Note: The following series of updates are in reverse chronological order with the most current message at the beginning...

February 27, 2003

Hello again,

Well, I have been called back to active duty once again. Effective the 17th of this month, I am back in the Air Force. With luck, I will be staying here in Massachusetts while serving my military obligation. If you have been keeping up with these updates, you will know that we are going to request a little more patience from you, our customer. It becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with the day to day tasks and activities of running our business and things such as answering email, phone calls and running orders seem to get a little bit behind when we are in this situation. Richard will be available daily for your assistance, however, I will only be in the shop a few days a week.

On a lighter note, we have just moved our business to a much nicer retail location with much easier access to the public. We will have limited hours for walk-in customers but will also be open by appointment. Operating hours will be posted in the near future.

Thanks again,
Mike

October 26, 2002

As many of you know, it has been an unusual year for us here at Black Jungle. With my activation back into the Air Force in support of operation Enduring Freedom last October 17th of 2001, we had to do the best we could to operate the business with limited time and resources.

I am now happy to say that I have been released from active duty as of September 30th and can now get back to business. I am hopeful that this will lead to fewer delays and better customer service.

We would like to offer our thanks to all of you who had the patience to wait a little longer for your order, returned phone calls and emails. (We are also sorry if we didn't have the time to respond to some of those emails).

We would also like to thank you for helping to make this our most productive year yet. How ironic, that with all that has taken place in the last year, business has actually been better than ever before. We cannot thank you enough and we are truly grateful to have your business. It is very much appreciated!

With all that said, we have just one more hurdle to jump before the end of the year. As some of you may remember, we were supposed to leave for a trip to visit the jungles of Panama on 9/12 last year. Those plans were postponed and then had to be cancelled last fall.

We are now finally going to be able to take this trip and will be closing for 2 weeks in November from the 14th through the 26th. During that time, our online catalog will still function and will be able to take orders, however, we will process and ship the orders in the order received upon our return after the 26th.

To avoid further frustration or disappointment, we would like to warn you of this closure so you can make any necessary purchases prior to the closing date.

Sincerely,
Mike Wallitis


August 11, 2002

Hi,

Sorry about this delayed update but time has really been flying by this summer. I've been back from Germany since the begining of June but continue to spend about 50 hours a week away from my home and business while serving at Westover ARB. It has been nearly 10 months since being called to active duty but it looks like I may be getting released soon. For now, please understand that we are still a little behind on things such as producing a printed catalog. We still take a little longer to process orders but the worse situation for us right now is that we just don't have enough time to answer emails in a timely manner. We hope you understand and hope things get back to normal soon!

See ya,
Mike


March 6, 2002

This is a breif update to the previously written letter below. I am currently deployed overseas on a temporary assignment. This will have a somewhat greater impact upon our time to personally answer email inquiries therefore, I must once again ask for your patience when waiting for a reply. If your concern is urgent or regards a recent order, I recommend calling Richard directly at 800-268-1813. He is usually out of the office most of the morning while working in the greenhouse so please call early in the afternoon or later in the evenings. (eastern standard time) Please understand that our predicted shipping times may be affected by these circumstances as well.

Thanks again,
Mike

October 23, 2001

Dear friends,

Up until now, we have kept our feelings over the recent evil acts private. Like all Americans and civilized people of the world, we are deeply disturbed about these tragedies. Emotions that cannot be put into words have confronted us on a daily basis. It is with deepest sadness that we send our thoughts to all the victims and their families. We are constantly reminded of this tragedy as we look at the empty home across the street of our neighbor, Chris Carstanjen and wonder why fate tangled his life into this web of terror.

Most of you may not know, but this business is owned and operated by only my partner, Richard Revis and myself, Michael Wallitis. Along with the help of a part time employee or two, we maintain our greenhouse, retail shop, about 200-300 frogs, do shows, process the orders, answer email, phone calls, and take care of an endless chore of administrative tasks. With the month of October being our busiest month to date, we continue to keep up with the increasing demand of running the business. We sincerely thank all of you who have become customers and contributed to the continuing growth of Black Jungle.

As a member of the military for the last 20 years, I am a proud reservist in the US Air Force and have been activated to active duty as of last week. At least for now, I know I can commute to the base and live at home and continue to maintain our business. Richard will be here most of the time by himself, or until we can find some extra help to assist him. I am writing this letter to ask for your patience as we are faced with this challenge. Please expect delays for delivery of orders, responses to email inquiries, or returned phone calls. We will do our best to keep the delays to a minimum, however, if your project is time sensitive, please speak with us over the phone for our current status.

As always, we take great pleasure assisting terrarium, plant, or animal enthusiasts and will strive to do the same in the years to come.

Sincerely,
Mike