The Mother Question

So we had two kittens come in last night with our adoption group.
And this morning, when I came into work, 
The two kittens had been moved down to join another cat in his cage. 

All three are orange tabbys. And all are boys.

Not knowing why they'd been moved down,
We kept the kittens in the larger cage with the other kitty. 

And towards the end of my shift I had this family come in.
Large family with like five or six kids. 
-They were moving around so much I really don't know how many there were.

And they wanted to look at the cats.
Specifically the kittens.
So I took them into the adoption room and the mother promptly noticed the larger orange tabby.
Immediately she asked. "Is that the mother?!"

Which....large cat, two small kittens....makes sense to think it would be the mom. But no. 

"No, he's a boy."
"Oh, so is it the Father?"
Another logical explanation for why there was a larger cat but again,
"No, they're not related."

"But they look exactly alike! They should be related!"
"They're the same breed." Was my response. Because really orange tabbies will look alike because they're all orange and striped. It's just the tiny differences in face shape, eyes, fur length, fur pattern that sets them apart. But that doesn't mean because they look similar that they're related.

The mother began to ask me another question, but then one of the daughters came in, saw the kittens and the cat and gasped before asking me. "Is that the mother?!"

Cue me having the exact same conversation I had just thirty seconds before. 

And when I'd reached about the same point in the conversation....
One of the other siblings too came in and asked me pointing to the larger cat. "Is that the mother?!" 

No....no dear children, the large cat isn't the mother since it's a boy and no it isn't the father, he's just in the cage.
But they didn't like that answer, so I finally had to say "he's in there to help the kittens feel protected." because why not, it works well enough. 

So the answer is...
No....he isn't the mother. lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Show and Tell

I had a horde of young mothers with their kids come into the store today.
Seriously, it was one family group after the other, all come to look at the animals and such. 

And I happened to be working on the reptiles, putting back all their decorations and such because I'd just cleaned the cages.
And the little kids would wander by and be like "Ooo!! A snake! Ooo!! A lizard!! Oooo A turtle!" 

So with which ever cage I happened to have open at that time, I would pull out the reptile in question that the child was pointing at, and give them the opportunity to pet them. 

lol It totally seemed to make the children's day.
Their eyes would light up and they would grin excitedly....when they weren't too shy to approach me and the reptile. lol. 

It definitely was a highlight to my work day. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Where Is It?

There was a gentleman today at work.
Who was looking for a specific filter.

He said that he'd gone to one of our sister stores in the next valley over and they'd had a specific filter system in their turtle tank that they'd sold him on, so he'd gotten it...

But now he was looking for replacement cartridges for that system and couldn't find it anywhere. 
So he'd come to our store hoping that we would carry the filter he had so he could buy the cartridges that belong with it.

So after asking a couple of questions.
And getting a description of what his filter system looked like.

I lead him to the filters that we usually use that were in the turtle section.

And thankfully, I helped him find the right size of filter that he was using. (as there were two sizes of filters of the type he described) 
And therefore was able to help him find the cartridges he needed for it.

So yay for having the product he needed in stock!! :D 
^^;; It's always a good feeling when I can help out customers find what they were looking for when they're not sure what exactly they're looking for. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Splash Zone

So there was a customer that wanted a couple of our large koi fish.
Which is always a bit of....trial getting them out.
As the Koi fish are prone to jumping and thrashing.
Which means if you don't fish them out correctly or pour them into the bag correctly.
They'll either jump out,
Or get you soaked with water.

And this customer wanted two koi fish....one in each bag.
Which meant double the trouble if the koi decided to be difficult.

The first one?
Easy peasy.
No problems.

The second one?
Not so much.

As I was pouring the koi into the bag he thrashed his tail just so.
And sent a wave of water straight into my face.
Temporarily blinding me because the koi managed to get splash the water into my eyes.
But thankfully, I still managed to pour the koi into the bag without losing him.
So his attempt to escape from being taking home by the customer definitely failed. 

*shakes head*
Silly fish.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Can I Have Those?

It always confuses me when customers ask me if they can have some of our dead fish.

I mean like....why would you even want a smelly dead fish?
I had a customer needing one, a couple years back, for some sort of video they were doing....

But other people? I have no idea why they'd want a smelly dead fish. 

And really...it just kinda depends on the people on if I say yes or no.
Or if I double check with a manager and if the manager on duty says yes or no.

So today, I had a young man.
Early teens maybe?
Who asked me if he could have some "dead fish that died of diseases."
To which my blank response was "....we don't sell dead fish."
Because we don't. 
And he was like "Well can I have some dead fish for free?" 
O.o 
Ummmm

So I went and checked with the manager on duty and he was fine with it.
So I went back and told this kid that yes he could have some dead fish if he wanted.

To which he said "great" and left for a bit to go wander the store....
Before he came back for his dead fish.
But it wasn't like I would just scoop out any old dead fish from our goldfish tanks. (as those die all the time. Y_Y ) 
No, he picked out the specific three dead goldfish that he wanted. So I fished them out and put them in a baggy for him.
And he was so excited about it.
And his mother? guardian? whoever, was happy that I had helped him out and such. 

*shakes head*

I really should have asked what he wanted with these 'dead fish that died of diseases.'
But I didn't because I'm not sure I actually want to know. :S 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bearded Dragon To and Fro

There was a father and his young son in the store today.
And the father wanted to get a bearded dragon.
So I took him through the run through of what would be needed for the bearded dragon.
The cage and the food and the heat and such.

Took him up to the register for the cashier to check him out,
And went to go help another customer. 
And not two minutes later, I got a call from the register.
Saying that the customer's card had been declined, so he decided not to get anything. 
Which meant I needed to gather the crickets and mealworms and the bearded dragon and put them all in their proper spots.
I only managed to put the bugs back where they belonged before I got waylaid for another two minutes helping a different customer.
And as I was finishing up with him...
I got called by the register again. 
Saying that the customer had come back and decided he actually wanted the bearded dragon now. 

O.o
Oh...kay....

Thankfully I hadn't put the bearded dragon back into it's cage yet.
So I was able to easily grab his container, and all the bugs and bring it back to the register.

Apparently the guy had tried paying twice for the bearded dragon.
Only for the machine to say his card was declined.
But when he checked his account, his bank account said he'd been charged twice for the bearded dragon, and only had the money returned on one of those....

I dunno what happened next.
Because I was called away to help a different customer,
But the manager was checking into the charges to make sure we'd actually charged him what was said on the account....
They must have figured it all out because I didn't get a third call from the register asking to grab the bearded dragon again. lol. 

Hopefully the father and son have fun with their new pet. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

On the Counter

I had a woman nearly leave one of her cards at the register today.
She'd pulled out one, realized it wasn't the card she wanted to use.
Set it on the counter.
And pulled out a different one.
But apparently forgot to put the other one back into her purse.
And I didn't realize.
And she didn't realize.
And so she paid with the one card.
And left.
And I didn't notice that she'd left the other card.
Until a couple of minutes later.
So I scooped it up.
Dashed outside to see if she was still there.
And saw her getting ready to pull out of the parking lot. 
In a gigantic truck....which was unexpected.
So I motioned for her to stop and ran up to her.
"Did you leave this card?"
To which she replied in the affirmative.
lol which is good since she'd left it at the counter.

I'm just glad I was able to catch her before she left.
Because who knew how long it would have taken her to realize she'd left her card at my work....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Moment More to Observe

So there I was, in the middle of putting birds out onto the floor. 
-I.E. Taking the birds from our backrooms and placing them in the cages on the floor to sale. 

Which involves me squeezing myself and the bird cage into our tiny bird enclosure, and then using a net to 'fish' out the birds from one cage, so I can place them in another cage.

And occasionally the birds get stuck in this net.
As their toenails just catch in the cloth lining, so you have to untangle their toenail from the net before they can fly free. 

Well, I had one bird do that today.
Where it got stuck briefly. 

Like really it couldn't have been more than thirty seconds. 
Maybe a minute. 

And then I got the bird untangled and went back to catching the other two.
Before shutting the cages, and getting myself out of the enclosure.
So like maybe another two minutes?

When my coworker came up to me saying. "So the cashier said that a customer said that there's a bird tangled in the cage?" 
I frowned in confusion, and glanced in the bird cages. Not seeing anything.

And then it hit me.
"Oh well I had a bird briefly stuck in the net as I was getting them into the cage." 

And my coworker was like "That was it!" 

*shakes head*

So apparently in the thirtyish seconds that the bird was stuck.
A customer saw that the bird was stuck....
But apparently didn't realize that I was in the cage there too...
Or that it should be odd for the door to be open and a bird stuck to a net....so should realize someone was in there...

and went dashing up to the front of the store to tell the cashier that there was a bird stuck in the bird cages. 

*shakes head*
If they'd waited like two seconds longer.....
They would have seen for themselves the bird get free. *exhales*

Customers are weird sometimes. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Over the Line

I had a customer call on the phone,
Asking if we had a certain product in the store.

It was one of our raw food brands. 
Which we do carry those.
But the customer on the phone was wanting to know if we carried it for cats.
So I was like "We do carry that brand but let me double check and see if we have any for cats there." 
And so as I was walking to our freezer/fridge that holds the raw foods, the customer proceeded to explain to me. 

"I don't like ordering products online."
That's okay I don't either.
"Because I don't trust the internet with my information."
A lot of people don't. 
"So usually for other places I just call the store and do my order over the phone, paying with my credit card by telling the person the number and such, do you do that at your store?" 

O.o 
"We don't unfortunately." was my response. Because we don't do orders over the phone.
Well...we almost never do them over the phone. The only time we can actually have a customer pay for something over the phone is if they're signing up for a dog training class. Then our registers actually have an option for 'phone transaction' that allows us to input their credit card so they can pay for a class without having to come in and sign up in person. 

But for buying cat food? 
No....
The closest we can get is the person orders the food online, and then we pick the order for the customer and have it ready for when they come into the store.
But that couldn't be an option for the customer since they just stated that they didn't like ordering things online. 

To which, once I said we don't she was like "Oh, okay." and hung up on me....
Before I could tell her if we had the product she was looking for in the store and in stock. *exhales* So I hope she didn't come into the store only to find that her product wasn't there.

But still....
I find it interesting....
That she refuses to put in her credit card information online because she's concerned about safety and such....
But is perfectly willing to tell a stranger on the other end of a phone that same information.

I mean....it's basically the same concept. The only difference is that you're hearing the voice of a person on the other side of the phone.

But how can you really trust that person? It could be a bad employee, or some stranger who randomly decided to pick up the phone....but giving your information over the phone....idk if that's any safer than doing it online....

I guess for both it really just depends on the website you visit and the person you're talking to....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Dithering Answers

So I was just leaving the area behind our fish wall, with my hands full of hayballs for our guinea pigs when I noticed a couple of girls, probably in their first year or two of college, looking at the fish. So I paused in my walk to the guinea pigs to see if they were doing alright. 

To which one girl was like "Yah!" 

To which I was like, great they're just looking, and was about to turn away when the second girl was like "Well we actually want to get some fish." 

Which...I never understand why customers do that. Say that they're fine, and then two seconds later decide they need help. Maybe it's a knee jerk reaction to say you don't need help? 

In any case. 

I was like Okay they need fish. So I set down my hay balls and asked them "What fish do you need?" as I went to grab for the net. 

"These ones." 

Was the answer that I got....which isn't helpful when I'm not looking at the fish when they say that.

But I assumed since they were standing in front of the feeder goldfish tanks, that they were the ones that the girls meant. 

So I moved to the tanks and was like "How many do you want?" 

"A bunch." 

.....

.......

.........

You do realize that that doesn't tell me anything right, dear customer? I have no idea what number you think a 'bunch is' and apparently they didn't know either.

As when I asked them "How many is a bunch?"

They reacted like I had just asked them how to do calculus. 

and honestly...it's not rocket science to say "I need this many fish." 

Yet to some people...it does require a good deal of thinking. 

The two customers turned to each other. Debating how many they wanted.

I helpfully suggested the number thirty. 

To which they eventually agreed on.

And then as I was bending down by the small feeders I was like "You want smalls right?" 

To be met with the clueless stares again. 

"Smalls?"

"Yah, the goldfish come in large, small, or extra small." I told them. "The large are 29 cents, the small and extra small are 14 cents each." 

And one of the girls was like "So what's the difference?"

....I just told you. But I gestured to the tanks "Those tanks over there have large goldfish for 29 cents, these four have small goldfish for 14 cents and the last two over there have extra small goldfish for 14 cents as well."

And the girl was like "So these ones are extra small?" she pointed to the tank I was crouched next to.

"No, these ones are small." -Obviously she hadn't been listening the first time around. *exhales* 

"So the ones over there are smaller?"

"Sometimes. The extra small and small come in sometimes the same size, but that's why they're the same price." 

"So what's the difference then?" 

THE SIZE!!! I wanted to yell at her. >.< ugh.

And her friend was like "I guess the other ones have been in the tanks longer because they're larger."

"Uhm no. They come into our store at the same time, these ones are just smaller those are larger." 

Thankfully her friend was just like "we'll get thirty smalls then." She was the decision maker of the two. 

But then the first customer was like "....well maybe we should get extra small as well?" 

To which her friend logically replied. "No one wants an extra small fish when they can have a larger fish, we'll just get the smalls." 

So I fish out the smalls, counting them out into a container.

And when I was nearly done the first customer was like "how many fish is that." 

So I finished counting out thirty and held them up and said. "This is thirty."

I was met with disbelief. 

Because thirty fish doesn't look like thirty when you first see them.

No it looks like only ten or so at first glance.

Because numbers are visually deceiving. 

But they were like "That's thirty?! No, we need more than that!" 

"How many do you need?" I asked them. 

And to no ones surprise they had to dither about that number too...

And finally settled on a hundred after discussing numbers between fifty and five hundred.

I fished out that hundred as quickly as I could.

And happily sent them on their way because I didn't want to have to deal with their indecisiveness about making decisions any more. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Grooming Applicant

So there I was, leaning in the doorway of the office, chatting with the manager on duty.
When a woman comes up wanting help.
What does she want?
I wasn't quite sure as when she spoke, the words she used didn't connotate anything in my brain so it just sounded like gibberish to me. 
Turns out she was looking for the "Store Director" 
Aka in my terms "The Head Manager" 
Aka in store terms "The Store Leader" 

And because I didn't hear her correctly the first time, I asked her what she had just said.
And she gave me this look of "are you stupid?" 
And...that's when I decided I didn't like her.

It also didn't help that she had quite the 'mightier than thou' attitude going on.

In any case.
She wanted to see the Head Manager in order to see if we were actually looking for another groomer. 
-As on our website apparently we have it listed that we're looking for a groomer.

But in those situations where people ask us if we're hiring our response is "We're always accepting applications."
Because you never know when people are going to up and quit on us, so it's possible that we're not actively hiring today but we'll need to hire someone in a week or so. You never know.

But she didn't like that response.
Because she didn't want to 'go through the effort' of applying if it wasn't going to come to anything.

Apparently she'd already applied to us before, but couldn't get hired because she'd failed to complete a portion of some test or something? O.o Who knows. 

In any case, we -the manager on duty and I- couldn't really answer her questions on if we were actively looking for groomers or not because we're not the hiring manager -who is incidentally different from the head manager- 

And so she decided that we weren't actually needing any groomers now.
Why?
Because when she'd apparently walked past the grooming salon, the two girls in there were sitting and chatting, not grooming dogs.
Which to her meant that they didn't have enough work to do. 
-Which we did explain that mid week Tues, Wed, and Thurs are slower days.
But she seemed to think our groomers should be actively calling customers to bring in dogs to groom, and that all the stations should be full of groomers grooming dogs, etc. 

She basically made it sound like the groomers currently in the store were the laziest people ever for not constantly working on dogs.

>.< 
To which I was getting rather...irritated by.
It's not like you're expected to work on a dog every single second. Nor can you blame the groomers for not having anything to do.
After all there are dogs that need to finish drying from their baths, there are little spaces between dogs where you take a quick breather, there are customers who fail to show up with their dogs leaving the groomer with nothing to do....

But honestly. 
I didn't like this customer's attitude.

Especially when I walked up to the front not even thirty seconds after this customer left us,
And saw not two girls chatting, but FOUR groomers ALL working on Dogs in the Salon. 
They were working. Not being idle. 
>.< 
So my irritation at this customer was roused even further because she was overexaggerating what our groomers were or were not doing. 

*exhales*
I hope that even if she does apply....we don't hire her. We don't need that sort of attitude in the store. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Do You Have A Coupon?

So I was backing up register one,
Mostly because I was the only other person in the store available to do so.
When a woman comes up to me and basically slams down a product on the counter.

That product being a seat cover for the back bench of your car so that you can have your doggy there without it's fur getting all over the seats. 

And she was like: "Do you have any coupons for this product because it's really expensive!" 

-It was $60- 

And we basically never have coupons for things. 
Rarely we'll have some for like dog food or cat litter.
But I've never seen a coupon for the travel stuff.

Still.
I humored her and checked in the register drawer, though I knew nothing was there. 
"No, sorry." 
"But this is sooo expensive!"

....yah...and there's not much I can do about it. You can either buy it or leave it.

She proceeded to ask: "Do you  know if this is on sale online?" 

To which I responded. "I don't sorry." 

And I could have pulled out my cell phone to check into our website and look for her.

But I was kinda tired of people not wanting to pay the stated price and expecting me to be able to fix it for them.
So I suggested to her instead, knowing that I had a smart phone myself in my pocket, "do you have a smart phone? You could look it up real quick." 

To which she did have a smart phone!!
....In her car.

So she couldn't actually look up the price to see if it would be cheaper online, because we do price match our online store. 

In the end...she ended up buying the product for full price.
Took it out to her car.
Realized that it wasn't right, and brought it back inside with the intentions to return it and get a different product.

I don't know if she succeeded in finding that other product...
But hopefully she left the store successful in her ventures.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Slow Recovery

So, we've had a Bearded Dragon that's been off the floor since like...April. 
Why?
Because he wasn't eating and was getting super skinny.
So we took him off the floor in order to nurse him back to health.

Only...it's been a rather long arduous journey.
Filled with setbacks....like when the crickets in the cage started eating the bearded dragon. :S That was a couple of weeks of medication to get it to heal in of itself.

But the main problem with this bearded dragon...
Is that he's not eating on his own.

Pretty consistently since April, we've been having to feed him like a mush diet through a syringe just to keep him alive. 
-It was decided he might have had an injury in his mouth that was preventing him from wanting to eat the live crickets and mealworms.

However, after a certain point.
I began to feed the bearded dragon mealworms. 
Which involved me getting his mouth open and placing the mealworm in his mouth to convince him to eat it. 
*exhales* 
Such a time consuming process. 

And a bit ago, I decided to switch it up.
And start placing crickets in the bearded dragon's mouth. 

But!
Finally!
This past week the bearded dragon has actually been attempting to eat on his own!

Mostly in that if I hold the mealworm or cricket out in front of him, he will attempt to strike out at it.
And occasionally will try and eat the crickets running around the cage.

Though I think his depth perception is off.
Because he doesn't quite strike in the right area to actually capture the cricket.

And this morning, he seemed to be able to see the crickets really well....when they were in a baggy....outside the cage....which he can't actually get the crickets through the glass....but he would try to strike at them,
But would ignore them once the crickets were actually inside the cage with him. *shakes head* 

Eventually we might get him eating consistently on his own...
It's just going to take a lot of patience. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Half Bad?

There was a gentleman looking a bit lost down one of our dog food aisles today.
So I made the choice to actually go see if he needed help.

And it turned out he didn't really need help.
He was just faced with a conundrum.

Of being faced with a possibly good deal.
Where the bag of dog food he usually buys was on a "Buy One, Get One Half Off" sale. 

And his words to me were: 
"I have a small dog, and she doesn't go through the bag that fast. So if I get the second bag it will go bad."

Which...I was already slightly confused because....dog food has a pretty long life span. I mean the expiration dates on those things are often times a year or two out. 
So the fact that the customer was stating that he wouldn't use the dog food before it went bad...was confusing.
Because I'm pretty sure that once the bag is open it's still good for upwards to 3 months. (don't quote me on that) 
And most bags of dog food last about a month....depending on the dog.
So I really couldn't see why the owner would be concerned.

But the kicker to this story is that since he was convinced the second bag wouldn't last before it went bad. He was like "So could you discount the bag" -that was already basically 50% off- "another 25% since half of the bag will go bad before I get to it?" 

O.o
Uhm.
No?
No.

The guy literally had just asked me to give him a 75% discount on the second bag of food.

O.o
Why?
Why would you even think to ask that?
Do you go to your local grocery store and say "Oh hey I'm only going to manage to eat half of this loaf of bread before it goes bad so could I buy it for half price instead?" 

No. No you don't. 

So why would you ask the same thing for the food?

It's greedy. It's such a cheapskate method. 
It's....so weird.

I mean, if you know the food won't last. Don't. Buy. It.
Simple as that.
Why waste the money if you know it's not going to last? 

-He did only end up getting one bag in the end.

But still....such a weird thing to be asked of me. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Batterys

I ran into an older gentleman at work today.
Who was looking for a remote control collar to well...control his dog.
Usually when people are looking for the electronic collars its for bark control.
But surprisingly....
He wanted to use it as a training tool.
To prevent his dog from doing naughty behaviors and such.

So I lead the guy to the collars, and did my best to explain which option I thought would be the best for him.
-Which I have rather limited knowledge in dog/cat sections since I don't usually deal with those problems on a daily basis.
But we eventually found a solution and I got him the collar he wanted to try out.
-Since he can return it within a certain time frame if it doesn't work out. 

And that was basically the last I expected to see of him as he headed up front to check out.

Only a couple of hours later....
I see him trying to get help from my manager.
As he couldn't get the remote part of the remote control collar to work.

But my manager was trying to leave work, and so basically handed the situation to me.
Which...again....I don't know much about control collars....like at all....
But I'm willing to give it a shot.

And I'm quite good at puzzling my way through the problem and finding a solution.

This one ended up being rather simple.

The customer had believed that he only needed to put one battery into the remote instead of both.
So it was a matter of putting both batteries into the remote and walla!! It worked!! lol.

He wanted me to open up the collar portion of the setup as well, to ensure the battery was placed in correctly in that portion too....
But unfortunately it required a mini screwdriver to open it....and I couldn't find one in the store.
So I was unable to help him in that part.

But at least I figured out his original problem! :D

-Sarnic Dirchi

Where?

So there was a woman looking at the fish today with her children. 
And she went up to one of the platy tanks. 
The Red Wag ones -which are red fish with black fins. 
And asked me "Do you have any other platys besides these orange ones?"

Well...first off, they're red. 
Second off. "Yah." I gesture to the tank column to the right of the one she was looking at and the fish tank below her. "These tanks here have platys in them." 

And what does she do?
She looks up.
To the one tank I didn't gesture to, I was purposeful in not moving my hand that direction.
And stated "Those are MOLLIES!"
"Yah. They are, Like I said." Gesturing again to the other five tanks. "These ones here have the platys in them." 

And what does she do?
She looks at the top tank....
That actually doesn't have any platys in them currently.

And goes. "Where?"
"That tank doesn't have any currently, but we'll be getting more in tomorrow."
"So you'll have more of these white ones?" She asks gesturing to the blue wag tag. 
"We should, but I can't guarantee it. Our fish show up tomorrow. If they're on the truck they'll be here tomorrow." 

She glanced at the other platys. Very very briefly.

And thankfully decided to come back tomorrow to get fish.
Which was great.
Because I really didn't want to have to deal with her any longer. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Seriously?

I was helping a woman and her son today at the store.
As the son was picking out fish for their 20 gallon fish tank since they now didn't have any fish in it. 

Which was all fine and good.
Until he started picking out too many fish.

As you don't want to add in a ton of fish at once in into a fish tank because it can stress out your fish and cause them to die if chemicals in the water get too out of wack too quickly.

So I interrupted after the kid had picked out about 6 fish and was going for me by saying.

"I would recommend only getting around six fish this week since you have a twenty gallon tank. As adding too many fish at once can stress out your tank, so I'd say get six this week and then come back next week and grab six more fish. You probably don't want more than about twelve in the tank total." 

To which the mother considered for a second or two.
Before saying basically. "I'm going to risk it, because I have a long drive." 

Which, considering I have people come from 3 or 4 hours away to our store to come get fish....
Yah, I can totally understand not wanting to make that drive twice in a month. So I can see why they'd rather push their luck and get all the fish now, instead of waiting. 

So I was prepared to be sympathetic and give my understanding and such.

When the customer continued. "It takes me 35 minutes to get here." 

.......
Seriously? 
35 minutes is not that long of a drive.
Anything under an hour is not a long drive. 

Knowing that I have people come from 4 hours away to get fish....it's not that long of a drive. 

*shakes head*
But whatever.
I got her the fish her son wanted.
They ended up with like 15 fish.
So I really won't be surprised if at least half of them die....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Difficult Customer

The store had barely been open for like half an hour when I encountered a rather....difficult customer to deal with.
I'd been chatting with one of our dog food reps, when this older woman, grey hair, and already with an attitude that screams "trouble" a mile away came up to me: 

Me: *walking past the dog food section when customer approaches*
Customer: Do you have *fancy medical terminology* here?
Me: O_o *stares at her dumbly waiting for more clues as to what she's actually looking for*
Customer: Should I go ask someone else?...
Me: *bristles* I can help you, but what is it your looking for?
Customer: I'm looking for *fancy medical terminology*
Me: .... What is it for?
Customer: It's stuff to help with hairballs for cats!
Me: *thinking* Well why didn't you say so in the first place? *Says* Yah we carry stuff for hairballs over here. I'm not sure if we have the particular one you're looking for but we can check.
Customer: *pulls product off the shelf* What can you tell me about this one?
Me: That it works for hairballs??
Customer: Does it contain calories?
Me: .... Anything you give the cat to eat would have calories in it.... But I don't know how many calories it contains no.

It was one of those encounters where I didn't like the woman right off the bat. The way she spoke to me just...made it seem like she thought I was just 'another dumb kid' who 'doesn't know anything' which is hardly true.

I know a lot. A lot more than most of my coworkers in the store. 

But that doesn't mean I know everything, and the cat section and dog sections of the store are my weaker areas because I don't often deal with things there. My department focuses on other animals. Not the cats and dogs. So my knowledge, is there....but if you ask the wrong question....I give what answers and suggestions I can. 

*exhales* 

So I helped her find her hairball thingy....and thought it was done. 

But no. No it wasn't. She then turned to me and told me:

Customer: My cat isn't drinking water. Do you have anything to convince her to do so?
Me: ... No, we don't carry anything like that... You could try using a fountain---
Customer: No, that won't work! We're on the road travelling. Guess I'll just have to mix in wet cat food into the water like I've already been doing. Where's your cat cans?
Me: *forgoes offering other suggestions* *points* All our cat food is over there. 

By this time, I kinda figured that I just need to get her to her cat can food and get her out of my hair. 

Really, I could have just pointed and walked away,

But I'm a good little helper and I wanted to make sure the customer was finding everything she needed. 

*exhales* 

Me: The cat food is behind the aisle of litter boxes
Customer: Oh! Maybe I should get another litter box. What's your cheapest one?
Me: *points to $4 litter box*
Customer: That's too small! Don't you have anything bigger or disposable?...
Me: *Points out both to the customer*
Customer: Those are so expensive!!
Me: Well the disposable ones come with cat litter already.
Customer: What kind of litter?
Me: Probably a clay based one. *Pulls down the pan to show customer*
Customer: But is this litter scented?
Me: Usually they label them if they're scented and I don't see one here.
Customer: They also usually say 'unscented' on the label too if it doesn't have a scent and that's not here either.
Me: *figuratively throws hangs up in the air* *thinking* Lady, what do you want from me!?

Honestly. I couldn't figure this lady out.

Because basically every suggestion I made was met with "no, that's not what I meant" or a response that left me feeling like I'd just wasted my time, or that she thought I was just a 'dumb' kid. which totally got my back up. >.< 

I was frustrated. 

And really really just wanted to leave.

But I'm also very stubborn.

So I eventually got the customer to the cat cans....only to encounter another problem.

Customer: Do you have any cans of cat food that are beef flavoring?
Me: I'm not sure. We can go check. What brand do you usually bu--
Customer: Oh, I don't care so long it's beef flavored. Do you know where those are?
Me: The food is divided by brand so it depends on the brand you're looking at....
Customer: I don't care.
Me: Well most of the time the flavors are chicken or salmon. I don't usually see beef in the cat section but we can see.
Customer: You guys don't carry beef flavored cat food anymore!?! *Making it sound like all cat food should be beef flavored*
Me: It's not a common one no. I don't recall seeing one but let me look. *Goes up and down aisle*
Customer: I can't believe you don't carry beef ones, I've always bought beef.
Me: Which brand do you usually bu--
Customer: It doesn't matter so long as it's beef.
Me: *thinking* Well if you'd just tell me the stupid brand you usually get then I could help you much faster by taking you to that brand instead of searching up and down every aisle for a can that's labeled beef.

Seriously!! This happened!!

Gah. 

Like I said.

Cat/Dog isn't my usual section in the store.

I don't pay attention to flavors or such when it comes to dog or cat food.

I can lead you to the brand, and then from there narrow down the search.

But do I know off the top of my head which brands of food carry which flavors?

No, no I don't.

Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with her after that point because she'd finally found everything she needed. 

Yaaaaaay.

Because by the end of this like twenty minute exchange I was totally ready to strangle her because she was being sooo unhelpful in helping me to figure out what she wanted because she was acting like I should know what she wanted even though she didn't really know what she wanted in the first place.

So. Very. Frustrating.

I was glad to see her leave. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Cold

It happens on occasion at work.
Where we have an animal die. 
Sometimes the cause is rather obvious like: The hamster killed the other hamster. 
Other times...it's less obvious. As one day they were fine and the next day....they weren't. 

Today was one of those 'why did you die?' sort of moments.

As I was opening one of our back rooms, checking animals and their food and water levels...
And I opened up a cage that had a single robo dwarf hamster in it, curled up in a ball.

Only...he didn't move. 
Y_Y a closer check showed that he was dead....
And I can't help but wonder, 
If he got a bit too cold?

I mean, I thought he was fine the last time I checked in on him at work. Alert, active, moving around.
So to see him not even two days later...lifeless.
It was a bit concerning. 

And I wonder...if its because the room that he was in is currently having troubles staying warm.
I come in and the room is in the low sixties when it should be in the seventies.
-The heater in the room broke, and we're working to get a replacement in. 

But...did it get too cold for that hamster? All the others were fine....
Or was it some other issue that we couldn't see....

Who knows....
I just know it was a rather depressing way to start my morning.

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Random Cage

The other morning I came into work, and during opening...I came upon the most unexpected object.

It was in our bird enclosure.
I opened up the door in order to access the tiny space where I can grab food and water out from the bird cages.
And discovered this random bird cage sitting on the floor within. 

It's pretty cool looking if I do say so myself.
Made of bamboo and wood and such.
Very delicate.

And definitely something we don't sell in the store.

So I had to wonder....
Why was it in our store, in our bird enclosure?

The obvious answer was that someone had returned a bird or two.
(They returned Zebra finches) 

But why would they have left the cage?
I mean...it was a very cool looking cage.
So why leave it?

Maybe it was on accident. 
And they were coming back for it?

In any case.

I didn't want it to get destroyed or anything.
-It's rather delicate. A parakeet would chew through it in ten seconds. 

So I pulled it out and set it in the back.
Normally random things like this would probably get thrown away.
and I didn't want that.
It was a cool cage!

So I set it aside.
Left a note asking if my coworkers knew if the people who had the cage were coming back, and if not, to not throw away the cage, as I would take it.

what would I do with a bird cage?
No idea.
But I definitely didn't want it broken and destroyed.

So tonight.
I rescued it.
Because I got confirmation that the original owners weren't coming back for it.

Now that cage is home....
Dunno what I'll end up doing with it.
But at least it's not going to be destroyed in the dumpster.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Fellow Noisemaker

Customers have some rather interesting philosophies when it comes to their pets.
Some of them are more accurate than others.

Today, I helped two grandmas with picking out a parakeet.

You see they wanted to get the parakeet to be a companion for their cockatiel that they already had. 

Which upon first hearing that I was worried that they were wanting to put both birds in the same cage...which is hardly a good idea.

But they were quick to reassure me that they were going to have the two birds in separate cages.
But next to each other.
That way the two birds could 'talk' to each other and keep each other company whenever the women needed to leave the house. 

As they felt that their cockatiel was getting lonely.

Which I thought was a sweet gesture.
Not sure how well it's going to work out,
But I was quite happy to help them out in picking up things they would need for the bird and catching the parakeet itself. 

Hopefully the cockatiel likes his new tiny companion. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Four Cent Difference

So this morning, just before we opened. Like just under 10 minutes before we opened for the day.
A customer came to the doors.
Which we had shut. 
Because we weren't open yet.
But he wanted in.
Why?
Because our sign said we were open. 
And he ignored the manager when he said "no, only grooming is open, the main store isn't open yet." 
Basically he was like "The store says your open! Therefore let me in." 
Not sure why the manager chose to let him in.
Probably because we were almost open anyways. 

In any case.
I saw this customer head towards the crickets. 
And so I made my way over there, only to find him trying to self bag his own crickets. 
>.< 
Not something we do here in the store.
So I offered to help him. 
And got him his 8 crickets that he needed. 

Only to have to help him at the register too....because we weren't open yet, therefore....there was no cashier standing there.

So we get to the register, 
but before I can ring him up.
He realizes that he's forgotten his wallet.

Which....how do you forget your wallet? O.o It's such an odd concept to me. How can you forget to take the thing that more than likely has your drivers license in it?? O.o 
(happens more than you would think.) 
Only he hadn't left his wallet in his car, he'd left it back home apparently.
So he was scrounging around his car searching for change.

And came back with 26 cents. 

Which is a far cry from enough money that he needed to buy crickets. As they were 15 cents each. 

So two would ring up to like 30 cents. 
But since he didn't have the money.
I rang him up for just one cricket. 
Which was 16 cents. (a penny in tax) 

So he paid for the one cricket.
I took the bag back to fish out the other seven crickets.
And gave him just the one. 

And thought that was that.....

Until a little bit later.
When my coworker -who had shown up by that point to be on register.

Told me that that customer was pissed off at me. 

O.o 
Which took me aback.
Why would he be mad at me?? I hadn't done anything?!?
My coworker thought the same thing. As they'd seen me interacting with the guy, and hadn't seen any thing that would warrant him being mad at me. I mean, I may not like people that can't comprehend store hours. But that doesn't mean I'm not nice to them. I still try to be helpful....so why in the world would he be mad?/

Well...
Apparently he was mad at me because I did my job properly.
He was mad at me because I didn't just take the 26 cents and let him have two crickets. 

He told my coworker that I should have had "a little bit of charity towards him." 
Which dude....it's your own idiotic fault you forgot your wallet. If you had remembered that you could have had all your crickets instead of just the one.
Besides, we're not running a charity here, it's a business. 
And you asking me to just take the 26 cents and ignore the other 4 cents is basically asking me permission to let you steal from the store.

*rolls eyes* 
Honestly, I know it's just a cricket. 
and 4 cents seems a bit silly to get worked up over. 
But with money one the line, I can't ring you up for two crickets and then short change the register. Because we have to count the cash within. And if it doesn't match up....there's trouble there. 
I wasn't going to make more work for my coworkers/managers to appease this angry man. 

Truthfully, I had, while I was unbagging the crickets to fish them back out again, considered just leaving two in there. But decided against it. 
Mostly because I didn't like the guy. After all, he'd come in before we were open. I don't like people that can't read our hours. Plus. He'd only paid for one. So one he was going to get.

I do wonder if he came back for more crickets....if he did...it was either after I'd left, or while I was elsewhere in the store. *shakes head*
Hopefully he learns to remember his wallet from this experience. Maybe even learn the hours on our doors...maybe....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Out of Reach

I'm not a tall person. 
But I have learned how to use my tip toes and reach to grab things that are normally out of easy reach for me. 

Which comes in handy when I have customers who need my help.
Who are shorter than me. 
Because then, sometimes I can reach the item that they can't reach themselves and help them get it.
And if we both can't get it....at least I know where some handy step stools are so I can actually reach this item.

Today though was one of those days where I was able to reach the item without the step stool. 

I was in the middle of helping another customer, 
Leading them to an aisle closer to the front of the store to help them find their product that they were looking for.
When I happened to notice another customer, an older woman, who was looking a little lost. 
I made a note of it, and after I finished helping the one customer....
Nearly I went back to my own department. 
But on a whim, I went back to check in on that customer looking lost in the dog food.

And it turns out she did need help.
Not because she was lost in looking for a product or anything.
No, it was because she couldn't reach the product she was needing to get, because she was a couple inches shorter than me, and needed someone to grab the product on the top shelf in the back.

Thankfully I had enough of a reach on my tip toes without needing to go find a ladder to grab the product for her. 

Yay for being able to help customers. ^^ 

-Sarnic Dirchi