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Post by feistychins on Jan 12, 2011 16:26:27 GMT -5
Hi Everyone, I would appreciate it if you would consider taking a minute of your time each day to vote for my rescue in the Animal Shelter Challenge being held by The Animal Rescue Site. I don't believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that any of the other rescues on here can be part of the voting, so I am not asking you to take away votes from another member. You do NOT have to live in our state to vote for us. You can vote from anywhere in the world and the more votes we get every day the better our chances are to win cash awards for our organization. It also draws a lot of attention to our cause to help all chinchillas in need. A chinchilla rescue has NEVER won anything ever in this contest, so I would love to be the first and show people how important chinchilla rescue is and how much of a homeless crisis we really have with these beautiful animals. There are weekly winners and a final grand prize. The contest has already started a couple of days ago and run until March 20. You have to vote every day so we can get the most votes over the length of the challenge. Here is the link which you can bookmark and click every day. Just type in our rescue name Forever Feisty Chinchilla Rescue located in USA in the state of CT and click 'Vote'. They will ask you to confirm your vote by typing in the name of an animal and that is it for the day. It takes only 30 seconds to do. www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_shelterchallenge_from_home_sidetabsPlease tell all your friends to vote for us because the more votes we get the better. Jamie ~ This is only a vote, no money is being asked for. However, if this breaks any rules or you are not comfortable with me posting this, please remove it. I will tell you honestly I have never posted or asked people to vote for my rescue like this before, but thought with so much support of great chinchilla loving people on here, that I might try it. You can read more about the challenge by clicking on the link. Thank You
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Post by Essentia on Jan 12, 2011 19:46:06 GMT -5
Good luck! Last year I knew we could never win national but we had our heart set on state. It took a ton of work on our part. We posted on facebook and forums daily to remind people to vote. We also talked to the people we work with and had them, their families and friends voting for us daily as well. It was heartbreaking to try so hard and not even come close (we ended up 13th).
So while I am also a member of petfinder and a contestant, I will not be promoting this year and will be voting for you daily. ;D
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Post by booboo on Jan 12, 2011 22:03:14 GMT -5
I remember you working so hard last year Crysta. Sucks that you didn't even get close but remember there were people below you.
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Post by Essentia on Jan 12, 2011 22:25:15 GMT -5
That's the way I looked at it. We got so close at one point that we could taste that $1,000 grant. We were #2 for a long time, and then everyone else got the entire world to vote for them. I wasn't angry. I was happy for who got the money because I am sure they could use it more than I could. It was just frustrating getting that close and it slipping away like that.
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Post by feistychins on Jan 13, 2011 0:29:56 GMT -5
Crysta I never would have posted this if I thought you or one of the other rescues could be voted for. I looked up on PetFinder for FL chin rescues and did not see you. I am so sorry. I have no right to ask anyone on here to vote for me over another rescue member. I must have missed your listing with PetFinder . We have tried this challenge twice. The second time I really tried to have everyone I know vote and we were doing good too and then.....flop, the bigger rescues just ran over us. You know the ones that have 30 volunteers and paid staff with thousands in donations all the time......God bless them, but you just can't compete with that. The highest we ever finished for our state was 20th or something like that. I figured out of the almost 300 rescues we have here, that's not too shabby, LOL. Anyways, everyone can please disregard this thread. All the rescue member on here are GREAT and I would never want to take anything away from them
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Post by Essentia on Jan 13, 2011 1:19:38 GMT -5
Honey, I promise I don't mind at all. I have only had 5 rescues this entire year. You are in need of this way more than I am. I promise, I am good. Here is my petfinder page. It's been awhile since I updated it, so that could be why you didn't see it. I post animals up for adoption, but rarely change the actual web page. I always forget about it once I post an animal on my actual website and on petfinder. www.petfinder.com/shelters/FL876.html
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Post by feistychins on Jan 13, 2011 3:21:56 GMT -5
Thanks you for saying that.
Yes, after logging off last time I went to find your page on petfinder and did find it this time. Last time I looked under chinchillas in FL, but this time I typed in your rescue name and it came up.
Well, who knows how we'll do with the votes this time. I have to send out emails telling people about it. I don't expect to win the grand prize of course, but one of the weekly state awards would be very nice.
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Post by feistychins on Jan 13, 2011 3:29:54 GMT -5
It is sinking in what you wrote. Only 5, is there not a problem down in FL with people surrendering?
I am asked to rescue anywhere between 8-20 chinchillas a month! It never stops and I swear surrenders are getting worse. I wonder if there is more of a problem in the New England area.
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Post by Essentia on Jan 13, 2011 9:54:18 GMT -5
Chinchillas aren't a huge commodity in FL since it is so hot here. No one wants to pay $400 a month to keep their house around 70 int he 100 degree summers. I often contact other rescues in SC and Georgia and let them know my doors are open if they need me since it really is slow around here, but it's been slow even for them. There is only one chinchilla breeder within 100 miles of here (there are a few in Orlando, which is about 2.5 hrs away), and even she has had a slow year.
Even more than that though, I think the biggest issue is this, people want money. There are always ads on CL wanting to rehome their chinchilla. I contact every single one of the people I see on there and let them know that I am here as a back up. Every once in awhile I get contacted back, but most of the time they just continue to post their standard chinchilla for $200 until they get a hit. People are more interested in money than they are a good home.
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Post by feistychins on Jan 13, 2011 11:42:29 GMT -5
That is interesting because everyone that contacts me here is more than willing to hand over their chins and all the supplies because they want their chins to go to a good home where they will know how to take care of them. They tell me they don't want to put an ad on craigslist or a few tried it and said they were afraid of the people who contacted them. They knew these people just wanted to breed them or use them as snake food.
They trusted me to screen people and find their chin a good home. The chins best interest is their first concern.
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Post by Jamie on Jan 13, 2011 11:46:09 GMT -5
Andrea this is wonderful...and of course its not only ok but I encourage people to vote
I am not able to get anywhere with that link I get an error
Ill try another browser,. but in Mozilla and AOL .. I get a "tomcat" error
hugs Jamie
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Post by Essentia on Jan 13, 2011 11:48:10 GMT -5
I have no idea what the difference is. I guess it's most likely because chinchillas are so much more popular up north. Down here they are "rare" and people know they can easily get $100-$150 for their pet. I get contacted by people daily, so I am well known, so it isn't that. I'm also on the front page of google when you type "chinchilla rescue" into the search bar. The thing is, I get contacted by people daily from other parts of the US who don't pay attention to my location and I end up having to refer them to rescues in their area.
Last year I was still getting approx. 15-20 a year, especially throughout the summer months. It's just slowed down this year and hasn't picked back up yet.
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Post by Jamie on Jan 13, 2011 12:28:19 GMT -5
got it...and voted and will continue to do so
the picture question almost got me it looked like a fox ..and was a fox but I wasnt sure
some animal person I am LOL
hugs jamie
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Post by feistychins on Jan 13, 2011 13:48:47 GMT -5
LOL, don't feel bad about that. I got a picture of what I swore was a coyote the other day, but it would not take it, then I typed in fox and it still did not like it. In the past they had simple pictures; a dog, elephant, frog and so forth. I guess this year they really want to make sure it is an actual person voting and not some automated system that can be easily programed. Thank you for the vote & support. Some of you on here must be voting too because yesterday I was ranked 41st in my state and today I am 29th. Thank You, Thank You!!! It would be nice to get the highest votes for our state and get the grant for $1,000 which would be a HUGE help with the rescue, but we'll see how things go.
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Post by Jamie on Jan 13, 2011 14:50:57 GMT -5
can you only vote once per day Andrea?
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Post by booboo on Jan 13, 2011 16:59:24 GMT -5
It depends Jamie. I have Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer on my computer. So I've been able to vote 3 times a day. If you just have one, then you can only vote once.
I think I got the Fox that had you stumped Jamie. The way it was sitting and had its head turned it looked like a dog.
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Post by Essentia on Jan 13, 2011 17:55:08 GMT -5
Just as an update to our earlier conversation: Ok, I spoke too soon. I took in 3 chinchillas today.
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Post by feistychins on Jan 13, 2011 18:02:37 GMT -5
Yes, they ask that you only vote once a day, but my husband swears that for some of these organizations to get so many votes they are finding a way to work around that.
As booboo mentioned how she does it and I know many others who do it that way too. The organizers of this say them monitor it so multiple votes don't happen, but when a very small organization has numbers that are overwhelming, sometimes you have to wonder.
It is important to vote every day though because in the end they count your total votes for the entire period.
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Post by feistychins on Jan 16, 2011 1:16:58 GMT -5
Just wanted to post a quick update: As of the day I first posted this, our rescue ranked 41st in our state of CT. Just so you know what that means, there are 291 rescues that qualify to get votes. Thanks to all your support so far and the many adopters, friends and chinnie lovers I emailed we have shot up to now rank as 18th! Hopefully we will keep climbing as we have a long way to go (the challenge runs until March 20th) , but I am very happy to do so well after only four days. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your continued support, it truly means a great deal to me and the chinnies
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Post by Jamie on Jan 16, 2011 2:02:36 GMT -5
I voted as I do everyday and encourage our members to do the same
hugs jamie
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