Lumpy

So I took a guinea pig to the vet today.

Because I noticed, when I was trying to put him out onto the floor, that he had this larger lump on his chin.

It was a lump that I'd seen before.
As we'd been treating the area for ringworm.
But it had been smaller back then.
Looking more like the jaw was just oddly shaped.

Than an actual issue.
Plus with the ring worm making the area bald...
It's hard to tell what looks normal and what doesn't look normal when there's no fur where there's supposed to be fur.

So I took it over to the vet.
And the first thing he says to me is "If it's an abscess on the jaw....it's not going to be good. I have no way to treat that."

Which I thought was an odd conclusion to come to.
As I've seen a few lumps on a guinea pig's chin before.

And more times than not. It's just an infection that needs to be drained. Swollen with liquid and such.
I mean. When I briefly touched it, it felt harder than that.
But at the same time.
I figured it would be a fixable problem.

And I was right.
The Vet was able to drain the lump.
and now we just need to treat the guinea pigs with meds until it's healed up.

Easy peasy.
*fingers crossed* That he doesn't end up with other issues in the process.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Plastic Groom

So I saw a little girl in the store earlier this morning, while I was working on cleaning the bird cages.
Who had a little plastic dog toy on a leash that she would drag everywhere.

Which I thought was cute.
But I didn't think more on it after she left my sight as I was busy trying to get the cages all cleaned and put back together before it got busy with customers in the store.

But it turns out, the little girl loves dogs and loves watching the dogs in our Grooming Salon get groomed, and she's always wanted her little plastic dog to get groomed. 

So today one of our groomers did just that.
They grabbed some doggie wipes and wiped all the scuff marks off the toy, put some rubberband bows on the dog's ears, and brushed the doggies teeth for her. 

The mother ended up tipping her in the end. Which was gratifying.

But the little girl was just so happy that her toy doggie had gotten 'groomed.' 
And it was definitely a highlight to my coworker's day lol. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Busy?

It's always hard to judge how busy the day after Christmas will be at work.
Because it's hard to know how many people will choose to come into the store after the holiday.
Especially on a weekday. 
I was expecting it to get busy.
Mostly because it's the day after the holiday. 
But at the same time. 
It's a week day.
So a lot of people would need to go back to work today as not everyone had it off. 

But after everyone's work shifts?
Oh yah.
Totally got busy, so my coworkers told me (as I had to drop by work to grab something) 
So fun for them.

Me though?
It was mostly fielding phone calls.
As customers called to see if we had certain animals in stock.

The most popular one being the question of "Do you have any guinea pigs?"
Nope.
I sold the last of them on Monday.
I'm out until Sunday. :S 

The next popular was if we had kittens.
Which again. Nope.
We adopted them all out Saturday.
Dunno when we're getting more in. 

So yah.
That was fun answering the same question over and over again lol. 

Not too bad, but it did make it difficult to finish opening when I constantly had to walk away to check the oddball requests and such. 

Overall though, I'm glad it wasn't too busy. :D Hopefully it stays that way tomorrow. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tank Size?

So the store was kinda crazy today.
Understandable.
Day before Christmas.
Lots of people coming into the store to get their kids pets or set ups for pets for the holiday and such.

And I had an older couple in the store.
Looking at potential tanks to give to....someone.

I never quite got who they were getting it for. 
But the original intention went from buying fish to buying a tank for someone else. 

So the woman wanted to look at tank setups and such. 
So I guided her to the aisle of tanks.
Gesturing to the closest one.
Which was a 55 gallon size.

Just to kinda explain what could come in the tanks and such.
And I guess the woman hadn't realized that the tanks...were actually on the shelf.
She just thought that they were...pictures? I guess?

I mean all the tanks are in boxes.
So you only see a picture of the tank on the outside of the box.
But the tanks are right there. 
In the box.

But the customer was like "I need to see the size of this tank! How big is it?"

….."It's the size of the box."

"But how big is it?! What does it look like!"

…..*exhales*
It took a bit. To clarify that the tanks are in the boxes and that the tanks are the SIZE of the boxes.
Like you look at the box that's basically the size of the tank.
-They're slightly smaller than box...you know to have some protectively packaging and such. 

Still managed to get it through to the customer in the end.
And the couple ended up buying a 20 gallon tank to take home. 

So hopefully that works out well for them. :D

-Sarnic Dirchi

Class Pet

So a few days ago, I had a customer come into the store.
A teacher.
Who'd been given a giftcard by the parents of his students (I think is how it went) so he could buy himself a classpet. 

Which he was so excited about!

Except the giftcard didn't cover the entire cost of the cage and set up and everything.
It really only covered like half the cost of everything.

But after going over different potential pets.
I mentioned to him that we had another sale that would be starting in a few days (Today)
And it's possible that the setups he was looking at would go on sale that day.

-I had no idea though as we don't know our own sales really until we put the stickers up in the store.

So today.
He came back in. -As he'd left the other day without buying anything. 

And discovered that the tank he'd been looking at had indeed gone on sale. 

Which put the price point of buying a Bearded Dragon and the entire setup much more in an affordable price range for him.

So he ended up buying the bearded dragon and everything. 
And left the store quite happy. ^^;; 

Yay. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Snails?

It's a common question we get asked. 
Why there's a single goldfish in our tanks. 

Today was no exception.

A customer was interested in getting fish for their tank.
And they asked the question.
Why is there a goldfish in every tank?

To which I gave the answer.

They're in there to eat the snails.

Because goldfish love eating snail eggs and baby snails. So it helps to keep the pest ones under control while we work to get rid of them. 

But this time.
The customer asked me a question I hadn't been asked before. 

"Where are the snails?" 

…..
"Eaten." 
Was my response. 

I mean...that's why the goldfish were in the tanks....
To eat the snails.
Therefore if there's no snails in the tanks...
That means they got eaten. 

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Banished

The new managers in the store have such the interesting dynamic.

Like. I don't even know why it happened. Or what the circumstances were that provoked this to happen.

But the Head Manager banished our Associate Lead to the first aisle of the store.

Aka. She couldn't go past the first aisle/register area.

*shakes head*

I don't know what caused it.

But definitely was one of the odder things to happen recently in the store.

It only lasted for half an hour or so.

But still...

Never had a Lead banished to a specific part of the store before lol.