MLAARE -Carrying Food

As I was walking around the store at work today,
I noticed a woman moving to the back with the help of some crutches.
And asked if she needed help.
She said she would if she found the dog food she was looking for. She'd find someone to help her then.

Which would usually mean that she would need to return all the way to the front of the store. To find assistance. As that's where most of the coworkers are located.
Knowing that that would be a strain,
And since I had a coworker with me in my department.
I volunteered to just come with her. And help her carry her dog food up to the front with her.
-Because she didn't grab a cart when she came in.
I suppose, its because she's used to coming with her husband, and he does all the heavy lifting for her. (She told me. She didn't have him today because she had business in town and he had been at work.)
So I followed her to the back.
As she tried to decide if she should get a new type of dog food within the same brand, or just stick with the same old same old, even though her doggie wasn't really eating it.

We were interrupted as one of the Groomers came up to her to say hi and chat and talk about her dog.
Which I didn't mind.
I'm a patient person, and like I said, I had a coworker in my dept so I wasn't in a hurry to return to it.
(Plus, I'd reached the end of my 'to do list' so I was just looking for ways to kill time. So standing by waiting to help a customer was fine by me.)

In any case. I was able to help the woman.
She finally decided on a bag of food.
I carried it up to the front for her, and then out to her car.
And we had a great conversation the entire time.

I really liked helping her. She was so sweet and apologetic for asking for help which only made me want to help her more.

But at the end.
She said that I had been a blessing for her, and answer to her prayers.
^^

I guess, she'd been worried about how she was going to get the dog food to her car. And so had prayed for help.

And then there I was.
I stepped up and was able to be her angel of the day. Helping her get the dog food to the car, spending time talking with her.

^^ Its good to help customers. Especially when we both end up enjoying talking.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Poor Kitty

Well....it was depressing at work today...
I was in the middle of cleaning out the cat cages.
When I reached a large cage that had 4 cats in it.
And they had made a huge mess.
Urine covered half the cage it seemed like.
As someone in there had missed the litter box. >.<
Foo.
Which meant I needed to do a deeper cleaning than usual.
As usually, if the cat doesn't want to leave the cage, I don't force them to leave the cage. I work around them.
This.
This required moving all the cats out.
This particular cage had about half in half. 2 cats that wanted to stay in the cage, 2 that wanted to wander about the room.

But I needed them all out.
So I went and picked up one of the black kittens.

And immediately noticed something was off.
The cat felt thin. For one.
And wasn't really responding.

I mean, usually you pick up a cat and they have some weight to them, a pressure on you as they adjust to be more comfortable. That sort of thing.
This cat could have been nearly a rag doll.

Not a good sign.
Maybe it was sleepy.
So I set the cat on the ground.
And it just stood there.
Awkwardly.
Looking like it would tip over at any moment.
Not good.
Once cats are out of the cage they usually run and hide if they're the more shy ones.
This one didn't move.

So I went and grabbed a manager.
And in the time I was gone...
The cat hadn't moved.
Still standing in its awkward position.

Not good.
I picked it up.
And it threw up (lucky me most of it landed in the litter box. Yay for coincidental placement of that.)

Not good.
We tried to contact the group in charge of the cats.
I finished cleaning up the cage. Placed the cats back.

And...
Didn't go straight to the next cage.

As I had had something similar happen a little bit ago.
...Which because I hadn't been wearing gloves at that point in time.
Resulted me in making a mad dash home to take a shower and totally deep clean all my clothes.

If this little guy was sick with what I thought he was sick with.
Then I couldn't contaminate the other cats more than necessary.
So I switched gloves.
And then continued with the rest of the cats and onto other tasks.
A couple of hours passed.
I checked back in on the cat.
To see that it wasn't doing so hot.
We'd had no word from the group.
And so I (and the manager) made the call to take it to our vet.

So I put on gloves again.
Because I'd learned my lesson from last time.

And took it to the vet.
Where the result was what I feared.
Y_Y Poor thing had contracted PanLuke. (Similar to the Parvovirus but for Cats.)
And that...is fatal. There was nothing we could do but put the poor thing out of its misery.
Y_Y

And once again...we have to go through the whole deep cleaning process....*sighs*

In any case.
One of the Vet Techs passed by me a little later.
lol.
And said "You know, you're getting really good at catching the cats getting sick. ....I know that's not the best thing to say, but you are getting really good at that."
Which made me feel a bit better.
Because I guess other people would have just let the cat suffer. Would have adopted out other cats who had been exposed. Would have caused heart ache for pet owners who had to deal with their cats possibly getting sick...

Yah.
Definitely don't want that.
So its a good thing that I'm getting really good at noticing that the cats aren't doing well.
So we can ensure that healthy pets are adopted.
*sighs*
But....if I had caught it sooner...maybe the cat could have been saved. Maybe.

I mean, I had noticed that the cat was inactive before today.
I've cleaned the cat cages more than once this week.
But hadn't picked up on that the cat wasn't feeling good.

Because this particular cat had just arrived.
So I just assumed that its particular tendency to hide out in its house and not move....was from stress.
I mean....they had a long drive...recently arrived, strange place. It's enough to make the cats not be themselves for at least a week.

I suppose the lesson from this...is that there is always room for improvement. :)
So, make the effort to check in on the cats.
And make sure that they are just shy and not sick....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Cricket Cleanliness

It was disgusting in there.
I mean....crickets can be smelly and disgusting in general.
But our container where we keep our crickets.
Yah...That was starting to get really groddy and disgusting.

Its understandable.
Because we get in a ton of crickets.
And now that I'm keeping track of how many crickets we actually get in....we have a ton of crickets.
At least 4 thousand really.
And 3 thousand more at least expected tomorrow. :S

The thing is...
That those crickets...need to be taken care of.
Which means sweeping out the dead.
Giving fresh food and water....

Which....I feel like I only do.
Which really I am the only one who does it because it seems like 4/5 days that I work I'm having to count crickets from shipments and such.

But since I've been getting the weekends off....
It seems like nobody remembers that the crickets need to be taken care of as well.

And so when I come in...
I find a pile of dead crickets.
Empty food and water dishes.

It's no surprise that it was getting disgusting.
Because if you're not cleaning out the place.
Then the constant moving around of things squishes the dead crickets down further.
Smearing them around.

And giving rise to a lot of smell.
I had a bunch of customers comment on it today.
So therefore, I found the time to take imitative.

I scooped out 4000 crickets into a temporary container.
And cleaned out the big container they were in.

Yeesh. That was a work out.
Considering I'd already cleaned cats, cleaned fish tanks...I'd been doing a ton of scrubbing and added this into the mix....
My arm was crazy sore after work. Yikes!! Pain.

But at least I was able to pour the crickets into a clean container.
Hopefully it won't get so smelly for a long while yet.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Paper Cut

It was one of those days where I have no idea how I managed to get injured....

I was setting up a couple of tanks for two snakes that we were temporarily taking them off the floor because they hadn't been eating and we wanted to monitor them more closely.

And while I was in the middle of gathering everything to place into the tanks,
I happened to look down.
And see that I was bleeding on my arm.
I had a small cut there.
Nothing major I thought.
It's hardly a cm in the length really.

But it was bleeding. I did a quick wipe down of it, under some cold water, thinking that that would stop the bleeding...
It didn't.
The papercut bled more freely if anything.
I couldn't really continue working with blood dripping down my arm.
So...I had to step away to get a Band-Aid.

So weird. Its rare for me to cut myself bad enough to get a bandaid, as most of the time the bleeding stops really quick.
Must have been a sharp object that I cut myself with.
Though I can't think as to what it would have been as I was just handling tanks....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MRS -Hurtful Sleep

So I was hanging out in the living room with my roomie.

And after a while she asked me how work had gone.

I told her a bit about the crazy day I had, as I was multitasking on my computer.
Then stopped, upon realizing that she hadn't responded to anything I said.

I looked up.
And she was sitting there with her eyes closed.
Basically asleep.

>.< Gee....Thanks....for making me feel important.
It was irritating. Apparently she didn't want to really hear about my day. She just asked to be polite and didn't want more than a "it was good."
Which...is annoying because I like going into more detail of how my day went.

Plus...it was hurtful.
Was I so boring in what I was saying that she zoned out after two minutes? It was hardly more than that when I stopped talking...

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Coworker Struggles

Dearest Coworker;

NEVER EVER EVER LET CUSTOMERS BAG THEIR OWN FISH!!!!
What in the WORLD were you thinking!! I can't believe you did that! You know better!!

>.<
So. Done. With. This. Particular. Coworker.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Jarring Noise

So I had this mother/daughter duo come into the store today.
Didn't think much of it.
Because I was distracted, doing my never ending task of counting all the crickets that came into work today.
So. Many. Crickets. Agh.

In any case.
This duo was taking their time.
Browsing through the store.
Browsing through my department.
Usually not a big deal.

But this case, there was one glaring exception.

You see, the daughter.
The teenager/early 20s age.

Was listening to music.
Not really a big deal.
Except....she wasn't using headphones or earphones or any sort of device that makes it so the music is only hearable to her.

No. She had it playing. Out loud. Blaring out of the speakers.
Her own personal soundtrack.
Playing for everyone else to hear.

And frankly.
It was ear grating, annoying, crappy music.
(just my opinion.)

But, because I can be more sensitive to noise than other people.
It was really quite jarring for me to have to listen to music I really didn't want to listen to.

But it's hard to look at the customer when you're the employee and ask "Did your earphones break?"
Because I really really wanted to.
I wanted to tell her to stop playing the music so loud.
That people don't all want to hear what she wants to hear.

Not a good idea. You don't make friends of customers if you ask them questions like that.

So I had to suffer.
Working as quickly as possible to get them out of my hair and get the ear jarring music away from me.

Seriously though.
Seriously?
How self centered do you have to be to play music in a public place as you wander around. Making everyone listen to it?

>.<
So. Annoying.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Working Too Long

It's been a long work week.
And its going to be even longer.
I'm on day 7 of working 9 days in a row.
And it's the worst day yet....

I've reached the point where I desperately need a day off of work.
And I think it's really lucky that I enjoy my work.
Or else I'd be really tempted to call out and get my break.

lol, but I'm stubborn. So that isn't going to happen.

Thankfully, after the crazy of the beginning of the week...
Things seem to be settling down, so hopefully I can have smooth sailing for the next couple of days before I finally get my day off.

And I mean...It had been crazy at work.
With people calling out sick, and quitting, and the auditor, and trying to get the store audit ready.
It's a wonder I can still be civil to people.
lol (naps do wonders.)

And its good to be recognized that I've been working hard, and it has been stressful.
One of my coworkers,
After hearing about how crazy work has been for me the past week.

Offered to grab me a soda from the vending machine.

It was a small act.
But oh, it was desperately needed.

The soda never tasted so good.

:) Yay for awesome coworkers!!
A small reward for a long....long week.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Time to Stress?

It should have been a stressful day at work today.
I mean,
Shouldn't I be stressed out when the first thing I hear when I come into work this morning...
Is that my coworker has called in sick.
That my entire shift.
I'll be working by myself.
Alone.
In my department.

I should be stressing about that.
I have to get everything opened and done with....by myself.

Funny thing was....
I wasn't.
I wasn't stressed out.

In many ways its probably because Yesterday was so stressful with the Auditor in town (we passed! yay!) That...today...
It was just another Tuesday.

And just another Tuesday...
Means that hardly anyone comes into the store.
So therefore, I didn't have to worry about crazy rushes in the morning.
Sure, around lunch time I'll get more people...
But I still had plenty of time to get everything open.

Besides....it's not like I haven't done this before.
I had to open by myself for a long time before management finally got its act together to again give me a person to open the department with me.

So I have a system.
Knowing at the beginning of my shift meant that I could adjust my game plan then and there. Multi task. Do things in a particular order,
as opposed to finding out a couple of hours into my shift that my coworker isn't going to show up.
Yah. That would be stress inducing.

This though...
No. I had it handled.
Nothing to worry about. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MRS -Cleaned Kitchen

....
.....
......
I'm not sure how to respond.

So, last night, at the request of one of my other roommates that someone else besides her do the dishes,
I decided to do them.
Which is big for me, because I absolutely despise doing dishes.
But because of how my roomie asked.
I was more than willing to help out and volunteer.

What can I say...I'm way more willing to help if I can 'come to the rescue' than  if I'm simply told "hey can you do your dishes?"

Yah...I'll do them on my own time. Don't tell me what to do.

In any case.
I spent a good half hour or so last night cleaning up the disaster that was the kitchen.
I did more than wash the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.
I cleaned up the counters.
Made it so the place was basically clean enough to pass a cleaning check.

That was like 18 hours ago that I did that....cleaned up the kitchen.

And another roommate just walked into the kitchen and was like "Oh! Somebody did the dishes! Sarnic was that you? It's great. Thanks!"

O.o
>.>
<.<

Okay....
I seriously doubt that you just BARELY walked into the kitchen for the first time today.
I really. Really do.
Unless one was really super focused on getting food and leaving...I don't think it would be difficult to miss that our mountain of dishes is gone.

Which can only mean....

That she realized who had done it.
After checking facebook.
Because I did post a status that I'd cleaned the kitchen without a cleaning check neccesaiting the cleaning factor. I didn't mention what I'd done otherwise anywhere else.

The fact that she didn't hesitate and said my name directly.
When there was no indication otherwise that I had cleaned.
-I mean like I said, its usually the Amazing Roommate who does the dishes.
Not me.
Basically I would have been the last person you'd think of when it comes to cleaning dishes.

Yet, she'd said my name directly.

Oh yes.
I see through you're 'supposed surprise' that the dishes had been done.

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Knuckle Scrapes

It's always interesting, to get injured at work.
I mean, it's hardly ever serious. Small scrapes, cuts, bruises.
Working with animals means that sort of thing.

And often, I'm moving too quickly to realize I've been injured after the fact.

Right now, I'm sporting an three scrapes on my right hand.

Not quite sure how I got them.
I was busy, working quickly. Trying to get my department open, while also trying to ensure that everything was up to standards in case the auditor showed up. (Which he did.)

One of the tasks that I needed to quickly do.
Was change out some lightbulbs in our reptile display cages.
Because a few of them had burned out.

One of the bulbs that no longer worked, was a bulb in our Aquatic Turtle tank.
Which is a big long tank, half full of water.
Not easy to move around at all.
And you have to move it in order to reach the bulb to change it out.

And since its full of water, its very easy to make a mess. Plus its heavy.

So my goal was to move it as little as possible.
Which meant I pulled it out to the point where I could slip my hand in -which took a couple of tries-
But thankfully, I have thin wrists and hands, so I was able to get in and out and switch out the bulbs without too much hassle from the tank itself.

Though I think, it's at this point that I managed to get the nice little scrapes on my hands.
Which make it look like I probably punched someone.
Because it's right along my knuckles.
lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Blood

Oops.

That's all I can say...
Oops.

So, the situation.

We sold a couple of rats to a customer.
-I wasn't there, but I was super happy.
Because Rats....they don't sell that often in our store.
And unfortunately they end up getting full grown before we finally find an owner wanting to buy them.

This was the case with this particular duo of rats.

Poor things...
They have the worse luck.

As in the cage we had a set of three rats.
One has been here for at least 6 months I feel like... At least the beginning of the summer I'm sure.
The second, came in a couple weeks or so after the first.
And the third, same story, came in a couple of weeks after the other two.

Thankfully, it was the two older ones who finally got sold.
Again.
As they've gone through the rounds here at the store.
I'm pretty sure that this was like their fourth time getting sold.
And...
Their fourth time getting returned.
Both of them. :(
Why?
Because apparently the other rat that was already at the customer's home wasn't playing nice with them.
*sighs*
So...We got the two rats back,
the third one, hadn't sold at all, so it was still in the cage.
After the proper quarantine time -to ensure they weren't sick.
I decided to return the two rats to their third buddy.
Since they'd been together before, I thought nothing of it.
They would get along.

Wrong.
It was a couple of hours later.
I'd just gotten back from a break.
And saw a family looking at the rats,
So I stopped to talk to them.
And they're like "We're doing fine, but this guy doesn't appear to be."
And I look in the cage.
There was Blood.
Bright Red Blood. Smeared on the glass.
And right there, was the third rat.
Big droplets of bright red vivid blood dropping down his back.

Apparently one or both of the rats had attacked the third one!!
AH!!

I couldn't have that.
No way.
So I pulled out the third rat, to get him into our sick room, so that he could heal from his injuries in a quiet place.

The customers were concerned. "What's going to happen to him?"
Like they were worried that I was going to kill the rat because he was injured. O.o
Uh...No. "I'm just taking him to our sick room where we can get him to the vet and have him heal."
-The wounds weren't bad enough to see a vet (yet, hopefully they heal cleanly) but I did take the poor creature into the back to give him his own cage again.

Ah.
The blood.
I had to put Stypic powder on the wounds (there were like 2 or 3, hard to tell with so much blood on the body) to get them to stop bleeding, and did my best to clean the blood off him.
-Which is hard to do when most of the rat is white and red likes to stain things.

Thankfully the wounds are scabbed and healing.

But yeesh!
I have no idea why they decided not to get along again the three of them. >.<

At least the incident was caught before the wounds got more serious than they were....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Wandering Around

There was this mother daughter duo,
That walked into the store,
Looking for things for their bearded dragon.
And when I asked them if they needed help.
They said that they needed a specific brand of eye drops to help their reptiles eyes, but couldn't find it.
So I asked for the brand, and while they were looking it up, checked up and down the reptile aisle we have and only found turtle eye drops.
They then said that its often used for dogs,
And I knew this 'Terramycn" that they were looking for wasn't in the dog section.
But told them I would look.
I looked.
Went to ask a manager, but decided that we actually didn't carry it before I found one, and instead wandered over to the vet in the store, and asked them if they carried it.
Which they did.
Only you could only get it if you were prescribed it.

So I dutifully returned to the customers to tell them that we don't have it in the store and that they could only get it if they had it prescribed by the vet.

And they asked, if there was a generic brand similar to it that they could get here because they lived 2 hours away from everywhere and didn't have the bearded dragon with them.
So I told them about the eye drops we had in the dog section.
And checked the ingredients...
but none of them had Terramycn listed in the ingredients.
I went back to the vet to ask them,
And they said there wasn't a generic formula. You had to get it from a vet.
So I called two of our other nearby vet clinics, the ones that would see reptiles.
One was closed,
and the other couldn't give it unless they saw the animal first.

I returned to the customer yet again for like the fifth time to tell them this news.
Which they were not happy about.
>.< Demanding people.
And said that they would just order it online then.

Fine whatever.

It was one of those situations where I wish they would have taken "we don't have unless." for an answer. Where I wish they would have just decided to make the two hour drive to the vet and make my life easier, because I wasted like 20 minutes wandering around the store to find them answers and it was annoying.

Especially on a day when we were short staffed and had people in the store...
It was a waste of time where I could have been more productive in helping other customers.
Hopefully they find their stuff online.

*sheakes head.*

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Not in Stock

Had a gentleman come into the store, searching for a particular filter cartridge.
Which we should carry....because we carry the tank that needs that particular filter.
So therefore we should have the filter cartridge.
But, looking up and down the aisle with the customer.
I couldn't find it.
I couldn't even find a place where we would have it. An empty spot.
Not totally sure that we actually carry it in the store anymore...
Because I couldn't find it.
And we did downsize a few products recently.....

Did that mean that the customer left the store empty handed?
Not quite.
We were able to look up the particular filter in our online store.
And surprise surprise! They actually had it in stock.
(like 9/10 times I look online they don't carry the product or its out of stock.)
So I was able to order a few filters for the customer.
And have them sent to his home.

Yay! I was able to have a customer leave happy...even if he didn't have the  product with him right then.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -When to Clean

It's always interesting to have my coworkers do different tasks.
Because each one will react to different tasks differently.

Me...I've done every task so often, that I really don't have a preference about when I do those tasks. For me, it comes down to a matter of timing now a days.
If I come in first, and the next person doesn't come in for a couple of hours, I do this.
If they come in sooner, then they do this and I do that.
Pretty simple for me.

That doesn't mean I don't have tasks that I like to not do.
Because I do. Like bird bedding. Dealing with all those feathers. Or scrubbing tanks. Or having to handle the scorpion/tarantula. Definitely tasks I'm not fond of.
But, again, I've done them so often, that I often let the other people decide the tasks they want to do.

I let them decide more often than not, because I just want to get the task done. And people tend to work a little faster at tasks they like to do than at tasks they don't like to do.

Still. It's interesting to see which coworkers prefer to do what.
Some will avoid Crickets at all costs. Others its the snakes. Handling reptiles in general. Or holding the hamsters. Avoiding Hay duty. Avoiding cleaning out the cats. Or doing the back rooms.

There's a variety of reasons for these avoidances. Allergies, smell, dislike of feel of the animal.

The latter...
It's interesting to see people afraid to handle certain creatures.
Like my coworker today, isn't fond of reptiles. At all.
Especially the snakes, but often it takes them a bit to get the animals out of the cage.

lol, so I often find myself coming to the rescue when I notice my coworker struggling with certain creatures.
And I often just swoop in, take hold of the creature, place it in the cage/tote and then walk away. lol.

I suppose it comes in handy to be comfortable handling most of the creatures.
Because when one is afraid of getting injured....
Things take a lot longer to finish.
But in the end, they still get done.

And I can't let them get away with avoiding what they don't like...
But I do try, to help them where I can. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Gone

It looks like we lost a manager today....

And I really can't understand why....did they burn the bridge the way they did.
I mean... why?
Especially after they've had so many similar experiences thrown at you by others....why would you do it yourself?

It's crazy.

I don't know if this is for sure yet...if this manager quit. Or if they've gotten themselves fired....

But...when you don't come into work when scheduled, multiple days in a row.
And when you don't respond to phone calls, texts, or visits to your home...

It gives a pretty clear signal that you're not coming back.

And it's frustrating.
Because we've had soo many coworkers who have done this to us.
Usually its the new guys.
They show up for a few days....and then stop coming in.
No word.
No signal.
No proper "Hey I want to quit." to let us know that they're leaving.
They just burn the bridge and don't come back in.

It's so completely stupid!

The least our coworkers could do is be less than the cowards they are and come in and tell us that they're quitting. That way we can find ways to cover their shifts, or prepare and hire new people to replace them.

Which makes our manager disappearing all the more frustrating.
Because they did the exact same thing that our new hires have been doing to us.

I don't understand.
Especially after they've been working here for over a year, maybe even two.
Why do this now?

*sighs*

I can understand that the manager was feeling a bit of pressure.
Heard them voice frustrations that they can't do anything right...
But...
Why leave us in this manner?

I really don't understand it.
I hope this is a big misunderstanding.
But it's hard to know...
I'm guessing that it's not.
We'll see when I get back to work what's happened...

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Stinky Stinky

There are days where I hate dogs.
Or more specifically the owners of dogs who take their pets into the store.
The people who don't pay attention to their dogs.
Who ignore them as they shop.
*sighs*
Seriously. If you take your pet to the store, it's just like taking a kid.
You should watch them!

So  I don't have to clean up a disgusting pool of yellow.
So I don't have to wipe off and clean a bunch of products off because the dog was obviously male. >.<
Time consuming.
Smelly.

And the owners either a) didn't notice. or b) Noticed and elected to not take responsibility and clean up their dog's mess.

>.< Ugh.

Definitely not my favorite part of working at a Pet Store.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -A Fish Life

I had a customer come into the store today,
For the sad occasion, that his fish had died and he was looking to get a replacement.
In any case,
We got to talking.
Well, he got to talking.

And he told me a story.

About a while back,
How his daughter had gotten him the fish tank he has now. A nice 50 gallon one.
For him after he'd gotten out of the hospital, for some surgery, for an injury after one of the wars he fought in.
In any case. It went like:
"Ma'am, I'd just gotten out of surgery ma'am, still drugged up you know, ma'am, completely out of it. And I opened my eyes and there was this fish tank there and I kid you not ma'am I thought I'd died and become a fish. Thought that for three hours ma'am. Cus no one was in the room to tell me different for that long."

lol.
It was actually funny.
Who wakes up and thinks they're a fish?
This guy does.
Understandable though. He was probably on some pretty strong pain killers.

It definitely was a highlight to my day. :) Though it was really weird...that he kept calling me Ma'am....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Use The Right Hand

It's so weird. To realize that one hand can do something better than the other.

I've been noticing recently.
That I find it a lot easier to catch crickets, that get loose in the store, with my right hand. I can usually grab the little buggers on the first try.
My left hand...it takes multiple tries to catch the creatures.

Which is really weird.
....Because I am Left Handed.

O.o
So why then does my Right hand do so much better at catching loose crickets? Who knows.....at least that hand has a talent for something. ;) lol

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Outside of Work

It's odd to run into customers outside of work.
Especially the regular ones.
Where you're like. O.o Oh...Hi?

Happened to me today.
I'd dropped by Barnes and Noble after work so I could grab Brandon Sanderson's newest book.
And was wandering around when I heard my name called.
-Surprising that I was recognized as I just cut my hair...-
And it was a customer of mine.
That comes in to buy bird stuff for all his parrots and chat about the birds and such.

Somehow he's gotten it into his mind that I want to come work for him once he builds his aviary for all his birds to live in and help him care for them.
O.o He constantly brings it up even though I've mentioned multiple times that I'm happy at my job.

*shakes head* Out of all the animals...birds are the ones I liked dealing with the least....

In any case.
It was weird to be chatting about work...outside of work....
Especially when I wanted to sink my teeth into the newest book in my hands instead of talk...

But yah...
Weird when you run into customers....
So weird.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Walk With Me

It's always adorable to have puppies come into the store with their owners.
Especially when they're not yet used to walking on a leash. :D

Today, I happened to glance at the register.
And saw a cute Golden Retriever puppy, that was sitting right in front of the register.
The owner, had the leash taut, and was gently tugging to try and get the puppy to come to him.
Only the puppy wasn't having it.

So I decided to intervene.
As puppies love distractions.
They also love people who are energetic and talk in a sweet voice.

So I knelt down some distance away, and gestured/called to the puppy to come see me.
And after a moment, the puppy came bounding over, happy to get loved. lol. ^^

After some affection from me, I got up, and the puppy, now standing and not sitting, walked away with the owner much easier after that. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Tranquil Moments

I had one of my closing coworkers open with me this morning.
Which was rather fun.
As they hadn't ever opened before.
And so knew how to do nothing.
Which meant a lot of training to do.
Not a big deal.
I wasn't stressing out because I wasn't trying to train and get the department open and do a bedding change.
No, I could actually take my time today with the training.
Because I was trying to kill time before our truck showed up with our shipment of fish...
Which could be anytime between an hour before the store opened to an hour or so after the store opened.
Lately its been arriving later. So therefore. I wasn't stressed on opening up quickly to be able to put the fish out.

Oftentimes my favorite part of the fish shipment, is our bettas.
Because they come in blue water (a calming chemical is added to keep them from stressing on their long journey.) We have to change the water out in order to be able to see what the bettas actually look like. Their colors and such.
And I really enjoy that part.
Because I love to see what colors/patterns of bettas we get in.
lol and I often bemoan the fact that I can't just have a tank full of bettas. Because I would love to have a tank full of them. Pick out my favorite colors. Have them swimming around in a rainbow. It would be awesome!

In any case. I showed my coworker how to change out the betta water.
And she agrees, that it's a lot of fun to do.
She found it rather tranquil.
Switching out the blue water for clear.
Loved seeing the fish's actual color.

lol. So I can see, that if we're ever scheduled to open together. It's going to be a fight for the task of changing out the betta water.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Nooks and Crannies

Its always a hazard to have decorations with holes in it.
Especially if you're putting said decorations in cages/tanks where creatures can wander inside of them.

Because if you clean that said decoration, without looking thoroughly.
Said critter's life could be cut very short.

It's hard though.
Because some critters just hide really really well.
Up in nooks and crannies where you can't see them.
Where they could get stuck.

So I usually warn customers about that.
When they're looking in decorations.
Because when a critter wants to hide.
It will hide.

Today, I was finishing up cleaning some decorations from the fish tanks.
And found some casualties....of the nooks and crannies.
A couple of red claw crabs hid too well when we were pulling out the decorations...
My coworkers didn't see them. :( Even though they looked really hard....

Which is why...having decorations with holes....you want to pick the animal that is going with that decoration carefully.

-Sarnic Dirchi