We. Don't. Meet.

I feel like plastering a huge banner on all of our ads that says, we do not ship, we do not deliver, we do not meet.

Who knows why we don't meet?  Raise your hands.  Ok, for those of you without hands raised, let me copy and paste the response to someone who, though he has a legitimate reason for not wanting to meet, does not change the fact that we don't meet. 

While I can definitely understand why you would not want to drive a long distance, we don't meet.  Chinchillas are very fast.  Unlike dogs, which could be put on a leash to keep them contained in a smaller area, there is no good way to secure a chinchilla other than a carrier -- and I've even seen some chew their way out of those.  No one wants to "meet" a chinchilla in a carrier with the door closed.  They can't touch it, they can't see how it reacts when they hold it, and so on.  We have chinchillas routinely dropped at the rescue, and in a small room, it typically takes at least 10-15 minutes to catch them.  Meeting somewhere else, out in the open, if the chinchilla was dropped, we would never catch it, and would make all of our driving time for nothing (not to mention, the people that entrusted the rescue to find a good home for their chinchilla would be less than pleased).  It's not even a matter of having a good grip or having years of experience -- I've been doing this for 11 years and occasionally one will still wriggle out of my grasp.  It's just not practical for this type of animal, they're too fast and too easy to never see again.

While I do appreciate your willingness to pay more, unfortunately, my car gets 15 miles to the gallon, and it would cost more in gas to get to a midway point than the rescue would make on the chin.  Maybe gas is less by you, but here, it's about $4/gallon right now -- for the cost of me driving one hour there and one hour back (say, 60 miles each way), the rescue could feed a chin for over 1 year.  With numbers like that, for the longevity of the rescue, it makes more sense to sit here and feed the chins and wait for people to come here.  They mostly get adopted out in 3-4 months, so it's almost never a question of feeding a chin for a year versus going somewhere to drop them off.      

Maybe that's mean.  I know, over the years, the rescue has really ticked some people off with the whole "do not meet" thing.  But is it that hard to understand?  You drop the chinchilla, and now all the time it's spent at the rescue, any vet bills we've incurred, any costs as far as feeding it, watering it, cleaning the cage, all that, is for nothing.  We will never see it again.  Not to mention, my time.  Having the rescue is like having a full time job in itself. I spend almost all of my free time doing rescue-related things.  There's days when it really gets old and I want to say, let someone else do this shit, I'm tired of it.  But I still do it.  But the second I get 5 minutes of free time, people want me to meet them.  At some point, enough's enough.  The rescue's great, and I love when an animal finds a great home.  Don't get me wrong, that's awesome.  But I've been doing this for 11 years now, and the rescue has ended a LOT of friendships, a LOT of relationships, heck, the last time I had a boyfriend was BEFORE I had the rescue.  Smart guys.  The rescue has kept me from having a LOT of time and fun with my friends cause I can never leave the house for more than a day or so cause NO ONE will watch 50+ animals.  Ha!  I can get one person to watch on dog, and that's about it.  I'm almost 30 and due to the rescue, I've got like 3 friends and a million people who know my name but wouldn't recognize me if I didn't see them at a chin show or a pet expo.  One from high school and everyone else I know is animal related, which means we NEVER talk about anything else, which also gets old.  I have a house that I'm not crazy about, but it had the perfect basement for the rescue, so I got it.  I liked others better, but the basement was too small.  In retrospect, I should have gotten them and downsized the rescue, but noooo I cared too much about the animals, but I'm frankly getting sick of them.  I have an ankle that's killing me because I fell down the steps to the basement, which I'd almost never go down, if I didn't have the rescue.  Doctors tell me I likely tore a ligament or something, but since I don't have the money for an x-ray, much less an MRI, they can't say for sure.  But, it doesn't matter, because it could take years to feel normal again if I don't stay off my feet, but wait!!  I have cages to clean.  Animals to feed.  Orders to fill.  Oh hell, that ankle will never get better.  And you people want me to meet?  After all this other shit I do for the rescue and give it all my freaking free time..... if I can spend upwards of 40 hours per week on rescue stuff and I'm STILL on February orders.... you all can drive 2 hours to get here if you want to adopt.  

I am completely sick and tired of giving it my all and people don't want to make the slightest effort on their part.

Now, there are some people who drive.  There are people who don't throw a fit.  But lately every other email I get wants me to meet someone somewhere, on their schedule, at a time that's convenient for them.  Usually at something like 6 am,  at a location 10 hours from here (so, I guess I'd have to leave the night before and either not sleep, or spend more rescue money on a hotel... um... no).  I understand this is the world of delivery, where you want a tv?  You can buy it online and best buy can drop it off at your front door.  But these are live animals.  The tv doesn't run away if you drop it.  If you drop the box and the tv breaks, you can get a new one.  If you drop the chinchilla, it probably dies a horrible death out there, run over by a car, or eaten by some animal, or something, and you sure wouldn't be getting a new one from here.

I'm going to bed.  Hopefully will wake up less frustrated. 

More and less chins.

So, I went down this morning to the rescue, and Evil 2 (also known as "homo beige female" when I had to write her name anywhere on paperwork had passed away.  I'd noticed the day before yesterday, she seemed a little off, and then yesterday she spent a long portion of the day laying down.  Which, itself, is not a sign of anything, but she seemed off.  I called into the vet, and neither vet that saw small animals was there, so they said come in tomorrow.
Well, I get up today and she was gone.  And Benji (the male she was with) was sleeping on top of her.  I went down later in the day, and he was in her cage looking for her.  :(

And then I got an email from T, my rat person, saying that Catnap had chins and wanted an experienced chin person to take them, so she gave me their email.  I emailed, and they called back saying they had someone who could potentially bring them all the way here (I normally try to arrange meeting points when animals are coming from another rescue, as the rescues that we typically get critters from are several hours away.  I was cutting the grass, so by the time I got back inside and listened to the message, Catnap was closed, but I let it ring and ring and ring so that I could leave a message, and mid-message someone picked up. 

So, the chins were dropped off here.  Two females and a male.  Likely mom and babies, as there was apparently an adult male chin as well, which died.  The two babies were thought to be females, but nope, one's a male.  So they're now all separated and housed here.

And I just wanted to share with you the perfect example of what an un-educated owner uses as a chin cage.  Before anyone goes off, saying how I use the runs for the breeder chins, keep in mind that is one chin per run.  They had four chins in this cage:

^ it is next to my carrier for size reference.  For FOUR chins.  And notice that ramp.  Chinchillas can jump to that shelf, no problem, but the angle that ramp is, those chins are never walking up the ramp.  Notice anything else?  No?  That's cause there isn't anything else.  I take it back, there is a food bowl that sort of blends in with the carefresh, but there's not a single chew toy in sight.  One little shelf.  Nothing to stimulate them..... well, it'll be better here....

Good day and bad day.

I ideally would like the first, and not the second, ^^, but then, that wouldn't be the way life works.

So, today was going well.  Accomplished some major non-chin things in the morning, and then came home and went through quite a few emails related to adoptions.  So hopefully some of those pan out.  Fingers crossed.

Purchased (the other day) a one of those storage shelving unit things for cages, because I have quite a few small cages for the rescue, and always seem to need the bottom one.  Set it up today and started cleaning cages before I set them on it.  The one cage that must go on top due to size and won't-break-down is like this_close to the duct-work above the shelving unit.  PERFECT fit.

Clipped the rabbits nails.

The guinea pigs are separated into cages, male and female, and the cage with the males is a lot smaller (because usually there's only one in it -- my male, Truffles... but now he's got babies accompanying him).  All my other cages I can clean about once a week and be ok with that, but this cage needs cleaning like every 2-3 days, so I cleaned that and gave them fresh dry bedding.

Watered everyone.  Discovered free water awhile back, and by free water, I mean, I have a dehumidifier running in the summer.  While that water itself does not go through any filters, it is water pulled from the air, so it is relatively clean.  Well, I have a katadyn filter system where you pour the water in the top and as it filters, the water goes into a bottom chamber with a spigot so you can get it out.  So, when the dehumidifier is full, I pour that water into the filter.  Free water.  And considering, like today for example.  I filled up water bottles 2 days ago.  So, with only two days of use, to fill all those bottles to the top again (mind you, most were only down a little, cause it was only two days), it took almost 3 gallons.  So,  I can use free water if I can get it.

Organized some stuff in the basement.  Had a big box of cardboard bagels that didn't fit anywhere else, so they went in a bag and went on a high shelf in the storage closet.

I bought (a while back) a four-foot table that fits perfectly between the wash-tub and the pump that pumps the water out, and bought (also awhile back) three dish-drying racks and those little drying towel things to set them on.  That way, there's no more washing chin stuff upstairs and coating the kitchen sink in grime, and, with the three drainers, I can wash a lot of stuff at once.  Which usually isn't an issue, but my parents weren't too fond of me  washing chin stuff in their kitchen sink (they didn't have a basement sink), so it's sort of piled up.  So right now, I'm working on getting the number of random things that need to be washed down to a way smaller amount.  So I washed and filled the three racks.

Spent a while scrubbing down this one cage I  have for the rare occasion I have mice, gerbils, or very baby rats.  Still needs a good scrub, but I got enough in for one day.

I suppose all of this doesn't sound like a lot, but a lot of what I did can be summed up simply by saying: organized the basement and cleaned.  Which is really what it needs right now, as the rescue is coming together, but it's still not where it needs to be.

So, the bad day part.

I was just about ready to go upstairs, and was organizing stuff on that little cart that you all see me roll around.  I was standing in front of the runs and heard what could only be a baby's cry.  And my first thought was YAY!  But remember, this is bad news.

So, the baby was dry, and just laying there, which isn't a good sign for a baby.  Picked him up, and his head was ripped open.  A good quarter-sized chunk of scalp was missing right where his forehead and higher should have been.  You could actually see the whitish yellow of his skull.  The skin that was there on his face was ripped badly to the side.  His eye-hole (in the skin) was nowhere near where his eye actually was.  His ear wasn't actually attached to his body, but it was still attached to the skin on that side (the skin that was hanging off).  His lower jaw was ripped in two.  And he was still alive and those little paws were gripping my finger as I held him.  I went and got a good size dose of pain meds, and slowly got it into him.  I held him and petted him and told him he was a good chin, and he passed.

He was a big kit.  75 grams.  Had he lived, at that size, I would have hung onto him to see how big he would have gotten for show.  
 
In case you want to see --  I don't personally think it's that graphic, but then, over the years, I've seen everything, it's harder to make me panic and go "eww" over injuries than it was in the beginning, so I have provided links instead of posting the pictures... 

--Head:  http://www.nwichinchillas.com/ryerson_pw_baby_6-12-14_1.jpg
--Size of baby (body shot): http://www.nwichinchillas.com/ryerson_pw_baby_6-12-14_2.jpg

I get so tired of getting emails from people who want the cheapest chins they can find to breed.  Everyone thinks it's all cute babies and rainbows, but in reality, this sort of thing happens.  I want to say that this is the third kit to die this year, and I don't even think we're up to 10 total.  The first was born stillborn, the second had an eye problem and died a few days after birth, and then this.  This is not cute, this is not pretty, but this is the reality of what happens when you decide to breed.  Not all the time, of course, but I just wish people who want to breed would stumble upon these sort of stories and these sort of things before they think of how many cute babies they'll have when they breed.  And, while I didn't pick up the mom chin, I believe this was the only baby.  I'll check her again in the morning just to see, because sometimes labor can go on for hours and hours, but in reality, she spent four months with this baby inside her, for nothing.  Now, don't get me wrong, to me, I love her, whether she produces babies or not, but for someone who just sees the babies and dollar signs, to them, that's four months of gestation wasted.  

Hopefully tomorrow's better.

Update:  today just got worse.  Got an email from someone asking about getting a baby male grey chin, and off the top of my head, couldn't remember exactly what I had here, so I went down to look at the babies.  Open the cage of Lexi, a female who had her babies, oh, maybe 2-3 days ago, and there's only one baby.  Wait... what?  And... the run cover is off (the run cover keeps the male in the run and the mom and babies in their cage).  So, basically, either Lexi or Ace (the male chin) pulled off the run cover, which allowed the male baby to get into the run, and into my other female's cage... where she ripped open his skull and killed him.  Wonderful.  Why is it that all my females, when another chin gets into their cage, they feel the need to maim?  I had this similar situation (practically scalped), but for an adult chin (Nikki) last year when another chin got into Nikki's cage.  Ugh.  

While I'm up...

While I'm up, I might as well post.

It's been kinda crappy lately.  Very few adoptions.  Quite a few no-shows.  Actually, kinda a ridiculous number.  I've had more people not show for their appointments in the last two months than I've had actually show up.  I find that kinda rude.  I can understand the occasional person who has something come up and can't get to the internet to find my phone number, but all these people?  Decide you don't want the chin anymore?  Got one somewhere else?  Call.  I've had people flat out forget they have an appointment.  Write it down?  There's a reason I have a planner.

Not much exciting going on since the Lake County Pet Expo.  I feel like that was around the last time I posted, but it's been slow.  Just been cleaning cages and such.  Still working on painting the work station type thing that goes in the basement, and once that's done, I will have the basement more organized.

Pigeon coop is working on being done, but still need to get the roofing on and need to put some sort of guards so the pigeons can't get out the sides where the coop connects to the roof.  One thing at a time though.

The main thing, today, is with Cumberpatch.  Cumberpatch went on a trial run a few days ago, with a family in Indy.  They said she was fine the first night and then at playtime the second day, they noticed a few drops of blood.  Initially, I thought she just somehow cut herself.  Wouldn't be unheard of, and would just result in a few drops of blood, but then the person asked her daughter and the daughter said that something was sticking out.  So I asked the person to check, and yep, something sticking out.  So, the typical thought on that is anal prolapse, so I gave her the number of the vet to call and talk to and she took her in this morning.  As guessed, anal prolapse.  They said about 2 inches had come out -- and considering we're talking about a 3ish month old chin, that's a heck of a lot.  Surgery would have been $500, not counting that this could happen again if they didn't discover the cause of the prolapse.  They said that if it was parasites, that would be the easiest solution, but to determine that they would have needed to take a fecal, and since the chin wasn't pooing (which it wouldn't with a prolapse), they would need to do the surgery, or at least open her up to go in and get a poo.  The alternative would be doing bloodwork, which may or may not have shown a parasite, and they said could show bladder problems, liver problems, a whole slew of different things that could have been wrong to have caused a prolapse. The bloodwork alone would have been another $200+, and that would have potentially only shown what the problem was (if it even did that), so we would have been looking at $700ish at the minimum.  That's a lot of money, especially for a chin where prognosis is not good.  This sort of thing can happen over and over.  So, sadly, she was put down. 

RIP Cumberpatch

Expos

So, this is something new I guess.  The expos we typically go to in Darien, St. Charles, and Oak Lawn have now said that for us to get sponsored (so we can go for free), we need to present at each show, make a donation basket for each show, and find at least one vendor to attend.  Now, presenting is fine, the donation basket is fine (we typically make one anyway, requirement or not), but the vendor may be a problem.

Last year, the person I talk with regarding these expos suggested I find myself a sponsor. So, I went to local pet related businesses, and even some that aren't, and asked for either them to sponsor the booth or to give some money towards the booth fee.  Not a single place would give me even a freakin dollar towards the booth fee, much less sponsor the booth. 

One place told me that they had to buy mulch (yeah, because you know, mulch is so expensive), and the others pretty much echoed a similar sentiment:  with the closest show being 45+ minutes away, they didn't think anyone from the shows would come out this way to come to the businesses.  Which does make sense, as there's pet hospitals and specialty pet stores out in the Chicagoland area as well.  No reason for the average person to drive an hour just to go to one little shop.  And I spent a LOT of time talking to businesses, to get nowhere. 

The email that said these things came from someone different than the person I usually talk to, so I emailed the person I know, asking about this.  I told her how I spent a lot of time this past year trying to get sponsored for the expos myself (and she should remember that), but I had no luck whatsoever.  And I told her, if I have to spend weeks upon weeks to find a vendor, it's just not worth it.  At the expos, we typically get about $50-100 worth of sales (over two days), $15-30 in donations, and if we're lucky, an adoption (most times, no adoption... but it does get the word out). 

Now, lets assume that we have an awesome expo.  We make $100 in sales, $30 in donation, and get a $100 chin adoption.  Yay, right?  That's $230 made in 2 days for the rescue.  Yay, right?  Not quite.  Hotel for two days typically runs about $150.  All of a sudden we're down to $80.  Gas isn't free.  Let's take St. Charles because that's typically a good expo.  That's about 60 miles way.  So, 120 miles there and back.  I get roughly 15 miles to the gallon, so 8 gallons to get there and back.  Let's say 10 gallons total, because we have to eat while we're there and we gotta drive to where we're eating.  So, 10 gallons at $3.50/gallon is $35.  Down to $44.  If we eat fast food all weekend and can restrict ourselves to $7 per person per meal (not including breakfast, which is free at the hotel), we have 4 meals (dinner Friday, lunch and dinner Saturday, and lunch Sunday).  4 Meals x $14 (two people) = $56.  Wait.... now we're at negative $12.  And that's an AWESOME expo (for comparison, our last expo got $37.55 in donations, $50ish in sales, and a $13 rat adoption... but we still had hotel, food, gas, and other fees).  Not to mention, the time spent packing at home and unpacking/setting up at the expo.  And packing again at the end and unpacking at home.  And getting ready ahead of time, because I have to make the toys, package the herbs, etc etc.   Plus the fact that we're there (two people) for two and a half days.

Anyway, my point is, it's fine if we barely break even (or not) if we get the word out and don't spend a ton of other time (outside the expo weekend) on the expo.  But if I also have to spend weeks of time trying to get a vendor to attend.... it's not worth the time.  The rescue already loses money on the average expo, without losing a ton of time as well.  And to be perfectly honest, if we're gonna spend weeks trying to get a vendor, for the purpose of going to an expo to get exposure.... I could just as easily spend that time working on marketing and promotion and accomplish the same thing without ever having to leave the house, pay for hotel, pay for gas, etc.  And let's not forget the difficulty I have with getting people to go with me....    

...and really, I'm not even sure, if I did spend weeks and weeks trying to get a vendor, if I'd even get one!  We're too far out from the expos for most local places to care, and again, time is worth something.  If I spend weeks and get no one, and consequently, don't go to the expo, that's a lot of time wasted, for absolutely nothing. 

So, I emailed asking about this and letting her know about all of this.

But here's what kills me.  And I know that the person I deal with isn't part of ownership of the company or anything, so it's not her that's money hungry, but here's the thing.  It costs like $800 for every vendor who wants a booth.  Pet hospitals and smaller pet businesses and the like are $600, pet rescues are $300 for a booth.  Let's just say, conservatively, there's 10 vendors per show.  Let's say there's 10 pet hospitals.  Let's say there's 20 rescues.  Admission is $7 or $6 with a coupon.  They often say at least 10,000 people attend, so let's go with that.  Let's just, for shits and giggles, say they all have a coupon and get in for $6.  All of that equals out to $77,000.  Now, granted, they have to pay for the location for two days, so even if that's $20,000, they're making $57,000 in profit.  IN ONE WEEKEND.  I get companies that want to make a profit, heck, I want the rescue to pay for itself, so it doesn't have to come out of my pocket  (other than my time).  So I get it.  But you'd think with $57,000 in profit they could waive a $300 rescue booth fee.  I mean, let's think about this.  To get a free booth, I have to get a vendor to agree to pay $800ish to have a booth there.  Versus paying $300 for a rescue booth.  Hmmmmmm.  Plus presenting, donation basket, etc etc.  Seems that's a lot of work for a $300 booth -- not even HALF of what it costs for that vendor.

Little peeved today if you can't tell.

Babies!!

We have more babies!!  Nikki had two males on the 8th (I'm behind on everything, I know...).  And... I got to see part of it!  See, cause they usually have babies early morning, so typically I wake up to babies.  But not that day, it was like 2 in the afternoon and I opened Nikki's cage to check on her and found a baby!  And got to see the birth of the second one!  So if you don't want to see not-very-graphic pictures of that, go back now. 

Opened the door to find a wet mosaic male

mosaic male, drowned rat special edition

Nikki pulling out the other baby.  If you look closely you can see a leg.   Jackson looking on.

Nikki checking out her freshly born baby.  Jackson being like "mom!  privacy??"

....and look, he's already perfected the stink eye

...dried off later on. 

Pigeon Loft

I don't know why a pigeon house is called a loft instead of a coop.  People ask, not quite sure.  Best guess would be that it's recommended to have high up perches in the loft, and maybe that's why.

Anyway, I've had a few people comment that they really can't picture this thing, so I took some pictures.  Camera phone, so not great ones, but here we go:

That's just a tarp over the top, just uncovered the front for pictures....  That top left door opens down, and is meant to do that so that it can be left open so the pigeons can fly back in.

As you can see in the picture above, the door that folds down will actually fold flat against the cage (if the other door wasn't in the way).  Going to attach some snap-on chain to hold it open at a 90 degree angle so the door will form an L shape with the loft.  Just haven't gotten to that yet.  you can see on the bottom, the 2 x 4's... can't see it on the picture, but there is hardware cloth (same as on the doors) attached, so everything falls through, but no pigeons escape the bottom).

And last but not least, look above, you can see the inside.  Need to do something about the left side, where there's no shelves, but the right has the ledges, and then upside down V perches in the middle, and there's a perch going all the way around the top of the cage.  And you can see the hardware cloth on the bottom of the cage here. 

Pigeon Loft & Railing

So today Desi (from Wheekers) was over to help with the pigeon loft.  Everyone seems to wonder why this is taking so long, but it really is one of those slow-moving projects.  So, to bring everyone up to speed, the loft has the frame up, all shelves up (except for one side I still need to figure out what to do with), and the plywood sides up.  No roof, no doors.  So it's still being tarped when it's not being worked on.  Still need to figure out that roof.  But for today, we were working on the doors.

I should have taken a picture, but the front is divided in the middle, and so the right side was going to be one large door.  Built that first.  Cut the wood, put on the corner brackets, put in the screws, and stapled /hammered on the hardware cloth.  And had loads of fun with those drill-through handles.  The last cage I built had the handles with the screws on the front.  Oh, no, but for this one I decided I wanted the ones you couldn't see the screws for.  Yeah, those take a bit more finesse to put on.   But we got it.  So we got that door hinged on... and it wouldn't close.  Alrighty, out comes the sander.  So, sanded it until we could get it to close, barrel bolted it, and moved onto the other side.  Now, pigeon lofts, from the sites I read, are supposed to have a door that can be left open so the pigeons can fly back in (when you get to that point).  So, we cut a 2x4 and attached it about 8 inches down from the top.  Well.... see, that woulda been super easy had I not already put up the plywood on the sides.  So, we had to take a trip to Home Depot to get some brackets to attach to the one side, since I didn't want to mess with trying to drill blindly through plywood and just hope to hit the wood on the other side. 

So, we get that attached, cut the door and get it all ready to attach and put it in place.  And put on the hinges and everything and then realize... it is really not all that close to closing whatsoever.  So, sander comes out again.  In hindsight, we should have detached it and cut off a tiny edge on the saw.  Because we sanded FOREVER.  Or actually, Desi sanded for awhile while I tried to prep for the last door and pull weeds out of the area where the loft is going to go, and eventually we switched.  So finally that one went on.

Now, for the last door, we used our brains.  Instead of cutting the door so it'd fit nice and snug.... I had it where I (previously) would have thought would have been a good size for the verticals... and then trimmed off a little bit more.  And amazing, only a teeny tiny bit of sanding once the door was up.

So, now all the front doors are on.  I think I have a good idea of how the roof's going to attach, but if it attaches the way I'm thinking, the overhang is going to be ridiculous and needs to be cut down somehow.  So, will worry about that another day.  But now just about everything else is done.

Now, it took us all day to put on those three doors.  From like 11 am to 7 pm, with a short food break and trip to home depot break.  And she could tell you, we were working the whole time, mostly both of us working on different things at once, and it still took that long.  And this makes me think of how you see people who build cages, and they have on there, it's like $500 plus the cost of supplies, and people like balk at that... and it does seem a lot... but consider... just the doors took two people 8 hours.  And that's not including the frame, the grated bottom, the shelves... all that also.  I've been working on this loft for what seems like weeks (and it very well may be), because it just takes awhile.  

So, moving onto the railing.  If you've been in the new house, you've noticed there's no basement steps railing.  And I've even mentioned, I never noticed how often I used one until I don't have one.  And my stairs going down have a landing.  For no good reason.  Like, my parents' stairs had one, but it's because they went down a bit, landing, turned to the right, and continued down.  Mine go down, landing, go down some more.  And it kind of throws you off, and even with how long I've been here, I still misjudge where it is.  Like today.

So, I was driving Desi home and something made me think of the fact she had carrots in my fridge.  And then I was like, why are there carrots in my fridge?  Oh yeah, cause her rabbit was here.  So, we had to turn around and get the rabbit.  So, we're making our way down the basement steps, without the stair light on (cause the basement light was on, and you could see... but not well), her in front of me, and I'm (stupidly) reading a text out loud to her and not watching the stairs (both hands on the phone).  I thought the next step was the landing, and stepped forward (instead of down).  Yeah, so the landing was actually two steps down.  In that time it took me to realize I made a mistake and that I'd stepped on air, I wildly grabbed for something to hold onto, but there was no railing.  Landed on the toes of my right foot pointing down, like ballerina style, one step down, which then that foot sort of collapsed under me, and I fell forward.  I suppose, I should be thrilled I had that landing, cause had I not landed on that, I would have continued tumbling down the stairs.  With the loud thud (and probably the fact I stopped reading the text), Desi came running back to check I was ok (had to sit there for a few.... I actually thought, originally, that I might have broken something, but the pain's considerably dulled down to more a badly twisted-type pain).  And of course, it would be my right foot.  Anyway, moral of the story -- after taking my own tumble down the stairs, I will be looking into that railing sooner rather than later.     

Lately....

Ok, so I just posted a post that I forgot to hit "publish" on, about a week ago, so there is another new one under this one.

Ok, so few things.

I really find I'm losing my faith in the world when someone calls wanting a chinchilla, I call back soon after, and they've already gotten one.  Ok, wait, scratch that.  I'm losing my faith in the parenting of humanity.  Because when I was growing up, kids had to work for something.  Things were not handed to me, and I sure didn't say "I want this" and got it today.  But that's what I'm seeing more and more of lately, and frankly, it's getting a bit old.  Parents that tell their kids, oh you can get a chinchilla (or whatever) and then, if the place they call doesn't call them back in 2 minutes, or isn't available that day to get it, they move on.  And I mean, I feel it's different depending on what it is.  If you need a car battery and Walmart is out, you go elsewhere.  But this is a live animal.  This isn't my full-time job (though, if anyone would like to donate enough money so that I could just sit around and do rescue stuff for the rest of my life without having to work another job, by all means, I will take it).  I cannot just sit around and wait for phone calls and then jump the second it rings.  This is not like a coach where they say, "jump" and the players say, "how high?"  I don't work for you.  I don't get paid from you.  At least, not enough to make me that super excited to stop my world to answer every phone call.  Well, really, I get nothing.  The money from adoptions and sales of this stuff goes right back into the rescue.  I took a chin and prairie dog to the vet the other day.  Cost me $612.  That's a LOT of adoptions and supply sales to pay that back.  I don't get a cent.  And yeah, I want to adopt the animals out, but not badly enough that I can just always stop everything I'm doing to answer your phone call and then to drop everything I'm doing so you can come over and pick out a chinchilla.

Another thing -- and this isn't even chinchilla related -- but I'm starting to think teens are really stupid.  Not all of them, but a lot of them that call me, when I call back, have a voicemail message that goes something like this, "Hi, this is ________, either I can't answer my phone right now or I'm just ignoring you....."  I don't know if you all think that's funny, but I lose a lot of respect for someone when I hear a message like that.  You have that out there for the WORLD to hear.  You want a job to hear that?  Or someone you called, like me, that has to think you're a decent person so you can adopt?  Maybe it's funny, or, my bad, "phat," "cool," whatever, to your friends, but those of us in the real world don't think so.  Yeah, I have some numbers saved in my phone for the SOLE purpose being so that I DON'T answer when they call.  So I do understand.  I totally get it.  That's not the point though.  But actually saying that in the voicemail?  Sorry, respect lost. 

....and I kinda wonder, if you say that in the voicemail.... do you say everything you think?  Gonna have a hard time keeping a job if you tell the boss, well, you would've done the work, but you didn't feel like it.

Moving on.  Please, people, do not call me saying you're on your last pellet.  I mean, by all mean, you can call, but again.... I'm getting a bit tired of jumping for people that aren't smart enough to call before they run out.  Now, if you want to pick up pellets, that's fine.  But this applies to those who want me to ship it.  In other words, they're out of pellets, and they think I should jump and pack it right now and ship it 5 minutes later.  Um... how bout we get some planning skills?  I don't just sit here bored waiting for orders to come in just so I can jump and get them out.  Plan, please.

And then, is it that hard for people to listen?  I had this conversation yesterday (relevant part):

Me:  oh yeah he's a sweet boy (referring to the prairie dog)

Her:  oh, how long do they live?  how old is he?

Me:  they live 10-15 years in captivitiy, 3-5 in the wild.  He's 6 years old.

Her:  Oh ok, so you've had him for...

Me:  4 years.

Her:  Oh, ok, how long do they live? 

Excuse me while I go strangle some people.  I'm tired of these conversations.

But let's switch to positive things.

At the Oak Lawn Chicago Pet Show, we had a record amount of donations (for an expo), $37.65.  Yay!  We sold a decent amount of stuff, not as much as usual, but not too bad.  Presented twice on chinchillas, and it was a decent show.  And, had someone ask about rats the first day, and come to the rescue and adopted some rats a few days later.  Yay. 

Unfortunately, this year's Lake County Pet Expo was kind of a let down.  The expo itself was fine, but our booth was kind of in a bad spot, and except for the people who had already told me they'd come to the expo to pick up supplies, we sold about $20.  Not a ton of donations, and we didn't see all the local people we usually see at this expo.  No one asking about adopting (other than the prairie dog), lots of dogs putting their muddy paws on our tablecovers (that are washable, thank god), and an excessive number of rude people that said that either (1) we should have left the prairie dog in the wild and we're basically horrible for keeping him as a pet, or (2) they used to hunt him and he shouldn't be here.  Kind of both similar but still.  Dude.  KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.  You never hear people say, to a pit bull rescue, "oh I used to fight those dogs.  They made me lots of money and a shitload of em died, but now I'm rich"  So why is it ok for these people to tell me, "oh I shot those stupid prairie dogs every chance I got?"  I don't really even care if you did, that's fine. But keep it to yourself.

So, I guess my attempt to make things positive didn't turn out that well cause people have just really been asses lately.

What else.  Um... LOTS of people who want to adopt end up getting a chin before I can call them back, an hour or so later.  So adoptions are down.  I have orders I need to work on, but the basement's still not finished, and the saw's still not in, so all the wood orders are still waiting.  I had a pair of young males get into it and are now separated.  LOTS of chins are available to adopt, if you know of anyone who wants a chin, contact....  I need to list them, but for now, I'm going to list their sale prices on the website and hopefully that might attract some people in the meantime....

Fun at the hardware store

So, I wanted to share my somewhat humerous experiences at the hardware store today.  Several select people know that I'm building a pigeon loft.  Those people are the ones that have come to my basement and been like, "oh, you have pigeons!"  Otherwise, you really don't know.

Anyway, so its like a chicken coop, but designed for pigeons.  So, up til this point, I was building it in my garage, but it got to the point today where, if I was to connect the front and the back in my garage... there would be no getting it out of the garage without help (which you would totally understand if you saw the amount of stuff in my garage at the moment).... and my ability to convince people to come and help me with this stuff is sort of lacking.  Ok, in reality, most of my friends live too far to ask them, so mostly it's just me, with no help.   

So, I took it outside.  I cut a few things that I needed, and attached the front to the back outside.  I had thought ahead and had purchased some corner braces to help keep this all together.  Well, somehow my head had worked out that there'd only be four corners, instead of 8.  Oops.  So I put on what I could and got as much worked out as possible.  Attached front to back.  Put up support in front and back.  Put up side supports.  Attached these all with nails and braces.  Well, then I was at that point where I really couldn't do anything else without purchasing other items.

So, I went to Home Depot cause I needed to pick up some more 2 x 4's, so shelving for the inside of the loft, and a few other random things.  Got everything I needed (or so I thought), and I had a lot of 8' wood on one of those wood carts that is huge.  So there was no going through self-checkout.  Well, it seems that, at least in the times I've been there, Home Depot thinks most people can self-checkout, so there's only one other cashier.  And if I have just small items and no wood, I will use self-checkout.  But not with a cart full of wood.

So I go up to the one cashier, who happened to be counting the money in the drawer and was having issues with it.  I wasn't sure what was going on, but 10 minutes later, she's still counting, and I'm starting to get impatient.  Finally she called over management who told her, worry bout the money later, take care of the customer first.  Smart management.

Anyway, so I know that I had 5 of the 2 x 4's, I had 6 of the 1 x 2's, I had two 1 x 12 x 8", and four 1 x 8 x 6'.  So I tell her that.  And I don't expect her to look em up, but if I say I have 6 of this item... the typical employee types in "6" and scans the item.  Or at least counts the item and then puts in "6" and scans one.  Nope, she apparently didn't believe me, and scanned everything one by one.  Which was fine, I didn't have that many items.  But then she got back to the screen and looked and wasn't sure she got everything.  So she went back and counted everything several times just to be sure.  So finally we get to the point where I'm ready to pay.  I swipe my card.  She asks to see ID.  Now.... my order was under $100.  It was large pieces of cheap wood.  If I stole someone's debit card, I sure would go and purchase more "fun" items.  Even Home Depot has more fun items that I would purchase if I had someone else's card.

Anyway, that's beside the point.  She apologized several times about taking so long, and really I wasn't in a huge rush, but I was kinda happy I don't typically get someone like that.

So I go home, put more of the loft together.  It starts getting dark and so I stop cutting the wood and start putting together what I have.  Finally it's dark enough I'm not going to get much accomplished without some light source, and I'm not looking to get eaten by bugs, so I call it a night.  And I realize, the sander I bought is apparently only useful to sand dead skin cells off someone's feet.  I apparently bought a polishing sander, not what I intended.  So I figured, I needed a few more things, I could go back.  Let's note, that this was at least 4-5 hours after I was there the first time (and I live not even 5 minutes from Home Depot, so it's not a drive).

So, last thing I do before I leave is measure the loft so I can get the plywood cut.  Before I leave the house, I take the spare tire / donut out of my vehicle to give me more room for the plywood.  So I get to the store and exchange my sander and get a clamps for the tarp.  Finally find someone to cut the plywood. Very nice, asks what I'm making, and we talk a bit.  The one piece of plywood was cut to 46".  Well, that's almost a full sheet.  So the convo goes like this:

Him:  what kind of vehicle do you have?

Me:  SUV

Him:  Large?

Me:  Small

Him:  This gonna fit?

Me:  Oh yeah

Him:  You sure?

Me:   I measured before I left

Him:  Okay.  (in that disbelieving tone)

Ok so we get to the checkout.  And who's there but my favorite cashier!  The same one from earlier. So, she rings me up considerably faster at this point in time, and made a comment about how she's happy to see me back after how long I waited last time.  I told her, it wasn't that bad, and she seemed happy.  If I'd had my phone the first time, it wouldn't have been so bad, I would have at least amused myself.  Anyway.   

Ok, so we get the plywood outside and I pull up my blazer under the contractor roof so we can load.  Another guy comes out to help load.  It's three sheets of plywood, I think I could have done it myself, but you know.  So I open the back and

Them:  This isn't gonna fit.

Me:  It's gonna fit.

Them:  Uh.....yeah.

Me:  I measured this at home, it's gonna fit.

**both guys stand there, looking at me heavily skeptical**

Me:  It's gotta go in at an angle.  This isn't a pick-up bed, there's not room to lay it down flat.  So it needs to angle up to this side *motions* and it'll fit

**still looks skeptical, but one guy lifts up the biggest piece**

....and it fit.

The guys that were there were super nice, so I just thanked them and left, but had it been anyone else, I was secretly dying to say that I KNEW it would fit.  I'm not usually the told-ya-so type, but this would have been the perfect instance for that.

Anyway, so I get home, and there's some lightning, and I think, ok I better get that tarp on before it pours.  So I stand up the loft, get the tarp over, and use the newly purchased clamps to hold it down.  Get inside, and it starts pouring.  Awesome timing.  Lol.

    

...and the trend continues

So this is gonna be really short, but I just wanted to point something out.  Remember that person that wanted the four chins and then delayed and delayed and delayed on and on and on and I finally told her, if you can't get here by Sunday, they're going up for adoption?

Guess what?  Didn't see her today.

So, they're all up for adoption.

...and see, the trend seems to be, the people that really want the animals come right away to adopt them.  I've had people come the same day, but typically, it's within 1-2 weeks.  But here's the thing... if it nears/passes a month's time since that person has said they want the animal, so far, 100% of the time, they never come to get it. 

Guess I will get around to listing them all soon.

Have girl scouts coming tomorrow, so going to bed early so I can get up and spend the day cleaning and getting ready for that.  More bout that later...

Regarding the Waiting List to Bring in Chins

Hi again.

So, had a discussion today about the waiting list to bring chins into the rescue.  This person thought I was being unfair, so I explained to her why (she still didn't like it, but I can't help that).  Ok, so let me explain how it works.

Person contacts me wanting to bring in a chin.  They get put on a waiting list with their info, chin info, and the date that they contacted me.  Typically, the list goes in order.  You called first, your chin comes in first.  However, sometimes it doesn't.  That doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen. 

In this instance, someone who's closer to the top of the list was upset because they noticed, though they have not yet been called to bring their chin in, I have taken in multiple chins since telling them that they were close to the top of the list. 

All that said.  Here's the instances where a chin jumps the list, in order of priority:

• Another rescue needs to drop/transfer animals here.  Sometimes, other rescues get in an abundance of animals.  Sometimes, a rescue shuts down and the rest of us have to pick up the slack**.  Sometimes something drastic happens and they need to reduce numbers of animals.  Sometimes, we take in pulls from kill shelters.  We can't always help, because sometimes we really don't have the room, but the times we can, we do.  Because they would help if we needed.     
• Someone who has adopted a chin from NWI need to return the chin.  These people signed a contract saying that they will return the chin to us.  They do not have the option to go list it on craigslist or wherever else.  They are to bring it here.  Period.  Which means, we have to be able to take it in.   
• Something drastic is happening in someone's life.  For example, one chin that is currently here was on the list to come... more towards the middle-ish.  They were on the list for awhile.  I got an email saying that the people were forced to move and couldn't take the chin with.  They'd thought a spot would have opened up here prior, and wouldn't have come to this.  But it took longer than they thought and were stuck.  Chin came in.  Had another one, kid leaving for college, kid already lived by herself, couldn't take the chin, college was like... 3 days away.  Chin came here.

** A lot of times when rescues shut down, its not a planned thing.  It's typically more like one day they decide, "I'm done, this is it!  Animals need to all be gone tomorrow."  And it's a scramble.  So we do the best to make sure those critters end up in different rescues rather than in people's hands (who may not be the most educated about them). 

All this said, you may notice that chins are coming in when we say it's full.  A lot of times, when people want to bring in a chin and we have no room, that's no rescue cages.  Most people don't bring anything with their chins, which is fine, but because of that, I wait until I have rescue cages available to bring in a chin off the normal waiting list.  Since I breed, sometimes we have open runs and holding cages.  They're a lot smaller, but the chins do get moved into the rescue cages when they open up.  And in the meantime, for the people who have no choice but to drop off their chin, it is a cage. 

Just wanted to explain that.  Thanks.  

Adoption and people and stuff

So, that guy who was gonna get a chin here, and then got one elsewhere, and then called back... came over and adopted a chin.  Who-hoo.  The 5 month old female, so I can now take her ad down.  Funny, the only chin with an ad up out of all the ones I have available.

Also had some people today who have another of my chins asked about adopting a second one, so now I'm just waiting for them to get back to me as far as when they want to come.  So I hope that works out.

Ok and you know lately, I haven't had a day without someone making me want to *facepalm*.  I got an email tonight asking advice.  Said she has an older female chin, and her neighbor (I think) asked if she wanted another, and of course, it's a female.  So she wanted to know about putting them together and how to prepare if there's babies.

Now, she didn't say that she wanted to put them together because she only wanted one cage... but as that's the reason I hear 95% of the time, I told her about when you're breeding chins, you need a baby safe cage.  Chances are, she doesn't already have that, as most chin cages aren't baby safe.  So, she would probably need to buy that.  Then, she still would need to keep one of her current cages, to separate the male and to keep the male babies in after they're weaned.  IF they get along with dad, that is.  Also told her to have money, and used some examples of super expensive vet bills I've had relating to pregnant chins.  Also told her bout handfeeding and having goat's milk for that and a syringe and every two hours...   probably some other stuff too.  What I don't get though, is, why does everyone feel like their chin needs a buddy?  I mean, even in run breeding, where the chins are SUPPOSED to be separated, almost every time a female gets out of her run and gets in with another female, there's an injury.  Hmmmmm.  You know?  Not like every chin wants a buddy.  I mean, the same goes for people.  Some want to be surrounded by others all the time and others are more loners.  Ugh.  In addition to answering he questions, I told her, I wouldn't put em together.  I have a waiting list a mile long for people to bring chins in.... but you know, can't control what she does.

Going back to the lady who's had the chins on hold a month.  In addition to what I told her in my previous blog post, I told her, I'm no longer letting her do payments.  It was beneficial to me, had she adopted all four chins at once and I had 3 open spots (two chins are a pair) to take in more chins.  But now that they've been here a month and I don't feel she's any closer to picking them up, I have no good reason to let her make payments.  These chins could have all potentially been adopted by now.

So, she got back to me and of course, she wants the chins and wants to walk all over me and I'm not having it.  Conversation:

Her:  I still want the mom, daughter and the gray male.  I can do $100.  I will be out there Saturday and sunday.  If u want I can pay for their food since theyare still with u

Me:  $100 will not pay for any of those chins. The pair is $150. The baby would be $125. If you can't pay that, you just can't get the chins. Period.

Paying for the food is not the same as taking them and adopting them. The point is so they are not here and I can take in other chins. The food is the least of it.

If all you have is $100, keep saving, and if the chins are still here when you can actually pay for them, let me know.

Her:  I would only owe u $100 because u said before that would be $200 for all three and $250 for all four

I don't know what kind of money u make but my rent is $900, $250 for nipsco and that doesnt include food for 3 people, car insurance, celll phones, cable, health insurance $500 something coming out my husbands check for us and our pets....

One dog,3cats, degus and 2 fish

Especially when he was off work foe 6-7months and we are just trying to catch up on everything


Or I can take all three of them this week and just owe u whatever 

It's not like i'm keep them and take off on u... I can so a contact about whatever how much I owe . U 

Me:  I did say it would be $200 for all three. But I also said now, that you can't make payments. When you only buy one chin at a time, it's full price. The discount is a "multi-chin" discount -- it's because you were buying multiple.

I am making no money right now, no unemployment, and I still have all the bills you do. And I'm caring for 40 animals. I understand you may not be making oodles of money, most people I know aren't making a lot. But then if that's the case, what if you brought one of these chins home and you had a $300 vet bill for some reason? Gonna wait a month to take the chin into the vet because you don't have the money? This is a bad situation all around.

At this point, I could see it being years before I'd ever get the money from you. Not even because you don't have it, but because you take so long to make it out here. Even if you did sign a contract, they're miserable to enforce, and if I had to go to court, it would cost me more to go to court than what you'd owe me. It's not worth it.

Her:  BELIEVE if my animals came to that point need l ing some serious medical help theu will get it asap... and about u ever taking me to court that wouldn't happen... I don't take advantage of people and definitely don't do people wrong at all... if my huaband check is more on friday then I will pay it off.... it was kinda a set back when we had to put dam near $600 into his car and still have to pay to get my explorer towed from hammond to demotte to see whats goinf on with that

Me:  I understand, but I just can't wait forever either. And it's already been almost a month, that is ridiculously long. People pick up chinchillas the same day they call. Most pick up within 7 days. I need to keep the rescue running in the meantime. I can't do that without money. Money comes from adoption fees. Without those...... 

Let me know what happens on Friday. We'll talk then.

 

Some of this so deserves comments.  First.  I do NOT want to hear about all the bills you all have.  A lot of people tell me they have bills.  So?  What, do you all think I'm rich and live here with no mortgage, no electrical bills, no food bills, no gas bills, etc?  Guess what, I have all those bills too!  So you're not special and I'm not giving you a discount just because you have bills.  The only thing I don't have is kids, but I have 40+ animals at all times, so I think that probably takes about as much time and a good portion of the money if they're being cared for correctly.   

Also, did you notice how I told her she cannot make payments and then she says, oh she can take all three and pay the rest whenever.  DID I NOT JUST SAY SHE COULD NOT MAKE PAYMENTS?  I am REALLY getting tired of telling people the same thing over and over.  Don’t read, can’t adopt.  That should be the new rule. 

And… if the husband’s been off work, and the daughters’ been in the hospital (not sure if that’s in the part I copied), and car problems, and this and that… maybe she shouldn’t be getting ANY pets at all until she has more money.  How bout that?  Oh, and she’ll get vet care right away if needed.  Really?   How’s she gonna pay for it?  Hmmmmm???? 

Oh, and she’s not gonna take em and take off on me.  No, she’ll be right in her home, where I can find her, but at the rate she’s going, even if she had the money, she’d take 4 months to see me to get it to me to pay me something like $25 off of a $150 tab.  So it would take years to get paid off (and the whole time, just like her coming to get the chins, I would need to be bugging her).  Don’t think so.  I am TIRED of getting walked all over.

And people… that is how a multi-animal discount works.  You don’t go to a breeder, get a dog, and come back awhile later, and get another, and get a discount.  But, when you’re there, if you pick up two, sometimes you get a discount.  But that doesn’t extend on forever, that’s typically just that day.  

So all this said... if she has the money Friday, I still need to see her adoption form.  Because she hasn't even been able to get THAT to me yet.  If she can afford em Friday or this weekend, she can take em.  But she is NOT doing a payment plan.  Considering the fact that I have not seen her ONCE since she decided she wanted the chins, about a month ago, and the fact that she was scheduled to come over here MULTIPLE times during that period of time yet NEVER DID, I am NOT doing any favors.  She has wasted enough of my time already.

Now, before I get 20 emails asking about payment plans... I don't offer em to 99.9% of people.  There are not even a handful of people who I will allow to have a tab, because I see them often enough or I've known them forever.  And with this person, she has some of my degus, and with that adoption, it was not delay delay delay.  She wanted em, came over, filled out paperwork, and adopted them.  So I dunno if this is a new thing or what, but had she been like this before, I would have told her, forget ever adopting anything else. I don't have the time to mess with people like this who just make me want to strangle them.  It's not worth raising my blood pressure over, when I can find perfectly nice chin homes that don't aggravate me, and it's not worth the aggravation.  We will see what happens this weekend.  

Few more things.  First.  What is it with people who say, I know the store's closed but I need this thing right now, and could you get it out quick?  (which isn't always a problem, but keep reading).  So we talk bout they want, back and forth for a day or two.  So, then I rush to get their order put together and email em with the total.  Nothing for two days.  I emailed and told em, hey, thought you wanted this in a rush, did you get my other email?  Oh yeah, they got it.  Welll...... they said they'll pay by paypal.  So I gave em my paypal and told em, I can send em an invoice.  That was this morning.  Nothing yet.  I try to be nice, but when you tell me its a rush, and then YOU delay in payment or getting me your zip code or whatever, then I feel like you just wanted me to push your order in front of everyone else's.  Which isn't fair to them, if you really don't need it in a day or two like you say you do.

Last thing.  MOST of the drywall is up. Few remaining pieces -- may be done by end of week!!!