Buddies

I heard the call come in over the intercom.
That someone in my department was needed over at the cats.
More than likely because a customer just wanted to hold them and then go on their merry way.
And since I was the only one in my department at that time.
I went over there.
And I was right.
In that the customer and her daughter wanted to hold one of the cats.

But, they wanted to hold it to see if the daughter and the cat would get along together. If they did, then more than likely they were going to adopt him. :)

Normally not something to be remarked upon, as that's what every parent wants. To make sure animal and kid are going to play nice together.

But this case was slightly different.
In that the daughter was special needs.

I don't recall seeing the mother daughter duo before.
But apparently they come in all the time to look at all the animals and see the cats.
Which by that point, the daughter just wants to go home. She doesn't care about the cats.
Yet today, today, she took a liking to one of the cats.
Wanting to take it home. Hold it. Have it. You couldn't really take her away from the cage before she was right back at it, wanting to hold the cat.

It was out of the blue. And the mother knew it. So she decided to just see how the daughter would do. How the cat would do.
To see if the daughter actually liked the cat outside of the cage as much as she liked him in the cage.

This particular cat had just come into the store. Probably not even an hour ago. So I didn't know his personality at all. But, he was purring as soon as I took him out. Nice. Calm. Not struggling or scared.

I had him on my lap.
And the daughter moved forward to pick him up.
Both ands coming around the neck and lifting him. :S
AH! Uh. No. No child! Not by the neck!

The mom and I were quick to tell her not to do that. And the mom was great and showed her how to hold the cat, what to do, what not to do, etc.

The cat was a champ through it all.
He just purred, even as she was squeezing him much tighter than necessary.
He would just tense up, try to pull away, but once the squeezing became less strangling, he would relax right back down. Purring content.

It's not often that you see a pairing like this come together.
Where it seems like it's made to be.

I wonder if there was some sort of connection felt, where the daughter recognized that this cat would do well with her, and the cat knew that she needed him.

I had my reservations. About her having the cat. Because of the squeezing and such.
I suggested that the daughter needs to have more time around cats and learn how to handle them, but that this cat seemed mellow enough.
And the mom assuaged my concerns by stating that the daughter wouldn't hold the cat without her around etc.

It was just...one of those things, where you felt bad about splitting them up.
lol.
So the mom decided to get the cat. :)

Which meant grabbing paper work.
Which meant putting the cat back in the cage.

Which the daughter didn't like at all.
As I opened the cage to slip the cat inside.
She slammed it shut, nearly catching me and the cat in the crosshairs if I hadn't pulled back. :S Yikes!
It was hard enough where I was like "You could have broken something kid!" Because those are metal doors and they HURT when you get hit by them. Trust me, I got enough bumps on the head to prove that. lol.
Thankfully we were both okay, she just didn't want us to take the cat away from her. :)

So in the end.
Cat got a new home, daughter got a new friend. I hope they have a great friendship together. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

How to Lift 150 gallons

We had a customer who wanted to buy a 150 gallon tank.
Like the heaviest tank in the store to move.
It takes 4 guys to move it.

And unfortunately....we only had one guy at work and he'd just gone on lunch and wouldn't be back for an hour. :S
Thankfully, the customers had to go grab their truck and ended up shopping for a bit so they were ready to purchase just as the one guy manager showed back up from his lunch break.

And lucky us, we managed to find two other guys -besides husband and my one coworker -in the store. -We borrowed two of the guys in the vet clinic - to help us move the tank.

It was kinda annoying though.
As we had another manager on duty.....who possibly could have helped out.
-As I write this, I remember she has trouble with her back sometimes....I think.

And I thought she was going to help out.
Until I got told that she'd already gone home.
As she was due to head home at the same time as the other manager got back from lunch.

I just found it.....annoying.
I mean, she knew that we needed help with this 150 gallon tank.
She's probably the strongest out of all us girls in the store.
And yet....she left.
She didn't even stick around to see if we figured out how to move that tank.

Granted, she may have had other errands and such where she couldn't stick around.
But seriously?
 You couldn't have just hung out to make sure we could find enough people to move the tank??

So.
annoying.

-Sarnic Dirchi

So, You Meant Yes?

I had a customer come into the store, up to our cricket area.
Where I was standing.
So I, since it's my job, asked him. "Hello, can I help you?"
He frowned down at the crickets. and said "Technically no."
Before I could respond. He added.
"I just need 80 of these." Pointing down to the large crickets we carry.

O.o
.....You see, in order to get those crickets...I would need to be the one to catch them, and bag them.

As we don't let customers bag their own crickets.

So....How could I 'technically' not help him?

That's what I don't understand.
He said No.
But....
He couldn't not get help.

So....shouldn't he just have said "Yes, I need 80 crickets?" Would have made it less confusing on my head to be told no, and then been required to help anyways....

-Sarnic Dirchi

In Charge?

I'm getting so tired of the word 'we' around my store.
Especially when it's used by my manager BB.

Why?
Because for BB 'we' doesn't mean, you and I.
No I've decided that whenever BB says 'we should do something' that she actually means. 'I' should do something.
That I should take responsibility.
That I should be in charge.
That I should ensure whatever needs to get done, gets done.

And it's frankly getting annoying.

Because I feel like BB doesn't understand what all I already do to make sure that the department keeps running as well as it has been.
All the paperwork, all the ordering, all the cleaning tasks, all the managing of my coworkers.

And then BB goes ahead and tries to add to the workload. Wanting 'us' to do this and that. When in reality. It's just me.
*shakes head*

I can halfway understand it.
because while BB is the manager over me, she's never scheduled to work in the department.
And since I'm the lead under her. I'm there 99% more often than she is....
But honestly....if they want to treat me like a manager....they should pay me like a manager. Not expect me to do their jobs for them for less pay. >.<
Or at least be more willing to be a 'team' player in the term 'we' instead of a 'leader to underling' use of 'we'

-Sarnic Dirchi

Squeak Squeakers

I've seen the mouse before.
In the store.
A wild grey one.
That runs and skitters out of sight whenever we suddenly startle it in the back janitor area.

It's been here and there for months now.
I didn't think much of it.
I figured it would eventually leave (why would it? food gets spilled all the time, it would have an endless supply)

But...I don't think anyone ever counted on the single mouse bringing friends.

I mean, we have traps set...which should trap the mice.
Only....apparently mice don't go 'exploring' they run along the walls. So if the trap is turned the wrong way. The mouse won't turn and go into it.

So the traps...useless.

And so what did my Head Manager find a few days ago?
Well...
He picked up a box that was in the janitor area.
And what was in it?
Two litters of baby mice. O.O Like 12 in total! Of two different sizes meaning that there was actually two litters of them.
O.o

But there's more.

For...well forever really but more like maybe two months?
Our floor scrubbing machine has been broken.
So our cleaning guy has been taking a mop and bucket to the floor for the past little while.
While we waited a day and a night and another month to finally have a guy come in and fix the machine.
-Honestly I thought we would just get a whole new scrubbing machine.
But instead we had a guy come fix it.

And what did he find inside of the machine?
Yah.
:S
Mice.
Lots and lots of mice.

I have no idea how many. It could have been 2 or 20 or any number inbetween.
But it was a lot of mice.

Our one little mouse had brought friends.

I'm not sure if we got rid of them all.
Or if we need to have someone come in to get them all.
Or since we destroyed their homes they decided to leave.

but it's rather crazy to think we had a whole colony of mice living in the back area of our store and we never realized it. O.o

Thankfully we discovered them.
So if they haven't been taken care of already, they will be soon.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Sure, Blame the Fish

Some days I wonder if a customer is exaggerating when they tell me that they're 'never going to come back' to my store.

I mean...I can understand that it is possible. To never go back. Because there are a few places that I only enter with great reluctance....because of bad experiences there.

But...still I wonder.

I had a customer come in today.
With a bag of five dead fish.
Telling me that he was going to get his money back and probably never come back to the store.

Why?
Because we sold him a fish.
That ended up getting sick with Ick.
Got the rest of his fish sick with ick.
Killing off some of the fish.

So he came into the store for a treatment.
And has been treating his tank.
But still more fish are dying.

All because of one fish he'd bought from us.

Like....I could believe that possible. That one fish can get an entire tank sick.
But....it really is hard to know for sure...I mean, perhaps he overstocked his tank. Or stressed it out with too many water changes or whatever.

Honestly...
I can understand his frustration.
I find it hard to believe he's spent $100-$200 on fish with us....that ended up dying, but you know...people exaggerate when they're upset.

I would be upset too.
To buy all these fish.
Have it perfect.
And then the fish dies off.
The treatments don't seem to be working.
And since everything was fine before the fish.
Safe to assume it would be the new addition to the tank....

*shakes head*
In any case.
I helped him as best I could.
I think I managed to calm him down.
Got his fish all returned.
Talked to him about other possible solutions.

Corrected him on a couple of things he'd read wrong.
-He's one of those to look up everything on the internet...which is helpful....to a point, but not everything you read on the internet is correct.

But hopefully. He left feeling a little bit better about his situation.
Maybe he will come back....and shop with us again due to my attempts to rectify the situation.
It's hard to know for sure.
*shrugs* At least he was a lot calmer and happier when he left though....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Dog Food Quandry

I had a customer come up to me today, asking if I could help her, as she couldn't find the particular bag of dog food that she usually buys.
As she was looking for just the 'original' bag.

....It's an unfortunate thing with dog food bags....
The companies always feel like they need to, every now and then, switch up the design package.
Tinker with the ingredients, the look, the style, the shape...etc.

Which when there is no notice given to these changes.
Can really throw a customer for a loop.

Especially this customer.
Who was looking for the original 'chicken flavor'
Not this 'chicken and rice and barley junk'

So, to double check, I checked in with the manager, who said that it should be the same food, just a different packaging.

Which I told her. That it should be the same, that it most likely would be fine.
She didn't like those 'should and most likelies' that I tossed her way.
but I told her that I normally work over by the fish, so my knowledge of the dog food is very basic, so I'm not sure that it's the same food, that it won't harm your dog.

All I know is that you asked for a certain brand of food.
I found the brand.
Realized that what you were describing wasn't there under the same label anymore.
So I found one that best fit the description of the dog given to me.
Which was a 6 year old german shepherd.
So I told her to go for the 6+ Large Breed food. As it was chicken flavored.

But she really didn't like that the rice and barley were mentioned. Because she didn't know if they changed the recipe or not.
I told her that all I was aware of is that the brand of food she wanted now contains barley. (it may have contained it before, but whoever looks at the labels on their dog food?) And that some dogs don't like the barley in their food.
-A fact I knew because I had an old coworker come complaining about just that. That the brand of food that he wanted that the lady also wanted, now contained barley and his dogs wouldn't eat it with that in it.
otherwise....I didn't know, but it didn't hurt to try it, especially since she was adamant that her dog would eat 'any kibble placed in front' of them. So just try it out. We have a window where you can return the food if the dog ends up not liking it.
so it's not like you're losing out on money, (unless you miss the deadline.)

So I finally convinced her on the food she wanted,
And not ten minutes later.
I get stopped by another gentleman who is looking for a specific brand of Dogfood that he can't find but he knows we carry. As he's bought it here before. (different brand of food from the lady above.)
So I head to the aisle he pointed at.
listening to him describing the package and the information about his dog.
As he was looking for one that was for 'sensitive stomachs.'
Which....the brand of food he was looking at, has four different types of food within the brand you can pick out.
But I figured, he was looking on the wrong side.
Focused on the 'original' type of food.
Instead of looking behind him.
Where we had a whole section of dog food dedicated to dogs with sensitive stomachs so that they can eat and digest them easier.
So I pointed that out.
And he pointed to a bag and was like "That's it! That's what I get. Only it's in a bigger bag!"
Problem was, he pointed to the small breed packaging.
Which doesn't come in a large size.
Small dogs don't eat as much as large dogs. ;) lol

I still went and found a manager and asked them to come double check and he confirmed that we didn't carry that specific one in a larger bag.
Only for him to then realize that all the bags in that section were designed to help dogs with sensitive stomachs. So he could pick from those, and he found his 'correct' bag.

*shakes head*
I really like it when the customer takes a picture or brings in their bag of dog food, so I can better match what food they're looking for.
Because I really don't know much about the dog food, nor do I look inside the bags and see what the kibble looks like. Sooo
Any little bit of information that they can provide is useful. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi