We. Don't. Meet.

I feel like plastering a huge banner on all of our ads that says, we do not ship, we do not deliver, we do not meet.

Who knows why we don't meet?  Raise your hands.  Ok, for those of you without hands raised, let me copy and paste the response to someone who, though he has a legitimate reason for not wanting to meet, does not change the fact that we don't meet. 

While I can definitely understand why you would not want to drive a long distance, we don't meet.  Chinchillas are very fast.  Unlike dogs, which could be put on a leash to keep them contained in a smaller area, there is no good way to secure a chinchilla other than a carrier -- and I've even seen some chew their way out of those.  No one wants to "meet" a chinchilla in a carrier with the door closed.  They can't touch it, they can't see how it reacts when they hold it, and so on.  We have chinchillas routinely dropped at the rescue, and in a small room, it typically takes at least 10-15 minutes to catch them.  Meeting somewhere else, out in the open, if the chinchilla was dropped, we would never catch it, and would make all of our driving time for nothing (not to mention, the people that entrusted the rescue to find a good home for their chinchilla would be less than pleased).  It's not even a matter of having a good grip or having years of experience -- I've been doing this for 11 years and occasionally one will still wriggle out of my grasp.  It's just not practical for this type of animal, they're too fast and too easy to never see again.

While I do appreciate your willingness to pay more, unfortunately, my car gets 15 miles to the gallon, and it would cost more in gas to get to a midway point than the rescue would make on the chin.  Maybe gas is less by you, but here, it's about $4/gallon right now -- for the cost of me driving one hour there and one hour back (say, 60 miles each way), the rescue could feed a chin for over 1 year.  With numbers like that, for the longevity of the rescue, it makes more sense to sit here and feed the chins and wait for people to come here.  They mostly get adopted out in 3-4 months, so it's almost never a question of feeding a chin for a year versus going somewhere to drop them off.      

Maybe that's mean.  I know, over the years, the rescue has really ticked some people off with the whole "do not meet" thing.  But is it that hard to understand?  You drop the chinchilla, and now all the time it's spent at the rescue, any vet bills we've incurred, any costs as far as feeding it, watering it, cleaning the cage, all that, is for nothing.  We will never see it again.  Not to mention, my time.  Having the rescue is like having a full time job in itself. I spend almost all of my free time doing rescue-related things.  There's days when it really gets old and I want to say, let someone else do this shit, I'm tired of it.  But I still do it.  But the second I get 5 minutes of free time, people want me to meet them.  At some point, enough's enough.  The rescue's great, and I love when an animal finds a great home.  Don't get me wrong, that's awesome.  But I've been doing this for 11 years now, and the rescue has ended a LOT of friendships, a LOT of relationships, heck, the last time I had a boyfriend was BEFORE I had the rescue.  Smart guys.  The rescue has kept me from having a LOT of time and fun with my friends cause I can never leave the house for more than a day or so cause NO ONE will watch 50+ animals.  Ha!  I can get one person to watch on dog, and that's about it.  I'm almost 30 and due to the rescue, I've got like 3 friends and a million people who know my name but wouldn't recognize me if I didn't see them at a chin show or a pet expo.  One from high school and everyone else I know is animal related, which means we NEVER talk about anything else, which also gets old.  I have a house that I'm not crazy about, but it had the perfect basement for the rescue, so I got it.  I liked others better, but the basement was too small.  In retrospect, I should have gotten them and downsized the rescue, but noooo I cared too much about the animals, but I'm frankly getting sick of them.  I have an ankle that's killing me because I fell down the steps to the basement, which I'd almost never go down, if I didn't have the rescue.  Doctors tell me I likely tore a ligament or something, but since I don't have the money for an x-ray, much less an MRI, they can't say for sure.  But, it doesn't matter, because it could take years to feel normal again if I don't stay off my feet, but wait!!  I have cages to clean.  Animals to feed.  Orders to fill.  Oh hell, that ankle will never get better.  And you people want me to meet?  After all this other shit I do for the rescue and give it all my freaking free time..... if I can spend upwards of 40 hours per week on rescue stuff and I'm STILL on February orders.... you all can drive 2 hours to get here if you want to adopt.  

I am completely sick and tired of giving it my all and people don't want to make the slightest effort on their part.

Now, there are some people who drive.  There are people who don't throw a fit.  But lately every other email I get wants me to meet someone somewhere, on their schedule, at a time that's convenient for them.  Usually at something like 6 am,  at a location 10 hours from here (so, I guess I'd have to leave the night before and either not sleep, or spend more rescue money on a hotel... um... no).  I understand this is the world of delivery, where you want a tv?  You can buy it online and best buy can drop it off at your front door.  But these are live animals.  The tv doesn't run away if you drop it.  If you drop the box and the tv breaks, you can get a new one.  If you drop the chinchilla, it probably dies a horrible death out there, run over by a car, or eaten by some animal, or something, and you sure wouldn't be getting a new one from here.

I'm going to bed.  Hopefully will wake up less frustrated.