Shoulda Fixed Them

Customers are interesting creatures.

Especially the ones who happen to call the store with a question.

As they usually feel like they need to give you this whole long unnecessary background story on why they are calling and the situation leading up to why they are calling before getting to the point of asking the question they want me to answer.

Sometimes it's easy to head them off.

Other times you just have to wait until they run out of steam to then ask them what they need.

In any case.

I had a customer call the store today who spoke....rather slowly

Like....every word.....had.....to.....be......thought about.....before.....she could.....say.....it.

Which made like a two minute conversation expand out into like a fifteen minute ordeal. 

The question itself was pretty simple.

The woman had some cats she no longer wanted and wanted to know if we would take them.

Which we don't.

We only go through specific adoption groups with our cats and dogs so the people wanting to rehome their animals need to contact them first.

Only that wasn't how the conversation started.

No the woman launched into a very long explanation on how her daughter -who was living at her parents with her husband at the time, had gotten a cat, but never got her fixed.

-So I was like. Oh, She wants to get the cat fixed.

No that was like two years ago? A while. 

And the cat still has never been fixed.

And the daughter divorced her husband and moved out in the meantime.

Leaving the cat.

That wasn't fixed.

And because the cat hadn't been spayed.

The parents now are dealing with not one. but TWO litters of kittens.

One set being like 8 months old and the other is like 8 weeks old.

Which....

By this point I'm wondering why they didn't just go get the cat fixed because you know...that's probably the easiest solution.

The reason?

a) It's their daughter's cat. (but she no longer lives there) and 

b) They're on a fixed income the parents because they're retired and living off of social security.

Which makes sense that you have to watch your budget and such...

but there are plenty of clinics around that will spay/neuter pets for reduced prices in order to keep what was happening at this customer's house from happening.

But no the customer didn't want to get the cat fixed.

Didn't want to spend the money.

But she also didn't want to keep feeding the cats either.

And was coming across another problem. 

Where the first litter of kittens has become mature.

And now they're trying to breed with each other.

-The lady sounded so scandalized on the phone that the kittens would try and breed with their siblings.

*shakes head* I mean...yes? They can do that.

Which is why you either separate them or you know....get them fixed.

But yah the customer didn't want to do that.

She just wanted someone to come get her cats before she ended up with twenty, no forty, no seventy--no a hundred and fifty cats!

(She kept upping the anti every time she repeated herself.) 

Which yah...you don't want to keep the cats together and keep them breeding because that's how you get an out of control population of cats.

So I ended up giving the customer the numbers of our adoption groups so she could contact them.

And hopefully they'll be able to help her out. *fingers crossed*

Until you next read these words;

I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi