MLAARE -Dust and Feathers

We were in the middle of receiving in our new animals into the store.
I was inspecting them, to make sure they looked healthy enough to be received by us.

We'd gotten to the Dumbo Rats, and the guy picked up the last one...
And the rat freaked out.
O.o
Like it went all spastic, squeaking, rushing around.
The handler couldn't keep a hold on it.
And the rat managed to get out of the box, onto the floor, rushing around.
(Don't worry we were in a contained room where it couldn't escape into the main store. O.o that would have been a nightmare.)

We couldn't get a hold of it,
And the rat slipped under a rack of bird cages we had back there.
A narrow space.
Making it hard to reach in and grab the terrified creature out.

I took over before the guy could move,
Going to my stomach, with a net in hand, I spent like five or so minutes fishing around, before finally I pulled the now dusty feather covered rat out and got him into his temporary cage.

Before I dusted my own feather covered dusty self off as well.

And the guy was like
"Wow, you're not afraid of getting dirty are you?"

Ha.
I had to laugh.
I mean....I work in a pet store!
Dirty is part of the game here.
When you work with animals, there are bound to be messes.
Not comfortable with messes...you shouldn't be in a pet store.
So I answered "Nope, I'm not." :) lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -What Do You Need?

Customers.
Customers.
Customers.
Customers.

I had a woman approach me today, asking me where we had moved the cat collars had been moved to.
So I showed her.
And as I was about to leave, because she'd said she didn't need any more help.
She started talking to me. Saying that we no longer carried the treats her pets wanted.
I assumed it was a cat at first.
Because we were looking at cat collars.
It was only natural to assume.
But she went on about the treats in the boxes, the round boxes.
I knew we'd moved things around.
But I couldn't remember cat treats coming in boxes that she described.
So I asked her "Cat treats or Dog treats?"
And she continued talking.
But NOT ANSWERING MY QUESTION!
I repeated it like seven times.
I tried switching it up. "Is this a dog or a cat?"
Finally in her rambling I got out that it was a dog she was trying to feed.
A very picky dog that only eats certain treats.
But I couldn't get out of her what treats she was looking for!
She wouldn't answer my questions!
It was like she didn't even hear my words. She heard me speaking but not what I was saying.
So. Very Frustrating.
She wouldn't answer my questions.
So I could not help her.
I could only listen as she told me of how picky her dog was and that she had a hard time finding treats that the dog would eat. *sighs*

Customers.
I like it better when I can help them.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Hay Fever

There was a woman who came into the store the other day;
Who firmly stated that she needed 'a big bag of hay.'
So I took her over to the Hay, faintly irritated that she couldn't read the signs and direct herself there herself.
(It just takes a few seconds to look upwards people. We do have signs that tell you where things are, no need to run straight to the first person who see to ask them to direct you to it, especially when said person is rather busy.)
I took her over to the Hay, and pull out the first big bag of Hay that I saw.
"Oh no, that's not the kind I buy. That's not good hay."
"It's the brand we use Ma'am..." -that stopped her for a moment.
"Still, that's not the brand that I use."
"Alright so which brand are you looking for?"
"Uh...."
(Why don't customers know the name of the things they need to buy? You buy it shouldn't you know the brand name?)
So I list off a few different brands that make Hay, finally alighting on the one she buys.
"Yes. That one! I need the big bags."
I looked to the shelf. Looked upwards. "It looks like we don't have the largest size right now, but we do have this next size here, but I'll go look in a couple other places to see if we have it there."
Which I did, only to confirm that the bag she had was the only size of that kind that we had. But at least she was getting a deal on it where if she bought two bags of the brand she wanted, (even if it was the smaller size) she would get a third one free.
But she seemed to be aiming to get ALOT for a little. So she asked me if I had any other deals like that for the other bags of hay.
I hadn't seen any, but I told her I'd double check.
She was rather unhappy that there were no other buy 2 get 1 deals for her to take advantage off. Just regular discount sales.
Nearly she debated about going to the Larger bag I'd originally shown her -since we used it here in the store- Which would have been irritating in of itself because of how much effort I'd gone through to get her three bags the same size that matched the deal.
Luckily she decided to go with the deal...
Still frustrated that she made me run all over the store though. *sighs* the lengths we go through to try and make customers happy...

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Wood Chip Disaster

I had a customer come into the store the other day,
Who'd just gotten their child a brand new pet.
A rabbit. One of those longer haired versions.
That apparently won third place in the county fair recently.

Its a customer I've seen in the store before.
With other pets that they've gotten for their child.
Its a thing where they just can't say no.

But in any case.
The child was super excited for their new pet.
Constantly taking it out of the little dog carrier they had it in to show it off to other customers and coworkers.

Which wouldn't have been so bad.
Except.
In the carrier.
They had bedding.
That would spill out into the cart whenever the rabbit would get pulled out.
And carts....aren't known for solid bottoms.
So the bedding would spill out onto the floor.

Which would have been easy to clean up.
EXCEPT.
They didn't just stick to one spot!
No.
These particular customers had to wander all over the store!
Leaving a trail of woodchips everywhere they went!

And made NO EFFORT whatsoever to clean it up!

>.<
By the end our store was covered in wood chips.
Which was BAD because that was a slipping hazard to other customers.
It also made our store look so dirty and uncared for.
Because there was wood chips all over the place!

It was like we'd clean up one mess, and come back and there were three more left in other places!
Gah!
Why?
Did they not realize they were making a MESS!
Why didn't they try to clean it up?

>.<
I was definitely glad when they left the store so we could again make the floors safe for the other customers.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Old Coworker Problems

I had an old coworker come into the store today.
A coworker that I really wished to never see again.
Because nobody in the store liked her when she worked here.
Because she was snobby. Because she complained. Because she was annoying.
Basically....she wasn't a good fit for our store at all.
And it was a serious relief when she left the store for a different job.
(Not to mention...she shared my name which equals an almost automatic dislike in my book -yes I'm weird like that.)

In any case.
She came into the store today.
Why?
Because she wanted to get a bearded dragon.
Who knows why she decided on that pet.
But decide on that pet she did.
And she was basically to that point where she was pricing things.
Saying that she could get certain things for less at another place, and she would get the cage first and then she would come get the bearded dragon later.
-I halfway think she was trying to get me to come down in price to get her to buy from our store instead of some other place....which is weird...because we don't do that. And she should know that because she used to work here!

In any case.
It was a surprise when she came back a while later.
With husband in tow. (O.o when did she get married?)
To do what?
Buy a cage here.
And a bearded dragon.

No idea what changed her mind on that whole waiting thing.
But she didn't make the process easy.
Asking all these questions about cages, whether it was better to get one size or another to get a kit or get it all separate. blah blah blah. And when she finally decided on a cage...she then was like "Hey aren't there coupons for this particular product." and I was like O.o No?
(Funny thing is that if she'd come on Saturday we had had one day coupons that would have gotten her half off a reptile and half off a cage...but that was Saturday, not today.)
But I offered to go double check.
Guess what? No coupons.
So I told her that.
And she was like "Don't you guys give away a coupon book when you buy a pet and a cage?"
And I was like. "No...you're probably thinking of the booklet we give away when you adopt a cat and dog, but that's just for cats and dogs."
Now that I think about it, every now and then we occasionally have coupon books for when you buy another animal that gives you discounts, but unfortunately for her, we weren't doing that sort of thing right now.

It was...rather annoying to have to deal with her. To explain everything to her, when I know she knew a lot of it already at one point. *shakes head*
But what really bugs me is that she was trying to get a deal at every turn it seemed like.
Telling the cashier that she could switch out one type of bedding for another at no additional cost (un true.) Among other things...plus she was returning a bunch of items she bought as well!! O.o So. Confusing.

I was so so very relieved when she finally left the store.
But I can only imagine that she will be one of 'those' customers.
That is going to come in everyday for a week to pester us with questions and concerns and exchanges and who knows what else. She's going to make it so we groan when she walks in the door. I can just see it now. Really, I hope I'm wrong. I'd rather not see her again....but I guess we'll see how it goes.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Left In A Box

Things can get hectic sometimes at work.
To the point where you can forget a thing or two.

Apparently one of my coworkers forgot a thing or two.
As we had a couple of birds returned,
Because one of them had apparently bit a girl.
(Probably because it was antagonized, birds usually fly away unless they can't get away.)
In any case, they were returned.
And my coworker moved them into the iso room.
But immediately got called to go help elsewhere in the store.
One thing led to another, and...
The coworker totally forgot about the birds.
And left.
Only remembering way after the store was closed.
That the birds hadn't been taken out of their temporary containment....

However.
They didn't stay the night in their boxes...

No, another coworker ended up closing the backrooms.
One of the new hires.
And thankfully found the birds.
And put them into a proper cage...
in a different room.

Which lead to panic this morning...
When my coworker went to go rescue the birds.
And couldn't find them in the room they were left in.
But a quick search in another room.
Showed that they were there.

While they weren't put in the right room.
I do like that the new coworker actually thought through the problem.
I don't know if they went to another to ask w. hat to do with the birds,
Or just did it on their own initiative.
In either case,
I'm glad that they didn't just leave the birds in their boxes.
But instead did something about it.
^^ It seems like this new coworker is going to do well here.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Headless

I was in the middle of feeding the reptiles.
When a couple of children happened by.
And stopped in front of the birds to look at them.

More specifically the Parakeets.
Which were rather mellow at that point in time.
Just sitting there, some of them sleeping.

And the little girl exclaimed:
"It's a headless bird!!"

O.o
I glance over to look as the other child tries to patiently explain that the bird was not headless, they just couldn't see the head right now, because of how it was sleeping.
Because the bird had turned its head to rest on its back, and at first glance the bird did look headless. Because you couldn't see the eyes or the beak....

But the first child would not hear it.
"It's a headless bird!"
She kept exclaiming over and over again.
No matter how many times the boy tried to tell her that it wasn't headless.
She wouldn't hear it.
It was headless and that was the end of it.

*shakes head*
lol.
The things children think.
At least I can confidently say that we don't sell headless birds at work. Jus tones that give off the appearance of being headless when they sleep.

-Sarnic Dirchi