And the usual continues.

So, perhaps unsurprisingly, the person who was wanting the male... and then when I explained I wouldn't adopt them a male, then wanted a female, so I showed her the pic of the white female I have... remember her?  Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have not heard back since I emailed her the care packet and adoption form. 

Got a call yesterday asking what our hours were.  Told em, the rescue is run out of the house, I have  a day-job, the rescue's open by appointment.  Did they want to make an appointment?  No.  This isn't a pet store.  Sorry?

Got a call today, asking if we still had the rabbit.  Asked which rabbit, and they told me Nyler, and I told em, yes we do.  Oh, and do we deliver?  Oh hell no.  The area code was 312, which is Chicago.  Pretty sure the vet doesn't deliver their services, and neither do we.  Or any pet store, for that matter.  Not sorry.  Betting those people would think an adoption form and care packet would be too much hassle as well, if they have to make the effort to *gasp* go and pick up their new pet.

Got a text from someone in Carmel, IN, saying they wanted to meet some of the younger chins.  So I texted back, asking when they wanted to come by.  Nothing.  No response, nothing, nada.  Makes me wonder, did they think I just bring the rescue to people's houses as well?

Sometimes though, there are things that happen that are totally my fault... like scheduling someone to come tonight (scheduled them weeks ago) to borrow one of my cages.  They borrow it around the holidays, every holiday, and usually donate, and very nice people.  And the chins they have are from here.  Well anyway, few days ago, I had China (chinchilla) go for a trial run, and I gave them that cage.  Next thing I know, I flip the page in my planner and see, hey, I'm supposed to be lending out that cage on Monday!  Whoops!  So today, the person doing the trial run was nice enough to meet me at my work to swap cages, so I could get that one back. 

Another person texted and asked if I still had Nyler.  I texted em back, literally three minutes later, saying yes I did still have him and he's still available.  Nothing.  And it's not like I wasted four hours to text this person back, it was three minutes.  So at some point, I texted again, asking if they were looking to possibly adopt him.  Waaaay later I finally got a response, asking if he was good with dogs and cats, if he was cuddly, and where I was located.

Another positive note, Mudpuddle was officially adopted today!  He was out on a trial run since before my grandma died, but we had to reschedule his actual adoption a few times, but finally settled on today, and now he's officially adopted.  Who-hoo!!

The usual

The usual has been going on.

Did have one person pick up a chin for a trial run.  That's good.  Always a plus.

Another couple came and bought a chin and a cage.  Very happy bout that.

Another called cause someone they know is in the state and they wanted to pick up a chin before they left.  Long story short, they say they're going to get the chins, supposed to be sending me a deposit (fingers crossed!), but now they're gonna pick em up in December.

But other than that, called one person back.  A guy left the message, a woman answered.  I said I got a call asking about chinchillas.  She said, "yeah we called awhile back."  Awhile back as in... yesterday?  I wasn't aware time passes so quickly.

Another one, got an email about a chin asking if he was still available.  Well, the chin was a she, so I let them know (just in case they thought it was a he) and they said, oh, it doesn't matter.  They found one closer to home.

Got a call from a previous home, asking about whether an ingredient in food was ok.  Always good to ask just to check.  :)

Got an email asking for more pics of a certain chin.  Not sure which ones they saw, so I sent them the 5 that I have.  It's a grey chin, so she looks the same from about all angles, but...

Had one person a few days ago who wanted me to ship a chinchilla a few states away.  No can do, sorry.  

Had a person message on facebook asking for a male chin.  At some point, they said they had a chin, so I asked, is it a male?  They said something along the lines of, oh they have a big cage and a second cage.  Was that what I asked?  I don't think so.  I told them what males I had and asked again, is their chin male or female.  Oh, it's a female, but they want a male.  Of course they do.  They went on to say they tried putting their chin with a family members chin and they got along.  Great, that doesn't mean that just cause those two got along that any chin they put with it will get along.  And of course, by saying that, that tends to imply that they do want to put them together.  But, I should know better than to assume (but still to not be stupid) and I asked them, do they intend to put them together.  So, surprise surprise, she says yes, they'd like to put them together.  Well, knowing that right there, she's not adopting a male. 

So I told her, since she has a female, she couldn't adopt a male, and asked, why a male.  Oh, they had a male before and let them play together but had them in separate cages.  *face palm*  Yes, because playing together would never give them the opportunity to breed *dripping sarcasm* (in case ya couldn't tell).  So I told her that -- it literally takes a second for them to breed, so playing together is just as bad... and if she doesn't want babies, there's pretty much no reason for her to get a male. 

So, she ends up saying, well, a female would be fine too, she just wants a buddy for her chin.  Did we really have to take the long way around to get to this?  Anyway, long story short, I didn't have any females in the age range shes wanted, but I did have one a little older, a mosaic (the color she originally wanted), so I showed her the pic, and she asked how we'd go about adopting.  So I emailed her the stuff.  Now, we are waiting....

Chicago Pet Show and People

So, first off, we had our last Chicago Pet Show of the year this past weekend.  We did reasonably well, considerably better than the last show, and got a decent amount in donations.  Even had one person that seemed like a potentially good adopter.  So fingers crossed that works out for us.

As far as other people... not a lot changes.  I have someone right now that has one of my rabbits out on a trial run.  We set up for them to come today at 5 pm, to adopt, fill out paperwork, what have you.  At work today, we had a problem with the ordering gun, so I couldn't start ordering til about an hour before I had to go home.  So, I had to stay a bit late to finish the ordering.  Knowing I had a 5 pm person coming, I rushed home.

You can see where this is going, can't you?  It's 5:43 as I type this, and they are not here.  I rushed home, printed out all the stuff, filled my portion out, and am waiting for them... and nothing.  I looked back at the texts to be sure, and yup, we said, this day, this time.  We even said, we'd let each other know if anything came up.  Nothing.  No texts, no phone calls.  I even texted this person and asked if they're still coming, nothing.

I won't go into what else I have going on, but I do have something pressing going on right now, and I'm writing this blog purposefully right now, so they can have an extra few minutes to get back to me before I pick up and leave. Because I really do have to go, and I had intended to already have left the house, because I was going to tell them, hey, I have this thing going on, didn't want to actually cancel, but wanted to make it a quick adoption (since their first visit they spent a few hours at the rescue).

I'm not mad.  I'm mainly just tired, but besides that, I just feel like I'm wasting time.  Even if I didn't have somewhere to be, there's a million different things I could be doing right now, but I'm waiting for this person to arrive.  I can clean the house, sure.  I can pick up and organize my desk.  But the thing is, most things I need to actually do -- make stuff with the saw, clean the rescue -- if I start those, they're so loud that I won't easily hear a knock, doorbell, or my phone vibrating / ringing.  So I can't do those while waiting for people.  And at the end of the day, how hard would it be for this person to just text and say, hey, something came up.  Maybe they forgot.  Always a possibility, but then, is it that difficult to write things down?

Just frustrating.  And now that they've had 19 minutes to respond to my initial text, I'm going to leave.  And I'm not going to rush back home (not that I actually could, but we won't get into that), should they text me and say, oh they forgot, but they can come right now....

I just don't get it.

I just don't get it.

So many people tell me, oh the rescue's doing these awesome things.  I will, for sure, be getting a chin from you, when I get one.  I'll get a cage from you too, awesome deal.  And then they text me one night when I'm at work, want to come over RIGHT THEN (because, you know, I have nothing better to do and can drop everything I'm doing to run home and sell you a cage), to get a cage.  I can't make it, I tell them, will be out of town the rest of the week, we can schedule for next week.  They say ok. 

I get my work schedule and text them back (cause I was waiting for that to know which day I could do).  Asked them, were they wanting a chin or a cage or both, cause their text wasn't super clear.  For sure I thought cage but maybe chin also.  Oh, they already got a chin and a cage.  What?  Thought they were so gung ho about getting one from the rescue.  Now they just want to come over for food.  Which is fine, but a $6.25 sale of food isn't going to pay to keep the rescue open. 

And this is just one example... this happens a lot.  It's sad, actually, how much, but these people just can't seem to wait a day or two to bring a 15-20 year pet into their lives.  Which I think is utterly ridiculous, because people think I can just drop everything to accomodate them.  Someone want to give me a million dollars to live off of, and I can sit home and run the rescue and do nothing else, and basically be at everyone's beck and call.  But until that happens, I have a real job that requires 50+ hours a week, and I can't drop everything cause someone needs a cage right now.  Sorry. 

If I call one of the contacts in  my phone, or even all the contacts in my phone, and say, hey, let's go out to lunch.  Not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.  How many of them do you think will drop what they're doing to go out to lunch with me?  I guarantee you, probably no one.  Probably, mostly, because.... wait for it... they're all at work and can't drop everything for the whim of one person.  And no one would expect them to, because people would say, oh they're working.  So why do people think it's ok to ask me to drop everything for them?  Is my life not worth anything because I have a rescue, and that should come before anything else in my life?  Why is that thought ok? 

It's maddening on this end.

Adoptions have pretty much slowed to a halt.  Now, dropoffs, ha.  Exact opposite.  I've never had a longer waiting list, and I've never had more people that have to get rid of their chins by yesterday, and need them to go somewhere.  But people wanting to adopt?  Not so much.  Chins are spending inordinate amounts of time at the rescue.  In January, Mama & Baby will have been at the rescue for a year.  That's sad, considering, if you leave Mama alone, and enjoy holding and playing with Baby, you have a happy pair of chins.  In March, Snickers will have been here a year.  There is nothing wrong with these chins.  They're just not freaking babies, which is all anyone seems to want anymore. 

I know, I know, you go to a humane society, and they have oodles of puppies and kittens.  But that's not how it works in chin rescues.  Ask any one of em, your average chin is at least 3 years old, if not older, and often is not the poster child for the ideal chin.  That's just how it is.  There's not oodles of baby chins waiting to be adopted, and some of the ones that are available come with attitudes or health problems.  Not all, but some.  But that doesn't mean they deserve homes any less!

Awesome Friday!

So, Friday was the best day the rescue's had in a long time.  No adoptions or anything like that, but we had volunteers!  It was AWESOME!

I had one set of people I set up for Friday... then remembered I had someone else who emailed me their work schedule... asked if they could come.  Then remembered I had someone else who had said they were available Friday... and I checked if they could come.  And EVERYONE showed up!  So from something like 3:30 pm until after 10 pm, I had volunteers!

Before they all came, I cleaned out the drawers in my toy cart, so there'd be no toy crumbs or anything like that, so we could get started.  We made just about every toy we have here, except for the fun chewies toy and the pinesical toy (neither of which are huge sellers).  The pinesical toy doesn't even have a drawer in the cart, if that hints at how many of those sell per year.  But the other toys -- anything goes, muncher's delight, pumice & triangles, and critter's delight all got made!  Yay!  This may not sound like a lot, but almost none of these were ready to make, everything had to be sanded and drilled and sanded again.  Wire had to be cut, everything. 

Also managed to get help getting everyone fed, watered, hay'd, given apple sticks and toilet paper rolls.

Also made some healthy treat mixes, but didn't have enough of the stickers that go on top of the jars to make more than three.  Note: today, I found the labels I use for these jars and the mason jars, and I printed out more of the labels for the healthy treat mix, the supplement, and the herb sampler.  So I will be able to make more of the healthy treat mix whenever... the others I need to get the mason jars for, first.

Also, got all the toys in all of the cages filled up with wood, and hung some new toys from Jean (TJ's) in the rescue cages.

Very very productive day.  Now if I had every week, even with one volunteer, I would not be nearly so stressed.  It was awesome to have some help, as doing this all myself would have taken days upon days, instead of a few hours.  Thanks to everyone who came and helped! 

Moving Back to Home Country

Ok, so this has been bugging me lately, and maybe it's just me.  But... I've had two people in the last month who have emailed me about bringing their chins to the rescue because they're going back to their home country.  Don't get me wrong, that alone, I have no problem with.

Problem is... for both sets of people... they KNEW they were going to be in the US for a limited time.  Without sharing the personal details, both knew they'd be here for a few years, and then go back.  Yet they got pets.  To me, this isn't very responsible.

I know, some devil's advocate will email me and will say, "well, maybe they didn't know how expensive it'd be to ship the pets back to their home country."  Ok, I ship a box of mazuri to the next state over and it's $18.  We're talking shipping a live animal overseas.  A plane ticket for an animal in the US, typically runs as much as a plane seat for a human.  An expensive plane seat, meaning $300+.  Imagine overseas.  I try to ship a box to the US with a hidey house and it's $20.  Try to ship it to Canada and it's $60.  Think of that in terms of shipping an animal.  Almost no one except the super rich are ever going to do it.     

And for both, they literally waited until a few days - a few weeks before going back to email and say they need to bring their chins in.  Yes, just expect me to dump my entire waiting list to take in your chin because you couldn't plan ahead.  Which actually, is exactly what happens.... cause if people are losing their house, or need their chin gone asap, I try to find a way to bring them in.  But I still don't think it's fair.

Anyway, the first set of people was very nice, dropped off their chins, supplies, etc etc.

Second set, which is the one I'm chatting with now, had emailed me about dropping off three chins and their cage.  Was supposed to be set for this weekend, but something came up.  They emailed again and said, oh, they thought that their 2 other chins (on top of the three) had a home, but that didn't happen.  Wanted to know if I could take all five.  Also wanted to know if I could buy the chins a new FN and they'd pay for it.

Now, I could be wrong, and god knows I've been wrong before.  But first thing that pops in my head when someone says, buy em a new cage is, "I want all these chins to go together, with the new cage."  And maaaaaan, would that be a difficult, expensive adoption to pull off.  In fact, it'd be downright impossible.  I have a hard enough time adopting out two chins, since most people want one.  So I emailed the person, asking if I understand this correctly, that they want all the chins (four of em, since the 5th is housed alone) adopted out together with the cage.  I told them, if that's the case, I can't promise that.  I told em, if they're adamant about that, I can't help them.  Told em, I won't lie to em and say I'll adopt em all out together and then adopt them out separately, but I told em, most people think 2 chins is too many, much less three or four.  Plus, a lot of people have their own cages, so saying, take four PLUS a new expensive cage... would be super expensive.  Let's be honest here.

Four chins, let's just say they're all adults.  If you adopt a pair when you don't have to, it's $25 off the pair.  But when it's a pair you have to adopt together, there's no discount.  So let's say they're all grey adults that's $75 x 4 = $300 just for the chins.  Figure, a new FN, I saw one somewhere the other day for $175.  Well, for a used cage I normally charge 60%, but one that's been used a super short time would be more like a new cage, so say 75%.  So, $175 x 75% = $131.25.  So that, plus the chins, $131.25 + $300 = $431.25.  Now, who wants to get in line to adopt four chins and cage for $431.25?   Anyone?  No one??  It's not actually a bad deal, don't get me wrong.  But I can't think of one person who's going to step up to adopt that.  Not one. And figure, that doesn't include any food or anything else that those chins need.  And four chins eat a bunch and need a ton of chew toys and stuff.

I told him, pairs would be fine, but I can't promise four.  And I will not get myself suckered into any sob story about why they have to stay together.  If they have to stay together, they can "have to stay together" elsewhere.  Nothing against those chins, but trios might as well become permanent additions to the rescue due to people saying, "oh that's too many chins to take on at once."  And I won't have my rescue fill up with chins that no one will adopt because of insane previous home requirements.  Since when can you drop off your dog at the humane society and say, well it can only go to a home with no kids, and a nice old lady, and they must have a doggy door.  Oh wait, you CAN'T!  Even if you drop it off at a private rescue, they can't promise that and they will adopt out the dog to whoever they think is the best fit.  They may lie and say they'll try their best to adopt someone's 10 dogs out to the same family, but they know they're lying and they know it won't happen.  I won't do that, I won't lie to the people, but at the same time, I won't even make life 400x more difficult for me by saying I will try it.  Because I won't.

Technically, I don't yet know if that's what this person meant.  So, we shall see.

Hi all

So, lots going on.  Well, not really.  But lots of emails.  Mostly ones where I've been writing out long responses to people's questions, and then getting nothing in return (yet), but fingers crossed this week will be different.

This Friday, I have a couple coming to volunteer!  Yay! 

Had someone call today, saying they were here awhile ago looking at chins and cages.  And they were, maybe a month or so ago.  Asked about a $65 cage.  Well, it was on sale then.  The sale on the cages ended, and it's back to $90 now.  They were disappointed. 

Thing is, it's just like a sale at a grocery store.  They don't go on forever.  They end sooner or later, and when they do, the items go back to regular price.  And if you miss the sale... you just end up paying regular price. 

It's not unheard of, by any sense of the word, for me to get calls after I take down a chin sale that says, "hey, the chins were on sale last week!!"  Yes, they were.  And why didn't you call last week?  Try going into a grocery store and pulling that.  Will get you nowhere.  Sorry, will get you nowhere here either.  Especially since the cages were on sale from like March - late September.  That's an awfully long sale.

Anyway, on a positive note, someone emailed about Gilly while I was in Kansas, so I just emailed them the care packet and adoption form today. 

Got another email from someone who's moving out of country and can't keep their chin, and waited until the absolute last minute to email. 

Got an email from someone who got a rabbit for their kid, now the rabbit's destroying the house, and they want to give it up.  Passed that along to Megan at Cottontail.

Got another email from someone asking if we take in / buy chinchillas.  Told em, we don't buy em (don't need to!), but we do accept surrenders, though we're full right now.  But told em, if they want to get on the waiting list, they can.  I can pretty much tell ya, they won't, though.  The people that expect a rescue to pay for their chinchilla -- don't quite understand what a rescue does. 

Got an email from a family that adopted some chins awhile back.  Last year, they picked up supplies at our St. Charles / Kane County Expo... they want to do the same this year, so I will be getting their list and their supplies ready for when that expo comes around.  Which is another thing -- if we're going to be at an expo that's close to you, we can bring supplies for you, if you want.  If you don't want to come to the expo itself, we can meet you once it's done for the day, or whatever, we just ask that you please show up, so that we don't have like 50 pounds of food and several bags of treats and hay and then we have to bring it all back home with us.  But we have no problem bringing extra with us if someone wants to stop by where we are and pick it up.  Just fyi for the future, cause sometimes we may be a lot closer in your area at these expos.

Got an email from someone who dropped off two chins awhile back, wanting to know how they were doing.  The one chin had unfortunately passed (I hate sending those type of emails), though it looked like in her sleep, so I told him that, and the other's still here, still doing well. 

Got an email about two chins at a shelter that wants to transfer them here....

busy busy busy

I know, I know....

I know it's all been negative posts on top of negative posts lately, but people... that's what's been going on.  I've had people actually contact me and say, "post something positive."  Like what?  That I cleaned cages and fed the animals?  Because since the last post, I've gotten 5 more emails about people wanting to surrender chins and exactly 0 emails about people wanting to adopt.  No one coming to help.  No one donating.

Not to mention, the person who was going to foster the rabbits, never got back to me about when would work for them to come by.  So I messaged them the other day, asking if they still wanted to help.  They said, oh yeah, and we set up a time, for today, between 10-11.  Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, it's 11:43 now and they're still not here.  Besides this being total and absolute bullshit, you know what I call this?  An utter waste of time.  For someone to say, oh, between 10-11ish works for them, I will make sure to be here between 9:30 and 11:30.  Not that there's not stuff I can't do at home, but it almost never fails, the days I need to hang around here, waiting for people to show up (who never do show up), are days I need to be out and about doing things.  And they never showed up, so certain errands never got done, and now I need to go to work.  And still, those rabbits are here.

I find this very disappointing.  I'd like to think, in general, people are good, people are helpful, people really do want to help.  But then, no one shows up to volunteer, no one shows up to foster, people waste my time, no one returns my phone calls, when I call people back -- 90% of the time, the same day, they've already gotten an animal elsewhere cause they couldn't wait an hour for a return phone call -- remind me again why I'm doing this?  And don't say "for the animals" cause they bite me make my asthma horrible and I really can't say I even like the animals all that much anymore.  These people have ruined this for me. 

Also, another thing that's going on that, probably because of all of the negativity currently going around, is rubbing me the wrong way.  Who's seen the story of Freeway, the chinchilla that was thrown from a vehicle onto the freeway?  If you're on facebook and in the chinchilla groups I'm in, you likely have.  Well, they started a chip-in for him (or whatever they call it now, now that half those sites have closed down), and at the time I'm writing this, they've raised $512.  http://www.youcaring.com/pet-expenses/freeway-s-fresh-start/248201  Don't get me wrong, I think that's great that people care and want to chip in.  But let me ask you -- why is it that people will run to donate to a single chin that had a bad time at life, yet when actual rescues need help, no one lifts a finger or opens their pocketbook?  When I posted about how horrible the rescue was doing, lack of sales, lack of adoptions, lack of time to do orders so people are backing out of them, one person -- ONE PERSON -- donated.  And I thank that person, I really do.  But if you look at that chip-in, that $512 wasn't one or two people, it was a lot of people donating a few bucks here and there.  It's a lot of little donations that help.  Unfortunately, we're getting almost none of those either. 

Same with when I had my rescue at the Pet Supplies Plus.  I'd talk to the people about how expensive it is to care for these critters, they wouldn't donate a freakin penny in my donation box, but then would go to the cat donation box and donate $20.  Wtf?  A lot of people that day even donated the change from their purchases.... to the cat or dog rescues.  That change adds up.  But we don't even get that. 

We used to have multiple people purchasing food and supplies from here.  Now, we routinely have two families that stop by for food and hay.  And both do donate a little extra every time, which I greatly appreciate.  But it doesn't make up for how it used to be when 20 families consistently purchased food and hay from here.  I don't even get it -- it's CHEAPER to buy from here than to buy from the pet store, and most of these people are SUPER local, yet they go to the pet store and pay 3x the price to get the same item.  When we had that many families consistently buying supplies, I didn't need as many donations.  But now, when sales are pretty much nil, something has to pay for the critters.

But it still boggles my mind how everyone can bond together over one chin, and donate gobs of money for one chin, when chinchilla rescues are full of TONS of chins from bad situations.  Maybe not the same situation, but bad situations nonetheless, and pretty much no one cares about those chins.

One person who wanted to help, well, their daughter wanted to help, said they couldn't bring their kid any further north than Crown Point.  I hate to sound like an ass, but what good does that do me?  They never adopted chins (and returned the rats they adopted anyway), so, no offense to them, but they wouldn't be any good to have at an adoption event at the PSP store, cause they have no idea about chin care... which is the basis of the rescue.  Now, if I was going to bring rabbits to a chinchilla adoption event, I'm sure they'd do fine.  But I typically bring chins, cause hello, this is a chin rescue.  Other than an adoption event at the store, this is one of the people who said, oh, bring stuff by their house and they'll do it.  Yes, because the prep time for me to do that is nothing.  Nada.  Oh wait, prep time to bring houses so they can sand them... prep time is at least 50%, and if I can barely keep cages clean, having houses made 50% of the way, multiple all at once, not happening.  And I get that gas costs money and people's time is valuable, but think about what it says to me when you say you don't have time to bring your kid any further than just a bit of the way from your house to volunteer?  To me, that says you just don't care enough to volunteer.  Those people are fosters for some rescue, not sure which one off the top of my head.  They said they could foster for my rescue.  But while my work is flexible, I'm not going to be bringing rabbits and cages and whatnot to work, for them to pick up, because they can't come out to the rescue.  I can't push it with my work, and for fosters, they have to come here to pick up food and supplies as well -- I'm not about to start lugging food and hay and whatnot to work all the time because people won't come by the rescue.  Fosters are supposed to make my life easier, not more difficult.

I have the rescue in my house.  My house smells like small animals 24/7.  Pretty much all my free time is devoted to fuzzy small animals.  I'm doing my part.  But no one else feels like doing anything.  

And all of you that keep saying, oh you'll bring the cage and you'll bring everything with.  I don't fucking care.  Are you going to move in too?  And help clean the cages and keep everyone fed and watered?  Because if you're NOT, I don't have the TIME.  I could fit about 50 more cages in my basement.  But those animals would sit in filth because there's not enough hours in the day to keep everything clean, fed, watered.  So it makes no difference that you're going to bring everything with the chin, because if I don't have time, I don't have time.  I can't make myself 48-hour-days just cause they would be useful.

One more thing.  I've had several animals returned lately because people have found them to be "too much work."  I have, right now, four guinea pigs, 5 rabbits, something like 40 chinchillas, 2 prairie dogs, 2 dogs, and a pac man frog.  And some plants.  If I can do it all (while complaining, but still can do it all), I find it almost lazy to hear people say that that ONE rabbit has become too much work.  You know what it makes me think?  You simply no longer feel like cleaning the cage, making the effort to feed and water the animal, and so on and so forth.  Because it's not that hard.

I'm done with this rant for today.

This weekend

So, this weekend was a chin show.  Got off work at 4ish Friday, came home, Kyle Lemler met me at the house, I got my chins ready, and we went out to the show.  Show was in Barneveld, WI, and due to a Badgers home game, just about everyone had problems finding hotels.  So he was staying with one of the local chin breeders, so I dropped him off at the show hall and went in search of our (Meredith, Brandon, and my) hotel room which was in Mazomanie, WI.  Found it, cute little place.  Got the chins settled, groomed the chins, and laid down.

Meredith and her husband arrived a few hours later, came in, groomed their chins, and then we got up bright and early for the show.  Well, it would have been earlier, except either the alarm didn't go off, or we all slept through it.  Sounds about right.  So we get there, get all the paperwork done, and they ask Meredith and I to help with classifying.  So that was a new experience, which I promptly made a mistake on and had to re-do part of.  It went smoothly after that.  

New judge from Colorado, took his sweet time with the chins.  My pink white got a 3rd, due to loose fur and something else, I have it written down.  Said may be baby fur, hang onto and show again, so he'll be shown again in December.  The other chin I brought with was a rescue chin from a local humane society, he got a 2nd.  Funny that, the rescue chin does better than a purposefully bred show chin.

We had lunch and dinner with the chin people and at one point I had to move my blazer, which a few people know has been having brake issues for awhile.  Well, Bill Bonnier (a chin person getting out of chin breeding) had been planning on looking at it, but due to my money situation (or lack of money, rather) because of my job, I hadn't been able to make it to his place with any money to pay him to look at it.  But he was there, and the grinding was enough for him to say, he wanted to look at it before he left.  So, he went outside and crawled under the blazer and asked, "who worked on this?"  Well, just fyi, it was Munster Marathon, and they suck.  I'm missing both hinge pins on the caliper on the passenger rear brake.  Bill said this was that they put them in, super loose, and the bolts basically walked themselves out.  The grinding was that the caliper was rubbing against the rim, and literally wearing it away.  So he said it was unsafe to drive because the wheel could lock up, blazer could flip, etc etc.  Joy.  So, he went and got a metal coat hanger from inside and his tools from his vehicle -- which he said, he had a feeling he should bring with (glad he did!!) -- and jerry rigged up the brakes so that it wouldn't grind on the way home.

Next morning, went to the show call to break down the show.  They provided eggs, bacon, orange juice, and coffee, so we had breakfast and then left.  Meredith and her husband were supposed to follow us home, in case something happened with the brakes, but Meredith wasn't feeling well, so her husband drove, and they got so far behind (and took a different road entirely) that had anything gone wrong, they wouldn't have been in the spot to notice.  But, luckily, nothing did go wrong, and I got home fine.

Had a phone call, when I got home, from someone wanting to ask questions about chins.  I guess to adopt.  Called em back, they said, oh they already picked up two guinea pigs.  WTF?!?!?!?  No one has any patience anymore.  Give me a day or so to call ya back before running off to get another animal or an animal from someone else.

Oh, also, Gypsy (aka Evil) is no longer with NWI.  She went with Jim for research.  Now, before you all get up in arms about a chin going to research, think about this.  What happens to a dog that's aggressive and bites people?  It's rehabbed, or if it can't be rehabbed (for example, if it bites without provocation for absolutely no reason), its put down.  That was Gypsy.  I couldn't even grab a toy that fell in her cage, nowhere hear her, without her turning into attach chin and lunging for my hand and repeatedly biting.  That is not a chin that should be reproducing, and that is not a chin anyone would ever adopt.  That's not even a chin that can safely be kept as a sanctuary chin, just to live out its life, because you can't fill a food bowl without being attacked.  So, rather than put down and no use of her, she will likely be used for ear research, where they will study her ears (as chinchillas have the most similar hearing to humans) to better understand how to treat ear conditions in humans.  So, she will benefit society, despite her ways.  And I will stop getting bitten.

Killing me

You people are killing me right now.  Absolutely killing me.  Had one person who was wanting to adopt two chins and a rabbit.  Sounded good, knew how far they were away.  Then yesterday I get a text, oh they're not going to be able to make the drive, but they'll buy a few hammocks to make up for it.  Just fyi, a $17 order of hammocks, most of which is taken up by the cost of materials and my time, does not make up for freeing up three cages.  But that's beside the point -- the reason this person couldn't adopt is because they don't have a car and they needed someone else to drive them.  They asked that person, could they get a ride?  And that person said no.

Now, let me ask you.  How difficult would it have been for that person to ask their friend, BEFORE contacting me, "hey, will you drive me to NWI?"  Course, they waited until they told me they wanted to adopt three animals, had me send them all the care packets and adoption forms, had me send them all sorts of pics and talk to them for a few days via text, and THEN asked the friend, could they get a ride.  Absolute waste of my time.  Since I started this job, I have nowhere near the amount of time to spend with the rescue animals or to deal with this bullshit as I did before.  And, to go with it, even less patience for shit like this.

Don't get me wrong, I know this is the world where people schedule appointments and cancel them 40 times, and that's why doctors offices have that thing where, if you cancel your appointment within 24 hours of the appointment, they charge you $25.  Because it gets really old and it wastes their time.  But we're talking about live animals here.

This is not my job.  That would really be nice if someone wanted to donate enough money to the rescue that I could quit my job and do only the rescue for the rest of my life, but I don't think that's going to happen.  This is just what I do after I come home from my 50-plus hour a week job.  Which means, if I've spent several days talking to you, sending you pictures, etc etc, expect me to be a little peeved when all of a sudden, you can't make it.

Had another person who wanted to adopt, who found out they can't have animals in their apartment.  Which is weird, cause they had a rabbit, and I guess went to tell the apartment, oh they were going to get a chin as well, and now the apartment was like, "wait, you can't have those."  Which is a slightly different situation, because in this situation, this person had been told, previously, that they could have caged pets (but apparently, the employee of the apartment complex who told them that was wrong about that). But the end result is the same -- now, this person is finding someone to care for their rabbit, and not adopting the chin that's here.

Also in recent news, I had someone request a refund for their order, since I wasn't able to get it out fast enough to them.  They didn't even give me a full 24-hour day between sending them email asking for the refund and opening a dispute with paypal.  Funny thing about having a dispute open, is that, while it's open, you can't refund their money.  So I contacted her, asked her to close the dispute so I could refund her money.  Which she did, and I refunded it.

Again, that (above) comes back to, no volunteers, no time to do all these orders as quickly as people would like them.

Then I got an email wanting to adopt some chins.  With just about everything on the app filled out "what they are used to."  That's not an answer.  Problem is, Mazuri isn't easily found in stores.  So, unless this person is going to come back to the rescue to buy food for the life of the chins (which most people don't), they won't be able to feed "what the chins are used to."  Same with the hay.  Same with the dust.  For the bedding, they just need to pick what works for them.  The chins are used to fleece bedding, but I hate it, and the average person owning chins doesn't use fleece, and my recommendation isn't going to change most people's minds on that.  Not to mention, these people put down that they don't have a cage and won't have one until they purchase them.  Well, shit, they need a cage first.  If I let all chins go to new homes without knowing the type of cage, half the adopters would put them in 10g aquariums.  So they need to answer that question.  For the question that asks, where are you going to keep the chins?  They put, "in a room."  No fucking shit.  No, I thought they'd keep them in their car.

And you all wonder why I'm constantly crabby.  Because for the last week, these people I just wrote about in this blog are the ONLY people I have dealt with regarding adoptions.  Oh, and I have maybe 3 more emails sitting in my inbox that want to bring animal here.  And it's not like one animal gets adopted and everything's all right.  There's maybe one adoption for every 20 people like this.  And that one happy moment doesn't make up for the 20 aggravating people.  That is all.

Quick update

Just wanted to post a quick update.  Lots of people have been commenting lately, when talking to me, oh its so nice that when you posted the status about how no one helps and you're overwhelmed... that everyone wanted to help.  Let me clarify.  No one, and I mean NO ONE has been here to pick up any animals to foster, and no one has been here to volunteer since posting that status.  Which was 12 days ago.  In almost two weeks, not one of those people could manage an hour or two, or time to come by and pick up a foster?  My best friend since middle school sent me a donation for the rescue, after seeing the status.  But that's it.  No one else has moved a muscle towards helping.  And this, exactly this, is what gets so old.  Everyone says they want to help... but no one actually helps.

And I'm still way behind and everyone keeps emailing asking where their orders are.  Sorry, no help, super slow orders.  The animals are priority, and I'm not even able to clean the cages as often as I'd like, at the moment.  Much less churn out orders.

Hi again

On a positive note, one of my current adoptive homes came by and adopted a chin, a FN that was taking up lots of space in my garage, and some supplies.  Yay for that.

Also, supposed to have someone coming by to pick up a rabbit to foster.  Also yay.

One thing though.  I've had a few people offer to foster, who never ended up adopting, not because I denied them, but because they never showed up for appointments, or dragged their feet for two months, or couldn't get the money together, or cancelled four appointments.... if you fit one of these descriptions or something like it, you're not adopting.  Sorry, but I can think of one person in particular who did just about all of this, wasted oodles of my time... I don't think I'd ever get the chins back from them, not even cause they'd intentionally try to keep em, but because they'd keep cancelling appointments and things would keep coming up.  Sorry, no.  Granted, I realize, if people offer to foster, who I don't know, that's not really much better, they could be just like this, but at least I know who to, for sure, stay away from.

Speaking of, I don't have chin cages to lend out, since I use the FNs.  Even the rabbit cages I have at the moment are borrowed from the person who dropped off the rabbits.  So, if you're looking to foster, that's great, but for a chin, you will need a rescue-approved cage.  Which for most people, means you will need to make or buy shelves, as the pet stores don't sell any cages that actually are good.

One more thing.  I've gotten a lot of emails this week asking when the hidey houses will be back in stock.  Again, I hate to get snippy about things, but honest to god people, you want them back in stock, I need some people here to help.  I've had multiple people say, oh drop something off at my house.  Which is fine, its still help, but for a lot of this stuff, I'd have to bag up so much random crap for the average person to help, it's not practical.  Want to make toys at your house?  I need to bring you the wire, wire cutters, pliers to bend the wire, snap hooks, toy parts, sanding block, drill.... it's just not practical for a lot of things I need help with.

Anyway, what that boils down to is this -- the houses will not be available until I get through the current backlog of orders.  Yes, they sell wonderful.  That's the PROBLEM people.  If I put them back available, I won't have 20 orders backlogged, I'll have 50.  That kind of thing, having that many in waiting, stresses me out.  Especially cause then, once I've got half these people's order almost ready to go, I get an email, well, I haven't gotten it yet, and I don't want to wait any longer, can I cancel it?  Most things are not custom and can be sold to someone else, but it's the point of the matter.  Until I get through my current pile of orders, I just cannot add the houses back.  Period.  Want the houses back quicker, come by and volunteer.

Two more things.  This is not a petting zoo and I value my time immensely.  So when you email and say you want to come visit the rescue, please don't get mad when I ask if there's a reason you'd like to come.  Are you looking to adopt, want to learn more about chins, need supplies?  No offense to anyone, but it is a pain in the ass to clean up the entire rescue cause someone wants to come here and pet the cute little chinchillas and waste 3 hours of my time with no intention of ever adopting, being educated, or getting supplies.  Unfortunately, that's what typically seems to happen when people say they "just want to come visit."

Also.  I have an email from someone say they want to adopt, but want to do it all through text.  One word: NO.  I can't get you documents through text, and I don't have the time, between my job and my life, to sit around and text answers to all your questions.  Emailing answers to everything takes forever.  Calls are a little quicker, but I can't respond to them at 3 am.  Texting the answer to, and "why shouldn't I put a random male and female together?," "why can't I feed them the stuff with all the peanuts and seeds and other stuff that they love so much?!?!?" or any other long-answered question you have, is not something I ever plan on doing.  Sorry.  You will email or call, for the majority of our conversations prior to adoption, or you will not adopt.  I will not text for days on end just because someone can't be bothered to pick up the phone (which, come on, you obviously have if you can text) or answer an email.

Really?

People are really starting to piss me off.

First, someone adopted a chin a while back.  They emailed me a few days ago saying his poos smelled and they were kinda squishy, and they'd read that they shouldn't be that way.  And they said, they're not always that way, but they go back and forth.  I told em, well, if they're that way at all, it's likely an infection, take em to the vet.  They ASK for a recommendation, so I give them one.  And what do they do?  Oh that's too far, we found a closer one.  And then I guess that one didn't work, so they find another one. 

They take the chin in, turns out it has some bacterial infection, on meds for a week.  The vet said the body temperature is too low, he is "cold to the touch," and is "too skinny."  Now, granted, I have no idea what this chin weighs, but he was fine while he was here.  Course, if the poos were squishy for some time (which apparently this person didn't think was a problem until now, even though his poos were not squishy when leaving here), he could have been losing weight. 

I don't know, but this really doesn't seem to add up.  First, if he has an infection, his body temperature should be up.  Should be high.  Like you know how humans have a fever when we're sick.  If there's a low body temperature with an infection, chances are it's something serious like sepsis, which isn't easily fixable.  (also, something that wouldn't happen overnight) 

The vet also said, get this, that he had to be in a different environment until they could get rid of the infection.  So these people put him in a carrier.  Which is fine and dandy... I've heard of vets saying, well, clean the cage... but a different environment entirely?  Do you move out of your house when you're sick?  No, because it's not practical. 

Anyway, part of what has me upset about all of this is, had she taken him to the vet I'd suggested, which wasn't all that far from her to begin with, I feel like we may have had a more knowledgeable response about what is wrong, but also, now she's saying, with her schedule "he has become too hard for me to care care of."  Oh baloney. 

And of course she wants suggestions (like?) or wants to bring him back.

I don't even care if she's reading this.  When you get a pet, you take the good with the bad.  The only thing that should have changed, due to this illness, is that now, she has to medicate him for a week.  That's IT.  God knows why he's losing weight or has squishy poos, but if I recall, I haven't seen her back here for FOOD, even though I recommend that people stick with the food the chin is on, so if she's feeding him junk, that might play a part in it.  He always ate fine when he was here.  I actually emailed her back and asked if something else has changed that I'm not aware of, because to me, that's the only change I see.

Also told her, if she wants to bring him back, right now she has to bring cage back with him, because my cages are full.  Which is always the time everyone wants to bring back their ill chins.

If you get a dog and it gets sick, do you say, oh hell, forget caring for it, let me return it?  You better not.  I see it ALL THE TIME with small animals and it REALLY pisses me off.  These animals are living things, JUST LIKE THAT FUCKING DOG THAT YOU LOVE SO MUCH, they're just caged, and DESERVE NO LESS.  I probably spend more time and effort cleaning up after these caged animals than I spend cleaning up after my dogs, and yeah, they don't show the same level of affection, but they are shown the same level of care if they need to go to the vet.  So it drives me absolutely insane when, the second an animal gets sick, which, let's be honest, no one should be stupid enough to think they'll get an animal and it'll never get sick, their first instinct should NOT be, let me dump it back where I got it, and let them deal with the vet bills and hassle, even though they're already overwhelmed and I only have ONE and I find that TOO DIFFICULT.  OMFG.  You people are a TRIP.  I care for something like 30-50 animals at once, usually MULTIPLE with medications at once, and you people can't handle ONE????  Give me a fucking break.

Moving along to the next aggravation of the day -- I got an email today asking for me to send someone samples of my items so they can do a review.  Which is great if people are questioning quality, but that rarely happens.  Chances are, the items they want to review are the hand-made items like the houses and such.... and with the rescue running out of money, I emailed her and told her, I can't be shipping out anything heavy right now.  She wants to review some herbs, toys, by all means.  But my guess would be, she wants a house or a motorhome free, shipped free, so she can review it.  Well, hate to break it to her, but I'm not eating the price of the house, my time making it, and the ridiculous cost of shipping, so I can get a you-tube review that no one will watch.  I have you-tube videos of my dogs doing tricks.  Videos from 3 years ago, mind you, have under 50 views.  Hardly think it's worth losing probably $50+ on shipping out a house/motorhome and other freebies for 50 people to watch it.  And how many youtube videos have you watched for some product and not bought it?  Oh yeah, plenty.  Just another tactic to get something for nothing.  You people make me sick.

the latest

So, not much going on.  As in, no emails about adoptions, very little else going on.  Sold a few pet things at the garage sale, so a few more bucks for the rescue, but not much to speak of.

Getting Oreo and Zoro returned, the lady said her grandson (who lives with her) lost interest in them.  I missed two of her calls, due to being at work, just listened to them now -- she also needs to return the other rabbit she adopted for her daycare awhile back, Nyler.  Ugh.  I already have two rabbits here, this will bring it to 5.  And things like this are what make me not want to take in any other animals.  It's fine when I literally have 2.  But now I'm going to have three cages of rabbits, which adopt out slower than molasses as it is, and eat me out of house and home in the meantime, and are miserably messy to clean up after.  One cage I can do.  Three turns this into a rabbit rescue.

I emailed another rescue that said they could always help with transport, and they haven't even had the decency to email me back.  Or the other person who would be involved in the transport, she emailed them as well and they haven't emailed her back either.  Is it that hard to have some common decency and email people back?  I mean, even if they can't help, how much time would it take to say, sorry, on your own with this one.  Nope.  About two weeks later, and they never emailed back, I ended up finding someone else to bring some critters here.  But could they at least have emailed and responded?  Guess not.

On a positive note, Peggy (of Rescued Rat Adoptions) took my four senior girls into her rescue, said she would try to cage them with some other seniors she has.  That has freed up my rat cages so that if there's any ratties needing to come in, they can.  But really, I'm so swamped as it is, I don't need any more animals at this point.

Another thing... I'm all about saving money, but what is it with this whole, I want something for LESS-than-nothing craze going on right now? I must have gotten 5 pm's, TODAY, alone, asking for cheap cages.  Cheap is relative, because compared to a pet store, my cages are cheap.  But I asked, and they all want cages that I'd charge like $90+ for, for under $50, and chock full of shelves and accessories and whatnot.  There's one cage I have for sale for $94 -- the cage ALONE sells for $90, and this one has literally everything you need, food bowl, water bottle, wood shelves, hidey house, accessories, etc etc, hammock, everything's like new, but heaven forbid they spend $94 on it, when they could get the cage new for $90.  I guess they aren't figuring, that cage for $90 really costs $96.30 with Indiana sales tax, plus the house would be $15 new (from here), plus the wood shelves, at least another $20 (from here), the coop cup food bowl would be $4.99 new ($5.33 with sales tax from the pet store), the water bottle would be $6 brand new (from here), the two hammocks in the cage would be $8.50 and $7.50 new (from here), the hay holder would be $3 (from here).  So, either $94 for everything used and in awesome condition, or get it new for $161.63.  Does that $94 sound so bad now?  Realistically, everything's going to get chewed up anyway, and look used in about a month anyway, so why not save the $68 and just get it used to start with?

One more thing.  People are funny.  As in, they email they're interested.  I haven't emailed back and it's been a few hours, so they email again.  I email back and tell them to adopt, they need to read the care packet, fill out the adoption form, do they want those?  They email back right away, yes, they do.  I don't email for a few hours, I get an email, well can they find them anywhere without my help???  (which is kind of an odd question if you think about it).  I email back and say, well they are on the website, but I've attached them.  And then... after all the rush rush rush.... it's been several days and I have yet to hear back from them.  But... I thought they were in such a rush!

Busy day.

Today was a busy day.  It was like people knew I had the day off. 

Woke up, got a phone call from someone who had adopted a chin, wanted to come get supplies.  So they came by, got supplies. 

Packaged up some orders, the ones that didn't involve majorly building anything, and got those in the car.  Went out to the post office, mailed those out.  Already emailed everyone and refunded any shipping overages (well, the one).  So if you didn't get an email... sorry, but you're still waiting.  Though I did knock out quite a few orders today.

Which brings me to another thing. Postage has gone up, again.  Yeah, I know.  I literally am writing this as I am taking a break from going, item by item, through the webstore, and upping shipping slightly on every item.  You know how I can tell shipping went up?  Most orders that I shipped out today went something like this:  shipping charged: $10.00.  Actual shipping: $15.00.  Whereas last week, the $10 woulda been about right.  So... no drastic changes, nothing over $1 change, but shipping prices in the webstore are going up.

Now, that said, as always, if there's a significant overage in shipping, you get the overage refunded.  And I ship directly from the post office, so when you receive your package, you can see right on the label, how much I paid for shipping.  So like earlier today.  One guy was charged $15.15 for shipping (the only person I refunded today).  Actual shipping was $8.85, with handling that'd be $9.60 ($0.75 handling), so I refunded him $5.55.  But this is way better than the example the other day where I ended up with $0.65 for two goodie bags because shipping wasn't set high enough.

Also went through the webstore and took down items that had sold, removed the "new" listing from items that have been up forever.  

Picked up some chin chow earlier.  The bag changed, check out the facebook page for the picture.  Now has timothy hay and flaxseed in it.  Which I hear is fine.  But I wonder why they changed it.

Had some donated chin food (from awhile back), so mixed that in with the mazuri and mannapro, so I can use that up in a batch for the rescues.

The chins and guinea pigs that were boarding here for the last two weeks were picked up tonight.  They were good little critters while they were here.

Did hammock inventory.  The webstore is supposed to work where you put in, ok, I have 5 of this hammock.  One sells, the webstore should then show there's 4.  But... not always.  Like I just sold a polar bear hammock that was listed as "one remaining" and it still shows one remaining.  Except, there's none remaining.  So, I try to keep as up-to-date as possible and delete the listings for things that have sold.  And I try to keep the numbers up to date as well, so it doesn't show I have 3, and I sit here and can't find one... so I counted and updated all of the boh's (balance on hands -- I've worked in retail too long) for the hammocks.  Took some pics of the new-er hammocks that haven't made the webstore yet.  If you've been to the rescue, you know they aren't new at all, but they just haven't been put up in seemingly forever.  But... some of them have been added to the webstore.  Not all, because it got late and I have work in the morning, but I took some pics and worked with them, and this is some of the new-er hammocks

http://www.nwichinchillas.com/apps/webstore/products/category/943322?page=1

I will, sooner or later, be having a huge amount of cuddle buddies being listed on the webstore as well.  Michelle (of ChinniePop fame) was such an awesome volunteer, and sewed a ton of them, and I have yet to even get a picture of how many.  But first, the hammocks, then I tackle the rest of the junk on my work table, and THEN I will get to the cuddle buddies.  One of these days. 

Few things

Few things.

Flat rate prices went up.  Again.  Which likely means, so did mail prices, but let's start with flat rate.  That means, the flat rate boxes of mazuri or dust or care packages are going to cost a little more.  Not only because of shipping, but also because I will be adding handling.  I couldn't tell you why that hasn't been a part of it before, but it's always been cost of food + actual cost of shipping = price.  Well, problem with that is, I have to use tape, ziploc bags, markers, etc.  And really, I could use an extra little bit per package.  That's why every other package I send out has a tiny bit tacked on to shipping (usually not even $1) so I can afford those extra items.  But I ship out a good amount of flat rate food, and it's just not cutting it to ship it out without any handling charge.  Something's gotta pay for that tape and bags.  So, there's now a little added on for that.

Second.  I got some orders mailed out today.  More will go out tomorrow, and potentially even more than what I already have packed, if I get some more time to work on them.  I already emailed everyone and refunded any overages in shipping, so if you didn't get an email, your package didn't go out yet.  Maybe tomorrow.

Third. Shipping.  People often email about how high shipping prices are.  But people, these are the actual prices.  Or very close to.  Just one example from today.  Someone in Arizona ordered two goodie bags.  $2 each, so total of $4 for the items.  Shipping (from the webstore) came to $6.00.  So, shipping was more than the item itself.  I went and shipped it today -- cheapest, absolute cheapest, was $8.76.  So I shipped it... but let's keep in mind, after paypal took their cut, my total for this order was $9.41.  So, $9.41 minus the $8.76 I spent to ship it, equals.... $0.65.  I made $0.65 cents on two goodie bags.  Now come on people, they're priced at $2 because they legitimately have stuff in them worth $2.  Now, this person didn't complain about shipping (thank god, cause I have nothing to refund them in shipping overages), but, see, sometimes shipping really IS that ridiculous.  And yes, I do think it's ridiculous to pay almost $9 to ship two goodie bags to AZ.  I do.  But... that's what they charge, whatcha gonna do.

Lastly.  There is sometimes a reason to open toilet paper rolls.  Adult chins are typically too large to get any part of them stuck in them, but young adults, apparently not so much.  I will say, first and foremost, that this chin is fine, no harm done... but I just HAD to snap some pics before helping him out of his predicament....

Ahahahahahahaha.  Ok, he probably didn't think it was funny.  And I'm glad he's ok.  But sometimes we need those comical moments like this....

Goodnight.

Volunteers

So, volunteers.  I've had one this year so far.  In 9 months.  That's pretty bad, even for this small rescue, we usually have more than that.  But just one, and not even one of the people who I see every now and then, this was someone new.

Anyway, wanted to mention a few things.  First, I don't know if there is a misconception about what I do all day, but I have a day job.  Let me repeat that.  I have to work outside the home, just like everyone else, so that I can afford to live and eat and all that good stuff.  This means that I am not home 24/7.  Granted, this does make it more difficult to schedule people, especially since my schedule changes weekly, sometimes even in the middle of the week, but it is do-able. 

But here's what's been happening lately.  I get a text (or call, or email, or contact-method-of-choice) that says, "Can I come volunteer Tuesday at 3?"  Now, that's nice and good that that's when the volunteer is free, but... this is why I have no volunteers.  I may be free every other day after 3, and they're only free that day.  And then, get this, some people actually get upset when I'm not free.  I like volunteers.  I want help.  So chances are, if you've contacted me and I've said, sorry, you can't come, it's not because I'd rather clean cages alone or would rather spend time with the dogs.  Chances are, I will be at work.  The other day, someone asked if they could come at 3 the next day.  I told them, no, I wouldn't be home all night.  They said, ok, how bout 4?  No?  How bout 5?  How bout, I start work at 2 and won't be home til after 10? 

And then, cancellations.  I try to do whatever I can to accommodate volunteers.  I do.  Because I would like help, and not many people want to help.  So for example, today... well, earlier this week, I had someone asking about coming today at 3.  I told them, I get off at 3, so they'd need to come 4 or later.  So they said ok, they'd come 4:30.  They text me around 4:30 saying they're outside.  I go outside... no one there.  Not sure if they went to the old address or what (they never asked me for the address, but the website, and every place that I can update, has the new address), but they were not here.  They asked me what the address was, and I told them, and mentioned that it was only a few minutes away (they said they were in Munster).  They said, oh sorry, their parent doesn't have the time to bring them today, they'll have to come another day.

Now, maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal on the surface.  But, few things.  First, yesterday, they wanted me to switch shifts.  I said, no, I have a volunteer coming.  I would have MUCH rather worked the later shift (versus the morning shift), but I kept my afternoon open so my volunteer could come.. which they didn't.  Today, they would have liked for me to work an extra hour or two.  But, I couldn't, because I knew I had to drive straight home so that I'd be home in time for the volunteer.  So I lost out on a better shift, and a few extra hours pay (which god knows I could use right now), for a volunteer that never showed up.  Not to mention, when I got home, I spent time cleaning up the rescue.  Not significantly, but enough so that when I gave them something to do, there would be less things in the way.  I have a ton of other things to do, and if it was just me here, the organizing could wait.  But I did it, in anticipation of this person coming.  And they never did.  The few minutes was too far I guess, for them to come out of their way.

Which is why it irks me to no end when I am expecting someone, volunteer or not, and they don't show up.

This person had asked what they would be doing, if they came.  I told them, probably cleaning cages, putting together orders, maybe making something that we sell.  They said ok.  I'm really glad this wasn't one of those people who insists on making toys, or doing something else that requires a ton of prep work, cause then it irks me even more when I've prepped for something that I will end up doing all myself.  Which sounds about right.

One last thing.  We had the Darien expo this weekend.  We made a total of $5 in donations, and a negligible amount in sales.  Like, two sales total.  That is pathetic.  The same goes for adoptions, which have been inexistent for some time now, again.  One of our recent surrenders donated a large amount of money to the rescue, and this will help pay for food and supplies, which are normally paid for by orders, adoptions, etc.  But since those are so few and far between right now (and the ones I'm  working on packing up are all orders that are like $5 item, $15 shipping, almost not even worth doing), the money is dwindling. 

I could deal with less money, if I had less help.  Really, I would prefer the help over the money.  A few hours of help every week would significantly reduce the time it takes for me to get things done, would make the rescue more efficient at getting things like orders out -- because let's face it -- I can only put off cages and such so long before I have to say, orders have to wait, let me go clean cages -- and more efficient processing of orders would likely mean more orders.  Heck, I can't even make hidey houses because no one is ever here to help me, and they take an hour each, and that's time that doesn't exist for me.  They bring in the most money for the rescue, and I just have no time to make them right now, because I have no help. 

Even if 1-2 people could donate a few hours, say 2-4 hours, one night a week.  Or one morning a week, depending on my schedule, it would make a big difference.  Everyone says, oh I'll help out, but no one actually does, and it's actually gotten to the point where I cannot do this alone.  No offense, but I don't need anyone to help with handling chins, I need help in areas that actually lessen my time spent at the rescue (cleaning cages, feeding, watering, etc) or bring in larger dollar amounts to the rescue (filling orders, making toys, making houses).  I appreciate when a lot of people donate the $0.75 change from their order -- it does add up, and it does help -- but I would much rather have people at the rescue helping than the money.  The money pays for food, and supplies, and that's great.  But there's no longer enough hours in the day for me to keep up with all of this, and if I was more up-to-date on orders, and always had clean cages, I guarantee you the rescue would do better and I wouldn't need so many money donations.  Which again, I'd rather have people, because I have tried, and found out, it is almost impossible to find people who will come here and do this sort of work for pay.  Which means... volunteers.  Which brings me back to my making-sure-my-schedule-was-fine-for-the-person-to-come-today-because-I-could-have-really-used-the-help,-but-who-never-showed.  Ugh. 

Expo day 1

So, today was the first day of the fall season of expos, which means....Darien!  Drive over to the expo hall Friday, Meredith was going to meet me at the hotel later, and set up.  Ran into Laura, the person who did Taffy's puppy photos, she has a booth at the expo. Dropped off the donation basket which I almost forgot (but threw together ultra last minute on my way out of town) and set up the booth. Made it back to the hotel and had time to unpack and chill and then Meredith showed up. In continuation with my everything-going-wrong theme, as of late, one of my folding table separated from it's frame. Wonderful. And then we went to a gas station and the pump I pulled up to didn't work. That all caused a need for happy comfort food to end the day positively, so we headed to Montecasino Cafe Grill.

I'm not usually the type to sit here and rave about any product or place, but if you haven't been to Montecasino (which, unless you live across the street, you probably don't know it even exists), you need to go. It's this little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place on N. Ardmore in Villa Park. I admit, not the best part of Villa Park, and it's in a strip mall, and you will blow by it if you are not careful. But they have the BEST food. Great prices. It's byob, there's a liquor store next door to help with that. It is awesome and the food was awesome as always.  Great big portions. We always say we're gonna have dessert and barely even have room to finish the entree.  Love love LOVE the place.

Anyway, so that was Friday. Back to the hotel and today started the expo.  It was a super slow day for Darien, which is usually one of the more hopping expos. Presented with my new presentation on chinchillas, which went over way better (no glazed over faces this time) than my old speech.  Tom from West Burb Weiners held Julie, the chin that came to the expo, while I presented.  It went well. He asked if he could say something, and he must have remembered last time, because he assured me that he would not talk about housing. For those that weren't around then, at one of the expos last year, I handed him the microphone and he proceeded to talk about keeping chins in aquariums and giving them pvc pipe to chew on and all sorts of unsafe things.... Which I then had to explain why everything he said was bad advice. But this time, true to his word, he just talked a bit about how he and his wife had chinchillas for years and loved them. So that went well.

Slow day expo wise, not many sales.  $5 in donations, and we only got that because, towards the end, a kid came into the booth, asked what our donation box was for. Meredith told him it was for people to donate money. He asked his parents if they had $1, and they asked what for.  "They have no money ."  So true. So they donated $5, which was awesome. Every little bit helps. Though it is disheartening, still, to see the dog rescues that get $20s donated, multiple, and we get $5 all day. People think it's cheap running a small animal rescue. It's not. I meant to mention this in the presentation but forgot -- it cost over $25,000 to run the rescue last year. You know what we made in donations over the last year?  Just over $1000, and $500 of that was from one couple.  Without them, most years it's not even usually $500 per year. Don't get me wrong I'm sure dog rescues are expensive as well.  But just because these guys are small animals doesn't mean they're cheap to care for.  But unfortunately that seems to be the perception.

Anyway, that was it for the day, going to go to bed in a few and hope tomorrow's a busier day for us.

I apologize for any typos, this was typed out on my iPhone.

Goodnight.

Few things

Few things I would like to touch on.

First.....I work.  I don't know about the rest of you, but to pay my bills, I need money. That comes from working.  That also means that I'm not available 24/7 when you need something. I had someone call 5 times today.  FIVE times.  Fifth time left a message. Wanted to volunteer tomorrow. Then texted me.  I told her, tomorrow won't work for me. I check my email and notice an email from this person. Now...this may be the nicest person on the planet but that urgency to get ahold of me, I find mildly creepy, considering this was not a life or death situation.  But regardless, I will be at work tomorrow, and considering I just got home from work and will be going back for an early shift, I will not be having anyone by tomorrow.

Not to mention, I've caught a bad cold and will want to rest so I feel my best for the expo.

But the point is, as much as I might wish it, I'm not free 24/7 for when people need something. That would be super convenient if my schedule always lined up with the schedules of volunteers and such. But it doesn't, and that's just life.

Second, waiting for orders. Again, I remind you - I have a job. I don't sit here all day cranking out chinny mobiles and playing with chins, as fun as that might be. I try my best to get food orders out ASAP. I really do. But for just about everything else, it's done in the order received / paid for, and sometimes it takes awhile. Cause it is only me, and I do have additional things to do outside of the pets.

Third, I have had an influx of people, both potential adoptive homes and people wanting to surrender, that cannot drive to pickup or cannot bring their chin here.  Which makes me curious how they get the chin to the vet if it gets sick, but also puts a strain on the rescue. Well, back up. If someone cannot drive here to get a chin, they're not adopting. This is not a mail-order-chin-service. But if I, or someone I know, has to pay for gas to go get a chin, that's less money that can be spent feeding the chins. Or spending for chew toys. Etc etc.

And right now, the rescue has very low funds, and really can't afford much extra expenses.

Though if anyone would like to help transport, when needed, please let me know.

Which brings me to my last point of the night. Volunteers. Or lack thereof. We have had one volunteer come by all year. ONE. Don't get me wrong, one is better than none.  But if you all could hear these people I talk to. Oh yeah they want to come help. Oh yeah all the time. Oh yeah they'll help with whatever is needed. Yet never available and never actually helping. I was looking at a horse rescues website. It said volunteers could ride the horses after a full days volunteering. A full day!!  I can't get people to spend an hour or two here, doing things considerably more pleasant than mucking stalls...and judging by their Facebook page, they have most volunteer shifts covered for the next month!!  What am I doing wrong?