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!

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.

Happy February everyone!

For the month of January we have had zero (0) surrenders or adoptions. We have been laying low for the better part of the last year in anticipation of our move. As it is now, we have about 40 chinchillas we’ll need to transfer to the new place in a couple months. Our gofundme page to fund the new rescue room  is up and running again after a minor setback where the page would not accept incoming donations. Even still, the monetary help is trickling in and we are profoundly grateful to those who can help in this way.

Those of you who follow us on facebook are privy to the most immediate updates and news. Recently we’ve developed some fun ideas for some new chew toy designs. It’s been more than a year since our last new release. But the long wait  has been worth it!

On facebook we asked our followers to help come up with a name for the new chew toy.  We thought of; Shreddy Freddy, Twig Man, Straw man, Vinny the Vineman, Heart on my Sleeve, and on and on. But the best suggestions came from facebook and actually covered both original two styles of toy. We’re going to go with the T(ch)inMan as our default design.  We’ve heard rumors that he  is related to the Wizard of Oz’s Tin Man. Our TchinMan has found a  heart and is willing to share it.  The King of Hearts (AKA Pineapple King) is by popular demand and just in time for Valentine’s day. Thank you Kelsey and Nicole for your name suggestions!

But the inspiration continues! Our graphic designer came up with another idea for a Knight in Shining Armor, complete with a sword and strategically placed star on the “shield”. For Halloween, we foresee releasing a headless horseman. Cinco de Mayo can potentially bring in Señor Scarecrow. But for now we’re just going to focus on Valentine’s Day. With that being said, who hasn’t ever had more than one  individual vying for your attention at the same time? They are offering undying love to you and your chinchilla.

Now, it’s getting a bit awkward as in anticipation of their popularity,  we’re finding these guys everywhere! Several are on Whimsy's desk, many more on the IKEA, one was caught overseeing the spring wood harvest this weekend and another in a photo op with one of the rescue chins. The guardadoga got hold of two others, some are in the living room in boxes ready to go as surprise gifts to some of our customers (Shhhhhh!) Personally, we feel they must be distant relatives to Elf on the Shelf or something. But don’t take our word for it. We have them available in our webstore on the Chew Toys page. You’re welcome to order your own and find out. Please, share with us on facebook of all the adventures of your TchinMan. That is…if he lasts long enough.

Happy December everyone!

For the month of November, zero (0) chinchillas were surrendered and zero (0) chinchillas were adopted. This is actually a good thing as giving pets for Christmas is generally a bad idea and the numbers of dumped pets each holiday season is notoriously common.  In our particular instance, as long as our adoption numbers remain low, we simply cannot take in more surrenders. For those of you who consider adoption instead of purchasing chinchillas from a breeder or pet store, thank you!

December has a been a busy one for Christmas orders. It's fun to see people who want to spoil their fur babies this time of year. Many individuals have chosen the Ultimate Chew ToyBundle. We're thrilled! The bundle has so many favorites and a fantastic variety. Depending on the number of chins one owns and how "destructive" they are, this bundle can last for many months. Which reminds me...we had someone write with concern that their chinchilla was suddenly destroying all his new cage accessories. Folks, this is a good thing! A chin with a hearty chewing habit is one that is less prone to malocclusion. It's a mistake to choose toys that aren't ones the chin demolishes quickly. Did you hear that? Sometimes I feel like a broken record. After having been immersed in all things chinchilla for nearly a decade, I find myself making the same statements over...and over...and over again.

I hope our long time followers don't become frustrated by the repetition as Whimsy is tempted to be. Unfortunately, some of our long time followers are the ones who are guilty. Case in point: we heard from someone recently who purchased a 50lb bag of feed for a single chinchilla. Thinking they could save lots of money, they would have done just as well feeding their chinchilla cardboard. The nutritional value depleted long ago.

Another instance of broken record syndrome this year was hearing from another young chin owner who wanted to let a father/daughter pair share a cage. Her rationale was that the chins would somehow know they were related and not mate with each other. (I'm so glad y'all can't see my eye roll over here.)

And other hall of shame instances this year are otherwise intelligent people who can't accurately tell the gender of their pet or who feed their chins fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts and wonder why they suddenly have unplanned babies, pass away or have other health issues. So when people contact us saying they've "done the research", please forgive me if I'm skeptical.

Ok, enough pessimism for one post. On a much more positive light, we've received some beautiful, wonderfully uplifting emails regarding the essay in last month's post. We have also experienced some extremely generous individuals who have donated to our cause. When we began the chinchilla rescue it was to fill a need. Whimsy absorbed all the upfront costs with no expectation of assistance. We are thankful that the webstore has grown to the point where the rescue has support with no struggle. We routinely have enough funds to cover the cost of operation and have even managed to set aside the humble beginnings of a down payment for that elusive farm. Please know that when you place an order through our store and round up the payment amount, the donation portion is counted separately. We hope to have an actual total figure to post about after this year's tax filings. Until then have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year.