think that's it for the moment.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
Just to further illustrate my point....
Few days ago I was talking about how people are really losing any sort of common courtesy lately. I see that because they don't get back to me, they can't even wait for me to call back... that sort of thin.
Well, yesterday and this morning have been other examples of this. I had someone text me andsay they have a chin and are looking for another, and asked what I have. Told em, mostly females, butI have a male that will be ready eventually, and I asked what they have. They have (they think) a female. So I said, ok, I have several females for you to pick from, and you could bring yours here to see if they get along. And... end of conversation. I dunno what happened. I'm thinking one of several things though. Either (1) they wanted a male, so, me saying, here's some females, was end of conversation, (2) they looked up how far they are from me (area code for them was Tennessee) and were like nevermind, or (3) who knows. But would it be that difficult to just say, ok, no thanks? I mean, no, I get nothing.
Had a guy call this morning at 9:30. I had a chin dropoff and other phone calls to return, and the basement needed a bit more prepping cause now the contractor may come today. So I did that, and then sat down to return his call at around 11:30. Oh, he already found a chin elsewhere. I don't get it. See, if I was looking for something, I call one person. Wait for them to respond. I mean, you don't wait forever, cause not all places ever respond, but like wait a few days, move on. Not, call 20 places and then its a race to see who calls you back first. This sort of stuff just irks me. I mean, I would like to call people back the second they call.... but I don't just live the rescue life 24/7, I also sleep, I have other things to do.... sitting around waiting for rescue phone calls just isn't going to happen.
Well, yesterday and this morning have been other examples of this. I had someone text me andsay they have a chin and are looking for another, and asked what I have. Told em, mostly females, butI have a male that will be ready eventually, and I asked what they have. They have (they think) a female. So I said, ok, I have several females for you to pick from, and you could bring yours here to see if they get along. And... end of conversation. I dunno what happened. I'm thinking one of several things though. Either (1) they wanted a male, so, me saying, here's some females, was end of conversation, (2) they looked up how far they are from me (area code for them was Tennessee) and were like nevermind, or (3) who knows. But would it be that difficult to just say, ok, no thanks? I mean, no, I get nothing.
Had a guy call this morning at 9:30. I had a chin dropoff and other phone calls to return, and the basement needed a bit more prepping cause now the contractor may come today. So I did that, and then sat down to return his call at around 11:30. Oh, he already found a chin elsewhere. I don't get it. See, if I was looking for something, I call one person. Wait for them to respond. I mean, you don't wait forever, cause not all places ever respond, but like wait a few days, move on. Not, call 20 places and then its a race to see who calls you back first. This sort of stuff just irks me. I mean, I would like to call people back the second they call.... but I don't just live the rescue life 24/7, I also sleep, I have other things to do.... sitting around waiting for rescue phone calls just isn't going to happen.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Canceling Again
So, the person who was supposed to come for their four chins cancelled again. They don't like driving in the rain. I can't really fault em for that, but if it rains every day that we schedule, this could go on for months. Cause this is after last week, where they didn't show up, didn't call, didn't anything, until I messaged and asked what happened to them. Oh, they had to work. But couldn't take the two minutes it would take to log onto facebook and say, hey, I can't come.
So now, they're saying they can't come today and they haven't even set up the cage yet. And why not? They KNEW they were coming today because they wanted to come Sunday and I had plans. But no, wait til the last minute. I understand people work, but shit, if I can find time to get chins ready for adoption and keep all the chins clean, fed, etc, and unpack, the average person can find time to set up a cage. Are they gonna find time to CLEAN that cage when they have the chins?
Needless to say, I am peeved. I do not have the patience for people who keep canceling and canceling. This is the same person who took me a month to get me girl scout cookies, where I was always available, yet she kept rescheduling.
And I really don't care if she's reading this right now, because I'm telling the truth and this is really pissing me off.
I don't "do favors." There are policies for the rescue for a reason. Chins can be held for two weeks without a deposit or adoption form. It's been over two weeks. I've had other people ask about the chins this person has on hold. I've told them, they're on hold. They've said, ok, we'll get a chin elsewhere. And now this person is telling me, maybe she only wants three instead of the four. And naturally, the fourth chin is the one that I had 2 people emailing about wanting to adopt. So potentially lost out on these chins being adopted and gone by now because they're on hold for someone that I am STILL waiting to find out, how many chins, and when she wants to come.
^ That is the reason for the two week hold limit. Because otherwise I start loosing out on other opportunities to find the chins homes. And naturally, I still don't have an adoption form or a deposit. And granted this person is out in Valpo, so its not a 5 minute drive, but I think mailing a check is an option for most people.
Oh wait, get this... she asked for a discount on all the chins. Further discount than what I'd offer with multi-chin discount. And she says to make up for it, she'll come help out at the rescue. Really? When?! She can't even make it over here to pick up her chins and drop off her cookies! But she's gonna find time to help?? I can't wait to see this.
It's a bad sign when, before I get out of bed, I check my facebook, and I have a message, and I'm 95% sure it's a certain person. Because that's almost never good.
So, now just waiting to hear back from this person as to when this circus can continue. I told her, she needs to pick up the chins within the next week cause she's already exhausted her 2 weeks. I actually asked her too, what type of shelves she has for the cage. Because that's a big one, as far as the questions go, and at least if I knew that, we could get a little farther in terms of being closer to adoption.
Which reminds me. I hate when people bring adoption forms the day they come to adopt. No matter what they say, I always feel rushed going over them, and when people get a lot of things wrong, then I spend a ton of time regurgitating the care packet for them, which they always have noted on the adoption form that they "have read." Not well, apparently. Most rescues require that you fill it out and give em a few days to get back to you. Maybe I should institute that. Would avoid this shit where people come by and then I have to debate, should I adopt to them when they have the wrong this, or the wrong this, and they "say" they'll fix it, but if they don't feel like it, they have no reason to fix it after they've gotten the chins?
And by the way, I have nothing against this person specifically. It doesn't help that this is the second go round (first with the girl scout cookies), but even that aside... I don't have any patience for people who don't show up and then reschedule and cancel, and so on and so forth. A lot of rescues will not hold anything without a deposit or a set date to come pick up. I've always felt that's kinda mean, because a chin could be adopted out form under someone who didn't have their work schedule yet and couldn't set up a date. But then, they could have sent in a deposit. There is a reason they do these things. Versus me, I let myself be a doormat and people walk all over me because I feel bad for these people and don't want to do that to them. But I completely see why other rescues do it. They don't deal with this sort of shit.
So now, they're saying they can't come today and they haven't even set up the cage yet. And why not? They KNEW they were coming today because they wanted to come Sunday and I had plans. But no, wait til the last minute. I understand people work, but shit, if I can find time to get chins ready for adoption and keep all the chins clean, fed, etc, and unpack, the average person can find time to set up a cage. Are they gonna find time to CLEAN that cage when they have the chins?
Needless to say, I am peeved. I do not have the patience for people who keep canceling and canceling. This is the same person who took me a month to get me girl scout cookies, where I was always available, yet she kept rescheduling.
And I really don't care if she's reading this right now, because I'm telling the truth and this is really pissing me off.
I don't "do favors." There are policies for the rescue for a reason. Chins can be held for two weeks without a deposit or adoption form. It's been over two weeks. I've had other people ask about the chins this person has on hold. I've told them, they're on hold. They've said, ok, we'll get a chin elsewhere. And now this person is telling me, maybe she only wants three instead of the four. And naturally, the fourth chin is the one that I had 2 people emailing about wanting to adopt. So potentially lost out on these chins being adopted and gone by now because they're on hold for someone that I am STILL waiting to find out, how many chins, and when she wants to come.
^ That is the reason for the two week hold limit. Because otherwise I start loosing out on other opportunities to find the chins homes. And naturally, I still don't have an adoption form or a deposit. And granted this person is out in Valpo, so its not a 5 minute drive, but I think mailing a check is an option for most people.
Oh wait, get this... she asked for a discount on all the chins. Further discount than what I'd offer with multi-chin discount. And she says to make up for it, she'll come help out at the rescue. Really? When?! She can't even make it over here to pick up her chins and drop off her cookies! But she's gonna find time to help?? I can't wait to see this.
It's a bad sign when, before I get out of bed, I check my facebook, and I have a message, and I'm 95% sure it's a certain person. Because that's almost never good.
So, now just waiting to hear back from this person as to when this circus can continue. I told her, she needs to pick up the chins within the next week cause she's already exhausted her 2 weeks. I actually asked her too, what type of shelves she has for the cage. Because that's a big one, as far as the questions go, and at least if I knew that, we could get a little farther in terms of being closer to adoption.
Which reminds me. I hate when people bring adoption forms the day they come to adopt. No matter what they say, I always feel rushed going over them, and when people get a lot of things wrong, then I spend a ton of time regurgitating the care packet for them, which they always have noted on the adoption form that they "have read." Not well, apparently. Most rescues require that you fill it out and give em a few days to get back to you. Maybe I should institute that. Would avoid this shit where people come by and then I have to debate, should I adopt to them when they have the wrong this, or the wrong this, and they "say" they'll fix it, but if they don't feel like it, they have no reason to fix it after they've gotten the chins?
And by the way, I have nothing against this person specifically. It doesn't help that this is the second go round (first with the girl scout cookies), but even that aside... I don't have any patience for people who don't show up and then reschedule and cancel, and so on and so forth. A lot of rescues will not hold anything without a deposit or a set date to come pick up. I've always felt that's kinda mean, because a chin could be adopted out form under someone who didn't have their work schedule yet and couldn't set up a date. But then, they could have sent in a deposit. There is a reason they do these things. Versus me, I let myself be a doormat and people walk all over me because I feel bad for these people and don't want to do that to them. But I completely see why other rescues do it. They don't deal with this sort of shit.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Delayers....
^ that would be the term for people I want to strangle.
I got girl scout cookies this year... a month after they came in. It wasn't like, we waited a month, it was more like, I would be like, ok, when can I get em? She says, oh I'll drop by Saturday. She doesn't. I message, she says ok I'll call you tomorrow. She doesn't call. Sets up another Saturday. Doesn't show.... and so on and so forth for a month. Now, that all said, she had decent excuses (something about work, car broke down, etc etc)... but that didn't change the fact that it'd been a month since the cookies came in for me to get them.
Fast forward a bit. This person has adopted some critters from here before and wants to add to the collection with chins. They have a decent cage and four (yes, FOUR) on hold. This is a big deal because if they took all four, I could bring in several people's chins off my waiting list. Well, it was difficult just getting her the adoption form and paperwork, as nothing wanted to open on the computer, and, as I'm aware, you can't fill out the forms on the phone. Fine, I told her, bring it when you come. And she wanted to put down a deposit on the chins. And a discount. What should have been $350 worth of chins (if sold separately), became $300 of chins (with multi-chin discount), and then down to $250. And she wants a cage, which I just figured out today will be $130. We'll see what she thinks of the price.
Anyway, let's go to today. I had her marked down to come by between 11-12. Well, I got up at 10, to make sure I figured out the cage price before she got her (cause I said I would). 11 am passes. 12 noon passes. 1 pm passes... and I message her on facebook, asking if she's still coming. She asks me to call her in 15 minutes. I tell her that I can't stay on the phone long, because I should have already left the house to accomplish the other things on my to-do list for the day. So it's been 9 minutes now. When it hits 15, I will call her.
-----
Here's the problem with this. If the adoption goes through, that's a lot of chins adopted and a lot of open space to take in more chins. If it doesn't, that's a lot of wasted time with chins on hold. See, with a chin on hold, people look at that and pass it by. Well, had the chin not been on hold, they might have asked about it and possibly adopted it. But when they sit on hold forever, that loses out on potential homes.
Other problem -- dragging it out. You cancel, or heck, even just call/text and say that you're going to be late, I'm perfectly fine with it. But here's the thing -- the people who actually show up tend to show up 3 hours late, without ever contacting me. The others simply don't show up, don't call, don't anything. And the way I hear from them is because I will contact them and ask if they forgot they were supposed to come. Cue long line of excuses why they didn't and why they couldn't possibly have called.
But back to dragging it out. This happens all the time. Because I had two chins on hold, awhile back, for someone who was going to move. Then that didn't happen. Then she was going to get an apartment, oh, wait, a house, and by the time all was said and done, three months had passed and I didn't feel she was any closer to getting the chins than the day we first talked. Surprise, she didn't end up getting them. So, while those chins were on hold for her for three months, they could have been adopted and in someone else's home (and likely would have been, because I had someone on my waiting list for a pair the entire time... and they ended up adopting the pair). Same with this situation.... even if they are adopted, in the end, by this person -- here's the thing -- they've sat here for months and months, taking up room where other chins that need to come into the rescue could be. I mean, I don't mind keeping em here, but at the same time, I understand that the people on the waiting list (to dropoff their critters) want to bring em. And people delaying adoptions isn't helping that.
Alright, so I called, right? She said she got a call from work at 6 this morning saying she had to come into work or get fired. So she went in. Which, I would too, but here's the thing... she couldn't have sent me a message before she left saying, "hey, I can't come today?" You know? I mean that's all I ask. Cause now, I been sitting here putting away things, not leaving the house to do the things I actually need to do, since 10 am, and its now 1:26 pm. This is why people need to have common courtesy and call me. Cause see, you didn't show up, but it doesn't matter that I live here, because I just wasted 3.5 hours of my time waiting for you. Pain in the ass.
She's supposed to come Thursday. We shall see.
I got girl scout cookies this year... a month after they came in. It wasn't like, we waited a month, it was more like, I would be like, ok, when can I get em? She says, oh I'll drop by Saturday. She doesn't. I message, she says ok I'll call you tomorrow. She doesn't call. Sets up another Saturday. Doesn't show.... and so on and so forth for a month. Now, that all said, she had decent excuses (something about work, car broke down, etc etc)... but that didn't change the fact that it'd been a month since the cookies came in for me to get them.
Fast forward a bit. This person has adopted some critters from here before and wants to add to the collection with chins. They have a decent cage and four (yes, FOUR) on hold. This is a big deal because if they took all four, I could bring in several people's chins off my waiting list. Well, it was difficult just getting her the adoption form and paperwork, as nothing wanted to open on the computer, and, as I'm aware, you can't fill out the forms on the phone. Fine, I told her, bring it when you come. And she wanted to put down a deposit on the chins. And a discount. What should have been $350 worth of chins (if sold separately), became $300 of chins (with multi-chin discount), and then down to $250. And she wants a cage, which I just figured out today will be $130. We'll see what she thinks of the price.
Anyway, let's go to today. I had her marked down to come by between 11-12. Well, I got up at 10, to make sure I figured out the cage price before she got her (cause I said I would). 11 am passes. 12 noon passes. 1 pm passes... and I message her on facebook, asking if she's still coming. She asks me to call her in 15 minutes. I tell her that I can't stay on the phone long, because I should have already left the house to accomplish the other things on my to-do list for the day. So it's been 9 minutes now. When it hits 15, I will call her.
-----
Here's the problem with this. If the adoption goes through, that's a lot of chins adopted and a lot of open space to take in more chins. If it doesn't, that's a lot of wasted time with chins on hold. See, with a chin on hold, people look at that and pass it by. Well, had the chin not been on hold, they might have asked about it and possibly adopted it. But when they sit on hold forever, that loses out on potential homes.
Other problem -- dragging it out. You cancel, or heck, even just call/text and say that you're going to be late, I'm perfectly fine with it. But here's the thing -- the people who actually show up tend to show up 3 hours late, without ever contacting me. The others simply don't show up, don't call, don't anything. And the way I hear from them is because I will contact them and ask if they forgot they were supposed to come. Cue long line of excuses why they didn't and why they couldn't possibly have called.
But back to dragging it out. This happens all the time. Because I had two chins on hold, awhile back, for someone who was going to move. Then that didn't happen. Then she was going to get an apartment, oh, wait, a house, and by the time all was said and done, three months had passed and I didn't feel she was any closer to getting the chins than the day we first talked. Surprise, she didn't end up getting them. So, while those chins were on hold for her for three months, they could have been adopted and in someone else's home (and likely would have been, because I had someone on my waiting list for a pair the entire time... and they ended up adopting the pair). Same with this situation.... even if they are adopted, in the end, by this person -- here's the thing -- they've sat here for months and months, taking up room where other chins that need to come into the rescue could be. I mean, I don't mind keeping em here, but at the same time, I understand that the people on the waiting list (to dropoff their critters) want to bring em. And people delaying adoptions isn't helping that.
Alright, so I called, right? She said she got a call from work at 6 this morning saying she had to come into work or get fired. So she went in. Which, I would too, but here's the thing... she couldn't have sent me a message before she left saying, "hey, I can't come today?" You know? I mean that's all I ask. Cause now, I been sitting here putting away things, not leaving the house to do the things I actually need to do, since 10 am, and its now 1:26 pm. This is why people need to have common courtesy and call me. Cause see, you didn't show up, but it doesn't matter that I live here, because I just wasted 3.5 hours of my time waiting for you. Pain in the ass.
She's supposed to come Thursday. We shall see.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Long Time No Talk
So, I know it's been forever, and a few people have been kindly hinting, hey, what happened to the blog. Others have been cattle-prodding. For those - I don't get paid for this, and caring for the animals and trying to get settled in the house is way more important to me than sitting down to write basically a diary of what I've done all day. I like doing it, but when I get super mad and upset emails and even, heck, threatening emails about how you won't buy from me anymore if I don't get back to blogging -- wait, you buy from me because I blog? ooook -- hey, feel free to go elsewhere. I value my customers, but I also value my free time and this is not top-of-my-list priority. Sorry, keeping those cages clean and stink-free is higher up on the list.
Anyway, that out of the way now, it's been interesting. I bought a house and been moving in since Feb. 14th. Wait, you say, that was over a month and a half ago. I know. Problem is, the average person has their crap, but then me, I have all my stuff. And all the rescue stuff, and rescue animals, and rescue supplies to sell, and... it's a lot of stuff. Also, I've been putting the stuff in the garage and pulling it out as I can put it away. Well... there's only so much room. So it's basically been, load up the garage, unpack some things, take the boxes back, load up some more stuff. There's not a ton left at my parents' house. Some things upstairs in my bedroom and some rescue stuff and random my stuff in the basement. Working on getting that out, but need to organize the garage a bit better first.
Yesterday was highly productive in terms of chin stuff. I couldn't sleep very well, so I was up into the early hours of the morning putting away things and organizing. Some things can't go into their right place until I have a few more pieces of rescue furniture / tables into place, and the one is needing to be painted, so that won't be quite yet. But one of these days. But now there's not such a disaster pile of stuff that needs to be organized and sorted. I do have oodles of stuff that needs to be washed though. If the light for the basement sink worked, I would totally wash down there, and set up a table to hold the stuff to dry, but naturally, it doesn't, and the electrical guy hasn't called me back yet. So its all being brought up to wash.
So, aside from putting away my stuff in the house, that leaves me with quite a few large cages to clean. Cause everyone who's been bringing over a chin lately literally has a fridge-sized cage. Which is great for the chin... but the cages are miserable to sell, because a lot of people, whether they'd like a cage that size or not, don't have room for a cage that large in their house. Ah well.
So, let me share a pet peeve of mine. People texting. If you know me at all, I text all the time. But that said, chin people texting tend to be a pain and an aggravation. Let me explain why. The people that are my customers who text and ask if they can come over to pick up food, and we set a time and they come over -- no problem with this. My problem is that, this is how the average text goes:
Them: Hi, I saw you have chinchillas for sale, can you tell me more about them?
Me: Sure, I have quite a few, so let me ask you what you're looking for. Young/old? Male/female?
....and that's it. I never get a text back. And that's why I don't type out, "well I have this one female, but she's kinda crabby, more of a non-kid home, but then I have this other one, beige, her birthdate is this, she's sweet, but can bark, so she can be intimidating, but not bad, her adoption fee is this," and so on and so forth. Because see, I would be super mad if I typed all of that.... and then got no response.
Or for some, they'll ask if I have chins of a certain color. And I'll say, well, I have one chin that color, he's this old and this is what he's like... and again, never get anything back. Is a "no thanks, I'm looking for something different" so difficult?
Emails aren't any better lately. In the past week, I've gotten several emails about the ad I have up for the 3 (well, now 5) month old female. All of those emails have asked, do you have anything younger. And I have a 4-ish month old grey rescue female, and so I tell them that. And she's less expensive than the beige, so its not like the price jump makes them not email back.... but I have heard back from all of 0 of them. Like really? And I mean, its not a huge thing, but I did take my time to respond to that email and tell them, this is what I have, this is what it's like, and they can't even say, no, not interested? I mean, where is common courtesy anymore?
That all said, good news -- Gigi was adopted! She's probably still on my website so I do need to take her down, but she went home again! Here's hoping this is her final home, as this is like her fourth.
I have oodles of available chins -- I need to take pictures and list them. Maybe later today.
As far as the store opening back up, since I know you are all waiting around for that (also have gotten plenty of nasty emails about that -- and again, if you don't like it, I'm not chaining you to my store, you're free to go elsewhere -- telling me how long its been closed and how upset you are doesn't make my contractor go any faster). See, the thing is, the saws are still at my parents' house. For them to be moved here, I need a wall put up in the basement. Sawdust gets everywhere, and I refuse to coat everything I own with it (which is also why moving everything out of my parents' basement is taking so long -- I have to wipe everything off from the inches of sawdust covering it). So, until the wall's up, saws stay at my parents' house, and I can't cut wood... which makes up a good chunk of my business. Waiting on an estimate for that now.
What else. Oh! People are seemingly more impatient the more time I spend doing this. I'll return someone's email about a chin and they'll ask for pics, so I take pics the next day, and send them the pics, and I get "oh, I already bought a chin elsewhere." They couldn't wait a day for pictures?
It's just been a frustrating few weeks.
Oh another thing -- I finally have chins that for sure are pregnant -- just waiting on babies now...
Winx lost about 100 grams over the course of the move. I have been horribly bad about giving him his weight gain/appetite supplements so I started giving those to him, and he's held a bit more steady... but I'm watching his food bowl, cause it doesn't appear to be going down. But he's got a week to make it go down and if it doesn't, trip to the vet. He's still pooing so he's eating something, but just not doing as well as I'd like.
I found the liners for my runs! I had, way back when, fleece liners made for runs. I only have three, and it wouldn't be practical to have enough for all the runs, but the idea was so that if I have a mom with babies, or a sick chin that needed monitoring, I can use the liners. Well, I had gone through everything under the sun to find them at my parents' house and I never did turn them up, which was so frustrating because I knew I had em. I kept saying, I'll find em when I move. And I did. I had a bag that had some guinea pig fabric tunnel sort of things in it, and beneath the tunnels... run liners! Yay!!
Another thing. I have gotten so many emails about meeting lately. As in, meeting somewhere to adopt a chin, other than the rescue. Now, tell me, if you want to adopt a dog from the humane society, can you ask them to meet you in the Walmart parking lot? No, I don't think so. Well, you can ask, but they're not going to do it. The same is true of here. And naturally, I will get, in response, well, this one picture you have on your "happy customers" is outside. Yeah, typically, that is when someone who runs another rescue is adopting a critter. I trust them to not drop it and lose it forever. I can't say I trust the average person. Chins get dropped at the rescue ALL THE TIME. Here, they can be caught. Outside? Not so likely. Sorry, you gotta come here to adopt. That's all there is to it.
That said, I am not open 24/7. I don't mind late night texts, as I likely am up if you text at 11 pm... but when you're still texting at 2 am and ask can you com over to see the chins now? No. I mean, are you kidding? Even if I am up, that does not mean the rescue is "open." Now, I am not my parents, I do not think 8 pm is too late. But lately everyone's been wanting to come at 10/11 pm or LATER and sorry, it's not happening.
Another thing -- if you are looking for a cage, let's say, and ask what I have. I will tell you about the cages I have that are clean. And if, by chance, I have cages that aren't clean, I may mention them depending on how long I think it'll take to clean them. But here's a hint -- if you want a cage (we are talking used cages here, which are pickup only) and don't care if it's clean or not... there is a discount on the price I would normally charge if I don't have to clean the cage. Cause it takes me forever to get em nice and sparkling. If you don't mind that you may have to hose it off or scrub it down or whatever? I can be flexible. Because that saves me time and effort and removes a cage from my house. That said, this is within reason. I usually do 20% off the normal cage price. So if the cage is $100, it would be $80. If it's $15, it's going to be $12. Granted, it's also a lot smaller of a cage if it's a $15 cage. But again, emailing to tell me my prices are too high, do I have anything cheaper, and when I don't, going on about how I must be profitting a ton off these cages, does not endear me to you. And sure, if I get a cage donated and then sell it, the money I make only has to pay for my time and supplies spent cleaning it. Which can be hours depending on the state of the cage. But wait... let's not forget the 100-something animals that come through the rescue every year... those cage sales help keep food in those critters. It's not like I sell a cage and pocket the cash. But, it will be cheaper if I don't have to scrub it down. So if you want a cheaper cage, keep that in mind.
Um... that may be it for the moment.
Anyway, that out of the way now, it's been interesting. I bought a house and been moving in since Feb. 14th. Wait, you say, that was over a month and a half ago. I know. Problem is, the average person has their crap, but then me, I have all my stuff. And all the rescue stuff, and rescue animals, and rescue supplies to sell, and... it's a lot of stuff. Also, I've been putting the stuff in the garage and pulling it out as I can put it away. Well... there's only so much room. So it's basically been, load up the garage, unpack some things, take the boxes back, load up some more stuff. There's not a ton left at my parents' house. Some things upstairs in my bedroom and some rescue stuff and random my stuff in the basement. Working on getting that out, but need to organize the garage a bit better first.
Yesterday was highly productive in terms of chin stuff. I couldn't sleep very well, so I was up into the early hours of the morning putting away things and organizing. Some things can't go into their right place until I have a few more pieces of rescue furniture / tables into place, and the one is needing to be painted, so that won't be quite yet. But one of these days. But now there's not such a disaster pile of stuff that needs to be organized and sorted. I do have oodles of stuff that needs to be washed though. If the light for the basement sink worked, I would totally wash down there, and set up a table to hold the stuff to dry, but naturally, it doesn't, and the electrical guy hasn't called me back yet. So its all being brought up to wash.
So, aside from putting away my stuff in the house, that leaves me with quite a few large cages to clean. Cause everyone who's been bringing over a chin lately literally has a fridge-sized cage. Which is great for the chin... but the cages are miserable to sell, because a lot of people, whether they'd like a cage that size or not, don't have room for a cage that large in their house. Ah well.
So, let me share a pet peeve of mine. People texting. If you know me at all, I text all the time. But that said, chin people texting tend to be a pain and an aggravation. Let me explain why. The people that are my customers who text and ask if they can come over to pick up food, and we set a time and they come over -- no problem with this. My problem is that, this is how the average text goes:
Them: Hi, I saw you have chinchillas for sale, can you tell me more about them?
Me: Sure, I have quite a few, so let me ask you what you're looking for. Young/old? Male/female?
....and that's it. I never get a text back. And that's why I don't type out, "well I have this one female, but she's kinda crabby, more of a non-kid home, but then I have this other one, beige, her birthdate is this, she's sweet, but can bark, so she can be intimidating, but not bad, her adoption fee is this," and so on and so forth. Because see, I would be super mad if I typed all of that.... and then got no response.
Or for some, they'll ask if I have chins of a certain color. And I'll say, well, I have one chin that color, he's this old and this is what he's like... and again, never get anything back. Is a "no thanks, I'm looking for something different" so difficult?
Emails aren't any better lately. In the past week, I've gotten several emails about the ad I have up for the 3 (well, now 5) month old female. All of those emails have asked, do you have anything younger. And I have a 4-ish month old grey rescue female, and so I tell them that. And she's less expensive than the beige, so its not like the price jump makes them not email back.... but I have heard back from all of 0 of them. Like really? And I mean, its not a huge thing, but I did take my time to respond to that email and tell them, this is what I have, this is what it's like, and they can't even say, no, not interested? I mean, where is common courtesy anymore?
That all said, good news -- Gigi was adopted! She's probably still on my website so I do need to take her down, but she went home again! Here's hoping this is her final home, as this is like her fourth.
I have oodles of available chins -- I need to take pictures and list them. Maybe later today.
As far as the store opening back up, since I know you are all waiting around for that (also have gotten plenty of nasty emails about that -- and again, if you don't like it, I'm not chaining you to my store, you're free to go elsewhere -- telling me how long its been closed and how upset you are doesn't make my contractor go any faster). See, the thing is, the saws are still at my parents' house. For them to be moved here, I need a wall put up in the basement. Sawdust gets everywhere, and I refuse to coat everything I own with it (which is also why moving everything out of my parents' basement is taking so long -- I have to wipe everything off from the inches of sawdust covering it). So, until the wall's up, saws stay at my parents' house, and I can't cut wood... which makes up a good chunk of my business. Waiting on an estimate for that now.
What else. Oh! People are seemingly more impatient the more time I spend doing this. I'll return someone's email about a chin and they'll ask for pics, so I take pics the next day, and send them the pics, and I get "oh, I already bought a chin elsewhere." They couldn't wait a day for pictures?
It's just been a frustrating few weeks.
Oh another thing -- I finally have chins that for sure are pregnant -- just waiting on babies now...
Winx lost about 100 grams over the course of the move. I have been horribly bad about giving him his weight gain/appetite supplements so I started giving those to him, and he's held a bit more steady... but I'm watching his food bowl, cause it doesn't appear to be going down. But he's got a week to make it go down and if it doesn't, trip to the vet. He's still pooing so he's eating something, but just not doing as well as I'd like.
I found the liners for my runs! I had, way back when, fleece liners made for runs. I only have three, and it wouldn't be practical to have enough for all the runs, but the idea was so that if I have a mom with babies, or a sick chin that needed monitoring, I can use the liners. Well, I had gone through everything under the sun to find them at my parents' house and I never did turn them up, which was so frustrating because I knew I had em. I kept saying, I'll find em when I move. And I did. I had a bag that had some guinea pig fabric tunnel sort of things in it, and beneath the tunnels... run liners! Yay!!
Another thing. I have gotten so many emails about meeting lately. As in, meeting somewhere to adopt a chin, other than the rescue. Now, tell me, if you want to adopt a dog from the humane society, can you ask them to meet you in the Walmart parking lot? No, I don't think so. Well, you can ask, but they're not going to do it. The same is true of here. And naturally, I will get, in response, well, this one picture you have on your "happy customers" is outside. Yeah, typically, that is when someone who runs another rescue is adopting a critter. I trust them to not drop it and lose it forever. I can't say I trust the average person. Chins get dropped at the rescue ALL THE TIME. Here, they can be caught. Outside? Not so likely. Sorry, you gotta come here to adopt. That's all there is to it.
That said, I am not open 24/7. I don't mind late night texts, as I likely am up if you text at 11 pm... but when you're still texting at 2 am and ask can you com over to see the chins now? No. I mean, are you kidding? Even if I am up, that does not mean the rescue is "open." Now, I am not my parents, I do not think 8 pm is too late. But lately everyone's been wanting to come at 10/11 pm or LATER and sorry, it's not happening.
Another thing -- if you are looking for a cage, let's say, and ask what I have. I will tell you about the cages I have that are clean. And if, by chance, I have cages that aren't clean, I may mention them depending on how long I think it'll take to clean them. But here's a hint -- if you want a cage (we are talking used cages here, which are pickup only) and don't care if it's clean or not... there is a discount on the price I would normally charge if I don't have to clean the cage. Cause it takes me forever to get em nice and sparkling. If you don't mind that you may have to hose it off or scrub it down or whatever? I can be flexible. Because that saves me time and effort and removes a cage from my house. That said, this is within reason. I usually do 20% off the normal cage price. So if the cage is $100, it would be $80. If it's $15, it's going to be $12. Granted, it's also a lot smaller of a cage if it's a $15 cage. But again, emailing to tell me my prices are too high, do I have anything cheaper, and when I don't, going on about how I must be profitting a ton off these cages, does not endear me to you. And sure, if I get a cage donated and then sell it, the money I make only has to pay for my time and supplies spent cleaning it. Which can be hours depending on the state of the cage. But wait... let's not forget the 100-something animals that come through the rescue every year... those cage sales help keep food in those critters. It's not like I sell a cage and pocket the cash. But, it will be cheaper if I don't have to scrub it down. So if you want a cheaper cage, keep that in mind.
Um... that may be it for the moment.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Productive Day
So, yesterday was a productive day. I bribed a couple (regular customers) with store credit and they came over to help clean and move things around.
Before they got there, I filled all water bottles and put some food in the hoppers (don't want to put too much, cause moving cages tends to jarr those around and the food all falls out). Natalie showed up first, about the same time as my adoptive home. Cause.... Carlos went home! Here's hoping it works out for them :)
So, we got that taken care of, and started on the cages. Started adding shavings to empty pans and realized, I am a pan short. Ooook. Texted Meredith this morning to ask if she has an extra pan. Well, anyway, filled those up, emptied out all dirty pans in the short stack of runs, and started moving chins from the FNs into the runs. Moved most em over, and moved onto the run stack that's on the rolling stand. Well... that stand is going to be taken to the new house this Saturday, so those needed to be moved. Moved a table across from the stand, and one by one, moved the runs to the table. Cleaning pans as we went.
So now, all the runs are on tables, both run stands are free, just need to be cleaned off and moved to the new place.
So, we started on the FNs. The yellow/orange one just needed a bit more wiping down and it was ready to be moved over. Worked on the others, pulling out liners, sanding down shelves/wood items, spraying/cleaning pans. Toothbrushing doors, sides where the pan meets the metal, wiping off the top of the cage, and wiping the shelf on the bottom. Took several hours to get this all done, I think they left at like 9:30.
So then I went back down and completely filled all the food bowls/hoppers, re-put all the water bottles on the cage (the runs are heavy enough as it is... much less if you're trying to not tip em in a way that will make the bottles fall out of their holders), added water bottles to cages that needed em.
So tonight, I need to get toys hung up in the new runs, the CN needs to have the water bottle holders cut off of it (they got badly bent trying to pull em off and I don't want to break bars... cheaper to buy new water bottle holders). Also need to get the run stands vacuumed and cleaned off so they can be moved....
Before they got there, I filled all water bottles and put some food in the hoppers (don't want to put too much, cause moving cages tends to jarr those around and the food all falls out). Natalie showed up first, about the same time as my adoptive home. Cause.... Carlos went home! Here's hoping it works out for them :)
So, we got that taken care of, and started on the cages. Started adding shavings to empty pans and realized, I am a pan short. Ooook. Texted Meredith this morning to ask if she has an extra pan. Well, anyway, filled those up, emptied out all dirty pans in the short stack of runs, and started moving chins from the FNs into the runs. Moved most em over, and moved onto the run stack that's on the rolling stand. Well... that stand is going to be taken to the new house this Saturday, so those needed to be moved. Moved a table across from the stand, and one by one, moved the runs to the table. Cleaning pans as we went.
So now, all the runs are on tables, both run stands are free, just need to be cleaned off and moved to the new place.
So, we started on the FNs. The yellow/orange one just needed a bit more wiping down and it was ready to be moved over. Worked on the others, pulling out liners, sanding down shelves/wood items, spraying/cleaning pans. Toothbrushing doors, sides where the pan meets the metal, wiping off the top of the cage, and wiping the shelf on the bottom. Took several hours to get this all done, I think they left at like 9:30.
So then I went back down and completely filled all the food bowls/hoppers, re-put all the water bottles on the cage (the runs are heavy enough as it is... much less if you're trying to not tip em in a way that will make the bottles fall out of their holders), added water bottles to cages that needed em.
So tonight, I need to get toys hung up in the new runs, the CN needs to have the water bottle holders cut off of it (they got badly bent trying to pull em off and I don't want to break bars... cheaper to buy new water bottle holders). Also need to get the run stands vacuumed and cleaned off so they can be moved....
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Moving and Adoptions
Ok, so I finally have a closing date on the house and am prepping to move. Yay!! So, been trying to get stuff ready.
Natalie is coming over today to help me clean the FNs so they can be moved with the rest of the stuff on Saturday, if possible. Will be working on accomplishing that later tonight.
Had two people call about Carlos. The first was an older lady who recently lost a chin (out of the pair of males she had) and was interested in Carlos. In talking to her, we discovered he might be more of a baggage-laden chin than she wanted, so she's going to end up purchasing Gypsy's mosaic male. The one that got a 2nd place at the show this past weekend. She said she appreciated my honesty / candor about what type of a chin he was, as she said she'd had some not-so-great experiences with adopting critters that aren't really what the rescue said they were. Yeah, that doesn't happen here. So I emailed her the care packet, adoption form, and address, and she's set to be here next Wednesday to come adopt.
Then got an email, complete with adoption form (which only happens when the stars line up just perfectly), from someone wanting to adopt Carlos. They have other males they want to intro him to, and if that doesn't work, they said they may have a sister who will take him, or bring him back, but fingers crossed it all works out. They emailed yesterday, coming to adopt today. They wanted to come yesterday, but I was busy digging through my stuff that needs to be packed and missed their phone call and email until it was late at night.
Now, I don't think everyone needs to be that fast. And that person has just about everything they could need, chin-wise (and the correct stuff to boot), so that does make that person easier than the average adoption. But note.... they were able to do everything in a day or two.
Versus... when I messaged that lady that had Carlos on hold for two weeks, and then I told her, ok, I can't hold him any longer. Told her hey, just get me an adoption form, and we can re-start you getting a chin any time. She was fine with that. Few days later I put up the post that the large cage was up for offers, and she emailed and said, "well how about x for Carlos and the cage," and I said, "sure, but you gotta pick up within so many days because if I have to move him, he won't be on sale." And she responded asking about food, and I answered her, and then nothing for several days. Btw, somewhere in there, I did tell her, I can't put him on hold for her again without an adoption form completed. Ok so then when I got the call from the lady, which was over this past weekend, I messaged the original person and let her know and asked her how the form was going. Still, I have not heard back. Not like it's been any long period of time, I acknowledge that, but she knows the chin isn't on hold for her, so the person coming tonight is going to go home with Carlos. Simple as that. And with the way this is going with this original person, I don't honestly anticipate seeing her take a chin home anytime soon. And maybe I'm wrong, and I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong. But just from experience, the people who drag their feet and take forever just to get the form back (and I don't mean the ones that live far and have to wait a few weekends for the weather to cooperate) tend to not adopt at all. That's just what 11 years of doing this has shown to be true.
I have finally realized, its not my place to chase these people down. They want to adopt, they will get me the form, they will keep in touch. If not, there is no reason I should baby them and chase them down. So, no more.
I had this one guy who'd emailed about adopting a beige female before this past weekend. I told him, after show I might have some available, and the other day, I messaged him saying I now have the one beige female available. Naturally, haven't heard back from that either.
I think, in running the rescue, the most frustrating thing to deal with is the people. I like people, don't get me wrong. But dealing with people is frustrating. The people who actually turn out to adopt, I don't mind. I'm happy to answer questions and help educate til I'm blue in the face. And that's fine. But the people who email, ask 40000 questions, and then either (a) fall off the face of the earth, (b) are adamant about feeding their chins raisins, (c) are planning to keep their chin outside year round, or (d) planning on keeping em in a fishtank.... those are the grand majority of people that I deal with. They never end up adopting, either cause they never get back to me with an adoption form (which is probably about 75-80% of people), or if they do, its got such flaws, which they refuse to change, that they don't end up adopting anyway because I'm not going to let them leave with a chin. That's about another 10% of people. So out of every 100 emails/calls I get, I'm lucky if I get 10 adoptions.
Natalie is coming over today to help me clean the FNs so they can be moved with the rest of the stuff on Saturday, if possible. Will be working on accomplishing that later tonight.
Had two people call about Carlos. The first was an older lady who recently lost a chin (out of the pair of males she had) and was interested in Carlos. In talking to her, we discovered he might be more of a baggage-laden chin than she wanted, so she's going to end up purchasing Gypsy's mosaic male. The one that got a 2nd place at the show this past weekend. She said she appreciated my honesty / candor about what type of a chin he was, as she said she'd had some not-so-great experiences with adopting critters that aren't really what the rescue said they were. Yeah, that doesn't happen here. So I emailed her the care packet, adoption form, and address, and she's set to be here next Wednesday to come adopt.
Then got an email, complete with adoption form (which only happens when the stars line up just perfectly), from someone wanting to adopt Carlos. They have other males they want to intro him to, and if that doesn't work, they said they may have a sister who will take him, or bring him back, but fingers crossed it all works out. They emailed yesterday, coming to adopt today. They wanted to come yesterday, but I was busy digging through my stuff that needs to be packed and missed their phone call and email until it was late at night.
Now, I don't think everyone needs to be that fast. And that person has just about everything they could need, chin-wise (and the correct stuff to boot), so that does make that person easier than the average adoption. But note.... they were able to do everything in a day or two.
Versus... when I messaged that lady that had Carlos on hold for two weeks, and then I told her, ok, I can't hold him any longer. Told her hey, just get me an adoption form, and we can re-start you getting a chin any time. She was fine with that. Few days later I put up the post that the large cage was up for offers, and she emailed and said, "well how about x for Carlos and the cage," and I said, "sure, but you gotta pick up within so many days because if I have to move him, he won't be on sale." And she responded asking about food, and I answered her, and then nothing for several days. Btw, somewhere in there, I did tell her, I can't put him on hold for her again without an adoption form completed. Ok so then when I got the call from the lady, which was over this past weekend, I messaged the original person and let her know and asked her how the form was going. Still, I have not heard back. Not like it's been any long period of time, I acknowledge that, but she knows the chin isn't on hold for her, so the person coming tonight is going to go home with Carlos. Simple as that. And with the way this is going with this original person, I don't honestly anticipate seeing her take a chin home anytime soon. And maybe I'm wrong, and I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong. But just from experience, the people who drag their feet and take forever just to get the form back (and I don't mean the ones that live far and have to wait a few weekends for the weather to cooperate) tend to not adopt at all. That's just what 11 years of doing this has shown to be true.
I have finally realized, its not my place to chase these people down. They want to adopt, they will get me the form, they will keep in touch. If not, there is no reason I should baby them and chase them down. So, no more.
I had this one guy who'd emailed about adopting a beige female before this past weekend. I told him, after show I might have some available, and the other day, I messaged him saying I now have the one beige female available. Naturally, haven't heard back from that either.
I think, in running the rescue, the most frustrating thing to deal with is the people. I like people, don't get me wrong. But dealing with people is frustrating. The people who actually turn out to adopt, I don't mind. I'm happy to answer questions and help educate til I'm blue in the face. And that's fine. But the people who email, ask 40000 questions, and then either (a) fall off the face of the earth, (b) are adamant about feeding their chins raisins, (c) are planning to keep their chin outside year round, or (d) planning on keeping em in a fishtank.... those are the grand majority of people that I deal with. They never end up adopting, either cause they never get back to me with an adoption form (which is probably about 75-80% of people), or if they do, its got such flaws, which they refuse to change, that they don't end up adopting anyway because I'm not going to let them leave with a chin. That's about another 10% of people. So out of every 100 emails/calls I get, I'm lucky if I get 10 adoptions.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Michigan Show
So, I know many of you are looking at that title and going... wait... she said she was going to Ohio. And yes, we did go to Ohio. For the Michigan show, which, instead of being in Michigan, was in Ohio this year. Don't even bother asking, I have no idea how that worked out.
But regardless, Friday after work, I packed up some chins and Meredith and her husband showed up, and we all packed into the blazer and headed to Ohio. Got to the hotel a little after midnight. Was a bit disappointed that the pool and hot tub were being renovated, but oh well. Got some food, snacks, pop and got in our room and groomed the chins. Fun fun. Filled out the paperwork for the show and finally got in bed at like 2 am.
And then back up for the show at 7-7:30ish. So we get there, do last minute touchups on grooming. If I'm remembering this right, the show goes white, sapphire, violet, beige, naturelle (standard grey), black velvet, and ebony. So I had one chin in the white group, classified as a mosaic (there's also predominantly white, white with dark guard hairs, pink white, white with beige guard hairs). He got a second, knocked down on size and conformation. Which I knew, but I wanted to see how he did. His mom will get another chance and see what she produces, maybe need to switch up what male she's with.
Got to beiges and my other two girls were up in their classes. They both got 1sts, both were a little rough, both down in conformation (one moreso than the other) and one with loose fur around her backside and hips. The larger one I'm going to hang onto to see if she improves at all, the other two will be up for sale soon.
Got to the standards and black velvets, which Meredith and her husband brought, her one black, Sirius, went all the way up to reserve black male of show!
After the show, I went up to Ryersons and asked if they'd be willing to sell their beige female (champion beige female of show). Rich said talk to Jan, and Jan said she'd sell it to me for $200, which is awesome, considering I've paid a lot more for chins that haven't placed that high. So now I have a puffball beige female. I'm thinking I will keep her out of breeding until after Nationals, which is next month, so I can show her again and see how she does.
So, we cleaned up after the show, Meredith got her trophy. Rich gave me the trophy for the beige female I purchased (yippee!! I have a trophy!!). And we all went over to Jim Ritterspach's ranch (which was literally, around the corner from the show). He took care of several people who were wholesaling chins to him (apparently, $35 for standards, $45 for mutations) and then found Meredith and her husband some chins, and then looked at my chins and her chins and, along with Brenda Walters (the judge at the show), helped to answer my questions and explain what should have been different in my chins to make them place higher and get higher results.
Cause see, 1st place isn't the highest. In every class, there's typically a 1A (best animal) and 1B (second best animal) -- 1st place is below the 1A and 1B. When all the classes for a color, say, whites, are done, all the 1A's compete for phase champion. The best is phase champ, the second best is reserve phase champ. Then all of the phase champs compete against each other for color section champ and reserve color section champ. Then all the color section champs compete for champion male and female. Then those compete for grand show champion and reserve gsc. So, first isn't bad, by any means... but it's not quite "up there."
So, we'd been talking to someone earlier and I'd mentioned I couldn't easily tell the difference between a sapphire and a blue diamond, when looking at pics. They said they had both, if I wanted to see em side by side after the show. So, I got to see the two next to each other. Turns out, the blue diamond is more of a powder blue, versus the sapphire being a darker blue. Was kinda neat to see em together to be able to compare.
So then we went to see Amanda and Jim's dogs (they breed australian shepherds), got to see their new house, and went and played pool and had snacks with them for awhile. Eventually left to go back to the hotel. Ordered pizza and other goodies from the pizza place and watched some tv before going to bed.
Got up in the morning, went to pick up our trailer, and luckily they let us take it, because my connector (for the brake lights and turn signals on the trailer) was corroded and they couldn't get it to connect very well. But thanks to the country-ish guy who ran the u-haul place, they let us take the trailer, with the comment that we might not have taillights once it got dark. Ok, fair enough.
We almost get stuck getting out of the parking lot, but rock it a time or two and switch to 4wd and make it out. Cause, of course, it'd snowed like 5 inches the night before. So, we get it out, and head to the Ryersons, where Meredith and her husband were picking up some holding cages and runs, and I was picking up two runs and some dust. So we got that all loaded, decided I also needed a bag of blue cloud and some water bottles, and got everything packed in the trailer.
Ok, wait, back up, it wasn't really that simple (though, that would have been nice). We always pick up supplies at a back building on the Ryerson property. So, me, being a genius, pulled the trailer back there, and then realized... I didn't have enough room to just easily drive it around. Oops. So I asked Ryerson if he could help me. In all fairness, it was in his best interest to help if he wanted me off his property, but regardless, he was really nice and helped me get the trailer into position. Not once, but twice, because some of our supplies were at a different barn. Rich was hilarious in helping me, and very patient. Cause, if you haven't pulled a trailer, let me tell you, it's not as easy as it looks (at least, not for me). And Rich said that the small one-axle trailers (like what we had) are actually more difficult to back up than are tractor trailers, because the one axle pivots the second you turn the wheel a little bit. Which makes sense. But anyway, thanks to Rich for the trailer lesson.
So we get our stuff, pack it all up, and go, and we're still on back roads, going bout 40 or so on the snow... and start to slide. With all the snow covering up potential ditches on both sides of the road, we could not slide off the road, so I keep trying to turn it back towards center, but of course the entire thing is sliding back and forth and back and forth until we finally come to a rest sideways across both lanes road. That was terrifying to say the least. I actually think the fully loaded trailer helped significantly in staying on the road... because the weight of it, plus the probably 500+ pounds of cages/supplies in it helped weigh us down enough that it acted as an anchor so we didn't go flying off the road.
Got going again, probably didn't go over 30 until we were on the actual highway, and the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. Just had to stop a few times for gas and really that was it. Dropped off Meredith's husband and their supplies, came back to my place and dropped off my stuff, and drove to U-haul to drop off the trailer. Got there and the dropoff lane was completely full, and there didn't appear to be enough room to fit a car through between the dropped off vehicles/trailers and the already parked ones... so the only option was to back out... which meant... backing the trailer into a spot so I could back out without it behind me. So the trailer lessons came in handy! I feel like I did better than I have in the past. We needed to get it back another foot or too, but the trailer is so light, we just detached it, and I lifted up the tongue and rolled it back myself. Problem is, no gloves to do that, and holding onto a snow-and-ice-covered-metal-trailer-tongue... not the best idea in frigid temperatures. I actually think I might have mild frostbite/frostnip as my fingers (where I touched the tongue) are still painful, hot, red, tingling, and feel a bit weird. Wonderful.
Got home, fed and watered the new female, and went to bed.
Oh but one more thing before I go. That lady who was messaging about adopting Carlos that was having a hard time getting the adoption form back to me... still hasn't gotten it to me. Now, this is a simple 2 page form, it is not that difficult. But yet, I still don't have it, and I told her, I can't put him on hold for her until she gets it to me, cause she's already surpassed the two week holding period where she wouldn't need it. So, I got a call about Carlos yesterday. I still need to call them back, but I messaged the original lady and told her, hey, someone else is interested, how's the form going? Still nothing. Like, really? I'm gonna call back that person today and see if they're still interested, but I feel like it's a bit ridiculous when people can't get back to me. And really, when I think about it... why do I keep asking her if she's got it done? If she can't be an adult and get it back to me without me babying her, do I want her to have a chin? Possibly not. So, if I don't have an adoption form by the time I get outta work today, Carlos will be "available" for the lady who called.
But regardless, Friday after work, I packed up some chins and Meredith and her husband showed up, and we all packed into the blazer and headed to Ohio. Got to the hotel a little after midnight. Was a bit disappointed that the pool and hot tub were being renovated, but oh well. Got some food, snacks, pop and got in our room and groomed the chins. Fun fun. Filled out the paperwork for the show and finally got in bed at like 2 am.
And then back up for the show at 7-7:30ish. So we get there, do last minute touchups on grooming. If I'm remembering this right, the show goes white, sapphire, violet, beige, naturelle (standard grey), black velvet, and ebony. So I had one chin in the white group, classified as a mosaic (there's also predominantly white, white with dark guard hairs, pink white, white with beige guard hairs). He got a second, knocked down on size and conformation. Which I knew, but I wanted to see how he did. His mom will get another chance and see what she produces, maybe need to switch up what male she's with.
Got to beiges and my other two girls were up in their classes. They both got 1sts, both were a little rough, both down in conformation (one moreso than the other) and one with loose fur around her backside and hips. The larger one I'm going to hang onto to see if she improves at all, the other two will be up for sale soon.
Got to the standards and black velvets, which Meredith and her husband brought, her one black, Sirius, went all the way up to reserve black male of show!
After the show, I went up to Ryersons and asked if they'd be willing to sell their beige female (champion beige female of show). Rich said talk to Jan, and Jan said she'd sell it to me for $200, which is awesome, considering I've paid a lot more for chins that haven't placed that high. So now I have a puffball beige female. I'm thinking I will keep her out of breeding until after Nationals, which is next month, so I can show her again and see how she does.
So, we cleaned up after the show, Meredith got her trophy. Rich gave me the trophy for the beige female I purchased (yippee!! I have a trophy!!). And we all went over to Jim Ritterspach's ranch (which was literally, around the corner from the show). He took care of several people who were wholesaling chins to him (apparently, $35 for standards, $45 for mutations) and then found Meredith and her husband some chins, and then looked at my chins and her chins and, along with Brenda Walters (the judge at the show), helped to answer my questions and explain what should have been different in my chins to make them place higher and get higher results.
Cause see, 1st place isn't the highest. In every class, there's typically a 1A (best animal) and 1B (second best animal) -- 1st place is below the 1A and 1B. When all the classes for a color, say, whites, are done, all the 1A's compete for phase champion. The best is phase champ, the second best is reserve phase champ. Then all of the phase champs compete against each other for color section champ and reserve color section champ. Then all the color section champs compete for champion male and female. Then those compete for grand show champion and reserve gsc. So, first isn't bad, by any means... but it's not quite "up there."
So, we'd been talking to someone earlier and I'd mentioned I couldn't easily tell the difference between a sapphire and a blue diamond, when looking at pics. They said they had both, if I wanted to see em side by side after the show. So, I got to see the two next to each other. Turns out, the blue diamond is more of a powder blue, versus the sapphire being a darker blue. Was kinda neat to see em together to be able to compare.
So then we went to see Amanda and Jim's dogs (they breed australian shepherds), got to see their new house, and went and played pool and had snacks with them for awhile. Eventually left to go back to the hotel. Ordered pizza and other goodies from the pizza place and watched some tv before going to bed.
Got up in the morning, went to pick up our trailer, and luckily they let us take it, because my connector (for the brake lights and turn signals on the trailer) was corroded and they couldn't get it to connect very well. But thanks to the country-ish guy who ran the u-haul place, they let us take the trailer, with the comment that we might not have taillights once it got dark. Ok, fair enough.
We almost get stuck getting out of the parking lot, but rock it a time or two and switch to 4wd and make it out. Cause, of course, it'd snowed like 5 inches the night before. So, we get it out, and head to the Ryersons, where Meredith and her husband were picking up some holding cages and runs, and I was picking up two runs and some dust. So we got that all loaded, decided I also needed a bag of blue cloud and some water bottles, and got everything packed in the trailer.
Ok, wait, back up, it wasn't really that simple (though, that would have been nice). We always pick up supplies at a back building on the Ryerson property. So, me, being a genius, pulled the trailer back there, and then realized... I didn't have enough room to just easily drive it around. Oops. So I asked Ryerson if he could help me. In all fairness, it was in his best interest to help if he wanted me off his property, but regardless, he was really nice and helped me get the trailer into position. Not once, but twice, because some of our supplies were at a different barn. Rich was hilarious in helping me, and very patient. Cause, if you haven't pulled a trailer, let me tell you, it's not as easy as it looks (at least, not for me). And Rich said that the small one-axle trailers (like what we had) are actually more difficult to back up than are tractor trailers, because the one axle pivots the second you turn the wheel a little bit. Which makes sense. But anyway, thanks to Rich for the trailer lesson.
So we get our stuff, pack it all up, and go, and we're still on back roads, going bout 40 or so on the snow... and start to slide. With all the snow covering up potential ditches on both sides of the road, we could not slide off the road, so I keep trying to turn it back towards center, but of course the entire thing is sliding back and forth and back and forth until we finally come to a rest sideways across both lanes road. That was terrifying to say the least. I actually think the fully loaded trailer helped significantly in staying on the road... because the weight of it, plus the probably 500+ pounds of cages/supplies in it helped weigh us down enough that it acted as an anchor so we didn't go flying off the road.
Got going again, probably didn't go over 30 until we were on the actual highway, and the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. Just had to stop a few times for gas and really that was it. Dropped off Meredith's husband and their supplies, came back to my place and dropped off my stuff, and drove to U-haul to drop off the trailer. Got there and the dropoff lane was completely full, and there didn't appear to be enough room to fit a car through between the dropped off vehicles/trailers and the already parked ones... so the only option was to back out... which meant... backing the trailer into a spot so I could back out without it behind me. So the trailer lessons came in handy! I feel like I did better than I have in the past. We needed to get it back another foot or too, but the trailer is so light, we just detached it, and I lifted up the tongue and rolled it back myself. Problem is, no gloves to do that, and holding onto a snow-and-ice-covered-metal-trailer-tongue... not the best idea in frigid temperatures. I actually think I might have mild frostbite/frostnip as my fingers (where I touched the tongue) are still painful, hot, red, tingling, and feel a bit weird. Wonderful.
Got home, fed and watered the new female, and went to bed.
Oh but one more thing before I go. That lady who was messaging about adopting Carlos that was having a hard time getting the adoption form back to me... still hasn't gotten it to me. Now, this is a simple 2 page form, it is not that difficult. But yet, I still don't have it, and I told her, I can't put him on hold for her until she gets it to me, cause she's already surpassed the two week holding period where she wouldn't need it. So, I got a call about Carlos yesterday. I still need to call them back, but I messaged the original lady and told her, hey, someone else is interested, how's the form going? Still nothing. Like, really? I'm gonna call back that person today and see if they're still interested, but I feel like it's a bit ridiculous when people can't get back to me. And really, when I think about it... why do I keep asking her if she's got it done? If she can't be an adult and get it back to me without me babying her, do I want her to have a chin? Possibly not. So, if I don't have an adoption form by the time I get outta work today, Carlos will be "available" for the lady who called.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Comments and blog and other stuff
Two people posted comments the other day, and I wanted to respond to them, but when I went to the post where they commented... it said "no comments." Typical.
So, to answer what was asked -- this blog was not started in response to a prompt or anything like that, I just started it because it occurred to me that people have no idea what goes on at a rescue and this is sort of like a "behind the scenes" thing. Most people just see when an animal's listed on the website. If we have a sick animal, it's listed as "medical evaluation." There's very little information on the website when it comes down it it. So, the blog expands on that. If an animal dies, it's taken off the available chins page (where it likely was listed as under evaluation) and moved to the Rainbow Bridge page. Most people never find the Rainbow Bridge page, and just see the critter vanish (if they even notice at all). That's why I wanted to start the blog, because some of this stuff is never seen by the general public. And I hear my average reader is an adoptive home of mine, but still.
I do not get paid to do this blog. If I did, I'd probably do it more often (cause God knows the rescue could use some extra cash from time to time), but nope. Just fun and educational purposes.
There was a comment about how I write. I used to write stories when I was younger, and they would be posted up on a website and comments I would get would be on how I write in a very conversational tone. It's read as if I'm speaking to you, so I hear. I write like I talk. These blogs are rarely edited. Really, the only non-work thing I edit anymore is if I'm trying not to be mean to someone in an email or something. But blogs are just like, I think it, I write it.
I think that might've been it regarding the comments.
Things have been slow lately. No major adoptions, no major purchases. Carlos was on hold for a bit, but the person kept pushing off getting me the adoption form, and she said she was sick and busy, and I can totally understand that, but I can't keep em on hold forever. So, when I posted that cage up for sale, the big one, she popped up again saying could she get a deal on the cage and chin, and I told her, yes, but she would need to pick em up before I move. Cause if I have to move em, no reason for me to give a discount. The point is to give a discount so I don't have to move them. Now just waiting for that adoption form again. He's not going back on hold for her until I get it.
The people who have the beige female on hold also now have an ebony female on hold, they basically need to come and pick.
I have someone emailing wanting a young female chin, I told em, maybe after the show this weekend, but no promises. Haven't heard back.
Had someone respond to my chin ad in one of the facebook groups I'm in, asking where they could get an adoption form to fill out to adopt a chin. I told em where it is or that I could email it, we shall see if they actually submit it.
Had another person email about bringing their chin by, I told her, wait until I get back this weekend with the extra runs, and I will see how much of my waiting list I can knock out.
Talked to the person who's eventually bringing over some young chins, she thinks they're both male. Sure hope so, as the longer she has em, the more chance (if there is a female) that the female could get pregnant.
So, yesterday I was trying to clean up around the rescue. I went through the boxes of rescue toys/donations. When I get a package, say from Jean @ TJs, I put it aside in a special container so it just gets doled out to the rescues. Anything not in there is fair game for all the chins/critters here, not specifically just the rescues. But when someone sends a care package or something, that's rescues only. So, went through that stuff, added toy parts to rescue toys in all the cages. Drilled some wood sticks and coins. I have like oregano, timothy pellets, hawthorn leaves, some other random herbs that have been donated, those were doled out in small amounts.
Finally cut and glued the last pieces onto the two custom hidey houses that one of my customers has been waiting forever for.
Also packaged up food and hay to send out to one of my customers... but my hatch was frozen shut, so I guess that'll be going out tomorrow after I somehow dethaw that....
Vacuumed out the first open FN and wiped down everything inside. Sanded the shelves. Started with a toothbrush on the doors (where grime collects) and same for the sides and back of the cage where the pan meets the bars. Didn't get very far before I had to go up for dinner and somehow didn't make it back down.
...but everyone was fed and watered when I was originally down there, so all's good. The guinea pigs knocked a water bottle off their cage, and I couldn't find the metal holder thing. Will need to make one, but at the moment, they're down to one bottle. Which is fine, just needs to be filled more often.
Need to get home today and get ready for the show this weekend and try to groom the last chin if I get a chance. Hopefully....
And then I need to get food ready for a pickup while I'm gone... and then fun away from home for the weekend. Hopefully the weather won't be toooo bad.
So, to answer what was asked -- this blog was not started in response to a prompt or anything like that, I just started it because it occurred to me that people have no idea what goes on at a rescue and this is sort of like a "behind the scenes" thing. Most people just see when an animal's listed on the website. If we have a sick animal, it's listed as "medical evaluation." There's very little information on the website when it comes down it it. So, the blog expands on that. If an animal dies, it's taken off the available chins page (where it likely was listed as under evaluation) and moved to the Rainbow Bridge page. Most people never find the Rainbow Bridge page, and just see the critter vanish (if they even notice at all). That's why I wanted to start the blog, because some of this stuff is never seen by the general public. And I hear my average reader is an adoptive home of mine, but still.
I do not get paid to do this blog. If I did, I'd probably do it more often (cause God knows the rescue could use some extra cash from time to time), but nope. Just fun and educational purposes.
There was a comment about how I write. I used to write stories when I was younger, and they would be posted up on a website and comments I would get would be on how I write in a very conversational tone. It's read as if I'm speaking to you, so I hear. I write like I talk. These blogs are rarely edited. Really, the only non-work thing I edit anymore is if I'm trying not to be mean to someone in an email or something. But blogs are just like, I think it, I write it.
I think that might've been it regarding the comments.
Things have been slow lately. No major adoptions, no major purchases. Carlos was on hold for a bit, but the person kept pushing off getting me the adoption form, and she said she was sick and busy, and I can totally understand that, but I can't keep em on hold forever. So, when I posted that cage up for sale, the big one, she popped up again saying could she get a deal on the cage and chin, and I told her, yes, but she would need to pick em up before I move. Cause if I have to move em, no reason for me to give a discount. The point is to give a discount so I don't have to move them. Now just waiting for that adoption form again. He's not going back on hold for her until I get it.
The people who have the beige female on hold also now have an ebony female on hold, they basically need to come and pick.
I have someone emailing wanting a young female chin, I told em, maybe after the show this weekend, but no promises. Haven't heard back.
Had someone respond to my chin ad in one of the facebook groups I'm in, asking where they could get an adoption form to fill out to adopt a chin. I told em where it is or that I could email it, we shall see if they actually submit it.
Had another person email about bringing their chin by, I told her, wait until I get back this weekend with the extra runs, and I will see how much of my waiting list I can knock out.
Talked to the person who's eventually bringing over some young chins, she thinks they're both male. Sure hope so, as the longer she has em, the more chance (if there is a female) that the female could get pregnant.
So, yesterday I was trying to clean up around the rescue. I went through the boxes of rescue toys/donations. When I get a package, say from Jean @ TJs, I put it aside in a special container so it just gets doled out to the rescues. Anything not in there is fair game for all the chins/critters here, not specifically just the rescues. But when someone sends a care package or something, that's rescues only. So, went through that stuff, added toy parts to rescue toys in all the cages. Drilled some wood sticks and coins. I have like oregano, timothy pellets, hawthorn leaves, some other random herbs that have been donated, those were doled out in small amounts.
Finally cut and glued the last pieces onto the two custom hidey houses that one of my customers has been waiting forever for.
Also packaged up food and hay to send out to one of my customers... but my hatch was frozen shut, so I guess that'll be going out tomorrow after I somehow dethaw that....
Vacuumed out the first open FN and wiped down everything inside. Sanded the shelves. Started with a toothbrush on the doors (where grime collects) and same for the sides and back of the cage where the pan meets the bars. Didn't get very far before I had to go up for dinner and somehow didn't make it back down.
...but everyone was fed and watered when I was originally down there, so all's good. The guinea pigs knocked a water bottle off their cage, and I couldn't find the metal holder thing. Will need to make one, but at the moment, they're down to one bottle. Which is fine, just needs to be filled more often.
Need to get home today and get ready for the show this weekend and try to groom the last chin if I get a chance. Hopefully....
And then I need to get food ready for a pickup while I'm gone... and then fun away from home for the weekend. Hopefully the weather won't be toooo bad.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Empty Cages
I had some people over the last few days ask, since I currently have a few empty cages, if I no longer have an incoming waiting list. Nope, I do. And actually, I have one person who's trying to find a convenient time to bring in a few chins (first on the chin waiting list) and a person trying to find a time to bring in rats (only person on the rat waiting list). Those two could fill up at least some of the empty cages.
... but even if they don't, here's the thing. If all goes well, *fingers crossed,* I will be moving soon. I am attempting to move with the least number of animals possible. Once it gets closer to moving date, I will be moving as many of the FN animals into empty run space as I can, so I can clean the FNs and move as many already-clean cages on moving day. Cause runs keep relatively clean, cause they're enclosed, but cleaning an FN takes time.
Which means, to try to clear out a bit, the animals will go on sale again, for a short period of time, at some point. And like last time, it will be the whole "this price is only valid if this animal is picked up before ____ date." Why? Because some people legitimately can rearrange their schedules to save a few bucks and free me up another cage or two so I can clean before I move them to a nice clean house, and I'm happy to do a discount if I can move clean cages. I dislike moving grime (and coating a trailer in grime, which also has to move my non-grimy stuff).
I currently have two full double FNs empty, due to adopting out some chins and having my grower chins in holding cages. Fingers crossed some additional adoptions happen. There are currently... let's see... ok pink CN has Winx on top, Mama & Baby on bottom. Pink FN has Toby on top, Carlos on bottom. Yellow/green/blue FN has Gigi on top and an ebony female on the bottom. And then I have a for-sale young female in a holding cage. Mama & Baby will be ready mid-month, Carlos is ready, Gigi is ready, the eb female I'm waiting to hear back on, same for the young for-sale female.
Oh and after the show, may have some additional chins for sale. The show is this weekend.
Likely once I move, I will have additional cages for sale. I'm hanging onto oodles of cages that I like, and I realize, I am not gonna have room for this. Most of em will be small and I'll need to hang onto one or two for loaner cages/trial run cages but since I'll be getting more runs, I don't need to hang onto the smaller "pregnancy watch" cages. So, will have more of those for sale once I move and see just how much room I have. Oh and they won't be on sale after the move, cause the sale is so that I can avoid moving them. So if you're looking at one of the used cages, one of the current ones, reasonable offers will be entertained, so I don't have to move em.
As far as moving.... I haven't said anything about moving because the last time I was like "I got a house!!!" it fell through, and I still am getting emails asking how I like living on my own again, when I never actually moved, but I shared it so widely everyone thought I did. I let everyone know and, in my mind, I jinxed it, so this time it's more hush hush just in case. That's all I'm saying bout that.
... but even if they don't, here's the thing. If all goes well, *fingers crossed,* I will be moving soon. I am attempting to move with the least number of animals possible. Once it gets closer to moving date, I will be moving as many of the FN animals into empty run space as I can, so I can clean the FNs and move as many already-clean cages on moving day. Cause runs keep relatively clean, cause they're enclosed, but cleaning an FN takes time.
Which means, to try to clear out a bit, the animals will go on sale again, for a short period of time, at some point. And like last time, it will be the whole "this price is only valid if this animal is picked up before ____ date." Why? Because some people legitimately can rearrange their schedules to save a few bucks and free me up another cage or two so I can clean before I move them to a nice clean house, and I'm happy to do a discount if I can move clean cages. I dislike moving grime (and coating a trailer in grime, which also has to move my non-grimy stuff).
I currently have two full double FNs empty, due to adopting out some chins and having my grower chins in holding cages. Fingers crossed some additional adoptions happen. There are currently... let's see... ok pink CN has Winx on top, Mama & Baby on bottom. Pink FN has Toby on top, Carlos on bottom. Yellow/green/blue FN has Gigi on top and an ebony female on the bottom. And then I have a for-sale young female in a holding cage. Mama & Baby will be ready mid-month, Carlos is ready, Gigi is ready, the eb female I'm waiting to hear back on, same for the young for-sale female.
Oh and after the show, may have some additional chins for sale. The show is this weekend.
Likely once I move, I will have additional cages for sale. I'm hanging onto oodles of cages that I like, and I realize, I am not gonna have room for this. Most of em will be small and I'll need to hang onto one or two for loaner cages/trial run cages but since I'll be getting more runs, I don't need to hang onto the smaller "pregnancy watch" cages. So, will have more of those for sale once I move and see just how much room I have. Oh and they won't be on sale after the move, cause the sale is so that I can avoid moving them. So if you're looking at one of the used cages, one of the current ones, reasonable offers will be entertained, so I don't have to move em.
As far as moving.... I haven't said anything about moving because the last time I was like "I got a house!!!" it fell through, and I still am getting emails asking how I like living on my own again, when I never actually moved, but I shared it so widely everyone thought I did. I let everyone know and, in my mind, I jinxed it, so this time it's more hush hush just in case. That's all I'm saying bout that.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Included Things
Ok, so maybe someone can tell me if I'm wrong here, but I had a lot of people call lately asking about what the chinchillas come with. Now, I will start off by saying, if they read the ads, they'd know. But regardless, for regular chins, they come with a bag (2ish pounds) of food and a goodie bag. Kits (babies) come with a bag (2ish pounds) of food, a kit goodie bag, and a hanging chew toy. That's it. Nowhere does it say "and they also come with x, y, and z." Which is fine, no big deal, but the thing is.... it doesn't say that stuff because.... wait for it... the stuff listed is ALL they come with. I know, big shocker.
Now, I know I've seen ads out there for something that shows a TV stand with a TV on the stand and it says "TV not included." I feel like, in that instance, I can see where people would be like, oh, ok, I get the TV because it's on the stand. Even though, the ad is for a tv stand. But with an animal, I mean... you go to a pet store... and you get just the animal. You don't get food, you don't get treats/chews, nothing. Here, at least, you get the animal, some food, treats, a toy if it's a baby....
...and people still complain. Even though the critters here cost less than the pet stores, and you get stuff with them... they still complain.
I have had several people today ask if the chins come with cages. For $75? They have got to be kidding. Now, if they want one for that price, they may be able to find one on craigslist for that price for a chin, cage, and accessories. But this is a rescue and even though we have ads up on craigslist and other classified ad sites, it is pretty clear from looking at the ads that I'm not just some random person selling one chinchilla. It's pretty clear this is a rescue that's listing the ads.
...but people want something for nothing. Which is understandable, fine, but not from here. I need to keep the rescue running. With the cages being on sale for quite some time now, that's money I would normally be bringing in, full price, except I'm trying to get rid of em before I move. But with the chins.... I hardly think $150 is a lot for a baby and $75 for an adult.
...just something that's been irking me a bit....
Now, I know I've seen ads out there for something that shows a TV stand with a TV on the stand and it says "TV not included." I feel like, in that instance, I can see where people would be like, oh, ok, I get the TV because it's on the stand. Even though, the ad is for a tv stand. But with an animal, I mean... you go to a pet store... and you get just the animal. You don't get food, you don't get treats/chews, nothing. Here, at least, you get the animal, some food, treats, a toy if it's a baby....
...and people still complain. Even though the critters here cost less than the pet stores, and you get stuff with them... they still complain.
I have had several people today ask if the chins come with cages. For $75? They have got to be kidding. Now, if they want one for that price, they may be able to find one on craigslist for that price for a chin, cage, and accessories. But this is a rescue and even though we have ads up on craigslist and other classified ad sites, it is pretty clear from looking at the ads that I'm not just some random person selling one chinchilla. It's pretty clear this is a rescue that's listing the ads.
...but people want something for nothing. Which is understandable, fine, but not from here. I need to keep the rescue running. With the cages being on sale for quite some time now, that's money I would normally be bringing in, full price, except I'm trying to get rid of em before I move. But with the chins.... I hardly think $150 is a lot for a baby and $75 for an adult.
...just something that's been irking me a bit....
Monday, January 27, 2014
Today, cont.
So, those people came by and decided on the homo beige male to take home. So happy for him that he found a home -- sometimes those red eyes can be off-putting.
So, other than that, let's see... I organized a bit (it never ends, believe me), and refilled all the hanging toys in all the cages. And then decided, today would be a good day to go through and take down all the toys with the metal chain. See, that's fine for the huge toys that need it or the swings... but for the average toy, the chain means I have to drill a bigger hole to get the piece to fit on the chain... and some items are just too small. So, it doesn't work out all that well. So, I pulled out all of the chain toys, replaced those with the wire toys, and now there's only a few chain toys (that have to be chain due to how they're constructed). Will probably keep some of the thinner chains, the rest will make it up into the gently used section. Some people like them. I used to be one of them, but the more time goes on, I'm not as fond of em.
Moving along, the person who I've been talking about Carlos with asked me if I wanted her address or the center's address (Carlos would be sort of like a class pet) on the adoption form, which means she's actually looked at the form... fingers crossed! There hasn't been much attention on Carlos getting adopted, so I hope this works out for him.
No one asking about Gigi. The female beige has one of my current adoptive homes considering her. Said they'll get back to me by the weekend.
And good news.... the ebony female with unexplained weight loss that my vet couldn't figure out.... well, the weight loss slowed somewhat with her last weigh in (the next one is upcoming). And get this... today I saw her... on the shelves!!!! She had been staying at the bottom previously, so this is a big move for her! Maybe she's finally starting to feel better. She definitely seems to be eating. So fingers crossed for her as well. :D
So, other than that, let's see... I organized a bit (it never ends, believe me), and refilled all the hanging toys in all the cages. And then decided, today would be a good day to go through and take down all the toys with the metal chain. See, that's fine for the huge toys that need it or the swings... but for the average toy, the chain means I have to drill a bigger hole to get the piece to fit on the chain... and some items are just too small. So, it doesn't work out all that well. So, I pulled out all of the chain toys, replaced those with the wire toys, and now there's only a few chain toys (that have to be chain due to how they're constructed). Will probably keep some of the thinner chains, the rest will make it up into the gently used section. Some people like them. I used to be one of them, but the more time goes on, I'm not as fond of em.
Moving along, the person who I've been talking about Carlos with asked me if I wanted her address or the center's address (Carlos would be sort of like a class pet) on the adoption form, which means she's actually looked at the form... fingers crossed! There hasn't been much attention on Carlos getting adopted, so I hope this works out for him.
No one asking about Gigi. The female beige has one of my current adoptive homes considering her. Said they'll get back to me by the weekend.
And good news.... the ebony female with unexplained weight loss that my vet couldn't figure out.... well, the weight loss slowed somewhat with her last weigh in (the next one is upcoming). And get this... today I saw her... on the shelves!!!! She had been staying at the bottom previously, so this is a big move for her! Maybe she's finally starting to feel better. She definitely seems to be eating. So fingers crossed for her as well. :D
Few more things
Ok, so, I dunno what I was smoking yesterday, but I completely forgot that I did several other things I didn't write about. I cleaned all the rat cages and I went through all the rescue cages and hung up donated toys and re-filled current existing toys.
Moving on to today. Had someone call about a chin, originally asking about the female baby... but I'm waiting to hear back from someone else about her, so I told em I have two males available. So after some talking, that was fine with them. I emailed them the adoption form and care packet, they read it and emailed it back. Looked good with just one minor thing I wanted to touch on, and I was gonna email and ask when she wanted to come (she'd already said tonight, but hadn't specified).
So I looked in my planner and found that I had someone supposed to come look at the ratties tonight. When I haven't heard from someone in a bit, I usually will check that they're still coming, so I texted (since the whole conversation was texting) and asked if she was still coming by the rescue tonight. I received, "Who is this?" Always a bad sign. She'd forgotten she was coming, but even if she hadn't, her truck was now out of commission, so she's not coming. I told her to text when the truck's fixed if she still wants to come by, but... I can pretty much tell you, the people who forget they have appointments, I never hear from again.
Hopefully I get an email back from the people interested in the young chin and they actually do come by tonight.
Had some people the other day who called about a cage. I wasn't home and asked if they wanted me to call when I got home. I told them it'd be a few hours. They said ok, yeah, call. So I did when I got home... they'd already found another cage. Which is fine, I mean, no big deal... but what did they think a couple of hours meant? No offense to anyone, but I am not going to rush home to sell a $20 cage. Heck, I don't really feel like I should even have to rush home even if someone wants a chin and $500 worth of supplies... I feel like if they can't wait, it's probably an impulse buy and I don't need to deal with that.
Had a few more people email asking to buy Molly, Shimmy, and other chins on my "Our Chinchillas" page, so I added a line at the top stating that these are our personal chins and are not for sale. Occasionally, that's not true, as I believe Dreamz was still listed up on the Our Chins page while she was up for adoption, but it's not awfully common that we sell our adult breeders, so for the most part, that line is true.
...and the person emailed back about coming tonight, so we just need to get a time set, and we'll be good. They're getting a cage, and I really need to (in the new place, whenever I get it) take the advice that people have given, which is: for both new cages I sell, have a set of shelves ready to go. So when someone wants a cage with shelves, I don't have to hurry up and cut em, I will have them already ready. I think that's a good idea, but that'll be something for the new place as there's already crap everywhere because of lack of organization here. That will change when I have one smaller room to use for all of this!
Moving on to today. Had someone call about a chin, originally asking about the female baby... but I'm waiting to hear back from someone else about her, so I told em I have two males available. So after some talking, that was fine with them. I emailed them the adoption form and care packet, they read it and emailed it back. Looked good with just one minor thing I wanted to touch on, and I was gonna email and ask when she wanted to come (she'd already said tonight, but hadn't specified).
So I looked in my planner and found that I had someone supposed to come look at the ratties tonight. When I haven't heard from someone in a bit, I usually will check that they're still coming, so I texted (since the whole conversation was texting) and asked if she was still coming by the rescue tonight. I received, "Who is this?" Always a bad sign. She'd forgotten she was coming, but even if she hadn't, her truck was now out of commission, so she's not coming. I told her to text when the truck's fixed if she still wants to come by, but... I can pretty much tell you, the people who forget they have appointments, I never hear from again.
Hopefully I get an email back from the people interested in the young chin and they actually do come by tonight.
Had some people the other day who called about a cage. I wasn't home and asked if they wanted me to call when I got home. I told them it'd be a few hours. They said ok, yeah, call. So I did when I got home... they'd already found another cage. Which is fine, I mean, no big deal... but what did they think a couple of hours meant? No offense to anyone, but I am not going to rush home to sell a $20 cage. Heck, I don't really feel like I should even have to rush home even if someone wants a chin and $500 worth of supplies... I feel like if they can't wait, it's probably an impulse buy and I don't need to deal with that.
Had a few more people email asking to buy Molly, Shimmy, and other chins on my "Our Chinchillas" page, so I added a line at the top stating that these are our personal chins and are not for sale. Occasionally, that's not true, as I believe Dreamz was still listed up on the Our Chins page while she was up for adoption, but it's not awfully common that we sell our adult breeders, so for the most part, that line is true.
...and the person emailed back about coming tonight, so we just need to get a time set, and we'll be good. They're getting a cage, and I really need to (in the new place, whenever I get it) take the advice that people have given, which is: for both new cages I sell, have a set of shelves ready to go. So when someone wants a cage with shelves, I don't have to hurry up and cut em, I will have them already ready. I think that's a good idea, but that'll be something for the new place as there's already crap everywhere because of lack of organization here. That will change when I have one smaller room to use for all of this!
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Working on getting things accomplished
So, less has been getting done than I might want, but things are still moving along.
Due to weather, the adoption of Peanut and Chile has been moved back again. Fingers crossed next weekend is better.
My to-be volunteers had to cancel.
But.... good news otherwise! My volunteer who was doing hammocks showed up today with 32 hammocks!!! Who-hoo! I took hammock inventory again, adding those into what I already had, and listing them on the webstore and the fleece items for sale page. Added that to the donations page. Sent her home with more material so she can sew even more hammocks, which she's happy to do.
Fed and watered everyone, cleaned up a bit... and unfortunately, that's where the productivity ended. Had to go shovel and then was too cold to do anything else.
Due to weather, the adoption of Peanut and Chile has been moved back again. Fingers crossed next weekend is better.
My to-be volunteers had to cancel.
But.... good news otherwise! My volunteer who was doing hammocks showed up today with 32 hammocks!!! Who-hoo! I took hammock inventory again, adding those into what I already had, and listing them on the webstore and the fleece items for sale page. Added that to the donations page. Sent her home with more material so she can sew even more hammocks, which she's happy to do.
Fed and watered everyone, cleaned up a bit... and unfortunately, that's where the productivity ended. Had to go shovel and then was too cold to do anything else.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Few things & an adoption
So, I listed most of the available animals and its amazing the response I've gotten. Within a day of listing Gigi and Dreamz, those two went on hold and Carlos is now on hold as well. Who-hoo!! Dreamz actually went home today with an awesome family. I'm sure they'll be happy with her and they seemed like a great place for a retired chin.
Someone on facebook had mentioned they liked our cutout hidey house, which is one of the worst sellers. I have thought about taking it off the site, except a few people buy it, and its not hurting anything to keep it on. But just to see how badly it really sells...
In 2011, I sold 23 houses, 0 cutouts.
In 2012, I sold 63 houses, only 5 cutouts.
In 2013, I sold 82 houses, only 2 cutouts.
Just interesting facts. Obviously, hidey house production and sakes has significantly jumped up in the past few years, and that's why some people always hear me talking about hidey houses... cause I'm constantly making one or another. I currently am working on a custom order for two custom houses as we speak.
Oh and water. That's something someone brought up the other day, that I always am complaining about carrying water down to the critters, and how much can they really drink. Oh hell they drink. Ok today, just as an example. Most of the critters had their water bottles at least half full, there were a few close to empty, and one empty guinea pig bottle (out of the two on that cage). It took just shy of 4 gallons to fill up the bottles. Not from being empty, mind you, from being about half full on most of them. It takes a lot of water to keep the critters hydrated. This is why it's so important, for me, to have in my new home running water in the basement. Cause bringing four gallons down happens at least twice a week. And not like that's the end of the world, but it takes time.
Someone else got through the closed webstore and purchased a hammock lol. I'm not gonna throw a fit about small orders when the store's closed, what I try to avoid is a ton of orders where I need to actually make things. Cause even after being closed for this long period of time, I am still working on orders I got in BEFORE the store closed. That's how behind I get, because between work and the rescue and all.... a lot of things have to come before filling orders,
I think that's about it for news here. Still need to list the rats. And still have things on the to-do list before the store opens back up. But finally becoming up to speed with orders at least....
Someone on facebook had mentioned they liked our cutout hidey house, which is one of the worst sellers. I have thought about taking it off the site, except a few people buy it, and its not hurting anything to keep it on. But just to see how badly it really sells...
In 2011, I sold 23 houses, 0 cutouts.
In 2012, I sold 63 houses, only 5 cutouts.
In 2013, I sold 82 houses, only 2 cutouts.
Just interesting facts. Obviously, hidey house production and sakes has significantly jumped up in the past few years, and that's why some people always hear me talking about hidey houses... cause I'm constantly making one or another. I currently am working on a custom order for two custom houses as we speak.
Oh and water. That's something someone brought up the other day, that I always am complaining about carrying water down to the critters, and how much can they really drink. Oh hell they drink. Ok today, just as an example. Most of the critters had their water bottles at least half full, there were a few close to empty, and one empty guinea pig bottle (out of the two on that cage). It took just shy of 4 gallons to fill up the bottles. Not from being empty, mind you, from being about half full on most of them. It takes a lot of water to keep the critters hydrated. This is why it's so important, for me, to have in my new home running water in the basement. Cause bringing four gallons down happens at least twice a week. And not like that's the end of the world, but it takes time.
Someone else got through the closed webstore and purchased a hammock lol. I'm not gonna throw a fit about small orders when the store's closed, what I try to avoid is a ton of orders where I need to actually make things. Cause even after being closed for this long period of time, I am still working on orders I got in BEFORE the store closed. That's how behind I get, because between work and the rescue and all.... a lot of things have to come before filling orders,
I think that's about it for news here. Still need to list the rats. And still have things on the to-do list before the store opens back up. But finally becoming up to speed with orders at least....
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
New intakes and other things
So, I finally got in some of the rescues that kept getting pushed back due to weather and unforeseen circumstances. A mother and daughter pair, aptly named, Mama and Baby. They're 4 and 5, and sweet.
Also some interesting things lately. Got an email asking me to sell Toby and wanting me to hurry up and email back so they could adopt him. Um... he's my chin, not for sale. Likely they were looking at the wrong page, but that might be the first time anyone's asked to adopt one of my personal chins.
Also had someone want a cage delivered... two hours away. Um... pretty sure it says I will deliver within 10 miles (or something close like that) for $5. Not two hours away. I said no. Not for $15 or $23 (the cages they were debating over). Then they'd asked if I'd mail it. It actually says, on all used cage ads, that these cages cannot be shipped, pickup or delivery only. No naturally, they ask if I can ship it. Anyway, then they ask, can I ship it COD (cash on delivery). Oh hell no. I don't have a good grasp on how that works in reality, but what I do understand about it, is they don't pay for it til they get it. Which means the cage would leave my house, with me paying for shipping, without me receiving anything for it. No thank you.
Let's see, what else. Oh, I have another hetero beige male that's going to be put up for sale. Dreamz will also be for sale, to a pet home. Need to list my trio of rats as well.
Awhile back, I bought a huge pack (at least 100-200) of vine hearts. They have sat here ever since. I don't know if I thought they were going to be part of a toy or what, but I haven't done anything with em. So, yesterday, I dyed two racks of em a dark pink. Dunno if I'm gonna make a limited edition toy or just hand em out around valentine's day, but I need to get em out of my toy parts box. I'm trying to clear out things I don't need so when I move (eventually), I won't be moving excessive amounts. Also went through that box, and found I had a bag of broken coconut shells. The place I had been shopping at had had them for so much per pound, so I bought several pounds. Some became fixtures in rat cages, the others were cluttering up my toy parts box. So, the smaller pieces got drilled and put in the toy parts bin (for the hanging toys at the rescue) and then the others were bolted to the cages. That cleared out a little more of that box. I need to go through the whole thing, cause a lot of what's in there is pieces that could be used to make the holiday toys, but then there's some toy parts that are just random colors... which would be fine to make like a one of a kind toy for sale, but no reason to hang onto em and wait for the holiday toy to come around.
Tonight, I need to accomplish some things. Need to do some paperwork and invoices, list the chins. Need to look at the babies I'm holding back and look at their ages versus their weights. Some might go bye bye if they're older and still too small. Also need to set up the cage that's being picked up on Friday. And need to start dusting and grooming the chins going to show in Feb.
Also some interesting things lately. Got an email asking me to sell Toby and wanting me to hurry up and email back so they could adopt him. Um... he's my chin, not for sale. Likely they were looking at the wrong page, but that might be the first time anyone's asked to adopt one of my personal chins.
Also had someone want a cage delivered... two hours away. Um... pretty sure it says I will deliver within 10 miles (or something close like that) for $5. Not two hours away. I said no. Not for $15 or $23 (the cages they were debating over). Then they'd asked if I'd mail it. It actually says, on all used cage ads, that these cages cannot be shipped, pickup or delivery only. No naturally, they ask if I can ship it. Anyway, then they ask, can I ship it COD (cash on delivery). Oh hell no. I don't have a good grasp on how that works in reality, but what I do understand about it, is they don't pay for it til they get it. Which means the cage would leave my house, with me paying for shipping, without me receiving anything for it. No thank you.
Let's see, what else. Oh, I have another hetero beige male that's going to be put up for sale. Dreamz will also be for sale, to a pet home. Need to list my trio of rats as well.
Awhile back, I bought a huge pack (at least 100-200) of vine hearts. They have sat here ever since. I don't know if I thought they were going to be part of a toy or what, but I haven't done anything with em. So, yesterday, I dyed two racks of em a dark pink. Dunno if I'm gonna make a limited edition toy or just hand em out around valentine's day, but I need to get em out of my toy parts box. I'm trying to clear out things I don't need so when I move (eventually), I won't be moving excessive amounts. Also went through that box, and found I had a bag of broken coconut shells. The place I had been shopping at had had them for so much per pound, so I bought several pounds. Some became fixtures in rat cages, the others were cluttering up my toy parts box. So, the smaller pieces got drilled and put in the toy parts bin (for the hanging toys at the rescue) and then the others were bolted to the cages. That cleared out a little more of that box. I need to go through the whole thing, cause a lot of what's in there is pieces that could be used to make the holiday toys, but then there's some toy parts that are just random colors... which would be fine to make like a one of a kind toy for sale, but no reason to hang onto em and wait for the holiday toy to come around.
Tonight, I need to accomplish some things. Need to do some paperwork and invoices, list the chins. Need to look at the babies I'm holding back and look at their ages versus their weights. Some might go bye bye if they're older and still too small. Also need to set up the cage that's being picked up on Friday. And need to start dusting and grooming the chins going to show in Feb.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Busy day
So, today started out with an adoption, our 3 year old female ebony went to her new home. Her new family named her Ebony.
Later I took down stuff that had piled up upstairs for the basement. Organized stuff that was already down there. Put away toy parts, toilet paper rolls, all sorts of fun stuff. Put up three edstrom bottles on cages. Took the swings that I bought from Christine at Twilight -- put up one. Was going to put up the other but got distracted. Christine sent other smaller swings as donations, so I put those up in the other cages.
I cut the wood for the two custom hidey houses. Nothing else, just cut it. Moved onto cutting up some scrap wood. When I cut the wood, I use a respirator and goggles, but I still always get the particles in my eyes, and at some point, my contacts were bothering me bad enough, so I had to stop cutting.
Took out the contacts, rinsed out eyes, put on glasses, and went back down. I decided today was a good day to cut the last piece of the guinea pig shaving guard, and so I did. About an inch too short. Had some choice words with that piece of wood, cut it again, the right size that time, and nailed it on. Hopefully that will help with the neverending shavings coming out the front of that cage.
Was still trying to move things downstairs and ran across the box of the toy parts which finally arrived. The guy had taken two trash bags and loaded them up with the toy parts. I wanted to get them all in a smaller (non-falling-apart box) and originally tried just taking the two bags and putting em in. Ah, no. One barely bit and that was sticking all the way out. So, I took all the toy parts out of the two bags, put them in neat little rows and lined them all up in the smaller box. My mom helped with the second bag, which made it go way quicker.
Having those nicely organized and in place, I took some down and sanded and drilled them. Was able to finish making enough of the fun chewies toys to fill the drawer. Sanded some additional toy parts and bagged those up.
I also had two bags of the buttons I was using for the snowman eyes/nose/mouth, but un-dyed. Pulled out the black and orange food coloring so I colored those so I could put those away. So those are drying at the moment.
Also handed out the Christmas toys today. I know, I know, Christmas was... like 3 weeks ago, so I'm a bit behind. Pictures below. Excuse the poos....I didn't want to further put off handing out toys due to poos in the pictures.
Later I took down stuff that had piled up upstairs for the basement. Organized stuff that was already down there. Put away toy parts, toilet paper rolls, all sorts of fun stuff. Put up three edstrom bottles on cages. Took the swings that I bought from Christine at Twilight -- put up one. Was going to put up the other but got distracted. Christine sent other smaller swings as donations, so I put those up in the other cages.
I cut the wood for the two custom hidey houses. Nothing else, just cut it. Moved onto cutting up some scrap wood. When I cut the wood, I use a respirator and goggles, but I still always get the particles in my eyes, and at some point, my contacts were bothering me bad enough, so I had to stop cutting.
Took out the contacts, rinsed out eyes, put on glasses, and went back down. I decided today was a good day to cut the last piece of the guinea pig shaving guard, and so I did. About an inch too short. Had some choice words with that piece of wood, cut it again, the right size that time, and nailed it on. Hopefully that will help with the neverending shavings coming out the front of that cage.
Was still trying to move things downstairs and ran across the box of the toy parts which finally arrived. The guy had taken two trash bags and loaded them up with the toy parts. I wanted to get them all in a smaller (non-falling-apart box) and originally tried just taking the two bags and putting em in. Ah, no. One barely bit and that was sticking all the way out. So, I took all the toy parts out of the two bags, put them in neat little rows and lined them all up in the smaller box. My mom helped with the second bag, which made it go way quicker.
Having those nicely organized and in place, I took some down and sanded and drilled them. Was able to finish making enough of the fun chewies toys to fill the drawer. Sanded some additional toy parts and bagged those up.
I also had two bags of the buttons I was using for the snowman eyes/nose/mouth, but un-dyed. Pulled out the black and orange food coloring so I colored those so I could put those away. So those are drying at the moment.
Also handed out the Christmas toys today. I know, I know, Christmas was... like 3 weeks ago, so I'm a bit behind. Pictures below. Excuse the poos....I didn't want to further put off handing out toys due to poos in the pictures.
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| Myshkin (left) & Molly (right) |
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| beige female |
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| another beige female |
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| beige male |
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| Carlos (rescue) |
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| Chile (rescue) |
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| Diva |
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| Dreamz |
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| ebony female (rescue) |
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| Gigi (rescue) |
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| Gypsy |
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| Gypsy's mosaic male |
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| homo beige female |
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| Lacey (left) & Pixie (right) |
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| Lacey (left) & Poppy (right) |
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| Lexi |
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| Nikki (doesn't she look good? this is the chin that was scalped by another female awhile back) |
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| Owl |
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| Peanut (rescue) |
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| mosaic female (look at that face! such a cute puffball) |
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| pink white female |
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| Toby |
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| Winx |
...and here's Winx's cage with the additions....
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| Overstimulated? Naaaaaaaaaah. |
Ok, ok, I acknowledge, it's awfully busy in that cage. And he's the only chin who's being deprived of a wheel right now, which he used to ADORE. But I don't want to take anything out, so my only way to fit it all is to spread it out... and I actually have a few more things that should go in that cage, but, no room.... So... I'm thinking he's going to get that whole double CN to himself again. I think I'm gonna open up the bottom so he can go down there and move some of this stuff down there. And there's a wheel in the bottom and I can put other fun stuff in here.
One more pic of him on the new swing...
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Good & Busy Day Today
Today actually got some things accomplished. First, one of the cages that was on-hold chillin' in the basement for a while went home, so that freed up some room.
Then, the rescue is on adopt-a-pet, which has a volunteer section. Which I hate to say, is not many steps above useless. Though, it is better than nothing, as I can't say I know of another site that has a volunteer network at all. Anyway, the way it works is that people sign up as a volunteer and an email goes out to rescues saying there's a new volunteer in the area. As a volunteer (I signed up as a volunteer to see how this works on both ends), you choose how many hours you have to work, when you want to work, what you want to do (you have choices to pick from), what animals you want to work with, if you want to foster, you write a little blurb about yourself, and so on and so forth. And you sign up and get some emails from various rescues saying hey, just wanted to introduce the rescue, if you want to help out, let me know. So, after receiving several of those to my volunteer profile, I wrote up one for NWICR. And so, as a rescue, I can check, I want profiles of volunteers to show up for me if they are available any day, if they want to help with small animals, if they are any age, etc etc. Because, it does me no good to email them if they want to only help out with dogs. And so I selected any age, within so many miles, and small animals. I get emails about volunteers that are 70 miles away, that only want to help with dogs, etc etc. And when I get these emails, there's no way to tell that from looking at the email. The email basically shows, here's a volunteer, they are over/under 18 years old, they live in this town, and you can see part of the blurb they have written about themselves. So, I have to click on the volunteer, log in, and read what they wrote to see if they really want to help with small animals and if they're anywhere around here. Because let's be honest, a 10 year old in Indianapolis is not going to make it out here to volunteer, so I can save the time it'd take to send that email out.
This sounds great, right, because in theory, I get an email the same day someone creates a volunteer profile on the website, so you'd think, ok, its a fresh person wanting to help. Eh, no. 99% of the emails I send out to these people, specifically the ones that say small animal, I never hear back. And it's not even like it just says "come clean cages!!" the email has a list of various things that can be done at the rescue, most of which do not require getting grimy. But I almost NEVER hear back. I think I've heard back from maybe 3 people in the entire time I've been on the site (and it's been at least a year or more) and I probably send out at least 25 emails a month. Oh and two of those three were no shows when they were actually set to come volunteer.
So you can imagine my surprise when I got an email from someone asking what needs to be done at the rescue at the current time. So, I said how the store's closed and I'm taking time to re-stock and there's this and this and this to do, but then asked, is there something they want to do? They asked if we needed anything sewed. YESSSSS! If you all saw the pile of fleece I have that keeps stacking up.... anyway, so her name is Leslie, she came by today, I showed her how hammocks are made, gave her two boxes of material and some thread, and here's hoping everything turns out good. I told her, if she likes doing it, I have oodles more.
So then, been texting/emailing with a family who are looking at two baby chins, and they wanted to come see them to decide if they wanted them. They came by today, decided they do want them, and put down a deposit. Yay.
Set up an adoption of the ebony girl tomorrow, so she'll be going home...
Also had someone text about a cage we had for sale, they ended up coming by and getting it, so that's one less...
So then, I packaged up a water bottle and mailed that out and started making more toys. Got behind since I was sick. Well, still am, but I can breathe better now, so I can actually work on stuff again. Made a few fun chewies toys, those take forever due to the sanding of the large round wood piece. Then sanded a crapload of anything goes pieces and re-filled that drawer. Probably made like 15 toys. Had some sanded pieces left over so I bagged those up.
Finished an order that's been sitting around for awhile, emailed the person with the total. Just waiting to hear back.
Cleaned up a bit. Mixed up some more guinea pig food (donated food with the oxbow we feed). Cleaned the rabbit's cage again. He's finally starting to catch on to the litter pan idea.
I still need to cut up wood for a two custom hidey house order, and then wood to make a few more houses and I need to cut up scrap wood into toy parts. Oh! The box of the 2" x 3" wood pieces arrived today, yay! Been waiting since like October, it's time. Need to sand some of those, and sand more of those small circles for the fun chewies toys and fill up that drawer. I found some edstrom bottles lying around that can be put up on cages, gonna do that at some point. Also still need to hand out the christmas chews to the chins. They all got hay and a toilet paper roll today, so they were amused, but need to get the camera down there and hand the actual christmas stuff out. I did hang the "stockings" with the names (Winx, Toby, Shani, Shiloh) up today though.
Then, the rescue is on adopt-a-pet, which has a volunteer section. Which I hate to say, is not many steps above useless. Though, it is better than nothing, as I can't say I know of another site that has a volunteer network at all. Anyway, the way it works is that people sign up as a volunteer and an email goes out to rescues saying there's a new volunteer in the area. As a volunteer (I signed up as a volunteer to see how this works on both ends), you choose how many hours you have to work, when you want to work, what you want to do (you have choices to pick from), what animals you want to work with, if you want to foster, you write a little blurb about yourself, and so on and so forth. And you sign up and get some emails from various rescues saying hey, just wanted to introduce the rescue, if you want to help out, let me know. So, after receiving several of those to my volunteer profile, I wrote up one for NWICR. And so, as a rescue, I can check, I want profiles of volunteers to show up for me if they are available any day, if they want to help with small animals, if they are any age, etc etc. Because, it does me no good to email them if they want to only help out with dogs. And so I selected any age, within so many miles, and small animals. I get emails about volunteers that are 70 miles away, that only want to help with dogs, etc etc. And when I get these emails, there's no way to tell that from looking at the email. The email basically shows, here's a volunteer, they are over/under 18 years old, they live in this town, and you can see part of the blurb they have written about themselves. So, I have to click on the volunteer, log in, and read what they wrote to see if they really want to help with small animals and if they're anywhere around here. Because let's be honest, a 10 year old in Indianapolis is not going to make it out here to volunteer, so I can save the time it'd take to send that email out.
This sounds great, right, because in theory, I get an email the same day someone creates a volunteer profile on the website, so you'd think, ok, its a fresh person wanting to help. Eh, no. 99% of the emails I send out to these people, specifically the ones that say small animal, I never hear back. And it's not even like it just says "come clean cages!!" the email has a list of various things that can be done at the rescue, most of which do not require getting grimy. But I almost NEVER hear back. I think I've heard back from maybe 3 people in the entire time I've been on the site (and it's been at least a year or more) and I probably send out at least 25 emails a month. Oh and two of those three were no shows when they were actually set to come volunteer.
So you can imagine my surprise when I got an email from someone asking what needs to be done at the rescue at the current time. So, I said how the store's closed and I'm taking time to re-stock and there's this and this and this to do, but then asked, is there something they want to do? They asked if we needed anything sewed. YESSSSS! If you all saw the pile of fleece I have that keeps stacking up.... anyway, so her name is Leslie, she came by today, I showed her how hammocks are made, gave her two boxes of material and some thread, and here's hoping everything turns out good. I told her, if she likes doing it, I have oodles more.
So then, been texting/emailing with a family who are looking at two baby chins, and they wanted to come see them to decide if they wanted them. They came by today, decided they do want them, and put down a deposit. Yay.
Set up an adoption of the ebony girl tomorrow, so she'll be going home...
Also had someone text about a cage we had for sale, they ended up coming by and getting it, so that's one less...
So then, I packaged up a water bottle and mailed that out and started making more toys. Got behind since I was sick. Well, still am, but I can breathe better now, so I can actually work on stuff again. Made a few fun chewies toys, those take forever due to the sanding of the large round wood piece. Then sanded a crapload of anything goes pieces and re-filled that drawer. Probably made like 15 toys. Had some sanded pieces left over so I bagged those up.
Finished an order that's been sitting around for awhile, emailed the person with the total. Just waiting to hear back.
Cleaned up a bit. Mixed up some more guinea pig food (donated food with the oxbow we feed). Cleaned the rabbit's cage again. He's finally starting to catch on to the litter pan idea.
I still need to cut up wood for a two custom hidey house order, and then wood to make a few more houses and I need to cut up scrap wood into toy parts. Oh! The box of the 2" x 3" wood pieces arrived today, yay! Been waiting since like October, it's time. Need to sand some of those, and sand more of those small circles for the fun chewies toys and fill up that drawer. I found some edstrom bottles lying around that can be put up on cages, gonna do that at some point. Also still need to hand out the christmas chews to the chins. They all got hay and a toilet paper roll today, so they were amused, but need to get the camera down there and hand the actual christmas stuff out. I did hang the "stockings" with the names (Winx, Toby, Shani, Shiloh) up today though.
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