Foster Chins! -- Introducing Livia & Miracle

Hi all!  Our longest chins here at the rescue right now are a pair of chins in a foster home -- Livia and Miracle.  They have been here the longest... by a bit actually.  On our Petfinder account, we are able to see how long ago we listed chinchillas... Livia and Miracle have been listed for 7 months... the next longest chinchilla has been only listed for FOUR!  (that's Cheechee, for anyone wondering).  And while Cheechee still chilling here for a bit makes sense, due to her winning personality (hahahaha), Livia and Miracle still being here doesn't make sense. 

Let me tell you why.

Livia and Miracle are a mother / daughter pair of chinchillas.  They are both hetero beige chinchillas, with mom being a furchewer.  We know that Miracle (the daughter) was born in April 2017, which means she will be upcoming on 3 years old soon!  Unfortunately, Livia (mom)'s age is unknown.  Here's the sad thing... based off my notes, this pair came in in April, so come April 2020... this pair will be here for a year.  Come on, no one wants to take them home?

We were initially told that Livia occasionally bites... but our foster home said this is not the case and only got minorly nipped once, on the first day.  Why do we mention this?  Because we are transparent and don't hide things, the way others might. 

These girls are fostered in Iowa, but they can be brought back to our rescue for adoption, or adopted out directly from their foster home.  They are very sweet girls and enjoy playtime and chilling in their cage.  Want to know more?  Their listing is on our website, on this page -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/available-chinchillas-1 and of course... photos below (showing up kinda odd for me, sorry)! 

These girls are available to adopt for $200, and that will drop down a bit more during our upcoming sale (shh, you didn't hear it from me).

Things We List in Our Ads

Wanted to bring this up, because I am totally aware that our animal ads are long, and things can get lost!  I can definitely be guilty of including too much info, to the point that people may skim the ads, I get it!

...but rest assured, the one thing that we always include -- the location!  You see, we're not only concerned about our own time -- but also yours!  Of course, I want to help everyone as much as possible.  There's a very nice lady in Washington state who calls periodically asking for chin-advice, and we talk about what's going on, and I'm happy to lend an ear, and give suggestions / advice.  But note, that's suggestions / advice.  Unfortunately, it does little good to have hour-long conversations about adopting if the person is far away and has no desire to set up some sort of transport for the animal.  It takes away time from other potential adopters for us, and just as important, it means that whatever pet ultimately will get adopted by that family, has to wait longer, as often that family does not realize that they're not in the same general locale as the rescue they are conversing with.

Now, our rescues are pretty centrally located.  We are primarily a home-based rescue, and we have a couple foster homes as well.  Most animals are located here, in Hammond, Indiana.  Our one foster is in Chicago, and the other is in Iowa.  What this means to you --> all animals are within a 3 hour radius of northwest Indiana (yes, even the Iowa one). 

Is that intentional?  Yes and no.  While we don't restrict how far out our foster homes can be, we do require them to come to the rescue to pick up supplies, and also, to bring the chinchilla back here within 3 days, should an adoptive home want to adopt directly from the rescue (as opposed to from the foster home).  This tends to result in foster homes that aren't ridiculously far away, because otherwise this is an undue burden on the foster home to accomplish this.

At the end of the day, we are called NWI Chinchillas -- NWI meaning northwest Indiana.  We don't have foster homes in Texas, as we are not Texas-based.  However, we do understand that our ads can have quite a far reach, and we often DO have people apply to adopt animals from far away.  Heck, as I write this, I am getting ready to prepare three chinchillas / supplies for a trip to Ohio with me later this week, and then going on a transport to Pennsylvania, a couple days later, to their new home. 

This all is why all of our ads have location on them. 

Now, on our website, all animals are presumed to be located here at the rescue, with the exception of the ones that specify, this animal is at a foster home located in [city].  I try to make the website not as long and cluttered, but our stand-alone ads (think, petfinder, hoobly, adopt-a-pet, rescueme, and so on) all include much more info including what comes with the animal, contact info, and of course... location!  In fact, it's usually right above the adoption fee, and specifies, for example, "this chinchilla is located in Hammond, Indiana.  Sorry, but we do not ship."

I guess to me, this is pretty straightforward, no?  I suppose if you get to that line and read it, yes.  But, if you have skimmed it, you maybe didn't see it.  But just for your knowledge... I promise, in every ad, there is the location of the chinchilla.

If we can prevent just a couple people who message, all interested, all super stoked to adopt... and then they message... ok so where are you located?  Oh, Indiana?  I'm in California... so how am I going to get the chin?  It will be worth it.  Can't hurt to have it in there anyways!

Now that I've yapped on about very little for this long... I'm going to bed.  Goodnight.

Some Toy Changes & Additions!

So... if you've been here at all recently, you may have heard that we are expanding our toy line a bit and making room for more toys on our toy-wall.  We cleared out another one of those white chests-of-sterilite-drawers, so we have somewhere to put the mulberry toys (when we have some, none in stock at the moment) and some of the other things we have in mind coming up.

We've also had requests to revive our critter's delight toy.  Remember these?

Well, we can no longer get those cardboard circles, and unfortunately, the cardboard tubes that are are occasionally donated (the ones we cut up for putting in goodie bags) are not nearly large enough to try to replicate this toy with.  I have left them up on the site, marked "sold out," just in case we might find some alternative, and so up until recently, nothing.  BUT!!!... we may have found a solution (one that may require a slight raise in price, but albeit, a possible solution).  Check back for that...

I'm also trying to make my life easier.  I know, hahahahahahahahahahaha right?  But seriously... I've looked at some things we do here, and I have tried to figure out, how can I make it so that I'm not constantly stressing out about so many things.  One of those things that tended to cause frustration, was our one toy, the zany loofah toy.  This one:

--no idea why the pic is sideways, but you get the idea--

... ah... but now, going forward... also...

...you know why?  Because it is absolutely impossible to dye / color the exact same number of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple loofah.  So, undoubtedly, what happens is that we dye / color loofah, make some toys... and then are out of (for example) green.  So, we dye / color more green.  Well... then we end up with way more green, then run out of red.  And the cycle continues.  Which is fine, except you can imagine, we'll have tons of dyed loofah, yet we'll be missing one of the specific colors required to actually MAKE one of the "original" zany loofah toys, and then someone will order one, and we will scramble.

For our last order that included a zany loofah toy, Jennifer got the fun job of digging through our colored loofah bags (you know, the four packs) to find appropriate colors... and then had to re-pack them, so we can still sell what's left.  Pain in the ass.  Double the work, for really no gain.  And to her credit, when we talked about changing this toy over to a whatever-colors-we-feel-like-it toy, she did point out that it's called the ZANY loofah toy, so in that theme, it could totally vary what colors are included.  So from now on (well, as soon as I update the listing), our zany loofah toy will be "colors may vary" (and the photos will show some of the possible color options, which are actually quite endless, as we have many more colors than shown).

We also have a toy in the works that hopefully looks like a cupcake.  Another that may have some antlers on it... well, we shall see!  We've got some ideas!  Now just to have the time to work on them.  But for the moment, we are working on re-stocking the current toys we have, cleaning up downstairs, and slowly moving forward.

Leaving Voicemails

Hi all!  I know it's been awhile since I posted, and I hate to make the first post something that's like... please do this... sort of thing, but I've noticed this lately...

A lot of people call from one number, but want me to call them back at another.  Often, the first number is like their work number or whatever, so I totally get it!  But then, the second number is completely mumbled so that I have to listen to the message 10x to try to figure out what that number is.

I had one of these instances.  I thought I had the correct number... called... nope!  Wrong number.  The last two digits, I thought, were 2 and 8.  Swear the last one sounded like an 8.  My phone (where it writes out the voicemail) thought the last number was a 0 instead of an 0 (doesn't sound like a 0 to me, but ok).  So the next number I called was the one ending in 2 and 0, and left a voicemail for them.  However... if that's NOT the correct number...

I'm pretty sure of the first slew of numbers.  It's that last number (which I would have SWORE was 8) that was really mumbled, and which was the hard-to-understand number.  Long story short, after I left a voicemail for the number... and then had the thought about... I could technically call 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 29 still (as the last two digits), a friend chimed in and said, try calling back the number they called from.

Now, normally, if you ask me to call a different number, I do, simply because often people don't want calls at work or whatever, but in this instance, I might have called a ton of different numbers, so I did call that original number, and got the person I wanted to.  So that all worked out.

But long story short... and I suppose I could have totally summarized this all in one sentence -- please, PLEASE try to speak as clear as possible when telling me what phone number you would like me to call.  If you think of it, even REPEAT it  (if I've ever called you and left a message, you may notice, I repeat the number twice, juuuuust in case you didn't get it the first time).  In fact, the best thing you can do would be to leave relevant info twice (if you're feeling generous lol).  So, "hey, this is Chris, my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx, I'm calling about a white female chinchilla, please call me back.  Again, this is Chris, and my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.  Thank you!"  I tend to repeat myself at the end, but if I know I've called someplace before that has a very short recording time, that ^ is exactly what I do, and it's a good thing to practice!

That is all.  Thank you!!

Messages!

Hey all!

Just wanted to give a quick announcement -- if you ever call, or text, or email, or whatever... and DON'T hear back... try again!

I occasionally get someone, like today, where they send an email.  The email basically says, in so many words, that hey they reached out through the contact us form on the website... and they haven't heard back.

Now, sometimes, I admit, we get behind.  Well, *I* get behind, there's no "we" in checking and responding to emails / messages / etc.  Especially after long expo weekends, or vacations, or whatever.

Anyway... the thing is, I can check for messages that come through my website, through either the adoption forms or the contact us forms... and sure as shit, I WAS able to find the person's initial message.  However... I NEVER received the notification of such. 

You see, normally someone submits a form, and I receive an email which includes whatever they typed and their contact info.  Most of the time this works!  But sometimes... I guess not.  The same can go for messages and whatnot.  People have sworn up and down that they've left a voicemail... that is completely in-existent. 

I definitely do not mean to ignore anyone, so if you've ever felt like that, I apologize.. and likely was just behind... or possibly didn't ever get the message. 

So if you don't hear back and you still need something -- reach out again!  Thanks!

Donations vs. Recurring Donations

So, awhile back, we talked about how a customer suggested that I set up the ability for people to be able to sign up for recurring donations.

...we're now talking about it again, because someone... well... either didn't realize what they did, or didn't know how to cancel it, or... something.

So, someone signed up for recurring donations, of $5 / monthly, back in October.  October donation comes through, no problem.  November donation comes through... and the person opens a PayPal case against me, saying that I caused them an unauthorized transaction.

Somehow, one would think that PayPal would be able to view the history and see that this person signed themselves up for the recurring transaction, but whatever...  I logged on, and there were several options.  One of the options was simply to refund the transaction.  It didn't say that refunding admitted fault, or anything of that nature, it just said, you can refund the transaction.  Stupid me, I thought that would make it go away... so I did.

I also sent an email to the PayPal account that had started that recurring donation, advising them that I believed that THEY had to cancel the recurring donations, as they had started them.  I did not receive a response.

A couple days later, I received a message from PayPal-- see below --

-- it says they debited the amount from my account.  As in... the refund I sent?  Or a second time?  Not sure, since my PayPal account is showing a ton of stuff pending right now...  AND, did you also notice the $20 penalty they are throwing at me for this?  That's bullshit.  I refunded to end the thing... had I realized there would be a penalty in just refunding and moving on -- even though this transaction was NOT me fraudulently charging someone's account -- I would have contested it.

Maybe this isn't clear to a lot of people, so I want to show you a screenshot of my site, and how it looks if you go to donate (and I love everyone who donates!  Just don't get me a penalty of $20 for your $5 donation, please!).  The donations page is here -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/donations.htm --:

Let's just make that even a bit clearer, as I know that's teeny...

So as I have marked, the one on the left, where it simply says "Donate" -- this is meant for a one time donation.  Of course, you are welcome to go back as often as you'd like, and donate more, if that's your thing (and we wouldn't complain a bit), but the point is, it does not re-occur for you.  Now, if you would rather set up a recurring donation, the one on the left, which says "Donate $__  month / $___ USD -- monthly" -- that is for recurring donations.  That bar is a drop down menu where you can select the amount you'd like for your recurring donation.  Then, that day that you set it up, the amount you selected comes out of your account... and that happens every month following, on the same date.  So if your first donation is 10/1, then your second will be 11/1, and then 12/1, until you stop the recurring donations.

I guess to me, recurring means, well... you know... it re-occurs.  It's going to happen again.  That's why it says "monthly," right?  Well anyway, please only select that one if you really do want to donate monthly to our rescue. 

I somehow was able to turn off this person's recurring donations -- thankfully -- but I would rather not do this again.  In the future, should this happen.  I will try to again, figure out how to turn them off... but I'm not so sure that I will just "refund" -- because of that penalty.  Mind you, it's not that I DON'T want to refund (like, say, if someone wants to stop their recurring donation and is unsure how... though I'm not sure opening a case is the best way to do that, but I digress)... but if I get enough of these cases opened and decided against me... that will be the end of my PayPal account.  That will be the end of the webstore, and Etsy, and all that.  So please, watch what you are selecting.  Thank you!

Food Bowls

This is one of those things that probably very few people notice, unless you really are eyeballing the website and watching for changes... but we now have new food bowls.

The place we used to get the previous ones has gone a bit... wonky... since I ordered the time before (probably about a year ago).  When I looked at it recently, you could only add one food bowl at a time to the cart, it shows $0 shipping (that can't be right... maybe with a minimum quantity, but not for one item), and you had to "check out" with a credit card for that one food bowl.  No ability to add other items, no ability to put in an address... just a spot for credit card info, to pay for one item, and nothing else.  Maybe not for everyone, but for me... it seemed a bit sketchy.  Yeah, no.  Not doing that.

Not to mention, I'd usually order like, 20-40 at a time (depending on price, how much money I can afford to swing at that given time, etc), so I can't order one at a time, and have 20 transactions, even if that did work out.  Now, before you think that I just moved on, I didn't -- I emailed the site using their contact us form, said what I was seeing and asked if there was a way to change the quantity and whatnot.  No response.  Even checked junk mail.  Nothing.

Weeks passed. 

I basically forgot about this... until someone ordered two food bowls.  By some grace of God, I had two hiding in one of my expo totes.  But the time had come to change the listing!

Unfortunately, that also meant the price had to change.  I can no longer find neutral colored food bowls / stoneware in the type I want, at the price I was able to get.  Is it a huge difference in price?  No.  But now I'm paying almost $4 per bowl (not including shipping), and before, I was selling them at $4 per bowl (and making a small profit for the rescue, even with shipping figured in).  So unfortunately, that itself could not continue.  

The price of the bowls has now risen to $5, however -- and I can hear that collective groan out there... stop it! -- the QUALITY of the bowls has also risen!  The new bowls are heavier, gorgeous stoneware bowls.  They come individually packed, each in their own bubble wrap, each in their own bowl-box, which is all inside a larger box.  So, you will no longer hear me whining about ordering bowls and 2/3 of them coming broken -- this packaging and these higher quality bowls should prevent this.

So, without further adieu, I present to you, our new $5 food bowls:

Aren't they pretty?  The chins in the future will thank us for having nice heavy duty bowls.  That is all for today.

Donuts!

You know what's kind of funny, is talking to people sometimes.  I had someone call the other day and they were asking about various colors of chins, and they got to the point where they were mentioning what they were looking for.

Them:  so, I'd like a violet male, and then for the second one, maybe an extra dark ebony, or one with a spot on it.

Me:  so like a white?

Them:  well, any color with a spot.

Me:  well, whites are the only ones that can have spots, the others are uniform colors.

Them:  oh, ok, well how about a solid white one and then a violet, let me get one of each of those?

Me:  I'll take one of each of those too, do you know where we can get the hookup?

Them:  *laughs*

---It reminded me of someone picking out donuts.  Oh I'll take the bavarian creme, and that one over there with sprinkles, and...

The thing is, this person just thought I had oodles of chins upon oodles of chins, and if they said they wanted two adult males, in the colors mentioned, I just had them in the wings and could find two of those specific colors that would get along. 

I wish!

If you've followed us for any length of time, you probably know that most of our rescues are grey.  Even the ones that we get in that aren't grey... well, they tend to be an ebony.  Like, a medium ebony, or a sapphire, or something that can easily be mistaken for a grey.  They rarely are solid whites, and if they are...well... usually there's a not-so-great personality to match.  Not saying we've never gotten in any fun colors with nice personalities... but the average person with a solid white chin, likely knows 10 other people that will take that chin, long before the will take it to rescue.  You know why?  Because I also know a ridiculous amount of people that would take a solid white chin, before I'd ever have to list it.  That's just how it goes.

I also had someone ask if we ever got angoras in through the rescue.  Not yet!  Maybe one day, when they're not a fortune each, but at the current time... nope.  Sorry! 

The thing is, most chins here are pretty basic colors. And that's fine, they all deserve love!  Unfortunately, that means, there's not a lot to pick from.  Usually in the fall (like, now) we have more of a variety of colors, and right now, it's kind of slim pickings, so we got a good laugh out of the guy donut-picking chins.  Nothing wrong with having specific wants!  Just, we can't always meet those wants.  I get people wanting to go to a rescue for their new family member... but there's a lot less of the fancy stuff in rescue.  That is all.

Houses!

What did we do today?  We built houses!  Lots of houses!  And hay holders! 

We try to build quite a few at once, so we have them ready for when people want them.  They dry for 24 hours and then go on the shelving until someone requests one.  Yay for houses!! 

Creative Thinking!

This came up a little bit ago... when we had our remaining two rats here out of the Mom + babies group... the two left were the most shy of the bunch and the most reclusive.  Mom liked to nibble on hands.  Not bite, mind you, as you will KNOW if a rat wants to bite you and you WILL be bleeding... but just reach out and chew on you, gently.

The difference between people coming by who were somewhat familiar with rats, and very familiar with rats, was interesting to see.  The sort of familiar ones were scared of Mom.  To them, she was going to "bite them" and they did their best to keep away from her.  One set of people actually brought treats to try to lure the rats (as I had listed that they were more or less un-socialized -- other than our efforts here -- and very shy and leery)... well when Mom kept coming up to them and making them nervous, they'd hand her a treat, so she'd leave them alone.  Well, Mom got smart and showed actually a ridiculous amount of interest in them (smart little thing).  So they'd hand her a treat, and she'd go put it aside and come right back up.  It was kind of funny to see!

Anyway, we got down to the last two rats, Mom and one of the female babies.  So, I changed the ad to list them as having to go to the same home as a pair.  Got a text message the one morning about someone asking if we still had some of the rats.  I had updated the listing on my site, though the listings on other sites still listed the normal ad and said check website for updates on who's remaining.  So I told this person, we still had Mom and a young rat, and they needed to go together.  I mentioned how they were shy and needed a home that understood that, as the past people were very wary about this.  She said they understood.  I told them about the adoption form, they filled it out and everything, and we made an appointment for them to come see the rats.

When they came to see the rats, these people were like night and day to the others.  Not afraid of Mom and her nipping... to the point that the rats were comfortable enough with them, to go back to their hammock to sleep.  Well, these people decided they did want to take the two of them home, which led us to the next issue -- how to get them out of the cage.  But in very rat person fashion, they had an idea!  They wanted to know if they could buy the hammock, so we could just transport them in their hammock!  What a great idea!

The hammock had already been chewed and used and I wasn't going to have them buy it, I told them they could have it, and unhooked the hammock with the rats still comfortably nestled inside.  I was able to put that in the carrier, no problem whatsoever, and that made for the easiest transition for those nervous rats into the carrier ever!  It worked great! 

Sometimes thinking outside the box can yield great results!!

Gates! Cages! Latches!!

So, I was talking with someone about this the other day, about animals getting out of their cages.  They asked, does that ever happen here?  Sure!  Even though I'd like to think we secure our cages well, it's not always me closing all the cages, and sometimes animals are crafty and can get out.

We even have springs on the doors of certain cages, where despite the fact that I can't picture how the animals get out... they sometimes do.  It happens.

Sometimes it's out faulty closing of the cages... sometimes it's just the cage design.  Certain cage designs are of the type where if the animal shakes the cage, juuuust enough, the cage will open.  Or whatnot. 

It happens!  If you have an animal get out, don't fret!  Rather, find a way to secure it!

We even had this problem with our fence gate.  You see, we have a double gate at the back of the property, which opens wide.  Well... if the wind hits it just right, that gate can even be LOCKED... and it will blow open.  This happened a couple times, irritating every time of course, until one morning I went outside and the gate was wide open. 

Thankfully, I had peered outside, rather than just letting the dogs out.  But, rather than be like omgggg, I fixed it.

For the wind to open this latch, the entire chain would have to be lifted vertically 2 inches on the right hand side.  Prooobably not happening. 

I mention this, because the same thing is true of chinchilla (and other animal) cages.  No matter the cage, I guarantee you there is some way to secure the door, in which the animals cannot get out.  You just have to figure out what works for you!

Blowing Out Filters!

One thing that many people don't think of when owning chins, well, a LOT of chins, is how much dust is constantly in the air.  Much of this, of course, is from their dust bath.  But in addition, there's dust in shavings, in their dander, and so on and so forth.

Because of this, I change my furnace filters, often.  You will find, people who have a furnace running near their chinchillas (like, someone with a herd / group of chins), will also be doing the same.

To save money, we blow out our filters with an air compressor.

That's Jim blowing out my filters.  The bottom one REALLY needed done, as you can see.  

My furnace has that much dust and ick on the filters, since my chins are downstairs.  Most people's won't be that bad, but we blow them out and re-use, so that we can change them more often, and give the chins (and us!) better air to breathe.  That's something you know now :)

Waiting List

So, this was something different that I don't believe I've experienced before, so I wanted to write about it.

This morning, I was calling people on the waiting list, to tell them we had room for their chins.  For two numbers, I called the number... several rings... and then you could tell, they declined the call.  They didn't send it to voicemail, they just declined the call.  Called back, even less rings, declined the call.

So for both people, I sent a text message, detailing who I was and why I was calling.  So far, no response.

While I understand people don't always pick up numbers they are unfamiliar with... declining phone calls from those numbers, while the person is on a waiting list at a rescue, does no good for anyone.  I suppose this can tie into the post from the other day, where I talked about one thing affecting many others -- I give everyone on the waiting list 3 days to respond.  So, if the person doesn't respond (because, to be fair, they can  respond and say "no longer need to bring the chinchilla in"), that pushes the next person back at least three days.  Multiply this by multiple people who don't respond, and then not only does it seem pointless to even have a waiting list sometimes, but also makes it so that people who really DO want to bring their animals in, have to wait forever to do so.

I even have one person who emailed me in the middle of October... they were on my list and wanted to check where they were on the list, because they were "really in a bind" and needed to bring the chins in ASAP.  So we exchanged a couple emails... and then I didn't hear from them for like 10ish days.  So I called them.  They said they had some stuff going on, and hadn't had a chance to get back to emails.  Ok.  So we talked about when they could bring them in.  Oh, maybe the 2nd or 3rd, if not then, maybe the 16th.  What happened to being in a bind? 

Now, I understand that people have lives outside of chinchillas, and other things to do.  I do.  But it's so easy to get frustrated when someone acts all rush-rush to get their chinchilla in... and then suggests a day, a month out, when they miiiiight be able to bring it in.

And maybe it's just me that looks at it like this, but the point of a waiting list is so that when you get the phone call... you bring it in.  Reasonably soon.  Not like, you bring it in, at whatever your convenience is, in the next couple months.  Unfortunately, it's that sort of thing that makes the waiting list take so long to get through! 

Holes in Wood Shelves & Houses

Someone asked the other day, how do we create the holes in our wood shelves and houses?  With drill presses!  Like this:

Even people sometimes want holes in kind of oddball things, we can do that too:

What do YOU want a hole in?  Haha.

"Blue"

When we talk about a chinchilla being "blue" or having that sort of coloration, a lot of people can't quite grasp what that means.  I get it!  It's one of those things that can help to "see" to understand.

But I found a great example for you all!  At Jim's house, here's some lights:

I'm pretty sure, in looking at that pic, you can see that the light on the left has warmer / yellow tones and the light on the right has cooler / blue tones.

Is it bright blue?  No.  The same is true on an animal.  Are we expecting robin's egg blue?  No.  But you can definitely tell the difference in the lights, and the same is true on animals!  It's easier to see on the lights, which is why I give that as an example, but you can also see this on chins.  The easiest way to see this (to an untrained eye) would be to put chinchillas under show lights and look at them that way.  By the way, blue is desirable.  Yellow / red coloration is not.

Curlies!

If you've been here lately, you may have seen that Sheep, our resident curly, is back.  Sorry, no pic of her, cause she still hates me. 

I wanted to bring this up, because everyone sees her, and she looks like a sheep (in case you've never seen her) and wants curlies like that.  Heck, I do too!  I get it!  However, most curlies do not look like that.  Most curlies look more like this:

... see the curl on the belly?  Maybe you'd only call that "wave" -- that's a typical curly.  Disappointed?  Yeah, me too. 

Often, curly babies are born super curly... and then as they dust, and as they grow, the fur sort of relaxes.  Sort of how a perm can relax over time.  That's curlies!  It'd be nice if they all stayed curly, but often, just like you see in the photo, we end up with just a bit of curl / wave on the belly, and that's it.  Maybe one day there'll be more!  But so far, this is it for the majority of them...

No Call No Shows, and Deposits

So, if you've talked to me lately, you know my patience / tolerance has gone down to an all-time low.  We've had more tire kickers, missed appointments, "family emergencies" *rolls eyes* and whatnot, and not only is it frustrating to me... it's unfair to the animals.

I think I posted about the one rat, where he had a deposit put on him, and then the person missed the 14 day cutoff for pickup, then asked for an extension to the weekend, then missed their weekend appointment.  They didn't respond to my question if they were still coming, so I sent another message, basically saying they had so many days to pick him up, and whatnot.  They then replied, saying they had been evicted, lost their place, had a cat and worried about his safety, yadda yadda.  That may all be true, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they're lying.  But think about the rat.  How many people, in the meantime, could have potentially adopted him... if they'd just told me all of this, earlier on?  And yes, in case you're wondering, there WERE people who asked about him in that time, that I told, oh he's on hold.  Well... he's still here.

Fast forward to today... took him off hold when this happened, and had someone else come and want to adopt him.  We set the appointment for today for pickup.  They called yesterday to ask, could they come a half hour later than their scheduled time.  I told them, that was fine, though I had someone a half hour after that, so it would need to be a quick appointment.  No problem.  I suppose you know from my writing this, they didn't show.

So I texted them... they had a family emergency.  Because of course they did.  Now... I realize, family emergencies do happen.  But apparently, they happen at some exponentially high rate to people who are adopting animals, as almost every missed appointment is due to a family emergency.  What's the chance?  Not very good.  Someone, out of those people, is not being completely honest.

So I replied saying I was sorry to hear, and asked when they wanted to reschedule.  I still have not heard back. 

I feel like I talked about this at an earlier point in time, this year, and maybe I intended to put it up... but never did....  We are now going to implement the policy that if you have a deposit on an animal, and then no-call no-show your appointment, you forfeit the deposit.  In case you think this is overly harsh, let me tell you, this would only have affected like 3-5 people in the course of the last 16 years... so no, it's not going to completely change how we do things and affect a ton of animals... but hopefully it will entice people to send a message when something happens.  Do things come up?  Sure!  But does it only take 30 seconds to send a text?  Also sure!  And it's really that simple.  Don't want to lose your deposit?  Call when you can't come.  That's all... it's really that simple.

How What You Do Affects Others

So, I know I go on and on about people missing appointments or showing up late, or whatnot, and yes, that is annoying (though most people do show up, albeit often late), but I wanted to share a real life example, which actually kind of upset me, of how something one person did, affected several other people / animals.

I have two seniors at the rescue right now, Mojo (12 years) and Dobie (13-14 years).  Both standard grey chins, very nice boys, but, well, seniors.  Seniors take a long time to be adopted, if they ever get adopted, unless we get people who are intentionally looking for seniors.  It does happen, but it's not as often as the people looking for the oh-so-cute babies.

Anyway, someone called the one day, asking about senior chins.  I was like YIPPEEE cause I actually HAD some seniors (sometimes people call and want seniors, and I don't have any... and then get in some right after).  So we scheduled her for Sunday evening.

Now, Saturday evening, I had an adoption going on, where one of my fosters was bringing their foster chin back to the rescue to be adopted, and was going to take home new fosters.  Because I was assuming the Sunday person would show up, and would want to see both seniors, and pick which one she wanted to take home, I did not send a senior home with the foster home.  I wanted to!  But I thought I had an adopter lined up, and didn't want to pass that up.  So, I sent a trio of chins home with the foster anyway.  I'm sure they will benefit, just fine, from more one-on-one attention, but not as much, IMO, as a senior that is already at the end of their life, and we want to make the end as great as the beginning.

I'm sure you have gathered from reading thus far, that the Sunday appointment did not show up.  Nor did they call / text to say the would not be showing up.  Nor did they answer my call / text to see if they wanted to reschedule.  I have choice words for that.

They probably think, no big deal, because the chins may be adopted by someone else.  And they may be.  But there are a limited number of fosters, and all of them have recently taken new chins.  So, figure, it'll likely be a couple months before either senior gets another chance to go into a foster home.  Now, maybe they'll be adopted before that happens.  That would be super!  But by one person not showing up for their appointment, she likely set these chins back a couple months from being in a home environment.  And to me, that's not ok.  Why is it so hard to call?

Pic of Mojo below (haven't taken pics of Dobie yet, he's still under health evaluation):

Lots of Chins!

So, this was kinda funny.  When I was at the Wisconsin show at the beginning of the month, I had another breeder tell me that one of my customers went to her, to get another chin.  Why?

Because we are very nice here, but we have too many chins and they didn't understand how we care for them all.

Ha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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Now let me share why that's funny.  At last count, we had around 60 chins, and around 120 animals total (guinea pigs, prairie dogs, rats, etc).  The breeder they went to?  700+ chinchillas.  And remember, the reason they went there was because was they wanted to go to a place that had less chinchillas and had more time to spend with the animals.

Here's the thing -- here at NWI Chins, we are VERY transparent.  We let everyone into our rescue, you get to see the animals, where they live, and whatnot.  Most places, well, simply do not.  At the show, I talked with quite a few breeders and even a few people who run rescues, and most people will bring out a chinchilla that someone wants -- oh they want to see a beige?  let me go get it for you -- rather than let the person in with the animals.  Or they meet, away from the home.  So what you see here is VERY different than the norm.  But I try to be transparent.

Think about those people who don't let you in.  Now, by no means am I saying they have anything to hide.  I am NOT saying they abuse animals, or have poor conditions, or anything like that.  But very simply, people who have never been to a large-scale animal operation are often shocked to see large numbers of animals, often in smaller cages, packed into a large room / barn.  So, they don't let those people in.  The meet at a parking lot, or in their kitchen, or whatever.  So, the consumer sees that and doesn't realize, oh there's hundreds more.

Compared to almost every breeder / rescue I know, we are SMALL.  Does that surprise you?  I think the reason it often does surprise people is because we have "so many"... but because we are transparent and let people in, it is OBVIOUS that we have that many.  When a rescue / shelter / breeder only brings out the animal you ask about, and the rest are behind closed doors (doors, mind you, that you are not allowed through), the thought may be that there's not that many.  In reality, there's often many many MANY more than what we have... you just don't see them.  Just something to think about.

Asking for a Discount

So, I have a little story to tell you.  True story, for once, this has nothing to do with chinchillas... though I will, of course, relate it to chinchillas.

So I had someone message me about a dishwasher I have for sale.  The dishwasher is a portable countertop one, and retails for $300 new.  This one that I had was in pristine condition, worked great... I just never hooked it up (and for how long it sat around, probably never would).  So I put it up on fb marketplace for $125. 

The first offer for it was $20, which naturally, was simply no.

The second person messaged me, told me their name, asked if it was interested, and said they had a couple questions.  Ok, so I asked what the questions were.  His first message was basically, "well, there's one for sale for $50, yours is $125."  So I responded, saying, "why don't you get the one for $50?  I'm not sure what your question is."  He responded by saying that he lived near me, and the other one was in downtown Chicago (30 mins away) and he'd rather get the closer one.  So I responded saying that I wasn't going to drop the price to $50, sorry.  He responded, "get used to people going and buying the cheaper ones."  Ok, whatever.

Here's the thing though -- this guy wanted me to drop the price $75... for his convenience.  The only benefit to me was that I would sell the item, albeit at 2/3 off.  But he wanted the discount, simply because it would be more convenient to him.

I looked up the ad for the $50 dishwasher, and there really was one.  It had a picture that looked all dingy and dinged up, and absolutely no description.  Did it work?  Who knows?  Did it include the inside racks / trays?  Who knows, cause it only had one pic of the outside.  What struck me is that, yes, it was cheaper, but without messaging the seller and asking more about it, you have no idea what you're getting.

The same goes for chinchillas.  I occasionally get people who will message me and say, "well I really like this chinchilla you have for $200, but I can find one on craigslist for $75 and that includes cage and everything with it."  And I have no doubt they can.  I have actually asked people in the past... if it's such a great deal on craigslist, why are they messaging me?  Well, as you may guess, there is a reason for it.  See, these people like my health guarantee.  And they like the way my animals look healthy, versus the animals on craigslist that, well, don't always.  And they like the variety of colors.  And they like that they're babies, and the one on craigslist is 8 years old.  And they like the fact that I describe what the personalities are like, versus on craigslist, they don't, at all.  But... for some reason, they think that, despite the fact that I have all these additional things to offer, I should offer the chinchilla, with everything, at the super cheap price.  Sorry, but no. 

It's simple... you want additional benefit, you will pay for it.  Not just here.. anywhere!  You buy airline tickets... if you want those refundable, they cost a bit more.  You buy a used car, if you want the extended warranty, it costs more.  Sure, you can get it cheaper, but if it breaks and you don't have that warranty, well, you get the idea.

If you've followed us for any length of time, you know that we have sales, periodically.  So I'm not above lowering prices, at times.  Nothing wrong with that.  But I won't be price-matching people on craigslist any time soon, and just like for the dishwasher guy, I won't lower the price just because there's a better deal elsewhere.  People are welcome to shop wherever they like.  This isn't Walmart, where the margins are sky high.  I'm not sorry about any of that, because this is a small business / small rescue, and it all just is what it is.  That is all.