"Hours" or Something of the Sort

I'm sure I've gone over this time and time again, but it keeps coming up.  The rescue does not have hours.

If you email me and ask to come by, and ask when I'm available, I will tell you, this day after 6, this day after 7, this day all day free... and then I make sure to ask, "let me know what day/time works for you."  Here's what this means -- let me know what time you would like to come, so I can pencil you in.  Here's what this does not mean -- these are hours where I will be sitting home in the hopes that someone may stop by.  No, no, no.

This is not a pet store.  We are not open 9-5.  If we were, then sure, you could stop over anytime between 9 and 5.  But this is a house where I happen to live.  Just because I get home from work by 6:15 does not automatically mean I plan to sit home all night.

I have told people time and time again, do not just show up, let me know when you're coming.  I'm fine with a range.  Between 1-3 is fine, assuming I don't have a busy day full of lots of people.  But I need an idea.

Here's what is frustrating.  This is today.  Yesterday I was asked for my availability and I gave it to them.  They asked about last night, I told them that would be fine, and then they said, ok, if that doesn't work, what about the next few days.  So I gave them that availability and asked when they'd like to come.  Heard nothing back, so I emailed and asked if they'd figured out when they were going to come.  The answer "Saturday or Sunday."  Not helpful.  In a lot of ways, because this Saturday is literally PACKED, so they couldn't just randomly come at any time Saturday, and even Sunday, leaving that wide open.  So I email them and ask if they know what time, and I tell them to not just stop by, because if I don't know what time they're coming I may not be home.  The response "in the afternoon."  Maybe this isn't frustrating to anyone else, but it's frustrating to me, because if I didn't respond, and just assumed they're coming in the afternoon, I could end up sitting home from 1-5 pm with them showing up sometime there.  Now, if I was already planning on being home all that time, that's not such a big deal, but I still like to know what time people are coming.

If I need to run out to get food, I need to know what time to go so I don't leave 5 minutes before someone gets here.  If an animal gets sick, I need to know whether or not I should cal someone to tell them we need to reschedule the appointment.  If the animal's sick at noon, and they say "afternoon" -- I would need to cancel a 1 pm appointment, but probably not 2:30 or later.

Not to mention, sometimes I do like to have a life outside of the rescue.  That's why it's not bothering me to shrink down the rescue when I move, because the rescue has taken over my life.  I have been trying to limit appointments to a few days a week, rather than one person every day of the week.  I need to have some free time to myself, and telling me that you're coming in the "afternoon" doesn't allow me to do that.  I need to know when to be ready for you.

And... it benefits you if I know when you're coming.  Say you give me a laundry list of things you want with your chins.  The reason I ask for those ahead of time is so that I can get it ready so you don't stand there while I dig out everything you want out of various places I have it stashed.  If you tell me 1 pm, it will be ready at 1 pm.  If you tell me afternoon, I don't know whether to have it ready at 1 or 5, and the thing is, if I have something more pressing, I may do that first, and then if you show up early, your stuff may not be ready.

This is why the rescue is appointment only.  So I can plan my life around the rescue.

Don't get me wrong, I understand some people don't know exactly when.  I have no problem when someone tells me, they have their kid's soccer game in the morning, and they think it'll end at 11, and they'll come right after. Ok, fine, the time they actually get out could differ.  What frustrates me is the people that just don't want to pick a time.  I have literally been told before, "oh I'll show up whenever I get up."  What?  No.  That could be 8 am or 2 pm, depending on the person.  I don't need it to be 4 on the dot, but at least be courteous enough to say, between 4-6.  It makes my life so much easier.

Great Day Yesterday

Yesterday was AWESOME!!  So much accomplished.

So, got home from the farmer's market at around 11, went downstairs to start cleaning up the rescue (everything was everywhere) and such.  I organized the grand majority of our packaging supplies.  They'd been taking over the basement, between bubble wrap, air pillows (the kind you use to pack a box with), and that kind of stuff.  Gathered it all together and boxed it up.

Same with the supplies on the work table (which is typically covered with other stuff and never has any room to work).  I had boxes upon boxes of things that need pictures taken of and put up on the webstore.  Took all of those, put them in sealed boxes, and stacked them.  Went through every box on the table, and put away what I could.

Organized the pile of items that need to be washed and decided which cages are staying vs. not staying as our spare cages.  I think.

Took pictures of the used cages currently for sale, so I don't have to hunt through the camera for them.  Got a few more ready.  I have a Prevue Hendryx 495 that still had some useable metal shelves, added some wood shelves to that one.  Took pictures.  Had a huge cage sort of like a Quality Cage mansion, it had wire ramps and such, but they are chin-safe bar spacing, so I left those in.  Added more wood shelves to that, took a picture of that.

Have another cage that folds down, I think it might have been a ferret cage, but the shelves were so flimsy and wobbly (and not chin-safe) that I pitched them.  Got as far as wiping the bars of that cage down.  The base needs a lot of work and a lot of vinegar, so I started scrubbing on that yesterday, but it's going to take some time to get that one clean.

I've decided I'm going to sell the cage we usually use for Expos, as it's so big and bulky, and I'm not getting any younger, and we're going to use our Quality Cage travel cage.  I had always figured, oh, I'd use a cage the size they should be in... but then the prairie dogs come in a travel cage, and I'm fine with explaining that it's not a permanent cage, and to own a chin, they'd need one bigger.

...and selling that cage allows me the room to keep the 4 J's Plantation cage --> http://www.4jsplantation.com/cages.html

Oh and I got in the air scrubber.  First few days, didn't notice much, but then, I bought the unit for a small area, not for the size of my parents' basement, but then yesterday, I was downstairs from 11 am in the morning and didn't need my inhaler til around 4-5 pm!  That's WAY longer than I could ever have gone before without needing it.  Yay.

So, I was supposed to have three people come to volunteer, Emily & Sarah, and Sammy, but Sammy couldn't make it, so just Emily and Sarah came by.

We got so much done!  Like I had a zillion things on my to-do list and we knocked out the grand majority of them.  All the runs got cleaned.  The large guinea pig cage, and the two smaller guinea pig cages got cleaned.  The two quality cages got cleaned.  All the chins got wood sticks to chew on.  All the chins got hay.  All the hay cube holders got filled up.  All the chins got a dust bath.  Prairie dog food got mixed up.  And all the hanging toys on the cage got filled up.  The girls did an awesome job, it would have taken me forever to do all of this without their help.

So when they left, I continued to clean and organize.  Completely organized the wall of stuff that needs to be cleaned.  Picked up all the hay on the ground, and put it into 1.5 pound bags (for when people order starter packs).  Realized I had no more baggies (1 ounce or 3 ounce) of rosebuds, so I made some of those.

Opened up email on my phone to view current orders.  Realized I still haven't sent out an invoice for an order (and still haven't yet as of today, the mental note failed).  Got together four orders that had been paid for.  One was already packed, the others I packaged up and got ready.

Some of the orders I'm still working on.  I have an order for a cottage hidey house with a bottom with bolts to hang on the side of the cage.  Well, I'd started building one, and it had half of the top on and the rubberbands still holding it together.  Pulled it down, put on part of the bottom, and then cut the little piece for the remainder of the bottom, and rubberbanded that all together.  And drilled the holes for the hardware.  Today, I will just have to cut the remaining piece for the top, glue and rubberband that and let it sit for a day.  Will put the bolts in, finish the shelves that go along with that order, and will hopefully box it up within the next few days.

Another order has a toy and a motorhome and something else.  Had started on the motorhome a little bit ago, made the front piece with the headlights today and the two front supports and glued on the roof.  Left it to try, the wheels can go on tomorrow or the next day.  Then that order should be able to go out soon as well.

Got another order in today.  And I think I have another few lurking in my email, but I need to clear out the ones I'm mailing today to see what's left for me to work on.  For sure I have the one order left that has the 7-8 hidey houses in it.  Haven't even had a chance to look at that one yet... but to even have space to do that, I need to move some of these others out first.  But I got a good start on the orders.  Currently marked all the hidey houses and chinny mobile and chinny motorhome as "out of stock" because I need to get caught up before I keep getting more orders for those.  So any orders within the next few days from the webstore can only be little things.  Yay.

So I think that's it for now.

Update

I got the house!  *happy dance*

So, adoption fees are all reduced by 25%.

That said, when our 2.5 year old rat comes up for adoption in a few days, her adoption fee of $5 to a retirement home is going to stay at $5.  If anyone is looking for an older rat, she is super sweet.  Sleeps a lot, but does awesome being handled and a great rat all around.  A pink eyed white.  Doesn't bite, loves people, just is old and sleeps a lot.  Needs a home to live out her days.  

When I get around to listing used cages, those will also be 25% off.  All other supplies remain regular price.  Despite the lack of cages on the Used Cages page, I have a TON of used cages right now.  I think one or two guinea pig sized, at least two rat cages, plenty that would work for chins or ferrets.  Will try to get those posted sometime soon.

So, if you're looking to adopt and need your critter and cage, now's the time to get it at a reduced price.  Good deals!  If you're looking at a $100 chin and a $100 cage, you'd now be paying only $75 for each, and saving $50!  Who-hoo!

Oh, but this all only applies if you pickup before November 27th.  If I have to lug this stuff to the new house (still *happy dancing*), no discount.  Ideally, I'd like to sell this stuff now so that I don't have to move it to the new house.

Oh, and the chins are back up for adoption.  Still no testing results back, but at this point, if it was food/water/hay, we should have had more dead, and if it was contagious, cagemates (of the chins that passed) should be dead, and they're still all alive and well.  So, we dunno what it was, but it seems over now, and the chins remaining here are fine, so they're back up for adoption.

Short update

So, this will be a short update.

Tazzie was adopted by the person who took her on a trial run.  Yay.

Our med eb male was adopted, named Midnight, and they sent me pics!  Yay.

No chins have died, with the exception being a few-day-old baby, which is not unusual.

Our Lucky (guinea pig) has passed away, unknown causes, but, as with chins, sometimes that just happens.  Unfortunately, we never know to what extent (if any) these animals have unknown health problems, heart conditions, etc.

Lambchops and Carmen (both guinea pigs) went to their new home.  Yay.

Called up Highland Animal Hospital today, cause it's day 14 and we still don't have the necropsy results.  They said that the results are running slow right now, they said to expect to find out towards the end of the week.  Ugh.  So more waiting on that.

On the house hunt, was ready to make an offer on a house in Hammond in the Hessville area... until we did our longer walkthrough with the realtor and discovered... no central air.  Now, had it just said "air: yes" -- this would not have been anything major, as I did see a window unit in a closet, but it actually said "cooling: central air."  So, my realtor contacted the listing agent, said that I was disappointed, but still interested, but wanted to see about getting central air put in.  So we're working on that right now.  Not getting it put in, actually, but the seller is supposed to get us some quotes on cost.  So, once I get a quote, I will offer that much less (plus I was already going to offer less).

It's a nice house.  http://www.coldwellbankeronline.com/property/details/3264615/MLS-334685/6645-Marshall-Hammond-IN-46323.aspx

The basement is literally divided into two sections, one for chins, one for my other stuff.  The main thing that would need to be done (other than the air conditioning) would be to install doors in the basement to close off the chin area and close off the storage area.  Other than that, just minor touch-ups and cleaning.

Fingers crossed this property doesn't get sold in the meantime cause I am in love with it.

Have emails from some other people potentially looking to adopt, once we get the necropsy results in and re-open the rescue to adoptions.  The rescue is still going to stay closed as far as surrenders, as we're still way over the number of animals we should be, but open for adoption is better than nothing.

With the house -- in the event the air issue gets worked out and I put in an offer and it's accepted, we're going to have a sale with reduced adoption fees.  The purpose being to maybe move some of them out of here a little quicker so there will be less animals to move to the new place.  Much easier to move empty cages that can be cleaned ahead of time, versus moving animals to carriers, trying to hurry up and vacuum cages to make em halfway decent, and moving em.  I would rather not move cages that have only been cleaned so-so to a new place.  So the more chins and critters adopted out, the better.

And I think that might be it.

Going on's

So, it's been a little quiet lately, what with cancelling adoptions, not going to the chin show, and all of that.

But we did have some adoptions -- one person adopted Flounder and Prim (separate cages, obviously) and three male rats, another adopted a single male chinchilla.  So, that's a few less.

And orders are still coming in.  Had a few small ones, until today... when I got one order for like 8 hidey houses.  That's going to be a pain to pack.  Granted, that will likely be more than one box.  But still.  And I still don't have a ton of hidey houses ready to go, though I do have a few, thanks to a volunteer coming by to help make them and sand wood parts.  But 8?  Must have a lot of animals.

Oh and the rescue is in the process of purchasing an air scrubber.  As anyone who's been down at the rescue with me for any length of time knows, my allergies start getting the better of me and my asthma kicks in and I start wheezing.  That doesn't make staying down at the rescue very appealing, because I value breathing pretty highly.  So the air scrubber we're working on getting is refurbished discontinued unit, so it basically 70% off.  But don't let that fool you, it's still super expensive.  But if it lets me stay down at the rescue longer and keeps my (eventual) next location from getting condemned due to animal smells, it will be worth it.  These air scrubbers are like a high tech version of air purifiers and not only help pull particles and smells from the air, they also pull in bacteria and ideally keep airborne illnesses from spreading.  They tend to be used by vets, animal hospitals, regular people hospitals, so this is like high tech.

Dunno how soon we'll have this, the rep I'm talking to knows I want this one (which is good, cause apparently there were other people considering these -- there were two [different sized] refurb'd units) and just emailed asking what sales tax is for Indiana, so hopefully next step is I have a final price with sales tax and freight and we go from there.  I am antsy.  I keep checking my email hoping...

Oh and Carmen is set to go home this upcoming weekend.  And I think that's it.

Decent Day

...and by decent day, I mean, nothing died!  Yay!!

Moving along, actually got some stuff done today.  Packaged up 5 orders and mailed them out, including one from yesterday.  That person will think I'm super quick, everyone else is probably at home grumbling wondering where their package is....  ah well.  It is what it is.

The person who was supposed to come pick up Tazzie for a trial run decided she still wanted to come, upon being informed about what's going on.  She and I both agreed -- in the event Tazzie's not sick, assuming we do have sick ones here, she'd be better elsewhere.  So, she took her for a trial run and she's going to let me know how that goes.

Also, I have people who originally decided they wanted to wait regarding picking up their chin, but have now decided they're going to come anyway, on Sunday.  They said they're going to take the chin to the vet on Monday.  I told em, I dunno if the vet will find anything, but if they do, let me know!  I still need to get them cage pictures and prices so they can decide what they're doing regarding that.  That will be today.

And I could have gone to look at houses today (except for the fact my realtor already scheduled someone) because my person coming today to pick up a guinea pig that she'd had on hold for 2.5 weeks said her brakes went out on her car.  Understandable, but that doesn't change the whole thing where we only hold for 2 weeks, so I told her, if she still wants him on hold, she can put down a deposit, and that will hold him for a month.  So, her return email was confusing cause she said she didn't want to make him wait to find a home, but then she asked about how she'd do the deposit.  So, we'll see how that goes.

But, her cancellation freed up the night, so now I will have more time to work on orders.

I took all the chin ads down yesterday and marked on the website that we are not adopting out chinchillas at this time.  I need to make sure all the "other" pets that are here are listed, since now I have the room for them on all the other sites.

I think that's it for the moment.

RIP Clyde & necropsy results (or lack thereof)

So, I came home today intending to take Haku to the vet for a necropsy and Clyde to the vet to have his leg looked at.  Yeah, bout that.  My mom called Munster Animal Hospital and asked if they did necropsies.  Turns out, they do not, and they said no one local did.  Ok, come on, I know someone local does.  So, I pulled out the phone book and started calling local vets.  First didn't do small animals (oops), and about the next 10 either didn't do necropsies at all or didn't do them on small animals.  Finally, got one place that didn't do necropsies, but the nice lady told me to call Munster (done), and then said try Highland or Glen View because they knew both saw birds (which are considered exotics).  Turns out, Highland Animal Hospital does necropsies.

So, I go downstairs to get Clyde out for his vet visit... and he's gone.  So then, we had a fresher chin for a necropsy.  So I took him in.  They called back later, said they found nothing obvious that would have caused his death, so they sent out tissues to Purdue.  Said it will take 10-14 days for the results to come back.  That is a long time.  So, now we wait.

The people at Highland were super nice.  Very helpful, very understanding, and they're going to bill me for the tissue samples.  Never seen me before but they're going to send me a bill.  I did pay for the necropsy and body handling, so they did get some money already (just fyi, you want a chin necropsied and body disposed of, it's $166 at Highland), but I was surprised that they'd bill me considering they've never seen me before.  But very nice, very helpful.

I came home, emailed everyone set to pick up a chin and told them what's going on.  So far I've heard back from all four (figures that I have oodles of adoptions set up when something like this happens), three have said that they want me to hold onto the chin for them until this passes, which they're aware that we don't know when that'll be.  The other just emailed me this morning asking what type of illness (don't know), if she'd be putting him in danger taking him home (probably no more danger than he's in here), and I just emailed her back.  So waiting on that.  Also texted the person who was supposed to come for a trial run later today, so waiting to hear back from her as well.

Needless to say, we are no longer going to the chin show this weekend.  That had completely slipped my mind until Meredith mentioned it, but I can't take potentially sick chins and get all the ones at the show sick, so we're staying home.  Boo.  So Meredith will be picking up my order at the show from Ryersons.

Meredith pointed out something, and this could potentially be unrelated to anything else, but all the chins that have passed have been males.  Could be just a coincidence, but that's the current trend.  And all rescues or at least, chins living with the rescues.  None of our pedigreed chins have passed yet.

Juanita (of Hendryx Chins) told me to check they're breath because it'd smell sweet if they had this one health condition.  I took out one female that was looking a little sluggish.  She tried to take off my face (so much for sluggish) and her breath smelled fine.

I had several people suggest it could be a brain issue, which would explain why they're all going downhill so fast.  And could explain Clyde's leg problems, as it seemed to not be broken, but maybe he had some paralysis going on.  I don't know.

We shall see.

NWI, we have a problem....

Title says it all.  Four chins have died in the past 10? 11? days, we have something going on.  Today, I had volunteers here today (thanks girls!) and they noticed that Dracula (aka Haku) was not dusting when put in his dust.  Pulled him out, and he was alive, but just barely.  He passed over the next maybe hour or so.  No reason, no nothing.  Like the others (in case you've forgot -- Bongo [9/24], Aston [9/27], Nytro [9/29]), he was fine the day before, and the all of a sudden, passed.  I dunno if we might have something contagious going on, but we need to find out, so Dracula is going in for a necropsy tomorrow.  He is in the freezer right now (much to my parents' dismay).

My mom said maybe it's a sign I'm not supposed to have the rescue (that all the chins are dying).  What a thing to say, eh?

I'm worried about the remaining chins.  My Winx isn't (and hasn't been) in the best of health (though he is improving), so he could be dealing with a compromised immune system, and let's not forget right now we have 11ish chins under 4 months here.  Also not the most wonderful immune systems when they're that young.  I wish I could take the day off work to take the chin in but needless to say no one here (or at work) would approve.  

...and Clyde has seemingly managed to injure himself.  I dunno if he fell or what but he's sort of half dragging his one back leg, doing a weird sort of limp.  So, he will be going to the vet tomorrow along with Dracula. 

But there are good things going on too!  Yesterday we were at the Hobart Home Depot for their annual fire and safety thing for kids, and we got $8 in donations!  Yay!  One of the people who donated was the guy who runs Amhurst Asylum and he said if I give him a flyer for the rescue, he'll put it up!  Awesome!

Also, Irene & Beatrice were adopted yesterday.  Today, Prim and Flounder were picked up for a trial run.  I have already received an email that the girl, for sure, wants to adopt them (they are in separate cages) -- yay!  And she wants to come look at the rats!  Plus, I had someone call about the rabbit, and another person text about taking Tazzie on a trial run -- she (well, I think it's a she... I could be wrong), is coming up from Indy on Tuesday.  Oh, cause a tree fell on my realtor's vehicle so he won't be up back to this area (from Bloomington -- he was visiting his daughter at college) by Tuesday, so we need to reschedule house viewings.  Darn, but it does allow me more time this week with people since most of this week I already have booked up and will be gone this week for a chin show.

Oh and Lambchops should finally be going home this Wednesday!  And I think that's it for the good news.  Back to worrying about the chins we still have....if you pray, pray that the remaining chins (all the zillions still here) hang on until our vet figures out what's wrong.  And pray he does figure out what's wrong.  If it turns out we have a mystery illness, I dunno what we're gonna do. 

*sigh* shipping to other countries

So...

Let's just start with what happened.  I get an order from the webstore and I look at the address (which is unconfirmed, of course) and it's Denmark.  Wait, Denmark?  The webstore is only set up to take US orders.  And of course, because it was put through as a US order, it shows shipping as $8.50.  Uh... no.  Just to illustrate...

Now I intentionally made that large, so it's clear.  Notice on the bottom there, it say, "Shipping to:" and then shows "United States."  Guess what? - that's the only option.  You click on it, try to change it, you can't.  And that's done intentionally, because I do not have anywhere near the time I would need to go through and figure out shipping for every item to every other country out there... not to mention... I typically ship out 1-2 items out of country every year.  And typically, those are to Canada.  So, it wouldn't be worth it for me to spend the time to input shipping costs for every other country.

Most people who want things shipped out of country email, say, "hey, I noticed I can't do it on your website, how much would it be for this?"  And I tell them and 99.5% of the time, they say, "oh that's too expensive, nevermind."  Ok.  But this person apparently just glossed over the fact that shipping is to the United States, and then put in a Denmark address.  Which would completely be fine if somehow shipping reflected the package going to Denmark.  But heck, $8.50 might not even cover these for a far part of the U.S. much less Denmark.

So, I sent her an email nicely saying that the $8.50 she was charged for shipping was for shipping to the U.S. and that the shopping cart is not set up for international sales.  I told her that I looked up shipping, and it would be $18 to ship the two items (she had like a supplement jar and loofah I think) to Denmark.  So, if she wanted the items, I needed to be paypalled an additional $9.50, or I could refund her money.  We shall see what happens.

Busy busy busy

So, this week is just busy in general, but yesterday took the cake for most-time-wasted.

So, I get off work, drive home, pick up Nytro's body to take him to be cremated, and pick up Harry, our male rex rabbit that was dropped off the other day that has gotten extremely aggressive.  Go to the vet.  They check me out with Nytro, but then tell me that Dr. Han is in surgery (never fails, I always show up when the only small animal vets are gone or in surgery) and I can either wait or come back.  But, it's exploratory surgery, so they tell me the doctor may not even be seeing patients today depending on how long it takes.  Since I'm still in my work clothes, I opt to go home and call them in a bit.

Go home, change, let Harry out of his carrier... he hopped around for about a minute before promptly hopping right back in.  Apparently that's a safe place for him.

So, I call the vet about 40 minutes later and Dr. Han is out of surgery and seeing patients, so I head over.  We get seen, he's given a good bill of health and scheduled for a neuter in the morning.  So, I'm getting ready to leave and they tell me, oh, I need to bring food and bedding.  Ahhhhhhh.  Not like the vet's far, but I make a third trip home and a third trip back to the vet.

So now, he should be getting his surgery done sometime today.  My mom is going to pick him up later, as I will be going with the realtor to look at houses today and likely won't be home before the vet closes.

So, we're almost out of hay.  Which only happens twice a year, so not a common thing.  So I call up my hay people, who remember me (which I find amazing... but maybe I'm the only one who ever buys anything under 40 bales?), and we tentatively set a time for Friday.  I'm supposed to call them Thursday to remind them and check that Friday's ok, and if it is, we will be getting hay on Friday.  Well,  potentially on two days because I don't think I can fit it all in at once, but we shall see.

The other day, got a call from someone at the Hobart Home Depot inviting us to an event featuring local rescues.  It's this Saturday from 9-12, and we're going to be there.  So, need to get ready for that.

If all goes well, Irene and Beatrice (rats) should be going home Saturday.  Lambchops should be going home on the 9th.  And so far, that's all I have for upcoming adoptions.  Rue potentially is going home sometime next weekend, if the people can work around the fact that I won't be home except for Sunday night.  If not, it'll be another time.  But other than these few, the rest of the animals are here, adoptable, and looking for their forever homes.  I still need to get down quite a few more animals before I can even take in the ones on my waiting list (assuming those still need to come to the rescue, knowing as how people seem to always think it'll take a day or two for an opening, not any actual time).

Busy couple of days

So, lot's been going on lately.  Not all good.  So, few days ago, Bongo, our malo chin dropoff, passed away.  His cagemate, Baja, seems to be doing fine, but we'll keep an eye on him for a bit to check that he's doing alright before he's put up for adoption.

Then, Aston passed unexpectedly.  No rhyme or reason, just one day went down to feed/water the critters and he had passed.  So I went and took down his ads and changed Martins' ads so they no longer mentioned adopting him and Aston together.

Moving along to today.  Nytro and Dusty were all set to go home, there person had come here.  She'd just finished holding Dusty and moved onto Nytro.  He was energetic when I went to catch him and was sitting pretty nicely for the person.  At one point, struggled a bit, and then settled down. And so she says, "awww, I think he went to sleep."  And a few minutes pass and she makes another comment like that and I say, "I hope he's sleeping."  Well, turns out... he had passed.  Guess he had wanted to die at home with his family rather than die elsewhere.

We're going to have him cremated and I'm going to see if I can get Munster AH to do the pawprint thing for me.  We shall see.

So, I changed all of the Nytro and Dusty ads to just Dusty ads.  The person here picked out another chin to take home - Chili.  After this weird turn of events, which she, understandably, was a bit freaked out by (I mean, in 10 years, I have never had a chin die in the arms of the person wanting to take them home), I explained to her our 7 day health guarantee, but fingers crossed, that will not come into play.  But... now I'm paranoid.

Oh and to top off the bad few days  -- I forgot to give Chili's new home her bag of food, goodie bag, and printed out care packet. 

Now, if these were three separate events of healthy chins dying, you bet I would have them at the vet for necropsies.  But... one was a malo chin and another was a 13.5 year old chin.  But... if another chin dies... oh hell.  I will be there faster than you can blink.  They say death comes in threes....I hope this is my three, and some weird luck doesn't decide to up it to 6 or something.  Even though two of the deaths are explainable.... this is still too many too close together.  Ugh. 

So I weighed all the chins today just for good measure and there's none that I'm worried about... yet. 

On a positive note -- since we NEED one right now -- Winx, for the first time in ages, is over 600 grams!!  He was at 606-607!!  Who-hoo!!!

Not much else going on.  Got some orders out from before the store was closed.  Made some halloween holiday toys.  Cut out some of the houses that need to be built for the orders that were placed during the store closure.  Listed a TON of animals.  I think we're up to 16 listings on PetFinder (they count, I just notice the number), and that's counting pairs as 1 listing, so probably more than that available actually.  And that's with a critter or two listed as "adoption pending" - so, not counted in that amount.

I was going to work on listing more animals tonight, but I feel like I've gone through the wringer, so tonight is just going to be some TV and then bed.

People.... and going's on.

So, I know I shouldn't start back up after a long absence with a non-happy blog, but... it is what it is.

So, two nights ago, I get a phone at at around 11:30 pm.  Yes, PM.  So, I do not answer it -- I tell my adoptive homes, if you need something that late, leave a message and I'll call you back, because I will not answer the phone after, say, 9:30 unless I'm expecting a call or know who it is.  So, I didn't answer the phone.

So I get an email:

Hi my name is [name] I called u late at night sorry but I was just wondering if I can stop by and see ur cuties martin or aston or jingles I have a female who is lonely cuz she has a huge house but no buddy but she is very friendly and adorable  she is only 8 months I beleave she is adorable her name is chee heres a pic of her and her house [phone number]

 

Ok, fine.  He sends pics of the chin and one of his FN/CN, which is very nicely decked out.  This is what I send back:

 

Hi,

Your cage looks great!  However, since you have a female, you would only be able to adopt a female, as we don't adopt our rescues into homes where they would be with opposite-sex chinchillas, as they would breed and create more chinchillas that would probably find their way into the rescue.

If you decide you're looking for a female, we have a 4-5 year old beige female for adoption.

 

So, he calls three times during the day, none of which I pick up (because, let's remember, I work), and so he emails back.  

 

Thats what I thought too I was reading alot about meeting new chinchillas together well im interested really much can I swing by today I live in dyer IN. I was looking for a black velvet one or a tri. Color or who ever I fall in love with please call me [phone number]

 

Since I'm sure the "that's what I thought too" reference is to the cage, and there's no mention of the "female" part of my email, I'm pretty sure he has glossed over that, so I send another email:

 

I'm at work so I can't call you back right now.

I won't be home until 6:15ish today.  The only female I have available right now is a beige, no black velvets and there is no such color as a "tri" or even a tricolor, so I'm not sure what color you would be meaning by that.  If you want to come and see the beige that's fine, but just so you're aware, that's all I have in terms of females.  And I only have one female available, so not really anything to pick from at the moment.  Just so you're aware, I don't want you to feel like you're wasting your time.

If you want to come by to see the beige female, what time were you thinking?

 

Needless to say, I never heard back.  And I sent that email believing that he still was thinking he was wanting to come see those males I have (the all different color ones that he listed), hence why I wanted to lay it out, hey, if you come, you are not coming to see those.  It goes without saying, the last thing I need is some idiot that doesn't even know chin colors breeding chins.  I can guarantee you lots of those babies would end up at the rescue.

Moving along....

On another somber note, Bongo passed away.  Bongo was a malo chin that had been dropped off here maybe 1-2 months ago with his cagemate Baja.  Bongo had had a filing back in April and basically, I was waiting around to see how long that filing would last time.  If it was a good amount of time, then he'd be adoptable, if not, he'd become a sanctuary chin.  Well, I never did get to see how long that was, because he passed sometime yesterday.  He was not drooling, no watery eyes.  Got a good feel of his jaw now that he's gone and there's nothing to indicate jaw penetration by the roots, so likely he wasn't in pain.  He was eating his pellets and hay and taking the supplement (his previous owner left some) from my hand the day before.  So, likely, he had something else wrong that no one knew about.  But, he died happy with his cagemate and both of them chewing up things like little beavers.  He came from good home, so I can't say he had it better at the end, cause he always had it good, but at least he still had his buddy with him.

Moving along....

Everyone is returning their animals!  Nylah (well, Nyler... turns out its a boy), the mini rex is back, Honey (well, Harry... also a boy -- since adopting these two out I have been given lessons on properly sexing rabbits -- though these two were "only" rabbits so no worries there.  And today Haku is coming back.  Oh and Prim and Rue came back almost a month ago.  Busy busy.

Moving along....

I got an email from someone interested in chins, they listed just about every single I have with the exception of the beiges, asking for info, so I emailed them info and told them I'd get back to them with pics.  So that likely will be today.

Eddie is a turd.  I guess I've gotten used to chins that stay in their cage when the door's opened... not him!  He bolted out at like midnight last night.  Well... now I know better for next time.  

Moving along...

My computer had to be re-set, so I lost my huge access file with everyone's info in it.  Which is not a huge deal, I have the info elsewhere, but now I have to re-create the spreadsheet and re-do it all.  Ick.  But that's for when things have cooled down a bit and I have some free time.

 

Well, I think that's it for now.  Have a few people who want to come by this weekend, but I'm waiting to hear back about when this dog thing we're going to is, so I need to know that before I can schedule anyone.   

Oh one more thing.

House hunting has officially began.  So far have only driven by most of em, and some are clearly better than others just judging the outside.  The one in particular looked nice in pictures, but though the garages are accessible through the alley, clearly everyone parks in the front.  And since the road is narrow, and a cul-de-sac, and by cul-de-sac I mean a road that dead-ends with a slight bulb at the end, I had to do a 5 point turn to get out of there.  I don't think I'll subject my customers to that. 

And I will be calling me a new realtor.  The current one still hasn't gotten back to me about the houses and its been like 2 days (which may not sound long, but I want to move on this, pun intended, and I know other realtors are quicker with turnaround time).  My current one also said he has to "stay neutral" *rolls eyes* because he represents houses in Gary and other bad areas, so he can't tell me what's a bad vs. good area cause that wouldn't be fair to the houses he represents if he was like "don't buy this one."  I get the concept.... but not cool.  Apparently making sure the buyer is satisfied is not a priority.  Screw this, I'm going with one that I know can and will tell me about bad vs. good areas, and that gets back to me sooner than this. 

"Other things"

Some  "other things" from recently that I want to comment on. 

People always tell me, if I don't want the animals to be used for breeding, I should put right on the ads, "not for breeding."  But I don't, and there actually is a reason why  (and it's not my dislike of typing one extra sentence).  Say someones looking for a white chinchilla to breed.  They see one and it says "not for breeding, pet only."  They may figure, "hey, I'll make sure I tell her, we don't have another chinchilla, only this one, and if she asks, we're not going to breed."  You may think I'm kidding, but I've probably met more dishonest people through the rescue than I've met anywhere else.  So, I don't have it in the ad.  But there's the question in the adoption form -- "do you plan to breed?"  If they have no reason to lie, they put down yes or no.  The other day, I got an email from people who wanted pictures of Prim, one of our white rescue chinchillas.  Wanted to know the price.  Didn't seem to care anything bout the chin except white and price, which immediately set off warning bells.  They filled out the adoption form, got it back to me, along with an email stating that they wanted to know right_away if they were approved.  Looked it over.. they want to breed... "once."  Uh-huh.  And their cage would never have been approved as it was like guinea pig cage sized, no shelves or anything, and I bet you any money that it was not baby-safe.  I nicely emailed back saying, "hey, this is a rescue, we do not adopt out rescues to breeding homes as we do not know genetic history or backgrounds, and we already have enough chins at the rescue we don't need anyone else just breeding for 'cute babies.'"  I didn't say exactly that, I worded it nicer, but got the jist through.   Told em that we have some pedigreed chins if they're wanting to breed, or they need to find another breeder if we don't have what they want.  I have almost no doubt I will not hear back.

And here's the thing -- say they were to email back and say, "ok, we decided not to breed."  Too late.  Once they've said it once, if they try to convince me that they're not going to, I tend to lean towards the "they're just saying that so I adopt them the chin."  I could be wrong, but I'd rather a chin stay here longer to find a home than one to a home that just wants to breed with no care for genetics or anything other than cute babies.  The same goes for money.  If you tell me you "can't afford" a cage more than $25, I'm not going to believe you two days later when you tell me that you can afford vet bills.  At least, it's unlikely.  I've let people through who have credit cards and say they will charge vet care... but typically, those people aren't trying to cut my prices in half.  If you come up and want me to lower the chin from $100 to $50 and the cage from $175 to $100 and give you a 50% discount on supplies, sorry, but nothing you say is going to make me think you can (or even would want to) afford vet bills.  I dunno if I posted about this, but I had someone awhile back tell me that a $40 guinea pig was too expensive.  But then was asking about a chin two days later.  If the pig is too expensive, they definitely cannot afford a chin.  But man did they try to convince me! 

Another thing -- if the animals are listed on the site as "Chevy and Ford" or "Louie and Mr. Jingles" -- the "and" signifies that they are a pair.  This means, you cannot adopt only one.  So, if you email asking for pictures of only one, I will send you pictures of both and inform you that they are a pair and must go together.  Just so you know.  If they can be adopted separately, they will have separate bullet points on the website.  Simple as that. 

Also... I have no idea if any of your chins will get along with another chin.  I can't tell you how many emails I get asking if someone's chin would like a buddy.  Not to sound rude, but... how would I know?  I have chins here that I can't predict if they'll get along with another chin without trying, all I can do is guess if I've never met yours.  Sure, I can tell you that we do introduce old chins to old chins, and it is possible... but I still can't tell you if your old chin will want a buddy.

Moving along... I'm starting to think some people I adopt to are idiots in disguise.  I am going to paste an email below, and if it's yours, I'm not sorry I'm posting this, because you should know better.  Here's the email:

It's [person] again.  I was looking at your website and saw you have a 18 week old  feamale chinchilla for sale. I have a couple of question for you.  I have a 10 month old chin at home and he is a male if I cage him with the 18 week chin female will she get pregnant? I was just wondering do you think my 10 month old chinchilla will like a cage mate?  What do you think if we can do a test run and see if they get along or not?  Would we get more pellets, bag of hay and another toy if we buy the 18 week of chin?

Really?!?

My response:

If you cage this female with your male, she will almost definitely get pregnant, and at her age, that typically results in death.  I got in a chinchilla her age that was pregnant a few years back, she was about the size of this one -- way too small to even consider breeding -- she had the babies, they ripped their way out of her, causing internal bleeding.  We took her in for an emergency spay to try to stop the bleeding and save her.  She lived through the surgery, but died overnight, and all the babies died as well.  To the tune of about $800 trying to save her.  Long story short -- horrible horrible idea to put a female this young with a male.  They're intelligent, but at the end of the day, they are animals and don't understand they should wait to breed until they're older.

As for whether he wants a buddy -- that depends on him.  Some chins like company, some don't, but you don't know until you try.  If you just want a buddy vs. a chin to breed, you'd want to get a male though.  I have chins coming out my ears lately because of people keeping males and females together and letting them breed one after another, when typically, those chins would get along just fine with a same sex buddy.  Now, if you did want to breed, you could get this female, but you would want to keep her separate (and I mean completely separate -- no playtimes, no contact) from your male until she's about a year old.  We typically wait until at least a year to put females into breeding because they need to be large enough and mature enough to actually be able to handle having babies safely.

I'm sorry, but we are definitely not doing a test run to see if your male gets along with this female.  As noted above, it would be detrimental (potentially deadly) to the health of the female to be put with a male anytime in the near future, and I won't risk her health and her potentially getting pregnant at an age where she would definitely have difficulty having babies as she is still a baby herself. 

If you were to get her, she would come with 2 pounds of pellets, a kit goodie bag, and a hanging chew toy.  That's what all our babies come with.  If you got a bag of hay with your previous chin, you must have purchased it separately, cause we've never included hay with our chins.

 

I don't think I need to further explain that one.

 

Moving right along...  if I email you and tell you I will be out of town until a certain date.. emailing the day before that certain date, telling me you really need the stuff, can I hurry it up... will not get me emailing you a shipping quote (or whatever it is you want) any quicker, ESPECIALLY if I actually DO need to be home to do it.  I can't quote you shipping for 20 items from an expo, sorry.  For one hidey house?  Maybe.  Lots of different items that are going to require a large box and probably weigh in excess of 15 pounds?  I'm not even going to try to guess.  And I'm not driving home early to do so.  Sorry.  Patience, people.

 

Further... price does not change just because you email me.  Occasionally, I goof on price.  One ad will say $100, another says $75 (for the same chin, just on different websites/listings).  I admit, it's happened before.  If you saw the $75 ad, fine, it's $75.  No big deal.  And those emails I understand, because people see two prices and don't know which is correct.  Let's just say, though, you email me and say, "hey what's the price of chinchilla x?"  Assuming this chinchilla has ads up (which it almost always does), I will take the time to go look at each and every ad to see if there is a price discrepancy.  Once in a blue moon, there is.... 99.9% of the time, there is not.  Which makes me think that you saw the price at $100 and think that emailing me will get me to be like "oooh interest!!!" and drop the price.  Not how it works.  You saw that chin listed as $100 everywhere... guess how much she is?  Yup, $100.

And let me just add that if your only concern is price... that's not a good way to start off.  I understand the concept of wanting a good deal, and I'm sure some of you have been around when I've bought 10 beds for the prairie dogs at once cause they were a good deal.  But if you somehow get me thinking that you care too much about the price, that's not a good thing.  Especially since our prices aren't high to start with.

 

I think that's about it for the other things at the moment.  Will post about the expo (which I didn't see anyone I knew at -- doesn't anyone want to come out and support us??) later sometime.

Volunteer-filled productive day

Ok, so today I knew I had volunteers coming, and prepped for that.  Which meant yesterday was a mad-house trying to get things semi-organized so today wouldn't just be re-arranging stuff.  So, that was yesterday.  I have an awful lot of cages that need to be cleaned and shelved, and they were everywhere.  So those were all moved over by the order table and now.... there is no getting through that way.  Moved all the clean cages over to where the clean cages go.  Assembled that new cage that had been donated way back when.  Turns out it was an absolute pain.  And also was the same cage that I sold awhile ago as a degu cage.  So.... its assembled, but it needs to be O-ringed for extra stability.  That's for another day.  Had all the shelves for a donated cage washed, sanded, all that good stuff.... but when you wash them down with the hydrogen peroxide, sometimes, no matter how well you rinse, when they dry, the hydrogen peroxide separates intro hydrogen and oxygen and somehow that can cause a white powder to form.  So, sanded those down to get the white off, and moved those over to the cage staging area.  Also cut out pieces for 5 porthole hidey houses.  Didn't get to drill the holes, but at least got teh

Moving on to today.  I had Emily and Sarah helping out first.  They stayed for about 3 hours, 15 minutes.  We started out with  n one of them working on the guinea pig cages, cleaning them, while the other mixed up our dry kit supplement for the baby chins.  Got all of the guinea pig cages cleaned, and two jars of the kit supplement made.  I cleaned the rat cages and moved the two females into our rat stack (out of their cage) temporarily, due to current lack of space.  Pulled the table with the QC cages away from the wall and vacuumed everything around and behind it. Got everything under the table pulled out, wiped, and replaced.  Got all the tables scrubbed (not sure what they stain from, but they stain so quick!).  Got hay for everyone.  Dust baths for all the chins.  Some toy parts sanded.  All the water bottles filled.  Rat cage hoppers filled with lab blocks.  All rats handed their yogies and got their scoops of treats for the day.  Rabbit cage cleaned.  Veggies and carrots and leafy greens given to the veggie-eating critters. 

Also, had an epiphany moment -- my one chin, Molly, has been a pain (to put it oh-so-mildly) to keep a collar on, so she's spent more time with her run closed than open.  So, while going through the box of sell/keep (recently washed stuff), I came across my 3 prong collars and when I went to put them away, came across my bags of O-rings.  Hmmm.  So, one of the girls held Molly while I O-ringed her collar closed around her neck.  Let's see her get outta this one.

Also, I've been needing to bring down a new box for the food bowls.  Due to the weight that's always in that box, its been falling apart for quite some time, and since we were cleaning where that box was, I went and got a new box and had help moving the food bowls into the new box.  Sounds boring, but this was one of those needed to be done things that kept getting pushed off because it wasn't like a necessity necessity. 

Had the bins of donated dust combined to make less bins.  Cleaned the treat holders for the pigs and rats and doled out some treats. 

Then it was time for them to leave, and, wonderful timing, my best friend since like middle school, Lisa, arrived to volunteer.  Now, Lisa remembers me before the rescue and she could vouch that I had no life then either.  My "no life" now is just so much busier than it used to be.  So, while I got some of the holes cut out in some houses, she sanded some toy parts.  Once I had two cut, we sat down to sand those down and make the houses.  Made two porthole houses.  Moved onto putting the donated cage together and putting shelves in.  Drill ran out of juice mid-shelving, so put that on the charger.  Love that the new drill has a 30 minute charge, the old one was 4 hours!!  So while that charged, went back to sanding things. 

Also, another one of those things that has sat around on the to-do list forever was to get the barn back in the prairie dog cage.  That was one of those things where there really had to have two people to do it.  First cleaned and vacuumed the cage.  Pulled it away from the wall and got the vacuum behind it.  Then, removed the wheel.  See, the wheel was in the way of getting the barn in the door.  So, Lisa scrubbed down the wheel while I got the barn stuffed in the cage, then we got the wheel back in and everything back together. 

By the time we had that done, the drill was charged again, and we finished putting the shelves in the cage and the cage on its stand.  Then, totally by accident of course, we realized Nylah is uh... male.  Apparently I took the word of the adoptive home that the rabbit was female (cause I can sex rabbits just fine), but when Lisa picked Nylah up, noticed Nylah was stained, I went to get baby wipes to wipe her down.... and noticed testicles.  Oops.  Now we have a male rabbit up for adoption lol.  Got his nails clipped so just need to write up ads for the critters.

And tomorrow's another day of volunteering.  Plus, a two guinea pig pickup and a chin dropoff.  Fun times.

Labeling cages

More changes.  Exciting, right?  So, currently our cages are labeled by colored clothes pins.  Which some critters like to remove from their cages, others take joy in eating them, some just enjoy taking them apart.... the system is not working as well as I'd like.  Plus, they get dirty and my to-wash pile already is never ending without having to scrub little plastic clothes pins.  And the magnetic ones I thought would be better, still not thrilled.  They also make the name cards stick out at weird angles (because they clip on and then make the card stand out from the backing) and I was looking for a solution, and came across my show folder... and for those that have never been to a chin show, you wouldn't know, but they use colored dots to denote placement.  Blue is first, red is second, white is third, green is fourth.... ok I could potentially be wrong or mixed up on 3rd and 4th... but the point is, colored dots mean different things.  Bingo.

So, I purchased myself some colored dots and that is going to make up the new system (when they arrive).  New colors:

Blue circle --> under evaluation
Bright green circle --> available for adoption
Bright green circle & bright orange circle --> available for adoption with special needs
Blue circle & red circle --> under evaluation with medical concerns
Silver circle --> on hold

The clips are going bye-bye for the most part, I will hang onto some to help designate things on the runs, if necessary, but the whole clothespins overrunning my one drawer --> no more.

I think this is going to be good.  Rather than have to pull out the whole bag and change em (like, pull off blue, put on green), I will just be able to layer them.  So, an animal going from under eval. to available?  Blue sticker will get covered with bright green sticker.  And so on so forth.  No chance of these being eaten or anything of the sort.  Should have done this ages ago.  Much preferring this already....

cutting back / lack of volunteers

So, due to my recent saw accident, I think the store is going to stay closed for even longer.  I can't do 90% of the stuff I should be doing right now, making this a completely nonproductive time for me at the rescue.

Add in that I'm typing with 9 fingers, so, v.e.r.y. slowly, that I had a total of 2.5 hours volunteered after literally posting on facebook for an entire week and emailing just about everyone who had said they'd "love to volunteer," along with sending out an email to the adopt-a-pet volunteer list -- people who, mind you, signed up specifically to volunteer -- and received no emails/contacts back.  And only so much can get accomplished in 2.5 hours.  Exactly 14 toys, some boxes broken down, and a litter pan full of toy parts sanded down, to be exact.  In other words, not much.  I appreciate the help I get, but where are the volunteers when I need em?  I have 72 -- get that, seventy two, animals here right now.  I am one f-ing person.  It's all I can do to keep them fed and watered and clean, and some of ya'll have been bitching I'm not letting your precious pet out to play.  Guess what?  The animals at the humane society are fed the wrong food, given the wrong treats, and are never let out to play, even if they only have one bunny.  And there, there is a paid staff, umpteen volunteers, and such.  Again, I am one person, and frankly, I'm sick of it.  You don't like that your animal's not getting let out?  You can come back and take it back then.  Cause until some people start stepping up to help, I am only one person and can only do so much. 

I never promised anyone that I'm special and have 48 hours in a day.  I work 40+ hours a week and my commute isn't 5 minutes.  I come home and I'm tired.  Currently I have a finger wrapped up and out of commission and it's all I can do to keep food down due to antibiotics and two other new meds that I shouldn't, undoubtedly, be all starting at once.  But guess what?  I still make time to feed and water the animals.  Granted, they sure aren't coming out of their cages.  But I'm getting tired of it.  I come home and I have to do this shit for the rest of my night.  I want to watch tv, but I can't, cause I need to list the animals.  Need to feed em, need to clean em, so on and so forth.  If I could get some help, it'd be fine, but everyone promises to help and in reality, no one helps when I ask.  Which would be one thing if these people wouldn't be like "ooooooh I want to help!!!!!" and then fall off the face of the earth when the time comes, but I can't do it myself. 

I dunno if I've posted on here bout what I'm planning for the other animals, but I'm going to get rid of all of the "other" cages and devote one FN to the other animals.  Will still have the rat stack as well, but due to the overwhelming number of rats that find their way back here, I'm going to only keep 2/3 of the cages filled so I have room for take-backs.  If it doesn't fit, tough shit.  You don't see rabbit rescues saying, "oh yeah, we'll take in your rats! and guinea pigs!"  Why should I make it so convenient for people?  I try to help everyone and end up pulling my own hair out -- no more.  Not worth my sanity to help all these animals when there are other rescues that specifically deal with them. 

I don't know whatever gave me the idea that it's my responsibility to take in everything.  If I tell people, "hey, there's a rat rescue in LaPorte," and they say, "that's too far...," how does that become my problem?  By taking in every animal that's "too far" to take to another rescue, I'm just relieving those people of the responsibility to actually have to take some time out of their day to get their pet to the appropriate rescue.  And for what?  So I can give myself a headache?  Not anymore.  I have limits just like everyone else and I have been a doormat for too long.  People choose to get a pet, I can't help em all.  Especially now when I'm not well myself, have waaaaaaaaaaaay too many animals and no one helping. 

I had someone suggest I pay someone to help me.  First, I dunno where I'd find that person, but second....I feel like... why should I?  All these other rescues have volunteers that they have to schedule so they don't have too many per day and I can't even find one person to help every week or even every other week for a few hours?  But by all means, if you know of someone who wants a few hour job per week run by a slave driver for minimum wage, by all means, send em my way.  They will be scrubbing and cleaning cages and sanding to their heart's content.  Funny, I don't think anyone will send anyone this way. 

I realize this probably sounds like a lot of whining and complaining, but ya'll gotta realize, I work too.  A lot of people who own rescues either do that (1) as their job, or (2) are on disability and are home 24/7.  I'm not.  Especially now when I'm not well and on way too many meds, I want to come home and sleep since I don't feel good and I'm dizzy all the time.  As my mom says, she doesn't know anyone else my age with as many health problems as I have.  Plus, I have 70-odd animals to care for, and a job.  Heaven forbid I ever want to have a life or get married.  When would I have the wedding?  Oh no.  Short of me winning a publisher's clearinghouse $5k per week for life, I am cutting back.

I wrote up that list awhile ago of the local rescues who can take in the "other" animals.  I am going to stick to that with the exception of the FN thing (which, again, need a volunteer here to get that switched over -- can't do that with only, basically, one hand working).  If the people can't make it out there, I can't make it my headache, because sooner or later, my patience for all of this is going to run out and then there will be no rescue and then everyone will be out of luck, not just the rabbit, rat, and guinea pig people.

And you know what?  This partially comes down to lack of volunteers.  If I could get some help and didn't have to spend every waking moment with the animals, it'd be different.  Heck, I will trade food, toys, something for help if someone really wants, but all of you that donate money -- that's great for vet bills, but that money doesn't help me one bit when I need someone here to help clean cages or build houses.  I can have $5 or $5000 in the bank account but it doesn't change that I'm still one person.   

Waiting List People

I know some of you all know about my injury last night, but this currently takes precedence.

Yet another aggravation.  

Them:  hello I am looking for a breeding quality female chinchilla , which comes with a pedigree. I am undecided on the color, I have a medium tan beige and a violet both males.

Me:   How soon are you wanting to get one? I would assume you're wanting to get an adult?

Them:  I dont mind if its a baby or adult. Its better if she is young that I can grow her out.  Which colors do you have up for sale.  I live more than 1hr away. Your website isnt updated. If I come I dont want to leave empty handed

Me:  My website is completely up to date, actually. I just don't have any pedigreed chins or babies for sale at the moment, that's why you don't see them on there. I'm a small breeder, I usually don't have more than 15 babies a year, and I want to say we're only on #6 so far. That's why I was asking how soon you're wanting to get one, because at some point I'll have babies up for sale, just not at the moment.

Them:  I can wait

Me (July 28):  Ok. I can put you on our waiting list, so you're wanting a pedigreed female -- have you decided what color, or would you just like to know when something pops up that I plan to sell that's female? Let me know, thanks. Also, will need your email so I have a way other than facebook to contact you when I have a baby.

Me (August 26):   Hey, I have a pedigreed beige female that I'm going to sell. Bout four months old, out of a hetero beige reserve phase champ male and a dan rolfe bred homo beige female. Asking $140. Let me know if you're interested, I can get pictures. She's roughly four months old right now.

Them:   Thankyou , i have alreally got a female. I would love to see pictures though

Few things.  First... they couldn't be bothered to respond to my July 28 message asking what color they wanted and for their email.  Second, "they can wait," yet a month later they have one.  Third, "my website isn't updated."  Excuse me?  Just because I don't have babies up for sale doesn't mean the website's not updated.  Granted, right now, it's not updated.  But just because the chin they want isn't listed doesn't mean I'm hiding it from them (but secretly have it).  People seem to think that though.  I once had a couple who I spoke to on the phone - told them I had no male chins available.  So what do they do?  Drive the 2 hours here, thinking I do have a male, just didn't tell them about it.  Um... what?

Now, I will get this person pictures, and who knows what could occur.  But this, along with the fact that when I emailed the people on my waiting list, only half responded -- all to say they'd either gotten the animal they wanted or were no longer looking, and the other half ended up off the list by default since they didn't contact me back.  So, there's like currently one or two people on the list (the ones I didn't email cause they had just been put on the list super recently).  See to me, this would suggest that having a waiting list is completely pointless.  They want to be on the list yet can't be bothered to wait more than a few days... if it was only going to be a few days I wouldn't even mess with a list.  I wonder if other people with waiting lists have this same kind of turnout?

Adoptions, Dropoffs, More Dropoffs, and Common Courtesy

Ok, so lots been going on.  But, let's start with common courtesy.  I feel like I talk about this a lot, but I was raised when, you're going to be late?  Call.  You're going to not show up?  Let someone know.

Ok, so I was supposed to have two adoptions today.  One was supposed to be someone coming from Anderson-area for one of the guinea pigs.  They'd said, earlier in the week, hey, let's wait til Thursday to set a time, because they didn't know their weekend schedule.  Fine.  So Thursday comes and goes and I don't think about it, but I email them Friday asking if they still wanted to come tomorrow (which was today).  Nothing.  Like, not a, "hey, we decided to not drive 2.5 hours to come get a pig..." or anything, just nothing.  So, 5 days from my last email will be the 27th and she will get a 2 day email.  Now, if something came up, I can understand, but not just... not emailing at all.

The other adoption didn't happen either, but that's a long pointless story that leads to this end:  she's going to come by another day.

Moving onto a food pickup that was supposed to happen at noon today.  Noon comes and goes, it's like 12:30, and I text and ask if she's still coming.  Like 3 hours later, get a text back saying family emergency *rolls eyes*, can she come at 3.  Now, the reason for the eye roll, is cause what you don't know, is this person has never once showed up on time, and it's always a "family emergency" as to why not.  So, 3 pm comes and goes.  She's still not here.  4-something and she's texting asking if I'm still home.  Was, so she came, got her food, left.  But like... couldn't have texted prior to noon saying she wasn't going to make her time?

Now, my one group of people today did have common courtesy.  Said they'd be here between 12-1.  Call before noon to tell me, going to be closer to 1 pm.  It's about 1 pm, call to say, hey, just got off the expressway.  Now, they wouldn't have had to even be that specific, but for the people who are several hours late.... ok you should let me know.

But back to dropoffs.  Today, had a mom, dad, baby, and two other babies dropped off.  Hold on, lemme back up.  Knew I was getting in a mom, dad, and baby.   Was told, mom could be pregnant again, cause they're all housed together.  Wonderful.  So, when they called to let me know they were just off the expressway, they said, oh, btw, mom had three babies the other day.  Ok.  So they bring em all in this tote with air holes drilled in.  Which wouldn't have been a bad idea except for the cedar bedding.   Anyway, so they tell me, she had 3 babies on Tuesday, but one died yesterday.  So, we get all the chins in, they're all in the same cage, and they ask if I'm going to keep them together, and I tell em, no, but until I get a cage set up, 5 more minutes isn't going to make a difference.  So, they leave, and I have one cage that is good for mom/babies.  So, I get some bedding in that, water bottle and toys hooked up and we're about ready to go.  Turn back to the cage... mom chin is all bloody and there is another baby.  Dead, mind you, and cold, so stillborn, but it was a halfway decent weight, in the higher 40s.  Ick.  So, mom and living babies go to the little cage, and now I think, ok I am going to check on the other female (the daughter), and I can't even find nipples.  So the thought that she might have been the mom to some of the babies went out the door, cause they'd at least be somewhat prominent if she had just had babies.  But nope.  So, then mom and babies are settled, I find another cage with small bar spacing for the female.  Dad stays in the original cage (which, while not baby-safe in size, does have baby-safe bar spacing).

So, a picture here would be worth 1000 words, but I really don't feel like going downstairs at the moment.... the toys in the cage (that all the chins were in) are about 18" off of the cage floor and not directly above any shelf.  How were the chins supposed to chew them?  In all fairness, there (for once!) were plenty of toys, and they are chewed, so somehow (apparently chins can fly?) the chins got to em.

So, those chins were taken care of.  Going back to yesterday.  Drove down to the Bourbonnais area of IL to meet people for some chins.  A foursome -- mom, dad, two babies, no idea of sex of babies, of course.  So, turns out it's mom, dad, female baby, male baby.  Cage chewed to all hell.  So, mom and daughter went in the one spare run hole, and dad and male baby went into the last open FN half.

So that's four females that will be here four months, at least, to ensure they are not pregnant.

Other than dropoffs, today was halfway decent.  Got a call yesterday about someone interested in Eeyore.  Wanted to know how low I'd go on him and I told her I'd go down to $30 (from $35).  Which I feel is reasonable.  Well, she said she would have to go buy a cage and food and everything else.... mind you... just like everyone else who adopts, and wanted lower.  So she said she'd talk it over with her fiance (?) and get back to me in the morning.  But here's the kicker.  She told me, when asking for the discount, she knows rescues aren't in it for the money, just are looking for good homes.  *taps fingers angrily/impatiently, counts to 10*  Yes, however, there still has to be money to care for the pets while they're here and to keep the rescue running.  If that was totally true, rescues would just give animals away.  Like if she couldn't afford the $5 extra, she was going to have quite the shocker when she saw what a rabbit cage that size would cost her!  And really, I hate when people bring that stuff up, because it's basically like they're trying to call your bluff, like, if you really care about the animal going to a good home, what's a few bucks less?  I always want to tell these people, "do an experiment for me.  Go to the humane society and ask for the dog for less.  Or Petsmart.  When/if they say 'yes,' come back and we can talk."  Cause you know what?  They would NOT say yes, come on people.

Anyway, temper had cooled down by today, she and the fiance turned out really nice, came by and ended up adopting Eeyore.  Discounts just tend to boil my blood because the animals are cheaper ANYWAY, and the people asking for discounts are never the ones who are spending $500, they're the ones who are spending under $50 and want to see how cheap they can go.

So, spent a good portion of today washing stuff.  You might be amazed at the pile I'd amassed of stuff that needed to be washed.  So, several times washed stuff, filled up the drainer and let the stuff dry.  Stuff's drying now, other stuff is soaking with vinegar.  With the garage sale coming up, some of the stuff that would be $1 or so will be put out there to try to get rid of the stuff.  So we'll see.  Cause at some point this stuff starts to pile up, and I can sort of predict what is going to sell and what's going to sit here for all eternity.  Water bottles, food bowls = will sell.  Hay holders = sit here for eternity.  Small playpens = sit here for eternity. And so on and so forth.

Moving along to more stupid people.  If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know my feelings on people who call/text without reading the ad.  I absolutely hate having to regurgitate the info that I took time to write out in the ad, so that people wouldn't have to contact me for the info.  So...gotta tell ya about this one person.  Ok, so I get a text like a few minutes ago, and its almost midnight, ok, and they ask if the rat on cragislist is still available.  Now, first off, I would NEVER text someone (note: someone who is not a friend) this late, cause, well, first, its late and, second,  they might be sleeping, but also, just common courtesy.  But, I figure, I'll be nice, so I text back and say that I still have him.  So, they say: ok how much are you asking and will he have a cage to go with

...and now... blood is boiling.  I actually said:  it says right on the ad that his adoption fee is $10. He comes with some food, but no cage.

So they're like ok thanks.  And in reality, I want to be like *strangle, strangle, strangle* because if they'd READ the fucking ad, they'd KNOW that shit.  I have enough to do without having to regurgitate the entire ads for people.

That might be it for today.  And for the past few days.  At the moment, I seem to have chins everywhere, but Meredith is coming tomorrow, so we're going to load up the last set of run and holding cages onto one of the tables so I can condense a bit.  I have two more chins coming in tomorrow (two females), and then I had a friend give me a heads-up that another person might be bringing their chins by, and surprise surprise I got a text from that other person today.  So, the first person may be coming tomorrow as well.  And someone from KY later next month.  So the rescue is officially closed to intakes.  I really do need to update the website to reflect that, but I already have so much going on that that can wait until I get  few more things crossed off the list.  But the runs will help condense a tad without using up too much space, until either I get pairs made up or until some are adopted out.  And partially I need them due to the baby-safe-ness.  Cause I don't have a gazillion baby-safe cages but the runs are all baby-safe. 

Think that's about it for now.  Going to go tuck in all the critters for the night (food and water) and try to get some paperwork done. 

Volunteering & waiting list

So yesterday, had some volunteers come over.  The girls who adopted Isis & Eowyn (now Taffy and Toffee) came by for about an hour and we made the pumice and triangles toys.  I didn't have all the pieces sanded or the pumice drilled (remember, the drill died and I had to go get another) so most of the time was spent sanding and drilling.  Which, really, is about right.  Making toys is like 98% sanding, drilling, cutting the wire, etc, and only about 2% putting the toys together.  That's the "quick" part.  So in a way, I would rather people help from the beginning to the end, so they can see what all goes into it.  The few people who have ever come and put together toys from nicely sanded and drilled piles of toy parts -- they think the toys are really quick to make.  In reality... it took 3 people an hour or so to make 14 toys.  I know that sounds like a lot, but think, that's three people.  If it was just me, I'd still be making those toys.  When it's one person, it takes forever.

So, they left and I stayed down to make some more toys.  Made 10 of the fun chewies toy.  Spent awhile going through the already-sanded toy parts to pull out the triangles, drill those, and put those in a separate bag (so when I go to make toys, I can just grab the bag with triangles instead of fishing for them).  Since my current bags of sanded toy parts had already been raided for the triangles and little square pieces (which are used in like almost all toys on one spot or another), decided I need to make some of the anything goes toys to use up the "extra" toy parts (aka the rest of the bags) that don't fit with any other toys.  So, I drilled those and made one of the anything goes PLUS toys before I had to call it a night.

Went upstairs, worked on more paperwork, and went through emails.  Two more people are vacating the waiting list -- one is deciding to wait to get another chin, the other got one elsewhere.  See, the list is shrinking already.  I'm actually liking this whole contacting people every so often thing -- granted, some of these people have been on the list for awhile, like the one that just got off was from January 2013, but then, one of the people who got off the list the other day was from the end of June.  So.... long, and not-too-long.  Which is why I've been telling people who've been lately asking about the list, hey, it could be months, potentially quite a few months, depending on what they're looking for.  And people still say, yeah, they want to be on the list.... but I almost think they are just assuming that their dream chin will come in the next day and they'll only have to wait a month (for quarantine/evaluation) for it.  But in reality, that's not what happens. 

Just as an example.  I'd have to look at the list to see what the people (still-on-the-list) are wanting, but for awhile (and potentially still), I had like 5 people on the list looking for a female chin under 2-3 years old.  Well, this year is apparently the "male" year, cause I have been getting males on top of more males.  Which makes no difference to me, but in terms of people on the waiting list wanting a female--- they're still waiting.  And with rescue chins, you just never know what you're going to get.  First, maybe 2/10 people that call saying hey, I want to bring my critter in, actually show up.  So, I don't promise any animals to anyone until they are physically in my possession.   Second, of the ones that I do get, often sex is wrong.  They are positive its a girl and in reality its a boy.  Or people just don't know what they have.  I have someone coming this weekend to bring by a mom, dad, and baby.  They thought they'd breed for profit (ha!), but they can't even tell what the sex of the baby is.  And mom might be pregnant again.  And it sounds as if the baby might be old enough to be pregnant as well (if its a female).  So, the male will be ready likely in a month, but the females could potentially be here for four months.  And four, let's repeat, I never know what I'm getting.  Someone wanted a white female under 5 years old, well, I've had people call me and tell me they have a white with some gray chin....and its standard.  Typically I get in standards with some beiges thrown in for good measure, but the people wanting "fancy" colors -- gonna be waiting awhile.

... it never ends.

So, moving along the ride that I call running a rescue, yesterday (Saturday) we had two dropoffs.  First, my 2 pm, who is known for showing up unannounced, or hours early, or with more pets than agreed upon, shows up BEFORE my 1 pm.  She brings her three rats and says her mom says she can only keep females.  Mind you, if you've read this blog for awhile, you know this girl as the one who's mom says she can keep the rats... can't keep the rats.... keep the rats... can't keep the rats.  So, I ask her which rats she has left.  So she names them.... one which was originally from here... and then she tells me, oh, the other rat (from here) got tumors so we fed her to our snake.  Um.... EXCUSE ME???  you WHAT?!?  I cannot even express the level of pissed off that makes me.

I understand that people feed live to their snakes, but I hardly think of that as humane.  I have a pacman frog that is special needs and literally has to be handfed (open mouth, stick fuzzy in... hope he starts to eat it, if not, pick up fuzzy, open mouth and repeat)... but even if he DID eat like a normal frog, I would buy him frozen and thaw them out.  But to feed a rescue rat, with tumors, to a snake?  I have nothing against snakes, but I tell you, I hope that snake gets infected from whatever that tumor was and dies.  There's this weird thing called humanely putting animals down, and that's what people are supposed to do.  Or bring it to a shelter or here and we can do that.  Not, oh, its sick, lets feed it to the snake.  *pulls hair out*

Anyway, also got in a pair of chins.  Two males (well, I haven't checked, but she said two males), Louie & Mr. Jingles.  Seem like sweet boys, should adopt pretty quick I'd think -- a mosaic and a standard.

So that was Saturday.  Moving along to today.  Got veggies the previous day at the Chesterton European Market, so got to sleep in today (yay!).  Got up just in time to go outside and scrub down lots of stuff.  Had a donated cage that'd been sitting in the garage since.... October?  Sometime when it was cold, and had never brought it in cause this thing was dripping with rust and grime.  Finally took it out today and scrubbed it down.   Looks halfway decent again.  Brought that inside.  Also took out some hidey houses that will likely be for sale (used hidey houses), and scrubbed those down.  And the shelves from that cage.  So, lots of stuff is still sitting outside to dry and be bleached by the sun another day.

Had a flying saucer that was just caked with.... well, I dunno.  Something that no amount of scrubbing would get off, so my guess would just be "grime."  Filled up one of those huuuuuge sterilite containers with water, added the secret ingredient (aka white vinegar).  Scrubbed a few times, let it soak some more, scrubbed some more, let it soak some more.  Over the course of the afternoon it looks worlds better.  Still not perfect, but for my intentions, it's good enough.  Also scrubbed down some toy parts and started going through my pile of "wood things."  Some stuff made its way into a pile of "sand only" (stuff not needing to actually be washed), so that's for another day.

Washed a crapload of other stuff outside, came in, fed, and watered the critters, weighed all the chins and prairie dogs, and took stuff that was upstairs and in my car downstairs.  Put more stuff away.  Decided that my two beige females are spending too much time on their wheel, and swapped them (and Tazzie) into one of the FN's that has no wheel.

Then came upstairs and the fun began.  The other day, I'd sorted all my chin paperwork into piles.  First pile was invoices.  That is, invoices for people who just purchased supplies, not adopted.  So, went through all of those, input the purchases into the spreadsheet, input donations into spreadsheet, input donations into page on website.  Moving on.  Next pile was surrenders.  I have three places surrenders go.  Chins Past & Present, Chins Past & Present Excel, and Chins Past & Present Stories.  I know it's all chins, but in all reality, I will be getting down to mostly chins again at some point.  So, the first Chins Past and Present is a listing of all the critters and what's happened to them.  So let's take Sugar for example.  His says Sugar and then has "adopted by [person] on [date]," but he was returned so then "returned to NWI on [date]."  That's just adoptive info.  Chins Past & Present Excel is more info info on the critters.  We have name, sex, color, disposition (adopted/sold, died, etc), birthdate, date arrived, date adopted, date of death (for those weird instances).  That's like the master doc of my chin rescue.  Then the Chins Past & Present Stories is the page that has info on why they were dropped off.  For example, Louie and Mr. Jingles were dropped off because the lady had 5 kids and a very small house and didn't have room for the chins, nor the time with all the kids.  So, that's down on that page, so when someone asks me 2 years from now, "why were they dropped off?" I have more than just my memory to go on.  So, all the recent surrenders were input to those pages.

Then I started on the adoptions pile.  The adoptions pile has a 9-step checklist.  In no specific order:

• 7 day letter -- after critter is adopted, adoptive home gets sent an email 7 days out asking how the critter's doing, if they have any questions
• happy customer page -- adoption is listed on happy customers page
• happy customers page - picture -- picture is listed along with happy customers listing
• past & present excel -- animal is marked as adopted with date adopted
• past & present word -- animal is marked adopted with adopter info and date
• email previous owner -- previous owner is sent an email with pictures and info that their pet was adopted
• expenditures/sales -- adoption fee and any supply sales marked down on expenditures spreadsheet
• wanting chins folder -- any emails from previous owner, as well as emails from potential adopters wanting to know if the adoption fell through, are responded to and moved to respective folders
• folder close -- each critter has their own adoption folder, with their best pictures and a blurb about them -- these pics and docs are moved to the critter's normal folder.  Once all files have been moved to the normal folder, that folder is moved into the "chins no longer at NWI" folder (so that the main page has only current animals listed on it, but, so I can still access previous animals if returned or for any other reason)

I suppose there's even a step 10 -- pull surrender info from manila folder -- all surrender info (the two pages surrenders fill out) is kept (along with current adoption forms, current vet bills, etc) in a folder upstairs, for ease of access when I am on the computer.  when an animal is adopted, the surrender info for that animal gets pulled from that folder and moved to a binder upstairs.

Typically, those are done in no specific order, just depends on whether I have the pics ready at the beginning, or if I don't have the pics until I'm ready to email the previous home, or what.  Today, I just went through and did the expenditures part.  The rest is for another day.

Ok, so what else did I do today.  Went through most of my emails, responded to the ones that weren't going to take lots of time to mess with.  Emailed someone pictures of all up-and-coming adoptable chins, emailed someone else pics of guinea pig cages.  Emptied out the dehumidifier several times.  Still having issues with humidity (though, granted, not quite as badly as the rest of the house that doesn't have a dehumidifier going).  Washed loads of chin stuff in the kitchen sink (much to the displeasure of everyone else).  Probably more stuff too but that's the main gist.

Still looking for volunteers for this week.  I have someone coming tomorrow for an hour or two, but was hoping to have several people come by this week.  Went on adopt-a-pet and did a volunteer search and sent out an email blast to those asking for anyone who can do this week to email me.  We shall see if that actually generates anything.  Anyone else who wants to help, feel free to contact me.  Can use help cleaning cages (used by pets), sanding toys/houses/etc, cleaning cages (outside, hose & soap) to sell, making toys/houses... believe me I can find something for everyone to do.  Now, just to get the people here... that's the difficult part. 

Oh, and I'm not sure if I posted about this before, but I decided that I am going to go through my waiting list every few months and email everyone, just to check if they're still wanting a chin (or whatever critter), since there's such a poor response rate when I actually do email and say, hey, I have a pet for you.  So, I sent out those emails last night.   Had one person email, who I was pretty sure no longer was getting a chin here (they were purchasing like $100 worth of supplies and food and such... but no chin), they emailed saying they didn't need a chin any longer.  And just now got another email from someone saying they're no longer looking for a chin.  Now, I guess the question would be... how difficult would it have been for these people to have emailed and said, hey, I know I was on your waiting list, but I decided to get a chin elsewhere?  I suppose they could have forgotten, and it's no big deal.  Really, I'm happy these people are emailing me back now, that way, when I do get in a chin, I don't have to go through 5 people when the first 4 have already gotten chins elsewhere.  But this is why I tell people, the waiting list doesn't guarantee you a chin next month.  Especially when it's something like this second person -- a white female chinchilla under 5 years old that gets along with other chins -- it could take awhile for that specific chin to pop up in rescue.  And the people are always like yeah, that's fine... and then often get the pet elsewhere.  That's their choice, no big deal I suppose, but I guess I wish people would take a tad bit longer to think about, "do I want to be on the waiting list, when she says it could be months, likely, at the very minimum, before they get in anything like what I want?"