Lumpy

So I took a guinea pig to the vet today.

Because I noticed, when I was trying to put him out onto the floor, that he had this larger lump on his chin.

It was a lump that I'd seen before.
As we'd been treating the area for ringworm.
But it had been smaller back then.
Looking more like the jaw was just oddly shaped.

Than an actual issue.
Plus with the ring worm making the area bald...
It's hard to tell what looks normal and what doesn't look normal when there's no fur where there's supposed to be fur.

So I took it over to the vet.
And the first thing he says to me is "If it's an abscess on the jaw....it's not going to be good. I have no way to treat that."

Which I thought was an odd conclusion to come to.
As I've seen a few lumps on a guinea pig's chin before.

And more times than not. It's just an infection that needs to be drained. Swollen with liquid and such.
I mean. When I briefly touched it, it felt harder than that.
But at the same time.
I figured it would be a fixable problem.

And I was right.
The Vet was able to drain the lump.
and now we just need to treat the guinea pigs with meds until it's healed up.

Easy peasy.
*fingers crossed* That he doesn't end up with other issues in the process.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Plastic Groom

So I saw a little girl in the store earlier this morning, while I was working on cleaning the bird cages.
Who had a little plastic dog toy on a leash that she would drag everywhere.

Which I thought was cute.
But I didn't think more on it after she left my sight as I was busy trying to get the cages all cleaned and put back together before it got busy with customers in the store.

But it turns out, the little girl loves dogs and loves watching the dogs in our Grooming Salon get groomed, and she's always wanted her little plastic dog to get groomed. 

So today one of our groomers did just that.
They grabbed some doggie wipes and wiped all the scuff marks off the toy, put some rubberband bows on the dog's ears, and brushed the doggies teeth for her. 

The mother ended up tipping her in the end. Which was gratifying.

But the little girl was just so happy that her toy doggie had gotten 'groomed.' 
And it was definitely a highlight to my coworker's day lol. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Busy?

It's always hard to judge how busy the day after Christmas will be at work.
Because it's hard to know how many people will choose to come into the store after the holiday.
Especially on a weekday. 
I was expecting it to get busy.
Mostly because it's the day after the holiday. 
But at the same time. 
It's a week day.
So a lot of people would need to go back to work today as not everyone had it off. 

But after everyone's work shifts?
Oh yah.
Totally got busy, so my coworkers told me (as I had to drop by work to grab something) 
So fun for them.

Me though?
It was mostly fielding phone calls.
As customers called to see if we had certain animals in stock.

The most popular one being the question of "Do you have any guinea pigs?"
Nope.
I sold the last of them on Monday.
I'm out until Sunday. :S 

The next popular was if we had kittens.
Which again. Nope.
We adopted them all out Saturday.
Dunno when we're getting more in. 

So yah.
That was fun answering the same question over and over again lol. 

Not too bad, but it did make it difficult to finish opening when I constantly had to walk away to check the oddball requests and such. 

Overall though, I'm glad it wasn't too busy. :D Hopefully it stays that way tomorrow. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tank Size?

So the store was kinda crazy today.
Understandable.
Day before Christmas.
Lots of people coming into the store to get their kids pets or set ups for pets for the holiday and such.

And I had an older couple in the store.
Looking at potential tanks to give to....someone.

I never quite got who they were getting it for. 
But the original intention went from buying fish to buying a tank for someone else. 

So the woman wanted to look at tank setups and such. 
So I guided her to the aisle of tanks.
Gesturing to the closest one.
Which was a 55 gallon size.

Just to kinda explain what could come in the tanks and such.
And I guess the woman hadn't realized that the tanks...were actually on the shelf.
She just thought that they were...pictures? I guess?

I mean all the tanks are in boxes.
So you only see a picture of the tank on the outside of the box.
But the tanks are right there. 
In the box.

But the customer was like "I need to see the size of this tank! How big is it?"

….."It's the size of the box."

"But how big is it?! What does it look like!"

…..*exhales*
It took a bit. To clarify that the tanks are in the boxes and that the tanks are the SIZE of the boxes.
Like you look at the box that's basically the size of the tank.
-They're slightly smaller than box...you know to have some protectively packaging and such. 

Still managed to get it through to the customer in the end.
And the couple ended up buying a 20 gallon tank to take home. 

So hopefully that works out well for them. :D

-Sarnic Dirchi

Class Pet

So a few days ago, I had a customer come into the store.
A teacher.
Who'd been given a giftcard by the parents of his students (I think is how it went) so he could buy himself a classpet. 

Which he was so excited about!

Except the giftcard didn't cover the entire cost of the cage and set up and everything.
It really only covered like half the cost of everything.

But after going over different potential pets.
I mentioned to him that we had another sale that would be starting in a few days (Today)
And it's possible that the setups he was looking at would go on sale that day.

-I had no idea though as we don't know our own sales really until we put the stickers up in the store.

So today.
He came back in. -As he'd left the other day without buying anything. 

And discovered that the tank he'd been looking at had indeed gone on sale. 

Which put the price point of buying a Bearded Dragon and the entire setup much more in an affordable price range for him.

So he ended up buying the bearded dragon and everything. 
And left the store quite happy. ^^;; 

Yay. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Snails?

It's a common question we get asked. 
Why there's a single goldfish in our tanks. 

Today was no exception.

A customer was interested in getting fish for their tank.
And they asked the question.
Why is there a goldfish in every tank?

To which I gave the answer.

They're in there to eat the snails.

Because goldfish love eating snail eggs and baby snails. So it helps to keep the pest ones under control while we work to get rid of them. 

But this time.
The customer asked me a question I hadn't been asked before. 

"Where are the snails?" 

…..
"Eaten." 
Was my response. 

I mean...that's why the goldfish were in the tanks....
To eat the snails.
Therefore if there's no snails in the tanks...
That means they got eaten. 

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Banished

The new managers in the store have such the interesting dynamic.

Like. I don't even know why it happened. Or what the circumstances were that provoked this to happen.

But the Head Manager banished our Associate Lead to the first aisle of the store.

Aka. She couldn't go past the first aisle/register area.

*shakes head*

I don't know what caused it.

But definitely was one of the odder things to happen recently in the store.

It only lasted for half an hour or so.

But still...

Never had a Lead banished to a specific part of the store before lol. 

Walked Out

We had a guinea pig stolen last night.

Which....I still don't quite understand how that happened.
Like I get how it happened happened.
But like the fact that it happened is still a bit mind-boggling.

One of my coworkers was showing some customers a guinea pig.
The large one in our main cage. 
-Which the associates have taken to naming some of the animals when they stay in our sick room, and this guinea pig was one of those animals. They named him Scott.

In any case.
My coworker had Scott out and the customers were holding him,
When another associate needed my coworker's help with the birds.

….Which is when things get fuzzy.

Like...I don't know why my coworker didn't put the guinea pig back before helping the customer.
Or if the fellow associate was supposed to have been switching places and helping with the guinea pig...and then didn't.
:S Had this associate gone to grab paperwork?
Had they not known that the guinea pig needed to be watched?

I don't know what happened.

But next thing was that the cashier noticed the people walking out of the store...and then possibly saw the guinea pig when they got in the car.
-So like maybe the put him in a pocket or inside their jacket and hid Scott from the associate's view.

In any case.
Yah, the customers stole Scott.

Which has all my coworkers up in arms about it. Because that was a NAMED guinea pig therefore more special. *shakes head*

I still wish I knew why my associate didn't put the guinea pig away first. 
Probably miscommunication. 
Possibly distraction and not thinking.

In any case.
Hopefully the thieves ended up at a different store to buy supplies for their stolen pet. Because they had nothing to keep him in or feed him with when they left.

*exhales*
Some people.
Why?
Why steal?
I don't get it.

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Lid

An older woman came into the store today.
Looking for a lid for the tank that she'd bought.

Which of course I can find a li---

Then she said it was  2.5 gallon tank. 

:S

….I don't sell lids that small.
Glass top lids come in 10 gallon size at the smallest. 

I mean, we had a tank that size that for like maybe 6 months came with a glass top lid.

But that was a year or two ago.

I've never, to my recollection have sold the lids by themselves.

The customer though?

She was insistent that she'd gotten lids that size from the store before.
She'd bought them.
So we HAD to have them.

At this point I wasn't even sure when she'd bought the tank. Like I'd been thinking recently.
But as she was talking....idk if this was an older tank or an older tank.

*exhales*

So I was like "Well, in the past 6 years I've been working here--"

To which she interrupted me and was like "Oh! I bought the lids like 15 years ago!" 

…
…
…
…

"Well in the past SIX years I've been Here we haven't sold the lids."

It confused the customer to hear that.

Apparently she thought that if we sold it once upon a time.
We would then ALWAYS sell it.

*shakes head*

Nope.
That's not how retail works unfortunately.
Some products stay pretty much the same.
But companies and makers of things are always looking to improve things. 
So designs are changing, styles are changing, sizes come in and out of favor.

Companies stop making products.
Or change them.
Or stop selling them in our location because they weren't popular sellers. 

So yah.
We didn't have the lids.

"Where am I going to find one then!" was her demand.

*shrugs* I have no idea.
Online is the easiest answer.

But of course She "doesn't do the online shopping." *shakes heads* 
So maybe it would be our competitor or the local pet stores that have them.

But honestly I don't know. 

Hopefully she finds one eventually though.

-Sarnic Dirchi 

A Needed Pair

Had a gentleman come into the store today wanting two parakeets because he wants to breed them.
The only problem?
Often our parakeets come in too young to be able to tell the gender.
As they're usually 3-4 months old when they come in.
And the coloration above their beaks only starts to come in around 3-4 months old. 
So we get a mixture of birds where we're like "Oh yes!  This is a boy/girl" and others where we're like "I don't know."

Unfortunately for the gentleman, out of the four birds he was considering.
I could only tell that one of them looked to be a female.
The other three didn't have the coloration yet to tell for sure their genders, so I could only make guesses on what colors I could see.

And the guy was so set on having a boy and girl....
That he ended up going "I want this other one! I'm sure it's a boy! And if I'm wrong, well that's on me."

….Okay then. 

When I caught the bird and looked closer at the beak....it didn't quite look like a boy's coloration....but again...the color hadn't fully come in yet.

Hopefully he got lucky and ended up with the pair he wanted....

Though I honestly don't know why he wants to breed them in the first place....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Yes Even Crickets Are Included

Tis the Season of White Elephant Gifts.

Which means major headaches for the store customer wise.

Because we have a Policy of NOT SELLING to customers who want to buy an animal for the soul purpose of giving them away at those parties. 

Why?
Because we want animals to find forever homes where people actually want them.

If they're given away as a random present the chances are high that the animal won't have adequate care provided to it right away because the recipients weren't prepared to take on a pet....if they wanted to keep it anyways. 

So to avoid the hassel of stressing out people who don't want a sudden pet.
And to keep the animals safer from being tossed about in the white elephant game...

We don't sell them to people. 

And this time of year we tend to do a bit more homework to ensure that the animals being purchases aren't being bought for this reason.
(regrettably a few get past us....but we do our best.) 

It's just weird...that customers don't seem to get that it's a bad idea to get an animal for that reason.

Even ones we use for food.

Today I had a customer come in wanting to buy "A ton of crickets." 

To which I was like "Okay, how many is that?"

Because "a ton" could be Thirty crickets or it could be like 400. 

The customer was like "I need $20 worth because that's how much each White Elephant Gift needs to be for our party." 

Honestly...if the customer hadn't mentioned "white elephant" I probably would have bagged up them up no questions asked. Because people do come in and buy approximately 150 crickets often enough for their reptiles that I wouldn't have questioned it when asked to bag 'a ton of crickets.'

But they said White Elephant.

So I told them that we don't sell live animals for white elephant gifts.

And the customer just got a bit miffed about it.
Because like...the crickets are sold for food.

So why can't the customer buy them as a white elephant gift because wouldn't it be 'fun' to open up a bag of crickets! They're going to die anyways.

….but like there's a difference?

When they're sold as a food source then it's understood that they're going to die quick.

Sold as a gag gift?
What are you going to do with them after the gift was opened? I mean...unless the receiver happens to have a reptile that will eat them...the crickets would have been probably tossed in the garbage or tossed outside to freeze to death...and that's just...not right.

The customer wasn't happy.
Wanted to have a manager step in.
But the manager said "No." 
Because it's against policy to sell live Pets as White Elephant gifts even if they are little measly crickets used for food.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Listen?

I don't know what it was about today.
But like...no one could hear me?

Customers would ask me questions and I'd start telling them answers.
Only for them to be like "What? Wait what?"

And I had to repeat myself like two or three times before they would understand.

>_< 
It was rather frustrating.

Because I was trying to get tasks done and trying to finish things before I was off.
And the fact that the customers weren't listening to me and making me repeat myself just got ….on my nerves. 

Like I was speaking in my normal fashion at normal tone if maybe a bit fast.
And I guess what I was saying just wasn't what the customers were expecting and soo...it didn't work out? 

*exhales*

Who knows.
Who knows.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Allergic?

One of my coworkers told me an interesting thing today.

In that they are....apparently allergic to birds.

At least the feathers. To the point where they can break out in hives if they come in contact with them. 

Which. I can get not wanting to be around them.

I mean another coworker can't be near the birds because they're allergic to the pine bedding we use in the bottom of the cages. 

But no...what's notable about finding out my coworker was allergic to birds...

Is that they've been in the department for like two or so months now?

And this is the first I'm hearing of this allergy.

I mean I even told my coworker on Saturday to open the floor because I hadn't gotten to it due to customers and that requires feeding the birds....

And like....the coworker only brought it up AFTER I told them that Birds needed to be done. Food/Water switched out. It's like one of the easiest tasks there is.

And they'd gone to go do the task...but like ten minutes later, they came out of the backroom -where the cart of food for the birds was- to then tell me that they were allergic.

Like....Why did you bring it up now?

Did you not Touch the Birds, Saturday when I thought you had?

Did that mean that the Birds weren't FED Saturday because you DIDN'T Do what I thought you'd done?

Like...WHEN did you think the birds got FED if you WEREN'T FEEDING THEM? IT's a morning Task!!

So yah. 

I was a bit irritated because a) that was one more thing I had to do now 

and I don't even know if it's like a real allergy.

Like I can get that it's real. I will believe it's real until proven otherwise.

But because the manager wasn't even aware of this....

I do wonder if it was true or if it was something said to get out of the task...

*exhales*

In the end though....

Why work in a PET STORE if you're ALLRGIC to the ANIMALS???

Like sure. Be a Cashier. Be a Stocker. You don't often deal with birds there.

But in MY department? That's like one of the major things we do. We have to feed the birds, clean their cages, Catch them for customers....

Yah... >.> 

I'll have to keep an eye out.

And see.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Force to Open

So we have these automatic doors that we can control by turning a little knob above the doorway.
Which allows us to not have the doors automatic at all (which they're usually 'off' until the store opens) or we can have the doors open for people coming in but not leaving, or leaving but not coming in, or you know...both. 

So for when our store hours are open we change the knob so that the doors will open to both people coming and going....

Only apparently we didn't do that today.

Which none of us realized it because there were customers in the store and they were buying stuff and leaving and entering....

It was only like 37 minutes after we opened that a gentleman walks by me and is like "So your doors aren't working, they won't automatically open and shut."

()_()

No one had thought to check to make sure the doors were turned on.

*shakes head*

Apparently we were all a bit distracted today lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bird Wandering

Somehow the customers today had perfect timing. For like two hours.

Where everytime I would get into the bird enclosure to work on the bedding change. I wouldn't be able to do more than like 30 seconds of cleaning before the cashier was calling me over to the fishwall/crickets to help customers there.

But like.
I would help one customer.

See that there is NO ONE else around.
Go back to the birds to work on the bedding change.
ONLY
for the cashier to call me BACK OVER to the fishwall/crickets AGAIN to help another customer that RANDOMLY appeared in the minute it took me to walk back to the birds and start cleaning.

It happened like SIX times in a row. 
Gah!!!

I don't get how the customer managed it.
It didn't matter how long the customer I helped took.
Whether it was a five minute thing or a twenty minute thing.
By the time I got back to Birds....I would just have to turn around and go back to the fish. Grrr.

So frustrating.

I just barely managed to get the bedding change done before I was off. Bleh.

-Sarnic Dirchi

More Flakes

Had a customer come into the store today looking for Cichlid Flakes.
Which is rather different as most of the time people buy the pellets for the Cichlids.

The problem was, he could only find one bottle on the shelf.
Which isn't that surprising as I wasn't fully aware we carried Flakes.
So like...I don't think that there would be more than one or two bottles of the food on the shelf, because we don't usually fully stock up the less common purchases. 

But apparently he's been buying the flakes for a while now.
And is getting frustrated that we don't have a bunch of them in stock for him to stock up on.
Because he goes through one bottle of flakes in a week. 
O.o

Which is impressive because like...it takes me a month at least if not longer to use up the same size bottle of flakes for my own fish (though I don't have cichlids) 

But he wasn't quiet happy that I only had one bottle on the shelf.
And that we didn't get in any on today's truck.

He was like "I may have to start going elsewhere."

Which makes sense. I mean...there's not much I can do to help in that regards. We can't really order in product for customers anymore.
Which means basically what we get is what we get.

Hopefully though we'll have more come in on Saturday...but we'll see. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Which Fish?

Had a customer come up to the fish wall today. Looking at the fish.
And he was really liking the Koi fish, but was concerned that his wife wouldn't approve of getting a 'larger' fish in the tank. Though with how small the koi were currently, he was fine adding it in to his 55 gallon tank for now. 

So before doing anything drastic...like buying the think.
He went to check with her.

And came back with the " :/ " response. Of "I don't approve, but idk if I can stop you." from his wife.

So he decided that he would go for smaller fish, because they already had some larger goldfish in the tank with his guppies and other types. 
Instead he went with more guppies. Some females and males so he could continue to breed them -as he has a breeding thing going on as well.

But as I was fishing out the fish, his wife came up. And was like "What are you DOING?!" 

He was getting smaller fish. That was all.

And idk what spurred it.
But she was like "Well show me this koi fish of yours that you want." So he showed her a couple of cool ones that he liked the looks of. 
And she was like "So. Which one did you want if you could only pick one?"

And with a bit of teamwork between the two of them, they decided on a golden butterfly koi to get.

Only after catching the fish I ended up choking on like air.
So excused myself to go cough up a lung in the back until I could get my breathing under control.

And by the time I got back out, they had decided to go for a second koi fish. A silver butterfly this time. 

So I fished that one out too. Bagged up the bunch and sent them on their way.

But it was just nice to see a couple working together to get fish and coming to an agreement on which ones they wanted. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Small Crickets

So at work we have this thing where we prebag crickets for customers so that if we're busy helping another customer, then the customer needing crickets can just grab a bag and go.

And usually we do them in different amounts. Because there are customers who need only 6 crickets, others need 24, while yet others need 76. So like I usually bag up a variety of numbers to try and help as many customers as possible.

But today when I went to look in our small cricket bin.
I could see barely like...200 crickets in there.

Aka. We're really low. 

And when I have so few crickets...
I don't usually bag them up because I don't want to bag up the wrong amount as some days everyone needs like 24 crickets, while others people only need like 6. 

Sooo.
I didn't bag up any.

And it confused multiple customers.

Because they're like "Are you out of small crickets? You don't have any bagged up." 

So...note to self.
If I do have some I should probably bag up a couple of smaller amounts.
That way it will show people that we do have crickets. As they'll just assume the other larger amounts were taken earlier. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Fight

I tried to bring out a couple of guinea pigs from our sick room (as they were now healthy) back onto the floor today.

Try being the key word.

As most of the time, our guinea pigs get along with each other.

But if you get one that's slightly larger than the rest, or one that's more aggressive than the others.

They don't take too nicely to newcomers when they're introduced back into the cage.

For the most part I don't usually have to worry about combing guinea pigs together.

But today I had a larger guinea pig in the cage with a bunch of smaller ones.

And when I brought out two more, one of those ones was of large size.

So of course the two bigs ones decided to take a disliking to each other.

And the one in the cage ended up drawing blood from the newcomer. 

*exhales*

It wasn't a bad wound.

A scratch by the eye.

But geez it bled a lot.

Big bright red droplets spattering all to the ground as I quickly pulled the guinea pig out of the cage, trying to keep him from bleeding all over while I was grabbing a paper towel to help staunch the blood and keep it from getting everywhere.

Which was interesting.

Because I was taking the whole situation rather calmly.

Just trying to get the guinea pig taken care of and make sure the bleeding had stopped before I moved him further away from the cage.

And my coworker nearby....had to turn and walk away. Because they can't stand the sight of blood.

I hadn't known that about them. 

It was just interesting because I was the one dealing with the wounds up close....

Of course I've seen a lot of things here at work....so not much fazes me anymore.

But yah.

Glad I managed to get the guinea pig cleaned up a bit.

Though I had to take him back into the sick room so we can make sure the small wound on his head heals properly.

And definitely need to make sure he's not housed with another big guinea pig when he's able to go back out again. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi