MY PEN

As a Writer, I'm rather particular about the pens I use.

Not as particular as some other people I've known.

Mostly if it writes well and smoothly, it's a good pen.

Which is a bigger deal for me because not all pens like left-handed people.

And being a lefty--finding a good pen can sometimes be hard.

In any case.

I found a good source of pens to use to write with.

From a rather unexpected place.

My Dentist.

As they have a cupholder filled with pens everytime I visit.

And everytime I'm there I ask them, if I can take one. Because I normally run out of ink in my pen about the same time I end up at the dentist again, so it usually works out as they usually say yes I can take it.

They're good pens. Write well. Last a while. The ink though changes between blue or black depending on the visit. 

In any case.

I've taken to using them as my work pens.

Because in my department I have to have customers fill out some paperwork whenever they choose to buy an animal that isn't a fish. 

And it's easier to keep a pen on me than to go hunt one down as pens disappear from the store quite often. 

So if I always have one on me....I can never loose it. 

--Until it runs out of ink really.

But yah, I'm rather partial to my pens. 

But I'm used to giving these particular ones to customers and then getting it back. 

Yet, earlier this week.

I had a customer come into the store looking to adopt a cat.

And from the first interaction...

The customer just....rubbed me the wrong way.

They didn't have a good energy to them and it was like nails on a chalkboard interacting with the customer. 

They were very particular about the 'type' of cat they wanted. Which most of the kittens we had had just barely come in so I didn't have much information on them and had no idea some of the details and such.

In any case. The customer decided on one kitten that was a bit more cuddly than the others and had short hair, because the customer was adamant that the cat not have long fur.

-But didn't know enough about cats to realize that if a cat has short hair it will stay short haired. 

However, there was a slight snag in that the customer needed to know the date of the rabies vaccination the cat had because they needed to fill it out on a form that their landlord had provided to get permission to have a cat in the place they were staying at. (Like an Emotional Support Animal) 

The problem?

The kitten was too young to get the rabies. As they have to be a certain age before it's given.

Not a big deal because this particular adoption group provides a voucher that lets you take the kitten to specific vets to get the rabies shot for free.

But the customer would have to do that.

So they needed to call their landlord and check and see if it was still alright to have the cat even though it was too young for the rabies. --Though they were relieved to find out that they could go get the cat it's rabies vaccination the same day they adopted it as the voucher merely stated it needed to be given before the end of the month otherwise the voucher was void. 

In any case, before making the call the customer asked me if they could borrow a pen.

I figured so that they could write on the paperwork they'd brought with them, or write notes and such from the phone call. 

Having given my pen out to customers multiple times before I didn't think anything about letting the customer borrow my pen.

Until I handed it to them.

Because the customer immediately brought the pen up to their lips...and began rubbing the clicky end against their lips as they waited for the person on the other end of their phone call to pick up.

Again and again in circles they rubbed MY pen against THEIR lips.

Like. 

EWWWW 

Dearest Customer do you KNOW where that Pen has been?!

Do you KNOW how many different hands have touched that thing? Do you KNOW where it's been?

DON'T PUT YOUR LIPS ON A STRANGERS PEN THAT'S GROSS.

Plus, that was like one of my favorite pens and now it just felt like the customer had throughly contaminated it. 

I said nothing.

Just watched with disgust as the customer did that and wrote notes and finally handed it back to me.

I made sure to thoroughly sanitize with hand sanitizer afterwards because EWW

I don't want to touch my pen when it's been on YOUR lips. 

Gah.

-_- definitely didn't like that particular customer interaction.

Until you next see these words;

I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi