The Right Bag

Had a customer, an older gentleman come up to my manager holding a bag of dog food...and his wallet.

He was like "I'm not sure I grabbed the right bag of food and my wife is sitting out in the car, if I give you my wallet to hold can I go show it to her and see if it's the right one?" And tried to hand my manager his wallet.

My manager was like "I can't hold your wallet, but I can walk you out and watch you as you show the bag to your wife."

So that's what they did.
And the customer held up the bag to his wife and the wife was like *thumbs up* Yep! It's correct!

And so he walked right back into the store and paid for the bag.

So that was different. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Upsidedown?

Training people is always fun at work.
Well 'fun.' 
Because it's just interesting to see how the newbies process things. Like how they solve problems. Or what they come away with after I spent like the entire shift teaching them different things.

It's a great way for me to learn what works and doesn't work for them too.
Like some people can remember multiple things that need to be done.
While others I can only give one task to at a time.
Or I need to show them how to do the task instead of telling them. Etc. 

So today, I was telling/showing my coworker how to clean the cages of the small pets.
The hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, chinchillas etc. 

And I had mentioned at one point that when the cage is empty we turn the little house inside of the cage upside down. That way it indicates that the cage is empty to us so we don't open the cage and discover that it's empty when trying to show different hamsters to customers.

Which my coworker ended up selling a hamster to a customer towards the end of the day.
And just to check in I was like "Which hamster did you sell, is the cage empty?" 
To which they said yes.
So I was like "Okay turn the house upside down to show that it's empty."

And my coworker....they were like "You want me to turn the entire cage upside down?" 

O.o
Uh.. No.
That would create a huuuggeee mess if you did that.

So I was quick to stop my coworker and go "No the little house inside."

To which they were like "Oh...that makes more sense."

Mhmmm it does indeed.

Like I can see if you thought that entire cage was the 'house' that my words would mean to turn the cage upside down.

But at the same time....if something seems extreme....it's probably not what I meant. lol.

At least they asked before actually turning the cage upsidedown. :S 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fancy?

Had a customer today who wanted to know what type of bird one of our parakeets was.

As for whatever reason they were set on getting a 'Fancy Parakeet.'
Even though literally all the parakeets we carry are like...the same bird?
The only reason why a 'Fancy' is considered a Fancy is becuase the coloration of the bird is outside the normal standards for the blue or green parakeets we get in. 

But this customer was like. "Tell me is this bird a fancy?" 
And they pointed into the cage that held our regular blue and green parakeets.
As the fancy parakeets are kept separate in the cage above the regulars.

So that was a rather easy question to answer. No. It's not a fancy. It's just a regular blue.

-But they were thinking it was fancy because the coloration was more turquoise compared to the other blues that were in shades of navy currently.
But like in the blue parakeets you can get any shade of blue really. Sky blue, grey blue, turquoise blue, blue blue, navy blue, a blue so dark it's nearly purple. Like....it just depends on the birds they send us as to which colors we get in....

But it took a moment to explain why their bird wasn't a fancy.
And like another moment to explain that fancy parakeets and normal parakeets are the same bird just different colors.
And yah....

The customer was set on having a 'fancy' parakeet for whatever reason.
But the little girl who was getting the bird was quite happy to get the original one she picked out.

So I ended up catching the turquoise bird she liked....
It was an evil thing. Biting my thumb hard enough to draw blood.

So i'm rather glad it's out of the store.
Hopefully the girl has success in taming it down. 

-Sarnic Dirchi 

So Many GloFish

I wasn't there for most of this as I happened to be on lunch when the customer came in.

But I'm guessing it's partial inexperience with my new coworker that allowed this to happen.
As like...we usually don't recommend having people buy a ton of fish at once.
And if they want to buy a ton of fish at once we usually manage to talk them out of it by explaining exactly why that's a bad idea.

But having not trained my coworker personally....idk what training they've had on the fish wall. As to what to do when certain situations arise.

All I know.
Is that when I got back from my lunch break.
My new coworker had just finished catching like all the glotetras in one of our tank.
A good 45 of them. O.o

Like there's no good reason whatsoever for that many fish to be bought at one time.
Not unless the customer is stocking up on multiple fish tanks.
Because like that's too many fish to add at once.

But from what I heard, the customer had like a hundred gallon tank at work that needed to be restocked and so he was restocking it with glofish.

But like. O.o How crazy rich is this guy? Or like...how much money was the work willing to put in for the fish?

Because the glofish aren't cheap.
The tetras themselves are like $9 each. 

And when you multiply $9 by 45 individual fish.

The customer just casually dropped like $400 on fish.

O.o It's crazy.
Like that's rent money for me.
I wouldn't ever want to spend that much money on fish at once. It's crazy.

I ended up taking over for my coworker in the bagging of the fish.
As they'd caught them all...but hadn't kept track of how many of each color they'd caught.
So I ended up separating the three different colors of tetras the customer wanted -orange, green, and pink--and then counting them out to make sure we had the correct numbers for our inventory.

*exhales*
I hope the fish don't all die.

Guess we'll see in the next week if the customer comes back.....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Specific Color

Had a customer call the store today wanting to know more details about the types of parakeets that we get into the store. Specifically colors.
As the customer was looking for a 'white parakeet with blue under the wings.'
Which is....a rather specific marking...and like I have no idea if I've even seen one with that specific pattern in our store.

Like...I can't custom create a color on a creature if the customer wants a specific pattern. They just...kinda gotta wait for one to come around naturally? If at all?

In any case. I spent like a good ten minutes or so on the phone with them talking about the different colors of parakeets I had in the store right then and trying to describe what I had (like dude just come into the store already I can only describe so much) 
And the customer wanted to know what the chances of a particular bird being sold.

And like...that's an excellent question.
It could be in the next five minutes. 
It could be six months from now.

It's hard to judge when an animal will or will not sell. 

All I know is that the parakeets have been popular enough that the likelyhood of the bird still being here by the end of the week is unlikely. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Babies?!

We had a customer call the store today.
Stating that they had purchased a couple of guinea pigs from us around a month and half or so ago.

And that yesterday...one of their guinea pigs had had babies.

O.o

Which.
Huh?
That couldn't be right.
Because like. 
Our store only sells males.
And I was pretty confident that indeed we only had boys in our store in the past month.

So I was like...are you sure you purchased both of them from our location? Because if they'd purchased one from our sister store that would have made more sense because their store carries girls while ours carries the boys.

But to have both come from our store and one be a girl?
O.o? Huh.

I mean. I suppose it's always a possibility. But it's weird....cus I don't recall seeing anyting out of the ordinary as I have to check all the guinea pigs when they come in....*exhales* idk. 

In any case.
The customer was calling to ask what we could do for them.
Because like...they weren't expecting to have baby guinea pigs.

And it's a tricky situation because like...we don't sell females in our store.

However.
Luckily for the customer.
Our District Manager happened to be in the store for a visit.
And heard the situation.

And was like. "If we can prove they purchased it from our store, then they can bring the mother and babies back to us and we'll take them and offer them a refund." -or you know exchange out the mother for a male guinea pig if they wanted.

But then I was like "What do we do with the mother and babies?"

Cus we can't just sell females.

And the DM was like "We'll adopt them out, once the babies are old enough of course." 

So yah.
Later this evening.
My manager sent me a picture of the babies and the Mom as the customer didn't bring them in until closer to closing time.
And they are the cutest things!!!

But until they're old enough to be weaned...we're keeping them in a back room where they won't be bothered. 
I'm so looking forward to coming into work tomorrow though.
I want to see the cute little babies in person. :D 

-Sarnic Dirchi

No Email!

It's so weird how...uptight customers can be about providing their email addresses to us.

Like yes. I get that people don't like getting spam mail. 
And my work can get a bit heavy handed on occasion by sending a ton of emails related to different promotions and deals and such. 

But like.
You can always choose to unsubscribe from the emails.

And like it's an issue that we've encountered more often now that we changed our system so that you have to have an email address in order to earn points for the store. 

And more often it's the older customers who don't want to have to deal with the emails.
Or you know...don't even have an email. 

So today.
I ended up stuck on the register for like half an hour.
While our actual cashier and manager dealt with a difficult customer who was causing problems on register one. (We think they may have been trying to scam us.) 

In any case.
The customer I was helping willing gave their phone number.

But when it came up on the screen....it showed just their phone number.
So in order to get the discounts...they would need to provide a few more bits of information...including the email address in order to get their discounts.

But when I brought up that we needed to update the customer's information.

They just gave me like this....blank stare for a good two minutes straight.
Like their brain wasn't processing what I was saying. 
Even though I tried a couple other ways to explain what was happening.

They were like "but I haven't had this issue before...." 

Thankfully they willingly gave their name.

But when I asked for the email.
Nope.
They weren't giving me that.

Because they didn't want to be spammed by mail.

Which made the effort of filling out the rest of the information pointless because we can't give the discounts without the email address. 

*exhales*

I ended up overriding this.
Because the customer was keeping an eye on the discounts and such.
And I didn't feel like having the customer cause a scene especially when they're like "I've never had an issue before." 

And considering we've had this system in place for over a year...and this customer seems like a regular....means that other cashiers have probably override the program to give them the discount.

At least the customer didn't end up causing further problems once they saw they were getting their discounts.
So yay.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Garden Snails

There was a customer who stopped by the snail tank as I was doing the weekly count on them. -as we keep our mystery snails all together in one tank with its own heater to make sure that the snails stay warm enough to be active.

And the customer was like "What are those?!" 

...which I suppose if you've never seen aquatic snails is a valid question.
but like if you've seen regular garden snails....it's not too hard to conjecture that the creatures you're seeing before you are also snails....

In any case.
I answered, while I was trying to count them, that they were aquatic snails and that they help to keep people's fish tanks clean by eating the algae and such.

And the customer was like "Oh...so if I grab some of my garden snails and put them in my tank, they'd keep it clean?" 

....No.

They would die. 

Because your typical garden snails are a land based creature.
Placing them in water...would just kill them because they aren't made to live under water.

Upon explaining this the customer was like: "Oh. Right." 

Mhmmmm.
It's always interesting how customers immediately try to find a less expensive way to do something.

Like oh I don't want to buy a snail for my tank but I have snails in my garden can I put them in my tank? That's free.

Or the more common one would be crickets.
As people can find the insects in their backyard. So often ask if they'd be okay to feed those to their reptiles instead.
Like...if you want to spend the time catching them...sure. 

*shakes head*
People are interesting. 

Healthy?

So we've had a guinea pig in our ISO room for around a week now. Because a customer returned him for a goopy eye, but wanted him back when he got better.

And without needing to take him to the vet, the guinea pig's goopy eye vanished after a couple of days.
But I was planning to call the customer on Monday to let them know that the guinea pig was healthy because I figured Saturday was probably a busy day and I just wanted to be extra sure the goopy eye wouldn't come back.

However.
Before the lunchtime rush. 
I had a customer come into the store.
And he wanted to know how his guinea pig was doing.

And since we only had the one guinea pig in iso that was a customer return that the customer wanted to buy him back...I knew it had to be this one that had had the slight eye problem.

And so I told him the truth.
That he appears to be healthy and that I was planning to call on Monday as I wanted to observe him a couple more days.
But he's been healthy enough that if they wanted, since the customer was already there with his family, that they could pick up the guinea pig today.

Not surprisingly.
They chose to get the guinea pig today.

And I went over the whole spiel of the guarantee and what to not do and do with the guinea pig for the first few days -i.e. not play with him for 3 days.

and the customer was like ()_() Oh. 
They didn't tell him that last time.

*shakes head*

I kinda figured as the guinea pig had been returned only two days after it had been bought.
Meaning it more than likely had been stressed out in some way.

But hopefully that doesn't happen again.
*fingers crossed*
But yay for one less animal in our sick room. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

Special Needs

So.
Remember that third chinchilla?

Well. 
We got the surgery approved by corporate.
So the Vet went ahead and did it.

However.
We received some less than stellar news.

As the lump that the chinchilla has....is an issue that won't be easily fixed.
The type of health problem where the lumps will keep returning.
And therefore more surgeries will be needed in the future, and possible filing of the chinchilla's teeth as well if he cannot properly chew and such.

It's...not an easy obligation to take upon for any pet parent.

However, the vet who did the surgery was interested in adopting out the chinchilla so that their clinic could provide continual treatment for the chinchilla and ensure that he gets the best care.

But we couldn't just say yes.

As the chinchilla was bought by a customer who desperately wanted him back.

So we had to call the customer to tell them that their chinchilla would be considered a 'special needs' pet if they indeed still wanted him back. And explain the situation to them and tell them about the vet's offer. 

Which...you would think....especially if you called us earlier in the same day.
That if the same number calls you back multiple times in a row....that you would pick up.

I called like 4 times and the customer didn't answer.

And it was like fifteen minutes before closing time where they finally called us back.

I explained the situation. 
And they were...upset but understanding of the circumstances.
And were grateful that the vet was willing to take in the chinchilla and take care of him.

So that's one barrier down.

But now we have to seek approval now from our District Manager to approve the adoption of the Chinchilla to the Vet because the chinchilla is one of our more...expensive pets to purchase.
And therefore, because of the price, we need manager approval to get him adopted out.

So that's the next step.
Hopefully it all turns out well.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Compensation

So we apparently had a customer who came into the store a few days ago and bought one of our cat towers.

Like one of the ones that are around six feet tall. 

And apparently, the customer couldn't fit the tower into the car.
And so paid someone to come transport their cat tower for them.

And this apparently upset the customer.

Like...yah. I would be upset too if I had to pay someone to move something I bought...but at the same time...I would think that I would know people that could help me move things if I just...asked them. 
I also probably wouldn't have bought the thing if I didn't have a way to transport it. *shakes head*

In any case.
For whatever reason -I never found out- the customer wanted to exchange out the one cat tower for another one.

Despite our manager's attempts to get the customer to buy a tower that hadn't yet been assembled and therefore was still in the box and therefore could be moved easier and transported easier...the customer insisted that they wanted another already built one.

Though if it's already built...and you had problems getting it into your car the first time....why are you doing the exact same thing??

*exhales*

In any case.

The customer apparently wants us to compensate them for the fact that they had to pay someone to move the cat tower in the first place.

Like...it's just stupid.
It's not our fault that YOU bought something that didn't fit in YOUR car.
I mean once you purchase an item it's considered YOUR property. Not ours. We no longer OWN it because YOU bought it. *shakes head*

But yah, they apparently wanted compensation in some way like a free bag of dog food or a discount or something.

And like....
It's stupid.
How much of a stuck up prick do you have to be to think you deserve compensation for a problem that you yourself caused??

I don't understand it.
I really don't.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Hold That Surgery

We had a bit of a close call today.

You remember the 3rd chinchilla that we had to isolate yesterday for a lump on the side of his face?

Well. 
We took him over to the vet yesterday.
But I hadn't heard back from them before I left.

So, upon seeing that he hadn't yet been returned to the store.
I called the vet this morning to see what the diagnosis was.

And they were like "Oh yes! He needs surgery which you guys approved last night, so we'll be doing that in a little bit and then you can come pick him up later today!"

I was like "Okay!"

But internally I was like. O_o???
Because...surgery?

Usually we have to get corporate approval to do surgeries. 
As we're only allowed to spend so much money on treating animals before we need to get approval for the higher ups. 

So to hear that a surgery had been approved...set off slight alarm bells in my head.
As approved by who??

As our VP manager hadn't been present yesterday night to give the approval.

And since it's been a long while since we've needed to get corporate approval for a vet treatment...I figured that my newer managers didn't know that well...we had a limit.

Turns out I was right. The newest manager had taken the call...and apparently approved it.

Luckily.

I tend to tell my managers stuff.
And the VP manager was currently working.

So after I hung up with the Vet I was like "So they're doing surgery and got approval last night."

The manager was like !?!?!?! because...he knows that that's not how it works and that we need to get corporate approval first.

And so he called the vet right back to get more details and such and to tell them to put a hold on that surgery.
As with totalling everything up...the estimation for the surgery was waaay above our limit for vet visits and definitely needed approval. 

Ergo.
We needed to go file all the proper paperwork and such first.
And then call the vet back to give them the go ahead.

Which...we hadn't heard back, to my knowledge, before I left today.
And it can take like 48 hours to get back to us....

In the meantime, the vet is keeping the chinchilla as the lump might pop on its own without having to be drained. 

Soooo we'll see how it all turns out. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Exchange Them!

I had a customer come into the store today wanting to exchange out his fish as they had died.
Only...he didn't have the receipt...or the dead fish.
Because apparently 'someone' told him that he could return the fish if he provided a picture as proof.

Which...isn't our policy.
Our policy is that we have to have physical proof -aka the dead body brought to us- along with the receipt in order to return the fish and do an exchange.

Of course.
Usually I do make exceptions to this policy. Mostly because it's usually in the name of 'keep the customer happy'

But yah...the customer wasn't happy at all that I was telling him that a picture wasn't enough 'proof' of death. 

He was like "But it's only like a $2 fish! You're not going to exchange it for that! I spent $80 in your store yesterday!! That's a lot of money!"

....Why do people think we care how much money they spent here? Because I certainly don't. It's not like a penny of your money goes into my pocket after all. None of us here are paid via commission. We just get our same hourly wages no matter how much customers spend in our store.

Plus the dude was under-exaggerating the price of his fish that had died.
As they were plecos.
And I don't sell any "$2" plecos. Especially not the ones in the picture.

First though I needed proof that the guy actually purchased the fish here.
So I got his number to look up his receipt.

And low and behold.
I was right.
They weren't $2 fish.
They were $10 fish.

Which it's a bit more understandable why the guy would want replacements for those fish as $10 is a bit more money than $2.

Though if he thought the fish were only $2 in the first place...I do wonder what his definition of 'inexpensive' is if he didn't realize they cost more than two bucks.

In any case.
I found the receipt.
I could tell that the fish were dead in the picture because pleocs don't generally lie on their backs.

So I went ahead and gave him the exchange.
Telling him multiple times that he needs the receipt and the fish next time. Not just a picture.

However.
The semi interesting part to his story.
Was that he said he put the fish in their bag in the tank....left them...and then when he came back like 15 minutes later...they were already dead when he opened the bag to put them in the water.

Usually death only happens that quickly if like...there's a sudden temperature change.

So I was like "How warm is your water?"

And he was telling me it was like...in the sixties...maybe he even said the fifties.

Which regardless.
Is too cold for most plecos.
As the ones we sell are usually a more warm water fish. Especially those $10 ones.

So I told him that the water may be too cold for these types of plecos...so if his replacement fish didn't make it...that he would either need to get a heater for the tank, or stick with a different pleco that can tolerate the colder temperatures.

He seemed confident it would work though as 'he had these types of plecos before' without a heater.

*exhales*
Hopefully it does work.
I don't really want to see him again.

-Sarnic Dirchi

3 in Back 1 on the Floor

So back in November we ended up with four chinchillas in the store.
Which has like...never happened before.
Usually we have one or two.
Occasionally three if one gets returned after we've received another one from our breeder.

But Four?

Which with how quickly we had been selling our chinchillas.
It didn't seem like that big of a deal.
Especially with Black Friday and Christmas coming up.
The odds were that we would sell them quickly.

And then we didn't.

It wasn't until like two weeks ago that we managed to finally sell ONE chinchilla.

Leaving us with three in the store.

However, those three haven't been without their difficulties.

Before we sold the one chinchilla we had one of the others end up with an issue of having goopy eyes.
So we took him off the floor and placed him back in our sick room to get treatment and to be given medication until the goopy eyes was solved.

And the day that the chinchilla finished his meds and was deemed healthy enough to be returned onto the floor....
I discovered a second chinchilla had somehow ended up with a lump on his throat.
Which lumps aren't good.
And need to get checked out.

So I had to isolate that chinchilla.
Leaving us with two chinchillas on the floor and one back in iso.

Only like a week or two later?
The goopy eyed chinchilla was isolated again for goopy eyes that again needed to be treated.

So now we had two chinchillas back in iso and only one on the floor--since we'd thankfully sold that fourth one.

Only having two chinchillas in the back is slightly difficult because they can't be placed in the usual cages that we use for guinea pigs, hamsters, and mice.
Instead they need bigger set ups.
*exhales*

And our sick room is tiny.
So I can barely fit the two cages for chinchillas.

Usually it's not an issue.
Because I honestly don't recall us having two chinchillas ever isolated back there.
It's a more rare occurrence to have even one isolated as they don't tend to have as many issues.

So it's weird to have two of them isolated in the back.

BUT THEN.
Today.

We had the fourth chinchilla that we'd sold....returned to us.
Why?
Because he too had ended up forming a lump on his neck like the second chinchilla. 

Which meant he too needed to be isolated so we could also get him treated.

But as I said earlier....we barely had room for two cages. 

Now we needed to somehow fit a third in there.

Somehow.
Somehow we managed it.
And thankfully we had a cage that had been pennied earlier so that meant we didn't have to write off another cage as I only had two large cages for these sort of situations.

So now.
We have four chinchillas again.

Only currently...three of them are off the floor needing various treatments in our sick room.

Leaving only the fourth one left on the floor.
*fingers crossed*
That he remains healthy and doesn't end up with an issue.
Because I seriously don't have room for a fourth chinchilla cage in the back.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stuck

I had a moment of confusion when I opened up our leopard gecko cage this morning. 
Because there were no indications that the cage was empty.
And I knew that we had had one leopard gecko yesterday.

So to be safe, I checked the cage...and yes...there was no leopard gecko there.

....Until I checked the log I had pulled out.

And discovered that it was hollower than I thought it was.

Holding the log up so I could see into it...I saw movement. A flash of yellow.
And then, upon shining my phone light into it.....I saw him.
The leopard gecko. 
Wedged about halfway down into this log that I hadn't realized had become hollow.

As normally this particular piece of wood is used in our Chinese Water Dragon cages instead.

Which I made a mental note to never put this particular piece of wood in with the leopard geckos again. 

Which I couldn't do....until I got the leopard gecko out of the log. 

And the stubborn thing wasn't coming out. 

I tried reaching it with long thin objects.
Tried flushing him out with warm and cold water.
Tried shaking him out.

Nothing.
Stubborn thing was wedged in there.

Until my coworker suggested sawing open the log so we could reach him.
Unfortunately...we don't have a saw at work.
But I saw cracks in the wood and knew that there was a screw driver nearby.

So I grabbed that and my coworker set to work breaking off chunks of the log by tearing open those cracks with the screw driver.

 Until we could see the leopard gecko!!
...and the stubborn thing decided to go wedge himself deeper into the log.

*exhales*

However.
With more perseverance. 
We finally managed to convince him to come out!

Woot!!

I mean the log was destroyed.

But at least we saved the leopard gecko and got him back into his cage. 

Note to self: Check wood for holes before placing in reptile cages. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Is it a Girl?

So when I came into work yesterday morning.
I noticed on one of the charts in our iso room that one of my coworkers had put in the notes that they thought the guinea pig that we were treating was a girl.

Which....considering we're a 'boy only' store....is a bad thing if the guinea pig was indeed a girl.

Which a quick check of the animal in question showed me that it was indeed.... a boy.

So I crossed out the 'Girl' written on the chart and wrote "it's a boy." 

And thought that would be the last of it.

It wasn't.
I came into work this morning to see my coworker had added to the note. "But it has nipples?" 

Which....yes....the guinea pig did have those.
But so did every other guinea pig we have in the store.
And I could tell that they were all boys too.

But I wasn't sure if the two things on the guinea pig were called 'nipples' or not....so I ended up doing a quick google search to make sure I was telling my coworkers the proper thing.

and yep.
Both boy and girl guinea pigs will have two visible nipples on them. Though the females would be more pronounced and therefore since both genders have them, you can't use them as an indicator of which gender you have.

So I made sure to leave multiple notes around where my coworkers could see them so help them know this little bit of information.

But I could see why my coworker was confused.

As we had a wave, a bit ago, of people claiming our animals were girls instead of boys. Mostly in the hamsters and mice.
And I got fed up with it because we're a boy only store. And so I printed out a diagram showing exactly how to tell the difference in gender between the hamsters and the mice.
And for those rodents only the females will have visible nipples.
So it makes sense why my coworker would be confused if they were remembering this paper that I had printed out.

But yah...it's always 'fun' to have to do research first thing in the morning. *shakes head* Makes me wonder why my coworkers didn't just...google it themselves....

-Sarnic Dirchi

White Dots

I had a customer come up to me to get their water tested because they were concerned that their tank had ich and wanted to check that everything else was fine before starting treatment for the ich.
And like...their tank water looked just fine for the things we tested for.

So knowing that they were worried about ich I began going over potential solutions--

Until the customer mentioned that the white dots were on the sides of the tank.

Which...ich doesn't form in the tank. It doesn't go on the glass or the plants or the gravel.
Ich is a fish only issue.
Where white spots appear on the fish. 

To have white spots in the tank itself meant that there was a different issue. 

Which white spots on the sides of the tank automatically had me thinking that they were snail eggs.

Which can come into the tank in a variety of ways even if you don't have snails in your tank.

A quick check with the customer however established that they did indeed have snails in their tank to help clean the algae.

And the specific snails they had, the nerite snails, lay white eggs. 
Though luckily for the customer the eggs don't hatch unless the water is slightly brackish. 
So all they really have to do is scrub the eggs off their tank and decorations and they're good again.

The customer was rather relieved to hear that.
As they'd come into the store planning to have to do a ton of things to save their tank.
Not so much really.
lol just clean off the eggs.

Tada! Easy! 
Lol yay for an easy solution

-Sarnic Dirchi

Directions

It's always interesting what people hear and don't hear when you tell them directions.

Like you can tell a customer that something is 'to their left' and they'll look to their right.
Or you'll tell a coworker to do three things and they only do the first so you have to remind them to do the other tasks.


But yah....

Today a coworker asked me where some more of our tropical fish flakes were.

And I told them that it was "On the shelf above the sink." 

And I happened to follow them into the back area a few minutes after they went back there.

And saw them looking on the top shelf....above the fish food containers.

Like...did I not speak loud enough to when I said sink?

Or was it one of those times where my coworker thought they knew what I was going to say and so stopped listening halfway through and only heard 'shelf above'??

*shakes head*

No idea.

They were like "Where is--"

"Above the sink." Was what I said.

And then my coworker found it.

But yah....
*shakes head*

Not sure why people can't always follow directions....
Maybe it's just the stress of the situation??

-Sarnic Dirchi

Two in the Back

It's a chinchilla epidemic apparently.

As for like...what two months straight? We had four chinchillas in a cage together.
And overall they did just fine together.

But then in the beginning of January we noticed one was having issues with his eye in that it was getting goopy enough to seal the eye shut.
So we took him off the floor, took him to the vet, and kept him isolated from the others while we treated the eye with medications and such. 

And while we treated him...we actually finally managed to sell one of the chinchillas Woot!!

But then, the day that I deemed the chinchilla's eye recovered and that he could return to the floor---I discovered a different Chinchilla had a lump on his throat. 

O.o
How this lump occurred, I have no idea.

But it makes sense why we didn't notice it before.
Because with there being four chinchillas in the cage...we don't usually end up handling all of them that often since when customers want to look at them we only really need to get out one at a time.

But with the lump...that meant I needed to isolate the chinchilla and take him to the vet and get him medications to help that go away.

So we were back to having just two chinchillas on the floor. 
Which is fine, that's usually how many we have anyways so it was kinda nice to have a normal amount back on the floor.

However.
Apparently yesterday my coworkers noticed that the chinchilla with the eye problem....was once again having eye problems. 
Meaning that we needed to isolate him again.

Leaving just one chinchilla on the floor for us to sell, as the one with the lump is still getting treated.
But now we have two chinchillas in iso.

Which is so crazy because I don't really recall us ever having more than one chinchilla needing to be taken off the floor at a time.

Thankfully.
To be on the safe side, I kept the eye drops we used for the chinchilla the first go around, just in case we needed them again.
So he doesn't need to go to the vet...yet....because we can just start up the same treatment recommended for him the first go around.

Hopefully the eyes recover quickly.
But if we don't. We'll just take him to the vet again and see what else he needs to help his goopy eyes.

Hopefully we get both chinchillas back out sooner rather than later. 

-Sarnic Dirchi