The shop itself.

Looking back at my 'blog' I suddenly realised that although I had talked about animals I had omitted to say very much about my shop as it stands today.
I certainly wouldn't call my shop large. It is not situated in some big 'out of town' shed, rather a medium sized shop sitting on a main street in a quiet town. The shop itself has just recently been refurbished. I sell lots of pet foods and accessories, everything from poop scoops to vivariums, fish nets to diamante collars, bags of pet foods, birds seeds, cat flaps, dog beds, rabbit hutches, amazing hamster cages with wheels, tunnels, and twiddly bits. You name it, if its got anything to do with pets I stock it, or if not I can try and get it for you.
My fish selection is not huge, but there is as good variety of tanks and most things aquatic. And then at the rear of the shop there are some animal units with a selection of small animals and birds and a few reptiles. I deliberately do not stock a large amount of pets because I like to keep my eye on each one of them and to know where each animal comes from and who it goes to. My suppliers are generally a few local breeders who I have known for years and who really care about the animals that they breed. I also take in some animals that may need homes because their owners can't look after them for one reason or another. Provided these animals are fit, healthy and would make good pets I try and re home them. Then there are the 'accidents'. A human family may have two rabbits who have got together for a little 'rest and relaxation' and bingo suddenly there are now 8 rabbits. Usually the children in the human family are very happy indeed and enjoy the experience of the new babies, but eventually Mum or Dad realise that they can't cope with a large number of hutches and all the feeding and cleaning out. So they come to me and as long as the Pets are healthy I take them in.
I am very strict when it comes to pet ownership and have often refused to sell an animal if it does not look as though it is going to be cared for correctly. Sometimes that does not make me very popular. But on the whole most of the Pets that I sell are loved and well cared for. I have records of where they all come from and where they are going to. This is a condition of my Pet Licence. As well as this all my staff are qualified in Pet care and because they are all animal lover they too would not let a Pet go to a home that they did not think was satisfactory.
I do not stock puppies because we do not have the space or facilities for them. I do however have a great many customers who visit us with their puppies. Working in a Pet shop you see lots of young animals, but my heart simply melts when an adorable bundle comes bounding through the front door. Fat, thin, long coated or bald, - I love them all.
Well that's my shop - just an ordinary Pet Shop. Working in it won't make me a millionaire, in fact after paying business rates, taxes, wages etc. it doesn't make much money at all, but it is what I do best and what I enjoy.

Pets and holidays

Although we look after small animals and birds when their owners go on holiday we do not look after dogs or cats. So like lots of animal owners I have to get the pets that I keep at home cared for. A number of years ago my family and I decided to go on holiday to Egypt. One of the main reasons being was that our young sons were very interested in the country and its history. So having agreed with my parents that they would keep an eye on the shop for me and pop over to my house twice daily to feed, water and generally pamper my 'At Home' pets we set off for an interesting holiday.
Just before we left my faithful old moggie decided that he wasn't too well. I took him to the Vet and the Vet said that there wasn't much that he could do as the cat was just suffering from old age. Now my cats always get a bit twitchy when the suitcases come out of the cupboard so I thought that this coupled with the fact the cat was old was the reason for his lethargy. I gave my Mother instructions about looking after him and with a bit of a niggling worry about the cat we set off. I needn't have worried because we phoned up every few days and my Mother reported that the cat had seemed to have recovered a little and was eating well and enjoying the Spring sunshine. Our holiday continued. We learnt a lot about Egypt and my two sons who were about 8 and 10 at the time really seemed to enjoy all the museums and ancient sights. They couldn't wait to get back to school to tell their friends and teachers about what the had seen. What they found very interesting however was all the information about the Egyptian mummies and how their bodies were preserved. Being two rather ordinary boys the more gruesome the explanations were, the better. Organs in jars, blood drained from the body, brains taken out via the nose. LOVELY!
After two weeks we returned home - boys full of interesting tales to tell about tombs and scary mummies, husband happy after recovering from a bout of 'Gippy' tummy and me just content to return and see our faithful old cat sitting on the doormat in the sunshine looking a bit like a leaky old man, but still well enough to give us a quick greeting and then get under our feet as we unloaded our cases.
The following morning was a different matter. My husband had to be at work early so got up before the rest of us. When he opened the front door to bring in the milk there was our faithful old cat dead on the doorstep. It was as though he had waited for us to come safely back home. We were all heartbroken. Especially me who had wondered where the cat was during the night as he usually came in through our cat flap and slept at the end of our bed.
Before leaving for work my husband scooped up the poor dead cat and placed him -still curled up- on a bench in the garage. The intention being to bury him later on that evening. My sons however had a different idea. Later in the day I found them collecting jars and bandages and trying to find a sharp knife. When I asked what they were up to I was informed that the Egyptians mummified their dead friends and family and their honoured animals and that was what they were going to do to our poor cat. They said that they would find the whole process very difficult, but thought that this would help the cat on its way to heaven! Unfortunately for them I had to halt the process and suggest that we bury the cat at the bottom of the garden with our other dead family pets. Explaining that maybe we could hold a little service of our own which only involved the digging of a hole and a few prayers. They reluctantly agreed and that evening we said goodbye to our pet.
But it wasn't too long until the boys got hold of a Norse story that involved the body of a dead Viking being set alight and then floated down a river. As we live on the banks of a river it was goodbye to Gunther the Gerbil after his long and fruitful life (he fathered about 50 offspring). An empty tissue box was found and Gunther was given full funeral rites and floated off down river. I did halt the proceedings when the boys tried to pour lighter fluid over him and set it all alight. There had also been talk of rockets and cremated remains, but fortunately the boys attentions turned to other pastimes and their interests wained.

A week away

Back to work today. Have been on holiday in Spain for a week. A lovely relaxing break but I am always taking note of pets or animals around me. Lots of people keep dogs as pets in Spain and from what I can tell many of our four legged friends seem to enjoy life in the sunshine. It must be great to be a dog in the great outdoors. Living a life in warm sunshine, yapping at distant canine pals sitting on various rooftops around you and lazily chasing the odd scowling cat. Although I guess they both can have it tough when the weather gets too hot. Now I know that the Spanish have a bad reputation when it comes to animal keeping, and I guess things can always be improved, but they are getting there. There seems to be lots of Pet shops and Grooming parlours springing up and that can't be a bad thing. Most of the dogs seem well looked after and better behaved than ours although I do think that the Spanish need to learn how to use poop scoops. Cats on the other hand often look rather down at heel and in need of some T.L.C. There seems to be a big push to get cats neutered and that can only help.
The Spanish do love their cage birds and often when walking through a town or village you can spot cages with singing birds placed on balconies. The sound of their songs echoes down narrow streets as it must have done hundreds of years ago. Then there are the monk parakeets that fly free in lots of urban areas. A flash of green and then six or ten birds do some acrobatic maneuvers over your head whilst chattering like squealing school children. They live in the date palms and pinch other fruit from trees when they can. I think at one time they were captive birds, and now live and breed freely in the Spanish sun.
But the big the highlight of my holiday was seeing an Eagle, and then on the same day a beautiful Kingfisher. Two amazing birds on the same day. Not bad when all we had done was go out for a quick walk. A guess you see things when you least expect them.
Anyway back to the shop today and lots and lots of paperwork. I didn't really get much time to inspect the livestock, but everything seems to be in order. Our Parrot seemed very pleased to see me and came up to me and said a very cheeky 'Hello', and 'What ya doing?' I think he thinks I shouldn't have been away. I kept in touch with the day to day happenings by phone, so no real suprises. So onwards with my paperwork and then maybe tomorrow I can get back to the animals which I much prefere.

Job Vacancies

Nearly every day a young boy or girl comes into the shop and asks expectantly if we have any vacancies. Working in a pet shop is generally an animal lovers dream, but it sometimes does not live up to its expectations. You really have to be dedicated when wanting to work with any type of animal. After a week or so of constantly cleaning out animal cages, and hutches and runs and scrubbing and disinfecting most surfaces some animal lovers become quite disillusioned. It is OK to own a hamster and clean it out once a week and play with it most evenings, but to have to start on a Monday morning and clean and wash the cages of about 20 hamsters and maybe the same amount of guinea pigs and rabbits not to mention moving and feeding the odd snake, spider etc. can quickly become a nightmare instead of a dream. And it has to be done every day of the week too!
But of the ones that still enjoy it after a month or so then we know that we generally have a true animal lover on our 'hands'.
Being the 'Boss' means that I have to be in constant touch with the shop. We only close our doors on Christmas day, Boxing day and New years day. But even so the animals have to be checked and fed and cleaned. That means that I visit at least once on each of those days. Mind you it does have its advantages as it gets me out of the washing up at home. Holiday times can be a bit difficult too. Mobile phones are a Godsend. I have been know to break off my holiday and fly home. Luckily I have a very understanding husband who realises that animals are very important to me.
Even when the shop is closed at night I can be called out. I get woken up at all times . Generally at about 3 a.m. when it is cold and raining. People walking past the shop may notice that we have a hamster on the loose, or a Patrolling policeman has let me know that one of our parrots has got out of his cage and is trying to open every bag of bird food that he can find. Or maybe our burglar alarm is ringing. Of course we have had our fair share of burglaries. and even a fight right outside the front door. This involved a man having his head smashed against the door and damaging the toughened glass. This set off all sorts of alarms and bleeding profusely he staggered off down the road. We could even trace his tracks by the trail of blood that he left behind. But he was never caught. It's a shame really as our town has C.C.T.V. which recorded the whole incident and his bloody trail went right past the Police station. So I was the one left to sort out the damage, replace my shop door and have my insurance premium increased yet again.

Invisible Fish

Over the years we have sold all kinds of freshwater fish, both tropical and coldwater fish. The customers have varied from the owner of a restaurant who wanted a large tropical fish display to amuse his diners, to the many parents buying just a solitary goldfish to put in a bowl for their children, but only once did we sell invisible fish.
Our freshwater fish, which we have in the spring and summer months only, used to be kept in large ponds outside the back of the shop beside our aviary. Our tropical and other coldwater fish on the other hand, were stocked and sold all year round, and are still kept in a large display of tanks.
We stock and sell a variety of tropical fish, and from time to time some of the tanks are empty as we await the delivery of a new batch of fish. Once a tropical fish tank has been set up with the correct equipment, it is a fairly easy task, and not too time consuming, to keep the environment stable for the fish. As such, they are ideal pets for busy people, or for those who are often away from home yet like to keep a pet. Until we sold the invisible fish though, we didn’t know about the other characteristic of people who are interested in fish.
Tropical fish are very beautiful creatures, coming in numerous shapes and sizes, and in a dazzling array of colours. Many people keep tropical fish because they look so colourful, and others because they find the peaceful motion of fish swimming seemingly at random around their tank to be restful and therapeutic. Some of the fish are transparent, and you have to look for their heads and fins before you can make out their see through bodies glistening in the water, which is probably what gave us the idea for the invisible fish.
Sadly, I can’t remember whose idea it was, but one day when we had one of our tanks empty, awaiting a delivery of tropical fish, one of the staff suggested that we put a sign up on the outside of the tank saying that we had invisible fish for sale. As you can imagine, we all had a good laugh about the idea. It seemed such an amusing thing to do though, that we decided to go ahead, believing that our customers would share in the joke. Little did we realise how the customers would react!
We duly set about making a sign, and a few minutes later a notice appeared just above the empty tank that read “Just in – INVISIBLE FISH – only £1 each”.
It was a busy day, and when someone came in to look at our fish we’d quite forgotten about the sign that we’d put up. After looking at our tropical fish tanks for some time, a young man came over to the counter to enquire about the invisible fish. He wanted to know whether or not they were easy to keep, what they needed to be fed, and whether or not they could be kept in the same tank as other fish. Imagine how difficult it was to keep a straight face when trying to answer his questions. Almost choking with suppressed laughter we carefully explained how they were quite easy to keep, and didn’t need much food at all. In fact, they hardly needed any because their bodies were invisible. However, they did need to be kept in a separate tank as they did not get on well with other fish, as the other fish became unsettled in their presence. Thanking us kindly, he said that he’d think about it and come back later if he decided to buy some.
No sooner had he left the shop than we collapsed in uncontrollable laughter, and with tears running down our cheeks we related to each other the questions that he had, in all seriousness, asked, and our replies. After some time we managed to control ourselves, and eagerly awaited the next customer who would come in and enquire about the invisible fish.
Sure enough, it wasn’t too long before someone came in, and after glancing at the fish tanks, came over and asked us if he could have a look at the invisible fish. Someone took him over to the tank to show him, whilst the rest of us had to hide in the back of the shop as we just couldn’t stop laughing about the idea that someone had asked to see the fish. The person showing him the fish had to beat a hasty retreat before she burst out laughing, and left the poor customer peering into the tank with great concentration. At long last, one of us managed to control ourselves enough to go out and face the customer, but he wasn’t very interested in the fish as he couldn’t see them. “Of course, that’s the interesting thing about these fish”, we explained, “You can’t see them.”
Amazingly, everyone who came into the shop and looked at the fish took the whole thing seriously, nobody realised that it was just a joke. And then, the inevitable happened, and one of our customers actually wanted to buy some of our invisible fish. We just had to play along to see what they’d do in terms of choosing their fish.
“How many fish would you like sir?” I asked, barley able to suppress my laughter.
“Just two please,” he said, in all seriousness.
“Which two would you like?” I asked, pointing at the empty tank, and taking a small net to catch the two that he chose.
“I can’t seem to see them very well,” he said, “Could you choose them for me?”
“Certainly,” I replied in all seriousness, and put the net into the water and pretended to try and catch a fish.
I brought the net out of the tank very carefully, making sure that the end of the net moved as I flicked my wrist, and carefully lowered the empty net into a waiting plastic bag filled with water from the tank. I moved the net around in the bag so as to ensure that the fish had moved out of the net, and then carefully put the net back into the tank to catch another fish.
“Would you like this one?” I asked as I moved the net around the tank.
“No,” he replied, to my total amazement, “I’ll have that one over there.”
At that moment I lost control and started to feign a coughing fit to disguise the hysterical laughter that I was collapsing into.
“Are you alright?” the customer asked me with great concern.
“Yes thank you,” I finally managed to reply as I wiped the tears from my eyes and started looking for the fish that he had chosen.
“Was it this one?” I asked him, chasing a non-existent fish around the tank with a net.
“Yes,” he said eagerly, pointing just in front of the net, “that was the one.”
I quickly whipped the net out of the tank and placed it in the plastic bag again depositing yet another 'invisible fish' with its 'invisible' mate before I had another fit of hysterics, and turned quickly away towards the till. As I got there I gave the bag to one of our staff and said “Tell him that as he’s the first person who’s bought these fish he can have them for free”, just before I descended into another prolonged bought of coughing.
Our customer looked incredibly pleased with his free gift, and walked proudly out of the shop bearing a plastic bag full of water. We hadn’t the heart to tell him that the fish didn’t exist, and wondered what his family would say when he tried to convince them of the beauty of his latest aquatic acquisition.
We couldn’t bear the idea of going through another sale as by this time all the staff were breaking out into open uncontrolled laughter every time the fish were mentioned. But before we could remove the sign from the tank, a middle-aged woman had looked into it and was asking about them.
“I’m sorry,” I spluttered between coughs and chokes, “We’ve just sold the last one. As you can see, they’ve all gone!”
“That’s a pity,” she responded. “Could you let me know when some more come in?”
“Yes,” I said, if we ever manage to get any more I’ll let you know. But they’re very rare”
With that, she left the shop, and we hurriedly removed the sign from the tank. But the man who took away the two invisible fish never came back, and for all we know he may still be proudly saying to everyone who visits his home, “Would you like to look at my invisible fish?”

Who rules the roost? - 'Tickle' our talking parrot.

Oh yes- see the picture of Tickle, our talking African Grey Parrot? He really is a star and can say all sorts of outrageous things. Including 'Do you fancy a curry?' 'What are you doing?' 'Tick, tick, tick, Tickle' 'Give us a kiss', 'Stop it', and of course the usual 'Hello' and 'Bye bye', and lots more. He can also swear - not taught by us (of course!) - his previous owner was known to utter frequent obscenities. But his claim to fame is his whistling. He can whistle a famous football chant and various other tunes including the loudest wolf whistle you have ever heard. An old lady came in the other day and said that he had made her day!

But good old Tickle made headline news in our local paper at Christmas because we taught him to whistle 'Jingle Bells'. All over the festive season he would whistle this seasonal tune for anyone that would care to listen. Although when our local TV news team came down to record him he closed his beak and refused to even say 'hello'. Fortunately I had filmed him singing the offending tune with our camcorder and they managed to edit that into their report.
Only problem is it is now March and we are still getting 'Jingle Bells'. Mind you his 'Rule Britannia' is coming on a treat.

Scorpion Birth

Well, on arriving at work this morning we were surprised to see that our Imperial Scorpion was giving birth. It was like something from a horror movie. This black twinned clawed creature was removing white miniature scorpions from her underside and gently placing them on her back. We had counted four babies to date, but before closing the shop I noted that there were only three tiny babies on her back and two bodyless claws on the floor of her compartment. Think she must have thought that her babies were also her lunch. Scorpions do tend to eat their young if they feel vulnerable. Because we did not know that she was pregnant we did not give her a quiet tank in a rear room away from everyone. I just hope that by tomorrow she has decided to keep her remaining young. She should - with luck -keep the babies on her back for a couple of weeks, and then we will have to remove them as she almost will certainly eat them. Strange sort of Mother love. Just another working day down at the Pet Shop.