Happy November everyone!

And Happy Anniversary to us!!!

Whimsy's Menagerie & Chinchilla rescue started on this day in 2008. 

What began as a homeschool project has now become a serious full time job!

Operating the only chinchilla-specific small animal rescue in almost a 500 mile radius means we serve those who are willing to drive several hours to adopt, or surrender chinchillas. We've had people come as far as Richmond, Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania and as far south as North Carolina, South Carolina and even Tennessee! We have found homes for more than 200 fuzzbutts to date. We take pride in the fact that we are able to help chinchillas and their owners by offering such specialized care. 

For the month of October, 13 chinchillas were surrendered and 8 were adopted. On any given month it is not unusual to have an average of 10 chinchillas in and 10 adopted. We've even received and found homes for mass surrenders from various animal control facilities, breeders who have decided to call it quits, and many, many "oops" litters. 

Our work here is fully funded by adoption fees, cage and supplies sales, and donations.  We were giddy with delight by the fact that folks literally started begging us to make our cage accessories and chew toys available for their chins. It's been a wonderful creative outlet working to determine the BEST and safest combinations and designs for the little critters. And as always, we couldn't have done it without the support from all of you who have found your way to our humble little website. So from the bottom of our hearts (humans and chinchillas alike) we say thank you. :)

For the month of September, 5 chinchillas were surrendered and 11 were adopted. I'm also happy to announce that the single boy who came in was successfully paired with another single. Ricochet and Walter were lonely boys and Ricochet had actually taken to chewing his own fur. The introduction of the two was amazingly heartfelt. Walter was sooo excited to have a friend. He immediately started grooming Ricochet who at first was taken aback by the ministrations, but quickly relaxed.  Now the two are deeply bonded and Ricochet's fur is starting to grow back. :)

And speaking of growing...our homegrown loofah looks amazing! The vines have spread across the dividing fence between ours and our neighbor's yard, but is quickly trying to overtake both homes. Harvest time is starting and we're learning how to time it just right.

And also speaking of growing....our generator challenge has been a remarkable success! In only one month's time we have almost met our goal.  As of today we have just over $2500 towards our $3000 end. We did not expect to meet this endeavor so quickly, but this is all thanks to our returning and new friends. Thank you everyone for the encouraging outpouring of support!

For the month of August, six (6) chinchillas were brought in and a whopping sixteen (16) were adopted!  That breaks our previous high adoption record of fifteen (15). Once again we're back to having plenty of spare room and several empty cages. 

If you've been following us on Facebook, you'll see nearly up to the minute details of our daily news. One fun thing we've been posting has been the quickly climbing goal to reach $3000 for an emergency standby generator. As of the time of this post, we have already brought in $360 toward our goal! Thanks to all our new and old friends we have come to know through this endeavor. Your support is, and continues to be, amazing! Cyber hugs to you all.

Our positive reputation has spread with word of mouth recommendations for adoptions, surrenders, advice, and items from our store. And speaking of items....

We had another brainstorm of an idea. Our new "Chill Out Hang Out" came as a result of a request for a daybed-like accessory (thanks for the motivation, Laura!). Bucky was the first to try our beta version.

Whimsy had been toying with a chiller topped hidey house with varying degrees of success, but the stone cold, chiller ledge is a winner for sure! These sturdy cage additions come with TWO (2) stone chillers; one to place in the ledge, and one to keep handy in your freezer, ready to swap outin seconds. Check out the cage accessories page for more details. :)

For the month of July, fourteen (14) chinchillas were surrendered and eleven (11) were adopted. Four (4) kits were also born this month from two different rescue mommies who were on maternity watch. Green stripe, one of the chins mentioned in an earlier post, proved pregnant as suspected.

We’re beginning to feel the strain of a positive inflow, but will not compromise our standards. We are committed to the welfare of the chins in our care AND our promise to the former owners to find good and loving homes for the chinchillas they surrender. Whimsy’s personal motto is that anyone seeking to adopt from us should be able to provide a better home than we can. While we provide excellent, individualized care and attention, an adopter who wants to devote all of their attention to building and developing a relationship with their new pet(s) is in an even better position to provide it.

This past weekend was our trip to Pennsylvania to the Keystone Grange 2 Fair. It was our first experience with setting up a “booth” and we were rather pleased with the results. While it was much too hot to bring any live animals, we did bring along a computer that played a neat slideshow of some of our chinnies. *Waves* to those of you from Pennsylvania who took a business card and are reading this right now.

I was chatting with the local guinea pig and rabbit rescue lady recently where she was lamenting the summer as "dumping season" for rescue animals. Summer is generally when people lose interest of their Christmas pets, go on vacation, and unload the animals beforehand. Because our incoming and outgoing numbers are fairly consistent, I found this statement curious, until the actual numbers for June hit like a ton of bricks. For the month of June, we received seventeen (17) new surrenders and found homes for nine (9) chinchillas. 

At this time we have a plethora of chinchillas available for adoption. We will be working on updating the adoptions page with some of the new additions.

We WILL be open for the 4th of July weekend.

We will NOT be open the following weekend.

We are open by appointment during the days and some evenings.  Please schedule early. Weekend time slots fill quickly!