Turtle?

We got in our reptile shipment today.
Which is uncommon but not unusual for a Tuesday.

As the reptiles can show up anytime between Tuesday and Friday.
Though most commonly they show up Thursday or Friday. 

So it was a bit of a surprise to get my shipment in today.

And it was like...a normal shipment.
Putting out lizards and snakes and turtles....

Until I got to our Red Eared Slider Turtle that we got in. 

And like right off the bat he didn't look right.
The top shell was more...concave than normal. Looking more like a rooftop with the shell coming up to a point at the spine...instead of being like smooth all the way over.

And then I lifted him out of his container.

And saw the stomach of his shell.

It was concave as well.
Bowing inwards.
Not straight and smooth like it was supposed to be.
Plus, the coloration of the red on the Slider's face was also very dingy and faint, not the bright red I'm used to seeing. 

>.>
So overall. 
They sent us an unhealthy turtle.

And I'm like. Why?!
()_()
Because even though he's active and swimming around...I'm definitely concerned about him.
Like...how can you expect us to sell such a malformed turtle?
How do we know he's healthy?
Because he certainly doesn't look healthy.

*exhales*
But since the reptiles are shipped to us and not brought in like the other animals are....
It's not a simple thing of saying "we don't want this, take it back."

Hopefully the manager's figured out a solution....
Guess we'll see. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Six Small Crickets

There's a woman who comes into the store every Monday to grab six small crickets.

Do I remember what creature she needs those crickets for?
Nope. Not at all.
But I know she comes in every Monday to grab six small crickets.
So I make sure every Monday that when I'm bagging up crickets.
That I do a bag of six small.

Sometimes she gets there before I can get to bagging crickets.
Sometimes she arrives right in the middle of me bagging crickets.
And other times I never see her.

It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen her in the store.
To the point where I was beginning to wonder if she had settled into a new routine.
Like maybe she was grabbing the crickets for a school pet and since school is out for basically everyone now...there's no need for her to come in.

But no.

My manager came up to me today.
And handed me a card where he'd written down a compliment a customer had given me. 

"She's so amazing!" 

Apparently it was the woman who told my manager this. ^^;;
And she's just so grateful that I make the effort to remember her cricket order and have it ready every Monday morning for her. ^^;;

Like awwww. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

Awwww

It's always nice to be appreciated. ^^;;

Had a customer come into the store today, one that I recognized as having helped before. Though with how time works in the store I couldn't remember how recently I'd helped her. Whether it had been a couple of days ago or up to a week....

But she'd come in to find a house for the hamster that she'd bought as the one they had had was too small. 

And she was super complimentary to me. ^^;; 

Lol she was telling me that she and her kids look forward to coming into the store while I'm working because I've been so helpful to them and that they never want me to leave the store and that one of her daughters wants to work in a petstore now.

And it was just like.... An Awwwww moment. 

To know that there are people out there who like to see me at work and look forward to me being on shift when they come in. :)

It was a heart warming moment. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Lights?

So one of my coworkers notified me at like 8:10 this morning (before we were open) that there was a customer on the fish aisle who looked like they needed help.

And me? Yah, I still totally want to go up to customers and tell them "We are closed until 9. GO AWAY" But nope. 
We're going the polite route. 
So I checked into see if he needed help.
He did. He wanted to find a way to get his hardwater down as it was testing too high.
Which easy answer.
He didn't need to get the hardwater down. Because the fish are used to being in hard water. It's when the water is too soft that there's cause for concern. 

So I told him that. He was happy.
And I left to do other things thinking that he would leave soon after.

But nearly an hour later.
Just before we did open.
I found him still in the same aisle. 

Which O.o 
Huh? Why are you still here?!
I mean it'd been like 45 minutes since I last spoke to him.
And...it's not uncommon for customers to spend forever in the aisles deciding on products and such. 
It's just weird for it happen soo early in the morning.
Usually morning people need to be places. They don't have time to hang around as they're like dropping by on their way to school or work or an appointment or something.

Apparently not for this customer.
I don't know why he spent 45 mins there.

But towards opening he approached me asking if I could catch him some ghost shrimp and neon tetras.
Which easy enough....when the lights are on.
But the lights to the fish system don't turn on until the store opens. 
So I was trying to catch ghost shrimp in the semi dark tanks -as the only light hitting them at that point was the lights from the main store. 

The customer watched me for a second and was like "...don't you guys have lights for your tanks?" 
"Mhmm" I responded "But they don't turn on until we open. Which is in like 5 minutes. So right now they're off."
"Ah."
Yah. Silly customer. *shakes heads*

In any case. I was able to help him out, get his fish, answer his questions and send him on his merry way. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Double Called

I had a customer call the store today, asking if we had any bearded dragons. 

Which, thankfully we did actually.

Because for like the last month and a half we've had no bearded dragons in the store.

At all.

I don't know how we ended up with the sudden shortage and lack of them being sent to us...

But it's been difficult not having them as they're one of our most popular pets. 

So I was pretty happy to say "Yah! We have three currently." 

So the customer was like "Great! How much are they?"

I had to double check prices as they often go on sale.

And told her the prices.

She was then like "Okay, thanks Hon" and hung up.

I didn't think much of it.

Until like a minute and a half later when the phone rang....

And she was on the line again.

Asking me the exact same questions...

I think the only difference being that she specified "baby" bearded dragons?

Which we only carry babies. We never get full grown ones in. 

But I had to wonder...if she realized she called the same store twice in a row and asked the same questions?

Like...I greeted her the exact same way....so you'd think she'd realize....

But it didn't seem like it.

Unless she was calling back to check prices on the babies as opposed to adults? *shakes head*

No idea. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Guinea Pig Returns

So a while ago,
We had a couple of customers -two different people- return Guinea Pigs for a couple of different issues.
One had some sort of wound on his side -which kinda looked like a puncture wound. 
The other had some lumpy growths on the skin.

And both customers indicated that they wanted to buy their Guinea Pig back once they got better. 
-Which takes some time. 

--We guarantee our animals for a certain time frame, and if customers end up experiencing an issue where the animal needs to be taken to the vet within that period, we'll take the animal to the vet for the customer and treat it until it gets better and then when healthy, will call the customer up to say that their animal is ready to be returned to them. 

And it just so happened that yesterday, both those guinea pigs were determined to be recovered and healthy. 
So I gave both customers a call.
The one who had the guinea pig with the lumps didn't answer the phone and I couldn't leave a message because their voicemail was full. (at some point maybe we'll be able to text people. That would be so handy)
The second customer I also couldn't reach, but did leave a voicemail.

But today, the customer I'd left a voicemail for came in to get her guinea pig, the one with the puncture wound on the side.

And when I met up with her she was like "So what was the skin issue?" 

O.o 
Uhmmm….it was wounded?
Like...it was kinda obvious what the issue was.
-Though I get the concern because some skin problems like Ringworm also involve scabbing and sometimes bleeding.

But nope. This guinea pig just had a wound. 
...it kinda looked like a puncture wound really. Like it had hit something sharp or something sharp had hit it.
But the wound healed without issue after we treated it. 

And after returning that guinea pig to that customer, I decided to try calling the other customer again, to see if calling slightly later in the day would result in someone picking up.

Which it did.

And I was so excited because I was like "Is this so and so?" And they were like "Yah?" And I was like "Hi! It's Sarnic from the Starsmet, I'm calling to say that your Guinea Pig is healthy and ready to be picked up!"

But the woman on the other end.....
Was like: "Huh? Who are you? I don't-- Huh? Can you say that again?" 
So I repeated myself like twice more and was like "You had a guinea pig you returned to us right?" 

To which she said something like "I don't--I'm not sure, I'm going to--" 
And then she hung up on me.

O.o 
Which like...umm.....Did you want the guinea pig or not?
I almost think she was trying to find someone else to take the phone?
But like it was hard to know for sure because her side of the conversation had a lot of background noise and it sounded like she was speaking from a distance...so idk how much she was actually hearing.

But like I didn't know if I should try and call back or just leave it....

So I went to the managers on duty to tell them the situation as ask their opinion. 
And it was decided to wait a while and maybe have my manager call that customer back...

But my manager didn't come in until after I left sooo we'll probably need to contact the customer tomorrow. 

But yah. Weird. Like...I didn't know what to make of it. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

And Another---

It was a 3pm customer. 

A woman came up to the register while I was backup cashiering and asked if she could get help with the fish.
Which I'd just seen my replacement coworker come into the store.
But didn't know how long it would take them to go clock in, grab their radio, and then go over to the fish wall. 
Neither did I know how much longer I would be on the register.

But I finished up with the register, and hadn't yet seen my coworker, so I figured I could take the two minutes necessary to go catch the woman her fish and hopefully by the time I was done my coworker would be there. 

So I went and found the woman, who then directed me to her son who wanted to get some zebra danios but struggled for a moment to decide between the regular zebras and the long finned leopard danios. He ended up choosing Three Leopard Danios

While the woman told me that she also wanted two snails. 

Which should have been an easy and quick enough catch. Two separate bags.
And then I would be done!

Only then the woman spotted other fish.
And began asking questions about some aggressive fish in her tank and how different fish would do with them. 
Which meant she ended up deciding on two dward gouramis of differing colors. 
But when I was about to bag those ones up she decided she wanted one, no two! no, THREE different platys. 
And while I was catching those she was like "Oh! I should get some Neons too!" 

-Which I had my coworker get the neons.
To divide and conquer and such. 

And then had to go show the customer some airline tubes and air pumps....

*exhales* 
I really should have just handed over the entire thing to my coworker.
Because I ended up clocking out 20 minutes late.

But I kept thinking "I'm almost done."
Only for the customer to be like "OH! I want these too!" as I was almost done bagging the fish I'd already caught. *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi