No I Don't Have Any

 With the cold weather that hit like...73% of the United States last week....we've been experiencing shortages in many of our animal shipments.

As it's been too cold to ship things out and such.

To the point where we received a notice that most of our shipments have been cancelled until things 'warm up' basically. 

Which....isn't good...when people are wanting creatures and we don't have them.

The major issue has been with our reptile food. Aka the crickets and the worms and such.

As I only ever receive my worms on Thursday.

But because of the cold...that shipment didn't show up.

And my crickets...well we haven't gotten any since...I don't know? Wednesday? When we usually get shipments in at least twice a week--though with how much they've been shorting us in our shipments we've been getting in shipments practically daily....

Only for us to get nothing.

Like by Saturday I was out of crickets.

And I keep having people call asking if we have any...and we don't.

And they want to know when we're going to get more in.

And we basically have to shrug and go "maybe tomorrow" 

Which I've been saying "Maybe tomorrow" since Saturday. 

But because of the weather...we've got nothing and because there's no crickets people are turning to other bugs to buy in the meantime and since I only had a minimal supply of those they ended up selling rather quickly and yah....

It's not fun to run out of things.

Because I don't like telling people no.

And today has been quite the "no" day.

Not just with crickets but with like....everything.

Like fish? We haven't gotten in like Angelfish or Clown Loaches or a handful of other types in over a month.

Birds? They didn't send me any so I've been out of birds for a week.

Guinea Pigs? Sold them all.

Reptiles? Ha. We only have like two frogs and four anoles left. Everything else? Empty.

Hamsters? We've sold through enough that we're back to only using 6 of the 16 cages we have available.

We're low on everything.

And I have no idea when we'll be getting anything in. Like will the weather have warmed up enough in the U.S. to ship things around again? To be able to get all our creatures in? Who knows. It's the waiting game at this point.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Less Expensive Tank

There's nothing worse than a dithering customer.

Because you end up spending a ton of time with them. A ton of wasted time with them.

Because you could have ended the conversation wtihin like five minutes.

But because of the customer's inability to make a decision....it ends up being expanded out to like four times as long.

Today I had a girl come up to me asking for help loading up a reptile tank.

As she needed to get a bigger tank for her bearded dragon.

And wanted to get one of our tanks that opens from the front.

The tank she indicated was on a pallet by our training center. As we had overstock placed there from all the Christmas supplies we got in tank wise. 

So I snagged a coworker and a flat cart to go get the tank and we moved it down onto the cart and got it ready to take up to the front.

And that's when the customer was like "By the way, how much is this tank?" 

*exhales* Because the tanks were extra and a variety of them were stacked there on the pallet, we hadn't priced them out. And knowing that we hadn't yet gotten to the point of refilling the reptile aisle where the tanks usually go. I'm pretty sure the customer couldn't have seen the tank on the shelf because there wasn't one on the shelf to go with the price tag there.

But like. Lady.

Why not check the price BEFORE you have us move it?

*shakes head*

So I went and checked on the aisle what the price was and came back to tell her it was $200. 

Of course the customer was like ()_() "Don't you have any tanks this size on sale for less?" 

*exhales*

You know...you'd know if you would go check the aisle and LOOK at the tanks there.

But no the customer made no indication of moving to go look herself.

And I probably should have been like. "Nope."

But I had seen a 40 gallon starter kit that was on sale. 

For $220 

So for like $20 more she could get everything needed for the bearded dragon and the tank.

But nooo.

She just wanted a tank.

Wanted a tank on sale.

For less than $200.

So I went and checked a third time on the aisle to see what sales we had and then had to go wander around and see if we had any of the sale tanks on pallets anywhere that were less than $200.

And while we had a tank on sale for less than $200.

We didn't have it in stock.

And of course the customer didn't expect to be spending $200 for a new tank.

*shakes head*

I don't see why not. It's a BRAND NEW TANK.

Of course it's gonna be expensive.

If you want a big tank for little money go look on the online classifieds and find people giving away their tanks for $50 and such.

I don't know if this customer ended up getting the tank she had originally had us move.

Or if she ended up leaving to go find a better deal.

As I was done with her dithering at that point and needed to go to lunch.

So I left my coworker to deal with her and went to take a much needed break from people.

-Sarnic Dirchi

15 Minutes Before Close

 I had a customer call the store a couple of hours before we closed asking if they would be able to return a fish tank that they'd purchased from us yesterday because they decided that it wasn't gonna work for them and what they needed it to do.

-Apparently these customers are known to one of my petcare people as they live in my petcare worker's parent's neighborhood...and are well known for being difficult people in general as they had helped them out last night and had told them that what they wanted to do for their tank wouldn't work for them.

From what I gather they have turtles and were trying to give them a bigger tank but ended up deciding that the tank they bought was too deep for them.

In any case.

I told the customer that they could bring the tank back so long as it was in a clean dry condition and they included everything in the box along with the receipt.

I had a niggling thought that they might try to return said tank today.

But had hoped that it was late enough in the evening that the customer would decide to return the tank tomorrow instead.

No such luck.

FIFTEEN MINUTES before we closed.

The customer and their spouse come into the store to return the tank.

And I hear over the radio that they need help getting the tank into the store, so I grab a flat cart and bring it up to help them out though I wasn't sure what these people looked like and while I was trying to figure that out the cashier flags me down saying that they need an override for a return.

Which...upon checking it out...the customer doing the return was the customer who was returning the fish tank.

And said fish tank was not yet in the store.

So I was like "Ha. No." 

(not literally) but I told the customer that I would need to see the tank inside the store first before I could do the return. (silly cashier for not saying the same but they're new) and so the customer had to go track down their spouse so they could take the red cart and then go grab their tank and bring it in.

And once I was able to establish that yes the tank was there...then I did the return to give them their money back.

But it was semi-frustrating to have this occur like right at closing time.

Because other people were trying to check out and such and this just ended up holding up the line and yah....

The people who decide to try to return things right at closing need to rethink their lives. Because it's not fun to have to do that when there's a closing rush. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Three Bearded Dragons

 So we had a customer buy three bearded dragons from us over a month ago. And it was the sort of situation that just had me like...trying to not raise my eyebrows because who would want to buy three bearded dragons at the same time? It's just...not something that I would recommend doing. Especially when you're not sure that your spouse will approve of it. 

And like this customer, I'm pretty sure, had already bought a couple of leopard geckos from us like the month before that. 

Which...feeding 5 lizards can get rather expensive. Especially when 3 of them are bearded dragons where an individual one could eat 60 crickets at a time. 

So I wasn't going to be surprised if the customer ended up returning the bearded dragons at some point.

Which the customer ended up doing.

Only not because they didn't want them any more.

No all three bearded dragons appeared to have some sort of 'tail rot' happening to the tips of their tails, and the customer was concerned and wanted them checked by the vet.

Which is a service we offer as part of our guarantee. We'll take the animals to the vet within a certain time frame of being purchased if there's a health issue.

So we took the three beardies to the vet. And one of them ended up being fine. No issues that the vet could see.

So I called the customer to let them know they could take that beardie back home. But the other two would need to be on some medications to help with their tails for a couple of weeks.

Since we got results rather quickly, the customer wanted us to observe the 'healthy' beardie for the weekend to just double check that it was healthy.

Which I did.

And I called the customer and left them a message that monday that the could come get the bearded dragon.

No response.

I think I called a few days later, to again let them know that the bearded dragon was healthy and ready to be picked up.

and it sounded like the customer was going to come get the healthy one....

But more days passed...and no customer.

And then. Tragedy. One of the other two bearded dragons we'd been treating ended up dying on us. Y_Y Which is never a good thing and especially not fun when you have to inform the customer that one of their pets didn't survive.

*exhales* But they still had the other bearded dragon that was still healthy and ready to be picked up, while the last beardie on medications still had like another week to go at that point.

Fast forward and I've been gone for a week on vacation, but the medications are done with for that last beardie...and the original one is still there waiting to be picked up.

Like....the fact that the customer didn't come get the healthy bearded dragon right away should have been a sign.

But I called the customer again to inform the that both bearded dragons were healthy now and ready to be returned to them....

And the customer was like "Cool!......we actually no longer want to buy them back." 

O_o.

*exhales* Honestly i should have seen it coming when they didn't grab that first bearded dragon.

So yah. I mean if enough time passes we have had customers decide that they no longer want their pet back. So it's understandable.

but still. *shakes head*

I do wonder if the customer will come back on black friday...in the hopes of getting the bearded dragons half off then because they are going half off that day....guess we'll see.

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Chameleon Customer Continued

It's been an adventurous week with our homeless dude and his chameleon.

I'm not sure, honestly, how many times he's been in the store.

I know of at least three instances when I was there. But who knows if he's come in at times when I wasn't. 

In any case it started before halloween with the dude randomly coming into the store and becoming obsessed with the chameleon we had.

Because the chameleon was actually being social and coming up to the glass and attempting to reach the dude's finger.

He wanted to hold the chameleon but due to covid I couldn't allow it and he left the store promising to come back the next day.

I never saw him the next day.

But he did come in on Monday. 

Wanting us to discount the chameleon for him because he didn't have enough money to buy it at the moment but he really wanted to get it.

I denied the sale because 'i really want it' isn't good enough grounds to put a discount on anything in the store. 

And if the dude can't afford to spend $60 on the chameleon.

He probably can't afford to spend $200+ to get all the proper gear for the chameleon's cage, heat, decor, and food. 

 Considering the guy was asking if he could keep the chameleon in a critter tote....

Yah no. Not gonna fly.

So I gave him a care guide on what he needs to care for the reptile, showed him the cages he would need. 

And he left the store claiming he was gonna get more money to get the chameleon.

I was hoping still...that he would drop it.

But considering he's already been in twice...I wouldn't have been surprised to see him again.

And like I said before. I'm pretty sure the dude is homeless. like he's wearing a heavy coat and pants, has a backpack, has the typical 'homeless look' to him....and with him riding a bike away instead of a car...i doubt he'll be able to transport a tank anywhere....

*exhales*

But today, while I was on lunch...the dude came in again. To buy the chameleon.

My coworker did their best to ensure that the guy had his cage and everything ready.

But neither of us had seen him come into the store to buy a tank.

Like it's possible he'd sourced everything elsewhere. Like people give away tanks online for far cheaper than we sell them....

Though considering the guy doesn't have an email address.....idk if he knows how to use the internet.

But it's not like we can tell the guy 'sorry we think you don't have a proper cage and therefore we can't sell the reptile to you' just because he looks homeless. 

If he says he has a cage...we have to take him at his word. And the coworker had asked him to describe the cage and such.....and like...his answers passed muster. 

*exhales*

Though since the guy couldn't really provide an address for the paperwork....i honestly don't think he has an actual home to take the chameleon back to.

...At this point I won't be surprised if the chameleon ends up dying.

Because if he doesn't have the proper cage for the reptile....I highly doubt it will last long. Not when a cold snap is expected to hit this weekend where we're gonna drop into the 40s and 30s. 

Far too cold for a chameleon. 

Gah. I kinda wish the dude had just lost interest. 

But I guess we'll just have to see how the dice fall...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Discount It

 >_< The chameleon customer came back today. 

I'd been hoping that I had missed him Saturday and that he'd forgotten all about the chameleon.

But no, who knows if he came in Saturday, but he definitely came in today.

Apparently he's decided that he really wants the chameleon and approached our cashier to ask if it would be possible to discount it.

Which we were all like ??? hearing that request over the radios.

Because we don't discount animals. It's rare to discount them honestly. Like if there's something wrong with the creature we usually adopt it out to a customer who will be able to care for it and its special needs.

And I wasn't aware of there being any issues with our chameleon.

But no, when I rounded the corner to investigate who was wanting a discount...it was the homeless guy from Friday. *exhales*

Though honestly...I'm not completely sure if he's homeless. He says he has a home...but at the same time, you usually don't see people wearing heavy pants/coats with large backpacks come into the store unless they are homeless or hitch hiking. He gave off the 'homeless aura' so to speak. 

In any case. The dude wanted to know if we would discount the chameleon for him because he wanted to buy the reptile but didn't have enough money to do so.

Which kinda sets off red flags because like...if you can't afford to spend $60 on a chameleon...when it's already on sale (saving you $10 cus it's usually $70) then you aren't likely able to afford ~$200 worth of gear/cage/equipment/food that the chameleon needs to survive. 

And I was pretty sure the dude had none of this stuff. Especially when he asked how long he could keep the reptile in a temporary container. 

And I had to show him all the cages and such that was required because chameleons are one of the more delicate creatures and that they wouldn't do well in the cold without heat.

To which the customer responded that he wasn't going to be 'in the cold' as he would be 'taking the bus' 

To which I reiterated that the chameleon would need heat because they need to stay warm. I ended up giving the dude a care guide, pointing to the "Needs 90-100 degrees in it's basking spot" portion of the guide and again showing him what cages he would need to buy everything.

Like reptiles aren't cheap. They have a pretty expensive start up cost if you don't already have all the stuff.

I left him to look at things down the aisle and he ended up leaving the store without buying anything.

Though when I went to go take out a curbside pickup he was standing outside the store with his bike and he told me "I'm going to go home and get more cash." before riding off.

Which...I hope he has another mode of transport because there's no way he's carrying a cage on a bike to his home....like sure I could see him transporting the reptile...but all the gear? Not likely. :S 

I didn't see him again before the end of my shift....so I can only hope that he changed his mind and didn't come back....but I guess we'll see when I go into work tomorrow if the chameleon is there or not. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Chameleon Fascination

 Had a homeless guy come into the store today and become fascinated with our chameleon. 

As the chameleon had come to the front of its cage and appeared to be interacting with him as he put his finger up next to it. 

As I was walking past, he turned to me and asked if he could hold the chameleon. 

I had to tell him that due to the pandemic, we aren't allowing the handling of pets unless the individual is planning to buy the animal that day.

To which the dude went on a spiel of how he had worked for some institute of health/science/something and he and his team had eradicated viruses so they no longer existed.

*shakes head*

No...pretty sure you didn't get rid of all viruses. Especially since my state broke a new record on reported covid cases today. 

And even if he had destroyed all viruses...I still couldn't let him hold the pet per our current policies. 

He didn't like that much...

And a little while later he wandered by our fish wall asking if we had any crickets. To which I showed him them and he asked if the chameleon would eat little crickets.

I could see where he was heading. Either he wanted to buy some crickets to feed to our chameleon, or else he wanted us to feed the chameleon so he could watch. 

I had to shut him down again though by telling him that we'd already fed the chameleon this morning.

It didn't dissuade him though. He mentioned coming back tomorrow then to feed the chameleon then.

I wonder if he'll actually come...hopefully I'm not around if he does. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Your Information

I had a guy come into the store today wanting to buy one of our anoles.

And per our policy customers have to fill out some paperwork before buying any animal in the store -with the exception of fish- 

That paperwork usually is just a physical copy of our guarantee which explains to customers that if there's any issues with their pet within a certain time frame they can bring the animal back to us so long as they have the animal, the receipt, and the white paper that they filled out.

But the other portion of the paperwork is the customer filling out some information about themselves.

Namely their name, address, phone number, and then an email address if they want to.

And overall, nobody really questions having to fill out this information. 

And in all honesty we don't use the information on the paperwork at all. If a customer brings back a pet for a health check and wants to buy it back then we'll need the customer's phone number in order to call them when their pet recovers.

But the rest of it...not really needed. And honestly I think we only have it on hand 'just in case' like something needs to be mailed to their home or something. But it's not something I've ever had happen. 

And I think earlier...I don't even know if this is still a thing, but back when I first started we would need to mail all our copies of the paperwork to the home office....but I don't think they did anything with the information there either. So like it's mostly just an old safeguard just in case we have to reach the customer somehow.

In any case.

The customer was really against giving us his address.

He wanted to know what we were going to 'do with this information' and upon hearing 'nothing' wanted to know 'why' he needed to fill it out in the first place if it wasn't 'doing anything'

Yah. It sucks to be told 'it's required per policy' but that's really the only for sure answer I had for the guy. We just need the address just in case. But we don't do anything with it.

Still. It's weird to have those paranoid types come into the store.

The ones who don't want to use a chip reader, or give us their email, or phone number, or address....

Like in this day and age...it's just weird. To have someone so against it. 

Like I get some of the reasoning. But at the same time....it's just weird.

-Sarnic Dirchi

The More The Merrier

Had a customer come into the store today who I recognized because their voice has a slight lilt to it that is distinctive enough to remember.

I also knew that this customer was the sort to ask more questions and to drag on things from indecisiveness.

Which proved to be the case today.

Though honestly, I wasn't expecting them to buy any pets...as I knew they already had one or two....for some reason I pictured them having some leopard geckos though since I found the customer and their kids near the fish wall...they could have ended up with fish too....who knows.

All I knew is that I knew the customer.

And apparently....they decided that they wanted to get a bearded dragon.

But not A bearded dragon. No they wanted two bearded dragons. So two of the kids could each have one.

Which I'm guessing one or two of the other kids had the leopard geckos? Not sure.

In any case, I proceeded to warn the customer that if they got two there would be a chance in the future that they would need to buy a second cage because if they ended up with two male bearded dragons then they would need to separate them out to prevent fighting from happening.

After a bit of dithering on the size of cage to get while they were waiting for sales...

The customer again confirmed that they wanted two bearded dragons.

Only...the kids ended up picking 2 bearded dragons that weren't their 'original' choices according to the customer.

Leaving one of the original 2 picks still in the cage.

And the parent didn't like that....

And so decided that instead of getting 2....they would get 3 bearded dragons so that they would have one as well.

Which again, I warned that if they had ended up picking 3 males -as they're too small/young to tell right now their gender- they would have to look into getting 3 separate cages to house them all.

The customer brushed off the concern, basically stating they'd cross that bridge when they got to it.

Which....honestly I do wonder if they'll end up keeping all 3.

As apparently no one had told the spouse about this venture....and customer and kids decided it would be a good idea to drop by the spouse's work after they left the store to show them the 3 new family pets....

:S I can't imagine how that will go over.

*shakes head*

Guess we'll see if they end up keeping all 3 or not.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Return the Right Amount

Had a customer come into the store today to return their bearded dragon so that we could take it to the vet as they said that the bearded dragon was doing 'death rolls' where it was rolling in their hands.

Which isn't a good sign and often points to some sort of neurological issue happening whether through infection or some other cause.

It was also concerning that they said they couldn't get the bearded dragon to eat for the past few days...maybe up to a week.

So I said that we'd return the bearded dragon and get it to the vet as soon as we could.

And proceeded to give the customer their return aka their money back.

As we give customers their money back when they bring animals back to us to take to the vet just in case, if something happens to the animal that prevents us from being able to give the animal back to the customer...they don't have to come in a second time to get their money back. 

In any case. 

The customer in this situation didn't have their receipt with them, just the sales record, so I had no idea what they'd bought the bearded dragon for.

And considering they were on sale for the month, I assumed that the customer had got the dragon for the sale price.

But no after giving the customer their money on a merchandise card -because they didn't have their card or the receipt-

The customer later came back to complain that they hadn't gotten the money back for the full price of the bearded dragon.

Which I can understand why they would want to make sure they got the correct amount back, especially considering this is their second bearded dragon that's had issues....

But at the same time, without the receipt to prove the amount they actually paid for the bearded dragon....we had, per policy, to assume that they got the bearded dragon on sale and paid them back accordingly.

It took a bit to get the customer to understand that if they found the receipt proving that they paid the full amount for the bearded dragon then we could definitely get them the rest of the money back to them.

But we needed the proof. 

Funnily enough, despite 'not being able to find it' earlier the customer came back like five minutes later having found the actual receipt in their car.

So the other manager on duty went ahead and made sure that they got the entire amount back for what they'd spent on the bearded dragon.

Hopefully we can get the little guy recovered and get him back to this customer soon as they seem to be the type to check in constantly with us to see how he's doing.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Messy Tank

 So my manager decided a while ago that having the turtle tank on our fish wall be part of the fish system itself wasn't a good idea. 

I'm not sure why.

Like...water is constantly flowing meaning that the tank doesn't get stagnant and the water stays cleaner.

My guess is that they were concerned with the treatments we put into the fish tanks to treat potential fish illnesses and such on a weekly basis.

But like...we usually turn off access to the turtle tanks when we do that. So that none of the chemicals go into those tanks when the rest of the fish wall is treated.

But the manager decided we needed to set up internal filters within the turtle tanks so they can be in their 'own water' or whatever.

Which sure, I get it.

But it makes more work for us.

As now we have to monitor the water levels and make sure to maintain the internal filters so they don't get clogged up and continue to provide clean water for the turtles.

Unsurprisingly....

The tank got filthy.

Like today when I came in I noticed that the water was super cloudy and that the few goldfish in the tank we'd placed in there to feed the turtles...were gasping at the surface for air.

*exhales* 

For the months before we had the internal filters there wasn't this issue. Because the turtle tanks were part of the fish wall system and therefore fresh water constantly flows.

But no one else ever thinks to check the internal filters besides me. I don't even know if they know how to do so. 

Which means I have to monitor the situation and gah....it's frustrating. 

I may be checking in with our DM the next time they come in and ask them if it's okay to put the turtles back in the main fish system...or if we have to leave them with the internal filters....as maintaining them is a pain otherwise.

-Sarnic Dirchi

On the Loose

Had a family come into the store today who were all gung ho about buying a leopard gecko for their kids.
They had the cage and everything that the leopard gecko needed to do well.
And as I was about to give them the paperwork....the mother was like "Do the crickets escape?"

To which I simply said "Yes."
To which she was like ()_() 
And I was like: "Yah, it's only a matter of time before they get loose"

To which the children were like "How?!"
And I proceeded to list just how they could get loose.

And the mom was like "Nope nope nope nope nope." 
Because she didn't want to have to deal with any loose crickets in the house that might chirp at night.

The family ended up buying a fish tank instead to put fish in. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Chomp Chomp

So have this regular customer who comes in on a near weekly basis to buy goldfish to feed their turtle named Bob.
-Though the customer recently decided that Bob may actually be a girl. However since they've had the turtle for years now...they're just keeping the name as Bob.

And Bob is an interesting turtle. I believe she's a red-eared slider? In any case. The pet parents brings Bob in during the winter and then puts her back outside into the pond during the warmer months.

And Bob is the sort of turtle that will eat dead fish from the hand (or skewer as the pet parent doesn't want nipped fingers) 
So while it's not warm out, the customer will buy the goldfish. Some to feed to the turtle as soon as they get home, the rest to freeze and feed later on.

And this customer is always excited when I'm the one in the department because I can catch fish the fastest out of everyone in the store. (I've been doing it longest so that makes sense) 
But has been making a point to tell me this the last few times I've seen them. That they're glad I'm the one working when they come in.

In any case.
They were telling me that Bob's taken up a new...pastime? hobby? attempted food source?

As the customer came in today to get 150 goldfish instead of like the usual 60.
Because they noticed that this year, it appears that some local snakes have realized that there's fish in the pond and want to try their hand...fangs? at catching some fish.

Only the snakes hadn't accounted for Bob lurking in the pond.
And Bob is...pretty territorial. 

And apparently has taken to catching and trying to drown any snakes that enter into the pond.
As the pet parent caught Bob in the act twice now.

The first time Bob had the snake by the mouth and the snake was desperately trying to wiggle free.
And the only reason why Bob let go was because the owner's spouse grabbed a pole and lightly tapped Bob on the shell--as the turtle doesn't like her shell being touched and that caused her to immediately let go and the snake swam for freedom (and straight to the spouse who was like 'HEY I JUST FREED YOU DON'T ATTACK ME!) 

The second time, Bob had grabbed onto the snake in the middle and was trying to drag the snake underwater to drown it.
With a repeat performance with the pole, Bob was made to let go of the snake...but this one was more...lifeless than the other.
So the pet parent took the snake by the tail and put it in a spot far away from the pond to see if it would recover.

They were still uncertain if the snake actually survived, but it wasn't there when they went to check on it later.

Still it's kinda crazy.
I haven't heard of turtles attacking snakes before. O_o 

-Sarnic Dirchi

dejavu

It felt like I was repeating Thursday's work shift today.

Because I saw like...probably half a dozen customers that I helped then come into the store today needing more help.

Like. It was just disorienting to see someone come in and be like "i just saw you!" 

I mean, it's common in pet stores, especially when it involves fish sales, to see customers more than once.
Because it's not uncommon to have customers needing to come back to exchange out their dead fish or to just get new fish in general.

But like there's this one girl who's been in the store practically every day this week.
To return fish. 
To get different tanks.
To get different fish.

Like I don't even know how many fish tanks she has currently. At least two judging by the conversation I had today with her.
But like...I do worry she's being...a helicopter pet owner with her fishs because of how often she's been in the store.
Like it's literally an every day thing.

Saw another customer that I'd also helped with fish at least twice this week. Though a coworker took over today's exchange.

And had a guy come in wanting to get his Chinese Water Dragon.
As he'd originally come in on Thursday wanting to buy one, but was struggling to convince his wife to let him get it.
In the end, they ended up not getting a water dragon but a Ball Python instead because the wife wanted one.
I was actually surprised that he managed to convince her to get that.....and like not end up with the water dragon too.
Turns out he came back yesterday to get his water dragon, but we'd closed my department for the day to animal sales because of short staff.
So they ended up just buying the tanks and such for the water dragon.
And then the dude showed up bright and early today to finally get his lizard.

That's dedication there. *shakes head* 
Hopefully the snake and lizard do well with them. 

But yah.
It's just like...an entire day of dejavu as it felt like every fifth or sixth customer I helped was one I'd already seen either on Thursday or at least sometime this week.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Outside Pets

I'm always a bit conflicted when people want to buy pets....to put them outside.
Like koi fish/ comet goldfish for a pond I can totally understand.
outdoor cats to keep the mice down in like barns and such I can totally understand.

But like...if you're just going to keep the animal outdoors because you don't want it indoors....then why get a pet in the first place?
Especially the cats and dogs that are 'family' pets but are kept outside or in the garage because the adults don't want them messing up the furniture....like there are so many more risks for the outdoor animals. Getting hit/run over, getting fleas/ticks, getting injured, stuck, sick, or you know just soaking wet or frozen in bad weather....

But I never know what to say when people come into the store wanting animals for outdoors....

Like today for example.

I had a customer come in who wanted two of our red eared sliders, the pacman frog we had, and two koi.

The combination itself made me think that the customer wanted to put all the creatures outside in a pond.
Like koi fish it's a given that it's usually for a pond.
Turtles too...unfortunately. Though I do try and discourage people from getting turtles to put outside...like they're captive bred creatures. They're not used to 'outdoor' living. Or if the customer is confident the turtle will be fine, warn them that they'll want to bring them inside once winter hits since it gets far too cold outside for them.

But the pacman frog...was new.
To my knowledge, I've never had anyone buy a pacman frog for ponds...
Though after getting home today I did look it up and pacman frogs could be around ponds as they like muddy areas and shallow water.

But I did try to discourage the customer from getting the frog since at that time I didn't know how they would do outside.
Which I could sense the customer mentally rolling their eyes at me for trying to ensure that the frog had proper care. *exhales*
They did change their mind on getting him and stated that they only wanted the turtles and the koi.
But then as i was gathering the paperwork to get the turtles situation after grabbing the koi fish for them...the customer changed their mind again and stated that they wanted to get the pacman frog as they 'had a cage at home'

*exhales* It's really too bad I can't call people out on their lies.
Their "I have a tank at home" statements after I tell them why they can't get certain animals.
It's too convenient really. Like...you suddenly remember having a bigger tank when you told me first you only had the smaller size? It's unrealistic.

But mostly I have to take people at their word.
You can't really call them a liar to their face.

But I'm pretty sure this customer just wanted to go through with their original plan to put the pacman frog outside by their pond.  
Like I said...I can't really say to the customer "I think you're lying so I'm still not gonna sell you the frog." 

*exhales* hopefully all the creatures are doing well in their new 'home' though....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Eating

Had a customer come into the store today to return a Painted Turtle they had bought from us basically two weeks ago. 
Why? Because apparently the entire time they had the turtle...he didn't eat at all. 

Which it's not unusual for turtles to forgo eating.
But at the same time...not eating any of the food they've tried.
And apparently they were doing everything correctly. Having the right heat and such.

And the customers wanted to know what they should have done to have things turn out better.

As this experience had them returning the turtle and the kit and everything. Apparently done with the whole experience of keeping a pet.

And honestly.
I had no idea what they could have done.
Everything I suggested they said they'd tried or done.

But like...I don't know this turtle very well.
The customers literally came and bought it the same day that it came into the store.
So I had no idea how it was eating or how it was reacting or anything.

And it's hard to judge how a turtle (or any other creature is) based on what the customer tells you they did to take care of it. Because they could be misunderstanding my questions. Or lying. Or doing things to stress out the turtle....*exhales*

He seems alert and active enough.
But he didn't appear to eat today when I gave him food. 

So we'll have to play the wait and see game.....
If another customer doesn't buy him up first....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Escapee

We apparently have a leopard gecko loose in the store.

One that's been running around long enough gorging himself on crickets that he's apparently now to his adult size. 

My manager told me that while they were cleaning dishes in the back during the reptile bedding change.
They happened to look down by their foot and there he was. 

But...because another lizard had bitten my manager during the bedding change earlier.
They were a bit reluctant to grab this random adult lizard that appeared at their feet.

Plus it's a bit surprising to just see a lizard where you're not expecting to see one.

So he ended up vanishing, escaping into a dark hole where he couldn't be reached.

So yah.
We have an adult leopard gecko running around the store.
I'm kinda hoping I can find him tomorrow.
I kept an eye out today but didn't see him.

So we'll see what the morrow brings.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Research

You know...I think it's laudable that parents want their kids to know what they're getting into. 
Having them do research on the pets they want. 
Like it's an excellent idea. 

Only....it's probably a good idea for parents to do their own research too. After all, kids don't always know what to look for. 

You know like. What the animal eats.
Or how much it costs.
Or how much the set up itself costs.

*exhales*

I had to deal with multiple parents today.
Who let their kids do the 'research' on the pet that they wanted. 

Only to come into the store...and actually be completely unprepared for the pet that their child said they wanted.

I had one such parent come into the store with their kid wanting a chameleon. 

Which chameleons are not good pets for beginning pet owners.
They need a higher humidity, aren't really good for holding, and of course...eat bugs.

Yah. The parent wasn't at all prepared for the fact that all the reptiles in the store ate live bugs. (except the tortoises/turtles & snakes) 

It's frustrating. I then had to spend a good twenty minutes if not longer, going through all the various other pets that we sold.
All the while knowing that the parent was not keen on getting another pet in the first place.
Like...if you don't want another pet...why are you getting your child's hopes up by letting them come to a pet store??

It like...became a mission to convince the children that none of the pets in the store were ones that they wanted.
They weren't convinced though the mother was. 

*exhales*

So frustrating. I had to repeat the scenario more than once today.
And all the while I'm just rooting for the people to go home because I don't want to be helping people when we should be social distancing. 

Note to self. Whenever I have kids...I need to make sure I research the pets they want too.
That way I know how much it's gonna cost and what is involved. 
After all..I'll probably end up taking care of the animal anyways.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Feeder

We had a customer come into the store today looking to buy a long-tailed lizard.
Which isn't out of the ordinary as we do sell reptiles...and the long-tailed lizards have been popular for some reason.

My coworker was the one who was helping the customer.
But as they were still newer to the store, they'd never caught the long-tailed before. And wanted to know how to do it.

Like...you just grab them?

I mean they can be fast, but it's not that hard to catch them compared to the Green Anoles which can be a lot quicker.

But my coworker was having issues.
Trying to catch the lizard in the container...but not grabbing it by hand.
And so I asked if they needed help.

And my coworker had me take over to grab the lizard. 
Since there were two in the cage.
I asked the customer if there was one in particular that they wanted.

The customer was like "No, it's just a feeder so it doesn't matter." 

And I was like ???? A feeder?

Which like, that's the term I'm used to hearing with our feeder goldfish.
Or even customers looking for feeder mice to feed to their snakes. 

But like. A feeder lizard?
Not so much. 

So I double checked to make sure I hadn't misheard what they said.

Nope.
They wanted the lizard to use it as food.
For a skink.

Unfortunately for the customer.
But fortunately for the lizard.

We don't sell any live animals for food (besides the comet goldfish and crickets)

So no mice for food.
And definitely no lizards for food.

So I ended up refusing the sale to the customer. 

So no lizard for them. 

*exhales*
That's definitely a new one though.
I haven't had to deal with customers wanting to buy lizards to feed them to something else before. 

-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