Aggravating Day

So, today we had Leo and Jeffrey and Carter (a new guinea pig) brought back.  Want to know why?  When the guy adopted, he lived in a pet friendly apartment.  Well, then he had to move because "things got bad" and moved into an apartment that was not pet friendly, but he said, oh the one lady had a cat for like 10 years and they didn't care.  Well, long story short, they cared about the guinea pigs and he had to have them gone like yesterday.

Uh-huh.  He adopted Leo and Jeffrey from here, and got the other pic from Petco (?), so he filled out the adoption form, read the care packet, all that stuff.  He'd built them a C&C cage, and originally was using fleece at the bottom.  Well, that didn't end up working out for him, so he switched to... get this... cedar.  Cause, you know, the care packet doesn't have a few sentences on why NOT to use cedar.  No, course not. 

Also... nails were super long on the guinea pigs, and the one nail was so long it was curling.  So I asked, they did know that they have to cut them, right?  They said yes, and they said, I actually showed them how to cut them when they adopted (kudos to me).  They said they tried, and it just wasn't that easy and they couldn't do it.  So they asked their vet if the vet could do it, and the vet said, before being able to cut nails, they'd each have to have an exam, so $50 for the exam, plus whatever it cost to cut nails.  So needless to say, the pigs had never had their nails cut... since the beginning of May when I did it.

Grrrrr.....

Moving along, we had a chin dropped off for chin-sitting, so Tytus is back with us for the week....

Moving along, I had a 5 pm appointment.  They texted earlier today asking if a check would be alright for payment.  I told them, sorry, but no, I don't take checks except from people I see all the time (some people I see like monthly), because people tend to buy like $500 worth of stuff and then bounce the check.  I told her, nothing against them, but that's just how it is.  Happy to take cash or credit card.  She said she understood, and at that point, it was 4:30 and she said she was running late because she was stuck in traffic.  I told her, I would be here when she got here.  They're in Valpo, so assuming she'd already left at 4:30... shouldn't have put her here much later than 5 pm (probably later, but not excessively).  Like even if they'd JUST left, maybe 5:15 the latest coming here.  5:30 with traffic.  Well... time passes, it's 6:15, and that's almost 2 hours from when she said she'd be late, so I texted her asking if they were still coming.  No answer.  So 7 pm rolled around, and I texted them one last time to tell them that I was assuming they weren't coming and that I appreciated how considerate they were about all of this, considering I'd been sitting around waiting for them for the last two hours.  I told them, as my time is apparently not valuable to them, since they couldn't take the time to let me know they weren't coming, for them to not contact me again, as I don't have any more time to waste on this. 

You know, I hate to be an ass.  But... I waited around for hours for these people, who couldn't even have the good sense to text me and say, you know, hey, we decided not to come.  I was talking to one of my friends, and I told them, even if they had texted like a half hour after saying they were going to be late, and said, hey, you know, we can't come today  Would have been completely different.  But no, no response to my text, and no text about not coming... I don't care to deal with people like that. Sorry, but they wasted my time, I don't care to spend any more time on them. 

I'm getting ready for a garage sale right now (will be this weekend).  Some stuff in the garage needs to go down to the basement.  If I moved that stuff, I could actually have gotten ready more stuff upstairs, because I would have cleared off a table.  But no... see, I didn't want to start taking stuff downstairs, cause then, when the people came, I'd have the garage open and not be up there.... so I thought, I'll wait, and when they leave, do it.  Well... as you know, they never came.

Turns out... they said they'd been driving around Hammond for two hours, got lost, went to the wrong house.  Asked for Ashley (that's me), and there was an Ashley there, so they went in that house looking for me.  Must be interesting people that live there, that just let random people in looking for someone... so we shall see.  I told them, when we schedule another appointment, that time, I won't be waiting more than 15 minutes if they're late.  Cause I don't have time to mess around with this...

Oh, and moving along to an email from a few days ago.  Someone wanted me to take in their chins.  So the email talks about the chins and then there's one line that goes... "Your website says that you are at capacity, but do you think it would be possible to take her on at the moment, or in the near future?"  Um... no.  That's what it means when the rescue is at capacity...

And... emailed someone a care packet and adoption form, and specified they need to send a pic of the cage when they email back.  So they say, "Already have a cage but it's not put together. I can put it together for a picture if you really need it. I currently have another chinchilla now that's in my second cage. The cage I'll put her in is a 3 level cage."  Told them, "Seeing / approving the cage is part of the adoption process, so you will need to put together the cage and get us a pic for us to approve you to adopt.  You'd need to put it together sooner or later to put the new chinchilla in, so think of it as getting a headstart."  I wouldn't ask for a pic of the cage if I didn't need it... hello....

Moving along... a friend of a friend wanted to buy a critter nation that I have for sale.  With the shelves and other stuff they wanted, the cage ended up at $154.50, and they paid the first $50 back in mid April.  Said they'd pay more the following week.  Well... didn't hear from them for about a month and a half, and I emailed her... didn't hear back until I talked to her friend (who is my friend) and then, I got an email back from the person, saying they were sorry, had their hours cut at the job, yadda yadda.  So she said in the email, she would send some money next week.  That was May 28th.  Let's fast forward to June 19th, when I still had not received any payment and had not heard back from this person, so I again contacted my friend, who talked to her friend, and between several times of that and several emails from me, I finally got an email back saying, they were sorry, they feel bad, and so on.  They said, in that email, if I could bear with them, they could send some money right then, and would pay more the following week on the weekend.  That was the 20th.  On June 23rd, I emailed back saying that we needed to do some sort of a payment plan, and I didn't care if it was $10 per week, but we needed to set up something so sooner or later, it would be paid off.  Even at $10/week, this would have been paid off in 2.5 months, even quicker if she paid more than that per week.  Well... it's now June 5th, and I had not heard from her, nor received the payment that I was supposed to get "now" (June 20th) or a week later (the following weekend)... so I sent her an email:

I know you have stuff going on in your life, but I do as well, and I feel like if you can't find the time to respond to my email (for 12 days) and figure out a payment plan... I can't find time to constantly hound you for the money.  And again, no other place would deal with this. 

Even if you put an item on layaway, once you defaulted on payments, they would cancel your layaway and keep the item (and your money).  And they sure wouldn't contact you, to say, "hey, waiting for a payment...let's find a way to work this out," they would just cancel the layaway and take the item and keep whatever you'd paid, once you defaulted. 

This has been going on since beginning of April.  It's now the beginning of July.  3-4ish months.  I'm not waiting any longer, I'm not emailing you again. I understand you have stuff going on at home that is making it hard for you to pay, I really do, but I don't feel some small amount (say $10/week) is not-do-able, and I don't have time to keep hanging onto this cage forever or bugging you about it.  If you were at least emailing me back, or even doing what you said you could manage (the last email said, you would pay some right then and some next week... unfortunately never happened), we might be having a different conversation.  I'm patient, but to an extent, and I appreciate getting emailed responses, and payments.  Without them... I can't do this forever.

If you somehow come upon the money sooner or later, by all means, let me know, and you can buy it (when you have all the money).

It's much too late for me to actually refund your money per paypal's 60 day refund allowance, so I will send you $50 from the rescue account for what you have already paid into the cage. 
I don't even really care if that's kind of snarky.  I feel like, if she can't email me back, or pay when she's going to, I feel like I don't need to be nice anymore.

Cage Costs and other things

So, I get often, people tell me, oh the cages look great.  They would love to replicate the cages.  And I tell them, it's one thing if they do it themselves, because there's not the labor cost added into making the stuff.  You know, like if I make shelves for one of my cages, or for a cage I sell, it costs the rescue the price of the wood and the price of the hardware... not the price I'd charge for the shelf.  Like anything, if someone else makes it for you... it costs more.  IKEA furniture versus furniture anywhere else.

So, just to illustrate.  We have someone who adopted a chin a bit ago, and is looking to adopt another.  So they asked about doing shelves and accessories for their cage, and they have a feisty ferret, which is similar to ferret nation cages that I have, so I suggested they go on the website and check out the cages for ideas.  Well, they liked this cage.

...and wanted replicas of everything in it.

So I numbered everything on a piece of paper and started figuring our prices.  Without getting prices for the four items (the wood perch in the top right, the bridge, one of the houses, and the corner shelf) we were already at $100.50.  And mind you, that doesn't include things like the flying saucer, the ceramic hidey house in the bottom back corner, the cuddle cup in top left, or the fleece tunnel, or any of the toys.

Because I realize that not everyone's got endless money to spend, before I figured out everything else, I sent the person the numbered pic and the price of the items I'd already figured out, and asked if there was anything they wanted to take out.  So they took out a few things, and I went and figured out the price of the other things.

Anyway, the point for all of this is that I have people tell me all the time, oh make the cage look just like yours.  Cause they really like the cage, and some of the stuff in these cages is purchased (not made by me) and so I usually tell people, these cages didn't come together in a day, mainly because of cost.  Things were bought and added over time, to make the cages what they are now.  And the cost is why.  I can try to create or replicate just about anything you want (artwork aside, I can do my best).   But at the end of the day, I do have to build it, and cut it, and sand it, and put in hardware, etc etc etc.

Most of this stuff isn't actually expensive.  Most items are under $10, but there's just so many of them... it all adds up.  Long story short, we worked out what items they wanted, and they're right over $100 for maybe about 2/3 of the stuff in the cage (not counting the wheel, some of the fleece stuff, pans, etc).  So I'm working on that at the moment, because they're picking up the chin at the expo this weekend.

Moving along, I had someone order like 30ish toys.  I think, of those 30, I have like four made.  And at least 10 of the ones he wants have to be dyed, so that ought to be fun.  Working on that at the moment. 

Moving along again.  Had two people across the country want to adopt Dewey.  Not sure what exactly is special about him that makes the California people want him, but I believe both people were from that area.  First one asked if there was a way to ship them, and I mentioned uship.com, but told them, when I look at the small animal (as in, something that can be easily kenneled in a small crate), it's still $200-600 to get them a few states away.  Not cheap.  Haven't heard from them again.  Second person texted today asking about getting Dewey out to them in California, and when I asked them how they planned to do that, they said they wanted to ship him by airplane.  I told them, two things, it's too hot this time of year, and even if it wasn't... we don't ship, and that's on 95% of our ads (the new ones... some of the old ones are missing it) and most definitely on the website.  I mean heck, we actually have a page on the website devoted to why it's we don't ship and why it's really not practical.  Chins aren't geckos that you can stick in a deli cup and stick that in a priority mail box and send cross country.  It has to be the right temperature.  They have to have a vet certificate of health.  They have to go through the airlines.  Have to have a special carrier.  Have to be picked up by the airlines.  Even if the adoptive home wanted to pay the costs of the vet bill, carrier, etc.... there's still the fact that the rescue would be making $75 adoption fee off the chins, and frankly... it's not worth the time and effort for $75.  I drive to an area around O'Hare occasionally, and gas there and back is $25.  All of a sudden, that chin's adoption fee is, effectively, $50.  Waiting at the vet for the health check, which I can almost guarantee you, my vet has no idea how to do the paperwork for, would probably be several hours.  How much is that time worth?  Even at minimum wage, I could be cleaning cages or making toys or whatever, at minimum wage, two hours work is about $16, so effectively, adoption fee just went down to $34.  Heck, if I'm going to make that amount, I might as well list the chin at $35 and not ever have to leave my house, cause at that price, it'll be adopted that day.  Needless to say, the guy said thanks anyway, hope Dewey finds a home.  He will, just not through airline shipping....

Alrighty, so, spent some time packaging things we're taking for the expo, and working on the shelves and hammock for the people who we're bringing supplies for. 

Got a phone call from someone interested in one of the chins, sent them the care packet and adoption form.  Got an email back that it must not have attached, so sent it again.

Got an email from someone showing a pic of an awesome cage that they were asking if it would work.  Cage would definitely work, just needed some wood shelves... but not to be paranoid, but it looks like something I've seen online somewhere.  Which, it's totally possible I have, most cage companies make multiple of their cages, like, hundreds.  But I told the person, for them to adopt with that cage, I need to see it with wood shelves in it.  So, if it really is their cage (or one they're looking to get for their chins),  and put in wood shelves, there should be no problem.  The person seems very nice from the email, but so have most people who've been trying to pass off cages that aren't their own as theirs.  Though it doesn't show up on a google image search.  That's alright, I'll be perfectly happy to see what they do with it with wood shelves.

Someone finally filled out the app for Marble (the guinea pig), and is just working on finishing their 3' x 5' C&C cage, so as soon as that's done, he will be going to a new home.  Yay! 

Had someone stop by to get food today, and plan when they'll be bringing their chin for chin sitting.  So now that's all planned out.

Posted on facebook about us being in Newcastle and Anderson over the weekend.  Already bringing along two chins for some people, along with over $100 in supplies, and someone else is returning a chin that they've only had for a bit that's meeting us down there, so while we're down there, might as well see if anyone else needs anything.  Nobody else has chimed in yet, but we shall see if anyone does.

...and more chinchillas

Well, today was uneventful... mainly because I didn't do much in terms of rescue stuff (but will be taking pictures and listing critters later on today).

The main thing was that I had someone comment on a picture on facebook, wanting the adoption form and all that... got it to them.  Haven't heard back.  Not to be pessimistic, but the people who tend to adopt, tend to get those back to me asap, so I try not to get too hopefully if too much time passes...

Had another one, where they called me in the morning and left a voicemail, and I somehow missed the call, and I marked on my to-do list to call them back, and before I could get some free time to do so, they called me again and asked how they'd go about adopting.  So I told them, care packet, adoption form, yadda yadda, and we went over all of that, and they said yeah, send it over.  So I did, and they sounded really enthusiastic about getting it back to me and adopting asap... that was like early today, still nothing.

And in case you say, oh those are the oddballs out, other people will adopt.  Sure they will.  I'm not worried about it.  It's just one of those things, for every 20 emails / phone calls / contacts I get, maybe 1 adopts. 

...and some bring them back.  I had people who adopted chinchillas back in 2011 call the other day, wanting to bring chinchillas back.  Since they were my chins, I told them that they could (everyone else is on a waiting list, but when people sign the form stating they have to return the chins... I try not to make them wait, if possible).  So they called today to check they had the right address, which makes sense, because when I talked to them today, we realized they came to my parents' house back in 2011.  Anyway, so they came by and dropped off the chins.  Paco and Kazi, now known as Tinkerbell, mom and daughter chins.  I asked them why they couldn't keep them and they said the chins were their first pets, but now they had dogs.  My mom was here at the time, and I said to her (after they left), "yeah, chins were my first pets too, and they'd be here until they died even after getting the dogs."  But not for everyone, I guess.  Guess for some people, one animal trumps another. 

Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate them bringing the chins back to the rescue (and I told the people as much).  Because I really do appreciate when people make that effort.  But the excuses.....

Sad day today

It must be hard being honest when filling out an adoption form.

Let me back up a bit.  A chinchilla went home the other day.  They noticed next day, it seemed a little tired, but didn't really think anything of it.  Called me yesterday (several days later), saying she was acting a bit off, I said see if she was still that way today, and if so, give me a call and we'd go from there.

They called in the early evening, the chin still wasn't acting right.  They said she was worse than yesterday, acting lethargic, looking like she was going to fall off the shelf.  So I told them, take her to the vet.  And I told them, the way it works is they take her, pay the bill, and they send me the bill (or fax it, or send a picture, or whatever) and I reimburse them.  And I tell them (as I tell everyone), that it has to be within reason, because if they charge up a $900 bill, they will bankrupt the rescue and there won't be one next week.  Cause let's be honest, there's no money in rescue, and we don't have that kinda money to spend on one chin (or to spend at all, really).  Well, she says she doesn't have that much either.  Which is fine, I don't expect anyone to spend that much.

But I explain, they pay the vet bill, I pay it back once they get me a copy, and we go from there.  Well, the mom calls me.  Says she's behind several hundred dollars on paying everything, and can't even afford to take the chin to the vet.

Now... what part of "do you have funds to cover vet bills for this chinchilla, if needed?" is not clear?  What part of "are you aware that veterinary care for exotics (chinchillas) is usually costly?" is also not clear? Cause both of those questions are on the adoption form.  For the "do you have funds?" question, they put "yes, if needed" and for the "are you aware" question, they put "yes."  And now, not even a week later, neither they, nor their mother / family, has the money to front the vet bill so that I can pay them back.  Amazing how that works.

Before we go on, I suppose there's one main point to this (with several facets) -- no matter how well I, or any rescue, screens adopters, we can never be 100% sure that the home is good and can adequately care for the chinchilla.  Because she put on the adoption form that they have money for vet bills.  Yet, they don't.  And really, how would I know?  I'm not going to ask to see bank statements.  And just as easily, the chin could have been healthy and they could have not needed any money for the vet.  But they said, if needed, they have money.  Yet... in reality... they don't.  And, in this case, if these people had really said, they don't have the money for vet bills... they would not have been able to adopt.  Simple as that.  Not saying that to be mean, but in real life, you need money for vet bills.  Maybe not thousands on the side, but a bit.  If this was two weeks after they got the chin (instead of being within the health guarantee period), and if I wasn't paying for this.... I guess they wouldn't be taking her to the vet.  Which is not what's supposed to happen when you adopt a new pet.

They said, the only way they can take her to the vet is if the vet calls me and allows me to pay over the phone with a card.  And that was with me saying, don't go over a few hundred before you call me.  They don't even have that.  Said they couldn't afford the vet at all without me paying over the phone.  Should they have chins?  You may disagree, but I say no.  I told them what vet to go to, cause they're in Indy, and I have a vet down there that I like, and used when I lived there.  Well.... they don't know if they can make it that far cause they only have 3 notches of gas in the car.  Case in point again.

So... I gave them the number for the vet, told them to give me a call when they figured out something.  Based on their description of the chin, things did not sound good, but I waited, and eventually the vet called.  Turns out, the chin was dehydrated, underweight, lethargic, you name it.  I talked to the mom, told her, you know, this chin has two cagemates, so while she showed no signs of weight loss here, but....with two other chins in the cage, there's no way to tell if any one specific chin is eating or drinking.  Cause as long as the others are, the water and food levels will go down.  But the chin hadn't been apparently drinking (they said she was eating, I think) for the last few days, to be dehydrated. 

So I talked to the vet, and cause this was after hours, at an exotics vet, the fee just to walk in the door was $155.  So they checked her out, told me what I said above, and I asked about treatment.  So the vet says, they'd like to do aggressive treatment, a catheter, sub-q fluids, handfeeding, hospitalization, bloodwork, x-rays... you name it.  Those are the ones I can remember, but she kept going.  So I tell her, the reason she's talking to me about this payment and all this, is because the chin is a rescue chin that has a health guarantee still going, and I don't have thousands to work with.  So I ask, what's a good thing to start with.  She said that they could just do basically life sustaining treatment, and that would be the least expensive option.  Only problem is... that doesn't tell us what's wrong with her.  So I said that to the vet, and she said next options would be x-rays and bloodwork.  So I said let's do x-rays first, and if that doesn't help us, bloodwork. 

So they do x-rays, which would have shown something like a gastrointestinal problem such as a blockage, stasis, etc.  Unfortunately for this chin, nothing showed up on the x-ray.  So I got a call back from the vet, and I questioned, I thought we were going to do bloodwork.  Well, apparently since the chin was so dehydrated, they didn't believe they would be able to do bloodwork without trying to get her a tad bit better first, with the overnight care. 

Well, that's where we started to run into problems.  With overnight care, plus the x-rays and visit fee, we would have already been at $450-500.  Bloodwork in the morning would have been another $125, plus whatever treatment would have cost... if the issue was treatable, of course.  So, I must have gone between talking to the vet and to the adoptive home multiple times, and I think we started aggravating the vet, because they finally said to me, you're the one paying, you need to make a decision.

Problem is, the vet wasn't sure that even if we did overnight care, with the intention of doing bloodwork in the morning, that the chin would have even made it until the morning.  She said it was a very real possibility that she could come in the morning and the chin could have passed sometime during the night.

And the concern was, even if the chin lived until the morning, if we did bloodwork in the morning, we'd easily be over $600, and that would be without any sort of treatment.  I told the vet, at that point, I'd only be able to afford basic antibiotics, once we got into those sort of figures, and she said those wouldn't likely help at that point (which was what I suspected).

So I talked with the adoptive home's mom, and I asked her what her thoughts were.  I threw out the option of me paying up to a certain amount.  I said I would pay up to $600, but that would basically bankrupt the rescue except for maybe $100 to feed the animals here, and if she wanted to continue treatment after that, she could.  Didn't want to do that.  As I understood, didn't have money to do that.  So I asked, after her talking to the vet, what she thought would be best.  As really, it was her family's adopted chin, not mine, even though I was footing the bill.  So she tells me, the kid wanted a chin regardless. 

Well, that opened another can of worms (and probably frustrated the vet more, because we went off on another tangent).  I told the adoptive home, I meant no offense or harsh feelings, but the fact that they couldn't even go to the vet without my paying up-front for everything, and the fact they barely had gas to get there... made it so that I could not, in good conscience, adopt them another chin.  I told them, I would gladly refund their money if she died or we had to put her down, but because of the money situation, I wasn't comfortable with another of my chins going into the house.  And I told her, I don't think it was anything they did to get the chin sick, or anything like that.  But I noted, on the adoption form, they marked that they had the money if needed for vet bills, and they knew vet bills could be expensive.  And she said, well, they had more money last week, but then one of the kids graduated, so now there was less... and I told her, it doesn't matter if she was a millionaire last week, if she has none now, well, the chin is sick now.  It matters what she has now. 

And I told her, the thing is, say I dropped my phone in the pond at work (and I don't have a laptop, so I would have no access to email until I came home) and was gone for 3 days when this happened... what would she have done then?  I wouldn't want the chin sitting at an adoptive home suffering because they couldn't get it to the vet.  And she said, oh they would have figured something out, they would never adopt without finding a way to pay the vet bill or borrow the money or something.  Funny, I told her, that wasn't what you said earlier when she told me there was no possible way they could go to the vet unless I paid upfront.  Got quiet then.  

So she got super defensive and told me her finances are none of my business, and she's a single mom with two kids, and finances are none of my business... and so on, she repeated that multiple times.  No, they're not, but the care of the chinchillas IS my business.  That includes their future care (or lack of) at their new homes.  Because if they're not going to be cared for well, they might as well stay here longer until the right home comes along.  And if I don't feel comfortable with them going to a certain home, for any reason under the sun, I don't have to adopt to that home.  And that's where it matters about finances to me.  I don't want these animals to suffer because people have to have another pet while they wouldn't be able to take their current ones to the vet if they got sick.  Should I mention, they have another chinchilla at home?   

So, back to talking with the vet, and the vet reminds me it's my decision, and that putting her down would be a very reasonable option considering how sick she is, but that I should take into consideration that the family is very attached to her.  I mentioned to the vet, but not so attached that they want to pay any portion of this vet bill, even if I foot $600 of it.  "Well, that's true."  Yeah. 

So, the decision was made to put down the chinchilla.  I told the people, I was sorry there wasn't a better outcome, but with the way chinchillas hide that they're sick until they're at death's door, it can be hard to notice a lot of illnesses until it's too late. 

The discussion turned to money again, and she told me that she expected to get a healthy chinchilla, and then she wouldn't have had to worry about this.  Told her... the thing is, if this had happened another two weeks from now... she would have been footing the bill (or not, as the case may be, I don't know).  And she said, well, she expected to get a healthy chinchilla.  Which I told her, that is not unreasonable in any way, but in almost 13 years, all the chins I've adopted out, I've only had 3 (and that includes this one) that have died or had to be put down shortly after being adopted.  And I've adopted out hundreds of chinchillas, so three is pretty decent.  Just statistically, the number should probably be higher than that, so I'd like to think I must be doing something right. 

...and in all fairness, the point of having a health guarantee is to make sure that in case the animal isn't healthy, the family does not have to suffer for it... which is why she was not paying the bill...

But here's the thing -- I don't adopt out any animal that I think might be sick.  If the animal is set to go home and develops something that can be treated at home, depending on what it is, I may ask if the new home wants to treat it, or wants me to treat it, and them pick up the chinchilla when it's done with treatment.  Granted, that's often for something like loose poos, not for life threatening issues.  But really, the idea is the same.  The animals come with a health guarantee, so I don't want to adopt them out if I think there's anything wrong with them, because frankly, I'm more comfortable taking them to the vet myself, and making the decisions when I am physically there with the chin, than doing things over the phone when I'm hours away.

The way she said that she expected a healthy chinchilla from the get-go was actually kind of harsh, like almost as if I had intended to give her a sick one or something.  And she actually agreed, the chin seemed fine when they picked her out, so there was no way to know if something was already wrong at that point.  If I had thought something was wrong, I would not have adopted her out.  Simple as that.

So, I paid the vet, and they're gonna email me a copy of the bill on Monday, and I talked again with the adopters.  They asked about the refund, and they paid with cash, so really the only thing I can do is write them a check and mail it.  So I told them that, and they said that would be fine.  They wanted to make sure that I would get it out tomorrow, and asked several times to verify.  And want me to email when I get it out. 

So I told them, they will be getting $60 back (which is what they paid for the chin).  They asked if I would reimburse their gas, because they came here from Indy.  Um... no?  I nicely explained, I can only reimburse money that actually comes into the rescue, and while they did have to pay for gas, it wasn't me they were paying for it.  And in all fairness, I had this chin listed for $75, and they asked if I could lower it to $60 because they were coming from Indy, and I did... so they already had a gas discount in there.

So between the vet bill and the $60, we're right over $400 for a chinchilla that unfortunately is no longer with us. 

I believe this (above) may be the only picture we have of her -- she wasn't listed at the point the family inquired about her, so I snapped this pic to send to them.  This was Chong, a 7 year old grey female.  We currently still have her two daughters, Chupacabra and Bigfoot, here (and I need to list them, once I check them over with a fine toothed comb). 

Obviously it's sad that she's no longer with us.  But what I really hate is when the money is spent and nothing really comes of it.  You know.  They spent about 5-6 hours round-trip coming up here to adopt and drive back home.  They called yesterday to say she wasn't doing well.  They called today and between talking to them and the vet, I was probably on the phone with different people for a few hours today.  They had to spend those few hours at the vet.  Plus, of course, the actual monetary cost of over $400 for the vet trip and refunded adoption fee.  And at the end of the day... if the chin lived, we could say, at least it was money well spent.  But at the end of the day, she didn't make it. 

Don't get me wrong, I do believe we made the right decision.  I don't think she would have lived through the night, and the vet agreed.  But it's still tough.  And right now, that vet bill nicely halved (if not more, I need to do paperwork) the money the rescue has.  I hate having very little money to play with, especially considering one trip for picking up Mazuri is usually between $150-200.  So it's easy for me to use up the rescue of the money that we have... so I guess I will get started cranking out toys and anything else to hopefully build back up the little bit of money the rescue has.  If anyone wants to donate anything, now's the time.

One last thing I want to note, before I go to bed (cause it's almost 2 am here).  I don't mean this post to bash the people or anything like that.  But the thing is, I appreciate honesty.  If you don't have the money, that's fine.  But don't tell me you do, if you really don't.  I had someone message me the other day saying their chin died (not from me) and they only had $20 to get another one.  I nicely explained, cannot lower the adoption fee that much, but if they save up, and make sure to put some aside for vet bills (if needed), I'll be happy to help them pick out a great chin for them.  So, they're saving up.  I just don't like to be lied to.  I'm perfectly fine with people saying, oh if something happens, they'll charge it.  If my dog or animals get sick, I will gladly put it on a credit card or care credit or whatever, if I don't have the money.  To an extent of course, because I have to be able to pay it off sooner or later, so I can't spend $400 on every rescue animal.  But the thing is, I'm fine with people that will actually do that.  Because I do think that's a valid option for a lot of people.  But I don't like the people that say they'll do that, or find a way... and then turn it around to say, oh they can't.  If these people had gone to the vet, and even been able to pay $150 of the vet bill, and said, ok, that was all they could cover, but they were able to do that -- to me, that would show me they were willing to take her to the vet, spend something (especially cause I still would have been reimbursing it), and I probably would have given them another chin to replace this one.  But with them not being willing to do anything without me paying up front for everything, that shows me that financially, they're not in the right place to adopt, and again... I don't like when people tell me, sure they can afford it, and then can't even afford a basic vet visit (which I think we can all agree, $150 is about the cheapest you'll ever get at the vet).  I know for sure they have another chin, not sure if they have other pets.  I hope, for those animals' sake, that they stay healthy.  As I explained to the people, not trying to be mean, but at the end of the day, the animal's well-being is really important to me, and I don't want to see them not being cared for.  But if they couldn't afford to even take the animal in... I just hope their other animals stay healthy.

Going to bed now.

People not minding their own business

Let me share what I find incredibly annoying.  Know-it-all's.  And mainly, know-it-all's that want to share just how much they know.  And assume, as a rescue, that we must know nothing.

Now, that said, I do know of several humane societies that mainly take in cats and dogs, and when they get a small animal... they might as well have taken in a monkey, for all they know how to care for it.  But the animal rescues that tend to focus on one animal, or small animals, typically know their stuff.

But people seem to think lately that they see things we can't.  I emailed someone pics of chins they wanted to see.  They responded back with, well you don't have toys??????  No, I do, but they weren't in the pics.   Let me share.

First pic is of a baby born here, taken in one of the holding cages that I have.  Now, anyone who's been here (and anyone who's even helped out) knows that those cages have 3 toys per cage (cause that's all that fits).  They're all on the front of the cage.  Second pic actually HAS a chew toy in it, see the left side of the pic.  Besides that, this is the top of that cage:

The pic was from when I lived at the last place, but... the cage is literally the same with the exception that the wheel is now a chin spin (and the prairie dogs have their leo braun back).  Look at all those chew toys.  And currently, I think there's actually a few more on the doors. 

So let's go to the third pic, which is actually the bottom of the same cage.  Here's the entire cage. 

Again, there are definitely chew toys in the cage.  Maybe not in the exact pic that they saw, but in the cage.  But the thing that also drives me nuts... see all the wooden shelves?  I value chew toys, don't get me wrong, but if the choice is between chew toys or shelves, I will tell the person spending the money to go with shelves.  Because.... chins can chew on the wood shelves.  So even if there were no chew toys... they'd have something to chew on.  But what this all boils down to is this -- people caring too much about stuff that's not theirs.

Another case in point.  I just listed Marble, the guinea pig.  Got an email today in response to one of the ads I put up, and all it said was "he looks sick."  Now, I saw that and went back and looked at the pictures of him, and then asked a guinea pig rescue to look at the pictures of him... we all agree he's fine.  Sick guinea pigs have standing-up fur, hunched back, bad looking eyes... he has none of any of that.  Let's take a look.

....looks happy as a clam to us.  And just in case anyone wants to say he's bored or has no chew toys....

 
...just makes me mad, cause it seems like people have nothing better to do....

Getting stuff done....

So... doing lots today.

Had someone want to know about shipping a cage and shelves out to them on the east coast.  Even without figuring it out, I knew it was going to be expensive.  Figured it out -- $50.  Yikes.  Guarantee they won't be getting that.

Got another order ready, just need to find a box and package it up.

Put together the loofah toy that I have had on my to-do list forever, the zany loofah hanging toy.

Dunno why the picture is sideways, it's an up and down toy.

...and then listed that toy ($5.50) and the stoplight loofah ($2.25) and colored anything goes toys ($5.50 each) on the website.

colored anything goes toys

stoplight loofah

...and then checked my email and I have yet more people wanting to surrender their chins.  One guy emailed and said, well, there's a rescue closer to him, but they're full.  Um... read the website buddy... so are we.  I told him I could add him to the waiting list, but that's about all I can do at the moment....

So, I tried to put Shani and Summer together.  In a few words, it did not go well.  Shani started beating up Summer, and I couldn't easily get them apart, cause Shani kept going after me when I reached in the cage, and Summer wouldn't come out from under the wheel, and I was panicking, because Shani could easily kill Summer, so I posted on facebook... and Peggy (of Rescued Rat Adoptions) posted something about, I need a net.  I have a net!  I use it to catch the difficult loose chins, and so I used that and then was able to get Summer out.  Summer is NOT happy and wants to chew on me now, but doesn't look too bad.  I think I'll have to split the cage in two, but that's for another day.  At the moment, they're separated.

Got a picture of the bridge I made for someone and got that to them.. they like it that length, so I just need to figure out shipping for that.  Tomorrow.

Made up some more loofah toys until I ran out of red loofah.  I think that was like 6-7 toys, so that should last me a little while.

Cleaned up the rescue a bit more.  Finished dusting the chins in all the FN cages, and weighed all the fluffballs that haven't yet been listed.  All the little chins are ready to go except for the beige male.  Who in all fairness, is probably ready to go, but I want to see him gain a little more, cause he's still tiny.  So now I have my list of chins to list, guess I will be getting to that over the next few days.

Had my only appointment of the day show up, after several hours of driving and construction, and picked out Clive and Amethyst to take home.  So those boys are happily in their new home now.

Today

So today was a busy day.  Spent most of the day just cleaning up random stuff around the rescue.

Washed tons of random rescue stuff, until I ran out of soap.  Had to go upstairs to get more soap, but came back down without soap several times.

Cleaned the rat cages.  Gave the rats food, their cereal mix, and some yogurt drops.

Was going to just spot clean the guinea pig cage until I got a good whiff of it, so I changed the entire cage.  So now he has clean fluff in the cage, and I had a lot of partially-full carefresh bags that I was able to use for that cage, so now I have marginally more room in storage.  Yay.

Cleaned out the bottom FN that had the two pink white boys in it.  Put in a new liner and moved over Salt.  Removed all the stuff from the cage she was in, and put more stuff in the wash pile.

Fed everyone.  Supplemented everyone.

Scooped the wet spots in the rabbit cage where the rabbit didn't quite make it to the litter box (but he seems to be doing well!), dried that.  Gave him more food and hay.

Noticed when putting away stuff that my blue pocket folder (which has all the forms and docs used at the rescue) is awfully thin and light.  Took it upstairs and reprinted multiple copies of all the forms.  Well, at least until the printer started running out of ink.  Then I cancelled all the remaining print jobs and figured I'd wait at least an hour to try to print a thing or two again.  I will get every last drop out of these cartridges.

Decided I should take some time to look at emails.  Well, there's one person who had emailed me about adopting.  But they didn't know when they'd be able to adopt.  Well, then they decided, they wanted to finish decking out their cage and everything before they adopted any more.  Which is fine, by all means.  And then they say something about, well maybe they're going to breed and their breeder is going to set them up with some chins to breed.  Ok.  Well, then I post the thing saying we're full, and I get an email, ok they want to adopt, but in the event their family (who I assume they live with) isn't ok with an additional chin (because they weren't thrilled with this person getting the original ones... can only imagine how that family would feel about this person breeding), they would give the chin they adopt to the breeder.  Um... no.  I know who the breeder is, no problems there, they're a nice person and I'd trust they'd take just fine care of the chin.  But I told this person, if the family isn't on the same page with the current chin, I'm not comfortable adopting them any more, especially considering, they'd have to sign the adoption contract which states that the critter needs to come back to US if they can't keep it.  Well, here's the problem with that.  With as full as we are right now, the second a cage opens up, I will call someone and they will bring their critter and the cage will be full again.  Well, then what happens when two days later, the family says that adopter can't keep the chin and they're gonna bring it back?   Well, then I gotta find somewhere to put it, and god knows right now, I have a million guinea pig cages (because everyone and their brother who has dropped off chins lately has had them in a 25 x 12 x 12 type cage) that could hold a chin no problem, but I'd rather not start stacking cages upon cages because people aren't including their families wishes in the decision to adopt.  No thank you.

Added someone to the waiting list.

Had another person email who is supposed to drop off their chins, and say they will contact me when they're ready, need to get some things in order first.  Wouldn't mind if that's another few days.

Had an email about an order from one of my adoptive homes.  Marked down what they want, totalled it up, and emailed them.  Have everything here and (for the most part) ready, except for a perch shelf, so we'll see when they want to come by.

Realized, due to an email inquiry, that I still have ads up for chins that aren't here any longer.  Opened up all my classified ads, website, and facebook, and took down ones that aren't relevant anymore.

Had someone email asking about one of the chins that won't be ready for a few weeks, and asking about pairing him with one of our other chins.  Unfortunately, no way to know, and I want to have them email me back before I put the chins together and then never hear from them again.  So I emailed them back and we shall see.

Had someone ask again about where their order is.  I apparently need to bold, underline, 40 point font, and highlight the portion on the webstore (when you go to pay) that says "Please be aware that I work a full time job in addition to running the rescue and the supply store.  Orders are typically worked on during weekends and during limited free time during the week.  If you are not able to wait potentially two weeks or longer for your order, please contact me to see if I can get your order out quicker."  Cause no one reads.

Somewhere in here, I went to get hay.  As is typical, it was dry the entire way there, and when I got there, started to downpour.  I only got two bales (I normally get 4-5), because they're cutting this year's hay this week and will have it ready within another week.  Well, I won't get that until I'm done with these two bales, but that way, with these two bales, I can get hay for the people who've been wanting hay, and have some hay for myself for a bit of time, and then I can pick up fresh hay in another month or two or three, and have fresh hay over the winter.  Not that this is bad hay, by any means, it's just last year's cutting (which is exactly the same cutting as I sold out of, a few weeks ago).  I'm glad I got it when I did, though, because I got home, backed the back end of the blazer into the garage so I could get the hay out without it getting wet, and got it down in the basement.  Well, now it's downpouring.  So... good timing. 

I finally did remember to take soap downstairs, and ended up putting away a bucket of clean items.  I apparently don't say that too much, but since a few people have asked... since a lot of what I wash is heavier or bulky (think, food bowls, glass water bottles), I can't carry all that much of it in my arms, so I have a 5 gallon bucket that I'll fill with stuff to put away and then cart that around to put everything away.  So when I say, I put away a bucket, not a literal bucket.  Like a bucket of random crap.  Anyway, so that gave me room to wash two more drying racks worth of stuff, so I washed more stuff.

Then I realized, I still have some of the new breeder chins in their carrier, and I had to get water bottles on the new runs to put them away.  Well, that was sure fun.  The common runs that the average breeder buys are meant for water bottles, but the huge breeders use water systems with edstrom tubing.  And yep, that's how these were, not intended for water bottles.  I did get bottles on them, but it took almost 2 hours to get 24 holders on.  Not counting, of course, getting the glass tube in the stopper, actually filling and putting on the water bottles...  Ick.  On my other runs, the water bottle holders are removable.  Not for these, I attached these and clamped them on, so I never have to attach them again.

Oh and then I dyed more loofah.  Now we have some purple loofah as well.  Sold my second bag of colored loofah yesterday, just need to work on getting it up on the website.

Cleaned all the original runs and cleaned the holding cages.  Put shavings in allllllll of the new runs, so as I get in the chins for those, those cages are ready.  Put more water bottle tubes and stoppers together, still need to do at least another 10 of those just to take care of what I'll need here (much less what I need to have ready for customers, because I sell those).

Had some people come by to pick up supplies... they had been possibly interested in the one critter I was going to get in.  And then like 5 minutes before they came in, I got an email from the original home that someone else was going to take the pet.  Which is actually super right now, because it saves me space.

Can't think of what all else I did, but the rescue looks a lot better and more organized.  Of course, I got the new breeders out of their carriers and got them settled in the new runs.

I shared these photos on facebook, but since some people who read this are not on facebook, and vice versa, here we go...

Bentley -- dark / extra dark standard grey male -- phase champion at Atlantic Chapter Show 2015

Bessie -- light / medium standard grey female

Dixon -- mosaic male

Hanna -- standard grey female

Jazzy -- hetero beige female

Jersey -- homo beige female

Love these new chins.  So far they all seem to have nice personalities, I only got barked at a few times by Jazzy, but no bites.  Bentley is just the sweetest thing.  A little on the small side for males that I like, but his fur is what Jim calls a "barn burner" and he'll get super females to improve that size.  I'd have to look, but one of these standard females (I think Hanna) is actually a half sister to him and she's huge.  Needed a large collar.  Dixon is a very nice boy.  Nice fur, but not the classic huge show bunny because there was a problem with his water tubing and he wasn't getting water, and it was a bit before anyone realized (and yet another reason I like my bottles, as much as I complain), so his growth was a bit stunted.  Hanna is just the sweetest thing.  Like I was able to put on a collar on her with her just chilling on my rolling cart, she loves to be petted.  Super super calm.  Which, naturally, means she'll either die next week or never have a baby.  Really, she's an awesome chin with awesome fur that I'd love to have some babies out of... so fingers crossed!  She will actually be going with a super nice standard grey Hendryx male (Nova) that's been chilling here for a while with no girls.  And then Jersey is a bit of a loon.  My last homo beige was as well... hopped out of the cage several times while I was trying to take pics (hence, you see the pic I got of her).  Super energetic female.  And the rest are nice as well, these are just the notable ones. 

Well, I need to go do more chin stuff, get more chins ready to be listed.... 

In case you think it's been slow....

...it hasn't.  In fact, the reason for posting is because while adoptions have settled down, surrenders are waaaaaaaaaaay up.

Let's recap:

On 5/9, we got in four chinchillas.  Cheech, Chong, Chupacabra, and Bigfoot.  Cheech and Chong are the parents, a 9 year old male and 7 year old female.  They have been separated since having Chupacabra and Bigfoot, the two female "babies" who are now going on 2 years old.  All grey chins.  The owners developed allergies.  These chins are all very sweet, they hang out together.  Cheech is by himself, but since he has lived with the other chins, he (in theory) might accept a male cagemate.  Chong, Chupacabra, and Bigfoot are all living together.  In a perfect world, the three could go home together, but more realistically, the sisters (Chupacabra and Bigfoot) need to go home together, and the mom can go home by herself (or possibly could be a cagemate for another chin).  All very friendly chins, no biting or spraying.

Then we got in Salt and Pepper.  Salt is a 2 year old pink white and Pepper is a 3 year old standard grey.  The lived together until Salt got her foot caught in the side of the cage.  They were separated so Salt could heal -- the owner had contacted me at the time and opted to go with amputation of the leg (which was broken), and ended up having to handfeed for some time to get Salt back on her feet.  When she tried to put them back together, Pepper would spray Salt, so now the two are separate.  The owner had to give them up due to a change in job that never left her home.  Salt is hilarious and just precious at the same time.  You can't tell that she's a tripod unless you know it, she gets around just fine.  Needs no special accommodations for that missing back foot.  She sleeps in her upside down hidey house, which will come with her, and she loves her hammock, which will also come with her.  She is just friendly to a fault.  Pepper is friendly, but I've been told she can spray if aggravated.  She hasn't sprayed me, or anyone here who has tried to pet her (and you'd be amazed how many people have reached in to touch her through the bars), so hopefully that continues to stay something that occurs rarely to never.  Neither have bitten.

On 5/19, we got in a 2 year old male chinchilla named Didi.  Didi was a pet that someone got, living in college (?) and with their stipend going down this upcoming semester, they are going to no longer have their own room, and don't want to put him out in the hall.  They have another chinchilla, but because the two aren't together, I believe they couldn't squeeze both cages in the room.  Didi loves hiding.  He spent the first day bunching up the liner I gave him (a super thin one) into the hidey house.  Now that he's been here a bit longer, you see him out of his house, but he took the first 2-3 days to not look into the cage and wonder if he was really in there.  He's a sweet boy, just a little shy.  Hasn't bitten.

On 5/27, we adopted out Cookie, our 1 year old dutch female rabbit.  We had someone on our waiting list, so I messaged them on facebook.  The next day, we got in a 6-7 year old dwarf himilayan buck named Funny Bunny.  Funny Bunny gets hairballs and is currently hacking, so he's getting lots of hay and veggies / leafy greens to help push that through.  But apparently that's just a thing for him.  Very sweet rabbit.  He has a litter pan in the cage, we will see (over time) if he uses it.  Can't tell how much he eats yet (as a dwarf, he will eat less than Cookie who was 5 pounds, but...), but I put in hay and he went nuts!  Loves his hay.  Probably veggies as well, not sure if they mentioned veggies (but I didn't ask either), but we will see what he likes.

And then we got in Illi Chilla, Lil Chin, and Potato Chip on the 28th.  Illi Chilla is the dad, Lil Chin is the mom, and Potato Chip is the "baby."  These three were dropped off at an animal hospital somewhere in Illinois back around November, and the manager took them home.  Turns out, they were more work to care for than she anticipated, so she brought them to the rescue.  Unfortunately, though the owner knew that they were not all the same sex, Potato Chip kept escaping out of her spare cage, so the three were together up until they came here.  She brought the spare cage with her, and did tell me that Potato Chip had escaped from it, from time to time, because the bars are bent on one side.  Said something about, oh, not likely anymore.  I wouldn't have thought so either, until I came down the next morning and only saw Illi Chilla in the cage.  Found Potato Chip pretty easily, but definitely moved them out of that specific cage.  Illi Chilla is 1-2 years, so is Lil Chin.  Potato Chip is around 6 months.  Dad and baby will be available in another month or so, Mom isn't big, but will be here for four months, just to check she's not pregnant again.  Illi Chilla is a pink white, both Lil Chin and Potato Chip are black velvets.  All these chins are very sweet.  Owner said she tried to work with them on handling, but they actually do about how the average chin does with handling, so that's a good thing.  No bites from these friendly fluffballs.

And we have Jordan, who came to us on the 29th.  Jordan is a 2 year old grey male chinchilla who was bought for the kids, when the kids begged, and the dad (who dropped him off) seemed to have very good intentions of him being cared for very well, but unfortunately, the kids lost interest.  They amazingly regained interest and the whole family got mad at the dad when he told them he was bringing in Jordan... but he said (and I agreed), that that would have been short lived, had they kept Jordan.  Having only had him a day, I can only go by what's been said, but apparently he loves having his ears and chin scratched.  He settled right into the hammock in the cage I put him in, as if he was right at home, so I don't think adapting and adjusting will be too hard for him at all.  No bites from him either. 

Now, don't get me wrong, we've had some interest in the chins, but there's still others on top of these that have emailed and want to bring in their chins and other critters.  Plus, there's other people who we've already told can bring their critters... just not quite set a day yet.

Plus we got in 6 more little ones from the ranch.

Speaking of all these chins, I think I'm going to go clean and feed.... 

Interesting Weekend

So, this was an interesting weekend.  I trainee judged at the Ohio Field Day (chinchilla show) in Plymouth, Ohio.  It was kinda fun, a bit difficult, I thought, to come up with comments for the chins.  Knew what I was seeing, but harder to put it into words.

Then came home today -- we had three living baby chinchillas when I left.  Two of them had slightly squishy poo, and I asked Jim about that this weekend, and I came home... now the poo's fine, but one of the two has passed.  The other seems fine, with better poo.  The third baby, the nicest and most promising in terms of show potential, developed a prolapse and passed.  So this hasn't been a good few days for babies here.

All the other chins seem to be doing well.  For a moment, I wasn't sure Cheech (one of the new rescues) was eating, because I didn't see a lot of poos.  I still can't say I see a ton, but I gave him hay, and did see him munching on that... and found poos outside the cage, so always a good start.  Will continue on the hay.

Got in two more chins today.  Salt and Pepper.  Wasn't feeling wonderful (well, still not), so today I just set them up with some food, water, and chew toys, and got them in their cage.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better and can get more going in their cage.  Their previous owner took great care of them, nice cage with wood shelves and all, I'd just like to make it a bit more homey if I can.  Today I did mix up their food with my food so that they'd immediately start on a mix.

Then I have the dark ebony female set to go home on the weekend... well... she was in the same cage as the sapphire that developed fungus (did I blog about that?), and the sapphire was taken back to Jim's, and now the dark ebony has fungus.  So I emailed the person who is going to come adopt her, and explained to her about the situation and asked what she would like to do regarding the fungus situation.  Part of what makes this more difficult is that she already has a chin at home, so there's always the potential that the other chin could catch the fungus.  Anyway, I told her, I can either wait a few days and then let her know how the chin's doing, or send her home with more treatment, or continue to treat her here until I see new hair growth... so we'll see what she wants to do.  The thing is, between now and her appointment, it's unlikely that there will be new fur growth (which would be a sign the fungus is gone) between now and then.  And that's the easiest way to tell that the fungus is gone.

So, she was in one of the ferret nation cages, so I moved her to a smaller cage that I had the sapphire female in when she was treating.  Wiped down the entire cage, changed bedding, new food bowls, etc etc all that good stuff.  Gave her dust with treatment in it and she was dusting to her heart's content, so hopefully this will nip it in the bud.  Left the FN she was in wide open so I remember to remove everything and scrub and boil everything.  That'll be another day.

Fed Sammy (the hamster), cleaned Cookie's (rabbit) litterpan.  Gave everyone food and water and the guinea pig and rabbit hay.  Need to clean the runs, but since I'm not feeling well, that will be tomorrow.  Put away some of the stuff I washed where it goes, opening up my drying racks to wash more items.  Was planning on washing more items, but I started feeling worse at that point, so I decided that was enough for today.

Quick post

Ok, so this is one of those totally random things, but Amber (of Wheekers) reminded me of this... when we were at the Chicago Pet Show in Oak Lawn, we were at the rescue booth, and the one lady who was looking at the rescue chins, looks at me and asks, "so, have you ever owned a chinchilla before?"  I told her, yeah I run the rescue, I usually have between 20-40 chinchillas at the rescue.  "Well yeah, but have you owned one?"  I told her, the rescue's at my house, and I have my own pet and show chins (and technically, the rescues are all "mine," until they're adopted), so yeah, I've owned quite a few.  She still looked confused.  Not sure exactly what else she could have meant....

Getting LOTS Done

So.... a few people have heard about the volunteer drama going on here, and others have asked about it, so I might as well post, as that does relate to other things going on lately.

I had a male volunteer come by to help multiple times.  First time he was here, mentioned he wanted to go out with me.  I told him I have a boyfriend, and he told me that if it didn't work out, he wanted to date me, but regardless, whether we dated or not, whether we dated and it worked out or not, he didn't want to let that interfere with volunteering.  I thought, how mature.  But he said he wouldn't be a pest about hanging out or dating or whatever.

Apparently not so much.  Cause he kept bugging me every time he was here about hanging out, going out.  He acted towards me the way I've had MOST of my boyfriends act towards me, until it got to the point where I had to nicely tell him, I mean nothing mean by it, but I told him, he's my volunteer, and I don't see him as anything else.  Told him, I don't "like" him like that, and really, we didn't even get along that great with him just being a volunteer, and I told him, because of our disagreements when he was at the rescue, I didn't really want to hang out with him for any longer than that.  I told him, I appreciated his help, but I didn't want anything further than volunteer help from him.

Well, in typical guy fashion, I've never heard from him since.  Which I feel is so immature, especially because he specifically said, no matter what, he wanted to volunteer.  Funny, cause it's looking to me like he thought that the more he volunteered, the more I'd like him, and maybe end up going out with him and all that... uhh... no.  Oh and he unfriended me on facebook.  Personally, I don't care, but if he supported the rescue and all (which he said he did, ALL the time)... doesn't quite add up.

Now, don't get me wrong, he did help.  He wasn't quite up to my speed on helping (something that I can easily do in 40 minutes, he took 3-4 hours to do).  But he did help as best he could.  But when I say we didn't get along well, we did not get along.  I totally get, when people are here, they want to pet the chins, hold the chins, all that.  I get it.  But if you come to volunteer... volunteer.  You can hold the chins, but I'd like to get something done as well.  The 40 mins vs. 3-4 hours thing... was cleaning the runs.  There are 23 pans, so in 40 minutes, that's 1.7 minutes per pan.  Dump, scrape, refill, slide back in.  3-4 hours is 8-12 minutes per pan.  We are talking mostly 15" x 22" pans here, nothing huge or difficult to move around or anything.  And so the once, I asked him something about how long it was taking and he went into this whole thing about, well, he comes over after work, because I'm never home when he's available, and he's tired, but he comes over when I'm available.  And he said, if I didn't go to Ohio, he could come over more when he's not tired.  Um... excuse me?  It's not like I'm going to give someone a key to the house so they can come by and help only when is perfectly convenient for them.  I told him, if he's tired or whatever, he doesn't have to come, I don't want people wearing themselves out on account of me.  And going to Ohio is paying the bills, so I'm sorry if I won't cancel that just because someone wants to volunteer.  I appreciate having volunteers (the few I get!) but I can't rearrange my life for them. 

One more thing.  Sort of one of those last straw things, was I had another volunteer coming over, the one day right after he was leaving.  They had adopted Oreo (rabbit) here and they brought her with them so I could see how she was doing.  Well, he immediately texted me and said he didn't think they'd work out, and he had a bad feeling about them, and they'd probably spend the entire visit playing with Cookie (the current rabbit here).  Now... mind you... he said all of this before they had even started helping me.  So, nothing to go on except that they brought their rabbit with for me to see how she was doing.  Now, I know I assume lots of things.  But I hate when people assume the worst, especially when they have next to nothing to go on.  And, also, mind you, this coming from someone who told me that he "took lots of great pics while you (being me) were cleaning" -- when HE was supposed to be cleaning.  Anyway, that volunteer turned out to be just great, she was more my pace and we got a lot done.  Well, so I told the male volunteer that (in response to him saying that they probably wouldn't work and had a bad feeling), and he got all huffy and started with the excuses again about why he's slower and all that. 

The thing is, if people really don't want to volunteer, not like I can make them.  But it does me no good to have people around who I really don't get along with.  Volunteering shouldn't be all work.  It shouldn't -- but it shouldn't be all play either.  There can be a happy mix.  I'm not a slave driver by any means, if a volunteer is here long enough (as in time, like if you come for 30 minutes, you won't be doing probably more than one thing), I try to throw some fun things in there so it's not all boring stuff.  But... I also will limit volunteers to things they actually can do.  And I mean that in the nicest way, but it's the truth -- if you prove to me that you cannot sand wood and I have to go over every piece I give you to sand... you will not be sanding.  If you leave cages open when you think you've closed them, once or twice, not a big deal.  All the time, you won't be closing cages yourself so I don't have to catch all sorts of loose chins when you're gone.  If you can't sand wood blocks, unfortunately, that means you can't help me make houses, because those are more difficult (and naturally, I could use more help with that).  In general, I don't have these problems.  Usually, I'll see someone have a hard time closing a cage, and I'll show them how.  I'll see someone having a problem with sanding, and I'll show them how I do it.  Or like with this more recent volunteer (different than the ones talked about above), she was helping me with houses and I felt she could use a bit more glue.  So I told her, and the next stuff she glued she used plenty of glue.  That's how simple it is.  But like with some people, some people will literally argue and tell me, oh they're using enough glue.  Maybe so, but if I ask that you use more, can you just please use more? 

All this said, moving along, I now have a NEW volunteer that I love.  Love love love.  She's the daughter of one of my adoptive homes... never met her til she came to volunteer.  But she is awesome!  She was here both days this weekend, and we got so much done!  She fed the chins and gave them supplement, she put together toys to be hung in my holding cages, she helped me clean the holding cages, she helped me make several houses, we made a bridge for a custom order, she helped me make shelves for an order.  I asked her to wash some food bowls that I had in the sink while I cut some wood, and she washed the bowls... and everything else I had in the sink!  She passed out some toss toys and toilet paper rolls and hay to all the chins.  She cleaned the guinea pig cage when Leo & Jeffrey went to their new home, so that Marble could be moved over into the bigger cage.  She helped get bedding for some of the smaller cages that I was setting up, she sifted the dust that was in the dusters and added dust to them.  She helped me weigh chins.  I took apart a dog gate that had been in my parents house (all pine wood) and she helped me move all the wood to the shop room.  She helped me move some packaging materials over to the shop room.  She cleaned and refilled with bedding the prairie dog cage.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but she helped with just oodles and oodles of stuff.  And we get along wonderfully, and she does this stuff at my pace.  A lot of people are iffy on catching chins (to weigh), but she just reached right in and grabbed em and it was great.  I'm very thankful I have someone helping out like this.  Let's all give a hand to Brooke for being so kind as to spend her time helping out.

Now to figure out what I'm going to say tomorrow.... I am presenting on chinchilla and small animal care at the HeadStart program at Lake Ridge School.  They told me today that I can set up in their gym.  I thought I was doing it like in front of a class, now I'm worried lol.  Off to write my "speech"....

Lots to mention

First, discounts.  I know, I've been talking about them a lot, but they are important.  Right now, we have our May Madness sale going on, which is $25 off adoption fees $100 or over, $50 off adoption fees $200 or over.  During this sale, our usual pair and trio discounts do not apply.

I guarantee you, I will get people still asking for discounts on top of this.

Last week, we had someone who had emailed asking about this one chin we had available.  Chin was $175, they said they got their previous chin at a discount (not from us, so really doesn't make any difference to me).  I asked them what they're looking to pay for the chin, and they came back with $80.  Um, no.  Sorry, but no.  Thing is, if I reduce a $175 chin down to $80, then everyone else paying $175 is going to want their chins for $80 (believe me, the word gets around), and besides that, it's not fair to those people who actually are getting a standard grey adult for $75 that someone else pay $5 more and get a white baby.  So, no.

Moving along.  I try my best to help people out.  I really do.  I had someone awhile back who wanted to stay under $250 for everything.  So we reduced the price of the chin she wanted to $150, and I found her a cage and all supplies for $100.  Literally, I have the cage here at $60, shelves added at $18, used ceramic food bowl $1, used water bottle $1, dust pan $2.50, anything goes toy $4, 1 lb dust $1.25, 1 lb hay $1.00, off-size hammock (to fit the small cage) $7.50, and 3 extra lbs food $3.75 = $250 for everything.  Now, the thing is, to get it to that amount, I had to sit down and figure this stuff out.  Naturally, the person says, yeah, they want all this stuff, so I get all this stuff together... and they fall off the face of the planet.  Not a big deal, I ordered the cage and now it's sitting here and can be shelved and sold to someone else, but it's just the principle.  People wonder why I get aggravated when they want me to drop everything for them, and this is why -- because then when they fall off the earth, I've wasted all this time on them.

Moving along.  Had someone email me about chins, sounded like they saw one in a pet store or something, and thought it was cute.  Also asked about shots, degus, and everything else under the sun, making the email sort of a messy list of random questions.  One of the things they said was they wanted an inexpensive cage that was over 50" high.  Uh-huh.  If you have a cage over 3' high, you know they don't come cheap.  So I asked the person, what did they consider inexpensive, like, how much were they looking to spend on the cage.  And they email me back with the link to a cage that's too small for even one chin and just under $100.  Plus, the cage wasn't even 24" high.  What happened to that 50" high thing?  I'm guessing it was too expensive.... but they wanted to get two chins, so I told them, the cage needs to be at least double that size for two chins....  so they said they will keep looking.

And also, that person also said they wanted to keep the chins inexpensive... so I suggested our older pairs.  Which, mind you, the older pairs are 2 & 3 years, and 3-4 years.  Hardly old.  Oh, they want a pair of up to 1 year olds.  Yes, let me churn our chins just the exact age they want.  I told em, if they don't want the older pairs, the younger chins are significantly more expensive (figure, $150 for an adult pair, versus $135 each [minimum] for a baby)... so we shall see.

Moving right along.  Had someone the other day who wanted to talk on the phone, and I was in the middle of something (while out of town).  So I told her to email me.  So she emailed me her name and phone number.  Well... I guess I should have specified, email what she was asking about.  Anyway, finally got around to calling her back today, turns out she was 4 hours away from us, and was only able to drive maybe 15 minutes away from where she lived to meet.  The sort of stupid thing is, had she just said she had a question about whether we'd meet, we could have resolved this days ago.

Moving along.  Went to PSP in Crown Point to pick up my donation jar... and... it's gone.  As in, the one employee that I know thought I had been in to pick it up, because they hadn't seen it in quite some time.  Wonderful.  Considering back in February, when my job ended there, I left the donation jar there with at least $20-30 in it, with the intention of picking it up monthly.  Needless to say, I haven't been around to pick it up, but turns out... it hasn't been there FOR me to pick up either.  Wonderful.  Somehow it doesn't surprise me that it vanished.

Moving along, let's talk about the new prairie dog.  Sadly, he passed a few days ago.  He wasn't acting quite right and was acting lethargic, and we were on our way to Jim's after dropping off cages here and Jim was gonna give me baytril to give him, and give him baytril, but he didn't make it quite all the way to Ohio.  Sad.  :(   I called up the prairie dog people, not expecting much, just wanting to get another, and turns out, we are still within the range of the health guarantee, so they just want me to bring the prairie dog back (he's still at Jim's, I forgot him there) and they will do a necropsy on him and give me another one.  So that's good.

But that also brings me to something else -- the insane number of people who asked me, whether at the expo, or in emails, or whatever, about adopting the prairie dog.  If the fact that he died, while under my care, and the fact that the rescue spent literally upwards of several THOUSAND dollars on Shiloh's vet care over the four years he was with us haven't already enlightened you, allow me -- they are NOT pets for exotics beginners.  Now, let me explain why. 

First -- I have people complain day-in, day-out, that they cannot find good chinchilla food at a pet store.  Think that's a pain?  Good luck EVER finding prairie dog food!  It pretty much doesn't exist outside of online!  I've even contacted Mazuri, which makes almost PRIMARILY exotics food, and they don't even make a prairie dog food.  They eat typically a mix of rabbit and guinea pig food (or one or the other if you have good enough brands, take your pic).  Plus, timothy hay.  Plus, leafy greens and veggies (they typically like kale, cilantro, and sweet potato, in my experience).  Plus, dog food for protein.  They can eat an awful lot of things as treats, but unfortunately, because of that, they're prone to getting fat.  Who saw Shani (our female) when Shiloh was having a hard time keeping weight on?  Raise your hands.  Ok, keep em up.  Who remembers that she looked like a freaking beach ball?  I know, I know, your hands are waving in the air.  Because he couldn't keep weight on, we had to keep him on a high fat diet, and that turned her (who could keep weight on) into a morbidly obese prairie dog.  Now that he's gone, she is back down to more of a normal prairie dog weight, but they are prone to becoming overweight, so you have to watch what you feed them.  Plus, you have to keep up with the varied diet.  Because if they don't have the hay, or the veggies, or the gp/rabbit food, or the dog food, they will lack nutrients that they need, and that can create all sorts of a mess.

Second -- they need a large cage and it sure better be completely metal.  Think about what you know about prairie dogs.  They are diggers and tunnelers.  Which means.... plastic tends to not last long with them.  So, they need a metal cage to be sure they can't chew through it.  Including the pan (unless they can't get to it).  The only reason you see us with plastic pans at the expos with our prairie dogs is because it's temporary.  We have dryer tubing (you know, the big black tubing with ribbing) in our prairie dogs' cage.  It literally disappears overnight.  They chew it and it vanishes.  Same would go for a plastic pan.  Also, they are not jumpers, so they need ramps.  Keep in mind, not plastic shelving and ramps, because they will not last long, so metal or mesh.  They also need places to hide.  Cause let's be honest, we're not going to re-create an underground tunnel system for them, but we can do the best we can.  For us, we have dryer tubing, all sorts of hides, and so on.  All sorts of toys too, because they like to play.  Oh and let's not forget, if they were underground, they would have a nest spot.  So they need something to nest with.  I made for the prairie dogs a nest box (sort of like a rabbit nest box) and occasionally I'll throw in pieces of scrap material, which they will carry around and eventually make a nest of.  You will be providing these hides, toys, and nesting material year round.

Second part 2 -- did I mention they dig?  Good luck keeping any sort of bedding in their pan.  Our cage has a pan below a metal grate.  So, they can't get to the bedding.  Some people say they can potty train their prairie dog, but when we tried... no litter ever stayed in the litter box.  And that's also why, for expos, you see us use the fleece, because it won't get everywhere should they decide to dig.  And that's why, you'll find, a lot of companies that make cages specifically for prairie dogs have the pan below something that the prairie dogs can't reach.

Third -- they go into rut from October to May.  This is their breeding season.  Supposedly, this is less "bad" if you get them neutered and spayed, but spaying / neutering them is like spaying / neutering any small animal.  You'll pay several hundred for the surgery, and fingers crossed they live through it.  So ours have never been spayed / neutered.  During this period of time, they have the potential to be crabby, bite, and so on.  And by the way, when they bite... they tend to not let go.  So if you're good with sitting there and not panicking while a good-sized squirrel-rodent has your skin in their teeth and wait until they let go, by all means.  But the average person panics, yanks, and a large majority of prairie dog bites result in stitches.  Yeah, stitches.

Fourth -- they may not like your favorite person and may still be aggressive to you, even after you raise them.  They learn who their family is by who they grow up with.  So, it is advantageous to introduce them to a large amount of people (without stressing them out and killing them...gotta find a nice balance) when they are young... but sometimes that still doesn't help.  With Shani, she was intro'd to a lot of people as a baby.  Despite that, I've had two really bad bites from her.  She has bitten two other people pretty badly, and because of that, she doesn't go to expos with us.  And mind you, she was raised around lots of people all the time.  In general, she is sweet, but the few times she has bitten, there's been no warning, just CHOMP.  Even when she's being nice, there are a few people who she has seen a ton of times who she just starts attacking the side of the cage when they come near.  Why?  No idea.  But think, if she was your prairie dog and she did that when your boyfriend came near... would you be happy with that?  And because of the bites they can inflict, when she's like that, I won't even reach in for her.

Fifth -- they are prone to expensive medical issues.  Specifically, odontomas -- bony growths behind their teeth.  Guess what -- if they develop these behind the top incisors... you might as well just burn your wallet right now if you want the prairie dog to live.  See, prairie dogs have their breathing tube so far back, that when they can't breathe through their nose, they trache them through the back of their neck.  You read that right.  For people, we see it done on the front of the neck, but for prairie dogs, their breathing tube is so far back, they have to trache them from the back.  So here's why that's a problem -- they absolutely cannot breathe through their  mouths for any length of time.  They will literally die of exhaustion.  So, if your prairie dog develops an odontoma on the top incisors, the vet has to go through the top of the mouth to remove the tooth and odontoma.  Shiloh had odontomas on all four incisors.  Just one surgery of his (top teeth) was estimated to cost $600-800.  Mind you, that's the estimate.  Problem was, surgery day came, and they could not wean him off oxygen (cause remember... they can't mouth breathe, and swelling was making it hard for him to breathe), so he stayed a week (instead of the estimated two days) and the vet capped off that surgery at $2900 (though the bill was much higher).  He had two more surgeries to deal with his bottom incisor odontomas before he passed.   

Sixth -- they may not even be legal.  When we got in Shiloh, first thing I did was look up Indiana law regarding prairie dogs.  You can't have them everywhere.  In Illinois, you need a permit to have them.  And typically, what happens if you don't have one, is the animal gets removed and put down.  So you better make sure you are able to have one, before you get one.  The places that sell them are not going to know whether you can have one or not, so just because you can find one for sale doesn't mean you can legally have one.  I've gotten both Shani and this last prairie dog that died in Illinois -- where mind you, you need a permit to own one. 

Seventh -- you probably need more than one.  In the wild, they live in colonies, and literally can get depressed if kept alone.  I know I occasionally make fun of people who say their chinchillas are lonely... but that's because chinchillas can legitimately be kept by themselves.  But for prairie dogs, they literally can get depressed and die.  Shani has not been the same since Shiloh passed, and that's why we're working on getting her a companion.  But keep in mind, all of these things could be doubled with two prairie dogs.

Now, all this said... they do like people.  They like being scratched and tend to greet you when you come into the room.  They're fun little critters.  But... they are work and while I was thrown into getting the first one, I wouldn't recommend one to someone without two things: (1) someone to help them along the way as far as questions, vet concerns, etc, and (2) lots of money.

Ok, I think I'm done now.