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Some of you who are on Facebook with me already know the story. As a lot of people know, I haven't had any sort of retail job in 32 years, but my wife and I volunteer with a cat rescue organization every other weekend. The adoption center is in a certain pet supply store. We've been doing this for eight years now. We're just cage cleaners -- we didn't want to be fosters because we'd get too attached to the cats -- and basically we come in, play and socialize with the cats, clean any cages that need cleaned, and then give them some wet food, and then put the cats away, and finally sweep and mop. Some of the other volunteers, including the manager, are there when we arrive, and they set up extra cages with more cats outside the adoption center. We stick around for awhile after they pack up the extra cats and cages, and then spend some alone time with the kitties inside the center.
Last Saturday, after the other volunteers left, we were playing with the kitties, when one of the store employees came to the door with some kittens in a carrier. When my wife saw her, she looked at her kind of confused and said to me, what is she doing with that carrier. At first, we thought she was trying to get us to bring them into the center, but only the manager does that, and since we're not fosters, we can't take them home. So I stepped outside to see what she wanted, and she told me that some customers, who were standing there with her, found the carrier in a cart that had been left in one of the store aisles, and she asked if they were ours (the organization.) Inside the carrier were four kittens, that looked like they might have been just old enough to be away from the mother. And the poor things were either scared, hungry, or both. All of the ones from the center were present and accounted for. While our people sometimes do wheel the carriers out in carts, I couldn't imagine any of them to be scatterbrained enough to leave a carrier full of kittens behind, and they wouldn't have had any reason to go through the aisle where they found them, and they looked younger than any we adopt out. We spay and neuter all our cats before bringing them into the center, and I think the youngest kittens I've ever seen were maybe three months old.
Just to make sure, I called the manager to ask her about it, and she said no, they weren't hers. So apparently someone brought them into the store and just left them there when no one was looking. It wasn't the first time that ever happened, but it was the first time it happened when we were there. But this sad story has a happy ending. The customers who found them were coming in to adopt some cats, and when they found the kittens, they fell in love with them. And since they didn't belong to us, and they didn't belong to the store, they were allowed to take them. The manager was fine with that, and she told me that if the customers couldn't take all of them, to have someone from the store call her and she'd come get them. But they all went home with the customers. I think one person took three of them and someone else took the fourth. They thanked us, and told us they'd pick up some food, some kitten milk, and another carrier on the way out. And they didn't have to fill out an application and then wait a week, and they didn't have to pay any adoption fees, although you actually pay more to get a cat fixed and its first round of shots than what we charge for adoption.
The short time I spent in retail left me somewhat cynical and jaded, so it's nice to be reminded that not all customers suck. But who the hell just brings kittens into a store and just leaves them there? Who knows how long the poor things were there before someone found them? Hopefully the cameras picked them up and they can find out who did it.
Last Saturday, after the other volunteers left, we were playing with the kitties, when one of the store employees came to the door with some kittens in a carrier. When my wife saw her, she looked at her kind of confused and said to me, what is she doing with that carrier. At first, we thought she was trying to get us to bring them into the center, but only the manager does that, and since we're not fosters, we can't take them home. So I stepped outside to see what she wanted, and she told me that some customers, who were standing there with her, found the carrier in a cart that had been left in one of the store aisles, and she asked if they were ours (the organization.) Inside the carrier were four kittens, that looked like they might have been just old enough to be away from the mother. And the poor things were either scared, hungry, or both. All of the ones from the center were present and accounted for. While our people sometimes do wheel the carriers out in carts, I couldn't imagine any of them to be scatterbrained enough to leave a carrier full of kittens behind, and they wouldn't have had any reason to go through the aisle where they found them, and they looked younger than any we adopt out. We spay and neuter all our cats before bringing them into the center, and I think the youngest kittens I've ever seen were maybe three months old.
Just to make sure, I called the manager to ask her about it, and she said no, they weren't hers. So apparently someone brought them into the store and just left them there when no one was looking. It wasn't the first time that ever happened, but it was the first time it happened when we were there. But this sad story has a happy ending. The customers who found them were coming in to adopt some cats, and when they found the kittens, they fell in love with them. And since they didn't belong to us, and they didn't belong to the store, they were allowed to take them. The manager was fine with that, and she told me that if the customers couldn't take all of them, to have someone from the store call her and she'd come get them. But they all went home with the customers. I think one person took three of them and someone else took the fourth. They thanked us, and told us they'd pick up some food, some kitten milk, and another carrier on the way out. And they didn't have to fill out an application and then wait a week, and they didn't have to pay any adoption fees, although you actually pay more to get a cat fixed and its first round of shots than what we charge for adoption.
The short time I spent in retail left me somewhat cynical and jaded, so it's nice to be reminded that not all customers suck. But who the hell just brings kittens into a store and just leaves them there? Who knows how long the poor things were there before someone found them? Hopefully the cameras picked them up and they can find out who did it.
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