So, I was supposed to have someone come for a drop off at 3:30 today. I told them I wouldn't be home until 3:30, so they couldn't come any earlier than that. Well, get a call from them at 2:50, while I was still at work, saying there's a white Tahoe parked in my driveway. 2:50 mind you. I'm glad they weren't upset about waiting - after all, they did know I wouldn't be home at that time - but I hate when people show up that early. It's one thing if I'm HOME and people show up early, that's ok, but if I specifically state that I won't be home until such-and-such time... please do not show up early. Even if someone else is home, they will NOT let you in the house and if, on some odd accident they do (like, if they answer the door because they're expecting someone else), they most definitely will not let you down to see the chins WITHOUT me there. So just show up on time everyone, ok?
Anyway, so the people dropped off the chin. VERY nice chin, she lets herself be petted in her cage and she's a good chin. Friendly and sweet and socialized to death. You can tell she was loved. 2 year old standard female named GiGi. Turns out the kid was allergic to her and they tried changing the dust, tried changing the bedding, everything, but nothing worked, so here she is.
Then, I had gotten texts earlier in the day from one of our previous adoptive homes - they had purchased one of our bred-here babies and had named him Shimmy, after his mom (our standard grey female chin, Shimmy). They wanted to come for some supplies, so they ended up coming and getting some supplies, and donating $4.50 to the rescue! How nice, made me happy.
Did hear back from the person who was supposed to adopt Frito. To make a long story short, she said she may be moving in with (what I assumed was) her boyfriend in June and then she would be able to take him. Well, I thought about it, and I told her that I could not hold Frito for her for four months. He's already been on hold for her for a month, and if, after four months, she didn't move in with her boyfriend, then that would be almost 6 months completely for nothing. So I told her I just can't... but we typically have chins available, so I said, hey, when she's all settled, come see us and see what we have. I like Frito, he's a good chin and likeable, but there are other chins out there that are just as nice for pets. And who knows, Frito may still be around come June (though I hope not).
So then, right now it's late at night and I'm trying to finish up my "cheat sheet" (notes I can take with me to class for the final) and I realize it's after midnight so I start renewing my craigslist posts, which include the one for the three male rats we have. Not two minutes later, I get an email which reads, "Not free?" Seriously?
I tried to nicely explain that the adoption fee allows us to continue caring for rescues and not running ourselves into the ground. And I even said to the guy, hey, these rats have cost me more in their homemade food and toys than the $25 I'm asking for them in the time they've been here, and if they continue to stay here for awhile, they will cost me even more. Which is fine, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the cost - the point is that, it's not like I'm making $25 off of them. Chances are, I'll spend more like $75 or something and so the $25 adoption fee will put me at negative $50. Like with the pigeon we just got in. OK, the pigeon was a rescue, so I didn't pay for her. But I had to go out and get a cage, $50, food, $7, toys, $10... already we're at $67 and I'm probably going to adopt the pigeon out for $15-20. I don't mind spending the money, that's not it, but some people just assume that since we get the animals for free they should be given away for free and some people I want to just shake and be like HELLO - it costs money for us to keep these animals, treat these animals, and so on. It's not free. I have to clean cages, bedding isn't free. Water isn't free, and because we have had problems with our water in the past, we cannot get by without a Pur3 filter... and we go through the filters... like water. Haha. Everything is done in the interest of the pets, which means that somewhere down the line, we spent money on probably every animal that comes here, whether it's on chew toys or what. The last few chins who have come in have come in with either none or very few (think 1) chew toy in their cage. So, we add some - cost there. Many require vet care - cost there. One of our rescues started getting loose poos so we're thinking it might be the Mazuri and are doing a switch to Oxbow to see if that helps - if not, there will be a cost there. Heck, there will be a cost there anyway, as we're paying considerably less for Mazuri than we would for Oxbow (we couldn't afford to use Oxbow to feed all the rescues).
It just irks me how people expect everything for nothing. I bet that guy, even if the rats were free, wouldn't want to fill out the forms or read the care packet either. He's probably be the type that would say he already knows it all and doesn't need to do that.
... not to mention, rats without adoption fees... are most likely going to become snake food. Hence, why people ask actual adoption fees for rats.
Ugh. Ok, rant over.
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