Currently Reading: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Really, these thoughts aren't random. They're just short.
Back to the 4 day work week. It's both good and bad. Good that I have three days off, bad that three of the four days I work are 10 hours long. It's really easy to burn out when you spend that much time in one place without a break. I understand that it's necessary but I can't help but think there's got to be a better way. Maybe I'll have a look at the schedule tomorrow and see if I can come up with something.
Vacation! That's what I need. I'll finally get one too I hope. We're going to the mountains in October! Of course, that's a month and a half away from now, almost 2 months actually and, well what worries me is that 2 months is pretty much the life expectancy of our bathers. They last about 2 months then quit. If that happens right before I go on vacation or while I'm ON vacation it would be one ugly mess.
Yankees vs BoSox. DAMN who'd have thought the Yanks would sweep them? Who'd have thought the Yanks would score double digits damn near every game? I thought Boston was supposed to be better than that. I guess they're all talk. Maybe the Curse of the Bambino is coming back again.
You catch the HBO series Rome? Why not? They're running it again on one of their billion HBO channels. If you don't get it there, go out and buy it at the store. It's GREAT! I got my copy today. It's a good way to escape.
Do you know I now own THREE copies of The Three Musketeers? It's true. I have a Bantam paperback copy, CC's Signet classics copy and now my Oxford World's Classics copy. See, there are actually 5 musketeers novels. You've got the first one, then one that takes place 20 years later titled, originally enough, Twenty Years Later. Then there are two novels that take place 10 years after the second novel that lead into The Man In The Iron Mask. In fact, really, The Man In The Iron Mask is all one huge long story spread out over three novels and almost NOTHING like any of the movie versions. Not that I blame the movie makers of course. A movie true to the books would probably put most people to sleep.
Don't get me started on politics these days. I'm pretty much convinced that they're all complete morons who couldn't figure out the right thing to do if God told them to by spelling it out, specifically, in simple English (and also in Spanish so as not to offend the easily offended), with pictures and video and a staff of Angels to explain it to those folks who still didn't quite understand. About what topic am I ranting? All of them. The only thing I trust the government to do these days is raise their salaries and create more paperwork for the people.
Football season is fast approaching but not fast enough!
Can anyone give me a GOOD reason why a kid needs a $200 cell phone and that said cell phone MUST be allowed to work in school, during school hours, during class? I've seen all sorts of little articles and letters to the editor about it and you know, damn near all of us made it through high school and college without cell phones. Why are they so necessary now?
I'm tired.
I hate allergy season. Damn crepe mertles are blooming and have been all month. As a result, I've been stuffy headed almost every day. Not much I can do about it either. I can only take medication on my days off because I end up too stupid when I take anything that actually WORKS. Yet another reason why I can't wait for fall.
All things considered though, I'm actually doing pretty well. I dare say, I'm even happy most of the time. Oh there are always moments when all the little things pile up and make me a little grumpy but then, if that didn't happen, what on earth would I blog about? :-)
.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Another One Bites The Dust; Bait
Currently Reading: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Ok, I'm going off on a rant here about work. CC hates it when I do that because she believes it's bad manners to rant about work stuff in public. Someone from work might see it or maybe someone from the corporate office will see it and track me down. I suppose that's possible but not likely. Besides, this is something that's just driving me nuts.
We've got a little problem with turnover in our department. I started working in January. Since then we've lost THREE bathers and two groomers (though one groomer was promoted and moved to another store so that doesn't count). Three bathers though! The last one just up and quit on us yesterday. Didn't bother to show up for work. Didn't show up on Saturday either. Came to work Sunday though so I'm guessing she was going back and forth on the matter. Well, I hope she doesn't want to come back because I'm pretty sure they're not going to let her.
This sort of thing bugs me on two levels. First, the most basic level, I got called in to cover the shift. That means my weekend got shortened to one day. Plans I had for that day had to be called off. People were disappointed (especially me). But on a much deeper level, it REALLY annoys me that some people just up and quit without giving you any warning. It's not like they're telling the manager that the situation just isn't working out or that they need more money or that it's just too much physical labor. They're not working out a timetable by which they'll be leaving the company. We have no adjustment period. They just quit and leave us all hanging. Even worse, they don't even TELL us on the day they quit. They just don't show up for the shift and never return (except to pick up that final paycheck).
How am I supposed to deal with these people when they come strolling back in as a customer or maybe when they feel like a "visit" just to see how we're doing? Oh yes, have to be polite and all that. Must keep up appearances but inside I'm wondering which heavy things around the salon will cause the most damage if thrown.
When you get right down to it, there's nothing we can do other than adjust to the new conditions, hire another employee and hope for the best. Still, you'd think people would be a little more polite about these things; show a little courtesy to those of us still working the job.
Take a look over at the sidebar. You've already seen the shot of the Japanese girl who gets charged by the polar bear. When I saw that I thought it was a fluke. Look at how she's dressed? She's got that big white coat on and all. I was thinking that through the glass, she probably looked like a seal to the bear.
Now take a look at the video right below it. That's me acting as bait. We went to the zoo on Sunday to see the bears again and CC wanted to see if the whole seal thing really worked. As luck would have it, there was a bear swimming by the window so we went over to the gift shop and bought a big, stuffed seal. Didn't take long to get results. All we really had to do was get close enough to the window.
The best results came when the seal was just about at water level. If you crouch down and have just the head showing, I guess that's more real-looking to the bear. And if you duck down when he sees you, it must look like the seal is trying to hide so the bear charges. Of course, after a while he was getting kinda frustrated. You can see it there when he bounces TWICE.
We've shown that video to a lot of people now, including two workers at one of the snack bars. The question people always ask is whether or not I got scared. CC would always jump back a bit and maybe squeal a little. That's just reflex. Me, I didn't move at all. Just put my faith in the glass, that's what I did. I wonder if there's a patron saint of sturdy, zoo glass? :-)
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Ok, I'm going off on a rant here about work. CC hates it when I do that because she believes it's bad manners to rant about work stuff in public. Someone from work might see it or maybe someone from the corporate office will see it and track me down. I suppose that's possible but not likely. Besides, this is something that's just driving me nuts.
We've got a little problem with turnover in our department. I started working in January. Since then we've lost THREE bathers and two groomers (though one groomer was promoted and moved to another store so that doesn't count). Three bathers though! The last one just up and quit on us yesterday. Didn't bother to show up for work. Didn't show up on Saturday either. Came to work Sunday though so I'm guessing she was going back and forth on the matter. Well, I hope she doesn't want to come back because I'm pretty sure they're not going to let her.
This sort of thing bugs me on two levels. First, the most basic level, I got called in to cover the shift. That means my weekend got shortened to one day. Plans I had for that day had to be called off. People were disappointed (especially me). But on a much deeper level, it REALLY annoys me that some people just up and quit without giving you any warning. It's not like they're telling the manager that the situation just isn't working out or that they need more money or that it's just too much physical labor. They're not working out a timetable by which they'll be leaving the company. We have no adjustment period. They just quit and leave us all hanging. Even worse, they don't even TELL us on the day they quit. They just don't show up for the shift and never return (except to pick up that final paycheck).
How am I supposed to deal with these people when they come strolling back in as a customer or maybe when they feel like a "visit" just to see how we're doing? Oh yes, have to be polite and all that. Must keep up appearances but inside I'm wondering which heavy things around the salon will cause the most damage if thrown.
When you get right down to it, there's nothing we can do other than adjust to the new conditions, hire another employee and hope for the best. Still, you'd think people would be a little more polite about these things; show a little courtesy to those of us still working the job.
-----
Take a look over at the sidebar. You've already seen the shot of the Japanese girl who gets charged by the polar bear. When I saw that I thought it was a fluke. Look at how she's dressed? She's got that big white coat on and all. I was thinking that through the glass, she probably looked like a seal to the bear.
Now take a look at the video right below it. That's me acting as bait. We went to the zoo on Sunday to see the bears again and CC wanted to see if the whole seal thing really worked. As luck would have it, there was a bear swimming by the window so we went over to the gift shop and bought a big, stuffed seal. Didn't take long to get results. All we really had to do was get close enough to the window.
The best results came when the seal was just about at water level. If you crouch down and have just the head showing, I guess that's more real-looking to the bear. And if you duck down when he sees you, it must look like the seal is trying to hide so the bear charges. Of course, after a while he was getting kinda frustrated. You can see it there when he bounces TWICE.
We've shown that video to a lot of people now, including two workers at one of the snack bars. The question people always ask is whether or not I got scared. CC would always jump back a bit and maybe squeal a little. That's just reflex. Me, I didn't move at all. Just put my faith in the glass, that's what I did. I wonder if there's a patron saint of sturdy, zoo glass? :-)
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Sunday, August 06, 2006
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hamster; Recap of Recent Events
Currently Reading: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Actually, let's do that in reverse. Let's start with the recap of recent events and then move into the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hamster story.
CC went to Manila a few weeks back and spent 10 days there. While she was away, I pretty much had no time to devote to anything other than work. First was work at the salon, then work at home. CC does a lot of those household chores too you see and with her gone, I had to do them. That week was mostly uneventful except for the addition of my new hamster, Keiko. She's a dwarf, Siberian female and just the CUTEST little thing. I'd spent at least a week at the store carrying her around when I wasn't busy and eventually decided I'd buy her. In her habitat at work, she was one of the few that didn't bite everything that came through the cage door, which was a plus.
As you can see, she enjoys playing Gameboy and is learning very quickly :-)
Here, she's just watching me type the blog, making sure I say good things about her.
Anyway, she was the first addition to the family. A week after I brought her home, my mother gave me two parakeets, cage and all. They're both fairly well behaved but neither of them are what you'd call "people parakeets." They've just never been trained to relax around us. Not to worry though, I'll work on them when I have the time.
If you're keeping score, right now I've got two dogs, a BUNCH of fish, a turtle, two parakeets and two hamsters. That's right, not a typo, I said TWO hamsters. But I'll get to that a little later.
So, all these animals. I must say, I do enjoy having them around. It's almost like having my own little zoo :-)
The next item on the list is the monitor. My old one died. I was sitting here browsing the Internet when the screen just went black. No warning, just GONE. I checked the connections, checked the settings, nothing. It didn't even give me the "No signal" warning. That was the first thing that made me suspicious. Then I tried to get the on screen display to come up. That should work as long as the monitor has power. Nothing. Totally blank screen. Gone. Dead. Fried. This happened to me 3 pm on a Sunday. Had no choice. Had to replace it. With no monitor, a computer is really just taking up space.
Fortunately, there were several monitors on sale around town and I managed to get a good deal on a 19 inch flat panel monitor. At first I wasn't too thrilled with having to spend on yet another bit of equipment. And when I put the new monitor in its place, I was thinking it was WAY too big. Then I turned it on and got a look at it in action. DAMN! Never had a picture this crisp before! And the monitor is so big I don't have to maximize the browser window to see everything. That makes multi-tasking a WHOLE lot easier!
This past week, on Monday, CC came home, which is good. However, my boss, the grooming manager, aka our ONLY groomer at the moment, went on a short vacation. What does that all mean? Means I had to work a 6-day week last week and I had to go in early on Monday to make sure I was off in time to pick CC up at the airport. I rounded this week off by going to a wedding Saturday night (which meant I had to take another morning shift). Needless to say, last night I was pretty beat. Washed 11 dogs during my Saturday shift, clipped nails on so many dogs I'm now a canine pedicure specialist. I even painted the toenails of two greyhounds.
Which brings me to today. First day of my two-day weekend. WOO HOO! Went to the mall. Went shopping! Well see, CC left some of her bath gels in Manila because they were running a bit low and her family liked them. Had to replace those, right? :-) And there was a sale on hand soap. Couldn't pass THAT up! Then there was the store that was moving. Everything half off! And the buy one, get one half off sale on t-shirts. I conservatively estimate that we saved nearly FIFTY DOLLARS today! Don't ask how much we spent. That's really not relavent is it? :-)
Now, the story you've been waiting for. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hamster. Keiko, you've seen pictures of her. Cute little thing but do NOT mess with her! Female hamsters are pretty aggressive when it comes to defending their territory. I found out just HOW aggressive earlier this past week.
Customer came into the store to return a hamster. I don't know why it was returned, probably didn't get along with the one they had or something like that. Point is, nothing wrong with the hamster, perfectly healthy and all. Thing is, we can't put a returned animal back on the sales floor without a vet check. Have to make sure they're healthy you see. Here's the problem, a hamster sells for around 10 dollars. We'd take a pretty big loss getting the vet check and only selling the hamster for 10 bucks. In cases like that, we tend to adopt them out. First crack goes to people who work at the store. Free pet. After that, they go to trusted regular customers that we know have or are looking for similar animals. Well, guess who fell into BOTH of those categories? You got it.
I'm sitting at my counter. The shift is almost over. Nothing to do. I'm just killing time until closing. In comes the manager with a box. She puts it on the counter and tilts it over and I'm thinking, "Whatever comes out of there, it better damn well not slither or have more than 4 legs." Instead, out comes this really cute, black and white hamster. CC will be putting up pictures on her site soon.
So, Mary, the manager, explains the situation and asks if I'll adopt this one. Well, he was so cute, of COURSE I would. I didn't figure there'd be any problem. Keiko's cage is big enough for two and hamsters aren't really that aggressive towards members of the opposite sex. If they were, there wouldn't be any baby hamsters would there? In fact, our information sheets state quite plainly that they're social, but solitary. They prefer to be alone and have their own little corners but otherwise, they get along fine. You just have to be careful when you put females together.
New hamster comes home (he doesn't yet have a name). I put him in the cage with Keiko and DAMN does she go all Crouching Tiger on him. He was just being nice, walking up to her, wiggling his nose, that sort of thing and she'd just unleash a volly of face slaps until he ran off. THEN she started to set up ambushes. She'd burry herself under the bedding or hide behind the play wheel, wait until he came close enough then she'd SPRING out and start slapping at him, which would usually send HIM flying. One time she surprised him SO much that he ended up on the other side of the cage, on his back.
Yeah, it was at that point I decided I'd better pick up a cheap cage at work, which is what I did. So now we've got the two of them. They're both cute, though he tends to bite a little at first. Keiko spent a week walking around the store with me so she's used to being handled. He's still getting over the initial shock.
Just a few odds and ends here. I've put video back on the site. CC found a new source with a much larger selection. The one I have up now is just plain funny (to everyone but the girl of course). It really demonstrates just how persistant polar bears are when they think there's food nearby.
Also, in a previous post I pasted a bit from a Wall Street Journal article on a Filipino judge. Turns out he's got a blog here at blogspot and he posted a comment. You can check them both out by scrolling down and viewing the comments under the original post.
That pretty much brings us up to date. I'll be posting more often now that I have some spare time again.
Enjoy!
.
Actually, let's do that in reverse. Let's start with the recap of recent events and then move into the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hamster story.
CC went to Manila a few weeks back and spent 10 days there. While she was away, I pretty much had no time to devote to anything other than work. First was work at the salon, then work at home. CC does a lot of those household chores too you see and with her gone, I had to do them. That week was mostly uneventful except for the addition of my new hamster, Keiko. She's a dwarf, Siberian female and just the CUTEST little thing. I'd spent at least a week at the store carrying her around when I wasn't busy and eventually decided I'd buy her. In her habitat at work, she was one of the few that didn't bite everything that came through the cage door, which was a plus.
As you can see, she enjoys playing Gameboy and is learning very quickly :-)
Here, she's just watching me type the blog, making sure I say good things about her.Anyway, she was the first addition to the family. A week after I brought her home, my mother gave me two parakeets, cage and all. They're both fairly well behaved but neither of them are what you'd call "people parakeets." They've just never been trained to relax around us. Not to worry though, I'll work on them when I have the time.
If you're keeping score, right now I've got two dogs, a BUNCH of fish, a turtle, two parakeets and two hamsters. That's right, not a typo, I said TWO hamsters. But I'll get to that a little later.
So, all these animals. I must say, I do enjoy having them around. It's almost like having my own little zoo :-)
The next item on the list is the monitor. My old one died. I was sitting here browsing the Internet when the screen just went black. No warning, just GONE. I checked the connections, checked the settings, nothing. It didn't even give me the "No signal" warning. That was the first thing that made me suspicious. Then I tried to get the on screen display to come up. That should work as long as the monitor has power. Nothing. Totally blank screen. Gone. Dead. Fried. This happened to me 3 pm on a Sunday. Had no choice. Had to replace it. With no monitor, a computer is really just taking up space.
Fortunately, there were several monitors on sale around town and I managed to get a good deal on a 19 inch flat panel monitor. At first I wasn't too thrilled with having to spend on yet another bit of equipment. And when I put the new monitor in its place, I was thinking it was WAY too big. Then I turned it on and got a look at it in action. DAMN! Never had a picture this crisp before! And the monitor is so big I don't have to maximize the browser window to see everything. That makes multi-tasking a WHOLE lot easier!
This past week, on Monday, CC came home, which is good. However, my boss, the grooming manager, aka our ONLY groomer at the moment, went on a short vacation. What does that all mean? Means I had to work a 6-day week last week and I had to go in early on Monday to make sure I was off in time to pick CC up at the airport. I rounded this week off by going to a wedding Saturday night (which meant I had to take another morning shift). Needless to say, last night I was pretty beat. Washed 11 dogs during my Saturday shift, clipped nails on so many dogs I'm now a canine pedicure specialist. I even painted the toenails of two greyhounds.
Which brings me to today. First day of my two-day weekend. WOO HOO! Went to the mall. Went shopping! Well see, CC left some of her bath gels in Manila because they were running a bit low and her family liked them. Had to replace those, right? :-) And there was a sale on hand soap. Couldn't pass THAT up! Then there was the store that was moving. Everything half off! And the buy one, get one half off sale on t-shirts. I conservatively estimate that we saved nearly FIFTY DOLLARS today! Don't ask how much we spent. That's really not relavent is it? :-)
-----
Now, the story you've been waiting for. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hamster. Keiko, you've seen pictures of her. Cute little thing but do NOT mess with her! Female hamsters are pretty aggressive when it comes to defending their territory. I found out just HOW aggressive earlier this past week.
Customer came into the store to return a hamster. I don't know why it was returned, probably didn't get along with the one they had or something like that. Point is, nothing wrong with the hamster, perfectly healthy and all. Thing is, we can't put a returned animal back on the sales floor without a vet check. Have to make sure they're healthy you see. Here's the problem, a hamster sells for around 10 dollars. We'd take a pretty big loss getting the vet check and only selling the hamster for 10 bucks. In cases like that, we tend to adopt them out. First crack goes to people who work at the store. Free pet. After that, they go to trusted regular customers that we know have or are looking for similar animals. Well, guess who fell into BOTH of those categories? You got it.
I'm sitting at my counter. The shift is almost over. Nothing to do. I'm just killing time until closing. In comes the manager with a box. She puts it on the counter and tilts it over and I'm thinking, "Whatever comes out of there, it better damn well not slither or have more than 4 legs." Instead, out comes this really cute, black and white hamster. CC will be putting up pictures on her site soon.
So, Mary, the manager, explains the situation and asks if I'll adopt this one. Well, he was so cute, of COURSE I would. I didn't figure there'd be any problem. Keiko's cage is big enough for two and hamsters aren't really that aggressive towards members of the opposite sex. If they were, there wouldn't be any baby hamsters would there? In fact, our information sheets state quite plainly that they're social, but solitary. They prefer to be alone and have their own little corners but otherwise, they get along fine. You just have to be careful when you put females together.
New hamster comes home (he doesn't yet have a name). I put him in the cage with Keiko and DAMN does she go all Crouching Tiger on him. He was just being nice, walking up to her, wiggling his nose, that sort of thing and she'd just unleash a volly of face slaps until he ran off. THEN she started to set up ambushes. She'd burry herself under the bedding or hide behind the play wheel, wait until he came close enough then she'd SPRING out and start slapping at him, which would usually send HIM flying. One time she surprised him SO much that he ended up on the other side of the cage, on his back.
Yeah, it was at that point I decided I'd better pick up a cheap cage at work, which is what I did. So now we've got the two of them. They're both cute, though he tends to bite a little at first. Keiko spent a week walking around the store with me so she's used to being handled. He's still getting over the initial shock.
-----
Just a few odds and ends here. I've put video back on the site. CC found a new source with a much larger selection. The one I have up now is just plain funny (to everyone but the girl of course). It really demonstrates just how persistant polar bears are when they think there's food nearby.
Also, in a previous post I pasted a bit from a Wall Street Journal article on a Filipino judge. Turns out he's got a blog here at blogspot and he posted a comment. You can check them both out by scrolling down and viewing the comments under the original post.
That pretty much brings us up to date. I'll be posting more often now that I have some spare time again.
Enjoy!
.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
One Quick Entry
Currently Reading: Titan by Ben Bova
Yes, I know, I haven't been blogging on my regular schedule. CC's in Manila right now which means I have to do all the little things she does around the house as well as my usual chores. That doesn't leave me with much free time and when I DO have time, I tend to just sit and relax.
Saw this item in the Wall Street Journal today:
In May we noted the case of a Florentino Floro, a Philippine judge who, according to Reuters, "claimed he could see into the future and admitted consulting imaginary mystic dwarfs" and had "asked for his job back after being sacked by the country's Supreme Court." This morning we received an email from Judge Floro, who would like to clarify matters:
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Yes, I know, I haven't been blogging on my regular schedule. CC's in Manila right now which means I have to do all the little things she does around the house as well as my usual chores. That doesn't leave me with much free time and when I DO have time, I tend to just sit and relax.
Saw this item in the Wall Street Journal today:
In May we noted the case of a Florentino Floro, a Philippine judge who, according to Reuters, "claimed he could see into the future and admitted consulting imaginary mystic dwarfs" and had "asked for his job back after being sacked by the country's Supreme Court." This morning we received an email from Judge Floro, who would like to clarify matters:
On April 6, 2006, the Philippine Supreme Court RELIEVED (separated--it did not dismiss) me from judicial service, and paid me 3 years backwages, by reason of PSYCHOSIS, a medical incapacity--because I allegedly believed in dwarves, angel of death, inflicting sicknesses, healing, prophecy, psychic phenomena and (in writing) predicted the downfall of 13th Philippine President Joseph Estrada (on December, 1998) who was ousted by people power on January 20, 2001.
TRUTH: I never used the word "DWARVES" in any DECISION, and I never consulted any imaginary dwarf to pen my decisions; my detractors submitted these false evidence or lies to replace me with their political candidate; what I do believe in is: a) in the so-called (my) SPIRIT GUIDES or PROTECTORS: LUIS, is the KING OF ALL KINGS of ELEMENTALS/spirits worldwide (I opine due to his lights, violet and white); and b) he is GOD's ANGEL (Genesis, Exodus, etc.)--what St. Paul teaches: Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Prophecy and Spiritual Healing. I am GIFTED; I never tried to develop my psychic powers, since these are God's GIFTs to me--TO HEAL and TO PROPHESY.
So the story turns out to be not as crazy as it sounded.
And the folks in congress were picking on the people Bush wanted to put on the Supreme Court?.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Pug Blood, Poodle Poo and The Zookeeper
Currently Reading: Pinball 1973 by Haruki Murakami
I had a rather interesting day at work today. Well, maybe interesting is a little strong. You may find it boring but compared to a normal day . . .
Actually, when you get right down to it, there IS no such thing as a normal day for me anymore. The most I can say is that few unusual things happened. Working in retail is unpredictable because you deal with people all day. Add working with animals and you can see why things are seldom "normal."
But I digress :-)
The day looked like it was going to be slow right up until about 4 pm. I had just one sheltie to do and it wasn't a problem dog. He just stood there and took it, which is pretty common for shelties. Considering how neurotic they are away from the salon, they're rather calm and patient when a bath is involved. Anyway, this particular sheltie was in for a bath and a sanitary cut. I mentioned those before. That's my new addition, dog ball shaving.
Now, CC calls and asks if she should visit. I'm thinking the day is slow and it might be neat for her to see me actually using the clippers on a dog so I tell her to stop in. Not long after I hang up I get another dog, a corgi and then a pair of pugs. By the time CC shows up, the salon is booming again and I'm really too busy to chat with her.
The other dogs were uneventful. The second pug is where this all starts. It was a pretty pug-shaped pug let me tell you. Big, round girl. Grunted in the usual pug ways. Had one nail that was maybe a week away from being ingrown so I was trying to save the owner a trip to the vet. Damn thing wouldn't sit still. Had one of their kids hold it, and tight and I was STILL having a hard time clipping the nails. Finally got it hooked and the dog did a big tug right as I was cutting. You guessed it, I cut the quick. Pug blood on my hands.
It wasn't a bad cut really. I've seen worse. It was bad for ME though. I rarely actually cut the quick and even when I do it's not by much. Most of the time it stops bleeding on its own without the quick stop powder.
While I was bathing the pugs, I took a call from one of our regulars. Her dog was rubbing its butt on the carpet. That really only means one of two things for us. Either the dog didn't have its anal gland expressed (a really messy and nasty procedure; google it some time) or the hair was cut funny on its behind and was causing an itch. Now, you KNOW it wasn't the second reason. Oh no, it's NEVER the clean reason.
I told her to bring the dog in and she showed up right as I was making my pug blood sacrifice to the gods of dog grooming. After I sent the pugs home I took the poodle. It was actually a tea cup poodle making about the size of a small rabbit and that's being generous. I remembered it as soon as I saw it. It came in on Wednesday and was REALLY hyper the whole time. In fact, on Wednesday, MOST of the dogs were hyper.
Needless to say since it was so hyper the whole anal gland thing didn't work very well and we never got a chance to cut his nails. Since those two things didn't get done on Wednesday, wouldn't make sense to charge for them again right? They're supposed to be included.
I took the little dog into the back. Put him in the tub. Put on the gloves and went to work. He was a squirter. I was actually pretty impressed by this one. He managed to squirt all the way to the wall by the tub. That's a very strong squirt for such a little dog.
Wiped his butt, took him out front again and trimmed his nails. He was all nice and tidy. I was explaining to the owners that sometimes things like that happen when the dog won't settle down. We're limited in what we can do in that situation. I told her there was no charge for the work I did today and that if she had that problem again, just bring the dog back and we'll take care of it. In the middle of that conversation, the lights went out.
Every night at 7:20 the lights go out because the grooming salon used to be opened until 7. The timers are still set with the assumption that we'd all be gone by 7:20. Problem is we're now open until 9 and the timers are controlled by the folks at headquarters in San Diego. Nothing I can do about it but turn them back on every hour (when you turn it back on, it only stays on for an hour, then it shuts off again).
Poodle lady left, I went to go turn on the lights and as I was making my way back to the salon, I saw a woman who appeared to need help. She had some kids that wanted to see some of the animals. No problem. We do that sort of thing all the time, especially with kids. I told her to go ahead and bring them in and I asked the cashier who was free to handle that sort of thing. Guess who was free. No really, guess. That's right, ME!
Everyone else was working to stock the shelves for the weekend and the cashier had to stay up front in case people wanted to check out. So, for the next hour I was zookeeper. We petted mice first, then hamsters, then ferrets. Then we went back to the reptiles section and petted a leopard gecko and a cuban knight anole (big green lizard). Next came the millipede. Oh what a joy that was. Every time they touched it, it grabbed hold of my hand even tighter. Talk about a freaky feeling. All those little legs gripping my fingers. WEIRD!
We walked around to the other side and TRIED to pet a snake but it got all nervous. Too much noise. Oh, did I neglect to mention that there were something like EIGHT kids? And all of them young. Must have been a slumber party or something.
Next came a firebelly toad. I tried to get a frog but the damn things were just too slippery. Just as well, the toad was a really bright green with red feet and looked WAY cooler.
After everyone got to pet the little toad, the kids told me there was a bird stuck upside down. I wasn't sure what this was all about so I put away the toad and went to the parakeet cage. Turns out one of them fell or something and got stuck between two of the food bowls. Sure enough, it was upside down and looking REALLY confused about things. Couldn't manage to get out because its feet couldn't get a grip on anything. Never fear, I'm a professional dog bather. I can handle ANY situation :-)
The last thing we did was pet the rabbits. Well, the one rabbit anyway. The other is too fast for me to catch. Very patient this rabbit we had. It didn't spook very much at all. I guess it's getting used to having all that attention. Lots of people like to pet the bunnies.
So there you have it, pug blood, poodle poo and the zookeeper, me. Good thing I'd done a chunk of my cleaning already. I didn't get back to the salon until almost 8:30. Still managed to get everything done though.
See? Interesting night.
.
I had a rather interesting day at work today. Well, maybe interesting is a little strong. You may find it boring but compared to a normal day . . .
Actually, when you get right down to it, there IS no such thing as a normal day for me anymore. The most I can say is that few unusual things happened. Working in retail is unpredictable because you deal with people all day. Add working with animals and you can see why things are seldom "normal."
But I digress :-)
The day looked like it was going to be slow right up until about 4 pm. I had just one sheltie to do and it wasn't a problem dog. He just stood there and took it, which is pretty common for shelties. Considering how neurotic they are away from the salon, they're rather calm and patient when a bath is involved. Anyway, this particular sheltie was in for a bath and a sanitary cut. I mentioned those before. That's my new addition, dog ball shaving.
Now, CC calls and asks if she should visit. I'm thinking the day is slow and it might be neat for her to see me actually using the clippers on a dog so I tell her to stop in. Not long after I hang up I get another dog, a corgi and then a pair of pugs. By the time CC shows up, the salon is booming again and I'm really too busy to chat with her.
The other dogs were uneventful. The second pug is where this all starts. It was a pretty pug-shaped pug let me tell you. Big, round girl. Grunted in the usual pug ways. Had one nail that was maybe a week away from being ingrown so I was trying to save the owner a trip to the vet. Damn thing wouldn't sit still. Had one of their kids hold it, and tight and I was STILL having a hard time clipping the nails. Finally got it hooked and the dog did a big tug right as I was cutting. You guessed it, I cut the quick. Pug blood on my hands.
It wasn't a bad cut really. I've seen worse. It was bad for ME though. I rarely actually cut the quick and even when I do it's not by much. Most of the time it stops bleeding on its own without the quick stop powder.
While I was bathing the pugs, I took a call from one of our regulars. Her dog was rubbing its butt on the carpet. That really only means one of two things for us. Either the dog didn't have its anal gland expressed (a really messy and nasty procedure; google it some time) or the hair was cut funny on its behind and was causing an itch. Now, you KNOW it wasn't the second reason. Oh no, it's NEVER the clean reason.
I told her to bring the dog in and she showed up right as I was making my pug blood sacrifice to the gods of dog grooming. After I sent the pugs home I took the poodle. It was actually a tea cup poodle making about the size of a small rabbit and that's being generous. I remembered it as soon as I saw it. It came in on Wednesday and was REALLY hyper the whole time. In fact, on Wednesday, MOST of the dogs were hyper.
Needless to say since it was so hyper the whole anal gland thing didn't work very well and we never got a chance to cut his nails. Since those two things didn't get done on Wednesday, wouldn't make sense to charge for them again right? They're supposed to be included.
I took the little dog into the back. Put him in the tub. Put on the gloves and went to work. He was a squirter. I was actually pretty impressed by this one. He managed to squirt all the way to the wall by the tub. That's a very strong squirt for such a little dog.
Wiped his butt, took him out front again and trimmed his nails. He was all nice and tidy. I was explaining to the owners that sometimes things like that happen when the dog won't settle down. We're limited in what we can do in that situation. I told her there was no charge for the work I did today and that if she had that problem again, just bring the dog back and we'll take care of it. In the middle of that conversation, the lights went out.
Every night at 7:20 the lights go out because the grooming salon used to be opened until 7. The timers are still set with the assumption that we'd all be gone by 7:20. Problem is we're now open until 9 and the timers are controlled by the folks at headquarters in San Diego. Nothing I can do about it but turn them back on every hour (when you turn it back on, it only stays on for an hour, then it shuts off again).
Poodle lady left, I went to go turn on the lights and as I was making my way back to the salon, I saw a woman who appeared to need help. She had some kids that wanted to see some of the animals. No problem. We do that sort of thing all the time, especially with kids. I told her to go ahead and bring them in and I asked the cashier who was free to handle that sort of thing. Guess who was free. No really, guess. That's right, ME!
Everyone else was working to stock the shelves for the weekend and the cashier had to stay up front in case people wanted to check out. So, for the next hour I was zookeeper. We petted mice first, then hamsters, then ferrets. Then we went back to the reptiles section and petted a leopard gecko and a cuban knight anole (big green lizard). Next came the millipede. Oh what a joy that was. Every time they touched it, it grabbed hold of my hand even tighter. Talk about a freaky feeling. All those little legs gripping my fingers. WEIRD!
We walked around to the other side and TRIED to pet a snake but it got all nervous. Too much noise. Oh, did I neglect to mention that there were something like EIGHT kids? And all of them young. Must have been a slumber party or something.
Next came a firebelly toad. I tried to get a frog but the damn things were just too slippery. Just as well, the toad was a really bright green with red feet and looked WAY cooler.
After everyone got to pet the little toad, the kids told me there was a bird stuck upside down. I wasn't sure what this was all about so I put away the toad and went to the parakeet cage. Turns out one of them fell or something and got stuck between two of the food bowls. Sure enough, it was upside down and looking REALLY confused about things. Couldn't manage to get out because its feet couldn't get a grip on anything. Never fear, I'm a professional dog bather. I can handle ANY situation :-)
The last thing we did was pet the rabbits. Well, the one rabbit anyway. The other is too fast for me to catch. Very patient this rabbit we had. It didn't spook very much at all. I guess it's getting used to having all that attention. Lots of people like to pet the bunnies.
So there you have it, pug blood, poodle poo and the zookeeper, me. Good thing I'd done a chunk of my cleaning already. I didn't get back to the salon until almost 8:30. Still managed to get everything done though.
See? Interesting night.
.
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