Sometimes I wish I knew the origins of some of the situations that happen in my store.
Like today, For Example.
I'm in our break room, taking my lunch break.
And my coworker comes in.
With a tiny little Tupperware container.
Seriously only big enough to hold a single oreo.
Wondering what we should do with the Green Tree Frog that was within it.
Because A Customer Returned that Green Tree Frog. In that container!
Seriously.
>.< I thought that it was a strange thing to place the frog in.
Rather tiny too.
I mean, it fit, easily enough.
but it couldn't move around.
I hadn't thought more of it.
The frog looked fine, my coworker hadn't mentioned anything weird.
So I said to put it back on the floor.
I didn't think more about it.
Until later, when I returned from my break.
And encountered a couple of customers and a young boy with them.
Wanting to get a snake.
A ball python to be exact.
They were like "We were reading this pamphlet and we want to get this snake."
And I was like "Okay...do you have a cage for it?"
"Yes, we returned the tree frog, we'll just put it in that cage."
"Oh..." *alarm bells ringing* Because seriously. Frogs can live in small cages. Snakes can't. "What size of tank is it?"
"Its the same size as the one out there its in."
Which if they were looking in the lower tank would have been like maybe a 5 gallon tank. If they were looking on the top row...that's more like a 2 gallon tank.
In either case. Both tanks were too small to house a Ball Python. I told them they would need to get at least a 20 gallon tank to house the snake.
And the boy was like "But the snake is in a smaller tank now."
Cue rolling of the eyes. >.< "Because this is a temporary cage, the snakes don't stay in there that long. You can't keep them in such a small space for long periods of time or else they get grumpy, you need a larger tank."
"Well, I'm just buying this for my sister, my sister can come back later and get the tank then."
I refused to sell though. Because they could say they were going to get a bigger tank later. But would they? No, I wouldn't subject a snake to that. So I went a slightly different route. Telling them everything else they'd need to get. Different bedding, a different cage to feed the snake in because if they didn't have that the snake would get aggressive. Etc etc.
But if they were considering keeping their regular tank, a Leopard Gecko would have been alright in a smaller tank. It just needs a different bedding and crickets/mealworms.
They decided to think on it.
So in the meantime while they were reevaluating their animal plan. This guy his girlfriend and the nephew of the guy.
My coworker tells me.
That I shouldn't sell any animals to these people because they don't know what they're doing.
They said the frog wasn't eating...
But was it?
Apparently when he came into the store to be returned the poor thing was Freezing Cold! Basically FROZEN. From being so cold.
Which meant they had left the poor thing in the car for a while.
Because moving a frog from a heated tank, to the car, to the petstore wouldn't get it freezing cold.
And having just experienced the debacle with the Tarantula.....I was even more wary about selling these people a pet.
>.> #naughtylist for sure guys.
In any case.
They came back asking to get another frog.
I told them the only frog I had in the store was the one they had just returned.
They asked if there were any other frogs like it in the store.
Frogs needing the same type of cage set up? No. No I didn't have them.
I did have a Pacman frog, with a similar set up. But if they couldn't take care of the Green Tree Frog, I wasn't trusting them with this particular one either.
So I told them I didn't have any.
So they asked to get one of the lizards that we have in the same cage as the frog instead.
I couldn't really refuse. They said they had heat, they said they had lights.......So they said.
In any case. I went to grab the paperwork.
And sparked upon an idea. Because the guy looked a little young.
As its a college town you don't think on it much, as a lot of young looking guys come here to college.
But I was like "I'm sorry, I should have asked you this sooner....but how old are you?"
"Seventeen" he replied.
Hooray! There was the answer I'd been looking for.
"I'm really sorry...but I can't sell to you, you have to be 18 or older to buy animals from us."
"But...I bought one last week."
"I'm sorry, we should have checked, we're not supposed to sell to anyone under 18 because they're not considered adults yet. See, it says right here on the paperwork." Showed him where it said "must be 18 or older to sign."
Soo...they called the boys mother.
I had to take a call.
They came back and the guy said "She's 18" pointing to the girl that was with him. "Can she fill out the paperwork."
"I'll have to see some ID" I replied.
"I don't have it."
"I can't sell to you unless I see an ID" I said. Because honestly. They could be lying. And they weren't doing much to establish confidence in them either.
Soo they ended up leaving.
I never saw them after that.
A part of me feels sad, for ruining their day, making it so they couldn't get any animals.
But most of me is glad that I denied them. Because they'd already made one animal suffer. If I was able to save another from suffering then I consider it a job well accomplished.
-Sarnic Dirchi
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