"Look, It's a Day-gas!"

Ah, Petsmart adopt-a-thons. They do attract the most interesting people. The title comes from a lady who stared at the rabbits for a bit before exclaiming to her husband, "Look, it's a daygas!" The husband concured, saying, "That's quite a bit smaller than our daygas was."
It took me quite a while to realize they were talking about degus. And they must've had one big freaking degu, because I've never seen one that's bigger than a rabbit!
I haven't heard the end results of the Petsmart adopt-a-thons yet (we have two/three locations now), but we got rid of two rabbits. And gained one as well, but still. That's a net loss of one at least!

On Friday, we had, appropriately, Friday (above), Jingle the Dutch and our latest dwarf hamster pair, Jessie & James. I was a little concerned about Friday, as she's a shy girl, but she did remarkably well. While she didn't move the first day, she was transferred to the Warden location for Sunday and got adopted! She'd been waiting three months, it's about time.

Unsurprisingly, Jingle was the star of the day. I don't think I've written about her much on the blog, but Jingle is the most laid-back, gentle-mannered, loving rabbit I've ever met. She's a complete doll and I knew if she went to Petsmart she would get adopted. And yup, the end of the first day!
One of the funniest adoptions I've ever seen. A man came up to the table and started petting her, then abruptly scooped her up and cuddled her.
"Ohh, she's so nice," He said to me. "So much nicer than my two rabbits!"
Imagine a thick northern European accent while he's saying this. I barely had time to answer before he walked away (with Jingle!) shouting, "Where's my wife?"
"Um," The supervising staff said. "Did he just walk away with our rabbit?"
I chased him through the store as he looked in every aisle, and I was beginning to think this was an incredibly lame attempt at stealing her when he finally found his wife. He handed her Jingle. "So nice!"
She smiled immediately. "So nice!" She agreed. "We must take her home!" And that was that.
"What do your rabbits live in, at home?" I asked, once I'd gotten them back to the TAS table.
"They have big cages, but the doors are always open!" The man said, throwing his arms open demonstratively. "They go free! We have birds too, they go free! Never close the door!"
I was giggling the whole time we processed the adoption. They were very enthusiastic people! He came back on the last day to tell me that she is "so nice, she makes the other rabbits ashamed".

I wasn't there on Saturday, but on Sunday, Elf arrived to try his chances. I had a midterm today so on Sunday I was fruitlessly trying to study. I'm sure I looked like a lunatic, standing in the middle of Petsmart while a rabbit ran around the table, trying to scribble illegible notes and muttering to myself. As the photo shows, Elf was very helpful. When he wasn't sitting on my notes, he was eating and/or throwing them around.

 He did earn himself quite a few fans while he was there, although he didn't end up getting adopted. Elf's quite a character, very outgoing and not shy of anything. He also loves to lick everything. Your hand, the cage, the table, whatever. Most male rabbits calm down with the licking once they get neutered and their hormones peter out, but not Elf! Anyway, he's a sweet boy whose only vice is that he is a big squirmer when picked up. He's improved since arriving however, and it doesn't really hold him back anymore.

Petsmart often hosts more than one rescue agency during their adoption weekends, so we were set up next to a small OSPCA location. Somehow that translated into them giving us their only small animal. Hm. How did that happen?
Well, however it happened, we gained a new rabbit and he's pretty darn handsome. A young girl at the store named him Franklin due to his tendency to stick his head out of his green house like a turtle (see above).

Franklin's a nice enough guy, and we certainly have room for him. As of this weekend, the Room is home to only three rabbits (Elf, Jughead and Diamond) and the two hamsters (Jessie and James). At Pet Valu, we still have Romeo & Juliet the chinchillas, plus two young rabbits, Daffy and Bugs.
Franklin didn't get adopted at the adopt-a-thon, so we left him at Petsmart, where he will stay until he finds a home (or they get sick of him and send him back!).

Haha, I love this shot. That's Katy (left) and Boots, two of our cats up for adoption, and they spent the whole day trying to figure out how to eat those rabbits running around in front of them. The cats didn't do too badly - not a clean sweep or anything, but a decent number of them found homes (not Katy or Boots unfortunately).

The dogs always do well at adopt-a-thons, and we only had one left by the end of the weekend - Elly (above). Elly has been at the shelter far too long, and while she had a few issues when she first arrived, she has really come around. She's a sweet girl and we were all really hoping she'd get adopted this weekend, but I guess it wasn't to be. At least she got a nice break from the shelter, which is always good. I'm sure that'll help keep her calm - I know it helped Elf to get out of the shelter for a bit.
Always worth the trek out there to help with adoptions, but I have to say, by the end of the weekend I was wiped out. Sometimes I think it's a good thing adopt-a-thons aren't too close together!

The shelter has been pretty slow lately (still can't get over it, only 5 animals in the Room!). We're still waiting for foster piggie Martha to give birth - she is absolutely massive, and we keep saying "It has to be today!" But she's holding out on us. I'm beginning to think she's going to have a million babies!
Oh well - maybe tomorrow!