So... the webstore will be back open soon! Yayyyy!!
Working on currently making toys, houses, everything, so everything will be ready for the webstore to open again. Soon. Very soon.
And almost caught up on orders.
But of course, we have the fun people, as always. For the rats, for example. I have that unless someone already has a rat that they want to get a buddy for, they need to get the rats in pairs. So naturally, what email do I get? "So, do I have to adopt both?" Yes. Just as the ad says. And this person went on to say that they had one rat before and they played with it everyday, and it wasn't like it was going to be a child's neglected pet. Now, not to say it would be a neglected pet... but the reason we now have the policy of adopting out rats in pairs (the exception being single rats or rats that don't like buddies) is because when we'd get back rats adopted out singly, possibly due to the fact they weren't handled, played with, what have you, they always came back aggressive. This did not happen with the pair rats. And when I have to clean up the mess people make, I try to find a way to make it a cleaner mess for when I get it back. And not to say that she wouldn't interact with the rat great... but let's be honest... how many adopters SAY that they're going to always take out the animal, and always play with it.... oh yeah, all of them... and some do... but for others... that doesn't last long. So, not taking my chances.
Then of course we had the people who back out at the last minute after dragging on and on. Had one person who wanted to meet. They were a few hours away, and I told them, I'd meet for mileage, and they had their chins picked out. A few days before pickup, they email asking if the chins have a pedigree, because they heard they should get chins with a pedigree. I told them, those specific ones don't... so they asked, as a breeder, shouldn't I have pedigrees. Yes, sure do. On all my breeding animals. But I went on to explain, most breeders sell pet-only animals without a pedigree (cause people see the pedigree and go, "oooooooh!! I can breed and make $$$$!!!" -- which the $$$ never happens but you know...), but regardless, I did not breed these animals, another breeder did, and while they technically came from pedigreed parents, they are not coming with a pedigree. So the people want to know, can I get it later. No. They're pets. I explain to them, a pedigree wouldn't mean much to the average person. It's a series of ranch brands, numbers, and letters. That's it.
For example -- What does MNWI D8 mean to you? Probably nothing. To me, that's Dillon, my Reserve White male at Nationals last year. I bred him, so he has my ranch brand, MNWI, he was born in 2014 (year D) and he was the 8th baby born that year (so D8). He was out of Nikki (MCBD B5, a hetero beige, Lemler bred, out of JAGS T726 and MCBD V2) and Ace (5R9 B-something, a standard grey male, out of 5R9 V1828 and 5R9 V1889). Now, as a pet person, is any of that particularly useful to you if I was selling Dillon to you as a pet? Probably not.
Anyway, I explain this to her, and I don't hear from her for a few days. It's drawing near to the day we're supposed to meet, and they have not yet confirmed that we're meeting at the place we talked about, so I send another email asking them to confirm that, what sort of car they're going to be driving, what their cell phone number is. The boyfriend emails back, said someone gave them some rescue chins that they're going to rehab and rehome and then they might still be interested in adopting. Um... right. Somehow I see that as an excuse. Just like, years ago, I had this one girl that had to check with her landlord about getting a chin, a medium ebony male, Kayto. She told me to check back in a few days....so I did... and then, oh check back in a few days... so I did... and so on. Every time, she kept saying, oh her landlord hadn't gotten back to her yet. Again I feel like that's an excuse. Not saying landlords couldn't be like that, but if they really wanted an answer, they'd bug the shit outta the landlord... cause this dragged out for weeks. Finally, it occurred to me they were just avoiding saying they didn't want the chin (which would have been fine, honest to god people, just tell me that), so I sent an email saying, well if the landlord ever does say you can have the chin, let me know. Never heard back.
And actually, that worked out just fine, cause I didn't have to drive the 5 hours roundtrip (the mileage fee doesn't actually make me money, it just allows me to not lose money), and I sold the chins a few days later anyway to someone else.
But then there's another person. If you've talked to me in person lately, you've probably heard about this one. Someone contacted me awhile back about adopting a dark ebony chin. Fell off the planet right about pickup time. So then, contacted back maybe 6 months later (maybe a month ago now) wanting a tan. I told her, I didn't have any. So she wants pics of all these chins I have, so I send them to her. Then she asks if I could pleeeeeease try to get a violet wrap. So through some miracle, I get one in. Which I thought was awesome cause she wouldn't leave me alone about the chinchilla. I get it in, show her pics... it's not dark enough. People, this violet wrap would have been in the "dark" class at a show, no question, and they don't come darker unless you'd like an extra dark ebony. So then later, she asks if I can get in something else for her. Now, personally, not a fan of personal requests unless it's something I can easily sell anyway, because otherwise it tends to sit here... and since she didn't like the first chin, even though it was exactly what she wanted, I told her, nicely enough, what was my last open cage is now holding that violet wrap. Sorry. So she finally decided on my beige female. Then asked how I know it's not a tan. Well, cause that one I bred, and there's no ebony in the lines, and she has a white belly. Not the greatest, crispest white belly, but it is white. No ebony, no tan. So she asks for a picture of the belly, so I send that over. She decides she likes it and wants that chin. So then she asks if I can meet her in Ohio, because she can't drive all the way to Indiana. Mind you, this person has known for months at this point where I live. I tell her, I can meet her at a gas station I stop at in Ohio every Monday, which she was fine with. So, we're working to arrange all this, and she decides she can't get the chin for a few weeks. So I tell her, she needs to put down a deposit. The chin was $150, so she needed to put down $75. She sent $15. Was not happy about that, and I told her, she needs to send more money to keep that chin on hold, because I don't let people hold chins for 10%. So, she says she'll send more in another few days. So then, a few days before pickup, she decides she also wants my black velvet female, and asks if I can put the two together and see how they do. They do fine. So then, this same person who, mind you, has just told me they have no money, tells me they went, the previous day, to a large chinchilla ranch, and purchased four chinchillas. Now, even if they bought cheap chins, there's no way they paid less than $100 per chin, so at least $400 spent. But this person could not manage to put down more than a $15 deposit for me. But I leave it alone, because I think, well, I'm going to see her in a few days and she's going to get these two chins. Then I get a text, oh her one chin was sick, had to be put down. She wasn't sure if the cagemate was sick as well, so she wanted to watch her, but besides that, didn't want to bring in any more chins at the moment. Mind you, after just bringing in four chins from a large ranch after she had already agreed and put a (miniscule) deposit down on the one I had here. She ended up saying, oh maybe she'll come to Nationals and pick up some chins then. Not from ME she won't. I am DONE.
And here's the thing. I tried to be nice. When she put down the $15, I told her, breeders are not going to let you do this shit. I told her to send $75, she sent $15 -- I told her, you do this for anyone else and that chin will not be on hold for you. Heck, most chins I've ever had on hold from another breeder, for example, one that I'd pick up at a show, I've either paid for completely or had a significant deposit down on (and pay the rest at pickup). No $15 on a $150 animal, nope. And she always said, oh she appreciated me being helpful and willing to work with her and all that. Uh-huh. Appreciated it enough to walk all over me and go buy chins from a larger breeder (who I guarantee had her pay in full) while telling me she couldn't pay the money for mine at the moment. Not dealing with her again, nope.
I should mention, I write a lot about the bad apples. I realize that. But most people are very sweet and very nice and very understanding. Multiple people email, call, text, wanting to adopt. They show up, pick out a chin, fill out the adoption form, get supplies, a cage, what have you. And so on their merry way with a chin. Nothing bad about it. It's just one of those things, the bad ones stick out like sore thumbs cause when they're bad apples, they're not just people who email once and dissapear, they email like 40 times and waste hours of my time, and THEN disappear.
Anyway, that's about it for now. Have people coming today, so need to get ready for them.
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