bufomancer

[bufomancer]

I do think I am going to try to double down on not keeping any more forever animals (except sanctuary fosters) for a while. Even with just taking in truly urgent cases I have quickly gotten back up close to capacity again with no signs of stopping.

I will have all 8 of my herps for the foreseeable future, and all 10 of my piggies and degus for the next 2-5 years for sure. And 8 of my 11 rats are under a year old.

But when my last two senior mice pass, Moo is going to a new colony owned by a friend so he can continue having buddies (he is neutered), and when my two senior gerbils pass I don't intend to adopt more.

I probably will still end up keeping fosters every now and then, but I can't pull more space and time out of my ass so the only way to be able to take more fosters at a time is to have fewer forever animals.

I have no intentions of rehoming anyone (except in the cases of the last 1-2 individuals of a social/colony species, such as sending Moo to a new colony) because I strongly believe my commitment is to my permanent pets first, and to fostering second. But we get more surrender requests every year, and more of them are urgent, and pretty much anytime I add a new foster home someone else drops out.

I know I can't save everyone and it's not my exclusive responsibility but I want to do as much as I can.

[bufomancer]

to do today/tomorrow:

-Feed Juno

-Feed Ducky

-Feed Mango & Freak

-Feed Lucky

-Full clean girl piggies

-Full clean boy piggies

-Clean female rat cage

[bufomancer]

Scooter and Archie are buddies now!

[bufomancer]

I’m definitely back at capacity again with 68 animals. Ugh. Not ideal.

[bufomancer]

SPEAKING OF RAT INTAKES!

I just got a message from someone whose friend is threatening to dump her pet rat that she doesn’t want anymore 🙃🙃🙃

[bufomancer]

Ah, given that information i think I would agree to leave the store girlies where they are.

You're an amazing person btw. You don't have to respond to this or anything but i really admire the work you do. I'll try to donate when i get paid. <3

Thank you!! That is very kind of you :)

I’m still going to ask around a bit and see if I can find placement for the pet store rats, because if a foster will commit then I can take them but I’m not super hopeful :/ I wish I could take them all but I can’t

[bufomancer]

Are the rats on the rescue road trip hypothetical or are they concrete rats in need of rescue? Because if they're hypothetical rescues, i would take the pet store girilies as you know they need help. Maybe not a lot, but still some.

-sent as an ask because I can't comment on any post for some reason.

They’re rats from a mass hoarding case another rescue took in, but that rescue focuses on sanctuary care so they don’t do any adoptions, only transferring to other rescue partners once medically cleared. They could definitely use the space that us taking some rats would clear up because they’ve taken probably close to 500 rats.

Right now I am leaning towards leaving the mamas at the store and just offering material support (help with sexing, etc) until after babies are weaned and then intaking at that point if I can make room.

[bufomancer]

Ugh.

I got asked by a chain pet store to take in two female rats they found in their male cage- so potentially pregnant.

I am conflicted.

Technically, they have the ability to keep and raise the litters and then sell them as regular stock. However, as a chain pet store their rat care is nowhere close to ideal and there’s no guarantee they will find actually good homes.

However, if I take these rats I won’t have any space to take rats from the rescue roadtrip. Other rescues are still taking some rats, and we’re taking hamsters, so it’s not a total loss. The rats are already in rescue and they work with other partner rescues for adoption transfers, so the rats are currently safe and not at risk. But still.

I hate leaving animals behind at chain pet stores if they’re willing to give them to me for free. I want them to be able to find actually good homes.

I just don’t know what to do. Would appreciate any input.

[bufomancer]

9 more days until the roadtrip to get hammies and rats from The Pipsqueakery.

We won't be able to take as many as I had hoped due to multiple urgent intakes locally that had to be prioritized.

So far we have commitments for 8 hamsters and up to 6 rats with my rescue, and 13 hamsters and 7 rats with other rescues that are collaborating. 33 animals total. I was hoping to take at least 50 total but the 15 stray rat intake and the 7 rat intake from yesterday has eaten up almost all my rat space.

Now what I really need is guinea pig space. We have 25 waitlisted, and 2 scheduled to come in shortly. I think 3 were surrendered to another rescue and 1 hasn't responded to multiple emails, so definitely at least 21 guinea pigs. They are so hard to find fosters and adopters for. I was lucky to be able to add 2 more foster homes recently but guinea pigs are the most requested species for surrender. Between us and the other foster based piggy rescues, there are at least 100 waitlisted guinea pigs in Minnesota.

I am not able to long term foster guineas at my house because they take forever to get adopted and I am the primary foster for rats, chinchillas, mice, and gerbils. So I need that space open for those species or we will be gridlocked with guinea pigs alone.

Super fun.

[bufomancer]

One of the hardest things about being a limited intake rescue and having a waitlist is not knowing what happens to animals who drop off the waitlist.

I get a lot of inquiries about surrender and then people do not fill out the waitlist form, so I don't know what happens to them. Unfortunately I need the waitlist form so I can prioritize the most urgent intakes because we have limited space. But a lot of people just don't want to fill it out.

We do monthly check-ins to confirm that the animals are still in need of surrender so that I can focus my resources on finding space for animals still in need, not animals who have already been rehomed. Quite often people stop responding to the waitlist check-ins and then I don't know what happens to those animals.

It is very possible that some of the animals who drop off my waitlist end up being dumped and then taken in by myself or another rescue after they're trapped as strays. The amount of strays being trapped has been increasing, which means I have fewer spaces for owner surrenders, and it's a vicious cycle. Or they end up neglected in their current homes. Or, maybe they DO find a great home. But I have no way to know.

I wish I could just say yes to everything, but I cannot take on more than I can afford to house forever.

A lot of people think working at a "no kill" organization is great because yay no euthanizing for space. But every animal I say "no" or "not right now" to very well may end up dying a much worse death than humane euthanasia. And I just don't know.

[bufomancer]

Teacup passed away last night after 16 months with us. She passed peacefully in her sleep.

SO, I offered an intake at the rescue to a guy on craigslist who had a feeder rat that their snake didn’t want. He told me someone else had already adopted the rat, but that he had a mouse his daughter didn’t want to become a feeder, and would I want her?

Meet TEACUP! She’s a sweet little girl and will be introduced to Paprika, Yarrow, and Phrygian. I’m keeping her :) I absolutely adore pink eyed whites.

[bufomancer]

to do:

-buy more bedding

-clean doc’s cage

-spot clean girl pigs again

-spot clean boy pigs again

-mouse vet

-rat intake

-scoop hall litterbox

-scoop bedroom litterbox

-sweep

[bufomancer]

Oh, also I saw Babs for the first time in over a month. He looks to be in great shape. House geckos can be so stupid reclusive.

[bufomancer]

I have 7 new foster rats coming tomorrow so I get to play musical enclosures! My least favorite game

Butter was adopted, so I am moving the 10 female strays out of the Prevue and into his Critter Nation. They need the space! They are still babies so eventually 10 will be too many for 1 unit, but two are already reserved and hopefully more will be soon.

Then I am going to swap Anxiety Rat (i really need to do the drawing for his name lol) with the 5 stray boys- Anxiety will benefit from being in the Prevue in my living room and getting more socialization, and the stray boys will need the space of the Critter Nation.

Then I am intaking 5 girls and 2 boys- the mom was found as a stray and gave birth. They are about 2 months old. For right now, the girls will go in a Prevue until tomorrow when Scooter the guinea pig is being moved into a Midwest finally and bonding with Archie, and then they can have his Critter Nation.

The boys will need to be in a Prevue for a bit but eventually will get bonded with Samurai once he is medically cleared (and they are medically cleared). They will either move into a CN once Chianti goes home w his adopter in a few weeks, or get sent to my rat foster if her pending fosters get adopted.

Normally, I try to prevent having rats hanging out in smaller than ideal enclosures but emergencies are emergencies and the rat finder needs them out of her house ASAP. With enrichment and free roam time, a prevue for 2 young ratties for at most 3 weeks is not the end of the world.

[bufomancer]

A local vet tech ended up adopting them from the institution so they’re not coming to MN after all, but I have other rat intakes scheduled 😂 I will never run out of rats.

We are intaking two more emergency rats this week... They had a deadline to find placement by friday or be euthanized, and someone kindly offered to drive them up from Iowa to meet me so they would be safe. We are finalizing details but I should have them on Friday.

[bufomancer]

what the hell kind of pigeons are these they look kinda like seagulls its so interesting

pic from my local humane society

[bufomancer]

we’ve had slowwww intakes for a while and now i have 4 mice, 2 ferrets, 2 rats, 4 guinea pigs, and 6 gerbils coming in 💀