I wasn't in the main part of the store when this took place.
I had finally gotten the opportunity to take my lunch break to recharge so I could finish with my departmental tasks.
But apparently, we had a customer come into the store, an older lady, who was looking at our animals.
Particularly our hamsters.
And one hamster caught her eye.
I don't know if she was looking to cause trouble, because really...I doubt anyone else would have 'noticed' anything at all besides that the animal was sleeping.
But to her. This particular hamster looked like it was dying.
Of an upper respiratory infection.
-I don't even know if she knew what she was talking about, from later conversation it seems like she never had a hamster as a pet. At least, not a male one.
And instead of finding one of us and quietly telling us something along the lines of "I think you have a sick hamster."
She decided to stand by the cages and yell.
Yes. Yell.
In the direction of our cashier
-Who btw, can't leave the register and go 'see what's wrong.'
That we had a sick hamster, that it was dying, that it had an upper respiratory infection and that someone should come see.
And....when no one came right away.
She began to yell out that 'no one in this store cared about the animals.'
Basically, she was causing a ruckus.
-I'm surprised I couldn't hear it from the break room. O.o
But our cashier called help over to go check it out.
Which, is about the time I got off, a little after the other help had arrived.
And I came cluelessly onto the scene.
She was being quiet then, I thought my coworker was just helping her, talking to her about the hamsters.
-I heard this whole story after the fact-
And my coworker asked if I could check out a hamster, as it wasn't looking 'good.'
That was a bit surprising to me.
As I had been working around the hamsters all morning. And had not noticed anything out of normal.
They were all looking healthy and fine.
But I willingly came over.
Hamsters are my obsession animal in the store. And I hate to see them unwell. (Hence why I am ranting about this. As I do care about my animals health, and I hate it when people make it seem like I'm not doing my job correctly when in fact I am.)
First glance at the cage.
Wasn't good.
It did look like something horrible had happened to this particular hamster.
As he was lying on his side.
And his eye...well at first glance it looked like the eye had 'popped.'
At least that's what came into my mind. As for a little bit it did look 'dead.'
But guess what?
Animals sleep in funny positions.
I opened the cage, and he stirred.
To the woman's surprise.
"Oh! It was sleeping?"
Cue me mentally rolling my eyes. YES! Hamsters are NOCTURNAL. They SLEEP during the day.
*shakes head* (I'm surprised he slept through all this yelling you were doing.)
Seeing him moving I could see that his eye had not popped, that the eye itself was perfectly fine. Yay)
Instead, pulling him out of the cage for a closer look,
I saw that he had scratched himself -can happen with hamsters- causing a small red scab right around the eye. (giving it a that brief 'popped' look because it was red, and the eye was closed.)
Nothing major. He was healthy otherwise.
Seriously, I doubt anyone else noticed it.
She reminded me strongly of another coworker of mine, who will constantly come to us in the department concerned that an animal is sick, when in reality, it's just fine. Which is bugsome as it takes me from other tasks I should be doing to ensure that the hamster is fine. (notsomuch if the animal actually isn't healthy, but when it is...)
In any case,
I helped the lady out. Showed her the hamster was fine, that he had just scratched his eye, but he was fine. And also pulled out a couple other animals that she was 'concerned' about to show her that they too were also fine.
I only heard about the events leading to everything a while after she had left the store when the cashier told me.
And it's seriously bugging me.
It's a personal offense to me to have people criticizing the state of my animals.
To know that this woman was yelling out, so many other customers in the store could hear, that we had sick hamsters and that we didn't care about them? (especially when it wasn't true!)
It's offensive. It's irksome. It's bad for business.
Seriously, lady.
Why could you not have come to us quietly about your concerns?
What possessed you to make a scene?
Did you have a moment of 'activism' or something? Did you need to have some attention brought your way?
Personally....I'll probably never know.
And I feel offended.
On a personal level.
How many people left that store thinking that we weren't doing our best to care for the animals?
How many opinions of our care of the animals have changed in those few minutes.
When that lady decided to take matters into her own loud obnoxious hands and make a scene?
>.<
Let it be known though. That we care about the health of our animals. If we notice something wrong, we don't sell that animal! We take it off the sales floor and make sure it's perfectly healthy before bringing it back out.
Do not criticizing our care.
Do not criticize my coworkers.
You have no idea what we've been doing all day before you came in, you have no idea what tasks we may be in the middle of trying to complete, or customers we may be helping.
Think before acting.
Speak softly for others not to hear so that in case the problem is nothing to worry about, it doesn't become a concern for others. Even if the problem is something to worry about, there is no need to draw everyone's attention to it.
Especially if it's your FIRST time noticing the problem! It could have been an isolated incident. Sure, if it happens repeatedly I don't blame you for letting others know. But a one time thing? Speak softly to a coworker about it. We are willing to go check out the problem as quickly as possible and make sure things are alright.
Causing a scene doesn't do anything but harm. Especially when you don't have all the facts.
-Sarnic Dirchi
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