So, the "10 week old kit" - now, "3 month old kit" went to her new home. They are naming her Zazzles. How cute. Very nice people, had a lot of questions so that was good, went over a lot of stuff. They seemed happy with her.
So then I come back up and look at my emails. Responded this morning to three emails for guinea pig babies, so everyone else I've been telling that they're on hold. Got one person set up to come Tuesday to get their baby gp.
Had someone else email... said they were from Greencastle and didn't know where Munster was, and wanted a buddy for their pig. Ok, no problem, I told them Greencastle is 2 hours 45 - 3 hours away from here. Not exactly a five minute drive for a $25 pig. Well, anyway, she emailed after they were all on hold and wanted to know if any fell through... but then the next email said (the relevant part)
"yes please save me one if they change there mind!!! i want a white one
with pink eyes and hopfuly it would be long hair or texel"
Um.... did she even read the ad? Or look at the pictures? (cause that doesn't even require reading!) Two of ours are chocolate and caramel (red) and the other is white, chocolate, and caramel (red). No whites with pink eyes. And it clearly says in our ads that two are Abyssinian and the last is an American Shorthair. Not long hairs or texels. I mean really? It's just being one of those days today.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Really?
So I'm sorry, but I must be in a crabby mood today. I got yet another email, from the same #@^#$ person, telling me that the cages I listed on craigslist aren't good guinea pig cages, and that the minimum guinea pig cage is 2x4. Really? Cause I can tell you the average person isn't going out and buying the largest cage on the market for guinea pigs. And she goes on to say that you can buy the coroplast and the cubes to make the cages much cheaper -- yeah... and how many people do you know want to make the effort to go and do that? Especially when you'd need a truck or something to haul a 4'x8' sheet of the stuff.
So anyway, I nicely email her back and let her know, I can take off the thing that says guinea pig, but here's the thing. I tell her how almost everyone tells us on our chin adoption forms that they're going to feed Mazuri. But then, when we get the chins returned for one reason or another, 9/10 times, the bag of food that comes back with them is not (surprise!) Mazuri. Which is exactly my point.
So I email her back nicely and let her know. Well, get this, she says I'm supposed to ask about which animal they want to use the cage for and educate them that the cage is good/not good for that animal. Excuse me? I have time for my adoptive homes, and I'd like to think I sell cages proper for the animal to the various people off of craigslist, but at the end of the day... someone says they want to buy a cage, I don't ask what it's for. I want their pet in as good a cage as possible, well I want that for all pets, but I can't control what they buy or don't buy. They don't buy a bad cage from me, they're just going to buy it elsewhere.
Then, she tells me I should donate all my spare cages to various rescues. Again... did she miss that we're a rescue? I told her that the rescue doesn't pay for itself through adoption fees, which is why we sell supplies and used cages. And in reality, the majority of our used cages are sold to our own adoptive homes, versus to people on craigslist or some other classified site, so I do know what animal the majority of the cages will be used for.
And she then goes on to lecture me about the best type of guinea pig cages and how I should be telling everyone to make their own C&C cages. Uh-huh. Just like she bothers to email me every freakin time I put "guinea pig" under the "good for these pets" section on a cage listing... that would get really old. I'm already tired of her, and she's only emailed me 2-3 times. I understand she wants the best for the guinea pigs, but honest to god. I bet you she emails all of those people who are rehoming the guinea pigs with those tiny cages (cause they sure aren't 2x4) and tells them how horrible of a cage they're keeping their guinea pig in. See, I wouldn't want to alienate people like that. Cause she's not really "nice" in the way she words things. It's in the tone of "I'm right, you're wrong, and how could you possibly do such a thing?!?!?" It's a freakin cage, it's not like I'm feeding the gp's chocolate and candy for their diet, jeez.
On a positive note, Annabelle did go to her new home just a bit ago. Very nice people. Loved Alyssa's little bag of chews. :)
So anyway, I nicely email her back and let her know, I can take off the thing that says guinea pig, but here's the thing. I tell her how almost everyone tells us on our chin adoption forms that they're going to feed Mazuri. But then, when we get the chins returned for one reason or another, 9/10 times, the bag of food that comes back with them is not (surprise!) Mazuri. Which is exactly my point.
So I email her back nicely and let her know. Well, get this, she says I'm supposed to ask about which animal they want to use the cage for and educate them that the cage is good/not good for that animal. Excuse me? I have time for my adoptive homes, and I'd like to think I sell cages proper for the animal to the various people off of craigslist, but at the end of the day... someone says they want to buy a cage, I don't ask what it's for. I want their pet in as good a cage as possible, well I want that for all pets, but I can't control what they buy or don't buy. They don't buy a bad cage from me, they're just going to buy it elsewhere.
Then, she tells me I should donate all my spare cages to various rescues. Again... did she miss that we're a rescue? I told her that the rescue doesn't pay for itself through adoption fees, which is why we sell supplies and used cages. And in reality, the majority of our used cages are sold to our own adoptive homes, versus to people on craigslist or some other classified site, so I do know what animal the majority of the cages will be used for.
And she then goes on to lecture me about the best type of guinea pig cages and how I should be telling everyone to make their own C&C cages. Uh-huh. Just like she bothers to email me every freakin time I put "guinea pig" under the "good for these pets" section on a cage listing... that would get really old. I'm already tired of her, and she's only emailed me 2-3 times. I understand she wants the best for the guinea pigs, but honest to god. I bet you she emails all of those people who are rehoming the guinea pigs with those tiny cages (cause they sure aren't 2x4) and tells them how horrible of a cage they're keeping their guinea pig in. See, I wouldn't want to alienate people like that. Cause she's not really "nice" in the way she words things. It's in the tone of "I'm right, you're wrong, and how could you possibly do such a thing?!?!?" It's a freakin cage, it's not like I'm feeding the gp's chocolate and candy for their diet, jeez.
On a positive note, Annabelle did go to her new home just a bit ago. Very nice people. Loved Alyssa's little bag of chews. :)
....
Now we're at 6 phone calls and three emails. In 21 hours. Really?
...and on the second voicemail she left, she said about the "mom and baby".... which means she clearly can't read, cause the baby's been on hold since the middle of last month. Not like I put her on hold yesterday.
Going to call her back now...ought to be fun, eh?
...and on the second voicemail she left, she said about the "mom and baby".... which means she clearly can't read, cause the baby's been on hold since the middle of last month. Not like I put her on hold yesterday.
Going to call her back now...ought to be fun, eh?
Patience.... or lack of...
I'm thinking about adding to the website a paragraph that states that if you call more than 3 times in 24 hours, your calls will not be returned. Here's the thing -- I got your voicemail. Besides that, I can see that it's the same number calling me. In fact, my phone keeps track and will tell me with a number (in this case, there's a little "(5)" after your phone number) how many times you have called. I see you called. I got it. Calling again and again only makes me want to delay calling you back, cause now you've aggravated me. Call once. Heck, call twice, if you want to make sure I got it. But 5 times in 19 hours and 2 emails? I got it already. I'll call you back when I get a chance.
....and calling me at the crack of dawn will not get me to pick up the phone. It will however, cause me to roll over and make me think, man, how desperate is this person?
That's all.
....and calling me at the crack of dawn will not get me to pick up the phone. It will however, cause me to roll over and make me think, man, how desperate is this person?
That's all.
Few gp pics before bed...
So now that it's 2:30ish and I've officially posted my gp ads, it's time for bed. But first-- pictures!
....and now, it's bedtime.
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| All cuddled up -- females on left, male (with white) on right. |
 | |
| Biggest pig - female |
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| Male gp |
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| Female gp |
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| Eating.... so cute! |
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| ..fits right in the palm of your hand! |
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| the girls cuddling |
Saturday, July 7, 2012
First things first....
So, first things first... I did not add the healthy treat mix to the website or to the care packet, or take a pic... nope.
But I did get some stuff done. I set up a time for Annabelle's pickup. Her new owner emailed me a list of things he wanted to get, most of which are ready, but of course I only have a few hidey houses ready... and not the one he wanted. So, I built a double entry hidey house and glued it and have it setting now. He also wanted cage 11, which is fine... but wanted it broken down. Ugh. I specifically put "breaks down with some difficulty" because I was hoping to not have to break it down. But I did.... I decided against folding the whole thing flat until they get here, cause I figured that might be a tad hard to explain how the cage goes together if all I have is a flat pile of black bars. So it's standing up just barely and will be folded down when they get here.
Didn't get the orders I have completed today either... though, in all fairness, if you saw how long it took me to get that cage apart.... that will be tomorrow, when I'm home all day.
I did re-check the sexes of our gp's and it turns out we have two females and a male. Wrote up an ad for them, and took some more pics of them in a clean cage. Their cage needs to be cleaned, and I will likely do that tomorrow, but the babies will have to be separated in another few days, so I just set up another cage with clean shavings and stuck them in there for pictures, so I could get those done today.
Since I was already working with the pics, getting them on the computer and all, going back to the other day when one of our to-be adoptive homes came over. This was the home that came over to pick up Tallie for her "trial run" -- well, the mom called to tell me in advance that her daughter had made little bags of chews for the chinnies. How adorable, right? So I took a pic of the daughter with one of the treat bags, and today I took a pic of all of the treat bags. Will clean cages tomorrow and THEN give the chews.
Tell me those aren't just adorable! The chins are going to go nuts! Since Annabelle and the "10 week old kit" (now, older than 10 weeks by a considerable amount... I think she's going to be named Zazzles) are going home tomorrow, they'll go home with their bags. I'm sure their new homes will appreciate her thoughtfulness!
I just thought that was so nice. I mean, we get cages donated and like the place we get a bale of hay from always throws in a donation bale along with however many we're getting, but all of that takes... no work. And I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because that's definitely not the case, but donating a cage when you already have it and it's doing you no good collecting dust... lol... it may actually be doing you a favor by getting it out of the house. But like this, this took her actually wanting to make something for the rescues and taking the time to do so. Just... so sweet. :)
So then moving onto today, the family was back to pick up some supplies, and Lilly, to see how she would fit in with the family. So they come in and Alyssa shows me that she has made colorful name labels for the cages! How awesome! Pic below.
So, they stayed for awhile. They had brought me the screws for the FN, but it turned out I needed longer ones, so they'll bring those another day. The topic of my two table saws came up, and how the one just stopped working one day, and the dad said he would look at it for me another time. And of course they say they'll volunteer some time... I am totally kidnapping this family and they can live here! Very helpful, very nice people.
So, they left with supplies & Lilly, and after they did, I noticed I had four calls from the same number, and an email with that number in it... asking about Lilly (go figure). So I told them she was out on one of our trial runs (which I added to the website -- see, I did do something!) but that if the family decided not to adopt her, I could let her know. Got an email back asking if the mother/daughter pair was still available. Had a moment of thinking, does she mean Moch/Mycha or the 10 week old kit/Ember? So I emailed her back and said that if she meant Moch/Mycha, that they are still available. Course, with the way my luck is, she meant Ember and the kit. But I can hope. And we will see when I get an email back. ... but then... like I didn't have Lilly listed as on hold until after everyone left today. So I can understand why she would email about her. But the kit has been on hold forever, and it says so on the website (which is the only place the kit is listed), so if she means the kit and Ember... well... let's just say some people need to learn how to read. I don't bold it and put it in red when a chin's on hold cause I feel like adding color to the page... So here's hoping she means Moch & Mycha.
So then, I fed the kits, and BOTH of them ate well today so that was a plus.
Was talking to my mom, and she said when she went to Walgreens today that some couple stopped her and asked her if she was the one with the chins for adoption (she's got our NWI Chins magnets on her car). She told em no, it was me, and they asked her how much, and she told em, so we'll see if I hear from anyone saying, oh, we saw your mom with the car magnets. We'll see.
So... I think that's it for today. I need to work on the gp care packet and adoption form, so I think I'm going to do that now. Maybe will post some additional pics of the baby gp's if I get everything done early enough, but it's already almost 1 am, so we'll see.
But I did get some stuff done. I set up a time for Annabelle's pickup. Her new owner emailed me a list of things he wanted to get, most of which are ready, but of course I only have a few hidey houses ready... and not the one he wanted. So, I built a double entry hidey house and glued it and have it setting now. He also wanted cage 11, which is fine... but wanted it broken down. Ugh. I specifically put "breaks down with some difficulty" because I was hoping to not have to break it down. But I did.... I decided against folding the whole thing flat until they get here, cause I figured that might be a tad hard to explain how the cage goes together if all I have is a flat pile of black bars. So it's standing up just barely and will be folded down when they get here.
Didn't get the orders I have completed today either... though, in all fairness, if you saw how long it took me to get that cage apart.... that will be tomorrow, when I'm home all day.
I did re-check the sexes of our gp's and it turns out we have two females and a male. Wrote up an ad for them, and took some more pics of them in a clean cage. Their cage needs to be cleaned, and I will likely do that tomorrow, but the babies will have to be separated in another few days, so I just set up another cage with clean shavings and stuck them in there for pictures, so I could get those done today.
Since I was already working with the pics, getting them on the computer and all, going back to the other day when one of our to-be adoptive homes came over. This was the home that came over to pick up Tallie for her "trial run" -- well, the mom called to tell me in advance that her daughter had made little bags of chews for the chinnies. How adorable, right? So I took a pic of the daughter with one of the treat bags, and today I took a pic of all of the treat bags. Will clean cages tomorrow and THEN give the chews.
Tell me those aren't just adorable! The chins are going to go nuts! Since Annabelle and the "10 week old kit" (now, older than 10 weeks by a considerable amount... I think she's going to be named Zazzles) are going home tomorrow, they'll go home with their bags. I'm sure their new homes will appreciate her thoughtfulness!
I just thought that was so nice. I mean, we get cages donated and like the place we get a bale of hay from always throws in a donation bale along with however many we're getting, but all of that takes... no work. And I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because that's definitely not the case, but donating a cage when you already have it and it's doing you no good collecting dust... lol... it may actually be doing you a favor by getting it out of the house. But like this, this took her actually wanting to make something for the rescues and taking the time to do so. Just... so sweet. :)
So then moving onto today, the family was back to pick up some supplies, and Lilly, to see how she would fit in with the family. So they come in and Alyssa shows me that she has made colorful name labels for the cages! How awesome! Pic below.
So, they stayed for awhile. They had brought me the screws for the FN, but it turned out I needed longer ones, so they'll bring those another day. The topic of my two table saws came up, and how the one just stopped working one day, and the dad said he would look at it for me another time. And of course they say they'll volunteer some time... I am totally kidnapping this family and they can live here! Very helpful, very nice people.
So, they left with supplies & Lilly, and after they did, I noticed I had four calls from the same number, and an email with that number in it... asking about Lilly (go figure). So I told them she was out on one of our trial runs (which I added to the website -- see, I did do something!) but that if the family decided not to adopt her, I could let her know. Got an email back asking if the mother/daughter pair was still available. Had a moment of thinking, does she mean Moch/Mycha or the 10 week old kit/Ember? So I emailed her back and said that if she meant Moch/Mycha, that they are still available. Course, with the way my luck is, she meant Ember and the kit. But I can hope. And we will see when I get an email back. ... but then... like I didn't have Lilly listed as on hold until after everyone left today. So I can understand why she would email about her. But the kit has been on hold forever, and it says so on the website (which is the only place the kit is listed), so if she means the kit and Ember... well... let's just say some people need to learn how to read. I don't bold it and put it in red when a chin's on hold cause I feel like adding color to the page... So here's hoping she means Moch & Mycha.
So then, I fed the kits, and BOTH of them ate well today so that was a plus.
Was talking to my mom, and she said when she went to Walgreens today that some couple stopped her and asked her if she was the one with the chins for adoption (she's got our NWI Chins magnets on her car). She told em no, it was me, and they asked her how much, and she told em, so we'll see if I hear from anyone saying, oh, we saw your mom with the car magnets. We'll see.
So... I think that's it for today. I need to work on the gp care packet and adoption form, so I think I'm going to do that now. Maybe will post some additional pics of the baby gp's if I get everything done early enough, but it's already almost 1 am, so we'll see.
....longer post
So, I got an email from one of our potential adoptive homes letting us know they will not be able to make the drive out today. Ah well.
Also, had an adoptive home come and pick up their rat, very nice person. Don't have the pic ready. Or any of the other pics that I said I'd have today, but I've been busy darn it. So they were here for awhile talking bout chins and rats and all the other critters we have.
And Shiloh is shedding. I don't know if I never noticed before, I mean, surely he didn't hold in all his shedding for this summer, he's been here two years.... but he's like a dog right now... like coming off when you pet him.
So then, I'd been talking to Amber (of Wheeker's Guinea Pig Rescue - http://wheekersrescue.webs.com/) and I had emailed her. Wanted to be positive of the genders of our baby gp's before I list them anywhere, so I took close up pics of them and sent them to her. I was correct as to what they are, but I figured, let the expert tell me if I'm right or not. I believe we have two boys and a girl. I do have pics of those. Will check again, but first two pics are boys, third is girl.
Then, I took new pics of some of the chins and the rats we have left, so I could update the ads with what we have. Updated those ads, had to re-put-up some of the ads. I may have not posted them at the beginning of the month if they were on hold at that point. So now all the rats we have are back up for grabs.
The guy who told me he'd call today to come see Spots and Princess (rats) didn't call and didn't come. He said maybe Saturday, so maybe he'll call tomorrow.
On the other hand, I did hear back from the rabbit guy. Apparently three are caged together and the fourth is separate... emailed him back saying that if they all fit in 2 cages, then we can take them.
Heard back from the people adopting the kit (well, it's a few months old now) this weekend. They both (I emailed the dad and the kid) said they didn't want to be feeding anything bad, so the kid suggested some other foods, and I told her, unfortunately, they weren't good either. It's unfortunate how many BAD chinchilla foods there are out there. Anyway, told the dad that if there was a Petsmart by them they can find good food there and told them the brands. He said there was, but they're going to start off with a 25 lb bag from me. So that'll give them some time to find the good food out by them. They did genuinely seem like they must have misread (or not read, whatever the case may be) the care packet but regardless, they both made it clear that if the food was going to affect the lifespan and health of the chin, they wanted to make sure they were not feeding something that would negatively affect it. So, I think they'll be alright.
What else... brought in the bags of food.
Oh, so our current home who has Tallie in their care for a trial run uploaded a video of her eating a shredded wheat. She looks adorable if I do say so myself. :D She's such a sweetie.
Updated the website with the new pics of the critters as well. Updated some of the info... like our one rat ad for the boys had said some have dumbo ears... well now, all the ones left have dumbo ears. And then for the girls, same thing, it said "some" -- well now, only the beige one has the dumbo ears. And people care about that stuff (well, some do, some just want a pet and aren't quite so concerned with ear shape) so I put it up there so I can stop getting emails asking "do they have dumbo ears?" Though, if that's all they're concerned about... they may not make it through the adoption process and get approved anyhow. I much prefer the people who ask about the animals' personality or likes/dislikes than about ear shape. That's like the people who email me about chins asking if the cage comes with. Really? I mean, I know there are people who flip animals/cages, but if that's what they're concerned about....
One of our ads up right now is for some gerbils that aren't at our rescue. So, naturally, I put the person's email address as the contact info, and I told her, if I get any emails about the gerbils (from people who can't be bothered to, oh, I dunno, read the ad) I would pass them along to her. Well, few days ago I got an email asking if I had a pic of the cage. Passed it on to her (and in this case, the gerbils do come with the cage, and it says so in the ad), but I was thinking, again, if that's all they're concerned about... like what about the gerbils? I mean, I can hope they're wanting to see the cage to determine if it's an adequate size for 6 gerbils... but that's probably wishful thinking.
Posted some pics of the chins/rescues on facebook. Got an awesome pic of Winx in this pink butterfly hanging house... he looks so mad at me that I got the pic... but so precious. And he's totally gonna come murder me in my sleep for posting this....but ain't he cute???:
I think that's it for today.
Also, had an adoptive home come and pick up their rat, very nice person. Don't have the pic ready. Or any of the other pics that I said I'd have today, but I've been busy darn it. So they were here for awhile talking bout chins and rats and all the other critters we have.
And Shiloh is shedding. I don't know if I never noticed before, I mean, surely he didn't hold in all his shedding for this summer, he's been here two years.... but he's like a dog right now... like coming off when you pet him.
So then, I'd been talking to Amber (of Wheeker's Guinea Pig Rescue - http://wheekersrescue.webs.com/) and I had emailed her. Wanted to be positive of the genders of our baby gp's before I list them anywhere, so I took close up pics of them and sent them to her. I was correct as to what they are, but I figured, let the expert tell me if I'm right or not. I believe we have two boys and a girl. I do have pics of those. Will check again, but first two pics are boys, third is girl.
Then, I took new pics of some of the chins and the rats we have left, so I could update the ads with what we have. Updated those ads, had to re-put-up some of the ads. I may have not posted them at the beginning of the month if they were on hold at that point. So now all the rats we have are back up for grabs.
The guy who told me he'd call today to come see Spots and Princess (rats) didn't call and didn't come. He said maybe Saturday, so maybe he'll call tomorrow.
On the other hand, I did hear back from the rabbit guy. Apparently three are caged together and the fourth is separate... emailed him back saying that if they all fit in 2 cages, then we can take them.
Heard back from the people adopting the kit (well, it's a few months old now) this weekend. They both (I emailed the dad and the kid) said they didn't want to be feeding anything bad, so the kid suggested some other foods, and I told her, unfortunately, they weren't good either. It's unfortunate how many BAD chinchilla foods there are out there. Anyway, told the dad that if there was a Petsmart by them they can find good food there and told them the brands. He said there was, but they're going to start off with a 25 lb bag from me. So that'll give them some time to find the good food out by them. They did genuinely seem like they must have misread (or not read, whatever the case may be) the care packet but regardless, they both made it clear that if the food was going to affect the lifespan and health of the chin, they wanted to make sure they were not feeding something that would negatively affect it. So, I think they'll be alright.
What else... brought in the bags of food.
Oh, so our current home who has Tallie in their care for a trial run uploaded a video of her eating a shredded wheat. She looks adorable if I do say so myself. :D She's such a sweetie.
Updated the website with the new pics of the critters as well. Updated some of the info... like our one rat ad for the boys had said some have dumbo ears... well now, all the ones left have dumbo ears. And then for the girls, same thing, it said "some" -- well now, only the beige one has the dumbo ears. And people care about that stuff (well, some do, some just want a pet and aren't quite so concerned with ear shape) so I put it up there so I can stop getting emails asking "do they have dumbo ears?" Though, if that's all they're concerned about... they may not make it through the adoption process and get approved anyhow. I much prefer the people who ask about the animals' personality or likes/dislikes than about ear shape. That's like the people who email me about chins asking if the cage comes with. Really? I mean, I know there are people who flip animals/cages, but if that's what they're concerned about....
One of our ads up right now is for some gerbils that aren't at our rescue. So, naturally, I put the person's email address as the contact info, and I told her, if I get any emails about the gerbils (from people who can't be bothered to, oh, I dunno, read the ad) I would pass them along to her. Well, few days ago I got an email asking if I had a pic of the cage. Passed it on to her (and in this case, the gerbils do come with the cage, and it says so in the ad), but I was thinking, again, if that's all they're concerned about... like what about the gerbils? I mean, I can hope they're wanting to see the cage to determine if it's an adequate size for 6 gerbils... but that's probably wishful thinking.
Posted some pics of the chins/rescues on facebook. Got an awesome pic of Winx in this pink butterfly hanging house... he looks so mad at me that I got the pic... but so precious. And he's totally gonna come murder me in my sleep for posting this....but ain't he cute???:
I think that's it for today.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Quick post
May update later, but just wanted to make a quick post (I know, you're saying, riiiiight).
So, I forgot about this yesterday, so while I was thinking about it today, I just had to post. So, I'm handfeeding two of Lilly's kits. The boy eats ok, the girl is a freakin pig! Well anyway, yesterday when I was feeding them, I apparently wasn't refilling the syringe quick enough for her liking, and I had some milk on my finger. So here's how it goes (me talking to my mom, sitting across the table): "hey! she's licking my finger! *pause* no, look look, she's licking my finger! how cute!! awwww!!! isn't that sweet? *pause* YEEEEOWCH!" Apparently she thought my finger was tasty enough if she licked it that she wanted a tasty chunk of it. Little stinker. So today when she was licking my finger I was like "oooooh no -- not that again." Haha.
Went to the feed store today to pick up some lab blocks. Still gotta get it out of the car before the whole car smells like feed store. Well, turns out the Labdiet lab blocks are going to be discontinued (the owner told me). He said though that Mazuri makes a lab block diet for rats, so that's good. Cause I told him I would need some sort of replacement if he was able to order... I don't go through the lab blocks that fast, but as they are the main diet of Shiloh (prairie dog) and we give them to the rat rescues, we do go through them with some regularity. Also got 4? 5? bags of Mazuri. Still have three, I think, but if I'm driving all the way out there (it's about 45 minutes), I might as well. I took the honda there... completely stupid idea on a 100 degree day. Now, I won't drive my blazer and use a whole tank of gas to get to the feed store and back, that'd be beyond stupid, but I should have at least taken someone else's car. The honda either needs freon or to get the air worked on -- the vents blow cold air, or mildly cool anyway, but the car never cools off. Versus my parents' cars, which are much newer, with working air. So I was nice and soggy by the time I got to the feed store, and even soggier when I finally got home. So needless to say, the bags are still in the car, though I think it's sufficiently cooled off enough that I can bring them in the house now. I should do that. Will post more later.
So, I forgot about this yesterday, so while I was thinking about it today, I just had to post. So, I'm handfeeding two of Lilly's kits. The boy eats ok, the girl is a freakin pig! Well anyway, yesterday when I was feeding them, I apparently wasn't refilling the syringe quick enough for her liking, and I had some milk on my finger. So here's how it goes (me talking to my mom, sitting across the table): "hey! she's licking my finger! *pause* no, look look, she's licking my finger! how cute!! awwww!!! isn't that sweet? *pause* YEEEEOWCH!" Apparently she thought my finger was tasty enough if she licked it that she wanted a tasty chunk of it. Little stinker. So today when she was licking my finger I was like "oooooh no -- not that again." Haha.
Went to the feed store today to pick up some lab blocks. Still gotta get it out of the car before the whole car smells like feed store. Well, turns out the Labdiet lab blocks are going to be discontinued (the owner told me). He said though that Mazuri makes a lab block diet for rats, so that's good. Cause I told him I would need some sort of replacement if he was able to order... I don't go through the lab blocks that fast, but as they are the main diet of Shiloh (prairie dog) and we give them to the rat rescues, we do go through them with some regularity. Also got 4? 5? bags of Mazuri. Still have three, I think, but if I'm driving all the way out there (it's about 45 minutes), I might as well. I took the honda there... completely stupid idea on a 100 degree day. Now, I won't drive my blazer and use a whole tank of gas to get to the feed store and back, that'd be beyond stupid, but I should have at least taken someone else's car. The honda either needs freon or to get the air worked on -- the vents blow cold air, or mildly cool anyway, but the car never cools off. Versus my parents' cars, which are much newer, with working air. So I was nice and soggy by the time I got to the feed store, and even soggier when I finally got home. So needless to say, the bags are still in the car, though I think it's sufficiently cooled off enough that I can bring them in the house now. I should do that. Will post more later.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
One more thing...
Ok, one more thing, then bed.
I turned around and saw these jars were making and I was like, "definitely should post about those." So, for a little bit of variety, we are going to soon be selling our "Healthy Treat Mix" in a cute little jar with an NWI Chins label on it. This "healthy treat mix" will contain 1 ounce of hawthorn berries, 1 ounce of rosehips, and 0.75-1 ounce of rosebuds (weight depends on the size of rosebuds... if they're smaller, more fit and end up weighing more). I believe it will be $7.50 for the Healthy Treat Mix jar. It's cute, and you know you want it. ;) I suppose we could even do refills if there was a demand for it.
So, for the labels. The two printers in the house are inkjet printers, so I set off to find 2.5 inch labels (size of the top of the jar) to print out on an inkjet. Could only find them made from recycled brown paper, which (at the time) I wasn't crazy about. I had wanted white labels, but my dad said maybe if I used the brown, it wouldn't look so much like a label per se, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Course, a shot means one package of labels = 225 labels, so it's not like I'm going to run out anytime soon. I suppose if I hate it, I'm stuck with it for quite some time. But anyway, I had found the labels online (this was last night), so I figured I'd drop by Office Depot on the way home.
So, I get off work, and after picking up the rat chow, go to Office Depot. See all sorts of different types of labels, but not anything even close to 2.5 inch. They had like 1 inch, but I wanted 2.5 so it'd cover the entire top. So, I asked this one guy and he said that a ton of stuff on the website is website only. Ah. He asked if I wanted to order it, but I told him I was going to look elsewhere and if I couldn't find it, I'd be back. So, I went to Office Max. Which, despite not being a fan of, is looking better by the day. Not only did they have the labels, they actually had them in white. See, the problem was that I could find the labels in white, but only for laser printers, and the genuises of the household (i.e. parents) said that the ink would smear if I tried to use laser paper in our inkjet printers. But Office Max had the labels I wanted, in white, for inkjets. Well.... I got the brown. I know, I just finished saying I wanted the white, but I suppose there is some value in the labels not looking quite so much like labels. So... came home, spent waaaaay too much time on designing the label (which is just a circle with a border around the edge, says NWI Chinchillas, then has an image of a chin, then Healthy Treat Mix) and finally printed one out. Put it on the jar and it looks awesome. Will get a pic of that tomorrow and will need to work on adding that to the website, webstore, and my supplies for sale list (the Word doc), maybe tomorrow.
Unrelated, but.... never got around to doing that FN shelf today. Tomorrow. 'night
I turned around and saw these jars were making and I was like, "definitely should post about those." So, for a little bit of variety, we are going to soon be selling our "Healthy Treat Mix" in a cute little jar with an NWI Chins label on it. This "healthy treat mix" will contain 1 ounce of hawthorn berries, 1 ounce of rosehips, and 0.75-1 ounce of rosebuds (weight depends on the size of rosebuds... if they're smaller, more fit and end up weighing more). I believe it will be $7.50 for the Healthy Treat Mix jar. It's cute, and you know you want it. ;) I suppose we could even do refills if there was a demand for it.
So, for the labels. The two printers in the house are inkjet printers, so I set off to find 2.5 inch labels (size of the top of the jar) to print out on an inkjet. Could only find them made from recycled brown paper, which (at the time) I wasn't crazy about. I had wanted white labels, but my dad said maybe if I used the brown, it wouldn't look so much like a label per se, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Course, a shot means one package of labels = 225 labels, so it's not like I'm going to run out anytime soon. I suppose if I hate it, I'm stuck with it for quite some time. But anyway, I had found the labels online (this was last night), so I figured I'd drop by Office Depot on the way home.
So, I get off work, and after picking up the rat chow, go to Office Depot. See all sorts of different types of labels, but not anything even close to 2.5 inch. They had like 1 inch, but I wanted 2.5 so it'd cover the entire top. So, I asked this one guy and he said that a ton of stuff on the website is website only. Ah. He asked if I wanted to order it, but I told him I was going to look elsewhere and if I couldn't find it, I'd be back. So, I went to Office Max. Which, despite not being a fan of, is looking better by the day. Not only did they have the labels, they actually had them in white. See, the problem was that I could find the labels in white, but only for laser printers, and the genuises of the household (i.e. parents) said that the ink would smear if I tried to use laser paper in our inkjet printers. But Office Max had the labels I wanted, in white, for inkjets. Well.... I got the brown. I know, I just finished saying I wanted the white, but I suppose there is some value in the labels not looking quite so much like labels. So... came home, spent waaaaay too much time on designing the label (which is just a circle with a border around the edge, says NWI Chinchillas, then has an image of a chin, then Healthy Treat Mix) and finally printed one out. Put it on the jar and it looks awesome. Will get a pic of that tomorrow and will need to work on adding that to the website, webstore, and my supplies for sale list (the Word doc), maybe tomorrow.
Unrelated, but.... never got around to doing that FN shelf today. Tomorrow. 'night
Tired...
I am tired. And I took a nap! (and missed two texts and several phone calls as a result, go figure -- had I stayed awake, no one would have contacted me).
So... just about nothing got done today in terms of things on my to-do list. I did remember to pick up the cheerios/other-cereal/pasta to make some more rat food, but did I make it? No. But it's sitting in this box waiting to be taken down to the basement, that counts for something, right? (I should note, they do have food down there to last a few more days, I just need to add to their current stash).
Also picked up yet another gallon of vinegar and some more sandwich-size baggies (on sale for $1). So I suppose getting the rat food and this stuff did get one thing off my list... but then I came home, answered a few emails and phone calls, and went and took a nap.
Before I did that though... I had someone call about Spots and Princess (yay!). They wanted to come tomorrow, but weren't sure what time they had dinner with their parents, so he said he'll call me tomorrow.... otherwise this weekend he can come. Either works, no big deal either way. A few days doesn't make all that much of a difference.
Then had someone call about Tallie. Had marked her on hold when I heard that voicemail cause I remember the last time I had her up for adoption, within days I had waaaay too many emails asking about her, so I figure I'd head it off early this time. Called the person back - turns out, it was this one who'd posted on my fb page about her own tripod. Is looking for a companion for hers, and apparently her older chins aren't tolerating the younger one (tripod) well. Well... Tallie would have probably been a good fit for that, she's really tolerant of other chins, but so would a variety of chins that we have. She wasn't ready to adopt anyway, she said she wanted to get another cage all set up and ready so that in case she did get another chin and the two didn't get along, she'd just have another cage. So I took down her name and number and what she's looking for and she said she'll call back soon.
So then, those people that came the other day to get the 10 lbs of hay, they came back today.
---side note--- I had someone ask me why I don't use names on here, I suppose I don't because I don't know if people really want to be named in the blog. Anonymity has it's advantages. Like if I said "oh I talked to Ashley today and she has two of our adoptive chins and she's feeding them carrots! How horrible!" people might know who I'm talking about, and that person could get mad. I don't want to unintentionally upset anyone. I do believe I have used names (maybe?) when I post pics of the chins with their new owners. If not here, then for sure on my fb page --- but I don't want to alienate anyone on here.---
So, back to life, those people came back. Said they wanted to do a trial run with Tallie, so I actually took the time to create a form that people will have to sign saying they agree to put down a deposit and to give the chin and supplies back after the trial period, and (perhaps most importantly) that by putting down a deposit, they do not own the chin or any supplies. Cause we really do get all types, and I could see that coming up at some point. So, they came here and signed the form and took Tallie home. They were here for awhile, very nice people. The daughter made little toys for all of the rescues! How sweet! We never get things donated. I mean, we do, but like donating a cage that someone's otherwise going to throw away -- that's great, I won't deny that, but for someone to actually take the time to make something for the rescues, that is just awesome. Thanks!!! :) I did take a picture with her holding one of the little treat bags, but my camera's downstairs still, so that picture will have to wait for tomorrow.
Actually, my procrastination paid off this time! (see, this is why I'll never stop) When the last trial run ended (two days into it), the person was from Valpo, and since I work in Hobart 3 days a week, she met me at the office after work. So I had brought the blazer (which I normally never drive that far, cause it's horrible on gas) to work to hold the cage and get the supplies. Never did bring the cage back in the house, and the bag of supplies? Yeah, I had that sitting on my "work table" untouched. I had intended on going through it and putting stuff in its respective places... but... hadn't gotten around to it yet, and conveniently so, because I was able to grab the bag, make sure everything was in there that needed to be, and hand it over. And the cage was already outside in the blazer, so that saved me the effort of hauling it to the basement and then bringing it back upstairs for this trial run. See, procrastination does pay off! Lol.
And, even better, we were talking about cages and the father said he can get me some of those 1/4-28 screws that I need for the FN! How awesome! :)
So, they left, and I dunno what I've been doing with myself for the last 2-3 hours. Wait, no, I know, I've been responding to emails about various chin and rescue related stuff that would take too long to type out on my iphone. So I suppose that was getting something done. Also, brought up the babies a few times today to handfeed. The girl is just a dream. Sucks it up like no tomorrow but the boy is like "nope! don't like the stuff!" Little stinker. They're still young, so they're still only eating maybe 2-3 CC at a time (or they should be anyway, the boy only wants to eat 1 CC at a time, and even that's a struggle). So we'll see how they do. I wish I was home more often cause it's hard to feed them all the time when I'm gone at least 8 hours a day, but whatcha gonna do. I do the best I can. I believe all (if not all, then almost all) of our handfed babies that didn't have other underlying health issues have lived to adulthood and have gone on to be adopted and live normal lives, so must be doing something right. Will feed em more tomorrow.
Oh! At work (Meijer) today, my boss was starting to set up for the back to school displays and all. Can't wait actually. Not for school to return, because grad school is year round (currently on break, starts back up on Monday, ugh), but because of the sales. (and here is how this is chin-related). Back to school time is when I stock up on the Elmer's glue. I want to say it's like 10 bottles for $4.00 or something like that, and I think last year I bought like 15 bottles? I believe I have three left. Hey, gotta stock up while the stuff's on sale, every cent saved helps the rescue pay for food/treats/care for the rescues, so I try to save when I can. Which means the next time cheerios are on sale, I should buy up the whole shelf, and the next time those pasta things are 10 for $10, I should also buy the whole shelf. Cause when we have rats, man do we go through those things like water.
Speaking of rescues, didn't hear back from the rabbit guy. Maybe he didn't intend to drop off any cages with the rabbits. Which would have been fine, but if I'm not getting cages with them, then I can only take in 2, cause I only have two cages...and in all reality, I would have to set up my last table to take in any more critters....so if he doesn't want to drop off the bunnies, ah well. Can't make him. Dunno if I've said it before on here, but out of every 10 people who say they want us to take in critters, only maybe 2 people actually make it here and drop off critters. Which is good for us, I suppose, or else we'd be overrun with rescues and have to turn people away or start a waiting list for rescues to come in, but at the same time, it also means that the majority of people who contact me about us taking in their pet will email a time or two and then I'll never hear back.
Well, anyway, I will get pics of the chews given to the rescues tomorrow and maybe finish up (or at least continue working on, now that I have more vinegar) that last FN pan. I just read that sentence outloud and I was like "that FN pan" but it came out more like "that f'n pan" haha. Ain't that the truth. Anyway, I'm tired. Going to bed now.
So... just about nothing got done today in terms of things on my to-do list. I did remember to pick up the cheerios/other-cereal/pasta to make some more rat food, but did I make it? No. But it's sitting in this box waiting to be taken down to the basement, that counts for something, right? (I should note, they do have food down there to last a few more days, I just need to add to their current stash).
Also picked up yet another gallon of vinegar and some more sandwich-size baggies (on sale for $1). So I suppose getting the rat food and this stuff did get one thing off my list... but then I came home, answered a few emails and phone calls, and went and took a nap.
Before I did that though... I had someone call about Spots and Princess (yay!). They wanted to come tomorrow, but weren't sure what time they had dinner with their parents, so he said he'll call me tomorrow.... otherwise this weekend he can come. Either works, no big deal either way. A few days doesn't make all that much of a difference.
Then had someone call about Tallie. Had marked her on hold when I heard that voicemail cause I remember the last time I had her up for adoption, within days I had waaaay too many emails asking about her, so I figure I'd head it off early this time. Called the person back - turns out, it was this one who'd posted on my fb page about her own tripod. Is looking for a companion for hers, and apparently her older chins aren't tolerating the younger one (tripod) well. Well... Tallie would have probably been a good fit for that, she's really tolerant of other chins, but so would a variety of chins that we have. She wasn't ready to adopt anyway, she said she wanted to get another cage all set up and ready so that in case she did get another chin and the two didn't get along, she'd just have another cage. So I took down her name and number and what she's looking for and she said she'll call back soon.
So then, those people that came the other day to get the 10 lbs of hay, they came back today.
---side note--- I had someone ask me why I don't use names on here, I suppose I don't because I don't know if people really want to be named in the blog. Anonymity has it's advantages. Like if I said "oh I talked to Ashley today and she has two of our adoptive chins and she's feeding them carrots! How horrible!" people might know who I'm talking about, and that person could get mad. I don't want to unintentionally upset anyone. I do believe I have used names (maybe?) when I post pics of the chins with their new owners. If not here, then for sure on my fb page --- but I don't want to alienate anyone on here.---
So, back to life, those people came back. Said they wanted to do a trial run with Tallie, so I actually took the time to create a form that people will have to sign saying they agree to put down a deposit and to give the chin and supplies back after the trial period, and (perhaps most importantly) that by putting down a deposit, they do not own the chin or any supplies. Cause we really do get all types, and I could see that coming up at some point. So, they came here and signed the form and took Tallie home. They were here for awhile, very nice people. The daughter made little toys for all of the rescues! How sweet! We never get things donated. I mean, we do, but like donating a cage that someone's otherwise going to throw away -- that's great, I won't deny that, but for someone to actually take the time to make something for the rescues, that is just awesome. Thanks!!! :) I did take a picture with her holding one of the little treat bags, but my camera's downstairs still, so that picture will have to wait for tomorrow.
Actually, my procrastination paid off this time! (see, this is why I'll never stop) When the last trial run ended (two days into it), the person was from Valpo, and since I work in Hobart 3 days a week, she met me at the office after work. So I had brought the blazer (which I normally never drive that far, cause it's horrible on gas) to work to hold the cage and get the supplies. Never did bring the cage back in the house, and the bag of supplies? Yeah, I had that sitting on my "work table" untouched. I had intended on going through it and putting stuff in its respective places... but... hadn't gotten around to it yet, and conveniently so, because I was able to grab the bag, make sure everything was in there that needed to be, and hand it over. And the cage was already outside in the blazer, so that saved me the effort of hauling it to the basement and then bringing it back upstairs for this trial run. See, procrastination does pay off! Lol.
And, even better, we were talking about cages and the father said he can get me some of those 1/4-28 screws that I need for the FN! How awesome! :)
So, they left, and I dunno what I've been doing with myself for the last 2-3 hours. Wait, no, I know, I've been responding to emails about various chin and rescue related stuff that would take too long to type out on my iphone. So I suppose that was getting something done. Also, brought up the babies a few times today to handfeed. The girl is just a dream. Sucks it up like no tomorrow but the boy is like "nope! don't like the stuff!" Little stinker. They're still young, so they're still only eating maybe 2-3 CC at a time (or they should be anyway, the boy only wants to eat 1 CC at a time, and even that's a struggle). So we'll see how they do. I wish I was home more often cause it's hard to feed them all the time when I'm gone at least 8 hours a day, but whatcha gonna do. I do the best I can. I believe all (if not all, then almost all) of our handfed babies that didn't have other underlying health issues have lived to adulthood and have gone on to be adopted and live normal lives, so must be doing something right. Will feed em more tomorrow.
Oh! At work (Meijer) today, my boss was starting to set up for the back to school displays and all. Can't wait actually. Not for school to return, because grad school is year round (currently on break, starts back up on Monday, ugh), but because of the sales. (and here is how this is chin-related). Back to school time is when I stock up on the Elmer's glue. I want to say it's like 10 bottles for $4.00 or something like that, and I think last year I bought like 15 bottles? I believe I have three left. Hey, gotta stock up while the stuff's on sale, every cent saved helps the rescue pay for food/treats/care for the rescues, so I try to save when I can. Which means the next time cheerios are on sale, I should buy up the whole shelf, and the next time those pasta things are 10 for $10, I should also buy the whole shelf. Cause when we have rats, man do we go through those things like water.
Speaking of rescues, didn't hear back from the rabbit guy. Maybe he didn't intend to drop off any cages with the rabbits. Which would have been fine, but if I'm not getting cages with them, then I can only take in 2, cause I only have two cages...and in all reality, I would have to set up my last table to take in any more critters....so if he doesn't want to drop off the bunnies, ah well. Can't make him. Dunno if I've said it before on here, but out of every 10 people who say they want us to take in critters, only maybe 2 people actually make it here and drop off critters. Which is good for us, I suppose, or else we'd be overrun with rescues and have to turn people away or start a waiting list for rescues to come in, but at the same time, it also means that the majority of people who contact me about us taking in their pet will email a time or two and then I'll never hear back.
Well, anyway, I will get pics of the chews given to the rescues tomorrow and maybe finish up (or at least continue working on, now that I have more vinegar) that last FN pan. I just read that sentence outloud and I was like "that FN pan" but it came out more like "that f'n pan" haha. Ain't that the truth. Anyway, I'm tired. Going to bed now.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
One FN done... three to go. And even got other stuff accomplished today.
So today was actually a mildly productive day.
I finally got around to cutting the shelf for the person who emailed me last Friday. What I've been doing that prevented me from doing that for all those days, I couldn't tell you, but I did it today. Cut the shelf, cut the poo guards, found a box, weighed everything, calculated shipping, and emailed the person. Shipping for one freakin shelf turned out to be $16 (to CA though). For orders like this, I cut the stuff, but I won't sand it or glue the poo guards or anything until I KNOW that the person wants the shelf cause I have so many people that never respond back once I tell them what shipping is. Hey, I'm not making an arm and a leg on shipping, I charge just slightly higher than actual, cause I gotta buy tape and packaging stuff, but when I say S&H will be $16, it's likely actually like $15.25 and I'm just adding a small margin for error. Since I am quoting the S&H before the box is all sealed and taped, so that could actually add some weight (and usually does, hence, I usually end up paying more shipping than I actually charge the person).
But anyway, this person got back to me super quick and asked if they could add to the order... well of course! :) So they asked for the link to my site, gave it to them (they likely had my email saved from when they did a previous order back in July of 2011 (and yes, I had to do an email search, my memory isn't that good), they got back to me with a list of several other things they wanted. And, totally unlike me, I actually started on the rest of their order today! Step 1 in beating procrastination: baby steps. I actually would have had their entire order almost done, but one of the things they ordered was a poo-guard shelf for one side of their FN. Well.... it depends on which side, since the end facing the front won't have a bolt.... so I had to email them and ask which side it's for. But other than that, I have the longer shelf all cut/glued and drying. Will put bolts in it likely tomorrow. Then I got everything else that didn't require cutting together, and so now, everything's put aside. Even have all the poo-guards cut for the shorter shelf, just need to know which side it's going on and I can glue that one and get it ready.
Then, since it was daylight hours when I was working on all of this, I was able to finish working on the one FN. I needed to cut a shelf or two, and I realized that this one shelf... well, as I'm always telling people "chins can't fly" -- I needed to listen to my own advice, so I had to take this one shelf out, cut a hole in it, and put it back. Cause otherwise I dunno how I expected the chins to get up to this shelf. But I totally finished the one FN today, and it looks great. Some pics:
I finally got around to cutting the shelf for the person who emailed me last Friday. What I've been doing that prevented me from doing that for all those days, I couldn't tell you, but I did it today. Cut the shelf, cut the poo guards, found a box, weighed everything, calculated shipping, and emailed the person. Shipping for one freakin shelf turned out to be $16 (to CA though). For orders like this, I cut the stuff, but I won't sand it or glue the poo guards or anything until I KNOW that the person wants the shelf cause I have so many people that never respond back once I tell them what shipping is. Hey, I'm not making an arm and a leg on shipping, I charge just slightly higher than actual, cause I gotta buy tape and packaging stuff, but when I say S&H will be $16, it's likely actually like $15.25 and I'm just adding a small margin for error. Since I am quoting the S&H before the box is all sealed and taped, so that could actually add some weight (and usually does, hence, I usually end up paying more shipping than I actually charge the person).
But anyway, this person got back to me super quick and asked if they could add to the order... well of course! :) So they asked for the link to my site, gave it to them (they likely had my email saved from when they did a previous order back in July of 2011 (and yes, I had to do an email search, my memory isn't that good), they got back to me with a list of several other things they wanted. And, totally unlike me, I actually started on the rest of their order today! Step 1 in beating procrastination: baby steps. I actually would have had their entire order almost done, but one of the things they ordered was a poo-guard shelf for one side of their FN. Well.... it depends on which side, since the end facing the front won't have a bolt.... so I had to email them and ask which side it's for. But other than that, I have the longer shelf all cut/glued and drying. Will put bolts in it likely tomorrow. Then I got everything else that didn't require cutting together, and so now, everything's put aside. Even have all the poo-guards cut for the shorter shelf, just need to know which side it's going on and I can glue that one and get it ready.
Then, since it was daylight hours when I was working on all of this, I was able to finish working on the one FN. I needed to cut a shelf or two, and I realized that this one shelf... well, as I'm always telling people "chins can't fly" -- I needed to listen to my own advice, so I had to take this one shelf out, cut a hole in it, and put it back. Cause otherwise I dunno how I expected the chins to get up to this shelf. But I totally finished the one FN today, and it looks great. Some pics:
Even found a food bowl in my food bowl box that I could use to color coordinate! Haha. The little things make me happy.
Got an email from someone with some rabbits today, asking if we could help him. I asked if they're caged together, separate, what? Cause I told him we only have one or maybe two spare cages that could be used for rabbits right now, and if they're housed separately, I'd need a cage to come in. We'll see if I hear back.
Kits, FN's, and other stuff
So, went down today to weigh Lilly's kits. The one weighed 50 when it was born, weighed 49/50 today. The other weighed 49 when born, weighed 44 today. The last... passed a few days ago. So obviously, this isn't good. Well, some chin moms don't get in milk the first day, so we had been leaving the babies with mom to see if she would get in milk, but by this point, she should have gotten it. And I do believe she got some, or else that 49/50 kit would not be holding its weight, but she clearly doesn't have enough in. So, I warmed up an ice cube of the handfeeding formula and fed the kits. The one was much happier to eat than the other, but they'll both get used to it over the next few days.
This actually happened the last time... she had two kits, one died, the other I had to handfeed for quite some time and eventually the kit started eating on its own and I was able to stop the handfeeding towards the time the kit would have been weaned. Figured I'd give her another shot, sometimes with the first pregnancy not everything works perfect... but now that it's been two times, once these babies are weaned and we're sure Lilly isn't pregnant again, she will be sold to a pet home, no pedigree. So it'll be her and Ember, just waiting to see if they're pg and then they can go home. Though Ember is on month three of separation and no noticeable weight gain, but I still want her to have another weigh in or two to be sure.
So today, had some people, a mom & her daughter, stop by for some hay, a food bowl, and some of those cardboard bagels. Very nice people, I believe they said they're eventually going to get a chin. And said the daughter reads the blog (if you're reading this, hi!!! lol). Nice to know someone reads what I write! I could just be talking to a wall.
But anyway. Should've worked to clean that last FN pan today, but I think I took a nap instead. But I did go down and work on setting up one of the FN's. With all our rescues still here and just having gotten in Daisy and Delilah, I can no longer pull one of the FN's we normally use to the side and fix it up, but I have one all put together with the pans cleaned and all. And I got in the fleece sets that I ordered from CnH. Got those yesterday. So I worked on putting together one of the FN's. Didn't really realize it ahead of time, but there is a lot of stuff in those sets. Like, there's the hammock, the corner hammock, the pillow, the hanging house, the tube... that takes up a huge portion of cage space as it is! Which isn't a bad thing, I was just amazed that I didn't have to stick like a zillion shelves in the cage cause I had so many other things to stick in. I still need to put in a shelf or two.... I put in two shelves, ones that were already cut to a decent length that I was able to just put the hardware in and hang, but I think I need one more shelf and that would require turning on the saw and cutting wood... and that just can't be done at 2 am. At least, not if I don't want my parents murdering me in my sleep, haha. So that can wait til tomorrow.
Hung up some toys in the cage... Since I have been selling so many cages, I have toys galore from those cages that I had all in a tub on the side, so I was going to hang some of those up, and then I realized, I wanted to color coordinate toys. I know, I've lost my mind. But anyway, so portions of them were neutral (wood being beige/brown versus a certain color) so I only had to take off a piece or two here that might've been orange or purple or whatever... and put pieces in place that were blue or yellow or green, to match the fleece set (I did the cage in the striped fleece). So now some of the toys have colored pieces that match with the liner set -- looks good!
No pics yet, of anything, cause I still need to finish that one last shelf. And I took all the doors off the FN so I could more easily attach the shelves and all, and that one stinkin door (the one I had to hammer like mad with the rubber mallet to get it off) was STILL a pain to get off (though I didn't need the rubber mallet) so I'm going to have to dig out some wd-40 or something to coat the hinges. Cause that's ridiculous. I don't need the doors to fly off if you touch them wrong but this is a bit much. And it's just the one door. But I might as well do all four while I'm at it. And then once the doors are back on the FN's, I need to see if it would be good placement to have any ledges or any anything hung/attached to the doors, and once ALL that's done... then pics.
And eventually, I'll have the screws and be able to put a second FN together, and then the others will have to wait until I have a few less rescues so I have the cages free to pull out of use, completely strip down and clean, and change over to fleece accessories. Course, when I have all four FN's changed over, then I want to rearrange where all the cages are and how the whole set-up is... so I guess I'm hoping for a short period of time where I have less-than-usual amount of rescues so that I can do this stuff easier. We'll see. Gotta adopt out some rescues first.
This actually happened the last time... she had two kits, one died, the other I had to handfeed for quite some time and eventually the kit started eating on its own and I was able to stop the handfeeding towards the time the kit would have been weaned. Figured I'd give her another shot, sometimes with the first pregnancy not everything works perfect... but now that it's been two times, once these babies are weaned and we're sure Lilly isn't pregnant again, she will be sold to a pet home, no pedigree. So it'll be her and Ember, just waiting to see if they're pg and then they can go home. Though Ember is on month three of separation and no noticeable weight gain, but I still want her to have another weigh in or two to be sure.
So today, had some people, a mom & her daughter, stop by for some hay, a food bowl, and some of those cardboard bagels. Very nice people, I believe they said they're eventually going to get a chin. And said the daughter reads the blog (if you're reading this, hi!!! lol). Nice to know someone reads what I write! I could just be talking to a wall.
But anyway. Should've worked to clean that last FN pan today, but I think I took a nap instead. But I did go down and work on setting up one of the FN's. With all our rescues still here and just having gotten in Daisy and Delilah, I can no longer pull one of the FN's we normally use to the side and fix it up, but I have one all put together with the pans cleaned and all. And I got in the fleece sets that I ordered from CnH. Got those yesterday. So I worked on putting together one of the FN's. Didn't really realize it ahead of time, but there is a lot of stuff in those sets. Like, there's the hammock, the corner hammock, the pillow, the hanging house, the tube... that takes up a huge portion of cage space as it is! Which isn't a bad thing, I was just amazed that I didn't have to stick like a zillion shelves in the cage cause I had so many other things to stick in. I still need to put in a shelf or two.... I put in two shelves, ones that were already cut to a decent length that I was able to just put the hardware in and hang, but I think I need one more shelf and that would require turning on the saw and cutting wood... and that just can't be done at 2 am. At least, not if I don't want my parents murdering me in my sleep, haha. So that can wait til tomorrow.
Hung up some toys in the cage... Since I have been selling so many cages, I have toys galore from those cages that I had all in a tub on the side, so I was going to hang some of those up, and then I realized, I wanted to color coordinate toys. I know, I've lost my mind. But anyway, so portions of them were neutral (wood being beige/brown versus a certain color) so I only had to take off a piece or two here that might've been orange or purple or whatever... and put pieces in place that were blue or yellow or green, to match the fleece set (I did the cage in the striped fleece). So now some of the toys have colored pieces that match with the liner set -- looks good!
No pics yet, of anything, cause I still need to finish that one last shelf. And I took all the doors off the FN so I could more easily attach the shelves and all, and that one stinkin door (the one I had to hammer like mad with the rubber mallet to get it off) was STILL a pain to get off (though I didn't need the rubber mallet) so I'm going to have to dig out some wd-40 or something to coat the hinges. Cause that's ridiculous. I don't need the doors to fly off if you touch them wrong but this is a bit much. And it's just the one door. But I might as well do all four while I'm at it. And then once the doors are back on the FN's, I need to see if it would be good placement to have any ledges or any anything hung/attached to the doors, and once ALL that's done... then pics.
And eventually, I'll have the screws and be able to put a second FN together, and then the others will have to wait until I have a few less rescues so I have the cages free to pull out of use, completely strip down and clean, and change over to fleece accessories. Course, when I have all four FN's changed over, then I want to rearrange where all the cages are and how the whole set-up is... so I guess I'm hoping for a short period of time where I have less-than-usual amount of rescues so that I can do this stuff easier. We'll see. Gotta adopt out some rescues first.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
The last day or so... ugh.
So, the last day or two have been a bit frustrating. Yesterday, I had two people meet me at my work after work to drop off chins. The one was Annabelle, who we got back from her "trial run" with her new family. The person ended up telling me she thought she might be more allergic to the pine than to the chin, but didn't seem really interested in hearing about alternatives. Though, she would have still had the pine shelves, so oh well. Got Annabelle back and gave the girl her deposit back.
So, having a single chin up for adoption, I emailed one of the people on our waiting list and told them that she will be up for adoption if they are interested, and I told them how the previous home had fallen through. Well, I got an email back stating that they thought chins were hypoallergenic. Well.... they're not. It's a common misconception, but a misconception nonetheless. He said his daughter is allergic to cats so he didn't know how she might do with chins. So I emailed back saying they could do the same thing -- put down a deposit and take home a chin/cage and see how it goes. Haven't heard back from them yet -- they did say they're on vacation, so we'll see in a few days.
Haven't yet heard from the person who I emailed about Tallie and Lilly. They'll get a few days and then I'll email the next person in line.
Got an email yesterday from one of the people coming Saturday to see the rats. Originally they said they were going to pick out either two females or two males, so I had the females all on hold for them, and I had someone else looking at the males. Well, then yesterday I get an email from the people who were ok with either males/females... the email said now they only were interested in males. Well.... I had just told the other person they'd have their pick of males (either a trio or a loner that got beat up and was separated). So I emailed the person interested in the males, asking if she wanted to either come earlier or to pick out which males she wanted ahead of time, as she's scheduled to come AFTER the other rat people on Saturday. She emailed back saying she wanted the lone male, so that would leave the other three males as potential rats to adopt for the first people. So, I emailed the first people saying that we did have three males, that they were all young (they said in the email they wanted them "as young as possible"), and so on. Got an email back today from the first people asking if the males were dumbo eared. I went back and re-read their original email saying they wanted males, and it did say they wanted dumbo eared males as young as possible. Ugh. So I can't remember off the top of my head if they are dumbos or not, so I emailed them saying I would check when I get home.
Here's the thing though -- we are a rescue. Not a petshop. Not a rat breeder. Saying they want dumbo eared males as young as possible -- it just depends on what we get in. As a rescue, we typically don't get in "babies" or any specialty anything. We get in pets when people no longer want them or can't care for them any longer. That means... we get the very "basic" type of each pet. For chinchillas, we mostly get standard greys. Not violets, not sapphires, not blue diamonds -- definitely not kits. Maybe a beige or a white once in a blue moon, but mostly standards. Cause that's what your average chin is -- a standard. For rats -- we typically get in black hooded rats -- cause that's what you see everywhere. Mostly normal eared, because that's your "typical" rat. Just like the fancy colors in chinchillas are mutations, so are the dumbo ears in rats. Sure, the dumbo ears are more popular nowadays and more common than the variety of different chin colors but still. Anyway, point being, here is what I think it all boils down to -- you can only be so picky when adopting animals from a rescue.
Anyway, I will check that when I get home, back on track -- we also got Daisy and Delilah back in yesterday. I suppose I could turn that into another rant, but I won't. But I will talk about it. The people gave me the chins, their food, and a container of dust with them. The food... can't remember what type it was off the top of my head (and I'm at work, so I can't check) but it was the kind that looks like only pellets, but when you read the back, has pureed carrots and apples and all sorts of other bad stuff in it. Really? Cause those people wrote on the form (well, I bet they did, wait til I get it out later) that they were going to feed Mazuri. Like seriously, don't lie to me. I have no way to verify what the people write on the form, it could all be lies, but you'd think they'd just folow what the rescue says is best. I mean, I would. And here's the thing -- Mazuri's no more expensive than the crap they bought, so why not buy what's recommended? Ok, done with that.
Moving onto the next aggravation. Got the adoption form in the mail from the people adopting Ember's baby this weekend. The adoption form itself looked fine, for the most part, but they put down that they were going to feed Kaytee Fiesta Max food. Um... problem. Reading further down the form, they had written "yes" that they had read the care packet. Funny that, cause the care packet clearly states that the Kaytee foods are the WORST feeds you could feed, in part because they have all that extra junk (other than pellets) in them. So, I emailed the father (cause I don't know how old the kid I'm talking to is) and I told him that they can't purchase the chinchilla if they plan on feeding that food, because, as the care packet says, it's bad for them and can significantly shorten their lifespan. I said something about asking them to let me know what other food they plan to feed, and if it's one of the good ones, then they'll be all set to adopt. Waiting for that email now.
On a positive note, I got in the three sets of FN stuff from the person I ordered from on CNH. Only pulled one of them out of the box to look at them. Was much too tired last night to even take them down and try to set up a FN with those and shelves and all, so I figured I'll maybe do that today. I would like to set up one of the FN's today if possible, we'll see.
Had to put Daisy and Delilah in one of our smaller spare cages. Without moving everything around like a nut, there's a drop-down post in the ceiling that prevented me from giving them a larger cage. They'll be fine for now though.
Oh, last thing. The place I order my ceramic food bowls from is killing me right now. Maybe 2-3 weeks ago, I ordered 10 food bowls from them. All but 3 came in pieces. So I called up the company and said hey, so many broke, they said they will send replacements. So, they re-sent the 7 that broke. Four of them arrived fine... the other three broke. I received it in two shipments -- one box with 1 bowl (was in one piece) and another box with six bowls (3 of which broke). So I called up the company yet again and said hey, more broke, and I still want replacements (versus money back) so now I should be getting three more. The lady I talked to asked me if the box was all banged up and I said no. I told her that the problem is that all there is is this little tiny piece of thin bubble wrap around each bowl and a few of those air pocket things in the box, but there's a lot of empty box space, so if the box was turned upside down or something, everything would move and clink against each other, and break. And like, when I say they came broken, I don't mean broken like oh there's a chip on the bottom... I mean broken like there's so many pieces you couldn't even put them back together if you (for some odd reason) wanted to. And I know awhile back I was talking to Jean (of TJ's) about this and she was saying she has the same problem when she orders food bowls and that kind of stuff, that they'll come broken and she'll have to get them to send more, and at the time, I remember saying she should switch suppliers, and I do remember her saying that it didn't matter, they were all like that. And for me, since I don't have a tax ID, I'm sort of stuck with this one place that I get mine, cause it's the only place that has halfway reasonable prices. Ah well. I suppose it's the company's loss -- I'm not paying for them to re-send and re-send and re-send, they're the ones loosing money because the bowls are packed so badly and they have to keep reshipping them and so on. Not my problem really, but I would just like to get in 10 uncracked/broken ones and be able to stick them in my drawer until people buy them and be done with it.
So, having a single chin up for adoption, I emailed one of the people on our waiting list and told them that she will be up for adoption if they are interested, and I told them how the previous home had fallen through. Well, I got an email back stating that they thought chins were hypoallergenic. Well.... they're not. It's a common misconception, but a misconception nonetheless. He said his daughter is allergic to cats so he didn't know how she might do with chins. So I emailed back saying they could do the same thing -- put down a deposit and take home a chin/cage and see how it goes. Haven't heard back from them yet -- they did say they're on vacation, so we'll see in a few days.
Haven't yet heard from the person who I emailed about Tallie and Lilly. They'll get a few days and then I'll email the next person in line.
Got an email yesterday from one of the people coming Saturday to see the rats. Originally they said they were going to pick out either two females or two males, so I had the females all on hold for them, and I had someone else looking at the males. Well, then yesterday I get an email from the people who were ok with either males/females... the email said now they only were interested in males. Well.... I had just told the other person they'd have their pick of males (either a trio or a loner that got beat up and was separated). So I emailed the person interested in the males, asking if she wanted to either come earlier or to pick out which males she wanted ahead of time, as she's scheduled to come AFTER the other rat people on Saturday. She emailed back saying she wanted the lone male, so that would leave the other three males as potential rats to adopt for the first people. So, I emailed the first people saying that we did have three males, that they were all young (they said in the email they wanted them "as young as possible"), and so on. Got an email back today from the first people asking if the males were dumbo eared. I went back and re-read their original email saying they wanted males, and it did say they wanted dumbo eared males as young as possible. Ugh. So I can't remember off the top of my head if they are dumbos or not, so I emailed them saying I would check when I get home.
Here's the thing though -- we are a rescue. Not a petshop. Not a rat breeder. Saying they want dumbo eared males as young as possible -- it just depends on what we get in. As a rescue, we typically don't get in "babies" or any specialty anything. We get in pets when people no longer want them or can't care for them any longer. That means... we get the very "basic" type of each pet. For chinchillas, we mostly get standard greys. Not violets, not sapphires, not blue diamonds -- definitely not kits. Maybe a beige or a white once in a blue moon, but mostly standards. Cause that's what your average chin is -- a standard. For rats -- we typically get in black hooded rats -- cause that's what you see everywhere. Mostly normal eared, because that's your "typical" rat. Just like the fancy colors in chinchillas are mutations, so are the dumbo ears in rats. Sure, the dumbo ears are more popular nowadays and more common than the variety of different chin colors but still. Anyway, point being, here is what I think it all boils down to -- you can only be so picky when adopting animals from a rescue.
Anyway, I will check that when I get home, back on track -- we also got Daisy and Delilah back in yesterday. I suppose I could turn that into another rant, but I won't. But I will talk about it. The people gave me the chins, their food, and a container of dust with them. The food... can't remember what type it was off the top of my head (and I'm at work, so I can't check) but it was the kind that looks like only pellets, but when you read the back, has pureed carrots and apples and all sorts of other bad stuff in it. Really? Cause those people wrote on the form (well, I bet they did, wait til I get it out later) that they were going to feed Mazuri. Like seriously, don't lie to me. I have no way to verify what the people write on the form, it could all be lies, but you'd think they'd just folow what the rescue says is best. I mean, I would. And here's the thing -- Mazuri's no more expensive than the crap they bought, so why not buy what's recommended? Ok, done with that.
Moving onto the next aggravation. Got the adoption form in the mail from the people adopting Ember's baby this weekend. The adoption form itself looked fine, for the most part, but they put down that they were going to feed Kaytee Fiesta Max food. Um... problem. Reading further down the form, they had written "yes" that they had read the care packet. Funny that, cause the care packet clearly states that the Kaytee foods are the WORST feeds you could feed, in part because they have all that extra junk (other than pellets) in them. So, I emailed the father (cause I don't know how old the kid I'm talking to is) and I told him that they can't purchase the chinchilla if they plan on feeding that food, because, as the care packet says, it's bad for them and can significantly shorten their lifespan. I said something about asking them to let me know what other food they plan to feed, and if it's one of the good ones, then they'll be all set to adopt. Waiting for that email now.
On a positive note, I got in the three sets of FN stuff from the person I ordered from on CNH. Only pulled one of them out of the box to look at them. Was much too tired last night to even take them down and try to set up a FN with those and shelves and all, so I figured I'll maybe do that today. I would like to set up one of the FN's today if possible, we'll see.
Had to put Daisy and Delilah in one of our smaller spare cages. Without moving everything around like a nut, there's a drop-down post in the ceiling that prevented me from giving them a larger cage. They'll be fine for now though.
Oh, last thing. The place I order my ceramic food bowls from is killing me right now. Maybe 2-3 weeks ago, I ordered 10 food bowls from them. All but 3 came in pieces. So I called up the company and said hey, so many broke, they said they will send replacements. So, they re-sent the 7 that broke. Four of them arrived fine... the other three broke. I received it in two shipments -- one box with 1 bowl (was in one piece) and another box with six bowls (3 of which broke). So I called up the company yet again and said hey, more broke, and I still want replacements (versus money back) so now I should be getting three more. The lady I talked to asked me if the box was all banged up and I said no. I told her that the problem is that all there is is this little tiny piece of thin bubble wrap around each bowl and a few of those air pocket things in the box, but there's a lot of empty box space, so if the box was turned upside down or something, everything would move and clink against each other, and break. And like, when I say they came broken, I don't mean broken like oh there's a chip on the bottom... I mean broken like there's so many pieces you couldn't even put them back together if you (for some odd reason) wanted to. And I know awhile back I was talking to Jean (of TJ's) about this and she was saying she has the same problem when she orders food bowls and that kind of stuff, that they'll come broken and she'll have to get them to send more, and at the time, I remember saying she should switch suppliers, and I do remember her saying that it didn't matter, they were all like that. And for me, since I don't have a tax ID, I'm sort of stuck with this one place that I get mine, cause it's the only place that has halfway reasonable prices. Ah well. I suppose it's the company's loss -- I'm not paying for them to re-send and re-send and re-send, they're the ones loosing money because the bowls are packed so badly and they have to keep reshipping them and so on. Not my problem really, but I would just like to get in 10 uncracked/broken ones and be able to stick them in my drawer until people buy them and be done with it.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
All-around not-good day today
So today may be one of the worst days we've had for awhile. Not like bad-bad, but homes falling through and everything. Let's start at the beginning.
I go downstairs to check on the pets and feed and water them, and Lilly's little standard grey female kit had died. :( Poor thing.
So moving on, I get to the male rat cage, and the three rats have chewed up the fourth, he had puncture wounds on his neck and head so I separated him. The other three are very chummily snuggling right now.
So then, our to-be-adoptive-home drives 6 hours through storms and bad weather to come here to adopt Lilly and Tallie. Turns out... she's allergic to chins. Has a bad reaction right after holding them. So, Lilly and Tallie are still here. I did have two other people wanting to know if that adoption fell through, so I emailed the first of the two. We'll see if I hear back.
Then, the people who took Annabelle home the other day for the "trial run"... got an email, her allergies are getting worse with every day the chin's there. So, she's going to meet me tomorrow after work to take the chin back. So, I emailed the first person on my waiting list wanting a single chin. We'll see if I hear back from them.
Hopefully nothing else goes wrong. There's still some hours left in the day....
I go downstairs to check on the pets and feed and water them, and Lilly's little standard grey female kit had died. :( Poor thing.
So moving on, I get to the male rat cage, and the three rats have chewed up the fourth, he had puncture wounds on his neck and head so I separated him. The other three are very chummily snuggling right now.
So then, our to-be-adoptive-home drives 6 hours through storms and bad weather to come here to adopt Lilly and Tallie. Turns out... she's allergic to chins. Has a bad reaction right after holding them. So, Lilly and Tallie are still here. I did have two other people wanting to know if that adoption fell through, so I emailed the first of the two. We'll see if I hear back.
Then, the people who took Annabelle home the other day for the "trial run"... got an email, her allergies are getting worse with every day the chin's there. So, she's going to meet me tomorrow after work to take the chin back. So, I emailed the first person on my waiting list wanting a single chin. We'll see if I hear back from them.
Hopefully nothing else goes wrong. There's still some hours left in the day....
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Not much going on today
Well, today was a slow day. Worked most of the day, went to church, went to my grandma's for her 87th birthday.... so for chin stuff... not all that much time.
Did get a few emails though -- the person who was supposed to come tomorrow to pick out two rats now is working and needs to reschedule... so I can sleep in and let her reschedule for sometime during the week.
The person picking up Tallie & Lilly tomorrow emailed me with directions she pulled off of mapquest or something like that. Looked pretty good, I emailed her back with some hints and pointers to go along with the directions.
The person getting Ember's kit emailed me back that they're all set on their end to get the chin. I checked, I don't have their adoption form, which they said they were going to mail on the 23rd. I don't know if they actually did/didn't mail that form, so I emailed them back asking about that. ]
Haven't heard from the person with the borrowed chin yet, so I assume things must not have gone horribly. Course, the longer the chin's there, the more allergens will build up, so we'll see what her decision is at the end of the week.
I have someone who wants to know what it'll cost for a shelf and shipping... so I need to cut the shelf, make it with poo guards and then weigh it and figure out shipping... I should do that tonight, but it's late and I'm tired... so tomorrow, after my Tallie/Lilly adoption is done with.
Did get a few emails though -- the person who was supposed to come tomorrow to pick out two rats now is working and needs to reschedule... so I can sleep in and let her reschedule for sometime during the week.
The person picking up Tallie & Lilly tomorrow emailed me with directions she pulled off of mapquest or something like that. Looked pretty good, I emailed her back with some hints and pointers to go along with the directions.
The person getting Ember's kit emailed me back that they're all set on their end to get the chin. I checked, I don't have their adoption form, which they said they were going to mail on the 23rd. I don't know if they actually did/didn't mail that form, so I emailed them back asking about that. ]
Haven't heard from the person with the borrowed chin yet, so I assume things must not have gone horribly. Course, the longer the chin's there, the more allergens will build up, so we'll see what her decision is at the end of the week.
I have someone who wants to know what it'll cost for a shelf and shipping... so I need to cut the shelf, make it with poo guards and then weigh it and figure out shipping... I should do that tonight, but it's late and I'm tired... so tomorrow, after my Tallie/Lilly adoption is done with.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Not much luck today
So, went to Ace today to see if they had any more of those screws (for the FN). Course, they didn't. Finally convinced the guy I was talking to to actually put in an order for me, so he said someone will give me a call when the order comes in. Hopefully, that'll be soon.
Then, I got another webstore order today, for a food bowl. Packaged it up in a small box, with some of those air pocket things to keep it as light as possible. Shipping ended up being $5.50. My webstore charged her $2.50. So the total for the entire order with shipping was $6.50 and $5.50 of that was shipping. That food bowl cost me a lot more than the $1 I made on it! Well, at least this alerted me to the fact that that food bowl needs a good sized hike in it's shipping on the webstore. So for next time, I won't lose out so much money on shipping one item out.
On a happier note, the person coming to do a trial run with one of our chins came today. Picked up the chin, food, cage, and all that, and we got it all loaded into her car. So she's going to let me know how everything goes with the chin -- hopefully she won't be allergic with just the one. Cause it's one thing to be at our place, with all the animals, and have an allergic reaction, versus to be at your own house with one extra animal. So we'll see, she's going to let me know.
Haven't heard back from the people with the two prairie dogs. Considering they'd said that they'd hope to hear from me soon, I would have thought I would have heard back, but I guess not. When that kind of thing happens, it makes me wonder what happens to the pet. Like probably only 20% of the people who email/call asking us to take in the pet actually bring over their pet. So what about the other 80%? Do they sell the pet? Do they decide to keep the pet? Who knows.
Then, I got another webstore order today, for a food bowl. Packaged it up in a small box, with some of those air pocket things to keep it as light as possible. Shipping ended up being $5.50. My webstore charged her $2.50. So the total for the entire order with shipping was $6.50 and $5.50 of that was shipping. That food bowl cost me a lot more than the $1 I made on it! Well, at least this alerted me to the fact that that food bowl needs a good sized hike in it's shipping on the webstore. So for next time, I won't lose out so much money on shipping one item out.
On a happier note, the person coming to do a trial run with one of our chins came today. Picked up the chin, food, cage, and all that, and we got it all loaded into her car. So she's going to let me know how everything goes with the chin -- hopefully she won't be allergic with just the one. Cause it's one thing to be at our place, with all the animals, and have an allergic reaction, versus to be at your own house with one extra animal. So we'll see, she's going to let me know.
Haven't heard back from the people with the two prairie dogs. Considering they'd said that they'd hope to hear from me soon, I would have thought I would have heard back, but I guess not. When that kind of thing happens, it makes me wonder what happens to the pet. Like probably only 20% of the people who email/call asking us to take in the pet actually bring over their pet. So what about the other 80%? Do they sell the pet? Do they decide to keep the pet? Who knows.
Cleaning and more FN stuff and orders
So, came home, realized that it's gotten kind of messy downstairs. Vaccuumed the tables, gave everyone food/water, and realized, hey, Ember's kit is getting quite huge. Like she's probably 400-450 grams already she is BIG for how old she is (born 4/1). She's going home on the 8th. And then we'll hang onto Ember a bit longer to check she's not pregnant, and then she can be adopted out as well. So, I moved the two of them to one of our empty QC's and cleaned their previous cage and put it by our other spare cages.
Which reminded me that I needed to do those FN pans. So, with a lot of scrubbing, I got one of the two pans I was working on completely done. Sprayed the entire thing down with my simple green/vinegar mixture and wiped it down, and boy did the grime come off. Flipped the pan over, and the entire thing was sticky and so I had to spray all of that and wipe all of that down as well. Ickkk.
For the second pan, got a good start on that corner... let the vinegar sit for awhile and scrubbed... but for some reason I didn't start on the 2nd pan til I had the first done so the vinegar didn't have enough time to penetrate and so I ended up leaving a rag soaked in fresh vinegar on the part that really needs some TLC. So hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get the rest of that off, spray down that pan and wipe down all sides and back of it.
Which makes me think, I don't know if I did that for the pan that I put IN the FN. While I scrubbed the deposits and stains mostly off, I don't know if I sprayed it down at the end or flipped it over to clean, so I should probably pull that out of the FN and clean that, just to be safe. With the condition (or lack of) that these cages were in, I wouldn't want to take any chances on the previous chins passing anything to ours.
So, I have two people working on liners for me at the moment. From CnH I have someone who made me me three sets -- two liners each (one with three... I'll explain), a hanging house w/ pillow, a pillow, a hammock, a corner hammock, and a fleece tube with cover. So, for the one with three liners -- since we are going to have two extra pans and will be able to easily split 2 FN's if needed, I got an extra liner with no cut-out. That way, if we split the FN, I will have two of the same liners, one for the top and one for the bottom. And it's not like I couldn't have made the hammocks and pillows myself, but I wanted it all to match, and finding the exact same fabric... well... I just don't have the time to be sure I get the exact same thing, only to find out I didn't. So the total for three sets with shipping ended up being $254 (and that's WITH a discount that the person was nice enough to give me). Ouch. But..... these are cages that are/will be used for the rescues, and we had a $250 donation earlier this year. We'll just say the donation paid for that. And the person making the liners said she threw in some various sticks for the chins, so they'll be happy for that. The little extras are always welcome and appreciated.
So since I'm sure everyone's dying to see our new liners... some pics:
I emailed that person who has been working on my order since Feb. -- my other liners and stuff should be leopard print -- haven't heard back.
Then, Jean (of TJs) is making liners (guess we're gonna have an extra set if the leopard one ever gets here, cause we only have four FNs) for us as well. They're going to be blue tie dye on top and blue merle on the bottom. And of course I couldn't get liners and not get other stuff from her, so I've got a whole order there.. .which I keep adding to! So she better hurry up and complete the order before I have one of everything as part of my order! Lol. So that's going to be a big dollar amount order as well. But I think these will be some of my first major orders of this year, so not doing too too bad.
So then, I packaged up the small order for the one person - that's all ready to go.
The person coming Sunday to adopt Tallie & Lilly has a $230 order, and only $130 of that is chins, so I spent today getting most of that put aside for her. Since my work table only has one cage on it right now (Aries' hamster cage) I actually had room to lay everything out... so I got her hammocks and cuddlebuddies ready, and so when she comes, I'll just have to remember to get her a 25 lb bag of food from our stack. And so she'll come, pick out a cage, get allllllll of her stuff, and she'll be all set. Very nice person.
Mixed up some more rat food. I swear they eat it like it's going out of style or something. I will have to pick up more cheerios, oatmeal squares, and pasta tomorrow after work. And vinegar, cause my gallon is almost out, after having to work on those pans....
Had someone email about wanting to adopt two male rats today -- emailed them the care packet and adoption form -- I hope I hear back from them... that would significantly bring our rat number down. Right now, we have 7 -- three females and four males. Well, on the 7th, I have someone coming to pick out their rats. If they choose females... I might have to suggest they get all three. Just a suggestion. Cause rats do like company. Even if they didn't, that would bring us down to 1 female, and then say the other person got two males, then that'd bring is down to 2 males, so 3 rats total. Our of our AWL rats. We also have the two rats that came in with Lilly, but they're caged separately, so that's a different story. And I think they might get adopted out if it wasn't for the fact that all our others are younger than them. So once the younger ones have been adopted out, I think Spots and Princess will have a better chance of being adopted out.
Got an email back from the people adopting Willow, Lexi, and Jordyn... said they want to come the 11th or 12th (I believe on their way to/from somewhere, where they'll pass this area). I will be working both days, so I sent them an email, let them know. Hopefully they'll be able to make it one of those days. That would free up the other FN to be scrubbed down and readied for liners and new accessories.
Have someone doing a trial run with a chinchilla for a week, they're picking up her and her stuff tomorrow (for a deposit, I haven't completely lost my mind). Got everything she could possibly need together. Cage, food bowl, water bottle, way too much food for a week, waay too much hay for a week, baggie of treats.. there are already hanging toys in the cage so I think she'll be set. Oh and a carrier for the chin. So that's all set up and ready to go, so I'll be seeing them tomorrow.
I'm sure I did more chin-related stuff today, but it's not coming to mind. Oh! Besides taking the usual rescues out for playtime and socialization, Winx and Toby (separately) got to come out for awhile today. Sadly, the pet chins are the last to come out when we have a ton of rescues. Fixed a toy in Winx's cage -- he had this toy where it was like a horizontal bar and it had three toy things hanging down from it. Well, it was just strung up by some safe rope stuff, which of course got chewed... so maybe a week or two ago I had re-strung (with wire this time) one of the pieces that had fallen down and re-hooked it up. Well, then the other two pieces fell after I did that, so today, I pulled out more wire and made another hanging thing to attach to the horizontal thing and to balance out the weight. So I put that up there and he was going all gaga over the new toy. My adorable baby.
That's another thing. I have so many toys and houses and various "things" on the side that are meant to go in the new FN's... once those are set up and are ready to be used (which will require the help of volunteers because we'll need to move tables, move cages around, and so on) the chins going into those cages (from other cages) are going to think they've hit the chinnie jackpot, cause those cages are going to be decked out. Not like our other cages aren't, but there's just so much more room in the FN's to do that sort of stuff.
Oh! Forgot to mention this the other day. Got Lola and Jessie in at the vet. Got new antibiotics to try with Jessie. For Lola... the vet ground down the one remaining tooth as low as she felt she could... still not even with the missing bottom tooth (well, obviously) but she said that all we can do is wait for them to start growing back in and THEN we can file them so they're even. And actually, she's doing well. She's eating enough on her own to maintain her weight. Still giving her CC a few times a day when I can fit it in, but since she is eating on her own, I'm not so worried about her. Jessie... we'll see how she takes to these antibiotics.
Which reminded me that I needed to do those FN pans. So, with a lot of scrubbing, I got one of the two pans I was working on completely done. Sprayed the entire thing down with my simple green/vinegar mixture and wiped it down, and boy did the grime come off. Flipped the pan over, and the entire thing was sticky and so I had to spray all of that and wipe all of that down as well. Ickkk.
For the second pan, got a good start on that corner... let the vinegar sit for awhile and scrubbed... but for some reason I didn't start on the 2nd pan til I had the first done so the vinegar didn't have enough time to penetrate and so I ended up leaving a rag soaked in fresh vinegar on the part that really needs some TLC. So hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get the rest of that off, spray down that pan and wipe down all sides and back of it.
Which makes me think, I don't know if I did that for the pan that I put IN the FN. While I scrubbed the deposits and stains mostly off, I don't know if I sprayed it down at the end or flipped it over to clean, so I should probably pull that out of the FN and clean that, just to be safe. With the condition (or lack of) that these cages were in, I wouldn't want to take any chances on the previous chins passing anything to ours.
So, I have two people working on liners for me at the moment. From CnH I have someone who made me me three sets -- two liners each (one with three... I'll explain), a hanging house w/ pillow, a pillow, a hammock, a corner hammock, and a fleece tube with cover. So, for the one with three liners -- since we are going to have two extra pans and will be able to easily split 2 FN's if needed, I got an extra liner with no cut-out. That way, if we split the FN, I will have two of the same liners, one for the top and one for the bottom. And it's not like I couldn't have made the hammocks and pillows myself, but I wanted it all to match, and finding the exact same fabric... well... I just don't have the time to be sure I get the exact same thing, only to find out I didn't. So the total for three sets with shipping ended up being $254 (and that's WITH a discount that the person was nice enough to give me). Ouch. But..... these are cages that are/will be used for the rescues, and we had a $250 donation earlier this year. We'll just say the donation paid for that. And the person making the liners said she threw in some various sticks for the chins, so they'll be happy for that. The little extras are always welcome and appreciated.
So since I'm sure everyone's dying to see our new liners... some pics:
I emailed that person who has been working on my order since Feb. -- my other liners and stuff should be leopard print -- haven't heard back.
Then, Jean (of TJs) is making liners (guess we're gonna have an extra set if the leopard one ever gets here, cause we only have four FNs) for us as well. They're going to be blue tie dye on top and blue merle on the bottom. And of course I couldn't get liners and not get other stuff from her, so I've got a whole order there.. .which I keep adding to! So she better hurry up and complete the order before I have one of everything as part of my order! Lol. So that's going to be a big dollar amount order as well. But I think these will be some of my first major orders of this year, so not doing too too bad.
So then, I packaged up the small order for the one person - that's all ready to go.
The person coming Sunday to adopt Tallie & Lilly has a $230 order, and only $130 of that is chins, so I spent today getting most of that put aside for her. Since my work table only has one cage on it right now (Aries' hamster cage) I actually had room to lay everything out... so I got her hammocks and cuddlebuddies ready, and so when she comes, I'll just have to remember to get her a 25 lb bag of food from our stack. And so she'll come, pick out a cage, get allllllll of her stuff, and she'll be all set. Very nice person.
Mixed up some more rat food. I swear they eat it like it's going out of style or something. I will have to pick up more cheerios, oatmeal squares, and pasta tomorrow after work. And vinegar, cause my gallon is almost out, after having to work on those pans....
Had someone email about wanting to adopt two male rats today -- emailed them the care packet and adoption form -- I hope I hear back from them... that would significantly bring our rat number down. Right now, we have 7 -- three females and four males. Well, on the 7th, I have someone coming to pick out their rats. If they choose females... I might have to suggest they get all three. Just a suggestion. Cause rats do like company. Even if they didn't, that would bring us down to 1 female, and then say the other person got two males, then that'd bring is down to 2 males, so 3 rats total. Our of our AWL rats. We also have the two rats that came in with Lilly, but they're caged separately, so that's a different story. And I think they might get adopted out if it wasn't for the fact that all our others are younger than them. So once the younger ones have been adopted out, I think Spots and Princess will have a better chance of being adopted out.
Got an email back from the people adopting Willow, Lexi, and Jordyn... said they want to come the 11th or 12th (I believe on their way to/from somewhere, where they'll pass this area). I will be working both days, so I sent them an email, let them know. Hopefully they'll be able to make it one of those days. That would free up the other FN to be scrubbed down and readied for liners and new accessories.
Have someone doing a trial run with a chinchilla for a week, they're picking up her and her stuff tomorrow (for a deposit, I haven't completely lost my mind). Got everything she could possibly need together. Cage, food bowl, water bottle, way too much food for a week, waay too much hay for a week, baggie of treats.. there are already hanging toys in the cage so I think she'll be set. Oh and a carrier for the chin. So that's all set up and ready to go, so I'll be seeing them tomorrow.
I'm sure I did more chin-related stuff today, but it's not coming to mind. Oh! Besides taking the usual rescues out for playtime and socialization, Winx and Toby (separately) got to come out for awhile today. Sadly, the pet chins are the last to come out when we have a ton of rescues. Fixed a toy in Winx's cage -- he had this toy where it was like a horizontal bar and it had three toy things hanging down from it. Well, it was just strung up by some safe rope stuff, which of course got chewed... so maybe a week or two ago I had re-strung (with wire this time) one of the pieces that had fallen down and re-hooked it up. Well, then the other two pieces fell after I did that, so today, I pulled out more wire and made another hanging thing to attach to the horizontal thing and to balance out the weight. So I put that up there and he was going all gaga over the new toy. My adorable baby.
That's another thing. I have so many toys and houses and various "things" on the side that are meant to go in the new FN's... once those are set up and are ready to be used (which will require the help of volunteers because we'll need to move tables, move cages around, and so on) the chins going into those cages (from other cages) are going to think they've hit the chinnie jackpot, cause those cages are going to be decked out. Not like our other cages aren't, but there's just so much more room in the FN's to do that sort of stuff.
Oh! Forgot to mention this the other day. Got Lola and Jessie in at the vet. Got new antibiotics to try with Jessie. For Lola... the vet ground down the one remaining tooth as low as she felt she could... still not even with the missing bottom tooth (well, obviously) but she said that all we can do is wait for them to start growing back in and THEN we can file them so they're even. And actually, she's doing well. She's eating enough on her own to maintain her weight. Still giving her CC a few times a day when I can fit it in, but since she is eating on her own, I'm not so worried about her. Jessie... we'll see how she takes to these antibiotics.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Funny picture, just noticed....
I know this picture is in the previous post, but I had to post it, enlarged, again, to show the funny-ness. To me anyway. Notice anything odd bout the pic? About where the chins are? Ok, so one on the wheel, one in the hammock (bottom level, you can see the beige), and one... levitating in the area where the chins can go from top to bottom. Wonder how she's doing that....
FN's
So, since I realized there's no pictures of our FN's up on the regular website... since it still shows the pictures of the old setup before we ever got any... thought I'd post them here, before they make it up on the website (and when they do, they'll all be fleece-lined, so they'll look different anyhow).
Our one and only CN... with like 36829036 broken bar repairs that we had to do when we got it, and still have had to repair some since we've been using it. Fun times. I would worry too much if the cage left, people'd be breaking bars left and right, heck, we even broke some more since it came. But I think we've got the shelves placed ok now and bolted enough times. Decent cage, I mean I like the FN's, so other than the breaking bars, it's good... since we're keeping it, I wish it could support a wheel..... but if it can't even do shelves very well... I just don't think it's a good idea. Our first chin, Winx (yes, a male), lives in this pink mansion. Notice how he managed to not be in EITHER picture... he may be just a little embarrassed with all the pink.
FN #1 - this cage currently houses Tallie (white ebony) and Lilly (black velvet). Lilly is a rescue, Tallie is one of our retired breeder chins - both are going to their new home this weekend, and then the cage will be scrubbed and cleaned and made ready for fleece items... that is... if the person I put in this liner order with ever gets the done (*goes off the blogging for a sec, sends person email*). My order was for leopard print liners....to try to match (halfway match anyway) that hammock I made up top... yeah I paid for my order on Feb. 26. Still waiting.
FN #2 - this cage currently houses Willow, Jordyn, & Lexi (Willow apparently didn't want to be in either picture). They came in with the CN, and we did have them housed in it for awhile... but... I fixed all the broken bars before I put them in... put them in... more and more broken bars... so now they're in an FN. Same amount of space, but Winx breaks less bars (in fact, I don't think he's broken any lately). Apparently three chins that tend to hang out on shelves together is too much weight for the CN. But Winx is a smaller chin and there's only one of him, so... though that one CN shelf does get that diving-board wobble when he uses it as a spring board. So that's gonna probably break too one day... but at the moment we're ok. I may just need to brace up that shelf with something. These three chins are rescues, and have a home lined up... they just need to get back to me with a pickup date.
For anyone who's like, man those cages don't have many toys... there are toys and perches hanging on the doors as well, you can't see them in the pics.
Our one and only CN... with like 36829036 broken bar repairs that we had to do when we got it, and still have had to repair some since we've been using it. Fun times. I would worry too much if the cage left, people'd be breaking bars left and right, heck, we even broke some more since it came. But I think we've got the shelves placed ok now and bolted enough times. Decent cage, I mean I like the FN's, so other than the breaking bars, it's good... since we're keeping it, I wish it could support a wheel..... but if it can't even do shelves very well... I just don't think it's a good idea. Our first chin, Winx (yes, a male), lives in this pink mansion. Notice how he managed to not be in EITHER picture... he may be just a little embarrassed with all the pink.
FN #1 - this cage currently houses Tallie (white ebony) and Lilly (black velvet). Lilly is a rescue, Tallie is one of our retired breeder chins - both are going to their new home this weekend, and then the cage will be scrubbed and cleaned and made ready for fleece items... that is... if the person I put in this liner order with ever gets the done (*goes off the blogging for a sec, sends person email*). My order was for leopard print liners....to try to match (halfway match anyway) that hammock I made up top... yeah I paid for my order on Feb. 26. Still waiting.
FN #2 - this cage currently houses Willow, Jordyn, & Lexi (Willow apparently didn't want to be in either picture). They came in with the CN, and we did have them housed in it for awhile... but... I fixed all the broken bars before I put them in... put them in... more and more broken bars... so now they're in an FN. Same amount of space, but Winx breaks less bars (in fact, I don't think he's broken any lately). Apparently three chins that tend to hang out on shelves together is too much weight for the CN. But Winx is a smaller chin and there's only one of him, so... though that one CN shelf does get that diving-board wobble when he uses it as a spring board. So that's gonna probably break too one day... but at the moment we're ok. I may just need to brace up that shelf with something. These three chins are rescues, and have a home lined up... they just need to get back to me with a pickup date.
For anyone who's like, man those cages don't have many toys... there are toys and perches hanging on the doors as well, you can't see them in the pics.
Today
So, came home from work, had two voicemails on the cell phone. The first was from a NY number, said they had seen the website and had some questions. Called them back, they haven't called me back yet.
The other was... well, yesterday, it was a week since I'd called the home of Daisy and Delilah, and they had said someone would call me back in a day or two, and no one did... so I called up the Dad's cell phone and left a voicemail saying (nicely) that I was just wondering what was going on with the chins since they hadn't called, and my number was... so then today, I got a call from the mom. When I called her back, she was very apologetic, she said that had she known they had signed a contract and all, she would have called me long before she put the ad up on craigslist (the dad said the daughter put up the ad). She said she didn't even think about it -- and really, other than knowing the chins were adopted from a rescue (which she did say, typically have those kind of "must be returned to rescue" contracts), she wasn't there when the dad and kids adopted the chins, so she wouldn't have seen the papers and contract being signed. No big deal, really, as long as the chins make it back here.
So she said that apparently when the dad and the kids got the chins, they didn't tell her where they were going or anything, just showed up with the chins when they came back. And it sounded like they had an agreement that the dad and daughter would care for the chins, but she said that just wasn't happening, and that the family had horses and donkeys and tons of other pets, and that if they didn't have all the other pets, it'd be one thing, but since they did, the chins were just something she didn't have the time to clean and deal with, if the people who wanted the chins weren't going to help. In all fairness, I would be pissed if my husband/kids brought home a pet that they wanted and I ended up being the one caring for it and all. So I do understand.
Well anyway, in looking back at their adoption form, they're out in Valpo, so we talked about drop-off and eventually came to the fact that since I work in Hobart 3 days of the week, she could meet me at my office after I get out of work to drop off the chins. So, since I'm not working there again until Monday, I'll be seeing her Monday to get the chins. So assuming that happens, this all worked out alright (though I would have preferred not having to call them so many times and bug them... but it is what it is).
So, got several emails today... one of our potential adoptive homes was wondering if they would be allergic to chins... so they came here (this was at least a week or two ago) and they were ok, but said they had a reaction when they went home. So, we came to the agreement that they can do a trial run with a chin and one of our spare cages for a week. So, they wanted to verify that we're still doing that, which we are, so they're picking up chin/supplies on Fri.
Then, had one of our repeat buyers ask about getting some shelves from us, wanting to do half of a FN, and wanting suggestions. Well, all our FNs/CN have different shelving and are different inside, so I told her I'd get her pictures of ours and she could decide what she wanted. Have yet to do that. Well, I took the pictures, I have yet to email them.
I realized I never emailed back Lisa from the Calumet City Petco about their adoption days, and since I had asked her to verify that she actually was from Petco and not someone trying to pull my leg (hey, can't be too careful), she had given me a phone number and some days she worked where I could call in to verify. So, I figured, I'll call and tell her we can come... so I called, and she actually answered the phone, which was highly convenient (I only have a first name, so I could see me saying "can I talk to Lisa?" and them being like "Lisa who?"). So I told her we can come and nailed down some questions I had and all, and so we'll be at the Cal City Petco on July 15th.
Have that webstore order from last night... didn't work to fill it yet, I guess that'll be tomorrow. I had another one of those "notification of payment received" emails today and I looked and one of our adoptive homes donated $1 to the rescue. How nice.
I did cut the wood for and build one of our regular hidey houses -- for the rat guy that was here yesterday. Got the entire thing put together, rubberbanded, and the top weighed down, so it'll be ready for pickup in like 2 days. Got an email from him today with some pictures of his and the new rats in his play area... he said they're not getting along. Hopefully that will change.
Then went to work on the FN's. Well, that was probably earlier in the day, but whatever. I had on my to-do list to take off the doors and clean the hinges (for the FN's that's fully assembled). Well... three doors came off no problem, cleaned the hinges, put the doors back. The fourth door... let's just say I had a rubber mallet and was hammering as hard as I could... the cage was lifting a little off of the ground, so I had to use one hand to put downward pressure on the cage and the other to hammer upwards on the bottom of the door... FINALLY got it off. Probably sounded like I was trying to kill the cage, it took a lot of hammering with the rubber mallet to get that stinkin door off. Cleaned the hinges as good as I could. Door still doesn't swing freely, so depending on how much that annoys me when the cage is actually in use, I may end up taking it off again and WD-40'ing the hinges, but at the moment, it was at least clean, and not so miserable to get back on, so that was good.
.... and onto the pans. Out of the four used ones, I had already cleaned the one, which I have in the set-up FN. So I'd been cleaning the 2nd and 3rd ones... got both of them clean to the point where there's only one corner on each pan that still is grimy. The ridiculous part is that I would scrub... let it sit... scrub... let it sit... for a good part of 3 hours and those corners still aren't anywhere near "done." The one corner, like the grime is like several centimeters thick, an there's no scraping it off with the paint scraper, it is just thick. And I was using full strength vinegar. Usually for pans that need some vinegar action I'll use my Simple Green/vinegar mixure that I keep in a spray bottle to clean the tables downstairs... I was using straight up vinegar and it was STILL taking that long. And we're talking like it's not like these corners are done. I'm going to surely have at least another hour's work on both of them. And the pan I've left for last is the worst pan (oh joy)....and really, I don't need ALL of them clean, because unless I'm splitting the FN's, I really only need 2 of the 4 pans scrubbed clean. But... I'd rather do them all while I'm in the cleaning mood, or else I'd come to a point where I'd need to split the FN's and then I'd have the dirty pans and say, I don't want to put my nice clean fleece liners in those... so might as well do it now.
Spent some time emailing the person who's taking home Tallie and Lilly this weekend, she sounds like she'll be a great home. I need to get off my butt and start getting her order ready, cause I had to add quite a few rows to my invoice to accommodate the one-of-everything that she decided she's leaving with... which is fine, but I probably shouldn't wait until Sunday to start putting that order together. But that'll be tomorrow. After they leave... I probably have 2-3 people that I have saved their emails that wanted to know if their home fell through. So once they leave on Sunday I can email all those people and be like, "well they went to their new adoptive home, but if you want a different pair, I have...."
Have had like NO interest in either of our standard pairs. And I mean, where can you get two chins for $130? Granted, they're all like 5 years old, but considering chins live 10-15 years, they could still have quite some time around here...
Also got an email from someone saying they got some prairie dogs and they're not what they expected (which makes me ask, what did the expect? and what did they end up with?) and asking about the rescue taking them in and if we'd give them something for them. So I need to email her back.
That may be it for today. For tomorrow -- more FN pan cleaning, I should work on the two chin orders... hopefully the one person on CnH will get me a total for all my fleece stuff that they made me so I can pay them, and at least get that one FN going with some stuff in it and all.
That's another thing... when Tallie/Lilly are adopted out, that FN's getting pulled from use and getting cleaned and de-shaving'd so it can be changed over to fleece liners. Same with the one that Willow, Lexi, and Jordyn are in. And then once that's all done, and the other two FN's are all put together and have their accessories and liners in them, then will come the time when all the cages and tables are pulled away from the wall and everything will move around. Ought to be interesting to see how the new layout turns out, when we eventually get there...
The other was... well, yesterday, it was a week since I'd called the home of Daisy and Delilah, and they had said someone would call me back in a day or two, and no one did... so I called up the Dad's cell phone and left a voicemail saying (nicely) that I was just wondering what was going on with the chins since they hadn't called, and my number was... so then today, I got a call from the mom. When I called her back, she was very apologetic, she said that had she known they had signed a contract and all, she would have called me long before she put the ad up on craigslist (the dad said the daughter put up the ad). She said she didn't even think about it -- and really, other than knowing the chins were adopted from a rescue (which she did say, typically have those kind of "must be returned to rescue" contracts), she wasn't there when the dad and kids adopted the chins, so she wouldn't have seen the papers and contract being signed. No big deal, really, as long as the chins make it back here.
So she said that apparently when the dad and the kids got the chins, they didn't tell her where they were going or anything, just showed up with the chins when they came back. And it sounded like they had an agreement that the dad and daughter would care for the chins, but she said that just wasn't happening, and that the family had horses and donkeys and tons of other pets, and that if they didn't have all the other pets, it'd be one thing, but since they did, the chins were just something she didn't have the time to clean and deal with, if the people who wanted the chins weren't going to help. In all fairness, I would be pissed if my husband/kids brought home a pet that they wanted and I ended up being the one caring for it and all. So I do understand.
Well anyway, in looking back at their adoption form, they're out in Valpo, so we talked about drop-off and eventually came to the fact that since I work in Hobart 3 days of the week, she could meet me at my office after I get out of work to drop off the chins. So, since I'm not working there again until Monday, I'll be seeing her Monday to get the chins. So assuming that happens, this all worked out alright (though I would have preferred not having to call them so many times and bug them... but it is what it is).
So, got several emails today... one of our potential adoptive homes was wondering if they would be allergic to chins... so they came here (this was at least a week or two ago) and they were ok, but said they had a reaction when they went home. So, we came to the agreement that they can do a trial run with a chin and one of our spare cages for a week. So, they wanted to verify that we're still doing that, which we are, so they're picking up chin/supplies on Fri.
Then, had one of our repeat buyers ask about getting some shelves from us, wanting to do half of a FN, and wanting suggestions. Well, all our FNs/CN have different shelving and are different inside, so I told her I'd get her pictures of ours and she could decide what she wanted. Have yet to do that. Well, I took the pictures, I have yet to email them.
I realized I never emailed back Lisa from the Calumet City Petco about their adoption days, and since I had asked her to verify that she actually was from Petco and not someone trying to pull my leg (hey, can't be too careful), she had given me a phone number and some days she worked where I could call in to verify. So, I figured, I'll call and tell her we can come... so I called, and she actually answered the phone, which was highly convenient (I only have a first name, so I could see me saying "can I talk to Lisa?" and them being like "Lisa who?"). So I told her we can come and nailed down some questions I had and all, and so we'll be at the Cal City Petco on July 15th.
Have that webstore order from last night... didn't work to fill it yet, I guess that'll be tomorrow. I had another one of those "notification of payment received" emails today and I looked and one of our adoptive homes donated $1 to the rescue. How nice.
I did cut the wood for and build one of our regular hidey houses -- for the rat guy that was here yesterday. Got the entire thing put together, rubberbanded, and the top weighed down, so it'll be ready for pickup in like 2 days. Got an email from him today with some pictures of his and the new rats in his play area... he said they're not getting along. Hopefully that will change.
Then went to work on the FN's. Well, that was probably earlier in the day, but whatever. I had on my to-do list to take off the doors and clean the hinges (for the FN's that's fully assembled). Well... three doors came off no problem, cleaned the hinges, put the doors back. The fourth door... let's just say I had a rubber mallet and was hammering as hard as I could... the cage was lifting a little off of the ground, so I had to use one hand to put downward pressure on the cage and the other to hammer upwards on the bottom of the door... FINALLY got it off. Probably sounded like I was trying to kill the cage, it took a lot of hammering with the rubber mallet to get that stinkin door off. Cleaned the hinges as good as I could. Door still doesn't swing freely, so depending on how much that annoys me when the cage is actually in use, I may end up taking it off again and WD-40'ing the hinges, but at the moment, it was at least clean, and not so miserable to get back on, so that was good.
.... and onto the pans. Out of the four used ones, I had already cleaned the one, which I have in the set-up FN. So I'd been cleaning the 2nd and 3rd ones... got both of them clean to the point where there's only one corner on each pan that still is grimy. The ridiculous part is that I would scrub... let it sit... scrub... let it sit... for a good part of 3 hours and those corners still aren't anywhere near "done." The one corner, like the grime is like several centimeters thick, an there's no scraping it off with the paint scraper, it is just thick. And I was using full strength vinegar. Usually for pans that need some vinegar action I'll use my Simple Green/vinegar mixure that I keep in a spray bottle to clean the tables downstairs... I was using straight up vinegar and it was STILL taking that long. And we're talking like it's not like these corners are done. I'm going to surely have at least another hour's work on both of them. And the pan I've left for last is the worst pan (oh joy)....and really, I don't need ALL of them clean, because unless I'm splitting the FN's, I really only need 2 of the 4 pans scrubbed clean. But... I'd rather do them all while I'm in the cleaning mood, or else I'd come to a point where I'd need to split the FN's and then I'd have the dirty pans and say, I don't want to put my nice clean fleece liners in those... so might as well do it now.
Spent some time emailing the person who's taking home Tallie and Lilly this weekend, she sounds like she'll be a great home. I need to get off my butt and start getting her order ready, cause I had to add quite a few rows to my invoice to accommodate the one-of-everything that she decided she's leaving with... which is fine, but I probably shouldn't wait until Sunday to start putting that order together. But that'll be tomorrow. After they leave... I probably have 2-3 people that I have saved their emails that wanted to know if their home fell through. So once they leave on Sunday I can email all those people and be like, "well they went to their new adoptive home, but if you want a different pair, I have...."
Have had like NO interest in either of our standard pairs. And I mean, where can you get two chins for $130? Granted, they're all like 5 years old, but considering chins live 10-15 years, they could still have quite some time around here...
Also got an email from someone saying they got some prairie dogs and they're not what they expected (which makes me ask, what did the expect? and what did they end up with?) and asking about the rescue taking them in and if we'd give them something for them. So I need to email her back.
That may be it for today. For tomorrow -- more FN pan cleaning, I should work on the two chin orders... hopefully the one person on CnH will get me a total for all my fleece stuff that they made me so I can pay them, and at least get that one FN going with some stuff in it and all.
That's another thing... when Tallie/Lilly are adopted out, that FN's getting pulled from use and getting cleaned and de-shaving'd so it can be changed over to fleece liners. Same with the one that Willow, Lexi, and Jordyn are in. And then once that's all done, and the other two FN's are all put together and have their accessories and liners in them, then will come the time when all the cages and tables are pulled away from the wall and everything will move around. Ought to be interesting to see how the new layout turns out, when we eventually get there...
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