People on the phone...

Just wanted to make a quick post about this...

We get a lot of calls that start out like this, "Hi, are you an animal shelter?"  I always answer back that we are a chinchilla rescue.  So then they ask something along the lines of, "ok, so you take in animals?" to which I reply, "only small animals like chinchillas and guinea pigs, we don't take in dogs or cats." 

This happens about 3-5 times a day. 

Let me share with you the reason I think this happens so often -- people do not read.  We have gotten into such a busy lifestyle (and laziness, but I won't even go into that) that people search animal shelter, we pop up, and people completely ignore the fact that it says "Chinchilla Rescue" and call and expect me to take in their animals.

I had one person a few weeks ago, ask me to take in their pit bull.  I told her, we only take in small animals.  Her response?  You guessed it! -- "well, she's a small pit bull..."

Does it take that long, when you search for something, to look at what you're actually clicking on?  I understand, you may search dog rescue, and because I have pictures of my dogs up on the "about us" page, maybe my site pops up.  However... the whole "chinchilla rescue" thing, should put you on a little notice.  When I was looking to get Misty (my younger dog), I was searching for "sheltie puppy" in combination with Indiana or Illinois or whatever.  That said, I understand that when I do that, may still pop up the website of a Texas sheltie breeder.  And that's fine, because I have some common sense and before I immediately shoot them an email, I take the time to look on the site, see that it's Texas, and say, ok, nevermind, I will move on.  But... that must be too hard for some.

Also in the realm of "too hard," must be politeness and common courtesy.  For example, if I was to call a company and they weren't able to help me, I would say something along the lines of, "thank you anyway" and I would end the call with "bye," or something of the nature.  Just now (what prompted me to write this post actually), the phone rang.  I answered it, and the lady said, "what all animals are you selling?"  I told her, we have chinchillas for adoption.  *click*  That's it.  No "hi" or any sort of greeting, no nothing after I answered the question.  Clearly, that wasn't what she wanted to hear.  Maybe she wanted a guinea pig or whatever... but I guess I wasn't raised that you just hang up on someone if they can't help you. 

Granted, I get plenty of polite people as well, but sometimes, people amaze me...