Spider!

 Kids can be funny sometimes.

I had a little boy come into the store to look at the fish and such and pick out ones that he wanted---which turns out the fish 'tank' they had was like a 'fish bowl' instead and they wanted to put 2 glofish and 2 goldfish in that bowl...so I ended up talking the parent into buying a bigger tank with a heater ad filter to help the fish live better.

But while they were looking at the fish, the kid happened to glance over to our wall of care guides -just pamphlets on how to take care of various fish/creatures/animals.

And he proceeded to scream and freak out (in a none serious way, kinda having fun sort of way) over an image of a tarantula that was on one of the pamphlets. *shakes head* 

lol the parent was less than amused by the kid's antics, but I found it rather funny.

Especially when the kid was like "I told the lady I talked to earlier that I hoped I wouldn't see any spiders here and she told me we wouldn't but I just did!"

lol....probably a good thing I didn't point out the cage where had the actual live tarantula sitting. *shakes head* The kid probably would have screamed a lot louder. XD lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Surprise!

There's a certain joy one gets when helping a parent to surprise their child with a pet for a special occasion like their birthday or christmas or something.

Today I had a customer come into the store looking to get a present for their son.
As his birthday was tomorrow and the customer wanted to get them something special.

The main thing that made this memorable compared to all the other 'birthday presents' I've helped picked out is that the parent specifically mentioned that their son was turning...I think it was like 32?? And made a point to say that "but he's still my son and I want to spoil him" something like that.
And I thought it was just heartwarming that the parent wanted to do something special for their adult child. Like it's nice to hear that parents still want to spoil their kids no matter what age they are.

And the gift their parent wanted to get their kid?
A Tarantula.

So...yah. *shakes head* That was a unique experience helping them to get a cage to help set up everything and telling them about the spider and such. 

Lol hopefully the son enjoys his gift.

but the interaction with the parent was definitely a highlight to my day. Just how earnest they were in wanting to do something special for their kid. It was amazing to see. Especially with how everything seems to be in turmoil and dark and gloomy right now.

-Sarnic Dirchi

In the Way

So, there I was, in the back.
Checking on the animals, writing on charts, giving fresh food and water.
And I had my back turned to the cart where we place all the food to move about the dept.
I turned around to grab something...

And right like six inches in front of my face was this giant harvester spider!!
Gah!!!!
It's long skinny creepy legs half curled, it looked like it was waiting for me to walk into it's grip.
Ha.
ha.
NO!!!

To make matters worse....
The spider had me backed into a corner!
The door was on the other side of it!

So I scooted sideways, not blinking as I kept my eyes on the creepy spider.
Until I'd made my way around the room, away from it.
And then,
The spider proceeded to drop down lower moving closer to the wall I'd just been standing in front of. Until it reached the ground and then crawled underneath the cages there.

O.O
...Apparently I was in its way?

Still.
Very. Very. Creepy to suddenly have a spider in front of you that you nearly walk into. :S

-Sarnic Dirchi

Peekaboo

I hate spiders.
Because they can appear out of nowhere.
Literally.
They just appear!

I'd just pulled a chart off the wall in a back room.
To write down some things.
And as I put it back.
My eyes happened to stray to the nearby wall.

And there it was.
A GINORMOUS creepy harvester spider.

It was like the size of the palm of my hand.
Something that definitely wouldn't be missed.

Yet.
Until that moment.
I had missed it!

You can't tell me it doesn't appear out of nothing!
Because that's what the spider did.
Just appeared!

Oh. I did not like that.
But I'm not one to just smash the creature if its not bothering me.
>.< Though scaring me could be considered bothering me......

I just left it where it was.
Because more than likely I would try to squish it, it would jump and land on my hand, and then bite me before I could fling it off.
(yes. I did consider this chain of events to actually happen.)

But I apparently turned my back on it one too many times as I filled out different charts for different animals.

Because I turned back to the spider.
And it was gone!

Cue every hair standing up on my body.
WHERE DID IT GO?!
WHERE IS IT?!
IS IT ON ME?!

No, the spider had just climbed down out of immediate sight.
Which didn't help at all.
Because that thing moved fast.

So I quickly finished my tasks and left that room as soon as possible.

>.<
I'm fully expecting it to attack me the next time I go in.
Though more than likely its crawled back into its hideyhole.
Where I hope it stays forever. And never comes out to bother me again.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Naughty List

I don't like this time of year for one simple reason.
Because people like to surprise other people with animals as presents.
And more often than not, the animal ends up suffering because of it.

-Okay, not strictly true, A lot of people will randomly find/comeacross/get animals and want to take the best care of it possible.

But during the Christmas Season...not always true.

So.
Six days ago.
My Coworker sold our Tarantula to a guy who said he was getting it for his friend.
She did the standard questions.
Asking if he had a set up and everything.
Which the customer said that his friend did.
He was just here to pick it up.

So she sold the tarantula not thinking anything more about it.

Only...
To have a totally different guy come in last night.
With the Tarantula.
Saying that he couldn't take care of it.
-It was a White Elephant Gift!! *blazing eyes* *fury. full of fury*
And that the spider creeped him out, so he was returning it.

FIVE DAYS LATER.

And you know what?
In that FIVE day period.
The poor spider hadn't had any water. Hadn't had any food!
He'd been trapped in the small temporary container we put the spiders in for that entire period!!

Oh, to hear my coworker (the same one who sold him.) talk about it.
She put in like six crickets and the spider downed two of them in like two seconds. She put in water and the spider literally ran to it to get a drink.

You usually don't feel bad for spiders.
But the Poor Spider!!
No creature deserves to be treated in such a manner!
He's lucky to be alive!

>.< Ugh.
That customer is on the naughty list for sure. For years and years and years to come. >.<

-Sarnic Dirchi