To those of us who are currently employed or have ever been employed at a Petsmart, Petco, Petland, etc, it is not fresh information that we experience some unique occurrences on the daily while on the clock. Waltzing into any pet store, non employees may seek a well kept building, crammed with different breeds of animals (that all apparently need to be taken out and played with, regardless of the solicitor's anticipation of purchasing a new furry friend or scaley pal- *insert eye roll here*). Depending on the specific location's team of staff, customers may also feast eyes on a company populated with befriending faces; consistently asking questions, assuring the comfort of guests, or maybe the customer's view lies upon another end, within a corporation run by the crinkled eyebrows and whites of eyes inside the employees who would rather be some place else where cleaning up your dog's mess on aisle eight is not a top priority. How us employees see our store, is based off of care for all who enter the building, paws or no paws. It is essential to provide excellent care for all animals residing in or visiting our store, and to deem the sales floor as safe and free of all dangers for pet parents as well as their pets. An outside eye may spy a smoothly run industry, but that same eye is not aware of the behind-the-scenes. I love my job, as do my coworkers. Not a single day rotates identically to the day prior, which is what makes working in a pet retail environment so rewarding. However, there are some oddities to the profession involving pet care and sales, and I wish you to take enjoyment out of the few explanations as to why I believe working in the pet store setting, is so unique from any other job you may find along the way.
It is 6 o'clock when your authoritative figure prompts you to take a corporate survey in the manager's office. You're .54 seconds away from touching question seven when you hear the miserable crackle of the store's intercom. "Pet care to birds please, pet care to birds." Apparently, the perfect time to adopt a fancy parakeet is on a Tuesday evening, all while you're preoccupied with six hundred other things on the pet care agenda. Hesitantly, you'll linger out of the back office, and eventually thrust your hand into the enclosed bird cage (after nine or so minutes of nervous anticipation, being completely knowledgable that your hand is going to be 100 percent chewed up afterwards), and you hope with all of your being that your customer isn't peering in at you from the other side of the glass, making sure you grab the right bird. Of course he is. Twenty minutes will pass all while the parakeets sing their songs, elevating many decibels, as well as express their immense stress and anxiety; hoping that you'll soon remove your hand, birdless. You cuss to yourself, wondering why you even applied for this job. The disproving facial expressions on the other side of the glass from the customer, as well as your manager, causes you to reflect this question more fiercely as you place the finally caught avian into the enclosed chunk of cardboard.
A question you ask yourself frequently when it reaches about 8 o'clock and your check list of closing duties isn't completed. "Are Thunder Shirts for humans existent?" (If any of you are knowledgeable of anxiety prevention jackets for humans to be available on the market somewhere, i would love to receive the link to buy immediately.)
There's roughly an hour left of your shift, which means it's the designated time to begin picking dead fish from all 45 tanks at the end of the night. Whether it be a floating Rosy Minnow or sinking pond Koi, it's a "no thanks" from me.
A while later, you rest your eyeballs on a clique of high school kids stalking into the cat adoption room, wearing snap backs and reeking of smoke. It is at this minute in time that you'll search for any coworker that'll listen, and question why a pet store is the ideal place for hanging out as a clan of adolescents, or as anyone in general. (If the adoption of a pet is not an anticipation, of course.) If someone has the answer to this question as well, please get back to me ASAP.
It's two minutes until, and we close our doors at 9 o'clock. A man walks in with a confident stature, requesting to purchase 60 large feeder goldfish for his Black Convict at home. Simultaneously, a single mom, with stress etched beneath her cream colored eyelids and frizzy blonde extensions, asks for a bag of 100 small crickets alongside a chunk of cardboard and a generous sprinkle of calcium over the cricket bodies; as if they were french fries being painted with specks of salt. The cricket bin has already been swept, and your hands have been scrubbed pristine of all insect infection for the night. Regretfully, you'll stick your hand in the bin once more, and throw in an extra five or ten crickets, despite the fact that the store closes in two minutes. Good things come to those who give back and are generous, right?
Once the entrance doors lock, and the slate gray cash drawers ding open at 9 o'clock, it's time to re-face the sales floor. To the workers who actually re-stock and re-organize the aquarium ornament aisle, thank God for you. I can't say I've price checked that aisle once, especially on a given day full of children snatching decor and returning them to their non respective slots where they were not originally positioned. To my coworkers who recover this area, thank you.
Although pet store employees may experience something new every day, not necessarily pleasant, but new nonetheless, we do find our job very rewarding. The on site learning experiences, puppy licks, and smiling faces of our content customers compensates for the more difficult shifts, when everything seems to go sour.
Once obtaining a position in pet retail, one may assume that this said employee would most likely become exhausted of the countless animals that visit the store daily. Uneducated mutts always leaking around every corner, raising their hind leg on every end cap shelf, dropping feces near the cashier station. Although cleaning up after the young pups may not be ideal, this statement could not be a smidgen more false. If anything, our affection for animals grows immensely each moment we clock in, especially with chinchillas who sniff our noses!
When a puppy piddles on your leg because their insanely ecstatic to play with you. That is the most spectacular, warm, tingling sensation in the universe, and I wish it upon every one.
Thank you to my wonderful job alongside it's lovely employees. I love all of you, and how we change the lives of pets and their respective parents every single day. For every stressful incident or rush, comes ten reasons why I am thankful for the job I hold as a pet care specialist today. To hold a position at a firm where your learning is enriched the duration of every shift, where the team is 100 percent professional, and where you return home with bird feathers in your hair, puppy urine stains on your khakis, and scratches along your arms from engaging in playtime with the animals, is truly a blessing in so many ways.
Respective pet store, thank you for changing me for the better, and for granting me the opportunity to fall in love with animals over and over again, every day.
