Adoption Time Frame

One thing I get asked a lot is how long adoptions take.  Do they submit the form and hear back in a day?  A week?  Can they do it in person?

For chinchillas and guinea pigs, I will usually let the people do the adoption forms in person, though for other animals I'd prefer the forms be filled out ahead of time.  Mainly because, let's say for a hedgehog, while I understand how to care for them and whatnot, if someone really doesn't, I don't know all the info off the top of my head to lecture.  For chins, what temps should they be below?  74, preferably lower, got it.  For hedgies... uh... they need it warmer.  I can guarantee you, in my care packet, there IS a temperature range, I just don't know it verbatim.  And what I don't want to happen is for someone to get here, tell me, "I know nothing about hedgies, educate me!" (which, by the way, happens ALL the time with chins), and then I need to share all the useful info.  Plus, if I'm honest... I feel like people should do some of this research ahead of time. 

Sometimes that works out, sometimes not.  I had someone call the other day, asking if we still had the hedgie, and I told them yes, we do, and then they asked if they could come over and see him, that day.  I told them, they could, but first, we had a care packet they'd need to look over and an adoption form to fill out, since this is a rescue.  They said that's fine, I wrote down their email, we talked about making sure they checked their junk folder for the email... and I immediately went upstairs and sent them the docs.  Never heard back.  Could I have adopted out that hedgie that day?  Possibly... but chances are, I would have had to help that person, every question of the way, with the adoption form... and again, with the more exotic animals like the hedgies, I'd prefer that people read the care packet and fill out the form PRIOR to getting here, so... guess that one didn't work out.

But I actually didn't write this post to yap about that specifically (it just worked it's way in), but it's a good example, because I told them, if they submitted the form that same day, I would look at it, and provided everything looked good, they could come over and adopt, that same day.

Sometimes it's fine to wait, sometimes not.  I always tell people, I don't hold the animals without a deposit, so if people dilly dally too long, someone else may scoop one up.  With the guinea pigs recently, I had someone message me, asking about single guinea pigs that could be adopted.  We had two single females.  So we went back and forth on emails over a couple of days, sending pics, ages, whatnot... until we got to where I linked them to the guinea pig care packet and adoption form.  Let's say I emailed them to that on Monday.  In that email, I told them, when they fill out the adoption form to let me know, so I am sure to go look at the completed doc.  The following Monday (a week later), I received a "Will do!" email back from them. 

Sounds good, only thing is that that on Sunday, the first of the single guinea pigs had found a home, and that Monday (got the email in the morning), I had someone coming later that day to see the second single guinea pig.  If they ended up adopting, that meant there were no more singles for this person.  I mention this, because sometimes waiting a week would be perfectly fine.  The previous person who was interested in some of these guinea pigs had originally told me, oh they'd have their payment in a few days, yadda yadda... in the meantime, no one else was inquiring, so it didn't matter... I never did hear back.  But the point is, it was maybe 2-3 weeks where there was no interest... and then this one person emailed asking about single guinea pigs, and pics and whatnot... then I had the two more (the one that adopted, and the one that was coming the following day) both send adoption forms in the same day.  You just never know.  For both of those people actually, they sent in adoption forms, I emailed / called them... for the first one, she came the next day, the second one came the day after.  So, sometimes it really is that quick.

This is why I also tell people about the deposits.  Believe me, it's not because I'm dying to send out invoices or take people's card info down over the phone (because there's at least a chance I'm paid in cash in person)... but rather, I can't guarantee any of this.  I can tell you, if you call me up and say, ok, I submitted a form... I can, more likely than not, go look at it within a couple of minutes or even a couple of hours, if I'm in the middle of something.  And if it looks fine, you may be able to come by the same day.  And that's why I mention the deposits... some people will yap in emails for weeks on end, and that's fine... just... the chin (or other critter) isn't on hold, and in the meantime, it may be just that quick *snaps* for someone to adopt it.

If you're reading this and thinking, well, that sounds like selling out from under the one person, let me share with you -- I have my fair share... let's say at least 40-50% if not higher, of people who will send emails after emails after emails (or even phone calls), and then *poof* vanish.  Like, I don't get an email that says they changed their mind, or anything, just *poof* gone.  People without deposits, obviously.  Knowing how frequently this happens, if someone says they want to come, in person, and look at the animals, and possibly adopt... and they physically show up and are here, are approved, and want to adopt, you bet they get to take an animal home! 

I've tried to be... I don't know exactly what word I want to use for it... more lenient, more understanding... whatnot.  But I can't tell you the number of times I have told someone who is physically here, "oh, someone online is getting back to me about that one."  And sometimes that person does... but more often than not, I never hear back, and then the animal that could have found a home is still here.  Go figure.  So, now, if there is a good home in front of me, they trump someone who is just "asking about" the animal online.  At the end of the day, that's the only way the animals find homes.  That's all for today!

Guest Writer - Chinchilla food

Hello again from NWI volunteer Chris!

I'm writing today to talk to you about chinchilla food! Feeding your chinchilla quality pellets is one of the best things that you can do for your pet. It's also one of the things that is the most confusing for new owners!

It can be so intimidating to walk into the pet store and see soooo many different bags of food! You want to trust that anything with a picture of a chinchilla on it is safe for chinchillas, right? Unfortunately...wrong!

If you look closely at these bags, many of them have "extras" mixed in with the brown pellets, like seeds, nuts, or dried fruits. These things are not good for chinchillas, even though they like them! I like to compare these types of food to "Lucky Charms" cereal. Isn't it much healthier to feed kids "Cheerios", without all those extra sweets?? The same idea applies to chinchillas.

"But all my chinchilla will eat is the food with treats! So I HAVE to give it to him!" No, you do not. YOU are the owner, YOU are in charge, not the chinchilla. If a human toddler only wants to eat candy, do you submit to them and only give them candy? No of course not! You give them healthy food and  know that they won't starve themselves, eventually they will eat the healthy food. Chinchillas are the same way.

"What are the best foods?" Your best bet as a pet owner are Oxbow Essentials, Mazuri, and Tradition (a.k.a. Hubbard Life). Oxbow Essentials and Mazuri are commonly found in pet stores, though a little pricey! Many well-known breeders (such as NWI!) feed Tradition to their own herd, and lucky for you, sell it as well! Since breeders purchase in bulk, the prices you pay buying from them is often FAR cheaper than pet stores! Yay!! Cheaper, and healthier... Why WOULDN'T you go that route?!

Adoption Fees

You may or may not have seen this... but I did... so I will share with you...  on our facebook posting for Snowflake, the hedgehog, someone commented, "I might consider adopting the hedgehog assuming you would give me $100 for taking it off your hands."

My response was, "Pretty sure adoptions work the other way around... the adopter pays the adoption fee.  Why would we pay for someone to adopt?"

Which brings me to a quick chat that we can have about adoption fees.  Adoption fees exist for a reason.  While the animals are here, they cost money.  Whether that's food, water, dust, bedding, vet bills, and so on, it all adds up.  Sure, for some animals, there's less cost than others, but then you watch another animal come in that will cost 10x more than all the rest, due to needing to go to the vet, or take special meds, or a special diet, or whatnot.  So, the money gained from adoption fees that don't go right back into that animal, go into the one that needs more.  Or, go into paying the bills, or that kind of thing.

If you have ever talked to me, or read the posts about, those "clear the shelter" days, you know that I feel strongly against those kinds of things.  If you're unfamiliar, those are where the big humane society-type shelters waive adoption fees for a day and the animals are free to adopt.  Yes, the people still have to fill out the paperwork and whatnot... but my worry is always... for the people who either (1) thought $60 was too much to adopt a dog, or (2) couldn't afford $60 to adopt a dog... is it GOOD that these people get a free dog?  Can they afford vet care?  Can they afford BASIC needs for the dog?  A bag of decent dog food is like $30+.  So, at least here, there will never be "clear the shelter" days, or, for that matter, PAYING anyone to adopt.

I suppose I can sort of vaguely understand the concept where someone might pay to get an animal out of rescue.  Not specifically paying, necessarily, but like... if we have a really health compromised animal that's unlikely to get adopted, we try to get it into a foster home.  There, they'll get more attention, more of a "home environment," and whatnot.  And in a sense, we are "paying" for it to leave... we provide the fosters with the cages, food, treats, bedding, whatever they need... but... BUT... we are only providing what we would use ourselves... we're not giving them a money incentive, on top of that, to take the chin.  So...no, sorry, not ever paying anyone to adopt.

At the end of the day, money has to come in to keep the rescue running.  No money, no rescue.  Pretty sure that's how everything works in life, right?  Money makes the world go around.  And on top of that... if I was so dying to have the animals leave that I would pay people to take them... I wouldn't be taking them in, in the first place.  That is all.

Keychains

So, many of you have probably already seen this, as we've posted some pics here and there, had them at expos, and posted on a chin group or two, but juuuuuust in case you haven't... we now have chinchilla (and guinea pig) keychains! 

Just look at them:

...aren't they just precious!  If there's enough of a demand for a custom color, we can always do some of those as well!  Feel free to contact with any inquiries.  

Interestingly enough... this is one of those things that's grown... due to people just like you!  One of my good friends makes these, and she brought over two small pieces of vinyl to show me the color, and those ended up being the first two colors (the grey and the white).  Then, when she brought over the finished keychains, she also brought a scrap of what is technically called "opal" (*raises eyebrow*), and to me, that looked beige-y / goldbar-y, so that became that color.  Then another friend asked if we could make it in black.  So, that became the black one.  Then one day, the original friend showed up with three pink ones.  The pink ones gave me the idea to ask her if she could make some in purple, like a violet chinchilla.  And though I would never have guessed it, the violet have outsold every other color by a ridiculous margin.

(and somewhere in there, she also showed up with the guinea pig ones, which are also hella cute)

If you would like some of these for yourself, we do tend to have them at the rescue, like if you're coming here for supplies... though right at the moment, you might want to check first, as I'm filling initial orders for these adorable things.  We've also been bringing them to the expos.  And of course, you can always buy them on our website!  They're under the "human items" section... here's the link to that -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/apps/webstore/products/category/1601983?page=1 -- as always, all proceeds benefit the rescues, and what a better way to do that, than with your own furball keychain, right??

Reading & Comprehension

I know I've talked about this many times before, but I really think people don't read.  Or maybe, if I'm nice... they read, but don't retain a thing. 

I have had people tell me, on the way here, they read the care packet.  And then said oh yeah I can't wait to give my chins fruits.

I understand, we can't remember everything.  I get it, I do.  Maybe we should start thinking of it as "allergies" or something.  Course, I have friends that don't remember I have a nut allergy, and offer me peanut M&M's all the time... but that's beside the fact.  If you are a parent, and your kid has an allergy, surely you remember, right, and surely you don't give the kid what they're allergic to, right?  Why?  Well, because you don't want them to suffer from ill effects.

Well, it's the same with chins and fruits and veggies. Or chins with plastic.  Or chins with whatever else they shouldn't have.

I actually feel like chinchillas are relatively simple in their requirements.  Not saying everyone agrees with that, but when I have a guinea pig or a rabbit, I need to actually go and look up, ok is this veggie good for them?  Some are, some aren't.  So you have to KNOW which ones are and which ones aren't, or constantly look it up. 

With chins it's easy -- NO fruits, NO veggies.  To me, that makes it so much simpler.

Same with treats... people are always asking what they can give as treats... so I tell them, the human foods would be things like cheerios, unfrosted wheat squares, old fashioned oats... for non-human items, it's mostly dried flowers and herbs.  Again, I find this relatively simple.

But you know I get all these questions about, well what about this seed treat?  No.  What about this dandelion drop?  No.  What about this yogurt treat?  No.  What about this thing with carrots in it?  No.  Can I give my chin a piece of my dinner?  Double no.

Like I said, to me, I find it easy to care for them because there ARE restrictions.  I guess I need someone to explain to me WHY people know the restrictions and yet feel the need to still want to give EVVVVVVVVVVVVERYTHING else out there, as well.  To me, it's easier to say, here's the limited list of things they can have.  If it's not on the list, don't give it....

Phone Calls -- From Me and You

This has been a "problem" for years, and I guess I just don't get it.  And this goes both ways...

I've had people call here... leave a voicemail... so I call them back.  I understand most of these people are not going to have my number in their phone, but... I can't tell you how many times I get sent to voicemail!  Like where it rings once or twice, and then straight to voicemail.  Call again, even LESS rings, so it's intentional.  The best part is when I get someone on the line, and say, "this is Ashley with NWI Chinchillas," *CLICK*  Like... they called me.  So, why they're hanging up on me, or sending me to voicemail or whatever... I just don't quite get it?  Maybe someone can explain it to me.

Other phone calls... I got one today that asked if I was Critter Camp, which is a guinea pig rescue located not all that far from here.  I explained, no, this is NWI Chinchilla Rescue, and told them about the guinea pig rescue. Oh that's ok, they wanted tor reach me.  Bullshit, they wanted to reach Critter Camp.  I'm not stupid, come on.  Then they asked me if I took in animals... as usual, we are full and have a waiting list, so I told them about that, they said thank you and hung up.  Probably now they will call the actual Critter Camp 

Same thing goes for adoption forms.  I can't tell you how many people fill them out, I respond (usually email, but sometimes I phone call depending on situation), and I never hear back.  I'm not even talking about someone who's waited a week to hear back from me, most often this is people who've sent one and I've replied the same day!

I guess my point for all this is -- there's very little follow through for people nowadays, and myself, I find it insanely frustrating!  Why apply to adopt... if you're not going to answer the rescue's emails / phone calls?  Why call about something, if you're just going to hang up, or send the call to voicemail when they call back?  At the end of the day, it's a waste of my time.  Not that adoption forms take that long to look at, but that's actually beside the point.  If I look at 5 of them and respond to all 5 (and the responses are what take a while, since some people put down some really oddball stuff), and only 1 person gets back to me... why did I even bother?  I understand, people may have second thoughts... but maybe that should be thought through... prior to contacting?  Just my thoughts, anyway...

Chinchilla Sponsorships!

So, quick blog post today, but I just wanted to say that you all have been extra awesome lately!  We have had LOTS of awesome people lately. 

Have you seen the website?  More specifically, have you SEEN how many chinchillas have been sponsored?  Normally, we're lucky to have one chinchilla sponsored at any given time, yet as I write this, I just received a paypal payment for a 3 MONTH SPONSORSHIP of one of our chinchillas, and we already have 5, yes FIVE, chinchillas sponsored, and another ONE that someone sponsored a name for!  How awesome is that!?

If you're reading this and you're like... what is sponsoring a chinchillas?  Let me tell you!  For a low price of $10, you can sponsor one of our chinchillas for a month.  The $10 goes towards the care of the chinchilla, so basically the food, dust, hay, treats, toys, and whatever they need.  You can even pick the chinchilla you want to sponsor!  Cool, right?

For sponsoring a chinchilla (or any furball or scaley or animal here), you receive:

• a blurb on the chinchilla's listing, saying it is sponsored, by your name (first name, last initial), for however long you chose to sponsor
• a donation thank you card mailed to you
• a photo of the chinchilla you are sponsoring (we will pick one for you, if you do not choose one yourself) with some info about the chinchilla, mailed to you
• photo currently in black and white, as my printer is out of color ink, sorry all
• your name / sponsorship added to our Donations page on our website

We also have the option where you can name a chinchilla, which has all the benefits of a sponsorship (see above), and also is $10, but rather, you get to NAME the chinchilla whatever you would like!  

The naming obviously is only done once, and it can be applied to any chinchilla here that doesn't have a name, though you can choose to do the regular sponsorship of a chinchilla for as long as you want!  The sponsorship I just received is for 3 months!  What a lucky chin!

If this interests you, you can find both the regular sponsorship and the name sponsorship options on our webstore:

Sponsorship -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7432852

Name sponsorship -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7489877

...or feel free to contact us with any questions or if you'd rather help in some other way.  Thanks all!! 

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.