Moving Reptiles

It was weird.
When I checked to see what we were expecting in on our reptile shipment....
To see two animals I knew we weren't carrying anymore on it.

As we'd reset the habitat plan, to make way for new reptiles and get rid of old ones.
-As we tend to do that in the spring and the fall to make way for the seasonal reptiles.

And like a month or two ago, we'd reset the reptile habitats.
Preparing to get in a ton of snakes this time around. O.o Like half of our cages were now becoming snake cages.
Which is weird....
And then they sat empty for a month...
No snakes week after week after week.

Then, we finally got in most of our snakes!
Only for the next shipment to bring in some of our old reptiles that we weren't carrying any more. O.o
Maybe it was a fluke?

The next shipment showed no old reptiles.
So I thought it was a fluke.

....Until those same old reptiles showed back up.

Getting suspicious, I decided to go online again, and check the schematics to see if there had been any changes.

O.o
To my surprise.
There had been.
They'd reset the habitats again!
Bringing back a couple of the reptiles we thought we weren't carrying any more.
And getting rid of some of the new ones we were supposed to get in....
And also getting rid of other snakes we'd been carrying for a while now.
While spreading out animals into individual cages that had all been placed into one before.

Totally crazy.
And....totally not good. :S

Because I currently have four snakes I'm no longer 'carrying'
Which means they're taking up spots where the other reptiles are supposed to go. :S
Which means I have to play a bit of ring around the rosie.
Putting compatible reptiles together, so that I can make room for the reptiles that can't be placed with other reptiles.
.....
And it only works if we don't get in the reptiles we're supposed to be getting in.

Which worked...for like 24 hours, before we had a surprise shipment show up. *sighs*
So....
Somehow we're making it work....
I really need to sell those snakes though. It would make things much easier...
Unfortunately the snakes that we're no longer going to carry after we sell the ones we have....have been sitting in our store for months already.
So I'm not expecting our reptile habitat problem to resolve itself anytime soon. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Switched on the Truck

I really wished that I worked Fridays....
Because it seems like once the managers stopped scheduling me to work then....
Is when all our problems in the store started to happen.

This Friday was no exception.

Though, it wasn't totally my coworker's fault.
As they had no control over it.

You see, with Starsmet, multiple stores' supplies and orders are placed in the same truck.
So one truck may stop at two, three or even four stores to drop off different shipments.

And it just so happened....
That our Sister Store (the next Starsmet nearest to us.)
Gets their shipment before us.

And somehow or another.
The people there....
Took our fish shipment off the truck instead of theirs.

So when the truck got to us.
We had their shipment of fish.

I mean, there has been occasion where a box or two of fish gets left at the other store...I've known that to happen, and it's had to be sent to us.
But a whole shipment?!

And apparently nobody noticed anything was wrong....
Until my coworkers started pulling fish out of the boxes....that we don't sell.

As each Starsmet sells slightly different fish. -I'm guessing it's because certain kinds of fish sell more successfully in some areas than others.
We all have a majority of the same fish, but there are always a handful of differences. *shakes head*

In any case.
Since the shipment was already majorily placed in the their tanks...
We couldn't really just pack the fish back up and send them to the correct store.

No what ended up needing to be done was that we had to transfer via computer our shipments to each other.
-As we had our correct paperwork, but the wrong fish pallet-
So one SKU at a time, we had to transfer the numbers between the stores, so when we would need to go through and count the fish later on in the week, it would be correct.

Which meant, when I came in, that we had random fish....that had no tags.
So I had to go hunt down those tags so that we could actually sell our fish. *shakes head*

It didn't help the confusion at all, as we had one of our Greenies training on putting out the fish shipment....and she wasn't the best at paying attention to the tags on the fish. Which meant the wrong fish were placed in the wrong tanks.
Which can be a simple mistake to make I mean we sell "Dalmatian Mollies" and "Dalmatian Lyretail Mollies" So if you're not looking closely you could end up putting the wrong fish in the wrong tank.
Which she did.
*sighs*
Hopefully there isn't more chaos with the next shipment we get in....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pull. Just Pull

I had one of those early morning customers today.
One that probably came in to get her dog groomed,
And then proceeded to shop in the store before the main store opened. (As grooming opens a couple of hours before the rest of the store)

In any case, I happened to be passing by as she was checking out.
And she requested that I help her out to her car.
Because she couldn't control the cart and her dog at the same time.

...As her dog was on one of those extendable/retractable leashes.

And apparently....she didn't know that you can hold down the little button on those leashes and lock it so that your dog stays the desired distance next to you.

So if you don't want your dog wrapping itself around the cart....you can lock it so he can't leave your side....

In any case.

We head outside.
And her dog goes wandering off.
The leash extending to it's limit as he goes to sniff the trees and the grass and everything else in the parking lot.

While the customer stands there. Calling to him to come back. Holding the leash limply in her hands. Calling. Talking to him like he could understand her.

But not making any effort to pull the dog to her!
I mean....it seems like a simple effort. Pull the dog. shorten the line. Lock it to keep it from getting longer. Pull the dog closer. Lock the line, repeat until he's back at your side.

*shakes head*
In the end...she ended up walking over to the dog to get him untangled from the tree he'd wound himself around.
Before we finally were able to get to the car.

All the while I'm wondering....why don't you just pull... Why don't you just lock the line so it can't extend. It's called retractable for a reason!

Some customers. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Labored Breathing

He didn't look good when I glanced in the cage.
Hamsters don't usually lie on their stomachs, flat.
They usually are curled up in balls if anything.

It was especially odd that he was sleeping in plain view. As hamsters tend to find a corner or sleep in their hideouts. They don't just sleep out in the open.
And considering I'd turned on the lights, and was opening and shutting other cages.
With him being out in the open, he should have been up and running around, being active.
As me opening up cages is usually the wake up call that fresh food is being provided.

Yet there he laid....

So I grabbed some gloves and cautiously picked him up.
-As if he wasn't feeling well, I didn't want to get bitten if I disturbed him.

Yet.
He didn't react.
I stroked his back.
Watching his labored breathing.
My heart sinking.
This wasn't good.
Hamsters are wiggly by nature.
To have them not moving around...
is never a good sign.
Lethargisim is bad.
Especially when his breathing wasn't normal.

My suspicions were confirmed.
When I flipped him onto his back.
And he didn't react at all.

Plus, I could see that his eyes were crusted shut. Another bad sign.

I took him to a manager,
Who told me to go check in with the vet.
Who took out his stethoscope and listened.
And pronounced that it sounded like he had a respiratory infection.

Which, if we had caught it earlier, could have meant that we could have found medicines for him.
Yet,
We didn't.
With him that motionless, lethargic.
He was either going to lay there until he died...which could be in four days, or in four minutes...
Or we could ease his suffering.

:( So I made the choice, to have him put down. Y_Y

Poor thing.
It always hits me harder when I'm there when the animals pass on. As I always want there to be a happy ending, the animal finding its forever home.
So to know that this hamster wouldn't. Was depressing.

Poor little Timothy. :( I wish we could have done more for you.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Lot of Pests

We have these pest snails in our tanks.
Snails we don't carry or sell.
But they multiply like crazy -coming in on plants or in our fish shipments....

It's a never ending task to get rid of them all.
Especially since our system is soooo old, I'm sure there are tons of snails hiding out in the pipes.

Because we don't sell them.
And we just get rid of them.
If customers want them, we give them away for free.

Most people grab these pest snails because they have fish -particularly puffer fish- who like to eat them.
Others get them because they look cool.
And others...idk why they get them...

In any case.
I had a woman come into the store.
And get really excited when she saw that we had these pest snails.
Particularly the Trumpet Snail.

Apparently she's been to other pet stores and has seen the shells of the snails, but no live snails inside of them.
As other stores are having more luck with getting rid of them apparently.

So she was happy to see we had a nice healthy colony of them.
Though she didn't know how extensive they'd gotten...
She only saw 2 in one tank.

But I told her there were more.

So she wanted me to get as many as I could.

lol. Oh, I could get a lot.

Since I was off just then.
I went to the tanks I knew had a ton of these trumpet snails in them.
And pulled out like 30 of them for her.

She was happy about it lol.
No idea why, but she was.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Overwhelmed and Stressed

It was a simple error.
I had a coworker clean the cages in our back rooms.
According to her....for the first time. O.o
Not sure how she managed that....but it was her first time.
And for some reason she took much longer than was normal for her to do so....

In any case, part of the back room tasks is preparing for the new animals that are coming in that week.
Which involves dating the cages so that we can give the new arrivals time to adjust to being in the store before they're put onto the floor for sell.

The problem with assuming things....
Is that you usually assume wrong.

I'd assumed that the coworker would know that the dates we put on the animals aren't for the day that we prepare the bedding, but for the day the animals arrive. (as we prepare the cages a couple of days in advance in case they show up early -as it has happened before)

So...my coworker had put the wrong dates on the cages.
Which I hadn't realized, because I thought she knew that wasn't the case.

Which meant....
That the dates were wrong.
So my other coworkers....
Who didn't seem to realize either that the animals had just come in the day before....
Put out the animals too early. The Day after they'd shown up instead of a few days later.

Admittedly, they did follow directions, as they brought the animals out on the date stated on the tag....
but surely one of them had to believe something was wrong.... *shakes head*

By the time I came back into work and discovered it....
the animals would have been due out on the floor the next day.
So it would be pointless to take them off the floor only to put them back.

yet....
We're now facing the consequences for those animals coming out too early.
They've become stressed out.
And many of them have gotten sick.
So now, our nearly empty sick room where we treat animals to get them healthy...is over flowing with animals are sick.

*exhales*

All of this could have been avoided...had only my coworkers been paying attention, had I only noticed the dates were wrong and corrected my coworker....

Live and Learn I suppose.

-Sarnic Dirchi

What Order?

Okay....
I've known this for a while.
That my brain works a bit differently than my coworkers.

But there are days when it's just....incomprehensible for me....why my coworkers can't....well remember things.

Today's angst involves our fish tanks.
As we have a system in place.
And have had in place for probably close to a year now.
Where for four out of the seven days, we pull out the decorations in the fish tanks.
A certain section each day.
In order to clean the decorations so that any algae or other things that are on the decorations are cleaned away.
That way our tanks stay looking nice and clean and healthy.

Like I said, we've been doing this for months and months now. Even years.

Yet...my coworkers still can't get it into their heads as to which ornaments are pulled which nights!
O.o
How hard can it be? Left to right, you pull the first section of 18 on the first night.
The second section on the second night.
The third section of the next 18 on the next night.
And on the fourth night, the last section of tanks.

It's not like it's a random assortment. Of "Hey grab tanks 1-3, 8-20, 41&42"
No it's like "grab the first 18 tanks on the wall."

Yet....
The ornaments ended up getting pulled on the wrong night!
Ugh.
It wasn't even a night that we usually pull the decorations!
And the person who pulled them had pulled them often enough that they should have known that we don't pull ornaments that night!

In the end.
I ended up writing out (again) on a paper what days which decorations from which tanks should be pulled.
So that my coworkers can have their little cheat sheet around and hopefully get the task right. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Water Bottles

There are days when I really question if I can ever leave the department alone for any amount of time.
Because sometimes it feels like I get back from my day off....and find everything in chaos.

I literally spent much of the morning of opening tasks asking myself. "Why?!"
Like literally. Why? What happened? WHY? Could you not? How in the world? Why!

Like....
We have specific metal things to hold our water bottles into place, so a) the animals don't knock them over and b) they give water without leaking over everything in the cage.

I came into work, and found that in one of our back rooms.
There had been a water bottle placed into one of the cages....but not in the normal holder. O.o

It had been jimmy rigged together....
With two clips.
Clips used to hold the lids on cages down to the cage so reptiles like snakes can't push up the lid and escape.

Yah, someone had used two of them in order to get the water bottle to hang in the cage.
O.o
Why in the world they didn't ask someone where all the extra metal water bottle holders were....I have no idea....
I applaud their creativity on getting the water bottle to hang up.
But I couldn't let it stay, so I went to get an actual water bottle holder, and replace the clip setup.

Only to find....
Like ten minutes later as I moved onto the main floor to make sure all the animals there had food and water....
That one of our water bottles from the back rooms....had been placed inside one of the hamster cages.
Which sure, it worked....
But it was the wrong size!
We have two different sizes of water bottles.
A larger size for the floor.
A smaller size for the backroom....
Why they didn't go track down extras....who knows....
Again, at least they didn't leave them without water....

Still I have to wonder what people were thinking....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Hamster Return

A little bit ago, like over a weekish...
I sold hamster to a customer. Well a family.

It was one of my favorite kinds, the Short-Haired Syrian.

And being the diligent worker I am.
I told them as much as I could about the hamster.
Including things to look out for in case the hamster started getting sick.

Because often the main disease with hamsters is Wet-Tail
A bad form of diarrhea, that can be fatal if not caught early enough and treated.

So I usually warn customers who get Syrian Hamsters about it, as it's more prevalent in the Syrian Breed for some reason.

In any case.

The customers ended up coming back into the store a few days ago with their hamster, Gizmo.
Because they'd noticed the night before that he hadn't been acting right and that his bottom was wet as I had described.

A quick glance proved their thoughts correct.
Gizmo had somehow gotten wet-tail. :S

It was still in the early stages because he was still being active, though you could tell he wasn't feeling the best.

So, I promised that we'd do our best to take care of their hamster Gizmo.

The father was like "I've grown attached to him, he will pull out of it right?"
I couldn't give him a yes answer.
Because if I did...I'd probably jinx it.

As honestly, animals can appear fine one moment and be dead in the next....

So I didn't want to say "yes he'll recover," and then have to call them a day later and say that he had passed in the night. :S

Still....
I hoped that we'd caught it early enough.
That I wouldn't have to make that phone call.

Because I wanted the family to have their Gizmo back. Since they seemed to adore him.

I took him, and promised I'd give an update when I could.
And immediately took him to our back room where we keep animals that aren't feeling well.
And began to treat him.
With Wet Tail Drops.
Hoping that he'd make it.

And thankfully.
He did!
Thanks to the diligence of Gizmo's owners.
We caught it early enough to save him. ^^

Yay!
The owners were very happy to get their pet back.
Super thankful. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Salty Words

So, there I was, talking with my roommate and her fiancé.
As they'd come into the store to check out the fish tanks and the fish we had available.
As they want to get a small fish tank after they're married and in their apartment.

So I was going over some of the details and showing them tanks.
Chatting with them.

When I heard from behind.

"Can I get some help over here?!"
Said in a way that one of my coworkers described as 'salty'
You know the tone. The "I expected to be helped two seconds ago and no one has come to my beck and call" type of voice.

Which...
I didn't understand.
As she saw that I was talking with a customer. -She couldn't have known that I was talking to my roommate....

In reality I should have just said "be there in a minute" and ignored her for another two or three minutes to 'finish' with my roommate aka finish with a customer.

But I'm all too eager to try and please.
So I went over there, got her crickets as fast as I could and sent her on her salty way.

Still slightly irritated.

I don't like it when customers interrupt me when I'm chatting with other customers.
I mean, if it was with coworkers that's understandable.

But when I'm with a customer 9/10 times its because I'm helping them. I'm talking to them to get more information from them and to teach them about what they need to know to take care of a pet.

Yet some just seem to assume that I'm just 'wasting time'
Chatting.
When I'm not. I'm actually working, and I can get to them when I get to them.
There's no need to force yourself into the front of the line.... *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

I Already Told You...

Sometimes I wonder if people actually hear me when I speak.

It can often be confirmed when they ask me a question...
And the answer to that question...I'd literally just told them a minute or even seconds before that.
*shakes head*

Perhaps it's because I tend to give a lot of information at once. So maybe people can't process everything then and there.

I had one group of customers though.
Three guys.
Who wanted to get some specific lizards.
And wanted to know everything under the sun about them.
Only....
What I would tell them....
It seemed like only one guy out of the three would hear the information.
Because then the second guy would ask me a question.
And the third guy would chime in with what he thought was the answer...
and they would basically ignore me when I tried to correct them.

Or I'd tell them something like "Hey you need to feed them crickets and mealworms."

And not two minutes later they'd be like "So what do you feed these things?"
"Crickets and mealworms."

And then like 5 minutes later.
"Hey....what were we supposed to feed the lizards?"
"Crickets and mealworms."
"Okay, where do I get those?"
"Here and here."
"Cool."

Then like four minutes later.
"Hey could you grab us those....crickets and...what was it?"
"Mealworms."

Honestly, I was glad that another coworker ended up taking over for me as I got busy helping other customers because they were beginning to get on my nerves.
I don't like repeating myself again and again and again.

A couple of times. Sure. That's fine.

but multiple times in a half hour period?
More annoying.
Especially when it's the same customer or same group of customers. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

How Many??

I had a customer come up to me and ask me to get them fish.
Not an uncommon occurrence....since I work in a pet store....

What she wanted was some of our inexpensive feeder gold fish.
To put out into a pond as the weather is finally getting warm enough to put in new koi and goldfish into them without killing them with over night freezes.

Easy enough.
Just needed to see what size she wanted.
Large.

And how many she wanted. So I asked her. "How many fish?"
No response.
Maybe she didn't hear me as I'd been turned away from her when I spoke.
So as I approached her again I said "How many am I catching?"

Still no response.
She points to one she wants.
So I bend down and catch that particular gold fish.
Again asking. "So how many am I looking for."

Finally, after an eternity.
She answers.

"Six."
She points out three of them,
and then lets me pick whatever other three I want to.

*shakes head*

No idea why it took her so long to answer....
but okay...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Dating in Blue

So every week we get in a shipment of various types of bugs.
Like crickets, mealworms, waxworms, red wigglers, night crawlers, fruit flies, superworms, and recently hornworms.

And as a way to keep track of when each shipment of bugs comes in.
We take a marker, and date the bug containers.
That way we can ensure that our older containers are sold before our newer containers.

Otherwise we'd probably end up just selling the most recent containers and the older containers would just sit in the back and die off....

In any case.

As I was busy with other tasks in the store,
My coworker took charge of dating and putting away this week's bug shipment.

That's what she was working on when I went off to take my lunch break.

And when I got back.

She informed me that she'd put away the crickets and such (as we don't date those)
but hadn't touched any of the containers of various worms.
She'd just left them in the back for me.

Why?

Because she'd been unable to find a marker to use to mark the dates on the containers.

O.o
How could that be, when we had plenty on the podium. They couldn't have all disappeared in the half hour I'd been gone on lunch.

So I asked her if there weren't any on the podium.

....Apparently....
She hadn't realized we could use those markers to mark the containers.
Why?
Because she'd thought we could only mark the containers in with a black marker.

And the ones we keep to write stuff on the fish bags and cricket bags....are blue.

It's funny....
Because we haven't used black markers in ages. Like at least a year.
As we'd switched to Blue markers a while ago.

I don't understand why she thought it had to be black....like we used to use black markers....before the head manager decided to switch us to blue.....so maybe that's where she got it from....

Obviously I need to have her date the bug shipment more often....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Scrubbing

For the past few months....since like last year (so 5 months now?)
I haven't been able to scrub tanks with both my hands.
Because my left arm has had problems that I don't want to make worse by putting it in fish water.

So I've had to scrub with just one hand....when I have to scrub.
Usually I can get away with not scrubbing tanks because I have other coworkers who do it for me.

But today....
My coworker was being overly paranoid.

As she doesn't want to get the same problem I have.
-Which in all honesty, was a rather freak thing, the wrong set of circumstances colliding in the right time.

And it's not like it's a common occurrence. It's the first time it's happened to me in like 4 years. So not common.

But she had injured her hand while she was cleaning cages today.
-A task that took her five hours for some reason when it was only like a 2 hour job. *shakes head* Granted it was her first time doing that particular task.

In any case. She'd cut her hand.
So when I gave her the task to scrub the tanks.
Because I didn't want to have to scrub them one handed....

She didn't do it.
Because she didn't want to catch the same infection I did.
-Which was from a burn not a cut. *shakes head*

Which I can understand.

What I can't understand....
Is why she didn't just use her other uninjured hand to scrub the tanks.

Why she thought it was alright to have me scrub tanks.
When she knows I have a problem with one arm where I can't scrub tanks or risk my infection coming back (as its still healing). Which would mean that I would have to scrub tanks....one handed.
*sighs*

Which I did.
But still. Still I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one who thinks of more than one solution to a problem in my dept.
Honestly, why couldn't she have scrubbed tanks with one hand? Did it not occur to her? Did she not think that she could? I mean it's a lot easier to scrub tanks when you can switch between hands, but its not impossible to scrub with just one. *shakes head*

Coworkers.....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Broken Lock

So, I came in to work this morning and noticed that our reptile cages looked slightly different.
Mostly in that a cage that had had an 'empty' sign in it yesterday....no longer did.
The glance told me that a couple of snakes had been moved around.
Though I didn't find out the reason why until when the manager who'd worked last night came in for his shift.

He told me that the bottom locks on the cage (because that bigger bottom cage had two locks on it so you can access it from two different locations.)
Were broken.
They couldn't get the locks to twist at all, to lock the cage back up.
So...anyone could just slide open the door and take the snake.
Or...the snake could possibly figure out how to pull open the door from the inside and escape.

So they'd moved it into a different cage until they could get the locks fixed.

O.o
This was....odd because those locks had been working just fine the day before and the day before that....

So I went over to them.
One lock worked just fine.
The other though, was stuck.
You stuck the key in, and the latch wouldn't move at all.
But fiddling around with it,
I figured out that the screw that held the lock together had gotten a tad too loose.
Which probably caused the rest of the lock to get out of it's grooves.
And so make it impossible to move.

So, with even more fiddling, which took taking a part the lock, and getting the main piece into the correct grooves in order to turn, as well as getting the latch in the right position and then getting the screw back in place to hold it all together without getting anything out of alignment...

I managed to fix the lock!
So once more it works. :)
Which probably made the snake very happy.
As he's a big guy, like three feet spread out.
And he'd been stuck in a tank that was like...a third of the big tanks size.

So I put him back in his home.
And went and told the manager that I'd fixed the lock.

lol. He was surprised.
"How?!" He demanded. "I tried to get that lock to work and I had no luck!"

So I told him why I thought it wasn't working, and that I'd taken it a part and put it back together again. :)

Yay for me being able to fix it! :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Near Tumble

My coworker nearly died the other day.

So, along our fish wall, we have these ladders, that slide along a groove, so that we can reach into the top level of our tanks to catch fish.

Well, my coworker had gotten on the latter, and was fishing out a fish for a customer.

And unknown to her, the customer's child had taken the chain that we usually have hooked across the ladder to discourage customers and their children from climbing up the ladder themselves....and hooked it back across the stairs of the ladder.

My coworker didn't see this.
And so when she stepped down to get off the ladder.
She hit the chain, and it overbalanced her.
:S Ah!

She fell backwards.
And threw the fish/container she'd been holding away, in a desperate attempt to save herself.
So container/fish go flying across the floor.
As her grasping hands found salvation. She grabbed onto one of the side bars of the ladder.
Saving herself from hitting head first on the concrete floor.

My coworker had just nearly seriously injured herself.
And the customer....
Was upset that she'd thrown the fish on the ground! "Well, why on earth did you do that?!" She cried.
And my coworker was like "Did you not see me just almost die?" (she played nice and didn't say that but was totally thinking it.)

But honestly. >.< Some customers.
Yes, the fish had to take a tumble, but at least my coworker didn't.

And to make it worse....the evil little brat who put the chain across the ladder? Just stood there and laughed.

Obviously child doesn't fall far from the mother tree.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Achy Thumb

So, my thumb was randomly aching today at work.
And I couldn't fathom for the life of me why.
But I figured I'd just somehow jammed something under the nail, like I'd done with my other thumb a couple of weeks ago.
But it seemed like the pain was just getting worse.
So I finally took a better look at it.
And there, jammed under the nail, poking straight into the skin, was a nearly white colored piece of hay. So light it blended in pretty well with my fingernail so a quick glance would have made it impossible to see.
I pulled it out.
And ah. Instant relief from the achiness that I'd been experiencing there.
Kinda crazy how long it had been there. A couple of hours probably.
But at least I noticed it in the end. :)
And thankfully my thumb isn't aching like the other one did when I did something similar.
So even better! :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Abandoned

I don't understand people sometimes.

Especially pet owners.

Especially pet owners that suddenly abandon their pets.

A Good Samaritan, a truck driver.

Came into our store this morning.

With a cat carrier.

Inside of it?

Were two cats.

Apparently as he was running his truck route.

He'd found the two kitties in a box, abandoned in an alleyway.

Someone had just left them there.

Which is even more depressing, because they were tame, friendly, had nice good coats that showed that they had had owners who had taken care of them.

Why they were abandoned....who knows.

Perhaps the original owner died and nobody wanted to take care of them....

But whatever the reason.

There are sooo many better options than just leaving them outdoors with no food or water or knowledge of how to survive outside!

I mean, there are tons of shelters and pounds, and willing people to take in cats. Even an online ad could help!

But leaving them?! So. Cruel!

Unfortunately, the truck driver couldn't take them in.

So he brought them to us.

Even more unfortunate.....company policy is that we cannot accept in any animals that don't come through the 'official' means. -for cats that would mean the adoption groups we partner with.

I wish we could have taken them in.

They were gorgeous cats.

But instead, we had to call Animal Control, and let them know that we'd had two cats abandoned at our store.

And so off they went with Animal Control....to who knows what fate. :( Poor things.

I wish I could have taken them in. I really do. But my apt doesn't allow cats, nor would some of my roommates approve even if I could. Y_Y

It makes me wish that our store would soften it's 'no animal drop off' policy.

Especially with cats and dogs.

Because if we're trying to get homeless pets homes by partnering with adoption groups...

why can't we take in cats and dogs and then just send them over to the adoption group to ensure that they're healthy have all their shots, and are fixed?

I don't understand. :(

Hopefully the kitties find forever homes. *fingers crossed*

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Crooked Finger

I had just started to gravel vacuum some of our fish tanks as part of our daily maintenance of the store, when I heard my name from the cashier. I looked up, as more often than not, my name is said in conjunction with the other coworker pointing me out to a customer. I was correct. There was a woman in a purple shirt standing by our display tanks.
But instead of coming towards me, now that I had been pointed out to her.
She instead crooks her finger towards me in the universal "come here" gesture, and then disappears out of view. I thought she'd just taken a step out of range, but as I put the gravel vacuum down, faintly irritated that her demeanor was one of a mother calling to a naughty child, I went up to the display tanks...and she wasn't there.
What is it about customers and not being able to stay put?? If you want me to come to you, stay put. I don't want to have to spend time hunting for you all over the store.
In any case, I finally found her five aisles over, with another one of my coworkers who was opening up a hamster cage for her.
So more irritation, are you so impatient that you can't wait the four seconds it would have taken me to walk over to you and went and found someone else?
No.
Apparently she just wanted to have everyone in the store at her beck and call.
I'm guessing she was showing her son a hamster or something.
But when I got within range, she in a 'I expect you to obey me right away' voice said. "I need a bag of small crickets. The tiniest ones you have."
"Okay." I said waiting for her to tell me how many I would need to bag for her.
"The teeniest tiniest teeny ones alright?" She repeated, using the 'itty bitty' finger gesture to ensure that I understood her. Which I did the first time.
"Okay." I said.
"The tiniest." She repeated.
Obviously....she'd never shopped here before. So I finally asked. "And how many do you want?"
She gave me this surprised face. "You mean they aren't pre-bagged!"
*exhales* "No."
I mean, we do -if we have time- pre-bag up crickets for customers so that we're not always called over to crickets to bag them up. But even if we had had some already pre-bagged so early in the day. (which we didn't, that usually doesn't happen til after lunch time.)
I would still have had to ask how many she wanted because the pre-bagged ones come in different numbers as well.
"I can bag you up as many as you want." I continued.
She stared at me like I was crazy. "How many do I need? How much are they?" She asked me in rapid fire.
"They're 13 cents each, and it depends on what type of reptile you have." I told her.
As different lizards eat different amounts. A crested gecko usually only eats like 10 a week, but a Bearded Dragon could eat like 60 crickets in a week.
"It's a lizard." she said. "How long do the crickets live?"
Lizard doesn't tell me much lady. "They live around two weeks if you take care of them. Just give them food and such."
"So how many should I get?"
"It depends on how big your lizard is. What kind he is."
"I don't know. It's a lizard!"
"What kind of lizard?"
"I don't know. It's a small mountain one my son caught."
Also very not helpful. *shakes head* It could be a variety of lizards, but more than likely it was a Horny Toad as those are the most common wild caught animals to come in the store.
So I finally told her that 24 should be enough for the week. It's a nice common number for the smaller numbers.
She agreed to it.
And I gladly left the woman to go grab those crickets.
And did I get the teeniest, tiniest crickets?
No.
I gave her whatever small crickets I happened to catch.

So hopefully the lizard was able to eat them just fine.
Because I was totally done dealing with this woman.

-Sarnic Dirchi