So, I suppose people never cease to amaze me, but there's occasionally ones that stand out from the rest as even MORE *shaking my head* than usual. Was sitting here, got a message on facebook that popped up in the corner of the screen (for the rescue page) that said basically, looking for a white female, 2 years of age or older. As that little window only shows a little portion of the message, I clicked on it. Thinking, ooh, we have Salt. Yeah, well, this person isn't adopting. Here's their short (but very problematic) message:
Looking for a white female 2yrs plus in age... Where are you located? I have a grey and a cage to trade...
I told the guy, we don't trade, this is a rescue not a swap meet. But there are so many problems with this! First, this just SCREAMS that this guy thinks animals are disposable and don't have feelings / emotions / however you want to put it. Oh, tired of the color you have? Swap out for another! It's the same thing, right? Cause you know, you're not happy with the black fridge, take it and trade for the silver one, right? Not for live animals, you don't.
Second... this is a rescue. I've seen all sorts of trade posts on reptile sites between private owners and such (and really, even that I think is kinda odd), but for a rescue? Try walking into a humane society and bringing your mutt in and saying, hey can I trade for that nice purebred doberman? See how well that works out, and watch the looks they give you. They won't adopt to you either.
And thirdly... people, READ. It says RIGHT on the About Us page (on facebook... and if you go to the website, in multiple places) where we're located. And when I just had the chins on the website and a few other classified sites, people complained they weren't listed on facebook. So I created a facebook album for the available critters and now I keep that updated as well. And people STILL "oh do you have this?" -- how about, could you make the slightest bit of effort and then get back to me?
Had another person like that the other day. Wanted to do a trial run, but one of the chins they were interested in was already on hold. I told them I would snap them some pics of the other chins we had here when I got home (the next day). She asked where I was located, I told her, and then she asked if we did delivery. Mind you, this person wanted to do a trial run -- where you put down a $50 deposit and get to try out a chin with all supplies for a week -- and wanted me to deliver all this stuff and two chins to her -- FOUR hours away. Might I mention, the rescue doesn't make a CENT from trial runs, because assuming you bring back the chins and cages and all, you get your deposit back! But no, I should spend 8 hours round trip of my time (and GAS) to deliver chins to her to figure out if she likes them or not. And what do you bet, if she did, she would have wanted me to drive to her to pick the cage back up. And of course... is the vet gonna deliver services? I told her we don't deliver and said I would get her pics. And I did, and of course, never heard back. Guess they were really counting on me spending a day of my time, and all that gas, potentially for nothing (if they didn't end up adopting).
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Labeling Colors
Wanted to touch on something real quick. This is come up (in my mind) because we've had so many white / mosaic chinchillas come in lately, that we've had to get more descriptive when listing them.
I remember when there was another breeder in Indiana who used to list a lot of their chinchillas as "panda mosaics" -- for them, this was a selling term, and a reason to "up" the prices on those chinchillas. A regular mosaic may have been $175, a panda mosaic was $200. In the chinchilla world... that's more or less unethical. A mosaic is a mosaic. Don't get me wrong, some people may be willing to pay more for a chinchilla that is all white. Or one that has radical markings. But in general, both genetically and otherwise... it's still a mosaic, and there's no real difference between an all white chin, one with spots, a silver mosaic, and so on. All mosaics.
So the reason I bring this up is because I was listing chinchillas today, and noticed that I listed one as a predominantly white mosaic, another as having a saddle stripe, and another as having a silvery face. None of these chins are listed this way to suggest that one is more valuable than any other, they are simply descriptive terms. You may notice, the prices of all these chins are the same.
The thing is, we need descriptive terms when we don't have names. Most owner surrenders come in with names, which is why most of our older chins can easily be differentiated. But we still run into people, occasionally, who call us up and say they want the adult male standard grey chin. Ok, which one? Often we have multiple. Same for the mosaics. Someone says they want the mosaic female, we have two. Mosaic male? We have four. If people can call up and say, oh the one with the spot... that helps. We know which one to put on hold and have here for them when they come to adopt. But that's all it is.
Just in case anyone was wondering.
I remember when there was another breeder in Indiana who used to list a lot of their chinchillas as "panda mosaics" -- for them, this was a selling term, and a reason to "up" the prices on those chinchillas. A regular mosaic may have been $175, a panda mosaic was $200. In the chinchilla world... that's more or less unethical. A mosaic is a mosaic. Don't get me wrong, some people may be willing to pay more for a chinchilla that is all white. Or one that has radical markings. But in general, both genetically and otherwise... it's still a mosaic, and there's no real difference between an all white chin, one with spots, a silver mosaic, and so on. All mosaics.
So the reason I bring this up is because I was listing chinchillas today, and noticed that I listed one as a predominantly white mosaic, another as having a saddle stripe, and another as having a silvery face. None of these chins are listed this way to suggest that one is more valuable than any other, they are simply descriptive terms. You may notice, the prices of all these chins are the same.
The thing is, we need descriptive terms when we don't have names. Most owner surrenders come in with names, which is why most of our older chins can easily be differentiated. But we still run into people, occasionally, who call us up and say they want the adult male standard grey chin. Ok, which one? Often we have multiple. Same for the mosaics. Someone says they want the mosaic female, we have two. Mosaic male? We have four. If people can call up and say, oh the one with the spot... that helps. We know which one to put on hold and have here for them when they come to adopt. But that's all it is.
Just in case anyone was wondering.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Adoption Fees
So, I post our available animals up on craigslist, all the time. Lately have not been having problems with flaggers, but we go through spurts. May start having issues again, wanted to share an email I got today:
Your fees are much higher than Animal Welfare League. I will flag all "selling"
And my response:
Personally... they're gonna flag me. What are they all high and mighty? Ooooh I'm afraid. Most adoptions we get are through the WEBSITE, so even if craigslist goes down for a bit... so what?
Let me expand on a few things. Humane societies, especially ones like AWL that have vets on staff, are naturally going to be able to charge lower fees. Not just for small animals, but for dogs, and every other animal that comes in the door. Now, this person clearly has no idea, but I have horror stories I could tell you all about AWL, that would make no one ever adopt from them. EVER. Just cause they have cheap adoption fees doesn't mean a place is ethical, is out for the good of the animals, anything like that. Cheap adoptions fees are just that, cheap. Should I mention how most of the critters that this rescue has ever gotten from AWL -- AWL has been WRONG on sex of. Has said -- two males. Nope!! Male and female. Can't even tell them when they're DIFFERENT. That's just the tip of the iceberg, and I won't even get into the rest. Cheap, yes. Sick animals, DING DING DING DING DING, tell em what they've won!!
Any time you go to an animal specific shelter, it's always going to be more. Someone told me, way back when, Hobart Humane Society adopts out guinea pigs for $5 each. And asked, could I lower my adoption fee (for one specific guinea pig) to that. Uh... no. You want one for $5, go to HHS. Oh, they don't have the one you want? Guess you gotta pay our adoption fee if you want the one we have. This is not Walmart, we do not pricematch. Sorry. I personally think it's funny... they like the adoption fees of other places better... but want our animals. Hmmmm. But back to the animal specific. You go to the local humane society, often you could adopt any animal in there without much scrutiny, go home, and decide to return it the next day. And guess what -- happens all the time. I used to volunteer at one of the local humane societies and their returns were insane! Versus us, we get back MAYBE a handful of chins every year. You know why? Because just like any breed-specific rescue, we know what questions to ask, we know what's important in a good home, and check that out before the animal goes home. I guarantee you, you go to adopt an animal from AWL, say a hamster, and you pay the $10 (or whatever) and take it home. Do they know what type of cage you have? Probably not. What type of food you plan to feed? Eh. Have they asked if the hamster is for you or a gift for someone else? Doubtful. We would. And that's why we have some percentage of people who would adopt, decide to not adopt, because they realize, you know what, not the pet for me. And that's fine, I'd rather people realize it ahead of time. But the thing is, we know our animals. You go to a sheltie rescue, they're not gonna adopt out a sheltie to someone who can't stand barking. Cause they bark. Just like we wouldn't adopt out a chinchilla to someone who wanted it to play with their 1 year old unsupervised and let their 2 year old carry it around the house 24/7. But because breed-specific rescues specialize... and only deal with one general breed... it tends to be more expensive to adopt from them.
And believe me... I cringe when I hear, oh this place adopts out chins for $25. I know someone told me there is a place in Indiana like that. I cringe and wonder if we're getting in their chins and not knowing it... because unfortunately, it is the truth. The people who can't afford a $75 chin, but can afford a $30 one, and think it's a good idea to get one at $30 (but think it's totally unaffordable at $75)... probably should not have the pet. And I know I've said this over and over, it's not that I have anything against poor people, because I, too, am no stranger to charging vet bills, if needed, but I do believe that if the difference of $45 is going to break the bank, that person should really think about adopting the animal. We have sales now and then, because the appeal of "getting a deal" usually is pretty effective at finding some good homes. Not that $65 is much cheaper than $75, but people see it as something they should jump on. We have given discounts before (ya gotta ask for them... we don't just offer), because a good home is worth more than $20 more in the rescue's pocket. But that all said... if $20 is the difference between affording the pet and not... probably should wait. I know for me, when I got Taffy (younger sheltie), she was $600, and I would rather have spent that amount and then spent a few hundred on toys, crate, shots, etc etc, than spent $2000 on her and not had money left over for the other stuff. So I can totally understand saving some money on the animal itself and using it to put towards the animal. Sometimes when I have sales, some people seem to purchase more supplies (as compared to animals not on sale), which may be because they're saving some on the critter. But what I want to avoid is adopting out animals too cheaply, and then having the people not be able to afford proper vet care. You may remember when Chong (renamed Cheerio by her new home) went home, and came to find out that they couldn't even afford the gas to get to the vet, and I had to call up the vet and put my card on file so she could be treated. Yes, she was still under the health guarantee, but if it was a week later, she wouldn't have, and those people would not have had the gas to get her to the vet, much less any money to treat her, or even to put her down. We want to avoid that. I get a lot of emails from people who have a sick chin and can't afford medical care. Sometimes it's something we can legitimately help with. Sometimes not -- I've gotten calls about chins needing various surgeries over $1000 each... we don't have that kind of spare cash to spend on a single animal at one vet visit. Now, if an animal repeatedly gets sick and needs vet care and visits, it could add up to that, but not at all once. But the thing is, sometimes it's a relatively cheap vet visit... but people still can't afford it, and I don't want any of these chins going to homes like that.
Anyway, kind of interesting turn of events... I got an email back:
thanks so much for taking the time to clear that up. So kind of you to explain.
Your fees are much higher than Animal Welfare League. I will flag all "selling"
And my response:
Animal welfare league is a government funded shelter. We don't have
that luxury, nor do we have vets on staff to lower the cost of vet care
for all the animals in our care. Keep in mind, they're also a kill
shelter, we're not. It costs way less to care for an animal for a week
or two and then put it down when it's not adopted than it does when
animals are in the rescue for months on end... Really, comparing US
to them is comparing apples to oranges. Animal specific shelters, or
breed-specific shelters for dogs, for example if you go to a Great Dane
rescue, they're going to have higher adoption fees than if you find a
Great Dane at any local Humane Society. That's just how it is, because
they specialize in the breed and can tell you a lot more than the
average shelter can about if that pet is right for you. A lot of the
chinchillas that come in this rescue come in because someone got them
off craigslist because they were (for example) $20, and the people can
finally afford it. They couldn't afford the vet care for it, or the
correct cage, or any of that, and so we end up with the sick chins. Or
we end up with 20 chins at once when someone thought it'd be a good idea
to have brother and sister together and now there's quite a few more
than those two... Point is, there's more than just one reason why our
adoption fees aren't super low, but all of it is for the good of the
animals. The people who really want a rescue chinchilla, and want to
know that it's coming from a good place, aren't quibbling over a few
bucks. And frankly, if there's someone who thinks our adoption fee
should be, say, $30, instead of $75 for a gray adult, and that's going
to make the difference in adopting, I would hate to see what happens if
the animal needs to go to the vet. We probably don't want that person
adopting anyway.
Personally... they're gonna flag me. What are they all high and mighty? Ooooh I'm afraid. Most adoptions we get are through the WEBSITE, so even if craigslist goes down for a bit... so what?
Let me expand on a few things. Humane societies, especially ones like AWL that have vets on staff, are naturally going to be able to charge lower fees. Not just for small animals, but for dogs, and every other animal that comes in the door. Now, this person clearly has no idea, but I have horror stories I could tell you all about AWL, that would make no one ever adopt from them. EVER. Just cause they have cheap adoption fees doesn't mean a place is ethical, is out for the good of the animals, anything like that. Cheap adoptions fees are just that, cheap. Should I mention how most of the critters that this rescue has ever gotten from AWL -- AWL has been WRONG on sex of. Has said -- two males. Nope!! Male and female. Can't even tell them when they're DIFFERENT. That's just the tip of the iceberg, and I won't even get into the rest. Cheap, yes. Sick animals, DING DING DING DING DING, tell em what they've won!!
Any time you go to an animal specific shelter, it's always going to be more. Someone told me, way back when, Hobart Humane Society adopts out guinea pigs for $5 each. And asked, could I lower my adoption fee (for one specific guinea pig) to that. Uh... no. You want one for $5, go to HHS. Oh, they don't have the one you want? Guess you gotta pay our adoption fee if you want the one we have. This is not Walmart, we do not pricematch. Sorry. I personally think it's funny... they like the adoption fees of other places better... but want our animals. Hmmmm. But back to the animal specific. You go to the local humane society, often you could adopt any animal in there without much scrutiny, go home, and decide to return it the next day. And guess what -- happens all the time. I used to volunteer at one of the local humane societies and their returns were insane! Versus us, we get back MAYBE a handful of chins every year. You know why? Because just like any breed-specific rescue, we know what questions to ask, we know what's important in a good home, and check that out before the animal goes home. I guarantee you, you go to adopt an animal from AWL, say a hamster, and you pay the $10 (or whatever) and take it home. Do they know what type of cage you have? Probably not. What type of food you plan to feed? Eh. Have they asked if the hamster is for you or a gift for someone else? Doubtful. We would. And that's why we have some percentage of people who would adopt, decide to not adopt, because they realize, you know what, not the pet for me. And that's fine, I'd rather people realize it ahead of time. But the thing is, we know our animals. You go to a sheltie rescue, they're not gonna adopt out a sheltie to someone who can't stand barking. Cause they bark. Just like we wouldn't adopt out a chinchilla to someone who wanted it to play with their 1 year old unsupervised and let their 2 year old carry it around the house 24/7. But because breed-specific rescues specialize... and only deal with one general breed... it tends to be more expensive to adopt from them.
And believe me... I cringe when I hear, oh this place adopts out chins for $25. I know someone told me there is a place in Indiana like that. I cringe and wonder if we're getting in their chins and not knowing it... because unfortunately, it is the truth. The people who can't afford a $75 chin, but can afford a $30 one, and think it's a good idea to get one at $30 (but think it's totally unaffordable at $75)... probably should not have the pet. And I know I've said this over and over, it's not that I have anything against poor people, because I, too, am no stranger to charging vet bills, if needed, but I do believe that if the difference of $45 is going to break the bank, that person should really think about adopting the animal. We have sales now and then, because the appeal of "getting a deal" usually is pretty effective at finding some good homes. Not that $65 is much cheaper than $75, but people see it as something they should jump on. We have given discounts before (ya gotta ask for them... we don't just offer), because a good home is worth more than $20 more in the rescue's pocket. But that all said... if $20 is the difference between affording the pet and not... probably should wait. I know for me, when I got Taffy (younger sheltie), she was $600, and I would rather have spent that amount and then spent a few hundred on toys, crate, shots, etc etc, than spent $2000 on her and not had money left over for the other stuff. So I can totally understand saving some money on the animal itself and using it to put towards the animal. Sometimes when I have sales, some people seem to purchase more supplies (as compared to animals not on sale), which may be because they're saving some on the critter. But what I want to avoid is adopting out animals too cheaply, and then having the people not be able to afford proper vet care. You may remember when Chong (renamed Cheerio by her new home) went home, and came to find out that they couldn't even afford the gas to get to the vet, and I had to call up the vet and put my card on file so she could be treated. Yes, she was still under the health guarantee, but if it was a week later, she wouldn't have, and those people would not have had the gas to get her to the vet, much less any money to treat her, or even to put her down. We want to avoid that. I get a lot of emails from people who have a sick chin and can't afford medical care. Sometimes it's something we can legitimately help with. Sometimes not -- I've gotten calls about chins needing various surgeries over $1000 each... we don't have that kind of spare cash to spend on a single animal at one vet visit. Now, if an animal repeatedly gets sick and needs vet care and visits, it could add up to that, but not at all once. But the thing is, sometimes it's a relatively cheap vet visit... but people still can't afford it, and I don't want any of these chins going to homes like that.
Anyway, kind of interesting turn of events... I got an email back:
thanks so much for taking the time to clear that up. So kind of you to explain.
Thanks!
Thing is... I will defend my position, but I'm not a mean person. I'm sure sometimes I may come out that way, on here, because I feel like I can say more of what I think on this blog (to an extent, of course)... but there really is a reason why things are the way they are. It's just taking the time to understand it...
Monday, August 17, 2015
People being late.
Ok, so I officially think I'm going to add something in the email about being late.
Get an email back from the people who I waited for over a half hour yesterday...
From my understanding it was anytime after five. After our hour drive was extended due to traffic we arrived around 5:45. I did not have your phone number to contact you and tell you we where running late, however you had mine and could have contacted me. I was really set on adopting a chinchilla from a rescue but after this falling through I'm not so sure. Please understand that your house was not a drive down the road, it is over an hour for me.
...um. Not quite. True, I had told her, I would be home anytime 5 or later. But let's compare -- call up a doctor's office and they'll tell you they have morning appointments available. Does that mean you can come anytime in the morning? No, you set an appointment.
My response:
Get an email back from the people who I waited for over a half hour yesterday...
From my understanding it was anytime after five. After our hour drive was extended due to traffic we arrived around 5:45. I did not have your phone number to contact you and tell you we where running late, however you had mine and could have contacted me. I was really set on adopting a chinchilla from a rescue but after this falling through I'm not so sure. Please understand that your house was not a drive down the road, it is over an hour for me.
...um. Not quite. True, I had told her, I would be home anytime 5 or later. But let's compare -- call up a doctor's office and they'll tell you they have morning appointments available. Does that mean you can come anytime in the morning? No, you set an appointment.
My response:
When we talked about setting an
appointment, I had said that I would be home 5 or later. You replied
with, "that time would work tomorrow." I took "that time" to mean,
literally, the only specific time that I had mentioned, which was 5 pm.
I actually had sent you an email as well, which had said that I had
marked you down for 5. I understand now what you meant, but its too bad
that you had not replied saying that you meant 5 or later... because I
would have emailed you back saying we needed to pick a more specific
time. Appointments are just that -- time slots. When I said I would be
home all night, I meant that in the sense that we could pick a time and
I would make sure I would be home for when you got here....which would
allow me, for the time before and after that appointment, to not be
here, if necessary.
I
apologize for the misunderstanding. However, I did not know where you
were coming from, and without any contact saying you were running late
or were still coming, I needed to get other things done.
So.. if she wants to be snarky and say, ok, now they're not going to adopt -- fine. Won't break my heart. You can't pull this shit anywhere else, where you think you can show up any time you damn well please. It says on the website, and I know I say in my emails to people, that we need to set an appointment. An appointment is not "anytime 5 or later," no, an appointment is 2 pm, or 3 pm, or whatever. The most I'll ever do is when someone's coming from far away and says they'll be here between 10 and 11. Ok, so I won't schedule anyone else until 12, just in case they come at 11. But I will never leave the entire night open for someone. Sorry, just won't do it.
And I'm sure she doesn't like me very much right now, but I don't feel like I'm being difficult. Because in all reality, I feel like my time is just as valuable as theirs... but they have no problem wasting my time. Well, no more.
So... moving along. Had someone I've been talking to about coming to adopt a chin, and they have all their paperwork and everything in, just needed to set an appointment. Well, they wanted to come Monday (today) [email was from a few days ago], and I had emailed back saying that was ok, and asking what time. So, didn't hear back from them until 2:30 today, saying they thought they would be here by 6-7. Nevermind, you know, the fact it'd been several days, and I could have scheduled several appointments in the meantime... but anyway, I didn't have much going on tonight, so I emailed back saying that'd be fine and would see them later. Well, 7:45 comes around and they finally arrive. Said something about getting lost, but no sorry or anything. No email or text or anything saying they would be late. Just frustrating.
Lots of adoptions, some frustrations... the usual
With the sale going on, been having lots of adoptions. Been working on orders, way more caught up than usual.
Even with paperwork -- we are actually UP TO DATE on paperwork. Who-hoo!! Now just to keep it that way.
But... been having a lot of flakey people lately.
Had a person who wanted a bridge and a tunnel made for them, few months ago. I got it done, emailed them early / middle of July (no longer have that email). Got an email back from them July 12th that they need more time to pay because of some assistance not picking up some of their gas bill, and they only get paid once a month. So, they said August 1st, I'd have payment. And here it is, August 16th, no payment. So I emailed a few days ago asking if they still want the stuff, and if so, when they're going to pay. Cause it's sat here, packaged up already, in a LARGE box that is, perhaps unsurprisingly, in my way -- because I have nowhere to store things like orders once they're made and packaged up. Got an email that says "I'll let you know September 1st." *head explodes* Really? Apparently couldn't be bothered to send an email saying, hey, you know, can't pay this month either... maybe next... and I can almost guarantee you, September 1st will come and go, and I'll email again. People. Don't order unless you plan to pay within a reasonable amount of time. This person wanted to know cost with shipping... of items I don't normally make... which means, only way to figure that out, is to literally make the items, package them up, and so on. So I got her the cost and now I wait.... ugh.
Moving along... had someone call me from Michigan, was going to pass through this area this weekend, and wanted to stop by and look at some chins. So I told em about the care packet and adoption form and proof of cage and all that, and emailed all of that to them, and they said they would bring it all with. Supposed to come at 7 pm yesterday. Called around 4, asked if they could come earlier, and I said sure. So they were maybe an hour away at that point, so just before 5 (right around the time they'd be stopping by), I get a call that something came up and they can't made it. Now, in all fairness, I appreciate them at least calling to let me know, rather than just not showing up, but still, frustrating.
Moving along to today. Had someone contact me yesterday, thinking they wanted to adopt, but before they did that, they wanted to come by, see the facilities and all that. Fine, so we set up an appt for 5 pm. 5 pm comes and goes, 5:15 pm comes and goes, 5:30 pm comes and goes... and they're not here. I had somewhere I needed to go, and I'd already waited a half hour... so I wrote a note for them, taped it to the door, and left. Note basically said, I waited a half hour for you, had you been here at 5, I would have stayed as long as needed, but since you're not here and I've already waited this long, I need to leave, email to reschedule. Now, they didn't say where they were coming from, they just sent an email saying they wanted to come see the place. So in all fairness to them, I don't know if they might have been coming from somewhere in a different time zone (because when I got home, the note was gone)... but I feel like, especially when I don't know where you're coming from, it's not my responsibility to know if you're coming into my time zone. I feel like, if you were to make a doctor's appointment in the next state over, and weren't sure, you'd sure ask them, are you on Central Time? Eastern Time? Because if you were wrong, and showed up an hour late... good luck seeing the doctor that day! Well anyway, the note was gone when I got home, hours later, but I have no phone call, no email, no communication at all from them. And I did say (in the note) that I apologize for any inconvenience, but the truth is, I just can't wait around forever. If I was to assume they'd be an hour late, I could wait an hour... and then when they show up, say they stay an hour... now I've sat around for 2 hours, for a one hour appointment. And here's the thing... say I sit around assuming they're coming in an hour, and it turned out, they weren't coming at all... I could be sitting around all night. Not practical. I don't know if maybe there was a time zone thing... but even if that was the case, I feel like they could have emailed back and said, you know, they got the time wrong. But so far, nothing. And it's been hours, so I imagine, if I haven't gotten anything yet... I likely won't be hearing from them. Which is fine.
But brings me to my next point, which I know I've gone over and over a million times -- people view appointments here (and at other rescues) as considerably different than at, say, a doctor's office. Yes, I get, they are different. Sure, they are. However, at the same time... it's still an appointment. If you tell your friend, you're gonna have lunch with her at 1... surely you show up around 1. Maybe not on the dot, cause maybe it's informal, but you sure show up around 1. Or if not, you call, or text, or whatever, to let the friend know you're gonna be late. Not here! If I posted every time I make an appointment and someone doesn't show up. Or shows up an hour late. Or two hours late, with no apology, no explanation (suppose it wouldn't make any difference, but I feel like then they might actually care that they wasted my time), no nothing. It's insane how much that happens, and I bet you, it doesn't happen nearly as much for things like doctors appointments. And I'm going to change how people do this, cause it's frankly getting old.
I think what I'm going to do, and this has been suggested by a number of other rescues as well, is add into the last email (the one that talks about, when you come, here's the address, bring a carrier, bring cash / credit, and so on) a short paragraph about being on time. Something to the effect of, if you are going to be late, we will wait 15 minutes on you. If you haven't contacted us via email / text / phone call within that 15 minutes to let us know you're going to be late, be aware that we may leave, or may move on to the appointment after yours (if there is one). If you show up late and we are here, but with another appointment, we will finish up with that appointment before we will take care of you. If we leave due to having other things to do, you may reschedule the appointment one time. Please be aware that our time is valuable, just as yours is, and while you are an important customer / adoptive home, so are our others, and we cannot neglect them, nor other things we need to do, while waiting too long on anyone. Also, please be aware that we are on Central Standard Time, in case that impacts you getting here on time, please check what time zone you are in, and plan out your trip accordingly.
Enough of that...
But... good news has been happening as well. That critter nation that sat here for ages and ages, because that one girl never paid and I kept saying ok well, pay a little, and she didn't... it's now gone. Remember those people who didn't want to come to Hammond because they said they'd get shot driving down the street? Yeah, they were here a few days ago, adopted a chin and bought the cage. Yay! One less big thing. I have another cage (not quite as large... but still good sized) that I moved over to the other side of the basement, where I'd had the CN, and that one needs to be worked on next. It badly needs to be painted, so I will have to take all the shelves out of it, take it upstairs and outside and paint it, bring it back in, and reassemble with shelves and all sorts of fun stuff... and get it a new pan, since the current one has two holes in it (and people wonder why some of these used cages cost a bit). But anyway, selling the CN allowed me to move that other cage over to that side, so the actual rescue area is looking a smidge less crowded. Yay. Baby steps.
Hammocks are on their way to being ready... as in, more than the two options that are currently available. I have about half the pile (so... at least 16 prints x 4 hammocks each = 64... so 32ish) sewn... need to be flipped, sewn shut, grommeted, etc etc. One thing at a time though, I am getting them all slowly sewn and ready. Yay for that.
Hmmm what else... lots of chins to list. Pitronila delivered a stillborn baby the other day. Which is, of course, sad. But also, in a way, a positive, because now we know that, after this, she is not pregnant, so a few more days of checking her weight and assuming she does well and maintains, she will be able to leave. Otherwise, she would have been here until the middle / end of November to complete her pregnancy watch. Lil Chin, on the other hand, not so easy to tell. She's gained some weight while she's been here, but that said... Pitronila gained all of 20 grams (which really is nothing to write home about), so I would not have guessed that she was pregnant (or at least, not far along)... until she delivered. So unless Lil Chin delivers, she's got until the end-ish of September to hang around on pregnancy watch. So, we shall see.
Art should be ready to go in a few days as well, he dropped a little weight here, but then, he and Pitronila were both being fed an oddball brand of guinea pig food (that the prairie dogs love!), so a small weight loss doesn't really surprise me. He should be ready to go, but I want to weigh him a few more times just to be sure he's doing well, and then will get him listed. Along with Chinchy, Lee, and whoever else I'm forgetting to list...
Ok, enough for tonight...going to bed.
Even with paperwork -- we are actually UP TO DATE on paperwork. Who-hoo!! Now just to keep it that way.
But... been having a lot of flakey people lately.
Had a person who wanted a bridge and a tunnel made for them, few months ago. I got it done, emailed them early / middle of July (no longer have that email). Got an email back from them July 12th that they need more time to pay because of some assistance not picking up some of their gas bill, and they only get paid once a month. So, they said August 1st, I'd have payment. And here it is, August 16th, no payment. So I emailed a few days ago asking if they still want the stuff, and if so, when they're going to pay. Cause it's sat here, packaged up already, in a LARGE box that is, perhaps unsurprisingly, in my way -- because I have nowhere to store things like orders once they're made and packaged up. Got an email that says "I'll let you know September 1st." *head explodes* Really? Apparently couldn't be bothered to send an email saying, hey, you know, can't pay this month either... maybe next... and I can almost guarantee you, September 1st will come and go, and I'll email again. People. Don't order unless you plan to pay within a reasonable amount of time. This person wanted to know cost with shipping... of items I don't normally make... which means, only way to figure that out, is to literally make the items, package them up, and so on. So I got her the cost and now I wait.... ugh.
Moving along... had someone call me from Michigan, was going to pass through this area this weekend, and wanted to stop by and look at some chins. So I told em about the care packet and adoption form and proof of cage and all that, and emailed all of that to them, and they said they would bring it all with. Supposed to come at 7 pm yesterday. Called around 4, asked if they could come earlier, and I said sure. So they were maybe an hour away at that point, so just before 5 (right around the time they'd be stopping by), I get a call that something came up and they can't made it. Now, in all fairness, I appreciate them at least calling to let me know, rather than just not showing up, but still, frustrating.
Moving along to today. Had someone contact me yesterday, thinking they wanted to adopt, but before they did that, they wanted to come by, see the facilities and all that. Fine, so we set up an appt for 5 pm. 5 pm comes and goes, 5:15 pm comes and goes, 5:30 pm comes and goes... and they're not here. I had somewhere I needed to go, and I'd already waited a half hour... so I wrote a note for them, taped it to the door, and left. Note basically said, I waited a half hour for you, had you been here at 5, I would have stayed as long as needed, but since you're not here and I've already waited this long, I need to leave, email to reschedule. Now, they didn't say where they were coming from, they just sent an email saying they wanted to come see the place. So in all fairness to them, I don't know if they might have been coming from somewhere in a different time zone (because when I got home, the note was gone)... but I feel like, especially when I don't know where you're coming from, it's not my responsibility to know if you're coming into my time zone. I feel like, if you were to make a doctor's appointment in the next state over, and weren't sure, you'd sure ask them, are you on Central Time? Eastern Time? Because if you were wrong, and showed up an hour late... good luck seeing the doctor that day! Well anyway, the note was gone when I got home, hours later, but I have no phone call, no email, no communication at all from them. And I did say (in the note) that I apologize for any inconvenience, but the truth is, I just can't wait around forever. If I was to assume they'd be an hour late, I could wait an hour... and then when they show up, say they stay an hour... now I've sat around for 2 hours, for a one hour appointment. And here's the thing... say I sit around assuming they're coming in an hour, and it turned out, they weren't coming at all... I could be sitting around all night. Not practical. I don't know if maybe there was a time zone thing... but even if that was the case, I feel like they could have emailed back and said, you know, they got the time wrong. But so far, nothing. And it's been hours, so I imagine, if I haven't gotten anything yet... I likely won't be hearing from them. Which is fine.
But brings me to my next point, which I know I've gone over and over a million times -- people view appointments here (and at other rescues) as considerably different than at, say, a doctor's office. Yes, I get, they are different. Sure, they are. However, at the same time... it's still an appointment. If you tell your friend, you're gonna have lunch with her at 1... surely you show up around 1. Maybe not on the dot, cause maybe it's informal, but you sure show up around 1. Or if not, you call, or text, or whatever, to let the friend know you're gonna be late. Not here! If I posted every time I make an appointment and someone doesn't show up. Or shows up an hour late. Or two hours late, with no apology, no explanation (suppose it wouldn't make any difference, but I feel like then they might actually care that they wasted my time), no nothing. It's insane how much that happens, and I bet you, it doesn't happen nearly as much for things like doctors appointments. And I'm going to change how people do this, cause it's frankly getting old.
I think what I'm going to do, and this has been suggested by a number of other rescues as well, is add into the last email (the one that talks about, when you come, here's the address, bring a carrier, bring cash / credit, and so on) a short paragraph about being on time. Something to the effect of, if you are going to be late, we will wait 15 minutes on you. If you haven't contacted us via email / text / phone call within that 15 minutes to let us know you're going to be late, be aware that we may leave, or may move on to the appointment after yours (if there is one). If you show up late and we are here, but with another appointment, we will finish up with that appointment before we will take care of you. If we leave due to having other things to do, you may reschedule the appointment one time. Please be aware that our time is valuable, just as yours is, and while you are an important customer / adoptive home, so are our others, and we cannot neglect them, nor other things we need to do, while waiting too long on anyone. Also, please be aware that we are on Central Standard Time, in case that impacts you getting here on time, please check what time zone you are in, and plan out your trip accordingly.
Enough of that...
But... good news has been happening as well. That critter nation that sat here for ages and ages, because that one girl never paid and I kept saying ok well, pay a little, and she didn't... it's now gone. Remember those people who didn't want to come to Hammond because they said they'd get shot driving down the street? Yeah, they were here a few days ago, adopted a chin and bought the cage. Yay! One less big thing. I have another cage (not quite as large... but still good sized) that I moved over to the other side of the basement, where I'd had the CN, and that one needs to be worked on next. It badly needs to be painted, so I will have to take all the shelves out of it, take it upstairs and outside and paint it, bring it back in, and reassemble with shelves and all sorts of fun stuff... and get it a new pan, since the current one has two holes in it (and people wonder why some of these used cages cost a bit). But anyway, selling the CN allowed me to move that other cage over to that side, so the actual rescue area is looking a smidge less crowded. Yay. Baby steps.
Hammocks are on their way to being ready... as in, more than the two options that are currently available. I have about half the pile (so... at least 16 prints x 4 hammocks each = 64... so 32ish) sewn... need to be flipped, sewn shut, grommeted, etc etc. One thing at a time though, I am getting them all slowly sewn and ready. Yay for that.
Hmmm what else... lots of chins to list. Pitronila delivered a stillborn baby the other day. Which is, of course, sad. But also, in a way, a positive, because now we know that, after this, she is not pregnant, so a few more days of checking her weight and assuming she does well and maintains, she will be able to leave. Otherwise, she would have been here until the middle / end of November to complete her pregnancy watch. Lil Chin, on the other hand, not so easy to tell. She's gained some weight while she's been here, but that said... Pitronila gained all of 20 grams (which really is nothing to write home about), so I would not have guessed that she was pregnant (or at least, not far along)... until she delivered. So unless Lil Chin delivers, she's got until the end-ish of September to hang around on pregnancy watch. So, we shall see.
Art should be ready to go in a few days as well, he dropped a little weight here, but then, he and Pitronila were both being fed an oddball brand of guinea pig food (that the prairie dogs love!), so a small weight loss doesn't really surprise me. He should be ready to go, but I want to weigh him a few more times just to be sure he's doing well, and then will get him listed. Along with Chinchy, Lee, and whoever else I'm forgetting to list...
Ok, enough for tonight...going to bed.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Today... and a bit from the other day.
Forgot to put this in from a few days ago..... I called someone back, who called maybe an hour or two ago and I missed the call. Oh, they no longer need the chin, they got a puppy like an hour ago. Um... ok. So clearly, not all that set on that chin then, eh? And actually, I hear this quite a bit, I wish people would think a bit more about what they want to get, BEFORE calling. Won't happen, but just would be nice.
Today was busy, but got a lot done. Had a 11 am adopter who left with our brown velvet female, and our 12 noon adopters left with two chins -- a mosaic and a beige, and a whole ton of supplies. Literally, like they got 25 pounds worth of food, 20 pounds of dust, 10 pounds of hay... the works. Which is always good.
Moving along, I got a phone call from a previous adopter asking if we had any cages for sale, so I told em we still have all of the new cages, plus I texted him a pic of the used cage that I told him, I could fix up if he wanted. Was a black cage on a stand. He liked the cage, so he said he wanted it, and I went to work on fixing it up. And then he came by, bought the cage, got toys, some supplies, and so on and so forth.
Which brings me to the price of the used cages. I've had, over the years, quite a few people ask why they're "so high." Now, to me, I don't think they're high, but then, I see all the work that goes into them. So, let me explain. Let's start with the cage itself. It's beyond rare for anyone to donate, or bring with their chins, a clean cage. Usually they have quite a bit of grime built up, need to be scrubbed, soaked, what have you. This on in particular, had gunk on a lot of the bars. So, I had to scrub down the cage, and after that, went over the entire cage and stand with alcohol wipes to sanitize. The shelves inside this cage were metal mesh (not good), so those had to go (but more on that later). The cage itself isn't a bad cage, but is supposed to hook together and only does so... so well. So I got out the o-rings and ring pliers and went around the cage ringing away at the joints, to make it more sturdy (after asking the people, of course, would the cage fit as one piece in their car... and yes it would [and did]). The cage also had quite a few small doors, like how birdcages do, where they lift up. So those got ringed closed, so chins can't escape. And then, even the big doors just lift up, so I got two spring latches and attached those, so no escapees that way either. Then moving onto the shelves. Since the old ones were not chin-safe, those all had to be replaced. This person said they were ok with some used shelves, so I put in mostly used shelves, some new. Even for used shelves, they have to be sanded and prepped, so there's still work involved. And lastly, we come to the pan. This pan was a black pan but had a lot of white on it, which is from deposits in the urine. I washed the pan, poured in some vinegar and let it soak. Scrubbed after maybe 30 minutes, and a good majority did come off. Dried off the pan, and then had to deal with the crack. There was a crack on one of the corners of the pan that went through the upturned corner down and maybe 2 inches into the pan. Got out the JBweld, mixed that up, and applied. Set the pan where it could dry and not touch anything. Cable tied the cage to the stand, and done. The cage ended up being $115ish with all of that -- cage was 30 x 18 x 36, stood maybe 5' tall on the stand. Does that seem a lot? I don't really think so, considering it had a ton of shelves in it and was nice and sturdy and like new after the clamps and JBweld and all that. But some people think it should be, like, a $40 cage. I wouldn't sell the cage, uncleaned, unfinished, unshelved, for $40.... so I don't think $40 done will be happening anytime soon... but everyone's got their opinion. But anyway, the guy was happy with the cage and the price and that's what matters.
In case you'd like to see:
Moving along, I wrote up the listings for Bigfoot, Jordan, and the black velvet male, and got those put up. Got started on Lee's listing -- as far as figuring out what the cage itself would add to the cost if the potential adopters get the cage. The cage will be cheaper if it goes with him, versus if it goes separately. But it was getting late and I didn't want to be down there forever, as I have paperwork up here to do still, but at least I have the cage part figured out.
Moving along, that same person who couldn't come to Hammond because they said they were gonna get shot... is coming next weekend. Lookie dat. Anyway, the chin they originally wanted got injured by another chin, so they decided on a different chin, and decided they want a spare CN that I have sitting around, but wasn't sure how they wanted to go on shelves, so I told her I would put in shelves and take pics and get it back to her with a price, so she could see what she thought. So I worked on that today. The pans are kinda dusty as is, since that's the same cage that sat and sat and sat while that one girl made excuses about not paying me for it for months on end, and they look bad in the pic, so I told the girl if she ends up with the cage, I'll clean the pans, and if I have better ones, I will swap them out for the better ones (I know I have another set tucked away somewhere because someone had their bass pans on top of the regular cage pans... and those survived much damage).
Just in case you wanted to see:
Didn't have enough room to get a straight-on pic, but I think it looks pretty decent with the shelving.
In case you missed it from the other day, we now have a new toy -- the ring of pumice. It's a 7-8" diameter circle (14" stretched out) of anything-goes-pine and pumice stones. $8 each. May do a colored one at some point (with the wood colored), but one thing at a time.
Wrote up the ad for Paco, just need to get it posted everywhere. Then I think the only other currently-available chin that I need to work on will be Lee.
There are some chins I check everyday, it's on my to-do list as "check for adoptability" -- some need to gain weight, some should be ready, but dropped a lot of weight and need to regain it, etc etc. So every day or every other day (depending on how they're doing), they get checked until they're ready.
I think that's about it for tonight... I'm going to work on editing Paco's photos and finishing her write-up and getting that all posted, and then maybe doing some paperwork, and then going to bed. Til next time.
Today was busy, but got a lot done. Had a 11 am adopter who left with our brown velvet female, and our 12 noon adopters left with two chins -- a mosaic and a beige, and a whole ton of supplies. Literally, like they got 25 pounds worth of food, 20 pounds of dust, 10 pounds of hay... the works. Which is always good.
Moving along, I got a phone call from a previous adopter asking if we had any cages for sale, so I told em we still have all of the new cages, plus I texted him a pic of the used cage that I told him, I could fix up if he wanted. Was a black cage on a stand. He liked the cage, so he said he wanted it, and I went to work on fixing it up. And then he came by, bought the cage, got toys, some supplies, and so on and so forth.
Which brings me to the price of the used cages. I've had, over the years, quite a few people ask why they're "so high." Now, to me, I don't think they're high, but then, I see all the work that goes into them. So, let me explain. Let's start with the cage itself. It's beyond rare for anyone to donate, or bring with their chins, a clean cage. Usually they have quite a bit of grime built up, need to be scrubbed, soaked, what have you. This on in particular, had gunk on a lot of the bars. So, I had to scrub down the cage, and after that, went over the entire cage and stand with alcohol wipes to sanitize. The shelves inside this cage were metal mesh (not good), so those had to go (but more on that later). The cage itself isn't a bad cage, but is supposed to hook together and only does so... so well. So I got out the o-rings and ring pliers and went around the cage ringing away at the joints, to make it more sturdy (after asking the people, of course, would the cage fit as one piece in their car... and yes it would [and did]). The cage also had quite a few small doors, like how birdcages do, where they lift up. So those got ringed closed, so chins can't escape. And then, even the big doors just lift up, so I got two spring latches and attached those, so no escapees that way either. Then moving onto the shelves. Since the old ones were not chin-safe, those all had to be replaced. This person said they were ok with some used shelves, so I put in mostly used shelves, some new. Even for used shelves, they have to be sanded and prepped, so there's still work involved. And lastly, we come to the pan. This pan was a black pan but had a lot of white on it, which is from deposits in the urine. I washed the pan, poured in some vinegar and let it soak. Scrubbed after maybe 30 minutes, and a good majority did come off. Dried off the pan, and then had to deal with the crack. There was a crack on one of the corners of the pan that went through the upturned corner down and maybe 2 inches into the pan. Got out the JBweld, mixed that up, and applied. Set the pan where it could dry and not touch anything. Cable tied the cage to the stand, and done. The cage ended up being $115ish with all of that -- cage was 30 x 18 x 36, stood maybe 5' tall on the stand. Does that seem a lot? I don't really think so, considering it had a ton of shelves in it and was nice and sturdy and like new after the clamps and JBweld and all that. But some people think it should be, like, a $40 cage. I wouldn't sell the cage, uncleaned, unfinished, unshelved, for $40.... so I don't think $40 done will be happening anytime soon... but everyone's got their opinion. But anyway, the guy was happy with the cage and the price and that's what matters.
In case you'd like to see:
 | |
| Before... |
 |
| After (no pan in the pic, JBweld drying still) |
Moving along, I wrote up the listings for Bigfoot, Jordan, and the black velvet male, and got those put up. Got started on Lee's listing -- as far as figuring out what the cage itself would add to the cost if the potential adopters get the cage. The cage will be cheaper if it goes with him, versus if it goes separately. But it was getting late and I didn't want to be down there forever, as I have paperwork up here to do still, but at least I have the cage part figured out.
Moving along, that same person who couldn't come to Hammond because they said they were gonna get shot... is coming next weekend. Lookie dat. Anyway, the chin they originally wanted got injured by another chin, so they decided on a different chin, and decided they want a spare CN that I have sitting around, but wasn't sure how they wanted to go on shelves, so I told her I would put in shelves and take pics and get it back to her with a price, so she could see what she thought. So I worked on that today. The pans are kinda dusty as is, since that's the same cage that sat and sat and sat while that one girl made excuses about not paying me for it for months on end, and they look bad in the pic, so I told the girl if she ends up with the cage, I'll clean the pans, and if I have better ones, I will swap them out for the better ones (I know I have another set tucked away somewhere because someone had their bass pans on top of the regular cage pans... and those survived much damage).
Just in case you wanted to see:
 | |
| Top CN |
 | |
| Bottom CN |
Didn't have enough room to get a straight-on pic, but I think it looks pretty decent with the shelving.
In case you missed it from the other day, we now have a new toy -- the ring of pumice. It's a 7-8" diameter circle (14" stretched out) of anything-goes-pine and pumice stones. $8 each. May do a colored one at some point (with the wood colored), but one thing at a time.
Wrote up the ad for Paco, just need to get it posted everywhere. Then I think the only other currently-available chin that I need to work on will be Lee.
There are some chins I check everyday, it's on my to-do list as "check for adoptability" -- some need to gain weight, some should be ready, but dropped a lot of weight and need to regain it, etc etc. So every day or every other day (depending on how they're doing), they get checked until they're ready.
I think that's about it for tonight... I'm going to work on editing Paco's photos and finishing her write-up and getting that all posted, and then maybe doing some paperwork, and then going to bed. Til next time.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
What's Been Going On
So... lots of new stuff going on lately.
Had someone calling today wanting to know what the adoption fee was for a dog. Told them, we don't have dogs. Oh, ok.
Got a decent amount of chins on hold right now. Need to work on getting more listed, gotta weigh and check more of them.
The three babies that Sally had, the three ebonies that were posted on the picture on facebook... all died. They looked smushed and Jim (the guy I work for) always puts a tube in the cage when the run is still open to the male. So the last time I was there, he gave me some spare pvc so I can put that in for the three days the run is still open after babies are born.
The day I was leaving, Hetty had babies! I will have to count back to check who the dad is, but I believe it's Ace. Two standards, I think a male and a female.
As far as rescue chins go, Chewy got adopted a little bit ago. Lee and Carter were here as a pair, and Carter passed unexpectedly. Lee's still here, still doing well, and raring to go. I have someone wanting a pair of chins, so I might try to pair up Lee with another of our rescue males and see how that goes.
Been cleaning both sides of the basement. Even though only the one side has the animals... the other side typically turns into overflow, so needs to be dealt with every so often. And if I kept up with it, it wouldn't be so bad, but at the moment... it needs work. So been cleaning that, and been washing more stuff, so at some point I'll have to list all the random little items I have for sale, and see what I can sell.
Been trying to churn out toys for this one order that literally has like 50 toys in it. Had the guy email me a day or two after the order was sent in, and I told him, it'd take some time, because I'm out of town 3 days a week, I run the rescue myself, yadda yadda. Well, he emailed me again and said it's been 35 days. Not trying to make excuses, but I told him.. some of these toys, from start to finish, take 30 minutes to make. Even if I could just sit down and make 50 toys, that would take 25 hours. And amid making those toys, I also have to keep cages clean, handle adoptions, do paperwork, and so on and so forth. I'm working on the toys, but jeez. Patience. One person can't do everything and churn out a million toys everyday. Though... they now are all done, I just need to package them up and send them out, and have that person be happy when they receive all their toys.
Been putting up the Awesome August sale --- $10 off $75 chins, $25 off chins $100-175, $50 off chins $200+. Well... now everyone's coming out of the woodwork. Have two people wanting a few chins... told both of em... during the sale, because of how many adoption forms I send out, versus how many I actually get back... I don't hold anything until I have everything (adoption form and proof of cage) in hand, and appointment set. Simple as that. Rush and see who gets it. Cause let's be honest, I probably send out 100 adoption forms and get 5 back. So, if I held chins for every one I send out (like I used to), every chin would be on hold, 24/7, and yet none would get adopted. So... this is how it is, now...
So then, dealing with lots of fun fun people. Had someone who was interested in a chin, and initially said they'd have to wait until they were back from a trip they were going on, so I told them, when you come back, first check if the chin is available (because of the sale... you never know). So, next message says, oh maybe they can come tomorrow (which would be today). So I told em, care packet, adoption form, proof of cage. They said they were looking into getting a ferret nation, and I told em, I have a used critter nation if they're interested in a used one. So they said they'd likely want shelves for it, and I asked, either how much they want to spend, or what the layout they want is... they dunno. So then they ask, can they come tomorrow (today) and pick up the chin and cage, and leave a copy of their driver's license, and then send a check when they have the rest of the money. Um... no? This isn't layaway at Walmart. I nicely explained, they can put down a deposit if they want, but nothing leaves here until it's fully paid for. So I get an email saying, maybe she can pull money from her savings and pay for the whole thing so she can take the chin tomorrow. That's fine. She said she'll wait on the cage, but probably get it in a few weeks when she has the money. Also fine. Won't have time to actually list it in the meantime, with the sale going, so no big deal. Then she asks if I can groom her other chin, if she brings it. Sure can. So I get the grooming combs out, dig the FN out (so she can see it, like she asked)... and 3 pm rolls around. Waiting, waiting... finally get an email...and this is so priceless, I have to quote:
I'm very sorry but my mom decided last minute that she wasn't going unless my dad would go and he won't go. They think that Hammond is a horrible city and we're going to get shot driving down the street. So I guess I will not be coming tonight and I am sorry that you got all of your stuff out.
...now... raise your hands if you've been to my house in Hammond and NOT died. Look at that! Amazing. There's LIVING people who have been here, note, who are still alive AFTER having been here. And, let's not forget, I take the trash out, usually after 10 pm, every week (well, twice every other week, because recycling has to go out as well), and I have never gotten shot. Oh wait, maybe I'm dead and just don't know it, yet. Hmmm.... Anyway, I emailed back because I feel like that email is a tad vague. They're not coming tonight. Is the keyword "tonight"? Are they going to come a different time? Dad won't go. Ok...just not today? Or ever? I'm betting "ever" based on that description they gave of Hammond, but I figure, I should ask, so if she was thinking of somehow doing this a different day, it's left open. But I almost guarantee you that I will not hear back. And as of the next morning, have not heard back.
Going back to the putting down a deposit and taking the chins and paying the rest later -- unless you're like my best friend from back in the day -- this will just not happen. I've even tried to do payments before. You may remember the person who had the ferret nation on hold awhile back, and I posted about that maybe a month or so ago. Good example. Another example, someone wanted four chins, to split a ferret nation in half and have two in each half. Well, they put down $50 and said, in a few weeks, they'd put down more. Well, never heard from them, had to chase them down. They'd set an appointment to come by, cancel it at the last moment, then set another... same thing. It just doesn't work. And the reason I typically don't bother anymore (the cage was for a friend of a friend) is because... there's such a thing as a credit card. You want to make payments? Fine, you don't have to make them to me, you can make them to the credit card company. Then I don't have to chase you down if you never pay the bill.
I do 30 day holds with deposit. Which can actually turn into 37 day holds, because I will hold for 7 days while you work on getting your deposit in. And the deposit holds for 30 days from receipt, so once I get that deposit, you have 30 days to come pick up your critter. You don't have the cash or can't charge it in 30 days, we keep the deposit. Not to be mean, but because we've, in effect, prevented that animal from being adopted for all that time, and if you don't end up adopting it, we may have passed up some great homes that popped up during that time because the animal was on hold. If someone can't afford the remainder of the adoption fee within 30 days... then now's not the time to be putting down the deposit. Simple as that.
The reason people can't take chins and pay later... this is the same reason we don't take checks for adoptions. Someone could easily write out a $500 check, get several chins, great cage, all sorts of supplies... and bounce the check. Same thing with paying some and sending money later. The girl from the other day said she would give me a copy of her driver's license. For all I know, it could be a fake license, but with her real picture on it. A lot of good that would do if she took off with the chin and cage and I never saw the rest of the money. Even if it was a valid driver's license, to go after the rest of the money would require taking this person to court. Which I've done before, but it is a hassle. The filing fee alone was (I think) $90, and let's be honest... the courts aren't so wonderful. Even if the court finds in your favor and says, ok, this person has to pay you back $500. Think about how well they're enforcing child support payments. How many people do you know that say they can't get the other person to pay. Oh yeah. Good luck ever getting the money out of these people. The court may say they have to pay, but good luck actually getting the payment. And then, they disappear, have all the chin / cage / supplies, and you never see it again. And don't get me wrong, not all of the stuff at the rescue we pay for, like out of pocket. Occasionally, we do get a donated cage, or some supplies donated, or whatever... but most stuff we buy. So bouncing a check and not paying it back on a cage, or supplies, or whatever, do cost us... even if they don't cost you.
Let's see, what else...I finally put shelves in the one ferret nation we had sitting around, because someone wanted to buy it, so that was paid for and left. Yay. Tad bit more room.
Also cleaned all the smaller cages today, so now all those critters have clean bedding. Everyone got lots of hay today as well. All the water bottles got cleaned over the last several days, so everyone has sparkling (literally, with dust) clean water bottles. That clean look lasted all of like, a day.
So I had people coming today at 6 pm, for food and a water bottle. At 6:20, still were not here, and I had to go cut the grass before it got dark, so I went outside and started cutting. At 7 pm, they showed up. Knocking at the side door, I wouldn't have even heard them (had headphones on), but was going to the front of the house to dump the grass into the lawn bag. So I told her, I started cutting the grass when they didn't show up at their time, cause it was gonna get dark and I couldn't wait, and we went and got their stuff and they paid and left. No "sorry we're late," no explanation, no nothing. I checked my phone even, to see if maybe they had emailed, texted, called, and I'd missed it because I was listening to music. Nope. To me, it's just common courtesy. Half the times if I'm going to be late, I don't even have a good excuse. I'm going to be late because of who I am as a person. I try to get too much done, squeeze in too much before I have to go somewhere, and it takes me longer than I thought. Not a good excuse, I should know by now, but I will at least have the decency to email someone and say, you know what, I'm going to be late. But nothing, zip, nada. I've talked to plenty of people who say (and I agree) that people treat coming by the rescue as if it's "less" than another appointment. You would never be an hour late for a doctor's appointment and not call, not somehow try to let them know... but people think nothing of doing that here. And I find it frustrating as shit.
Think that's about it for now....
Had someone calling today wanting to know what the adoption fee was for a dog. Told them, we don't have dogs. Oh, ok.
Got a decent amount of chins on hold right now. Need to work on getting more listed, gotta weigh and check more of them.
The three babies that Sally had, the three ebonies that were posted on the picture on facebook... all died. They looked smushed and Jim (the guy I work for) always puts a tube in the cage when the run is still open to the male. So the last time I was there, he gave me some spare pvc so I can put that in for the three days the run is still open after babies are born.
The day I was leaving, Hetty had babies! I will have to count back to check who the dad is, but I believe it's Ace. Two standards, I think a male and a female.
As far as rescue chins go, Chewy got adopted a little bit ago. Lee and Carter were here as a pair, and Carter passed unexpectedly. Lee's still here, still doing well, and raring to go. I have someone wanting a pair of chins, so I might try to pair up Lee with another of our rescue males and see how that goes.
Been cleaning both sides of the basement. Even though only the one side has the animals... the other side typically turns into overflow, so needs to be dealt with every so often. And if I kept up with it, it wouldn't be so bad, but at the moment... it needs work. So been cleaning that, and been washing more stuff, so at some point I'll have to list all the random little items I have for sale, and see what I can sell.
Been trying to churn out toys for this one order that literally has like 50 toys in it. Had the guy email me a day or two after the order was sent in, and I told him, it'd take some time, because I'm out of town 3 days a week, I run the rescue myself, yadda yadda. Well, he emailed me again and said it's been 35 days. Not trying to make excuses, but I told him.. some of these toys, from start to finish, take 30 minutes to make. Even if I could just sit down and make 50 toys, that would take 25 hours. And amid making those toys, I also have to keep cages clean, handle adoptions, do paperwork, and so on and so forth. I'm working on the toys, but jeez. Patience. One person can't do everything and churn out a million toys everyday. Though... they now are all done, I just need to package them up and send them out, and have that person be happy when they receive all their toys.
Been putting up the Awesome August sale --- $10 off $75 chins, $25 off chins $100-175, $50 off chins $200+. Well... now everyone's coming out of the woodwork. Have two people wanting a few chins... told both of em... during the sale, because of how many adoption forms I send out, versus how many I actually get back... I don't hold anything until I have everything (adoption form and proof of cage) in hand, and appointment set. Simple as that. Rush and see who gets it. Cause let's be honest, I probably send out 100 adoption forms and get 5 back. So, if I held chins for every one I send out (like I used to), every chin would be on hold, 24/7, and yet none would get adopted. So... this is how it is, now...
So then, dealing with lots of fun fun people. Had someone who was interested in a chin, and initially said they'd have to wait until they were back from a trip they were going on, so I told them, when you come back, first check if the chin is available (because of the sale... you never know). So, next message says, oh maybe they can come tomorrow (which would be today). So I told em, care packet, adoption form, proof of cage. They said they were looking into getting a ferret nation, and I told em, I have a used critter nation if they're interested in a used one. So they said they'd likely want shelves for it, and I asked, either how much they want to spend, or what the layout they want is... they dunno. So then they ask, can they come tomorrow (today) and pick up the chin and cage, and leave a copy of their driver's license, and then send a check when they have the rest of the money. Um... no? This isn't layaway at Walmart. I nicely explained, they can put down a deposit if they want, but nothing leaves here until it's fully paid for. So I get an email saying, maybe she can pull money from her savings and pay for the whole thing so she can take the chin tomorrow. That's fine. She said she'll wait on the cage, but probably get it in a few weeks when she has the money. Also fine. Won't have time to actually list it in the meantime, with the sale going, so no big deal. Then she asks if I can groom her other chin, if she brings it. Sure can. So I get the grooming combs out, dig the FN out (so she can see it, like she asked)... and 3 pm rolls around. Waiting, waiting... finally get an email...and this is so priceless, I have to quote:
I'm very sorry but my mom decided last minute that she wasn't going unless my dad would go and he won't go. They think that Hammond is a horrible city and we're going to get shot driving down the street. So I guess I will not be coming tonight and I am sorry that you got all of your stuff out.
...now... raise your hands if you've been to my house in Hammond and NOT died. Look at that! Amazing. There's LIVING people who have been here, note, who are still alive AFTER having been here. And, let's not forget, I take the trash out, usually after 10 pm, every week (well, twice every other week, because recycling has to go out as well), and I have never gotten shot. Oh wait, maybe I'm dead and just don't know it, yet. Hmmm.... Anyway, I emailed back because I feel like that email is a tad vague. They're not coming tonight. Is the keyword "tonight"? Are they going to come a different time? Dad won't go. Ok...just not today? Or ever? I'm betting "ever" based on that description they gave of Hammond, but I figure, I should ask, so if she was thinking of somehow doing this a different day, it's left open. But I almost guarantee you that I will not hear back. And as of the next morning, have not heard back.
Going back to the putting down a deposit and taking the chins and paying the rest later -- unless you're like my best friend from back in the day -- this will just not happen. I've even tried to do payments before. You may remember the person who had the ferret nation on hold awhile back, and I posted about that maybe a month or so ago. Good example. Another example, someone wanted four chins, to split a ferret nation in half and have two in each half. Well, they put down $50 and said, in a few weeks, they'd put down more. Well, never heard from them, had to chase them down. They'd set an appointment to come by, cancel it at the last moment, then set another... same thing. It just doesn't work. And the reason I typically don't bother anymore (the cage was for a friend of a friend) is because... there's such a thing as a credit card. You want to make payments? Fine, you don't have to make them to me, you can make them to the credit card company. Then I don't have to chase you down if you never pay the bill.
I do 30 day holds with deposit. Which can actually turn into 37 day holds, because I will hold for 7 days while you work on getting your deposit in. And the deposit holds for 30 days from receipt, so once I get that deposit, you have 30 days to come pick up your critter. You don't have the cash or can't charge it in 30 days, we keep the deposit. Not to be mean, but because we've, in effect, prevented that animal from being adopted for all that time, and if you don't end up adopting it, we may have passed up some great homes that popped up during that time because the animal was on hold. If someone can't afford the remainder of the adoption fee within 30 days... then now's not the time to be putting down the deposit. Simple as that.
The reason people can't take chins and pay later... this is the same reason we don't take checks for adoptions. Someone could easily write out a $500 check, get several chins, great cage, all sorts of supplies... and bounce the check. Same thing with paying some and sending money later. The girl from the other day said she would give me a copy of her driver's license. For all I know, it could be a fake license, but with her real picture on it. A lot of good that would do if she took off with the chin and cage and I never saw the rest of the money. Even if it was a valid driver's license, to go after the rest of the money would require taking this person to court. Which I've done before, but it is a hassle. The filing fee alone was (I think) $90, and let's be honest... the courts aren't so wonderful. Even if the court finds in your favor and says, ok, this person has to pay you back $500. Think about how well they're enforcing child support payments. How many people do you know that say they can't get the other person to pay. Oh yeah. Good luck ever getting the money out of these people. The court may say they have to pay, but good luck actually getting the payment. And then, they disappear, have all the chin / cage / supplies, and you never see it again. And don't get me wrong, not all of the stuff at the rescue we pay for, like out of pocket. Occasionally, we do get a donated cage, or some supplies donated, or whatever... but most stuff we buy. So bouncing a check and not paying it back on a cage, or supplies, or whatever, do cost us... even if they don't cost you.
Let's see, what else...I finally put shelves in the one ferret nation we had sitting around, because someone wanted to buy it, so that was paid for and left. Yay. Tad bit more room.
Also cleaned all the smaller cages today, so now all those critters have clean bedding. Everyone got lots of hay today as well. All the water bottles got cleaned over the last several days, so everyone has sparkling (literally, with dust) clean water bottles. That clean look lasted all of like, a day.
So I had people coming today at 6 pm, for food and a water bottle. At 6:20, still were not here, and I had to go cut the grass before it got dark, so I went outside and started cutting. At 7 pm, they showed up. Knocking at the side door, I wouldn't have even heard them (had headphones on), but was going to the front of the house to dump the grass into the lawn bag. So I told her, I started cutting the grass when they didn't show up at their time, cause it was gonna get dark and I couldn't wait, and we went and got their stuff and they paid and left. No "sorry we're late," no explanation, no nothing. I checked my phone even, to see if maybe they had emailed, texted, called, and I'd missed it because I was listening to music. Nope. To me, it's just common courtesy. Half the times if I'm going to be late, I don't even have a good excuse. I'm going to be late because of who I am as a person. I try to get too much done, squeeze in too much before I have to go somewhere, and it takes me longer than I thought. Not a good excuse, I should know by now, but I will at least have the decency to email someone and say, you know what, I'm going to be late. But nothing, zip, nada. I've talked to plenty of people who say (and I agree) that people treat coming by the rescue as if it's "less" than another appointment. You would never be an hour late for a doctor's appointment and not call, not somehow try to let them know... but people think nothing of doing that here. And I find it frustrating as shit.
Think that's about it for now....
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Aggravating Day
So, today we had Leo and Jeffrey and Carter (a new guinea pig) brought back. Want to know why? When the guy adopted, he lived in a pet friendly apartment. Well, then he had to move because "things got bad" and moved into an apartment that was not pet friendly, but he said, oh the one lady had a cat for like 10 years and they didn't care. Well, long story short, they cared about the guinea pigs and he had to have them gone like yesterday.
Uh-huh. He adopted Leo and Jeffrey from here, and got the other pic from Petco (?), so he filled out the adoption form, read the care packet, all that stuff. He'd built them a C&C cage, and originally was using fleece at the bottom. Well, that didn't end up working out for him, so he switched to... get this... cedar. Cause, you know, the care packet doesn't have a few sentences on why NOT to use cedar. No, course not.
Also... nails were super long on the guinea pigs, and the one nail was so long it was curling. So I asked, they did know that they have to cut them, right? They said yes, and they said, I actually showed them how to cut them when they adopted (kudos to me). They said they tried, and it just wasn't that easy and they couldn't do it. So they asked their vet if the vet could do it, and the vet said, before being able to cut nails, they'd each have to have an exam, so $50 for the exam, plus whatever it cost to cut nails. So needless to say, the pigs had never had their nails cut... since the beginning of May when I did it.
Grrrrr.....
Moving along, we had a chin dropped off for chin-sitting, so Tytus is back with us for the week....
Moving along, I had a 5 pm appointment. They texted earlier today asking if a check would be alright for payment. I told them, sorry, but no, I don't take checks except from people I see all the time (some people I see like monthly), because people tend to buy like $500 worth of stuff and then bounce the check. I told her, nothing against them, but that's just how it is. Happy to take cash or credit card. She said she understood, and at that point, it was 4:30 and she said she was running late because she was stuck in traffic. I told her, I would be here when she got here. They're in Valpo, so assuming she'd already left at 4:30... shouldn't have put her here much later than 5 pm (probably later, but not excessively). Like even if they'd JUST left, maybe 5:15 the latest coming here. 5:30 with traffic. Well... time passes, it's 6:15, and that's almost 2 hours from when she said she'd be late, so I texted her asking if they were still coming. No answer. So 7 pm rolled around, and I texted them one last time to tell them that I was assuming they weren't coming and that I appreciated how considerate they were about all of this, considering I'd been sitting around waiting for them for the last two hours. I told them, as my time is apparently not valuable to them, since they couldn't take the time to let me know they weren't coming, for them to not contact me again, as I don't have any more time to waste on this.
You know, I hate to be an ass. But... I waited around for hours for these people, who couldn't even have the good sense to text me and say, you know, hey, we decided not to come. I was talking to one of my friends, and I told them, even if they had texted like a half hour after saying they were going to be late, and said, hey, you know, we can't come today Would have been completely different. But no, no response to my text, and no text about not coming... I don't care to deal with people like that. Sorry, but they wasted my time, I don't care to spend any more time on them.
I'm getting ready for a garage sale right now (will be this weekend). Some stuff in the garage needs to go down to the basement. If I moved that stuff, I could actually have gotten ready more stuff upstairs, because I would have cleared off a table. But no... see, I didn't want to start taking stuff downstairs, cause then, when the people came, I'd have the garage open and not be up there.... so I thought, I'll wait, and when they leave, do it. Well... as you know, they never came.
Turns out... they said they'd been driving around Hammond for two hours, got lost, went to the wrong house. Asked for Ashley (that's me), and there was an Ashley there, so they went in that house looking for me. Must be interesting people that live there, that just let random people in looking for someone... so we shall see. I told them, when we schedule another appointment, that time, I won't be waiting more than 15 minutes if they're late. Cause I don't have time to mess around with this...
Oh, and moving along to an email from a few days ago. Someone wanted me to take in their chins. So the email talks about the chins and then there's one line that goes... "Your website says that you are at capacity, but do you think it would be possible to take her on at the moment, or in the near future?" Um... no. That's what it means when the rescue is at capacity...
And... emailed someone a care packet and adoption form, and specified they need to send a pic of the cage when they email back. So they say, "Already have a cage but it's not put together. I can put it together for a picture if you really need it. I currently have another chinchilla now that's in my second cage. The cage I'll put her in is a 3 level cage." Told them, "Seeing / approving the cage is part of the adoption process, so you will need to put together the cage and get us a pic for us to approve you to adopt. You'd need to put it together sooner or later to put the new chinchilla in, so think of it as getting a headstart." I wouldn't ask for a pic of the cage if I didn't need it... hello....
Moving along... a friend of a friend wanted to buy a critter nation that I have for sale. With the shelves and other stuff they wanted, the cage ended up at $154.50, and they paid the first $50 back in mid April. Said they'd pay more the following week. Well... didn't hear from them for about a month and a half, and I emailed her... didn't hear back until I talked to her friend (who is my friend) and then, I got an email back from the person, saying they were sorry, had their hours cut at the job, yadda yadda. So she said in the email, she would send some money next week. That was May 28th. Let's fast forward to June 19th, when I still had not received any payment and had not heard back from this person, so I again contacted my friend, who talked to her friend, and between several times of that and several emails from me, I finally got an email back saying, they were sorry, they feel bad, and so on. They said, in that email, if I could bear with them, they could send some money right then, and would pay more the following week on the weekend. That was the 20th. On June 23rd, I emailed back saying that we needed to do some sort of a payment plan, and I didn't care if it was $10 per week, but we needed to set up something so sooner or later, it would be paid off. Even at $10/week, this would have been paid off in 2.5 months, even quicker if she paid more than that per week. Well... it's now June 5th, and I had not heard from her, nor received the payment that I was supposed to get "now" (June 20th) or a week later (the following weekend)... so I sent her an email:
It's
much too late for me to actually refund your money per paypal's 60 day
refund allowance, so I will send you $50 from the rescue account for
what you have already paid into the cage.
I don't even really care if that's kind of snarky. I feel like, if she can't email me back, or pay when she's going to, I feel like I don't need to be nice anymore.
Uh-huh. He adopted Leo and Jeffrey from here, and got the other pic from Petco (?), so he filled out the adoption form, read the care packet, all that stuff. He'd built them a C&C cage, and originally was using fleece at the bottom. Well, that didn't end up working out for him, so he switched to... get this... cedar. Cause, you know, the care packet doesn't have a few sentences on why NOT to use cedar. No, course not.
Also... nails were super long on the guinea pigs, and the one nail was so long it was curling. So I asked, they did know that they have to cut them, right? They said yes, and they said, I actually showed them how to cut them when they adopted (kudos to me). They said they tried, and it just wasn't that easy and they couldn't do it. So they asked their vet if the vet could do it, and the vet said, before being able to cut nails, they'd each have to have an exam, so $50 for the exam, plus whatever it cost to cut nails. So needless to say, the pigs had never had their nails cut... since the beginning of May when I did it.
Grrrrr.....
Moving along, we had a chin dropped off for chin-sitting, so Tytus is back with us for the week....
Moving along, I had a 5 pm appointment. They texted earlier today asking if a check would be alright for payment. I told them, sorry, but no, I don't take checks except from people I see all the time (some people I see like monthly), because people tend to buy like $500 worth of stuff and then bounce the check. I told her, nothing against them, but that's just how it is. Happy to take cash or credit card. She said she understood, and at that point, it was 4:30 and she said she was running late because she was stuck in traffic. I told her, I would be here when she got here. They're in Valpo, so assuming she'd already left at 4:30... shouldn't have put her here much later than 5 pm (probably later, but not excessively). Like even if they'd JUST left, maybe 5:15 the latest coming here. 5:30 with traffic. Well... time passes, it's 6:15, and that's almost 2 hours from when she said she'd be late, so I texted her asking if they were still coming. No answer. So 7 pm rolled around, and I texted them one last time to tell them that I was assuming they weren't coming and that I appreciated how considerate they were about all of this, considering I'd been sitting around waiting for them for the last two hours. I told them, as my time is apparently not valuable to them, since they couldn't take the time to let me know they weren't coming, for them to not contact me again, as I don't have any more time to waste on this.
You know, I hate to be an ass. But... I waited around for hours for these people, who couldn't even have the good sense to text me and say, you know, hey, we decided not to come. I was talking to one of my friends, and I told them, even if they had texted like a half hour after saying they were going to be late, and said, hey, you know, we can't come today Would have been completely different. But no, no response to my text, and no text about not coming... I don't care to deal with people like that. Sorry, but they wasted my time, I don't care to spend any more time on them.
I'm getting ready for a garage sale right now (will be this weekend). Some stuff in the garage needs to go down to the basement. If I moved that stuff, I could actually have gotten ready more stuff upstairs, because I would have cleared off a table. But no... see, I didn't want to start taking stuff downstairs, cause then, when the people came, I'd have the garage open and not be up there.... so I thought, I'll wait, and when they leave, do it. Well... as you know, they never came.
Turns out... they said they'd been driving around Hammond for two hours, got lost, went to the wrong house. Asked for Ashley (that's me), and there was an Ashley there, so they went in that house looking for me. Must be interesting people that live there, that just let random people in looking for someone... so we shall see. I told them, when we schedule another appointment, that time, I won't be waiting more than 15 minutes if they're late. Cause I don't have time to mess around with this...
Oh, and moving along to an email from a few days ago. Someone wanted me to take in their chins. So the email talks about the chins and then there's one line that goes... "Your website says that you are at capacity, but do you think it would be possible to take her on at the moment, or in the near future?" Um... no. That's what it means when the rescue is at capacity...
And... emailed someone a care packet and adoption form, and specified they need to send a pic of the cage when they email back. So they say, "Already have a cage but it's not put together. I can put it together for a picture if you really need it. I currently have another chinchilla now that's in my second cage. The cage I'll put her in is a 3 level cage." Told them, "Seeing / approving the cage is part of the adoption process, so you will need to put together the cage and get us a pic for us to approve you to adopt. You'd need to put it together sooner or later to put the new chinchilla in, so think of it as getting a headstart." I wouldn't ask for a pic of the cage if I didn't need it... hello....
Moving along... a friend of a friend wanted to buy a critter nation that I have for sale. With the shelves and other stuff they wanted, the cage ended up at $154.50, and they paid the first $50 back in mid April. Said they'd pay more the following week. Well... didn't hear from them for about a month and a half, and I emailed her... didn't hear back until I talked to her friend (who is my friend) and then, I got an email back from the person, saying they were sorry, had their hours cut at the job, yadda yadda. So she said in the email, she would send some money next week. That was May 28th. Let's fast forward to June 19th, when I still had not received any payment and had not heard back from this person, so I again contacted my friend, who talked to her friend, and between several times of that and several emails from me, I finally got an email back saying, they were sorry, they feel bad, and so on. They said, in that email, if I could bear with them, they could send some money right then, and would pay more the following week on the weekend. That was the 20th. On June 23rd, I emailed back saying that we needed to do some sort of a payment plan, and I didn't care if it was $10 per week, but we needed to set up something so sooner or later, it would be paid off. Even at $10/week, this would have been paid off in 2.5 months, even quicker if she paid more than that per week. Well... it's now June 5th, and I had not heard from her, nor received the payment that I was supposed to get "now" (June 20th) or a week later (the following weekend)... so I sent her an email:
I know
you have stuff going on in your life, but I do as well, and I feel like
if you can't find the time to respond to my email (for 12 days) and
figure out a payment plan... I can't find time to constantly hound you
for the money. And again, no other place would deal with this.
Even
if you put an item on layaway, once you defaulted on payments, they
would cancel your layaway and keep the item (and your money). And they
sure wouldn't contact you, to say, "hey, waiting for a payment...let's
find a way to work this out," they would just cancel the layaway and
take the item and keep whatever you'd paid, once you defaulted.
This
has been going on since beginning of April. It's now the beginning of
July. 3-4ish months. I'm not waiting any longer, I'm not emailing you
again. I understand you have stuff going on at home that is making it
hard for you to pay, I really do, but I don't feel some small amount
(say $10/week) is not-do-able, and I don't have time to keep hanging
onto this cage forever or bugging you about it. If you were at least
emailing me back, or even doing what you said you could manage (the last
email said, you would pay some right then and some next week...
unfortunately never happened), we might be having a different
conversation. I'm patient, but to an extent, and I appreciate getting
emailed responses, and payments. Without them... I can't do this
forever.
If
you somehow come upon the money sooner or later, by all means, let me
know, and you can buy it (when you have all the money).
I don't even really care if that's kind of snarky. I feel like, if she can't email me back, or pay when she's going to, I feel like I don't need to be nice anymore.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Cage Costs and other things
So, I get often, people tell me, oh the cages look great. They would love to replicate the cages. And I tell them, it's one thing if they do it themselves, because there's not the labor cost added into making the stuff. You know, like if I make shelves for one of my cages, or for a cage I sell, it costs the rescue the price of the wood and the price of the hardware... not the price I'd charge for the shelf. Like anything, if someone else makes it for you... it costs more. IKEA furniture versus furniture anywhere else.
So, just to illustrate. We have someone who adopted a chin a bit ago, and is looking to adopt another. So they asked about doing shelves and accessories for their cage, and they have a feisty ferret, which is similar to ferret nation cages that I have, so I suggested they go on the website and check out the cages for ideas. Well, they liked this cage.
...and wanted replicas of everything in it.
So I numbered everything on a piece of paper and started figuring our prices. Without getting prices for the four items (the wood perch in the top right, the bridge, one of the houses, and the corner shelf) we were already at $100.50. And mind you, that doesn't include things like the flying saucer, the ceramic hidey house in the bottom back corner, the cuddle cup in top left, or the fleece tunnel, or any of the toys.
Because I realize that not everyone's got endless money to spend, before I figured out everything else, I sent the person the numbered pic and the price of the items I'd already figured out, and asked if there was anything they wanted to take out. So they took out a few things, and I went and figured out the price of the other things.
Anyway, the point for all of this is that I have people tell me all the time, oh make the cage look just like yours. Cause they really like the cage, and some of the stuff in these cages is purchased (not made by me) and so I usually tell people, these cages didn't come together in a day, mainly because of cost. Things were bought and added over time, to make the cages what they are now. And the cost is why. I can try to create or replicate just about anything you want (artwork aside, I can do my best). But at the end of the day, I do have to build it, and cut it, and sand it, and put in hardware, etc etc etc.
Most of this stuff isn't actually expensive. Most items are under $10, but there's just so many of them... it all adds up. Long story short, we worked out what items they wanted, and they're right over $100 for maybe about 2/3 of the stuff in the cage (not counting the wheel, some of the fleece stuff, pans, etc). So I'm working on that at the moment, because they're picking up the chin at the expo this weekend.
Moving along, I had someone order like 30ish toys. I think, of those 30, I have like four made. And at least 10 of the ones he wants have to be dyed, so that ought to be fun. Working on that at the moment.
Moving along again. Had two people across the country want to adopt Dewey. Not sure what exactly is special about him that makes the California people want him, but I believe both people were from that area. First one asked if there was a way to ship them, and I mentioned uship.com, but told them, when I look at the small animal (as in, something that can be easily kenneled in a small crate), it's still $200-600 to get them a few states away. Not cheap. Haven't heard from them again. Second person texted today asking about getting Dewey out to them in California, and when I asked them how they planned to do that, they said they wanted to ship him by airplane. I told them, two things, it's too hot this time of year, and even if it wasn't... we don't ship, and that's on 95% of our ads (the new ones... some of the old ones are missing it) and most definitely on the website. I mean heck, we actually have a page on the website devoted to why it's we don't ship and why it's really not practical. Chins aren't geckos that you can stick in a deli cup and stick that in a priority mail box and send cross country. It has to be the right temperature. They have to have a vet certificate of health. They have to go through the airlines. Have to have a special carrier. Have to be picked up by the airlines. Even if the adoptive home wanted to pay the costs of the vet bill, carrier, etc.... there's still the fact that the rescue would be making $75 adoption fee off the chins, and frankly... it's not worth the time and effort for $75. I drive to an area around O'Hare occasionally, and gas there and back is $25. All of a sudden, that chin's adoption fee is, effectively, $50. Waiting at the vet for the health check, which I can almost guarantee you, my vet has no idea how to do the paperwork for, would probably be several hours. How much is that time worth? Even at minimum wage, I could be cleaning cages or making toys or whatever, at minimum wage, two hours work is about $16, so effectively, adoption fee just went down to $34. Heck, if I'm going to make that amount, I might as well list the chin at $35 and not ever have to leave my house, cause at that price, it'll be adopted that day. Needless to say, the guy said thanks anyway, hope Dewey finds a home. He will, just not through airline shipping....
Alrighty, so, spent some time packaging things we're taking for the expo, and working on the shelves and hammock for the people who we're bringing supplies for.
Got a phone call from someone interested in one of the chins, sent them the care packet and adoption form. Got an email back that it must not have attached, so sent it again.
Got an email from someone showing a pic of an awesome cage that they were asking if it would work. Cage would definitely work, just needed some wood shelves... but not to be paranoid, but it looks like something I've seen online somewhere. Which, it's totally possible I have, most cage companies make multiple of their cages, like, hundreds. But I told the person, for them to adopt with that cage, I need to see it with wood shelves in it. So, if it really is their cage (or one they're looking to get for their chins), and put in wood shelves, there should be no problem. The person seems very nice from the email, but so have most people who've been trying to pass off cages that aren't their own as theirs. Though it doesn't show up on a google image search. That's alright, I'll be perfectly happy to see what they do with it with wood shelves.
Someone finally filled out the app for Marble (the guinea pig), and is just working on finishing their 3' x 5' C&C cage, so as soon as that's done, he will be going to a new home. Yay!
Had someone stop by to get food today, and plan when they'll be bringing their chin for chin sitting. So now that's all planned out.
Posted on facebook about us being in Newcastle and Anderson over the weekend. Already bringing along two chins for some people, along with over $100 in supplies, and someone else is returning a chin that they've only had for a bit that's meeting us down there, so while we're down there, might as well see if anyone else needs anything. Nobody else has chimed in yet, but we shall see if anyone does.
So, just to illustrate. We have someone who adopted a chin a bit ago, and is looking to adopt another. So they asked about doing shelves and accessories for their cage, and they have a feisty ferret, which is similar to ferret nation cages that I have, so I suggested they go on the website and check out the cages for ideas. Well, they liked this cage.
...and wanted replicas of everything in it.
So I numbered everything on a piece of paper and started figuring our prices. Without getting prices for the four items (the wood perch in the top right, the bridge, one of the houses, and the corner shelf) we were already at $100.50. And mind you, that doesn't include things like the flying saucer, the ceramic hidey house in the bottom back corner, the cuddle cup in top left, or the fleece tunnel, or any of the toys.
Because I realize that not everyone's got endless money to spend, before I figured out everything else, I sent the person the numbered pic and the price of the items I'd already figured out, and asked if there was anything they wanted to take out. So they took out a few things, and I went and figured out the price of the other things.
Anyway, the point for all of this is that I have people tell me all the time, oh make the cage look just like yours. Cause they really like the cage, and some of the stuff in these cages is purchased (not made by me) and so I usually tell people, these cages didn't come together in a day, mainly because of cost. Things were bought and added over time, to make the cages what they are now. And the cost is why. I can try to create or replicate just about anything you want (artwork aside, I can do my best). But at the end of the day, I do have to build it, and cut it, and sand it, and put in hardware, etc etc etc.
Most of this stuff isn't actually expensive. Most items are under $10, but there's just so many of them... it all adds up. Long story short, we worked out what items they wanted, and they're right over $100 for maybe about 2/3 of the stuff in the cage (not counting the wheel, some of the fleece stuff, pans, etc). So I'm working on that at the moment, because they're picking up the chin at the expo this weekend.
Moving along, I had someone order like 30ish toys. I think, of those 30, I have like four made. And at least 10 of the ones he wants have to be dyed, so that ought to be fun. Working on that at the moment.
Moving along again. Had two people across the country want to adopt Dewey. Not sure what exactly is special about him that makes the California people want him, but I believe both people were from that area. First one asked if there was a way to ship them, and I mentioned uship.com, but told them, when I look at the small animal (as in, something that can be easily kenneled in a small crate), it's still $200-600 to get them a few states away. Not cheap. Haven't heard from them again. Second person texted today asking about getting Dewey out to them in California, and when I asked them how they planned to do that, they said they wanted to ship him by airplane. I told them, two things, it's too hot this time of year, and even if it wasn't... we don't ship, and that's on 95% of our ads (the new ones... some of the old ones are missing it) and most definitely on the website. I mean heck, we actually have a page on the website devoted to why it's we don't ship and why it's really not practical. Chins aren't geckos that you can stick in a deli cup and stick that in a priority mail box and send cross country. It has to be the right temperature. They have to have a vet certificate of health. They have to go through the airlines. Have to have a special carrier. Have to be picked up by the airlines. Even if the adoptive home wanted to pay the costs of the vet bill, carrier, etc.... there's still the fact that the rescue would be making $75 adoption fee off the chins, and frankly... it's not worth the time and effort for $75. I drive to an area around O'Hare occasionally, and gas there and back is $25. All of a sudden, that chin's adoption fee is, effectively, $50. Waiting at the vet for the health check, which I can almost guarantee you, my vet has no idea how to do the paperwork for, would probably be several hours. How much is that time worth? Even at minimum wage, I could be cleaning cages or making toys or whatever, at minimum wage, two hours work is about $16, so effectively, adoption fee just went down to $34. Heck, if I'm going to make that amount, I might as well list the chin at $35 and not ever have to leave my house, cause at that price, it'll be adopted that day. Needless to say, the guy said thanks anyway, hope Dewey finds a home. He will, just not through airline shipping....
Alrighty, so, spent some time packaging things we're taking for the expo, and working on the shelves and hammock for the people who we're bringing supplies for.
Got a phone call from someone interested in one of the chins, sent them the care packet and adoption form. Got an email back that it must not have attached, so sent it again.
Got an email from someone showing a pic of an awesome cage that they were asking if it would work. Cage would definitely work, just needed some wood shelves... but not to be paranoid, but it looks like something I've seen online somewhere. Which, it's totally possible I have, most cage companies make multiple of their cages, like, hundreds. But I told the person, for them to adopt with that cage, I need to see it with wood shelves in it. So, if it really is their cage (or one they're looking to get for their chins), and put in wood shelves, there should be no problem. The person seems very nice from the email, but so have most people who've been trying to pass off cages that aren't their own as theirs. Though it doesn't show up on a google image search. That's alright, I'll be perfectly happy to see what they do with it with wood shelves.
Someone finally filled out the app for Marble (the guinea pig), and is just working on finishing their 3' x 5' C&C cage, so as soon as that's done, he will be going to a new home. Yay!
Had someone stop by to get food today, and plan when they'll be bringing their chin for chin sitting. So now that's all planned out.
Posted on facebook about us being in Newcastle and Anderson over the weekend. Already bringing along two chins for some people, along with over $100 in supplies, and someone else is returning a chin that they've only had for a bit that's meeting us down there, so while we're down there, might as well see if anyone else needs anything. Nobody else has chimed in yet, but we shall see if anyone does.
Monday, June 22, 2015
...and more chinchillas
Well, today was uneventful... mainly because I didn't do much in terms of rescue stuff (but will be taking pictures and listing critters later on today).
The main thing was that I had someone comment on a picture on facebook, wanting the adoption form and all that... got it to them. Haven't heard back. Not to be pessimistic, but the people who tend to adopt, tend to get those back to me asap, so I try not to get too hopefully if too much time passes...
Had another one, where they called me in the morning and left a voicemail, and I somehow missed the call, and I marked on my to-do list to call them back, and before I could get some free time to do so, they called me again and asked how they'd go about adopting. So I told them, care packet, adoption form, yadda yadda, and we went over all of that, and they said yeah, send it over. So I did, and they sounded really enthusiastic about getting it back to me and adopting asap... that was like early today, still nothing.
And in case you say, oh those are the oddballs out, other people will adopt. Sure they will. I'm not worried about it. It's just one of those things, for every 20 emails / phone calls / contacts I get, maybe 1 adopts.
...and some bring them back. I had people who adopted chinchillas back in 2011 call the other day, wanting to bring chinchillas back. Since they were my chins, I told them that they could (everyone else is on a waiting list, but when people sign the form stating they have to return the chins... I try not to make them wait, if possible). So they called today to check they had the right address, which makes sense, because when I talked to them today, we realized they came to my parents' house back in 2011. Anyway, so they came by and dropped off the chins. Paco and Kazi, now known as Tinkerbell, mom and daughter chins. I asked them why they couldn't keep them and they said the chins were their first pets, but now they had dogs. My mom was here at the time, and I said to her (after they left), "yeah, chins were my first pets too, and they'd be here until they died even after getting the dogs." But not for everyone, I guess. Guess for some people, one animal trumps another.
Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate them bringing the chins back to the rescue (and I told the people as much). Because I really do appreciate when people make that effort. But the excuses.....
The main thing was that I had someone comment on a picture on facebook, wanting the adoption form and all that... got it to them. Haven't heard back. Not to be pessimistic, but the people who tend to adopt, tend to get those back to me asap, so I try not to get too hopefully if too much time passes...
Had another one, where they called me in the morning and left a voicemail, and I somehow missed the call, and I marked on my to-do list to call them back, and before I could get some free time to do so, they called me again and asked how they'd go about adopting. So I told them, care packet, adoption form, yadda yadda, and we went over all of that, and they said yeah, send it over. So I did, and they sounded really enthusiastic about getting it back to me and adopting asap... that was like early today, still nothing.
And in case you say, oh those are the oddballs out, other people will adopt. Sure they will. I'm not worried about it. It's just one of those things, for every 20 emails / phone calls / contacts I get, maybe 1 adopts.
...and some bring them back. I had people who adopted chinchillas back in 2011 call the other day, wanting to bring chinchillas back. Since they were my chins, I told them that they could (everyone else is on a waiting list, but when people sign the form stating they have to return the chins... I try not to make them wait, if possible). So they called today to check they had the right address, which makes sense, because when I talked to them today, we realized they came to my parents' house back in 2011. Anyway, so they came by and dropped off the chins. Paco and Kazi, now known as Tinkerbell, mom and daughter chins. I asked them why they couldn't keep them and they said the chins were their first pets, but now they had dogs. My mom was here at the time, and I said to her (after they left), "yeah, chins were my first pets too, and they'd be here until they died even after getting the dogs." But not for everyone, I guess. Guess for some people, one animal trumps another.
Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate them bringing the chins back to the rescue (and I told the people as much). Because I really do appreciate when people make that effort. But the excuses.....
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Sad day today
It must be hard being honest when filling out an adoption form.
Let me back up a bit. A chinchilla went home the other day. They noticed next day, it seemed a little tired, but didn't really think anything of it. Called me yesterday (several days later), saying she was acting a bit off, I said see if she was still that way today, and if so, give me a call and we'd go from there.
They called in the early evening, the chin still wasn't acting right. They said she was worse than yesterday, acting lethargic, looking like she was going to fall off the shelf. So I told them, take her to the vet. And I told them, the way it works is they take her, pay the bill, and they send me the bill (or fax it, or send a picture, or whatever) and I reimburse them. And I tell them (as I tell everyone), that it has to be within reason, because if they charge up a $900 bill, they will bankrupt the rescue and there won't be one next week. Cause let's be honest, there's no money in rescue, and we don't have that kinda money to spend on one chin (or to spend at all, really). Well, she says she doesn't have that much either. Which is fine, I don't expect anyone to spend that much.
But I explain, they pay the vet bill, I pay it back once they get me a copy, and we go from there. Well, the mom calls me. Says she's behind several hundred dollars on paying everything, and can't even afford to take the chin to the vet.
Now... what part of "do you have funds to cover vet bills for this chinchilla, if needed?" is not clear? What part of "are you aware that veterinary care for exotics (chinchillas) is usually costly?" is also not clear? Cause both of those questions are on the adoption form. For the "do you have funds?" question, they put "yes, if needed" and for the "are you aware" question, they put "yes." And now, not even a week later, neither they, nor their mother / family, has the money to front the vet bill so that I can pay them back. Amazing how that works.
Before we go on, I suppose there's one main point to this (with several facets) -- no matter how well I, or any rescue, screens adopters, we can never be 100% sure that the home is good and can adequately care for the chinchilla. Because she put on the adoption form that they have money for vet bills. Yet, they don't. And really, how would I know? I'm not going to ask to see bank statements. And just as easily, the chin could have been healthy and they could have not needed any money for the vet. But they said, if needed, they have money. Yet... in reality... they don't. And, in this case, if these people had really said, they don't have the money for vet bills... they would not have been able to adopt. Simple as that. Not saying that to be mean, but in real life, you need money for vet bills. Maybe not thousands on the side, but a bit. If this was two weeks after they got the chin (instead of being within the health guarantee period), and if I wasn't paying for this.... I guess they wouldn't be taking her to the vet. Which is not what's supposed to happen when you adopt a new pet.
They said, the only way they can take her to the vet is if the vet calls me and allows me to pay over the phone with a card. And that was with me saying, don't go over a few hundred before you call me. They don't even have that. Said they couldn't afford the vet at all without me paying over the phone. Should they have chins? You may disagree, but I say no. I told them what vet to go to, cause they're in Indy, and I have a vet down there that I like, and used when I lived there. Well.... they don't know if they can make it that far cause they only have 3 notches of gas in the car. Case in point again.
So... I gave them the number for the vet, told them to give me a call when they figured out something. Based on their description of the chin, things did not sound good, but I waited, and eventually the vet called. Turns out, the chin was dehydrated, underweight, lethargic, you name it. I talked to the mom, told her, you know, this chin has two cagemates, so while she showed no signs of weight loss here, but....with two other chins in the cage, there's no way to tell if any one specific chin is eating or drinking. Cause as long as the others are, the water and food levels will go down. But the chin hadn't been apparently drinking (they said she was eating, I think) for the last few days, to be dehydrated.
So I talked to the vet, and cause this was after hours, at an exotics vet, the fee just to walk in the door was $155. So they checked her out, told me what I said above, and I asked about treatment. So the vet says, they'd like to do aggressive treatment, a catheter, sub-q fluids, handfeeding, hospitalization, bloodwork, x-rays... you name it. Those are the ones I can remember, but she kept going. So I tell her, the reason she's talking to me about this payment and all this, is because the chin is a rescue chin that has a health guarantee still going, and I don't have thousands to work with. So I ask, what's a good thing to start with. She said that they could just do basically life sustaining treatment, and that would be the least expensive option. Only problem is... that doesn't tell us what's wrong with her. So I said that to the vet, and she said next options would be x-rays and bloodwork. So I said let's do x-rays first, and if that doesn't help us, bloodwork.
So they do x-rays, which would have shown something like a gastrointestinal problem such as a blockage, stasis, etc. Unfortunately for this chin, nothing showed up on the x-ray. So I got a call back from the vet, and I questioned, I thought we were going to do bloodwork. Well, apparently since the chin was so dehydrated, they didn't believe they would be able to do bloodwork without trying to get her a tad bit better first, with the overnight care.
Well, that's where we started to run into problems. With overnight care, plus the x-rays and visit fee, we would have already been at $450-500. Bloodwork in the morning would have been another $125, plus whatever treatment would have cost... if the issue was treatable, of course. So, I must have gone between talking to the vet and to the adoptive home multiple times, and I think we started aggravating the vet, because they finally said to me, you're the one paying, you need to make a decision.
Problem is, the vet wasn't sure that even if we did overnight care, with the intention of doing bloodwork in the morning, that the chin would have even made it until the morning. She said it was a very real possibility that she could come in the morning and the chin could have passed sometime during the night.
And the concern was, even if the chin lived until the morning, if we did bloodwork in the morning, we'd easily be over $600, and that would be without any sort of treatment. I told the vet, at that point, I'd only be able to afford basic antibiotics, once we got into those sort of figures, and she said those wouldn't likely help at that point (which was what I suspected).
So I talked with the adoptive home's mom, and I asked her what her thoughts were. I threw out the option of me paying up to a certain amount. I said I would pay up to $600, but that would basically bankrupt the rescue except for maybe $100 to feed the animals here, and if she wanted to continue treatment after that, she could. Didn't want to do that. As I understood, didn't have money to do that. So I asked, after her talking to the vet, what she thought would be best. As really, it was her family's adopted chin, not mine, even though I was footing the bill. So she tells me, the kid wanted a chin regardless.
Well, that opened another can of worms (and probably frustrated the vet more, because we went off on another tangent). I told the adoptive home, I meant no offense or harsh feelings, but the fact that they couldn't even go to the vet without my paying up-front for everything, and the fact they barely had gas to get there... made it so that I could not, in good conscience, adopt them another chin. I told them, I would gladly refund their money if she died or we had to put her down, but because of the money situation, I wasn't comfortable with another of my chins going into the house. And I told her, I don't think it was anything they did to get the chin sick, or anything like that. But I noted, on the adoption form, they marked that they had the money if needed for vet bills, and they knew vet bills could be expensive. And she said, well, they had more money last week, but then one of the kids graduated, so now there was less... and I told her, it doesn't matter if she was a millionaire last week, if she has none now, well, the chin is sick now. It matters what she has now.
And I told her, the thing is, say I dropped my phone in the pond at work (and I don't have a laptop, so I would have no access to email until I came home) and was gone for 3 days when this happened... what would she have done then? I wouldn't want the chin sitting at an adoptive home suffering because they couldn't get it to the vet. And she said, oh they would have figured something out, they would never adopt without finding a way to pay the vet bill or borrow the money or something. Funny, I told her, that wasn't what you said earlier when she told me there was no possible way they could go to the vet unless I paid upfront. Got quiet then.
So she got super defensive and told me her finances are none of my business, and she's a single mom with two kids, and finances are none of my business... and so on, she repeated that multiple times. No, they're not, but the care of the chinchillas IS my business. That includes their future care (or lack of) at their new homes. Because if they're not going to be cared for well, they might as well stay here longer until the right home comes along. And if I don't feel comfortable with them going to a certain home, for any reason under the sun, I don't have to adopt to that home. And that's where it matters about finances to me. I don't want these animals to suffer because people have to have another pet while they wouldn't be able to take their current ones to the vet if they got sick. Should I mention, they have another chinchilla at home?
So, back to talking with the vet, and the vet reminds me it's my decision, and that putting her down would be a very reasonable option considering how sick she is, but that I should take into consideration that the family is very attached to her. I mentioned to the vet, but not so attached that they want to pay any portion of this vet bill, even if I foot $600 of it. "Well, that's true." Yeah.
So, the decision was made to put down the chinchilla. I told the people, I was sorry there wasn't a better outcome, but with the way chinchillas hide that they're sick until they're at death's door, it can be hard to notice a lot of illnesses until it's too late.
The discussion turned to money again, and she told me that she expected to get a healthy chinchilla, and then she wouldn't have had to worry about this. Told her... the thing is, if this had happened another two weeks from now... she would have been footing the bill (or not, as the case may be, I don't know). And she said, well, she expected to get a healthy chinchilla. Which I told her, that is not unreasonable in any way, but in almost 13 years, all the chins I've adopted out, I've only had 3 (and that includes this one) that have died or had to be put down shortly after being adopted. And I've adopted out hundreds of chinchillas, so three is pretty decent. Just statistically, the number should probably be higher than that, so I'd like to think I must be doing something right.
...and in all fairness, the point of having a health guarantee is to make sure that in case the animal isn't healthy, the family does not have to suffer for it... which is why she was not paying the bill...
But here's the thing -- I don't adopt out any animal that I think might be sick. If the animal is set to go home and develops something that can be treated at home, depending on what it is, I may ask if the new home wants to treat it, or wants me to treat it, and them pick up the chinchilla when it's done with treatment. Granted, that's often for something like loose poos, not for life threatening issues. But really, the idea is the same. The animals come with a health guarantee, so I don't want to adopt them out if I think there's anything wrong with them, because frankly, I'm more comfortable taking them to the vet myself, and making the decisions when I am physically there with the chin, than doing things over the phone when I'm hours away.
The way she said that she expected a healthy chinchilla from the get-go was actually kind of harsh, like almost as if I had intended to give her a sick one or something. And she actually agreed, the chin seemed fine when they picked her out, so there was no way to know if something was already wrong at that point. If I had thought something was wrong, I would not have adopted her out. Simple as that.
So, I paid the vet, and they're gonna email me a copy of the bill on Monday, and I talked again with the adopters. They asked about the refund, and they paid with cash, so really the only thing I can do is write them a check and mail it. So I told them that, and they said that would be fine. They wanted to make sure that I would get it out tomorrow, and asked several times to verify. And want me to email when I get it out.
So I told them, they will be getting $60 back (which is what they paid for the chin). They asked if I would reimburse their gas, because they came here from Indy. Um... no? I nicely explained, I can only reimburse money that actually comes into the rescue, and while they did have to pay for gas, it wasn't me they were paying for it. And in all fairness, I had this chin listed for $75, and they asked if I could lower it to $60 because they were coming from Indy, and I did... so they already had a gas discount in there.
So between the vet bill and the $60, we're right over $400 for a chinchilla that unfortunately is no longer with us.
I believe this (above) may be the only picture we have of her -- she wasn't listed at the point the family inquired about her, so I snapped this pic to send to them. This was Chong, a 7 year old grey female. We currently still have her two daughters, Chupacabra and Bigfoot, here (and I need to list them, once I check them over with a fine toothed comb).
Obviously it's sad that she's no longer with us. But what I really hate is when the money is spent and nothing really comes of it. You know. They spent about 5-6 hours round-trip coming up here to adopt and drive back home. They called yesterday to say she wasn't doing well. They called today and between talking to them and the vet, I was probably on the phone with different people for a few hours today. They had to spend those few hours at the vet. Plus, of course, the actual monetary cost of over $400 for the vet trip and refunded adoption fee. And at the end of the day... if the chin lived, we could say, at least it was money well spent. But at the end of the day, she didn't make it.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe we made the right decision. I don't think she would have lived through the night, and the vet agreed. But it's still tough. And right now, that vet bill nicely halved (if not more, I need to do paperwork) the money the rescue has. I hate having very little money to play with, especially considering one trip for picking up Mazuri is usually between $150-200. So it's easy for me to use up the rescue of the money that we have... so I guess I will get started cranking out toys and anything else to hopefully build back up the little bit of money the rescue has. If anyone wants to donate anything, now's the time.
One last thing I want to note, before I go to bed (cause it's almost 2 am here). I don't mean this post to bash the people or anything like that. But the thing is, I appreciate honesty. If you don't have the money, that's fine. But don't tell me you do, if you really don't. I had someone message me the other day saying their chin died (not from me) and they only had $20 to get another one. I nicely explained, cannot lower the adoption fee that much, but if they save up, and make sure to put some aside for vet bills (if needed), I'll be happy to help them pick out a great chin for them. So, they're saving up. I just don't like to be lied to. I'm perfectly fine with people saying, oh if something happens, they'll charge it. If my dog or animals get sick, I will gladly put it on a credit card or care credit or whatever, if I don't have the money. To an extent of course, because I have to be able to pay it off sooner or later, so I can't spend $400 on every rescue animal. But the thing is, I'm fine with people that will actually do that. Because I do think that's a valid option for a lot of people. But I don't like the people that say they'll do that, or find a way... and then turn it around to say, oh they can't. If these people had gone to the vet, and even been able to pay $150 of the vet bill, and said, ok, that was all they could cover, but they were able to do that -- to me, that would show me they were willing to take her to the vet, spend something (especially cause I still would have been reimbursing it), and I probably would have given them another chin to replace this one. But with them not being willing to do anything without me paying up front for everything, that shows me that financially, they're not in the right place to adopt, and again... I don't like when people tell me, sure they can afford it, and then can't even afford a basic vet visit (which I think we can all agree, $150 is about the cheapest you'll ever get at the vet). I know for sure they have another chin, not sure if they have other pets. I hope, for those animals' sake, that they stay healthy. As I explained to the people, not trying to be mean, but at the end of the day, the animal's well-being is really important to me, and I don't want to see them not being cared for. But if they couldn't afford to even take the animal in... I just hope their other animals stay healthy.
Going to bed now.
Let me back up a bit. A chinchilla went home the other day. They noticed next day, it seemed a little tired, but didn't really think anything of it. Called me yesterday (several days later), saying she was acting a bit off, I said see if she was still that way today, and if so, give me a call and we'd go from there.
They called in the early evening, the chin still wasn't acting right. They said she was worse than yesterday, acting lethargic, looking like she was going to fall off the shelf. So I told them, take her to the vet. And I told them, the way it works is they take her, pay the bill, and they send me the bill (or fax it, or send a picture, or whatever) and I reimburse them. And I tell them (as I tell everyone), that it has to be within reason, because if they charge up a $900 bill, they will bankrupt the rescue and there won't be one next week. Cause let's be honest, there's no money in rescue, and we don't have that kinda money to spend on one chin (or to spend at all, really). Well, she says she doesn't have that much either. Which is fine, I don't expect anyone to spend that much.
But I explain, they pay the vet bill, I pay it back once they get me a copy, and we go from there. Well, the mom calls me. Says she's behind several hundred dollars on paying everything, and can't even afford to take the chin to the vet.
Now... what part of "do you have funds to cover vet bills for this chinchilla, if needed?" is not clear? What part of "are you aware that veterinary care for exotics (chinchillas) is usually costly?" is also not clear? Cause both of those questions are on the adoption form. For the "do you have funds?" question, they put "yes, if needed" and for the "are you aware" question, they put "yes." And now, not even a week later, neither they, nor their mother / family, has the money to front the vet bill so that I can pay them back. Amazing how that works.
Before we go on, I suppose there's one main point to this (with several facets) -- no matter how well I, or any rescue, screens adopters, we can never be 100% sure that the home is good and can adequately care for the chinchilla. Because she put on the adoption form that they have money for vet bills. Yet, they don't. And really, how would I know? I'm not going to ask to see bank statements. And just as easily, the chin could have been healthy and they could have not needed any money for the vet. But they said, if needed, they have money. Yet... in reality... they don't. And, in this case, if these people had really said, they don't have the money for vet bills... they would not have been able to adopt. Simple as that. Not saying that to be mean, but in real life, you need money for vet bills. Maybe not thousands on the side, but a bit. If this was two weeks after they got the chin (instead of being within the health guarantee period), and if I wasn't paying for this.... I guess they wouldn't be taking her to the vet. Which is not what's supposed to happen when you adopt a new pet.
They said, the only way they can take her to the vet is if the vet calls me and allows me to pay over the phone with a card. And that was with me saying, don't go over a few hundred before you call me. They don't even have that. Said they couldn't afford the vet at all without me paying over the phone. Should they have chins? You may disagree, but I say no. I told them what vet to go to, cause they're in Indy, and I have a vet down there that I like, and used when I lived there. Well.... they don't know if they can make it that far cause they only have 3 notches of gas in the car. Case in point again.
So... I gave them the number for the vet, told them to give me a call when they figured out something. Based on their description of the chin, things did not sound good, but I waited, and eventually the vet called. Turns out, the chin was dehydrated, underweight, lethargic, you name it. I talked to the mom, told her, you know, this chin has two cagemates, so while she showed no signs of weight loss here, but....with two other chins in the cage, there's no way to tell if any one specific chin is eating or drinking. Cause as long as the others are, the water and food levels will go down. But the chin hadn't been apparently drinking (they said she was eating, I think) for the last few days, to be dehydrated.
So I talked to the vet, and cause this was after hours, at an exotics vet, the fee just to walk in the door was $155. So they checked her out, told me what I said above, and I asked about treatment. So the vet says, they'd like to do aggressive treatment, a catheter, sub-q fluids, handfeeding, hospitalization, bloodwork, x-rays... you name it. Those are the ones I can remember, but she kept going. So I tell her, the reason she's talking to me about this payment and all this, is because the chin is a rescue chin that has a health guarantee still going, and I don't have thousands to work with. So I ask, what's a good thing to start with. She said that they could just do basically life sustaining treatment, and that would be the least expensive option. Only problem is... that doesn't tell us what's wrong with her. So I said that to the vet, and she said next options would be x-rays and bloodwork. So I said let's do x-rays first, and if that doesn't help us, bloodwork.
So they do x-rays, which would have shown something like a gastrointestinal problem such as a blockage, stasis, etc. Unfortunately for this chin, nothing showed up on the x-ray. So I got a call back from the vet, and I questioned, I thought we were going to do bloodwork. Well, apparently since the chin was so dehydrated, they didn't believe they would be able to do bloodwork without trying to get her a tad bit better first, with the overnight care.
Well, that's where we started to run into problems. With overnight care, plus the x-rays and visit fee, we would have already been at $450-500. Bloodwork in the morning would have been another $125, plus whatever treatment would have cost... if the issue was treatable, of course. So, I must have gone between talking to the vet and to the adoptive home multiple times, and I think we started aggravating the vet, because they finally said to me, you're the one paying, you need to make a decision.
Problem is, the vet wasn't sure that even if we did overnight care, with the intention of doing bloodwork in the morning, that the chin would have even made it until the morning. She said it was a very real possibility that she could come in the morning and the chin could have passed sometime during the night.
And the concern was, even if the chin lived until the morning, if we did bloodwork in the morning, we'd easily be over $600, and that would be without any sort of treatment. I told the vet, at that point, I'd only be able to afford basic antibiotics, once we got into those sort of figures, and she said those wouldn't likely help at that point (which was what I suspected).
So I talked with the adoptive home's mom, and I asked her what her thoughts were. I threw out the option of me paying up to a certain amount. I said I would pay up to $600, but that would basically bankrupt the rescue except for maybe $100 to feed the animals here, and if she wanted to continue treatment after that, she could. Didn't want to do that. As I understood, didn't have money to do that. So I asked, after her talking to the vet, what she thought would be best. As really, it was her family's adopted chin, not mine, even though I was footing the bill. So she tells me, the kid wanted a chin regardless.
Well, that opened another can of worms (and probably frustrated the vet more, because we went off on another tangent). I told the adoptive home, I meant no offense or harsh feelings, but the fact that they couldn't even go to the vet without my paying up-front for everything, and the fact they barely had gas to get there... made it so that I could not, in good conscience, adopt them another chin. I told them, I would gladly refund their money if she died or we had to put her down, but because of the money situation, I wasn't comfortable with another of my chins going into the house. And I told her, I don't think it was anything they did to get the chin sick, or anything like that. But I noted, on the adoption form, they marked that they had the money if needed for vet bills, and they knew vet bills could be expensive. And she said, well, they had more money last week, but then one of the kids graduated, so now there was less... and I told her, it doesn't matter if she was a millionaire last week, if she has none now, well, the chin is sick now. It matters what she has now.
And I told her, the thing is, say I dropped my phone in the pond at work (and I don't have a laptop, so I would have no access to email until I came home) and was gone for 3 days when this happened... what would she have done then? I wouldn't want the chin sitting at an adoptive home suffering because they couldn't get it to the vet. And she said, oh they would have figured something out, they would never adopt without finding a way to pay the vet bill or borrow the money or something. Funny, I told her, that wasn't what you said earlier when she told me there was no possible way they could go to the vet unless I paid upfront. Got quiet then.
So she got super defensive and told me her finances are none of my business, and she's a single mom with two kids, and finances are none of my business... and so on, she repeated that multiple times. No, they're not, but the care of the chinchillas IS my business. That includes their future care (or lack of) at their new homes. Because if they're not going to be cared for well, they might as well stay here longer until the right home comes along. And if I don't feel comfortable with them going to a certain home, for any reason under the sun, I don't have to adopt to that home. And that's where it matters about finances to me. I don't want these animals to suffer because people have to have another pet while they wouldn't be able to take their current ones to the vet if they got sick. Should I mention, they have another chinchilla at home?
So, back to talking with the vet, and the vet reminds me it's my decision, and that putting her down would be a very reasonable option considering how sick she is, but that I should take into consideration that the family is very attached to her. I mentioned to the vet, but not so attached that they want to pay any portion of this vet bill, even if I foot $600 of it. "Well, that's true." Yeah.
So, the decision was made to put down the chinchilla. I told the people, I was sorry there wasn't a better outcome, but with the way chinchillas hide that they're sick until they're at death's door, it can be hard to notice a lot of illnesses until it's too late.
The discussion turned to money again, and she told me that she expected to get a healthy chinchilla, and then she wouldn't have had to worry about this. Told her... the thing is, if this had happened another two weeks from now... she would have been footing the bill (or not, as the case may be, I don't know). And she said, well, she expected to get a healthy chinchilla. Which I told her, that is not unreasonable in any way, but in almost 13 years, all the chins I've adopted out, I've only had 3 (and that includes this one) that have died or had to be put down shortly after being adopted. And I've adopted out hundreds of chinchillas, so three is pretty decent. Just statistically, the number should probably be higher than that, so I'd like to think I must be doing something right.
...and in all fairness, the point of having a health guarantee is to make sure that in case the animal isn't healthy, the family does not have to suffer for it... which is why she was not paying the bill...
But here's the thing -- I don't adopt out any animal that I think might be sick. If the animal is set to go home and develops something that can be treated at home, depending on what it is, I may ask if the new home wants to treat it, or wants me to treat it, and them pick up the chinchilla when it's done with treatment. Granted, that's often for something like loose poos, not for life threatening issues. But really, the idea is the same. The animals come with a health guarantee, so I don't want to adopt them out if I think there's anything wrong with them, because frankly, I'm more comfortable taking them to the vet myself, and making the decisions when I am physically there with the chin, than doing things over the phone when I'm hours away.
The way she said that she expected a healthy chinchilla from the get-go was actually kind of harsh, like almost as if I had intended to give her a sick one or something. And she actually agreed, the chin seemed fine when they picked her out, so there was no way to know if something was already wrong at that point. If I had thought something was wrong, I would not have adopted her out. Simple as that.
So, I paid the vet, and they're gonna email me a copy of the bill on Monday, and I talked again with the adopters. They asked about the refund, and they paid with cash, so really the only thing I can do is write them a check and mail it. So I told them that, and they said that would be fine. They wanted to make sure that I would get it out tomorrow, and asked several times to verify. And want me to email when I get it out.
So I told them, they will be getting $60 back (which is what they paid for the chin). They asked if I would reimburse their gas, because they came here from Indy. Um... no? I nicely explained, I can only reimburse money that actually comes into the rescue, and while they did have to pay for gas, it wasn't me they were paying for it. And in all fairness, I had this chin listed for $75, and they asked if I could lower it to $60 because they were coming from Indy, and I did... so they already had a gas discount in there.
So between the vet bill and the $60, we're right over $400 for a chinchilla that unfortunately is no longer with us.
I believe this (above) may be the only picture we have of her -- she wasn't listed at the point the family inquired about her, so I snapped this pic to send to them. This was Chong, a 7 year old grey female. We currently still have her two daughters, Chupacabra and Bigfoot, here (and I need to list them, once I check them over with a fine toothed comb).
Obviously it's sad that she's no longer with us. But what I really hate is when the money is spent and nothing really comes of it. You know. They spent about 5-6 hours round-trip coming up here to adopt and drive back home. They called yesterday to say she wasn't doing well. They called today and between talking to them and the vet, I was probably on the phone with different people for a few hours today. They had to spend those few hours at the vet. Plus, of course, the actual monetary cost of over $400 for the vet trip and refunded adoption fee. And at the end of the day... if the chin lived, we could say, at least it was money well spent. But at the end of the day, she didn't make it.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe we made the right decision. I don't think she would have lived through the night, and the vet agreed. But it's still tough. And right now, that vet bill nicely halved (if not more, I need to do paperwork) the money the rescue has. I hate having very little money to play with, especially considering one trip for picking up Mazuri is usually between $150-200. So it's easy for me to use up the rescue of the money that we have... so I guess I will get started cranking out toys and anything else to hopefully build back up the little bit of money the rescue has. If anyone wants to donate anything, now's the time.
One last thing I want to note, before I go to bed (cause it's almost 2 am here). I don't mean this post to bash the people or anything like that. But the thing is, I appreciate honesty. If you don't have the money, that's fine. But don't tell me you do, if you really don't. I had someone message me the other day saying their chin died (not from me) and they only had $20 to get another one. I nicely explained, cannot lower the adoption fee that much, but if they save up, and make sure to put some aside for vet bills (if needed), I'll be happy to help them pick out a great chin for them. So, they're saving up. I just don't like to be lied to. I'm perfectly fine with people saying, oh if something happens, they'll charge it. If my dog or animals get sick, I will gladly put it on a credit card or care credit or whatever, if I don't have the money. To an extent of course, because I have to be able to pay it off sooner or later, so I can't spend $400 on every rescue animal. But the thing is, I'm fine with people that will actually do that. Because I do think that's a valid option for a lot of people. But I don't like the people that say they'll do that, or find a way... and then turn it around to say, oh they can't. If these people had gone to the vet, and even been able to pay $150 of the vet bill, and said, ok, that was all they could cover, but they were able to do that -- to me, that would show me they were willing to take her to the vet, spend something (especially cause I still would have been reimbursing it), and I probably would have given them another chin to replace this one. But with them not being willing to do anything without me paying up front for everything, that shows me that financially, they're not in the right place to adopt, and again... I don't like when people tell me, sure they can afford it, and then can't even afford a basic vet visit (which I think we can all agree, $150 is about the cheapest you'll ever get at the vet). I know for sure they have another chin, not sure if they have other pets. I hope, for those animals' sake, that they stay healthy. As I explained to the people, not trying to be mean, but at the end of the day, the animal's well-being is really important to me, and I don't want to see them not being cared for. But if they couldn't afford to even take the animal in... I just hope their other animals stay healthy.
Going to bed now.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
People not minding their own business
Let me share what I find incredibly annoying. Know-it-all's. And mainly, know-it-all's that want to share just how much they know. And assume, as a rescue, that we must know nothing.
Now, that said, I do know of several humane societies that mainly take in cats and dogs, and when they get a small animal... they might as well have taken in a monkey, for all they know how to care for it. But the animal rescues that tend to focus on one animal, or small animals, typically know their stuff.
But people seem to think lately that they see things we can't. I emailed someone pics of chins they wanted to see. They responded back with, well you don't have toys?????? No, I do, but they weren't in the pics. Let me share.
First pic is of a baby born here, taken in one of the holding cages that I have. Now, anyone who's been here (and anyone who's even helped out) knows that those cages have 3 toys per cage (cause that's all that fits). They're all on the front of the cage. Second pic actually HAS a chew toy in it, see the left side of the pic. Besides that, this is the top of that cage:
The pic was from when I lived at the last place, but... the cage is literally the same with the exception that the wheel is now a chin spin (and the prairie dogs have their leo braun back). Look at all those chew toys. And currently, I think there's actually a few more on the doors.
So let's go to the third pic, which is actually the bottom of the same cage. Here's the entire cage.
Again, there are definitely chew toys in the cage. Maybe not in the exact pic that they saw, but in the cage. But the thing that also drives me nuts... see all the wooden shelves? I value chew toys, don't get me wrong, but if the choice is between chew toys or shelves, I will tell the person spending the money to go with shelves. Because.... chins can chew on the wood shelves. So even if there were no chew toys... they'd have something to chew on. But what this all boils down to is this -- people caring too much about stuff that's not theirs.
Another case in point. I just listed Marble, the guinea pig. Got an email today in response to one of the ads I put up, and all it said was "he looks sick." Now, I saw that and went back and looked at the pictures of him, and then asked a guinea pig rescue to look at the pictures of him... we all agree he's fine. Sick guinea pigs have standing-up fur, hunched back, bad looking eyes... he has none of any of that. Let's take a look.
....looks happy as a clam to us. And just in case anyone wants to say he's bored or has no chew toys....
...just makes me mad, cause it seems like people have nothing better to do....
Now, that said, I do know of several humane societies that mainly take in cats and dogs, and when they get a small animal... they might as well have taken in a monkey, for all they know how to care for it. But the animal rescues that tend to focus on one animal, or small animals, typically know their stuff.
But people seem to think lately that they see things we can't. I emailed someone pics of chins they wanted to see. They responded back with, well you don't have toys?????? No, I do, but they weren't in the pics. Let me share.
First pic is of a baby born here, taken in one of the holding cages that I have. Now, anyone who's been here (and anyone who's even helped out) knows that those cages have 3 toys per cage (cause that's all that fits). They're all on the front of the cage. Second pic actually HAS a chew toy in it, see the left side of the pic. Besides that, this is the top of that cage:
The pic was from when I lived at the last place, but... the cage is literally the same with the exception that the wheel is now a chin spin (and the prairie dogs have their leo braun back). Look at all those chew toys. And currently, I think there's actually a few more on the doors.
So let's go to the third pic, which is actually the bottom of the same cage. Here's the entire cage.
Another case in point. I just listed Marble, the guinea pig. Got an email today in response to one of the ads I put up, and all it said was "he looks sick." Now, I saw that and went back and looked at the pictures of him, and then asked a guinea pig rescue to look at the pictures of him... we all agree he's fine. Sick guinea pigs have standing-up fur, hunched back, bad looking eyes... he has none of any of that. Let's take a look.
....looks happy as a clam to us. And just in case anyone wants to say he's bored or has no chew toys....
...just makes me mad, cause it seems like people have nothing better to do....
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