Empress National Chin Show

So, this was back a few weeks ago now, but I never did post about it... because Jim is judging at the MCBA Nationals and my chins are boarded at his place, I can't show at that Nationals this year (or likely next year), so this year I took a leap and went and showed at Empress Nationals!  Quite the jump for me, considering... I'm not sure I have EVER showed at an Empress show before, much less Nationals, right?

The chins did ok.  The judges were tough, and focused a lot on size, unfortunately (in my opinion and the opinion of several others I know), some of the higher placing animals were big... but lacking in other areas that many people felt were very important as well, but you know, each judge has their own method of critiquing the animals, and that's why there's quite a few judges!

Notably, one of my standards got a 1st place, a nice dark standard male.  For my mutations, they were sort of all over the place, as I did show a goldbar and a curly, and those don't tend to do all that well at shows that DON'T put a lot of emphasis on size, much less the ones that do!  But... also notably, had some good mutations!  The two that stand out to me (in looking back at this, a few weeks later) is that I had on litter, out of Marty (a hetero ebony) and Cupcake (a pink white).  The two kits, a tan and a homo ebony, were one of the last litters born here at my place in Hammond, before the herd moved out to Ohio.  Both males were good enough to hang onto and grow out.  The ebony received a 1st place, and the tan male went National Champion Tan Male!  Who-hoo!!!

This is him:

So that was awesome.  And even on the not-so-highly placing animals, I got good comments that helped clarify what I plan to do with them and if I plan to keep them.

The show itself was awesome, everyone was great.  We also had a vendor table there:

...and sold quite a bit of stuff!  Great weekend with great people, hopefully we'll do it all again next year!

Cage Dedication

If you've been at the rescue recently, you may have seen that one of our cages near the entrance now features a large cage dedication.

If you haven't seen it, this is what it looks like:

Bonnie and Ed Reinhart have been customers of the rescue for years.  They have adopted two chinchillas from us over the years, and have donated many times.  Back when I used to do everything myself and had no help here, I used to occasionally close the webstore so I could get caught up on orders.  If you've been around awhile, you may remember that.  It was sometimes closed for months at a time!  Often when it was closed, they would send me a donation to make sure that the rescue would get back up and running again. 

The last I saw them in person was 3 years ago, in March of 2016, when they adopted their second chin... though they order food and supplies all the time.

Unfortunately, this past February, I received an order and a donation, with the note that Bonnie had passed away.  Ed mentioned, he still wanted to use her name in donations.  These people were a very sweet couple, always supporting me / the rescue and donating every time they could.  The donation that I received with the most recent order was $200, which is quite a sizeable amount!  Their other donations were less, but they've all added up over the years!

I talked with Chris about all of this, and she came up with doing a cage dedication for Bonnie.  I found someone to make the sign you see above, and that's what we got.  I also printed out a picture of Ed and Bonnie with one of their adoptive chinchillas, framed it, and mailed it to them.  Ed was very happy and touched by the cage dedication here and the photo we sent him. 

Always Ask Questions

So, this is probably a given... but I feel like in all situations of life... if you don't know, or are unsure of something, always ask questions!  I honestly don't feel like anyone should ever feel afraid to ask or whatnot, if you don't know, ask!

We had a group of students from Purdue call us about using the rescue for a group project.  All they said was that they needed to talk to me about a problem the rescue had, and as a group, they would discuss the problem and come up with a solution.  I vaguely remember doing something like this in one of my classes way back when, so I told them, that was fine.  They said they had to get permission to use our rescue, and would contact us back.  Some time passes, and they get the ok, and they tell me they need to interview our workers / volunteers who are at the rescue a considerable amount of the time.  So I talk to Jennifer, get her permission to give them her phone number, and pass that along to them.  I tell them, there's me and her, and that's it.  There's not a lot of routine volunteers, though I do occasionally get the court appointed community service people... but not a lot of people who volunteer and stick around. 

Next email I receive is that there's four people + the initial person who contacted me, and they each need to interview someone.  My response back was basically, well... there's still just me and Jennifer.  Never did hear back from them.

In all fairness, I didn't ask for more info about their project, and they also didn't volunteer at any point, in the two weeks prior to telling me about the 5 interviews, that they needed to do 5 interviews... had we known, they could have moved onto a different place much quicker. 

I guess my point is... they didn't know... and they didn't ask. 

Maybe they thought there would be volunteers out the wazoo here.  Or that I have a ton of employees, rather than occasional help when I can afford it.  But the reality is... we don't get a lot of volunteers, and a good chunk of everything is done by myself, helped by Jennifer when she's around.

And to me, I feel like this is a perfect example of... had they started out saying, "ok, we have this class project, this is what it's about... now the one thing is we need to do 5 interviews, are there 5 people who we can interview?"... I feel like this whole thing would have gone differently.  Obviously that's not how it went, and it's too bad that they wasted time that could have been spent on a different business.  But this is why it's so important to ask questions!

I'm sure many of you have heard me say, if you don't know the answer, it's not a stupid question.  I mean, there's all stuff that we don't know!  So we just gotta ask!  I know that can be hard sometimes... but if you don't ask... you may never know!  That is all for today.

Chinchilla Supply List

As you may have read in our recent guest blog post by our wonderful volunteer Chris, one of the things she did for us was to check out prices at pet stores, so we could update our Chinchilla Supply List.

In case you're unfamiliar with this, we have a supply list on our website, here -- which compares the prices of items that you can purchase here at NWI, or at the pet stores.  The last time we gathered data for this supply list was back in 2013, when I went to Petsmart and gathered prices for comparable items to items that we sell.  As it's been 5ish years... time to do it again! 

In talking with Chris about this, she graciously volunteered to go check prices for us, and sent me an email a few days later with lots of good info.  I compiled it, created a new chart with all of the current prices / info, added it all up for totals and whatnot, and it is now what you see on the website.

As you can see in the list, we carry everything the pet stores do (and often, even more), at similar or even lower prices! Some things we have are priced similarly... our food bowls are $4.00, and Chris found similarly sized food bowls priced at $3.99 and $2.99-$3.99 at the pet stores.  To be perfectly honest, buying ceramic food bowls in bulk is not something that there's a lot of options for, so I'm happy with just being competitive in the pricing.  For other things, you can see where there's significant pricing differences.  The one that stands out, even after closing the page, is hay cubes.  At the pet store, they are over $8 per pound!  Insanity!  We charge $1.25 per pound.  Now, not everyone uses hay cubes, but even hay from us is $1 per pound, versus $4+ per pound at the pet store.  And all you lack, in getting it from us, is the pretty chinchilla on the packaging.  But come on, we know that's not that important to you, right?  We all just throw away or recycle the packaging anyway! 

Anyway, so that list is very currently up to date, in case you were ever wanting to compare prices, there ya go :)

Guest Writer - Volunteering & Pet store prices

Hi everyone! My name is Chris and I'm a volunteer for NWI Chinchillas. I've gotten involved in volunteering for NWI over the last few months. I thought there might not be too much for me to help with, as I'm about an hour away from the location, but I was wrong!! I've done so many different things like assisting at pet expos in my area, helping compose forms for adoptions & fostering, and posting listings for available animals across multiple websites.

My latest task involved going to pet stores in my area to check on prices for a variety of items. Ashley wanted to update a pricing list of items she carries in her supply store, comparing them to pricing of similar items in the "big box" pet stores. I was so pleased to find that not only does she carry MORE safe options than the pet stores do, but at BETTER prices!! We all love to support small businesses, but with that, usually comes slightly higher prices in order to support that business owner. But not at NWI! She is able to buy these great items in bulk, and passes on the savings to you!! Much of the profit that is made is fed back into the rescue, which helps care for chinchillas who need specialized care, TLC, and time to look for that perfect forever home. Who WOULDN'T want to support that?!

I was also shocked to see how many items at the pet stores had pictures of chinchillas on the packaging, when they were in fact, NOT chinchilla safe at all! Things like yogurt drops, veggie treats, or paper bedding are all displayed as suitable for ALL small animals. Many small animals have different needs from one another, and shouldn't be all lumped together! And if you're instead buying from a small business who specializes in one kind of animal, you can rest assured that you are getting the best products possible for that particular animal. And isn't that what you want for your furry family members?

Surrendering Chinchillas... With/Without Cages

So, wanted to do a quick post today about people surrendering chinchillas.  Well, any animals for that matter.

Well, let me back up.  In order to surrender an animal to the rescue, it's as simple as reaching out, getting on our waiting list if needed (and there almost always is a list), and then when we have room, bringing it in.  While we appreciate people bringing in stuff with their chinchilla, some people do and some people don't, but the only thing we officially ask for is for the previous owner to bring some food that the chinchilla was eating. 

Interestingly enough, a lot of people seem to run out of food and then decide they need to bring their chin in.  I kind of wonder if it's maybe, hey, we can either buy more food, or give up the chin, which should we do?  But I digress.  The food is the only thing we ask for.

I've had a lot of people talking to me lately about how some rescues either charge surrender fees, or require cages to be dropped off with the animal.  We've never charged surrender fees, and I don't see a situation where this would change... but basically, it's a fee for dropping off an animal.  The money goes to help care for the animal and fund the rescue of course... but my worry has always been, what about that person that doesn't want to spend the $50 to drop off the animal, and, when this is brought up to them, decides that it's better to just let the animal go outside?  I want to say the one humane society locally has a surrender fee, and they get animals dropped off on their doorstep, to avoid this.  Last I heard, they have posted a sign saying they will prosecute people who drop animals at the doorstep.  While I get the intention behind it (wanting people to come in, rather than drop the animal at the doorstep)... what do you think the real result of this prosecution thing is?  You got it!  The animals no longer are dropped off at the humane society, but rather, are just "let go."  Now, how did that solve anything?

The other thing is that many rescues are requiring that people bring the cage with the pet.  We've had instances where we've asked for this, like if we're trying to squeeze an animal in, due to special circumstances, and our cages are full, but in general, we do not require cages.  Again, I understand the rationale -- if people still have the cage, there's always a possibility that they are just getting rid of this pet, and will go get another one... and the cycle will continue.  In reality, I think more people that I want to run into are selling the cages and supplies, rather than giving them to rescues. 

The reason we don't require cages to be given is again, because of the concern for the animals.  We get in chinchillas here, from people who have told us, well, that other shelter requires we bring in a cage.  So, what happens if every place requires a cage?  You know where doesn't?  The kill shelters.  And you know what happens when they get overrun with small animals?  Especially when no one is bringing them a cage?  Oh yeah.  I'd rather be the one that's a bit lax with that (and people do bring cages... not all, but a decent amount of people) and make sure the animals are going to a good rescue, rather than having that requirement, and then making people go searching for other places to take in their animals, because they want to keep / sell / whatever that cage. 

I try to make it easy.  Granted, some of these people probably do get other animals, which may end up at shelters later, but let's be honest... if we took their cage, they can just buy another.  I'm worried about the current animals here... I'll deal with the ones in the future, when they get here.

Adoption Forms... and What Will Get You Denied

So, if you've talked with me in any depth about adoption forms, you've probably heard me say that they're not meant to be difficult... and they're not.  They're not meant to see how many hoops I can make you jump through to get a rescue animal, but rather, they're to check that you have a basic idea on how to care for the animal you're trying to adopt, and that you have the appropriate cage / accessories for this animal.  That is all. 

Short of major red flags, most people do get approved.  Some people seem horrified at that thought, but again, I'm not asking if people are going to be stay-home-chin-moms, but rather, if they can afford vet care, what kind of cage they have, and so on.  Most people are approved, and I honestly believe that that is because... the average person can care for the average small pet that we have up for adoption.  If you have the appropriate cage and accessories (or are willing to get those... as we do sell them or can point you in the right direction if you'd rather), and are willing to learn, we are willing to help.  It's really that simple.

So what gets people denied?  There's a few things that unequivocally will get you denied -- keeping the animals outside or in some area that's unheated / un-cooled.  Having an inappropriate cage (not as in, it's too small, but rather, keeping chinchillas in an aquarium).  Lying on the adoption form and myself finding out.  You lie once, you don't get a second chance.  I think I have a blog post from years ago about how someone told me they had all these wonderful cages to use... showed me pics even... and turns out, the pics were all random cage pics off of google.  Not even stock pics, like the one pic was a cage that had an animal in it, and the person went as far to say something along the lines of, well, don't mind the poos, I will clean it first.  When confronted with the fact that these cages were not, in fact, theirs... the person told me, well, they didn't have a cage yet, but didn't want to get denied due to that.  Sad to say... but I would have helped them get a cage in whatever way I could... but lying to me, especially in this case, multiple times... nope.  Done.  Because how should I know the next thing isn't a lie?

With many things people put down on adoption forms, I will send questions back.  If there's any doubt regarding an answer, I will ask for more info about it.  Because of this back and forth, this is why many people get approved to adopt, because with more information, I'm satisfied that the home would be great.

But some people are just... difficult.  I had one case from about a week ago that I wanted to share with you all, and I snapped a screenshot of the one part that just made me shake my head.  First off, they didn't put their name or contact information.  They also didn't sign the bottom of the form.  You might think, oh no big deal, but get the form from a generic email address... so should you not fill out a phone number or email... even if your form is wonderful, I have no way of contacting you.  And in case you're thinking, oh, well maybe they just missed it -- the questions on these forms all require an answer.  You will not be able to submit the form without them being answered (well, there's a few that have a different setting, but not most).  This person in question, for every question they didn't want to answer, put a dash ( -- ) for the answer.  So this had to take a little time to do!  But let me share with you the fun screenshot:

So... "I know all of this but why would I need to write everything down?" -- how about... because I asked for it?  Because you won't get to adopt without you writing down an answer?... and by reading those answers, I approve the adoption form?  Maybe this is difficult for people, I don't know.  But if there's a question, it needs to be answered.  If the question isn't answered in a way that I think is complete enough, and I want more info, you better bet that if I ask you for more info, you're not getting any farther in that adoption until you give me that additional info I asked for.  Why is this so difficult?  This is how adoptions work! 

This is one of those things -- I'm happy to help people.  Really I am.  If I can help, I'm glad to.  Even the people who I whine about, I'd rather help people learn than not.  But... I'm only human as well.  These things wear on me, and I get more adoption forms that are like "I don't have to tell you what cage I have" than I should.  And I restrain myself from responding back, "I don't have to let you adopt..." I just delete and move on.

Most people get approved... but the ones that don't... make the best stories.  lol

Requesting Specific Things or Chins or Whatever

So... I hate to start my first post back, after a long time with no posts, with it being sort of a non-positive post, but...well... it just wouldn't be me if I didn't, now would it?  Haha.

Just wanted to explain something though.  I get people all the time, and I mean all the time -- often several daily -- where people ask me to let them know when something is available.  Sometimes it is a product that is out of stock, more often they're waiting on a certain chinchilla. 

I can give you endless examples.

The most recent one, and the one without me writing a 20-paragraph-backstory to it, is this:  this involves a customer who comes by pretty frequently, at least a few times a year, maybe every other month.  Last time she was here, I was out of both the herb samplers and healthy treat mixes.  Not having them made up, obviously I didn't have them to sell, so she asked if I could let her know when I did have them, and she'd get right back to me and come by and buy them.  So, I made them up, maybe 1-2 weeks later (as fit with my schedule, because she wasn't in a rush), and I texted her, a few times in fact, to let her know that I had them made up, and she could make an appointment to come get them.

I suppose you realize that I'm not writing this to tell you that she texted back and showed up and got them... well, no.  Rather, I haven't heard back.  And this is very typical. 

Now, many people may look at this and say, but what did it hurt for you (me) to text her and let her know?  Well, nothing... for one person.  But mind you, this is multiple people per day. 

Another example:

Them -- When will you next have a tan that carries goldbar? 
Me -- Probably never, as no reputable breeder will ever have those colors together, and I sure won't be the first one. 
Them -- Ok, well when you get in an angora rescue, will you let me know?
Me -- I never have yet, and I don't anticipate that I will, as they're still selling for thousands of dollars.
Them -- Ok, well when you do, make sure you keep me in mind!!!

Now that example above is for two chins that would be highly unusual.  But it doesn't have to even be unusual chins -- someone could want a beige, when I just don't have any beiges... but then, often, here's what happens.  When I do get in what the person is "looking for" (and note, I put that in quotes)... they actually come to see the animal, and decide it's not quiiiiiiiite what they're looking for.  It's not as sweet as the last one, or the last one was darker, and this one is a little lighter, or the whiskers aren't quite perfect, or....  They find a reason to not get the chinchilla that was gotten in, pretty much especially for them.  You may notice this on some ads, where a chinchilla is listed, and up at the top of the ad, it says the chin was brought in for a special request... that didn't end up getting the chin...often it's unusual colors that are harder sells and more money, and then I'm stuck with them.

Some people have suggested that when people want a specific chin, I should ask for a deposit to get it in.  Part of the reason I don't want to do that is because these are living, breathing animals, and they are all different as far as their personality and temperament.  So part of me can understand about someone wanting to see the animal before committing to it.  That said... an awful lot of people back out based on (in my opinion anyway) minor things, which makes me think that it's all "I want it I want it!!" until it's in front of them, and they're actually faced with handing the money over... then they're not so sure...

I don't say this all to be mean, but here's the thing.  If I had a list of everyone who wanted me to "keep them in mind" for when I get in a certain chin of a certain color / age / personality / cheap-price-for-unusual-color or whatnot... it would be miles long.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that my waiting list (for chins and other animals to get into the rescue) is always a mile long, and yet even THOSE people half the time don't return calls when I get to them.

I think what often happens is this -- someone calls me wanting a certain color chin.  In the past, I have said, I can let them know when I get it.  By the time I contact them -- and I note, it may be like a week or whatever, so to me, this is pretty quick -- they've already gone elsewhere and gotten something else.  Which is fine of course, we all have free choice... but I guess... why even ask someone to let you know when they have something in, if you're not willing to wait (even a little bit)?  And honestly, after all these years doing this, the one thing that I can say for certain is that almost no one is willing to wait...for anything.

So... when you ask me to keep you in mind for something... and my response is something along the lines of, "please check back, I don't keep a list of people looking for specific chins, etc etc," please don't get upset, but please rather understand that you are one of many.  If you really are wanting that chinchilla (or whatever it is), please do check back!  That will show me that you're serious and I will be happy to tell you if I get something like that in... if you have been periodically contacting me.  But I do not keep an on-going general list of what people are looking for. 

Hearts In Motion Ornaments

Meant to share this earlier with you all, but totally spaced on it... until today when I was cleaning up and found the envelope with our money. 

You may remember, we had a Christmas tree at Hearts in Motion in Schererville, with ornaments for sale.  Some of you may have gone to see the tree or even buy ornaments... and whether it was you or not, some people did, as we sold $33.50 of ornaments!  Not the best we've ever done, but not too shabby either!  Especially considering most of the ornaments are $1-2, and we have some even cheaper than that, it's a good amount of ornaments sold!

Thanks for everyone who came out and bought an ornament!  And of course, everyone who supports us the rest of the year as well!

THINK Before Responding...or even, you know, read...

This has happened multiple times lately, and I know I’m constantly whining about this because nobody seems to be able to read.  I’m gonna be gone for a few days upcoming and I told someone what day appointments would resume... so you know they emailed back and asked for an appointment two days BEFORE appointments will resume... then gave me one day to apparently think about that (as you know, always behind on emails) even though the appointment isn’t for like a week, and then said well they need to know.

I suppose it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that if I tell you appointments resume on a certain day... you can’t come before that day.  Oh wait, unless you don’t read...

Adoption Forms

Adoption forms are necessary for rescues.  Note what I just said there, for rescues.  So, depending on which chinchilla you ask about, you may not need to fill one out.

That said, if I tell you that I need one filled out... that means... you are asking about a rescue.  Still following me here?

I've had quite a few people lately who email and say they're interested in a chin.  Take the one the other day for example.  Someone emails asking about adopting an adult chin.  I ask them, do they have a preference as far as male / female / age / budget, etc etc...  their response is that they'd prefer a male, age doesn't matter, and they ask if the chins come with cages.  I explain that sometimes we have chins that come with cages, but at the moment none do... though we have cages available.  I tell them, if you tell me what sort of a cage you're looking for / price range / etc, I'd be happy to share what I have that might match.

"Oh, a normal cage, whatever price is fine."

So helpful.  So, I tell them, well, a normal cage... depends on your definition of normal, and same with price.  I clearly think the prices I have set for cages are fine... other people say they're cheap, other people say they're expensive.  We all have our own opinions, none are wrong or right, just what we think.

Anyway, so back and forth a few more emails.  In those few emails, I listed the 5ish males I had that matched the color and age (adult) he was looking for, and he replied saying which one he wanted.  To which I replied telling him, ok, here's the care packet to read, here's the adoption form to fill out.  The following email, he asks me for pics of the cages that I say I have.

I send the cage pics.  I get an email back saying he found an awesome cage for $85 (more power to him, always good to find a deal!).  And there was also a line about, ok, so he no longer needs a cage from me, but he wants to get the chin. 

Well... he still hasn't gotten back to me about the care packet and I haven't had any adoption forms submitted, so I sent him a nice email back statin

Ok, so I will need you to look over the care packet and fill out the adoption form (I linked to these in a previous email so you can find them easily!) and you'll put the info about the cage you got on there, and let me know when you've done that and then we can move forward.

... *crickets* 

I don't know if this is hard for some people or what, but this happens all the time that I mention the adoption form, almost always relatively early on in the conversation...they ignore my mention of it... until it comes up again and that's the next step they absolutely have to do before moving forward... and then they drop off the face of the planet.  Like... is it that hard to understand, if I say it has to be filled out, it will need to be filled out, before you can adopt?  I guess so...

Getting Cages Up the Stairs

So, if you've been here, you know that the rescue is down a flight of stairs. 

This means that often if you are buying a cage (other than a new-in-box-cage), we need to get that cage back UP that flight of stairs. 

For some reason, I get the feeling that people think I haven't done this before.  Hmm.

The ceiling downstairs is low, so any cage over about 2-3' tall requires being tilted to get it up the stairs.  You can't get it up (or down, for that matter) with the cage standing upright, because it won't make it under the basement ceiling (which is still like 6-7' but still... it's the way the ceiling cuts into the stairway).

Yet it's funny, because so often, I will be helping people take the cages up the stairs, and I will tell people, "you need to tilt it back," and get the response, "oh no, it'll be fine."  *CLUNK* (cage hits the ceiling)

I've now lived in this house almost 4 years.  I have my own 6ish ferret nations and several other large cages here, all of which were transported, set up, down those stairs... plus countless others that I have sold over the years that have had to make it down, and then back up, the stairs.  I swear, I might just have some idea what I'm talking about, haha.

So please listen, when I mention that we need to tilt the cage.  For my ceiling's sake.  Thank you.

Paypal Addresses... Part 2

Remember this post? -- https://nightsatthechinchillarescue.blogspot.com/2018/12/important-of-correct-paypal-addresses.html

After I refunded the money, a few days later, I received an email from the buyer, asking why I refunded the money, were the items out of stock?  Now, on the refund, I noted something along the lines of, "invalid shipping address, tried several times to contact buyer with no success."  But regardless, I emailed them back and specified this, and told them, if they wanted to re-place their order with the correct address, or even email me with the correct address and I could send them an invoice for the order, I'd be happy to get it out to them.

Again... have not heard back from them.

I just don't understand people sometimes...

Asking for Advice... and Not Taking It

So, I'm all for helping people out, answering questions.  But the one pet peeve I have is when people ask for advice, and do the exact opposite.  A story that I've told a lot of people involves a family that adopted two chinchillas. 

They get home that night, and tell me the chins aren't acting as friendly at home, as they were at the rescue.  I asked what the family had been doing since they'd gotten home, and as it turned out, they'd had the chins out of their cage the entire time since they'd been home.  I explained to the family, it would be good to let them settle in, and I shared how with our rescues, we give them a month to decompress before they even have a chance to become available.  I told them, obviously, they don't need to do that long, but let them settle in.  They said they would try to leave them alone for the rest of the night.  Next day, I receive more texts about how they're not calm and they're acting crabbier, and I again explain, let them settle in for a few days.  I even acknowledge that I understand they're new pets and they're adorable and they want to get them out, but for the sake of having a good, long relationship... let them settle in first.  This went on for a few days, until I got to the point where I sent a text:  "you're supposed to be leaving them alone."  And I left it at that.  They kept asking the same questions and expecting a different answer, and that's not how this all works. 

Low and behold, a few days later, I received this text that basically was like, "you were right!  We let them settle in and they're doing much better!" and so on and so forth.  Imagine that, after almost 16 years (it was like...14 then), I might have some idea what I'm talking about.  Lol.

See the thing is, I want to help.  But I do enough repeating myself over and over, to different people, all the time.  Most people ask the same questions, so certain answers are down pat.  But I particularly would prefer not to repeat the exact same answer to the same person, time and time again.

A more recent example... I had a family come to adopt, and they asked if a small dog crate would be good for transport.  I told them, possibly... but measure the bar spacing, if it's more than 1", bring something else or I will give them a carrier.  The day comes for pickup, and they bring the dog crate.  Just looking at it, I debated if it was really 1" or less bar spacing, but I figured they measured it.

We put the chin in, and she was out again in less than a minute.  I asked the people, had we talked about the dog crate?  Had they measured?  Oh yes, we had, but they figured it would be alright without measuring, the bars weren't that far apart.  *face palm*  I didn't ask them to measure just so I could see it typed out on the screen!  I asked because I wanted to be sure the chin couldn't escape.  Thankfully, the chin escaped from the crate while they were still at the rescue... but what about if they were on their way to the car and the chin got out?  I asked for a reason.

I think what it all boils down to is this -- if you ask a question, and the answer either isn't a simple yes or no, or isn't what you were hoping for -- you might listen to it, as there may be a reason that person went into more detail.  That is all.

Taking Checks

I know this is hard for some people to understand, for some reason...  let me share with you why I think this should be relatively straightforward.

First, on the Available Chins page, right at the top:

Also, on the Sales Policy page, in two spots -- picking up your new family member and the payment section:

So... can you understand why I get slightly miffed when people ask if I take checks, and even more miffed when they ONLY show up with a check?

The thing is, this isn't Walmart... I can't use telecheck to run your check on the spot, and verify that there really is money in the account.  When I take that check to my bank later, and try to deposit it... should it bounce... I have to track you down and hope that I have your correct phone number / email / address... and like I've talked about in previous posts, I'm not trying to make things any more difficult for myself than need be.  So, sorry, but no checks.  Thanks for understanding!

Address On Adoption Forms

When I get in adoption forms, I vaguely scan the address area, mainly to see where the person is from.  If you put Virginia, I will ask if you know that we are in Indiana.  That sort of thing.  But usually I don't really look at the address more than a quick glance.

That will change.

I had one adopter who picked up a chinchilla from one of our foster homes.  Also changing -- people adopting from foster homes will now be required to fill out paperwork prior to picking up their pet.  Otherwise, it is too hard to chase everyone down once they already have the pet in their possession.  I haven't had a problem until now, and of course I realize it's right around Christmas / the holidays, but now this is changing.

But back to addresses.  The one person adopted from a foster home.  After the adoption, I found some treats here that I specifically had marked as for that specific chin.  I wanted to mail those to the new adopter, so I dug out her adoption form.  The address was just a couple of numbers, but no street name.  So I emailed the adopter.  It took two emails and seven days for her to respond with her address.  In the meantime, her husband (I assume? maybe family member) sent me the adoption paperwork... minus the adoption contract -- which ALSO would have had the address.  They sent two copies of the health guarantee, but no adoption contract, so I emailed back that person asking for it.  I still don't have it, and will chase down until I get it.  

The thing is, though, I shouldn't have to.  This shouldn't be this hard.  When I found the treats, I should have been able to look at the adoption form and mail them out, without ever having to reach out.   I also shouldn't have to contact the adopter, over and over, to get the correct forms sent back to me.  So... this will all be changing.  I will be eyeballing addresses from now on (not that this happens all that often, but two different people lately) and requiring paperwork prior to adoption in cases where the chins are at foster homes.

Getting Pets While Not Able to Afford Vet Bills

We've taken in quite a few sick animals lately, so I wanted to touch on this.  Not that I think any of you would do this, but still...

If you want to get a pet, you need to be able to afford basic vet care.

Now, I'm not talking about affording a $1000 vet bill.  However, you should be able to afford to take the animal in, and at minimum, be able to afford that initial vet bill and possibly ending the animal's suffering if the problem is that bad.

The two cases that stuck out were actually both guinea pigs.  The first one was a guinea pig that was passed around several times.  Turns out, Person 1 had the guinea pig and gave it to their cousin, Person 2... we assume because of it's skin (and other?) issues.  Person 2 takes the guinea pig, knowing it has skin issues, while only working one day per week and knowing she cannot afford to take this guinea pig to the vet, and tries to treat these skin issues at home.  I don't know with what, I didn't ask, but my guess would be... anti-dandruff shampoo (as that's what people seem to think will fix all small animal skin issues).  She calls us, turns out she's now had this guinea pig for 1-2 months, has been treating it at home the entire time, and it's only getting worse.  Imagine that.  So she brings him in to us.  Poor thing didn't even have a name, and looked (if he was a dog), he had mange.  Most of his fur missing, what was left was patchy.  All the skin on his body looked crusty / inflamed / itchy and boy was he scratching.  He was dropped off in the evening, and I didn't want to treat him late at night (our first treatment for a skin condition like that would be a blue dawn bath) so I could be sure he would dry off properly, so I gave him some bedding, hay, water, all the things he needed, and left him for the night.  He unfortunately didn't make it through the night.

Whether he passed from stress or another condition secondary to the skin infection, I don't know.  What I do know is that whatever he passed from, he may have had a considerably better chance at life, had people not spent all that time on home treatments (and yes, blue dawn is a home treatment... but might actually work, whereas anti-dandruff shampoo just reduces flakes but doesn't treat anything).  Maybe, maybe not.  Of course, the previous owner called a few days later asking how he was doing, and I had to break the sad news to her.  She wanted to know what he died from, and I told her, I didn't even have a chance to treat him or get him in to see a vet, had the treatment not worked.  It's unfortunate, but I only had a few hours with him.  She had a few months, and while it's not her fault that she didn't have the money to take him to the vet... my personal opinion is that she shouldn't have had him as a pet then.

Second person.  Also calls with sick guinea pigs, has a bonded pair and doesn't want to separate, but can't find anyplace to take them since the one is sick, and has something going on with it's back and it's eye.  For sure, this one was using anti-dandruff shampoo, as she brought that with.  She said it looked like it was getting better, but she wasn't sure, and of course... she had no money to take them to the vet.  So, we welcome in Rain and Star.  Rain is the one with the fungus, on her face and back.  I did take pics, shown below.  The pic of her back doesn't quite accurately show the extent, as I was holding her with one hand and taking the pic with the other, but it is about a quarter-sized patchy spot that looks like it was scratched (or something?) until it bled.

I covered her spots with blu-kote, which is an antiseptic and anti-fungal... Rain has now been treated twice, and for sure her back is improving, but her face will take more time.  Fungus has an easier time getting started on the face, as the area around the eyes / nose / mouth provide a nice wet environment in which it can take hold and thrive, so those areas will likely take longer to treat.

The people got these guinea pigs from a pet store.  Guinea pigs are what, $35ish each at the pet store?  So they could afford a new cage, two guinea pigs... all that... but not vet care.  Also, I should mention... neither guinea pig person brought in a cage or anything with their guinea pigs, except the second person did bring in the anti-dandruff shampoo.  Usually when people don't bring in a cage and whatnot, that's so they can sell the stuff and recoup their money.  That's fine, don't get me wrong... but again... they're getting the pet and the first sign of a problem, passing it off to someone else, with nothing but the animal itself.  No food to switch over, no cage, no nothing.  

If this upsets you (that I think you should be able to afford the vet if you get a pet), I'm sorry, but in both of these instances, these guinea pigs had relatively minor problems that would NOT have cost a fortune at the vet, but since these people couldn't (or wouldn't... who knows) afford a vet visit...the one unfortunately passed and the other pair is here.  Since they are young, I am sure they will find a great home as soon as Rain is better, but that's beside the point.  They never should have been here to begin with. 

Waiting List for the Rescue...part 2

...when we call people on the waiting list, several things can happen:

1)  they don't respond (the email says they get x days to respond, after which we move on)
2)  they respond, saying they no longer need to bring in their chin / animal (sometimes they even choose to keep it)
3)  they respond, saying they do need to still bring in their animal, and they set an appointment

It's honestly a wild guess which one will be which.  Sometimes, everyone I call will bring in a chin, other times, everyone will have already found help elsewhere (which is fine as well). 

You might think this is relative to how much time they've spent on the waiting list, but that's honestly not often the case.  Sometimes the people who've waited months are still wanting to bring in their chins, and sometimes people who've been on the list a week have already found a different place for their chins.

I have one person on my waiting list who I haven't officially crossed off yet, but I messaged her back on 11/25 telling her she could bring her chin in, and last I heard, she was working on finding a good day.  Before I officially cross her off, I will message her again... but that's another thing.  It's been over a month since I messaged her.  That means, one of our cages has sat open for over a month, as I've waited for her to get back to me to bring in the chin.  I hate to be that kind of person to put a time limit, like "you have a week to bring in the chin..." but the difficulty is that when someone waits this long... I may have been able to bring in another chin and already get it adopted before she gets around to bringing hers in.

And that brings me to my next point... this seems to be one of those things that maybe people don't realize, because everyone always seems so surprised when I say we have a waiting list.... there is quite the need for small animal rescue.  My last two people who were paid help have commented that they never would have guessed that there was so much to do / going on with small animal rescue before they worked here.  And I assume people with these animals probably often think the exact same thing, that oh they have a guinea pig to give up, and probably not that many people have guinea pigs, so sure we can take it in.  Unfortunately... not always the case. 

A friend and I have come up with two scenarios (now, before you get mad, this is supposed to be funny, well, funny but true).  Either they think that I have so few animals here and there's so NOT a need for small animal rescue that I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs just waiting for people to call so I can jump on it and take in their animal... or they think I have so many volunteers and such a big organization that even if I can't help them, there's a foster who can, or someone else in the organization who can.  Obviously, neither one is true.  There's plenty of animals here, and there's a significant lack of volunteers, unfortunately.  My main two volunteers are people who do the volunteering at a distance (Colette, who helps sew the hammocks / fleece tubes / hanging houses, and Chris, who helps with the website and expos), rather than at the actual rescue.  And that's fine!  But that's also why I can't bend over backwards to help people, because there is just me, and the occasional paid help.

I did create that program where you can volunteer for a discount.  Due to how many people were always asking for discounts, I thought actually that that would be good and people would take advantage.  I mean... if you can spare a few hours of your time, it saves money!  So far, no one has taken advantage, though I still think it's worthwhile.

Last thing I want to touch on, as far as taking in rescues.  Most rescues, and by most, I mean by far the grand majority, require the person surrendering the animal to bring the animal to them.  I just had someone yesterday tell me that this one rescue didn't give them the time of day since they couldn't make the drive to the rescue.  While I'm sure that is disheartening and all... if the person can't drive the animal to them... how is the rescue supposed to help them?  I mean, I feel like that's a valid question.  Also... this same person was telling me about how they got this chinchilla to be a buddy for their other chin, but then went on to say that the new chin is aggressive, unfriendly, unsocial... you name it, not the greatest... which is why they want to surrender it.  The reason I mention this -- if it was an awesome pet, they would totally be keeping it.  So... often times, the animals we get aren't the most wonderful example of what a chinchilla is like...they take a lot of work, a lot of patience, and still may require an experienced home.  If someone wants to surrender a really friendly angora, I may just drive to you.  But for the average person that wants to drop off the chinchilla that will spend a year+ in rescue due to it's personality (read: attitude) and liveliness (read: squirmy-ness)... my personal opinion is that we are helping that person (who honestly, would probably only be able to find a home for that chinchilla by flat out lying about what it's like), and the least they can do is drive it to us.  Sorry if you disagree with that, but at the end of the day, it's my time and resources that are going into these animals, and at the end of the day, by the time many of the rescues get adopted, their adoption fee doesn't even come close to covering what's been spent on them.  That's fine, don't get me wrong... but I won't add in the additional expense of going and getting the animal.  Sorry not sorry.

Waiting List for the Rescue...part 1

Let me start this out by saying this -- we almost always have a waiting list to get animals in.  Let me repeat the important words: almost always. 

Here's what this means -- when you call and want to drop off your animal, I tell you about our waiting list and tell you that I can add you, if you'd like.  Many people never respond.  I assume that means, they want their animal gone NOW, not at some undetermined date in the future.

Here's the thing.  Small animal rescues are few and far between.  Yes, most humane societies and whatnot will take in the small animals... but they have considerably less room than the small animal rescues.  The one local humane society has a small animal room that is the size of my bathroom.  Not that most of you have ever seen the bathrooms here, but even my larger bathroom is like a normal sized shower / bathtub, and another space about that big (which holds sink / cabinet / toilet), and that's it.  So basically, you walk in, and have to completely turn around to exit.  Now, how many small animal cages, even stacked, can fit in that area?  The short answer: not many.  When those are filled... that's it. 

A lot of those places, the humane societies and whatnot... aren't no-kill.  Some are even contracted that they are required to take in any animal that is brought to them.  So... guess what that means if all their small animal cages are full, and you bring in another small animal?  Hopefully one gets adopted right away, because otherwise, they have to make room.

We are no-kill.  That's not to say that we've never had to put an animal down, and the same goes for other no-kill rescues.  No-kill means that a rescue does not put down an animal for the purpose of space.  Should an animal have severe medical problems, or something of that nature, they still can have their suffering humanely ended, and the shelter still be labeled as no-kill.  But the point is, if a no-kill shelter is full and all the animals there are healthy... they just can't take any more in.

...and that's often the problem here.  There's only so many cages, and even for people wanting to bring in cages, there's only so much room to keep putting cages before it becomes impossible to walk around and move around in the rescue.  I try my hardest to stop intakes before it gets to that point, as if I can't easily get around, that's not helpful to the animals and that's not helpful as far as adopters coming to look at them to adopt them out.

So usually how it goes is that we adopt out some animals, maybe even sell some cages to make room (and generate funds), clean the empty cages, and then call the people on the waiting list.  Sometimes it's a short wait, sometimes not.

Currently, we had a lot of our chins go home in the last month or two... a lot of the rescues.  This is good, as it's freed up a lot of our bigger cages, and a lot of our foster homes can use a new chin or two as well.  So for the last few days, we've been deep cleaning the big cages.  Sanding all the shelves, scrubbing down the entire cages, replacing the liners, whatever needs to be done, to get them ready for new chins.   We don't always go quite this gung ho to bring in new chins, but now that we have a few empty, this is the best time to do this when we have room to shuffle a few around.  In another few days, I will be calling people on the waiting list, making appointments to bring in chins.

...to be continued...

Kids Touching Things

So... I'm sure this will sound nitpicky, but when I was a kid, before we'd even leave the house, and then again before we'd go into the store, my parents would remind me, "don't touch anything."

Parents today... most don't seem to care.

I have my work cart at the rescue, graciously donated by my mom a few years back.  I use the top usually for when people are signing adoption papers, and the second shelf has all these little red bins, like the type you see in a divided toolbox.  I have a much larger version (complete with the red bins -- about... 20ish of them?) of this:

So...for the purpose of making my hardware accessible to me when I need it, I don't have these bins in the actual toolbox, but rather, I have them lined up on the second shelf of my work cart.... where they are apparently highly-sought-after-playthings.

Now, before you think that I have one or two of each item in each bin, consider this.  One bin holds washers... I can at least get 20-30 in there, probably more if they're nicely lined up.  For something smaller like snap clips (the clips that hold the toys and hammocks to the cage, I can undoubtedly get over 200 in there.  And that's how they all are... the smaller the item, the more I can get in there, and I try to keep them relatively full, because when I need them, I rarely need one or two, I need several.

This is becoming a problem.

I have them on the cart for convenience -- when I need them, they are easy access to me, as the cart is always kept accessible, as we use it every day.  However... it seems, especially this fall / winter season, we've had an unusually large number of kids playing in the bins.  If I see this, I have told the kid something along the lines of, "oh honey, please don't touch that."  Trying to be nice, and you know, it's not my kid.  Usually the kid stops for a bit.... but in every instance I can think of, has gone right back.  Usually there's two parents / adults there, and what has happened several times... AFTER I have already told the kid to not touch, the kid resumes touching, and one of the parents points out out to the other parents, hey the kid is touching the stuff again.  (why they don't tell the kid no, but rather point out to the other parent, I don't know).  Here's the best part -- the parent they tell, in almost every instance has turned to them and said something like, "oh it's ok, I'll fix it before we leave."  Now, I probably don't need to tell you that they, in fact, do NOT fix it before they leave.

This is a problem for two reasons.  First, these are small pieces, and even for not-so-young children, could easily be a choking hazard.  Apparently this isn't a concern for parents, nowadays.  Second... when they leave, I have to re-sort all the parts!  The last time this happened, they were so messed up, I literally had to dump out all the bins and re-sort them all.  This took about an hour or so for me to individually sort all those little parts into their bins.  This is time I should not have to spend!

See, when I was growing up, and going somewhere with my parents, before we'd even leave the house, my parents would remind me, "now, don't touch anything."  Then, as we'd be walking into the store, they'd again remind me, "remember, don't touch anything."  Apparently this isn't a thing anymore!  But it made sense, because if I didn't touch anything, I couldn't touch anything that would potentially hurt me or mess stuff up for anyone else to have to fix or clean up.  Nowadays, it seems, the kids touch whatever they want, and the parents let them, to keep them occupied.  Now, I don't have kids, so I know a lot of people say, oh it would be different if I did.  No, it wouldn't!  If I was at someone's house and my kid decided to play with their obviously-not-toys and mess them up, I would tell the kid to knock it off!  Not only do I find it disrespectful that the kid isn't listening to me, you know, an adult asking them to not do something, but I also find it disrespectful that the parents don't seem to care what I said, cause they let their kids do the exact opposite!  That's just not right.  I shouldn't have to "hide" my needed tools, to the inconvenience of myself, because people can't seem to control their kids.  I find this maddening.

People Trying to Steal -- REALLY?!?

So... this was from the last expo we had... we were at the AAE, and it was a bit dead.  Me and Jim are standing at the booth and these two girls walk up, late teens / early 20's.  They're looking at the herbs and talking, and occasionally looking up at us.

Not sure what Jim saw, but he says to me, "I bet they're going to try to walk off with those."  I didn't notice anything, but sure as shit, we turned away for a second and they walked across the aisle.

Still trying to give the benefit of the doubt, I said to Jim, "oh maybe something caught their eye..."... and then they HIGHTAILED it around the corner.  Yeah, no.

I said, loud as shit, "EXCUSE ME!!" and quite a few people, including the two girls, turned around.  "Oh, we need to pay here?"

They did buy the items, a whopping $8.25 of herbs.  But I mean... clearly trying to steal from a rescue.  Not that it's never happened before... but people are sometimes shits.  That is all.

Important of Correct Paypal Addresses

So... I know I've talked before about how communication is important... and it sure is... but also... having the correct paypal address is important.  This happens rarely, so this isn't something that the average person needs to be concerned about, but when you set up your paypal account, you are prompted to enter an address.  You then have the option to verify that address (how that's done, I don't recall... I've had my paypal forever).  Anyway, you do not need to verify the address.

However... when you buy something through paypal, I receive the address you input (which you can select / change when purchasing your item) as the address to ship the items to.  Should your address have a problem, when I go to ship to it, paypal will show that and will prompt me to edit the address.

Here's the problem -- I don't know what any of your actual addresses are.

So... should the address be wrong, but not obviously wrong (for example, you put 123 Main Street, and it's really 132 Main Street)... I will not know, and you may not receive your package.  Should you reach out and tell me you never received the package, I will likely confirm your address and when we see it's incorrect, go from there.

But then, some addresses are blatantly wrong, and those are the ones paypal catches.  For example, I had one address from a recent order, where the street address (123 Main) was something like 35235.  That's it, just number.  I didn't notice this immediately, but then when I went to pack up the order, I did, and paypal prompted me to edit the address -- I dunno how to correct -- so I reached out to the person.  In that instance, I just replied to the email that paypal sends me, which is always titled Notification of Payment Received, which includes the order.  When you reply to an email like that, it replies to the buyer.  I kept it short and sweet and basically just said, you know, could you please send me your correct address as it's incorrect in paypal.

Few days go by, no reply.  Well, I figure, with an email titled like that, maybe it went to spam or something, so I copy and paste the email into a new email and title it something along the lines of, Question about NWI Chins order.  Email a bit longer version explaining the address issue, explain I have emailed previously and not received a response, and because this is the second email at this point, I explain that if I haven't revived a response by the end of the day on the 19th, I will refund the order.  Why?  Because I can't ship it without the correct address or without someone contacting me to inform me of the correct address.

So see, not only is it important to keep your paypal address correct and up to date... this again goes back to... communication is important.  If this person does happen to reach out to me and tell me their correct address, I will happily go in there and update their address and mail their package out (which is already packed up and just awaiting that address).  That is all.

Some people think they're so clever...

So... I would post screenshots, but... no, you know what?  I'll post screenshots.  Hold up on those.

I save texts.  If we're having a conversation and you're set to come over on Monday and we set the time at 1 pm (this is not a post about being on time, but just for example), I will wait until you show up to delete those texts.  Now, I do that MAINLY because I want to be sure I have your number and I can reach you, to reach out, should you not show up, or should I need to reach you last minute like to cancel or reschedule or something.  But... it also shows me when you're not being completely honest. 

Case in point...

Wrong number, eh?  Liar, liar, pants on fire.  I took the screenshots, blurred out the emails and numbers, and deleted the text.  If they don't want to adopt, fine.  But don't try to lie and say, oh wrong number... when it's clearly not.  I could have fun with them and send screenshots... but it wouldn't do any good.  If they've decided not to adopt, they've decided not to adopt.  But how stupid... just say so.  That is all. 

Persistent... vs. Annoying

So, this may be a matter of opinion, and I totally understand that, but I want to share with you an example, as it's a good example of the difference between being persistent and showing interest, and turning into what an annoying pest.

Let me begin.

I posted one of our young guinea pigs up for adoption, fully aware that her color (the silver agouti) is a bit unusual and not often seen in rescue.  Almost immediately, someone contacted me, interested, that night.  I sent her the adoption form and told her I would need a deposit to hold and so on.  She has emailed back in appropriate time frames and everything, and at this point, she has sent me an adoption form (which I now need to look at) and sent me the email that I should send the invoice to.  This is reasonable.

On the other hand... I was at the expo the following day, and the phone rang.  First time, no message left.  Two minutes later, rings again, same number, they leave a message.  I'm at the expo, and I can't hear the phone all that well (not even at the expo, just normally), so I figure I will listen to it later.  So then the person texts me.  She explains in the text that she has emailed twice, and called.  I go to look and see how long ago the emails were, as I'm thinking, ok maybe I missed them from a few days ago or something.  She had sent both emails within the last 30 minutes.

Anyway.  In the texts, I tell her, there's someone else ahead of her interested in the guinea pig.  She tells me she would start driving here now if she thought that would help (it wouldn't... we're only first come first served if I don't already have someone in the process of adopting) and she tells me she's very upset that she's going to miss the guinea pig, she's just sick about it.  I tell her, I will let her know what happens with the first person interested, and I will get back to her.  She continues texting me, and eventually asks how long they have (I said somewhere they have a deadline).  Now, stupid me, I told her, but I should have told her it's none of her business, but I told her, they had until the end of the next day, or a bit more within reason if they are making an effort.  She has called two more times today and texted multiple times, asking, "did they follow through???"  Honestly, I am ignoring it all at this point.  No feeding the troll.  HAVE SOME PATIENCE, PEOPLE.  This is annoying.

I think, a lot of this may stem from the fact that we can get everything NOW.  You want food?  They can deliver it.  You want a furnace filter?  Order it on Amazon Prime and it can show up within 2 days.  That's fine, but... and this may come as a surprise to some people... I have a lot of animals up for adoption, which means that whoever I'm talking to is NOT the only person I'm talking to, and, as I am one person, that means someone has to have a modicum of goddamn patience and WAIT.

People like the one that won't leave me alone about the guinea pig... should the first home fall through, her pestering me to death makes it so that I would not even want to message her.  Maybe you find that mean of me, but that's just how I feel.  Irritating me to death isn't endearing for you. 

Now, this is a bit of an extreme (albeit true) example, but here's more what I feel is what I would consider persistent.  Maybe you sent an email, or a facebook message, or whatnot, and you don't hear back... within a day or two, not an hour (important to note.. also, still have other customers, no matter how you contact me)... then by all means, give me a call or send a text.  But contacting me on every method possible within 30 minutes just cause I haven't responded?  Little much, sorry...

Clearly Not Reading Posts -- Craiglist Style

So, I opened up my inbox today, and I had multiple posts about many of my craigslist ads for the chins.  Not necessarily a bad thing and mostly spaced a bit out, so it didn't make me think it was the same person.

Except...

When I opened them, they all read:

"Hey I saw your post and was wondering if he came with the cage and everything"

Had this been to one post, I can sometimes understand, but this was for 14 posts, one of them being my sale post that doesn't even list a specific chinchilla.  Here's the funny thing.  Out of all the posts they inquired about, two of the posts were for chins that CAN come with their cages / accessories... the rest just specify (as all my ads do), something along the lines of, this chinchilla comes with 2 pounds of food, a goodie bag, and a printed out version of our care packet.  Myself, personally, I would read that and assume, that's ALL the chin comes with (as in, they're not also throwing in a cage and just not mentioning it).

In case you're curious... I did not respond to any of these messages.  Clearly, they not only DIDN'T READ to see what it says the chin doesn't come with, but I'm POSITIVE they didn't read any of the chin descriptions either.  I'm not so dying to have chins leave as to waste my time on someone like this.

Black Friday / Small Business Saturday

So, if you follow the facebook page at all, you know that we had a sale for Black Friday / Small Business Saturday.  We usually have a Black Friday Sale with an open house type thing, but since SBS was Saturday, this year we extended it to be a two day open house.

We had a great time meeting everyone!  We had a decent amount of adoptions, some pre-scheduled, some people that we'd talked to online that decided that Fri / Sat was a good day to stop by, some people we just met that day!  All great people.  We paired up some chins, and all in all, these chins went home:

a white ebony curly carrier female
a beige female
a black velvet male
a dark ebony female
a violet male
and Fluffy!

In addition... we had three chins that are now on hold with full payments and will be picked up around Christmas:

the white violet male
Bella & Luna

Yes, we are four weeks out from Christmas, and yes, we only hold for 14 days... but I will soon be posting on our website that we can board chins if people would like them held longer.  Some of you may be aware of us boarding chins in general, well now that people are asking about it for the holidays, might as well post that it's available, eh? 

For everyone's info, boarding is $15 per week per cage (so should you be boarding 4 chins all in separate cages, that can't be combined, you're at $60 per week).  For people wanting to hold chins, we are still doing our 14 day holds, which means there's currently still 2 weeks of boarding between now and Christmas.  Just for reference.

In addition to our chin sale, we also had our used cages at 25% off and our carriers all down to $7.  In addition, we had some safe chin wheels for sale.  We actually only sold one carrier, but that's ok, we sold 3 chin spins and several big cages!

This weekend is usually a great weekend for us, but like the expo a few weeks ago that surpassed all expectations, this weekend went above and beyond!  Between the adoptions, cage sales, chin spin sales, supply sales, and all that good stuff, the weekend brought in $1715,50!  Believe it or not, we've had more profitable weekends than that, but that's pretty well up there!  On our way to re-building what we had before the money was stolen!

Chicago Pet Show -- Kane County

So, if you follow all of where we've been lately, you know it's been a busy month or two!  We FINALLY have a week of no expos... but I have a sale and this weekend is Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, so... you know what that means... MORE sales! 

But first, let me share with you what an awesome expo we had at Kane County last weekend.  We adopted, not one, not two, not three, but 11, yes ELEVEN animals!  Let me share with you some pictures of the adoptions:

Forgot to get a pic of a few of the adoptions, but here's who we had adopted:

Cardi B -- baby female guinea pig
pink white female chinchilla kit
Rufus -- baby male guinea pig
four female rats (two pairs)
Peanut Butter -- young female guinea pig
Bosco -- dark ebony male chinchilla
tan female chinchilla
Charlotte -- 7 year old standard grey female chinchilla

And some pics:

tan female chinchilla

Rufus -- baby male guinea pig

pair of female rats

pair of female rats

Peanut Butter -- young female guinea pig 

Bosco -- dark ebony male chinchilla

Charlotte -- standard grey female chinchilla

We also had a great expo in general.  Many people have heard me say that the more rescue-centered expos tend to be better for exposure, but not so much for adoptions / sales... this one just apparently had to prove me wrong!  But let me share with you how unusual this is... in all the years we've been doing expos (maybe 7-8? and I do mean the rescue-expos, not the AAE), we've never adopted out more than 1-2 chins or other animals per expo.  Most expos, we have not adopted out anything.  We started out in the fall adopting out a chin at the Chicago Pet Show -- Libertyville, and here, we adopted out a whopping 11(!!) animals!  Who-hoo! 

For the sales part of it, similar sort of thing.  The three Chicago Pet Show expos are the best of the rescue-themed expos as far as all of the ones we attend, as far as sales.  Many places we go and sell nothing, but of course, get exposure.  Well, at the Chicago Pet Shows, we usually can expect to break $100 in sales, maybe $150 if we're super lucky (over two days).  Want to know just how insane Kane County was this year??  We sold a whopping $531.00 in SUPPLIES!  Talk about insane, right?

So, you're probably wondering, ok, with the animals adopted and supply sales being that high, how much was brought in over the weekend?  Well, let me tell you!  Between the animal adoptions (and the final number is a tad skewed because the tan female and pink white female were babies that were being picked up at the expo, not actual "rescues" being adopted, but...) and sales and whatnot, we made a whopping $1,176!  All of this is helping to replenish the money stolen back in April, but of course, first and foremost, to keep this place going!  Thanks to everyone for their support!

I have to give thanks to my super great helpers.  Jim was there and walked around with our chins during the presentation so people could pet them, and then Chris was at the booth with us and helped the people with adoption forms, questions, helping with signs... she did a little of everything (as she always does).  Everyone who helped out was awesome!  Thanks for all the help!

Little Quick Updates

So, this will, for once, be a quick post with little updates.

Remember those three custom cages that I built and was stuck with when the buyer flaked out?  The last one sold a few days ago! Who-hoo!  Now I have room to set up, clean, and offer for sale some of our other used cages (that were previous blocked in by those custom cages).

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You know how I'm always talking about how volunteers are great... when they show up?  Tis the season!  I had someone email about volunteering (need to get back to them), and also, two people call.  The one called and wanted to come as soon as possible, as she has 40 hours to do and wants to get them done sooner rather than later.  We agreed that she could come the following morning (she called in the evening) and I would have preferred a little later in the day, but she said, she'd be here at 10.  10 goes by, 10:15 goes by... about 10:30 she calls and says something went wrong with her phone, and she needs her phone charged while she's here (cause apparently I have no plugs? you all can charge your phones while you're here, in case that needs clarification), and so she's gonna finish charging it and then walk here, and it's about a 30 minute walk.  Assuming she was charging it from dead, I'll be generous and say ok, maybe that takes 30 mins, plus the 30 minute walk, so she shoulda been here before 12 noon.  As I write this, it is 5:45 pm and she never called or showed up again.

I did get another call though from someone else who has court ordered community service they need to do.  I told them they would have to start next week, as I have stuff going on this weekend, and they said they will call me back next week and we'll work something out. They were thrilled that they could come potentially in the evening, so hopefully this one will pan out.

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Two of our long-term residents at the rescue were adopted.  And even, TOGETHER!  Chili Mac (who has been fostered in Island Lake for awhile now) and Layla went to their new home together, a few days ago.  Their new mom, Katelyn, had intended to adopt Chili Mac back in April (both have been here 1.5+ years), but then found some other needy chins to adopt, and knew that ours would stay in good hands, while those chins, eh maybe not.  So, she took home the other chins... but then was an awesome person and contacted us when she wanted to open her home to even more chins!  Yay!  So she contacted us and asked about Chili Mac and also asked about other potentially difficult to adopt out chins, and that's where Layla came up (if you're not familiar, she was the 10 year old hetero beige culled breeder with the watery eye), and she ended up taking the two home!  She's hoping to bond them, with very slow intros, but if not, not the end of the world.  Yay for those two girls finding homes!

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Another success story is ChiChi, now known as Buddy.  ChiChi was an 8.5 year old standard grey fur chewer.  Very sweet chin, but the young standard greys aren't super desirable, much less a senior one.  Well, one of my previous fosters (turned foster failure... twice... so they don't foster any more haha) occasionally would ask me about if I had a chin that I thought would pair with their Benny (one of the foster failure chins).  This time when they asked, ChiChi came to mind.  They brought Benny over, we did a quick intro to see that the two wouldn't absolutely hate each other (they didn't) and then the family continued the intros at home, and now a few days later, the chins are sleeping cuddled up all together.  Let's hear it: awwwwwwwwww.

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And lastly... that same foster failure family, Claire & Paul, asked me if I had an air purifier, when we were talking about rescue needs.  I specified, I have an air scrubber  (basically, a commercial unit... cost ~$1800 a few years ago.. for a refurbished one... so a very nice unit), but the sterilizing bulbs burnt out and my last filter finally went out... right in April after all the money was stolen.  So, it's been sitting like a big paperweight, about $300ish short of parts, since then.  Well, Claire and Paul are awesome, and wanted to contribute, so they donated $300 towards us getting the parts!  I have since reached out to the company, and they got me a new estimate today (see below), and we will be getting the parts and the air scrubber back up and running soon!  YAYYYY!!

Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

If you lie to me, don't think I don't know.

Remember that chin that was surrendered to the vet's office due to abuse, and the vet called me to make sure I didn't adopt the family any more chins?  This post -- https://nightsatthechinchillarescue.blogspot.com/2018/10/those-poor-chinchillas.html

They texted me today, asking if I wanted to buy the cage.  At first, I was nice.  I asked, what happened to the chin.  I figured you know, they didn't respond in a few days after I got that call from the vet, when I asked how the chin was, and then when I emailed the adoption paperwork to the mom, and asked her how things were going, so I thought (stupidly, but you know) they'd be straight up and tell me the chin died, or whatever.  NOPE!!!!!

Be honest, people.  I often know more than I let on.  And I was not having a good night.  So, here was the convo:

I suppose this is probably needless to say, but I never got a response... which tends to be an admission of guilt.  So, there's that.

I also never did hear back from the vet, so I imagine the chin did pass.  RIP those two poor chinnies... and the third is still here, looking for a home.

That is all I can handle for tonight...