Yesterday I went to see a man of 93 who used to work for us in the Shop. He worked for us all his life - before and after the second world war. If anyone knows about pets then he does. He kept pet dogs when he was working but I think that his record must be his pet goldfish. He took it home because it was looking a bit 'under the weather' and managed to keep it alive for the next 25 years. When I was a little girl I can remember that every year or so he had to look out for a bigger tank for it. It is dead now, but I think when it died it must have weighed quite a bit, and was a considerable length.
If anyone is reading this and has anything to do with Pet Foods 30, 40, or 50 years ago then I am sure they will remember the old trade names of different products. Some of which are still going today. Spillars - Winalot, Shapes, Bonio - Bob Martin, all still around today. Then there were lots that have disappeared. Spratts, Entwistles, Stirling, Stamina, Pyke, to name but a few. Most of the foods biscuits and grains were delivered in 1 cwt. bags that's 112lb (round about)- 50 kilos in today's weight. Our stock rooms at the time were above the shop so all the bags had to be carried upstairs manually. I can still remember my Father and the other men unloading a wagon with 20 or even 40 sacks all needing to be carried upstairs. They would hoist them on their backs and carry then up a difficult staircase and then stack them in a set pattern so that they would not topple over. Tea breaks were always important then - as now I guess. But only 10 minutes and then back to work. The whole operation was always presided over by 'Whiskers' - the shop cat. He would watch the men from the safety of a delivered sack and then at tea break would hop down and beg for a saucer of milk. - Not that he needed it, he was after all a Pet shop cat and was a little on the 'portly' side. Then back he would go to the new sacks to hunt for any mouse that may have been delivered inside the sacks along with the pet food.
Wednesday 28 February 2007
Monday 26 February 2007
So here I am trying to get the hang of this 'blog' thing. Bear with me. -Talking of bears the only thing that resembles a bear in my shop is a hamster. We sell quite a few of these great little creatures. They come in all sorts of colours and have long or short hair. They have adorable faces and tiny plump bodies The most popular type are the good old fashioned Syrian - what we old folk used to call the 'golden hamster'. There is nothing better than seeing a family come in with a couple of children and deciding on which type of cage they want and which specific hamster they will take home with them. These furry bundles make a good starter pet so long as they are treated with care and respect. Poor things only tend to bite when they are frightened or suddenly see a large digit approaching at speed. I keep telling people that they must be slow and gentle as poor old Hammy hamster has bad eyesight.
Never mind hamsters having bad eyesight. Many years ago before there were restrictions on transporting animals our delivery of hamster would arrive by train. The local station staff would ring us and tell us that the hamsters had arrived and we would pop up to our main line station and collect them. They were always well packed with lots of provisions and bedding so never seemed to suffer. In fact the station staff used to enjoy their hamster sitting and in time became quite a bunch of hamster experts. I remember one night our delivery of hamsters was on a delayed train. We were very worried about them, imagining they might have been abandoned on some remote platform and left for the night to freeze. We needn't have worried though as our local station staff had kept the station parcel office open specially for us and stayed at their desk until we had collected our squeaking box. I don't think that the hamsters even realised that there had been a problem.
On the other hand I do remember my Father collecting some hamsters and instead of taking them straight back to the shop he decided to take out some deliveries first. He kept the hamsters on the seat next to him so that he could keep an eye on them, from time to time he peered in through the wire window in their box and just as he was about to reach the shop he stopped at a set of traffic lights, glanced at the box and found it empty. All the hamsters had escaped. He pulled over and started the great hamster search. He immediately caught quite a few, but on a quick count of heads found that there were 10 missing. For up to a week later we kept finding an odd hamster in all parts of the van. Even the engine was a playground. I remember on morning being driven to school and a little furry creature running along the dashboard. Then another was found in the seat foam having made himself a very nice den. In the end we recovered all the missing bundles. They had travelled many miles and if they had looked out of the window would have enjoyed the scenery too! A few weeks later- cleaned and fully recovered they were offered for sale. I don't think we let on to our customers how well travelled their new pets were though.
The train station staff may have been great hamster experts, but I don't think that our local Post Office staff view us with as much favour. Our live crickets, locus, mealworms and other live creepy crawlies which we feed to our reptiles are - or should I say 'were'-delivered to us by the Royal Mail. All went well for many months until a box was damaged in transit. Our local Post Office received the consignment. Inside were various boxes of creepy crawlies. One of which had been split and the contense had escaped. A whole box of live crickets were hopping around in the Mail Room. These small creatures do no harm, and will die without heat, but for the few hours they were loose in the Post Office I think they caused rather a lot of upset. I guess some one not knowing what they were would maybe think that they were being attacked by some giant fleas or some horrible chirruping monster fly. Our local Postman said that they are still talking about the incident now many years later.
Never mind hamsters having bad eyesight. Many years ago before there were restrictions on transporting animals our delivery of hamster would arrive by train. The local station staff would ring us and tell us that the hamsters had arrived and we would pop up to our main line station and collect them. They were always well packed with lots of provisions and bedding so never seemed to suffer. In fact the station staff used to enjoy their hamster sitting and in time became quite a bunch of hamster experts. I remember one night our delivery of hamsters was on a delayed train. We were very worried about them, imagining they might have been abandoned on some remote platform and left for the night to freeze. We needn't have worried though as our local station staff had kept the station parcel office open specially for us and stayed at their desk until we had collected our squeaking box. I don't think that the hamsters even realised that there had been a problem.
On the other hand I do remember my Father collecting some hamsters and instead of taking them straight back to the shop he decided to take out some deliveries first. He kept the hamsters on the seat next to him so that he could keep an eye on them, from time to time he peered in through the wire window in their box and just as he was about to reach the shop he stopped at a set of traffic lights, glanced at the box and found it empty. All the hamsters had escaped. He pulled over and started the great hamster search. He immediately caught quite a few, but on a quick count of heads found that there were 10 missing. For up to a week later we kept finding an odd hamster in all parts of the van. Even the engine was a playground. I remember on morning being driven to school and a little furry creature running along the dashboard. Then another was found in the seat foam having made himself a very nice den. In the end we recovered all the missing bundles. They had travelled many miles and if they had looked out of the window would have enjoyed the scenery too! A few weeks later- cleaned and fully recovered they were offered for sale. I don't think we let on to our customers how well travelled their new pets were though.
The train station staff may have been great hamster experts, but I don't think that our local Post Office staff view us with as much favour. Our live crickets, locus, mealworms and other live creepy crawlies which we feed to our reptiles are - or should I say 'were'-delivered to us by the Royal Mail. All went well for many months until a box was damaged in transit. Our local Post Office received the consignment. Inside were various boxes of creepy crawlies. One of which had been split and the contense had escaped. A whole box of live crickets were hopping around in the Mail Room. These small creatures do no harm, and will die without heat, but for the few hours they were loose in the Post Office I think they caused rather a lot of upset. I guess some one not knowing what they were would maybe think that they were being attacked by some giant fleas or some horrible chirruping monster fly. Our local Postman said that they are still talking about the incident now many years later.
Thursday 22 February 2007
Third Generation Pet Keeping
As I have said before I grew up among a family of pet lovers. My Grandmother started the business some years before the second world war. She was quite a busy woman having had nine children and all that that entails. The business was really started as a feed merchants for the many people who kept the odd chicken in their back garden. Even now I have old customers coming in telling me they remember their parents visiting the shop for supplies. The shop evolved and gradually started selling food for dogs and cats and now we sell all sorts of foods and accessories for the full range of pets be they furry or finned or scaled. My Grandmother (who died when I was about 9) was certainly an interesting woman, and her tale would be a complete other story, but she as far as I am aware she always had pets in the house. My twin Aunts tell me of a story about a monkey who lived with them all - yes all nine children - this monkey as far as I can tell was just another member of the family. He often escaped from the house and accompanied the twins to school. Their school mistress would often tell them to 'get that monkey our of the schoolroom and take it home immediately'. Home they would take it and it would take up residence on top of the grandfather clock where it had a basket as a bed. I believe that it also took great delight in throwing various bits of fruit down onto the heads of visitors. The bigger the hat the better! It would also chitter at them with that strange sort of monkey talk as though it was saying some rather rude words but only the monkey could understand. My Grandmothers house always sounded like fun, and even now from my faint memories I can see her reading me Welsh fairy stories. She had a wonderful cuddle and in my minds eye was just every ones ideal Granny. I feel very sad that I did not know her for longer. All my cousins seem to remember her with great affection. She had time for all 21 of her Grandchildren. Not to be frogotten is my Grandfather who also ran another business totally unrelated to pets. He must have worked hard to keep his family, but as a child I knew nothing if this. He too is 'another story'. - They certainly knew how to live in those days! But again my lasting memory of him is the typical Grandad. Winding his grandfather clock every day, checking his watch that hung on a chain from his waistcoat and smell of humbugs which he dished out to his Grandchildren. A typical memory. But he hid so many secrets.
Wednesday 21 February 2007
A quiet week
So here I am attempting to write a blog. I have been running a Pet Shop for some 25 years now and seem to have amassed quite a number of stories/anecdotes/moans/opinions and feelings about my business/my pets/my customers/my life.
Would anyone out there like to read about them - I wonder?
Life can be very,very strange dealing with people and their pets. Not only their pets, but their emotions as well. Sometimes I feel like a shrink, a marriage guidance councillor, a Doctor/Vet and a Social Service Provider all rolled into one.
My love of animals goes back before I was born. They and the Business have been in my family for three generations now. I like to think that I am fairly sensible about animals. I can't abide cruelty and see pets as a help to mankind. They are something that we should look after and respect. They are company and often a crutch but what we should not forget is that they are ANIMALS, with different needs from ourselves.
Enough of the lecture. I thought you may like to hear a little of the goings on in my shop over the last week or so. - It was a quiet week too.
Valentines day. We sold two hamsters as romantic gifts for young lovers. Both had hamsters in the past and their boyfriends thought that the most romantic gift (and cheapest I guess) would be a cute little creature. We even sold them some heart shaped treats . The recipients of the gifts were thrilled. (We ask all our customers to read and agree to our conditions of sale when we sell any pet which involves taking the owners name and address and making sure that the pet goes with all the necessary information). I couldn't help but be a little worried though. Not for the hamsters - they were going to be really well looked after, but for the lovers. Hamsters only live for about two years. Does that men that when the hamster goes to that big hamster wheel in the sky that its owners lover will evaporate? Or worse still - The Mother of one of the young 'romantic' men bought the hamster for her son to give to his girlfriend. She even picked it out and gift wrapped the box. Then she took it to the girl on her sons behalf. I don't know about you but I wouldn't be too pleased if my boyfriends Mum was doing all the running on Valentines day. Doesn't say much for the 'devoted' boyfriend.
Then we had the rather eccentric woman in her 30's who wanted a guinea pig. Because she was rather agitated and forgetful and basically did not know what day of the week it was we refused to sell her a pet. On hearing this she burst into tears and started sobbing. We tried to pacify her and asked her to come back with someone who cared for her and then we could discuss the guinea pig situation. That seems to do the trick and we have not seen her since. It was quite an embarrassing situation all round. I am sure not too many people have gone into a Pet Shop to buy some doggie treat or other and had to walk round a full grown - and very well dressed woman sobbing as though the world had ended. Needless to say I am very grateful for my staffs handling of the situation.
Many of our customers are little old ladies who keep a budgie as a pet. They come in quite regularly to buy budgie seed and have a chat. My favourite lady came and told us that it was her 80th Birthday the previous weekend. I don't think that she has much of a family, but she does attend some Church or other. Anyway my faith in humanity was restored when she told me that she had been taken out for two celebratory meals and had had so many cards, gifts and flowers that she had to give some blooms to her elderly neighbours because her windowsills were overflowing. So the world isn't such a bad place after all. There are people out there looking after their friends and neighbours. Makes me feel good.
Oh yes and just a quick note. One of our staff members has taught our Parrot to say 'Give us a kiss'. This can be very embarrassing when you are the only person in the shop and a customer comes in. They don't know that we have a talking parrot and invariably think it is me!
So as you can see running a Pet Shop isn't just about animals, although I have lots more to write if anyone is interested.
Would anyone out there like to read about them - I wonder?
Life can be very,very strange dealing with people and their pets. Not only their pets, but their emotions as well. Sometimes I feel like a shrink, a marriage guidance councillor, a Doctor/Vet and a Social Service Provider all rolled into one.
My love of animals goes back before I was born. They and the Business have been in my family for three generations now. I like to think that I am fairly sensible about animals. I can't abide cruelty and see pets as a help to mankind. They are something that we should look after and respect. They are company and often a crutch but what we should not forget is that they are ANIMALS, with different needs from ourselves.
Enough of the lecture. I thought you may like to hear a little of the goings on in my shop over the last week or so. - It was a quiet week too.
Valentines day. We sold two hamsters as romantic gifts for young lovers. Both had hamsters in the past and their boyfriends thought that the most romantic gift (and cheapest I guess) would be a cute little creature. We even sold them some heart shaped treats . The recipients of the gifts were thrilled. (We ask all our customers to read and agree to our conditions of sale when we sell any pet which involves taking the owners name and address and making sure that the pet goes with all the necessary information). I couldn't help but be a little worried though. Not for the hamsters - they were going to be really well looked after, but for the lovers. Hamsters only live for about two years. Does that men that when the hamster goes to that big hamster wheel in the sky that its owners lover will evaporate? Or worse still - The Mother of one of the young 'romantic' men bought the hamster for her son to give to his girlfriend. She even picked it out and gift wrapped the box. Then she took it to the girl on her sons behalf. I don't know about you but I wouldn't be too pleased if my boyfriends Mum was doing all the running on Valentines day. Doesn't say much for the 'devoted' boyfriend.
Then we had the rather eccentric woman in her 30's who wanted a guinea pig. Because she was rather agitated and forgetful and basically did not know what day of the week it was we refused to sell her a pet. On hearing this she burst into tears and started sobbing. We tried to pacify her and asked her to come back with someone who cared for her and then we could discuss the guinea pig situation. That seems to do the trick and we have not seen her since. It was quite an embarrassing situation all round. I am sure not too many people have gone into a Pet Shop to buy some doggie treat or other and had to walk round a full grown - and very well dressed woman sobbing as though the world had ended. Needless to say I am very grateful for my staffs handling of the situation.
Many of our customers are little old ladies who keep a budgie as a pet. They come in quite regularly to buy budgie seed and have a chat. My favourite lady came and told us that it was her 80th Birthday the previous weekend. I don't think that she has much of a family, but she does attend some Church or other. Anyway my faith in humanity was restored when she told me that she had been taken out for two celebratory meals and had had so many cards, gifts and flowers that she had to give some blooms to her elderly neighbours because her windowsills were overflowing. So the world isn't such a bad place after all. There are people out there looking after their friends and neighbours. Makes me feel good.
Oh yes and just a quick note. One of our staff members has taught our Parrot to say 'Give us a kiss'. This can be very embarrassing when you are the only person in the shop and a customer comes in. They don't know that we have a talking parrot and invariably think it is me!
So as you can see running a Pet Shop isn't just about animals, although I have lots more to write if anyone is interested.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
