So, I'm working on listing all the chins. So far, so good. What I've been running into a lot lately is this -- someone calls / texts / emails and tells me they want a specific chin and asks if I can get it. So I check, and I can get one in, and then they ask, oh do I have another chin, different color available too? So I send them pics of that one. So then they ask, oh well what about this one too? And this one? So they effectively are asking about four chins. They have pics of all four chins, but I don't know if they're planning on getting one chin, or two, or three, or four... or none (which is actually, usually, how it goes). Here's the thing. When I say I will hold a chin for a week without a deposit -- that is meant to be ONE chin. That you are intending to adopt when you get here. I will not hold four, for an unknown amount of time, so you can hem and haw and take 3 weeks to decide, well do you really want to get that many now, or should you wait, or...???? If you specifically ask me to get in a chin for you and I actually do this, that one will stay unlisted until you actually tell me you don't want it (well, within reason). But the other chins, if you haven't specifically said you're for sure getting them... they're gonna get listed when they're ready. It's nothing against anyone specifically. I'd personally love if you all went home with four chins (and so would the rescue account). But here's the thing -- the average person that tells me they want to get multiple chins and asks for the rare colors and then can't decide... they usually don't adopt... wait for it... anything! The current person I'm thinking of is asking about four chins... for a total of... after multi-chin discounts... $800. Pardon me for thinking they're not going to come through, but... if the past is any indication... they will never adopt.
Now, if you really want to adopt four chins and all and plan to come by, you can put down a deposit. That will hold the chins, and you will not hear me say a word about you not showing up. But here's the thing. The average person that contacts me about a ton of chins that are rare colors like this refuses to put down a deposit and can never find time to make the trip. But if you are serious and show me you're serious with a deposit, by all means. So far, I'm still waiting to see it happen though.
Moving along. Petfinder is an animal listing website. That's it. I had someone in Canada message me today about wanting chins shipped to them. Chins they found listed on petfinder from my rescue. I emailed back, sorry, we don't ship, we like to meet the adopters in person. So they emailed back asking if Petfinder could ship them. Petfinder doesn't ship. I suppose maybe people don't understand what Petfinder is, but really, it's just a website where rescues can list animals so the rest of the world sees that they're available. They have tools that may be useful for some rescues (dog and cat ones) as well, but for the general public... that's it.
Still want to ship the chinchilla? I've told countless people to look into u-ship. It's where you list, ok you want a chinchilla shipped from Indiana to some other state and people will bid and say ok they'll do it for this much. You pay them, and they come pick it up and take it to you. We've had it done once, one of our chins is in California. It worked just fine. But here's the thing -- I tell people to look into that... oh that's too much work. Well, that's why we don't ship -- on this end, it's too much work to get the vet certificate, get a carrier that the airlines approve of, get to the airport, and so on. I'd imagine the cost is probably about the same. I think people think, though, that it's going to be like $30 to ship the chin to them, or something like that. Not the $200+ (not including carrier, vet bill, and so on) just for the airline fee. And it's not going to come to their door either -- they have to go to the airport to pick it up. It's a tad bit more complicated than buying something from amazon and having it show up on your door.
Moving along again -- we are full! Yes, again. Just about every cage that can have a chinchilla in it, does. And I have like four voicemails asking if I can take in people's chins. If we're absolutely full and for some reason you cannot wait to bring in your chin, I will ask that you bring the cage with. If that's not a possibility, then you simply will need to wait for us to adopt out some, so we have room for yours. Simple as that. I know no one has patience nowadays, but I don't have 4000 spare cages, and even if I did... I still have to clean them. It's hard enough to keep up with as many cages as are currently here, much less if I start adding temporary cages everywhere, so that's why I have to limit it when I do. Now, I'm going to go add the paragraph on the rescue page noting that we're full and such and then call back those voicemails....
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