I thought I knew more. :( + Stuff about my new job.

[Celestial Fireflies]

cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:

I just started my job at PetSmart. For the most part, I love it. Even though my interaction with the animals is 95% cleaning, I still love it. It's just the customers that brings out my social anxiety again. My manager noticed that I was shy, and my boyfriend came in the store and said that I looked nervous. I'm trying to be more confident.

Lurking in the guild and reading often about all of your pets, I figured I would be pretty decent at answering questions about the ones I didn't have and never had. Turns out I was wrong. emo But now I know what I don't know. I've been spending all of my free time at home researching about questions I didn't know and just general info about the animals we have there. And then I like to shadow people I call over to help the customer, so that I can learn for the next time.

But I do still love the part where I'm taking care of animals I love. I especially enjoy the cat adoption area, because we're allowed to let the cats roam while we clean out their cages, and it's nice to interact with them. I like to take a minute for each cat to play with them and pet or hold them.

I have to say, until yesterday, I didn't have the urge to bring any home. I mean, one of them sounded exactly like my cat when he's distressed, and that broke my heart, but I still didn't want to adopt any of them.

But there's one cat there that I absolutely love, and his name is Tigger. He's a rather large, old cat. His meow sounds exactly like Baby. I cleaned out his cage and he just laid in the corner like and meowed, "Hey... Who are you? You're cleaning my cage, then?" But he's very sweet and mellow. I took him out and held him for a bit, scratching him heartily under his cheek, which made him extremely happy. <33 Then I put him back, and he croaked at me like, "What, no more?"

It's just... He's 9 years old. I'm worried no one will want him. emo The kittens go fast; adults, not so much. And it's only $85 to adopt him. I have a job now! I could afford that! But then, we have 2 cats already, and Malcolm doesn't understand that some cats just want to be left the hell alone. He might be more suited to a single cat home, like Baby was. He reminds me a lot of Baby, between the mellowness and the croaky maauu. Plus, we're still not 100% on our own yet, and when we DO look for our own place, many people will only accept 2 cats.

But I'm sure someone will come along and say, "This is my cat, I'm taking him home!" Someone looking for a sweet, quiet cat who will be content with window watching and scritches every once in awhile. He'll be somewhere warm and peaceful with an owner who will feed him the best food and love him until the last of his days. Maybe a retired person who isn't looking for a rambunctious young fellow to keep up after, who can stay home and love on Tigger all day. Yeah, I'll keep holding onto that image for him.

Besides the cats, I'm falling in love with one of their rats! Oh god, she is gorgeous. She looks just like Gabby's Blaze. But my rats are already snug in their cage. I'm kind of pushing it on size now, but I take them out a lot and try to at least make it vertically spacious. I HAVE to upgrade if I ever want another rat, unless one of mine passes away. Which, they're only one year old, so they have at least another 1-3 years (I hope!). They also have baby rats that are cream hoods, which I'm eyeing a lot. And then they have a blind rat who they're putting up for adoption soon. But it all comes down to the same problem: not enough space.

So, I just come home and love a whole bunch on the rats and cats I already have. And then I toddle off to learn more about the pets I don't have. P: I'm trying to research everything as though I was going to go out and buy it myself, that way I at least have a good handle for the people who are coming in and looking for a new pet. Just basic stuff like habitat and diet, along with some general facts. Advanced questions I'll learn along the way.  

[Vanilla eXee]

After a few weeks of getting the same questions over and over, you'll remember the answers! Good luck xD  

[Akari_32]

Does your PetSmart have those brochers for every pet they carry? Those are pretty good guide lines to start with on the critters you dont know about. Dont lean competely on them, but they'll help 3nodding  

[Celestial Fireflies]

Akari_32

Does your PetSmart have those brochers for every pet they carry? Those are pretty good guide lines to start with on the critters you dont know about. Dont lean competely on them, but they'll help 3nodding

cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:

Yeah, I brought a bunch of them home. Mostly fish stuff, because I am really not knowledgeable with fish.

Ugh, I felt horrible today. emo First time doing complete changes on all the cages, and I only got through 11/18. So the next person in had to finish it. But the manager was understanding, said that I would get into the swing of things soon enough. And I did-- right as my shift ended.  

[Eizoryu]

Celestial Fireflies

Akari_32

cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:

Yeah, I brought a bunch of them home. Mostly fish stuff, because I am really not knowledgeable with fish.

Ugh, I felt horrible today. emo First time doing complete changes on all the cages, and I only got through 11/18. So the next person in had to finish it. But the manager was understanding, said that I would get into the swing of things soon enough. And I did-- right as my shift ended.

As I always tell the new Pet Care associates at my store, don't worry about your speed just starting out. ^^ Care becomes routine, routine gets faster. Eventually you'll reach a point where you can be very efficient at the task and still have time to burn on either tomorrow's tasks or some other tasks that no one else gets to. Trust me here. ;D

But you sound so much like the way I did when I was starting out and I was a timid thing. xD Talking to people will get easier. It's very easy (now) for me to open with a "Hello, is there anything we can help you with today?" and follow up with the first of the Pet Detective type questions when they start talking about what they're needing help on.

If your PC department has pet-specific books and mags stocked (and it prolly does), read up on them when you can! They're better than the Care Guides. I personally don't like the way Corporate has crunched a lot of fish species into general-care brochures, because while many of the Semi-Aggros are schoolers, like tiger barbs, bala sharks, and clown loaches; some of them are not, like rainbow sharks and the mistakenly-labeled leaf fish (actually a bush fish, as I just learned!). And especially when you're tripping over a question and there's not another associate available to help, those books can be the recovery statement you need. More often than not I find myself pulling Freshwater Aquariums for Dummies off the shelf just so I can refresh my brain on a given issue, and even when I'm tending a customer (or juggling three). lol

Best of luck! =D And welcome to the company! lol  

[pompoennetje]

God, I want to work in a petstore so badly, or a shelter, but here no one seems to need an extra pair of hands and are willing to pay for it. I can't spend my last free time helping in the shelter, as I need that for my homework.

Anyway, we gave our grandmother who lost her husband in march a huge 8year old cat. So she wouldn't be so lonely. And he's huge, really huge. So I guess most older cats have a change with older people. I'm sure someone will come for Tigger one day. 4laugh

About the questions, I'm sure you'll know them after a while. I remember when I worked in the front office of a hotel, people came with a lot of questions each day, After a few weeks I already knew the answers to most of the questions.  

[Akari_32]

Celestial Fireflies

Akari_32

Does your PetSmart have those brochers for every pet they carry? Those are pretty good guide lines to start with on the critters you dont know about. Dont lean competely on them, but they'll help 3nodding

cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:

Yeah, I brought a bunch of them home. Mostly fish stuff, because I am really not knowledgeable with fish.

Ugh, I felt horrible today. emo First time doing complete changes on all the cages, and I only got through 11/18. So the next person in had to finish it. But the manager was understanding, said that I would get into the swing of things soon enough. And I did-- right as my shift ended.

It takes a while, thats for sure. 11 of 18 isnt bad though. 3nodding  

[Celestial Fireflies]

Eizoryu

As I always tell the new Pet Care associates at my store, don't worry about your speed just starting out. ^^ Care becomes routine, routine gets faster. Eventually you'll reach a point where you can be very efficient at the task and still have time to burn on either tomorrow's tasks or some other tasks that no one else gets to. Trust me here. ;D

But you sound so much like the way I did when I was starting out and I was a timid thing. xD Talking to people will get easier. It's very easy (now) for me to open with a "Hello, is there anything we can help you with today?" and follow up with the first of the Pet Detective type questions when they start talking about what they're needing help on.

If your PC department has pet-specific books and mags stocked (and it prolly does), read up on them when you can! They're better than the Care Guides. I personally don't like the way Corporate has crunched a lot of fish species into general-care brochures, because while many of the Semi-Aggros are schoolers, like tiger barbs, bala sharks, and clown loaches; some of them are not, like rainbow sharks and the mistakenly-labeled leaf fish (actually a bush fish, as I just learned!). And especially when you're tripping over a question and there's not another associate available to help, those books can be the recovery statement you need. More often than not I find myself pulling Freshwater Aquariums for Dummies off the shelf just so I can refresh my brain on a given issue, and even when I'm tending a customer (or juggling three). lol

Best of luck! =D And welcome to the company! lol

cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:

They have a reptile book under the podium, but I'll definitely ask if I can do something like take a book into the break room so I can read a bit while I'm on my break. I'm pretty sure I've seen them.

But thank you so much for your response, it makes me feel better about being so slow and shy, haha. I also talked to someone else on my way to break, and she was very helpful in explaining how to ask questions and use the resources around me to answer them while faking being confident in my answer. wink I even used one of her techniques to answer someone's question that I didn't know for sure.

And today & tomorrow, I'm off work. I drew up a list while I was at work of fish I had no knowledge about, so I'm going to take notes and study these next two days. I'm sure my willingness to learn on my own time will help my managers bear with me while I'm picking things up, though they're already incredibly nice and understanding. 3nodding