3 Years Later

It was in the middle of the day. Where I'd found a brief lull in the holiday shoppers to do some work.

When I got a phone call.

And on the other end.

Was a customer.

"Hey....so we adopted a cat from you like three years ago...."

Now automatically I'm thinking that they want to return the cat. Because why else would they bring up the fact that they adopted a cat from us?

Unfortunately we don't accept returns on the cats we adopt out. People have to go through the adoption group if they have any issues.

However, that wasn't this guy's problem.

"And when we adopted him." he continued. "We were told that he'd been fixed. However, six months later...we discovered he wasn't."

O.o

Well...okay....I had no idea where his explanation was going from there.

I do know that threeish years ago, the cats weren't always fixed. It became a policy after a year or so of me working there, that the adoption groups had to have their cats and dogs fixed before they could adopt them out. As we're trying to lessen the homeless pets problem. And there's no easier way for homeless pets to skyrocket than for pet owners to neglect to get their pets fixed.

Back when I first started, there usually was a voucher included where the new owners could take their new pet to a specific vet and have the procedure done without cost to the new pet parents.

So it's possible that the guy could have gotten such a voucher, but didn't pay attention to it as they assumed the cat was already fixed? Or the person who adopted the cat out thought that the cat had been fixed when it hadn't....

Who knows.

In any case the customer continued with. "it wasn't really an issue for us then, so we let it slide."

...... if you realized that the cat wasn't fixed.....why didn't you contact us or the adoption group at that point in time? Why did you let your cat remain unaltered if he needed to be neutered. >.<

Why are you NOW calling me TWO and a HALF years AFTER you discovered that the cat wasn't fixed?

"But now." he said. "We have a couple new animals in our house, and our cat is marking all over the place. So we were wondering if you would still honor that original promise that the cat was fixed and fix him for us."

Aka. We made a mistake not fixing him then, so can you fix him for us for free now?

>.<

Uh.

No?

You should have taken responsibility back in the beginning and gotten him fixed then before it became an issue.

As I've been told that once a cat starts marking their territory....fixing them doesn't always solve that problem. *shakes head*

In any case.

There was nothing I or my work could do for them.

My work just provides a location for adoption groups to adopt out their cats.

We don't do any of the shots/vaccinations/spaying/neutering etc.

It's all on the adoption group. They're in charge of that. So if they said they fixed a cat...and they hadn't....then the customer would need to go to them to solve the issue.

But with three years now passed??

Who knows what the adoption group would say.

The customer wanted to know if we had records of adoptions going back three years as they couldn't find the paperwork that told them which adoption group they adopted the cat from.

Again... No.

We don't keep records that long in the store.

Honestly....I'm not feeling that bad for them.

They should have acted when the problem was first discovered.

*shakes head*

Customers.

Customers.

Customers.

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi