Happy December everyone!

For the month of November four (4) chinchillas were surrendered and four (4) chinchillas were adopted, including the poster boys from our Pumpkin Spice Chinchillas picture. We currently have about 16 chinchillas waiting for their furever home. We’ve practically given up on trying to keep the website current with regards to the specific chinchillas available. The numbers change so often! Plus, we really hate the thought of those who are “color shopping”. We prefer instead that the chinchilla be a good fit with the family when it comes to personality, temperament and activity level. Onwards!

The year 2018 has been a year of many changes. We moved to our new home. The chinchillas and webstore related “werk” got an upgrade with a building all its own. We’ve had a major mind shift from working out of the dining room to actually going to a separate, no kidding, office. (Even though the commute is only about 550 feet.) Keeping office hours seems to have made a big difference in productivity.

Another change we’ve seen this year has been the sad goodbyes of the two special education teachers with whom we have worked so closely. We have spent nearly a decade as Partners in Education with the local high school where the students help us craft our chew toys, cage accessories and other supplies. This year not one, but both head instructors have retired and passed their classes on to the next generation of educators. We’re still working out kinks with scheduling, but hope to be back in full swing with our student helpers soon! In the meantime Whimsy’s clan has been busy building the necessary parts and pieces to make our goodies. Ziggy, Whimsy’s son with autism, is happy to take up the slack where our student helpers would normally fill the store. He even has his very own office and assembly room!

Changes are in progress to grow and expand our orchard. We’ve been slowly claiming some of our new land to make room for our apple, pear, mulberry and pecan trees. There is a natural watershed between the house and office that slopes on three sides. The hilled terrain would be perfect for growing our delicious heirloom apples and pears. Whimsy’s oldest daughter jokingly named our proposed plot, “The Fruit Bowl.”

As we work to thin that area it is providing us with plenty of firewood with which to heat the rescue building. We’re still struggling with the HVAC system and spent nearly $1000 over the summer just to get the air conditioning working for the chinchillas. Once again the system has failed us and we’ve come to grips with the fact that we should stop paying outrageous prices for temporary patches. The system is original to the building and is 18 years old. There is a woodstove in the workshop that pumps out enough heat to keep the building a cozy 54-65 degrees. The chins are loving it! Having the woodstove will give us several months to save up for a new heat/air system before we need it again for cooling.

So as I look out my office window and admire the 12+ inches of snow, I think back over the year and consider how far we’ve come. November 1st marked the 10 year anniversary of Whimsy’s Menagerie. It’s been an unexpectedly amazing life path that no one could have possibly predicted. Operating a home based rescue has been a wild ride, not to mention an odd lifestyle. Many times it has been a rapidly shifting existence full of frustration and grief, success and joy. Even still, I have no regrets. So, many thanks to you, my chinchilla friends, for your support and good favor. My prayer is that I may be good enough to earn and keep it. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a blessed and happy New Year.

We are looooong overdue for a post!

First, the good.

We’ve finally made it into our new location and moved the chinchillas and other animals before the big Hurricane Florence scare. Even though things are not perfectly organized yet, at least we have all the animals safe and sound and in one place.

Our new property is giving us an abundance of new varieties of wood that we’ve been selectively cutting and processing for the chinchillas. On our new property we’ve found blueberry and grapevine, poplar and dogwood and much more! We’ve learned that poplar wood smells minty when it’s cut. And has a minty/lily smell as it dries. The wood is gorgeous with its zebra striped bark. Next is dogwood. As much as I hate to cut these down, some trees are just not well placed on the property. We feel the chinchillas will benefit much more from them. Funny thing, dogwood wood is ugly and smells like a new pack of disposable diapers. *shrug* Chinchillas like the weirdest things.

Our future apple, pear and mulberry orchard are growing nicely… in their pots and temporary garden spots. We are also working toward reclaiming some overgrown land to turn into usable orchard space.

Our workshop has gotten quite the work out! It is large enough to allow us to haul in small trees to work in a climate controlled environment. This is also perfect and necessary for harvesting leaves for our Confetti Cuisine. You may have noticed this year that the leaves are GORGEOUS! We have perfected our secret process for drying leaves in a way that retains color and vital nutrients.

Now the bad.

If you follow us on facebook, you may have seen pictures of the happy new families who have come to adopt. Over the summer we’ve had surrenders happen, adoptions happen, and matchmaking sessions. It’s been a whirlwind trying to operate from two locations as we’ve accommodated different individuals according to where they live. Making the two hour drive back and forth has been a daunting task. Did anyone notice the difference? I’m afraid yes. We’ve had a few glitches but our followers/customers have (mostly) been amazing. Thank you all for your encouragement as we’ve taken on this enormous task.

The ugly.

Our move from one location to another has taken far too long to complete as we’ve hit snags and roadblocks and... just plain crooked individuals. Walling in the new rescue room started so well! We had a framer who was amazing. Then things went downhill from there. The air conditioner in the office/rescue building broke down. That became an unexpected $1000 bill. Ouch! But long story short, two different companies took our money and ran, never completing the drywall job. It is really rather embarrassing to admit this. Whimsy ended up finishing it herself (it took 6 days) and volunteers helped with the paint. Just in time for the hurricane scare. *sigh*

Now that we’re mostly settled in all that remains is some minor tweaking as we sort, resort, arrange and figure out the best way to store and utilize all the space! We have extra cages set up and ready for mass surrenders that are bound to happen. Funny thing is, I typed out this post just before we got word of a mini-mass surrender of 8 and a  group of 3. It’s a good thing we put together the extra cages. Looks like we’ll need to set up some for maternity watch as well.

Busy! Busy! Busy!  The workshop has already been put to good use as we’ve been working to craft some gorgeous lumber into our signature cage accessories. Many of our cages have gotten a facelift with some long overdue swapping of tired old and chewed up ledges with some tidy new ones. Is it time to freshen your chinchillas cage? We would love to help out! We often post pictures of ideas of ways to arrange ledges to make a cage more interesting. We hope that our store offers enough variety to keep everyone entertained. At any rate, with our larger facility, we also have larger bills. While we appreciate those who have chosen to support our rescue, we really love crafting our wares to help enliven other chinchilla’s homes. So if you’re looking for ways to spoil your chinchilla (or other gnawing pet), why not come check out our webstore? And don’t forget the chew toys!

Happy May everyone!

For the month of April we had four (4) chinchillas surrendered and two (2)  chinchillas were adopted.

Our numbers of chinchillas are much more manageable now and our upcoming move of them should be relatively easy. We had hoped to have everyone settled in before the heat of summer, but it looks like that’s just not going to happen. We assumed that by hiring pros we could get the necessary work to the new building done quickly and efficiently. That has proven to be a radically unrealistic idea as we are at the mercy of every one of those individuals' schedules. So far we’ve had the framing to the new chinchilla room done. Ed from Olde Oak Construction was especially sensitive to our timeline and worked us in to his schedule. His work was outstanding and very reasonable. AND, he cleaned up after himself! We hope to utilize Ed for many more future growth projects.

We’ve also got the electrical moved, new lines run and powered up. The extra thick insulation is in place for added sound dampening and heat barrier between the rescue room and workshop. The drywall is up. Doors are in place. Sounds good, right? Well, now comes the hard part. The air conditioning in the building completely died and it just so happened during the electrical and drywall phase. So the drywall mud couldn’t dry and the construction guys were absolutely miserable. Now we’re fighting with the home warranty company about repair to the HVAC system. Obviously we can’t move the chinchillas in until that is fixed!

In the meantime, we are slowly painting the offices as we can squeeze in time for a day trip and hauling in lots and lots of files. We still need to finish the drywall. Our wall man seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. (Karma baby, Karma) We need to finish the trim, prime and paint the rescue room. Needless to say, with all the road blocks we have no planned date for our official move. We’re still operating surrenders, adoptions and websales (mostly) as usual. We appreciate a little extra patience as we juggle the timing of everything.

Here is a panorama inside view of the rescue room. The wall isn't "really" curved, it's just the camera angle. This shows our progress as of today. Getting closer!

Happy April everyone!

With the move to our new facility taking much longer than anticipated, we’ve had to bend a little with regard to surrenders and adoptions. Of course we’d much rather see chins go to happy homes than to have to take them in. 😉 Currently we have more than a dozen rescues waiting for their own special person. We have two new sets of females who appear to be receptive to other chinchillas. They would be excellent candidates for someone who has a lonely female and would like a small herd (trio) of their own. Trios are great! With a trio, should something horrible happen to one chin, two are left to console each other.

We had a bit of an emergency situation this month where one of our follower’s lost one half of a pair. The remaining chin stopped bathing, was uninterested in food, and just generally withdrew. This is an emergency situation! In a case where a chinchilla mourns the loss of a cagemate, they can literally die of loneliness. This is especially true of chins who have had the benefit of a cagemate. Some chins respond better to a loss and thrive….but it’s just unnatural for a chinchilla to be alone.

Which reminds me, we often hear people ask whether a chinchilla should go through a mourning period before introducing him or her to a new friend. The answer is “NO!”. Chinchillas are not people. They have no social need to show their respect for a dearly departed. They do not share the same psychological perspective as a human.

When considering the needs of an animal, one must consider their needs as a species. This includes food choices, shelter accommodations, how we approach training, stimulation and socialization. As herd animals, chinchillas benefit from the proximity of those of their kind…assuming those in the social group are compatible!

Males, with their instinctive drive to procreate, are much more difficult to pairbond. This is especially true if both males and females are in the same home. We have found that the brevicaudata chinchilla, the ones who are considered more “show” quality and have the big, fat body style,  are the easiest to keep in groups. The typically pet store chins and breeder cast offs  (more likely lanigera and costina) tend to be more aggressive towards their own kind and difficult to group.

Again, working with their psychological framework, we can give them the benefit of matchmaking when we utilize spay/neuter surgery. This allows us to pairbond otherwise alpha males with a female or two and gives them a much better chance of adoption.

Neuter surgery can be expensive and is not without risks. However, the benefits far outweigh the risk. To date, we have had but a single negative surgical outcome. Please know that neutering a chinchilla will not change their behavior as it does with other animals such as canines, felines and equines. Neuter surgery simply makes it impossible for them to reproduce. In the case of individuals who have both male and female chins, it is the responsible way to keep chinchillas without having to segregate them in separate cages.

As a rescue facility, of course we advocate responsible pet ownership. We encourage chinnie pet people to choose a single gender pair or group,  OR, to choose castration. And while we’re on the subject, those who think they can be quick enough to intervene during m/f playtime to obstruct a possible breeding are fooling themselves. It takes a millisecond for a male to impregnate a female chinchilla. Don’t be part of the problem.

Well...March came and went with no fanfare. We expected to have all sorts of new news about our new place, the moving progress, pictures, videos, etc. But we've been hit with some unexpected roadblocks. It seems one issue after another keeps appearing like a long lost family member looking for their portion of an inheritance. We have likened the experience to a bad group project. You know the kind. One person pulls all the weight, most wait until the last minute to contribute, someone else says everything is all wrong and we need to start over again, someone else plagiarizes, complaints are made about "that" person who does nothing and is allowed to get away with a passing grade regardless. *sigh* Closing on the new place has been delayed multiple times already as one issue after another must be addressed.

In the meantime, we're operating business as usual. We have wood to harvest and process. Lumber to cut, parts to drill, orders to fill...*cue the music* This is beginning to sound like another song. 

If Whimsy's was a musical: The home purchase is a country song. The activity of our realtor is the orchestral interlude, Flight of the Bumblebee. Filling store orders is a Tolkien style dwarvish work chant.

Lovebug, piñata, hugs & Kisses, bunny!
Jacob’s ladder, pumpkin platter
This is kinda funny!
Chinchworm, fruitwood kabob, and a pound of wood!
Don’tcha know we’re ready to go....
...send payment if you would.

Aside from that, the chins are doing great. The neutered boys are healing well. We have several inquiries for pairbonding that are on hold until we move. And we have some rescues due to come in. We've been freshening up some cages with new ledges and have been processing wood like crazy. And speaking of wood...

We're a bit backlogged on processing as spring is the ideal time to harvest. The drying phase is the most time intensive. It MUST be done slowly and thoroughly to be sure there is no chance of the wood molding. The Jacob's Ladders are on hold until the larger whirls are completely dehydrated. We've seen far too many other vendors "bake" wood quickly to sell a heavier product that isn't completely dry. This is very dangerous practice! Not only does that rip off the consumer, but it makes for a toxic chew!

And...on that happy note, it's time to get back to work. We hope to have some exciting and good updates soon.