A Litter Box?

 I had to help a well meaning, but totally clueless customer today.

I first encountered them near an oops station. 

Said "Oops" station is a place where customers can find baggies, papertowels, and a cleaning spray along with a convienent trash can so that if their animal happens to make a mess in the store the customer can clean it up. 

.... not that every customer is responsible enough for their pet to do so. But we do provide them throughout the store to help keep the store cleaner as the puppy dogs wander around with their pet parents. 

In any case.

I encountered this older customer by an oops station where they asked me, pointing to the bottle of cleaner on the oops station, if they could "buy this." 

Which... I get that customers think that /everything/ in the store is for sale.

But like. I didn't understand why the customer thought that this single bottle of stain & odor cleaner was something for sale. It's obviously on an oops station....

I had to tell them that "No, it's not for sale because it's already been used. We use it in the store to clean up messes." 

I told them that our cleaners we sell are on Aisle 14 and considering that the customer thought the single bottle was for sale....ended up leading them over to the aisle to make sure they actually found what they were looking for...only for me to quickly change direction because I double checked as I was walking the customer to 14 to see if they were looking for a stain and odor remover/cleaner for dogs or cats.

And the customer said Cats.

Which is in a different section of the store.

And while I was guiding the customer to these cleaners they were telling me just why exactly they needed to buy said cleaner.

It's because they're watching a cat for their neighbor. As said neighbor is pregnant and expecting to have her baby soon. So the customer thought that they could help relieve the neighbor's stress by taking over the care of the cat until after the baby was born. 

Only, said cat has been peeing all over the customers house.

Peeing on their beds. Their clothes. The cat also had jumped onto one of the other members of the house's lap...and peed directly on them. 

Which....if a cat is peeing where they're not supposed to....odds are that there's an issue with the litter box. More than likely that it hasn't been cleaned recently. As cats tend to not like to go in an overly used litter box. 

Still. My main focus was to show the customer the cleaners. 

and while they're deciding on that, they also mention that the cat is an outdoor cat. But they brought the cat into the house because it's been so cold and snowy outside.

Which okay. If it's a cat used to being outdoors then yah there's going to be some problems with it coming inside if it's never been inside before. 

And honestly, I don't think the customer has the first clue about taking care of a cat because apparently the cat "jumps on the kitchen table and just looks at me." when the customer yells at it to get down. 

In any case.

I find the opportunity, after the customer decides on their cleaners and I show them a toy, to ask them about their litter box. In a "How often do you clean the litter box?" sort of fashion. Because if it's been a week or so then totally that's why the kitty is peeing everywhere.

The customer's response? 

"I don't have a litter box." 

*blink blink* ummm WHY?

"Because the cat is an outdoor cat. It won't know how to use the litter box."

Which I call BS because cats are pretty intuitive like that. Show them a box to go in filled with litter and they will use that litter box. 

So I'm like. Okay. It's an outdoor cat. So obviously if they don't have a litter box inside the house that means they need to be letting the cat outside to go to the bathroom. So they may just need to increase how often they're doing that. 

I'm also halfway wondering as I'm talking to the customer if this is a cat that's been toliet trained so it should be just using the toliet.

No dice there. Customer never mentions it. 

In any case I ask how often they're letting the cat outside.

The answer?

"Oh, it's too cold out there. With the snow on the ground the cat won't go outside." 

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"And you don't have a litter box inside?" I double check.

"No." 

*exhales*

WELL THERE IS YOUR FREAKING PROBLEM RIGHT THERE!

Like....if you don't have a litter box for the cat to use while it's inside and you're not letting the cat go outside to go to the bathroom there, just WHERE Dear Customer, do you EXPECT the cat to GO TO THE BATHROOM?!

Like no wonder the kitty is peeing on the bed and the clothes and on people. The cat is trying to draw attention to the fact that it HAS NO WHERE TO USE THE BATHROOM.

I ended up convincing the customer to buy a litter box and some litter.

Though trying to figure out a good place to put said litter box was next to impossible because the cat 'runs everywhere. It's all over." So I was like "Put it in the room it's in the most and it will figure it out on its own."

Just...it's been a while since I've dealt with a customer with this bad of a case of missing common sense.

But this customer had no common sense whatsoever.

I hope the poor kitty can go back to the neighbor sooner rather than later because I don't think the customer quite knew what they were getting into when they volunteered to take over the care of said kitty.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi