Lots of changes here. New cattery, new customer service supervisor, new dogs, puppies, kittens and cats.
Our behaviorist brought in 10 dogs from El Centro on Monday. It's always fun to take the information when she calls us from there just before she leaves their shelter. She has fun naming them and comes up with some doozies.
After she gives us the breed, color, sex, she'll give us the name, "Ballerina", no make it "Tiny Ballerina", but when she gets here she says, "You know, tiny ballerina doesn't make any sense. I was thinking about Elton John's "Tiny Dancer", so just "Ballerina" is fine.
My favorite was "Bowchicabow wow", but the kennel staff vetoed it. Nick said it sounded like it was from a 70's porn movie. Many of the staff agreed, so she changed that one to "Bow Wow".
Later she asked me if I thought it sounded like a 70's porn movie and I told her I thought it was really cute, but I was never into 70's porn, so what do I know.
Often you can tell what she's been up to by the names she chooses. Like the trip following her concert when she brought in "Prince", "Sheila E", and "Radiohead".
Or, I guess right after breakfast when we got, "Waffle" and "Pancake".
With our new cattery grand opening on May 2nd, we are making sure to have lots of cats and kittens. They are bringing some in from other shelters that have too many and I hope we find lots of lucky cats a loving, caring, forever home from that event.
My new supervisor seems like a very nice guy and I like working for nice people. Most of the people I work with are so conscientious and care so much about the success of the shelter and care and protection of the animals. I can't think of a single person who works here that doesn't have at least one, but usually all of those qualities.
My cat, Eiko just decided that she would like my undivided attention, so I'm going to let her comb her whiskers. She actually holds the comb between her paws and combs her whiskers. This makes them seperate and curl forward. She purrs loudly and a bit of spittle forms at her mouth, not drool, just.......yeah, that's what it is, spittle. I'm going to borrow someones video cam and put her on Youtube. She's pretty funny. I noticed that here at the shelter, they have the dogs sit before they feed them, so I taught her to do it. I only had to tell her to sit the first couple of times, now she does it as soon as she sees her bowl. She's very food driven, so any kind of trick is easy to teach just before feeding time when she is most interested in pleasing me. Most of the time she has me trained.
Ok, now she's insisting that I finish this and give her some quality time since I've been gone to work all day.
Just one of those days
What is it about a customer service position that makes some people feel they can unload their frustrations on you with impunity?
Some days I wonder if there might be a post-it on my forehead that says, "Go ahead and verbally abuse me, I can't do anything about it but stand here and take it."
Last week I had an encounter with a lovely woman, most likely post menopausal and not aware of hormone replacement therapy.
Although our hours of operation are clearly posted on the front gate in huge block letters and again on the front door at eye level, this person, well, I guess I should say this physician, because right in the midst of her verbal abuse, she said, "I'm a physician!" I'm still not certain about the relevancy of that. Maybe it made her above the need for civility to her fellow human beings....anyway, I digress.
She followed (on foot) the director, who had driven in after opening the gate with his remote, and came into the front door, which was unlocked.
My coworker, Jill and I were getting ready to go into our Tuesday morning meeting in a few minutes after helping a gentleman who needed to relinquish his cat and was finishing filling out some paperwork.
Instead of telling the woman we weren't open to the public yet, (as I realize in retrospect would've been the thing to do), when she asked if we had any kittens, we told her no, but she could check with the other shelters and pointed out the flyer behind her that listed all the shelters in San Diego county. When asked, we told her the nearest would be the North County Animal Services and would she like directions? "No, I'll just call them." Then she stood at the counter and called on her cell phone. She became distraught that she couldn't get past the automated choices and redirected her frustration toward us.
Angrily she told us, "I'm going to write a letter! This is the worst customer service I've ever received! How do they expect people to adopt animals if they don't answer their phone?"
We didn't say anything, just kept working and after a while, we got a call from the back that the meeting was going to begin.
I politely asked her if she would please take her call outside because we had to go into a meeting and weren't actually open yet.
She went ballistic and said, "Your customer service is as bad as theirs!" I said "Thank you." and you would've thought I said "Fuck you!"
"What did you say?"
I looked at her and quietly said in a very kind voice, "Can you tell me what we've done to make you so angry at us?"
"You shouldn't have let me stand here, you should have told me you were not open yet!"
"We were just trying to be helpful."
"You ridiculed that gentleman!"
"Excuse me?" I replied, (pretty sure she was referring to when the med tech, Kathy had come to the counter to ask the gentleman his name and he said, "I'll have to spell it." and we laughed and I said, "oh one of those" and Kathy said, "xzvg..." and he laughed.)
I said, "I think you are seeing things from a distorted advantage and you've brought this in with you, I never ridiculed anyone."
That's when she decided to let us know that "I'm a physician!" Then she asked me what my name was and I decided I was done with her and just stood there and smiled at her. She asked me again and again, I just looked at her without saying anything.
"I'll just say older blond woman."
"Gee, thanks for that."
Then she stomped out. She got all the way to the gate (which had closed after the director had come in) and couldn't figure out how to get out and looked like a prisoner trying to escape as she grabbed hold of the gate and began shaking it. Finally she came back and I went out and pointed out the way for her to get out by the gate to the left.
She quietly muttered a "thank you" as she walked away.
It was pretty funny after that because the man came up to me and gave me his card and said, if she writes a letter, please have them call me for the real story. We all laughed.
The rest of the day, Kathy went around saying, "I'm a physician!"
Some days I wonder if there might be a post-it on my forehead that says, "Go ahead and verbally abuse me, I can't do anything about it but stand here and take it."
Last week I had an encounter with a lovely woman, most likely post menopausal and not aware of hormone replacement therapy.
Although our hours of operation are clearly posted on the front gate in huge block letters and again on the front door at eye level, this person, well, I guess I should say this physician, because right in the midst of her verbal abuse, she said, "I'm a physician!" I'm still not certain about the relevancy of that. Maybe it made her above the need for civility to her fellow human beings....anyway, I digress.
She followed (on foot) the director, who had driven in after opening the gate with his remote, and came into the front door, which was unlocked.
My coworker, Jill and I were getting ready to go into our Tuesday morning meeting in a few minutes after helping a gentleman who needed to relinquish his cat and was finishing filling out some paperwork.
Instead of telling the woman we weren't open to the public yet, (as I realize in retrospect would've been the thing to do), when she asked if we had any kittens, we told her no, but she could check with the other shelters and pointed out the flyer behind her that listed all the shelters in San Diego county. When asked, we told her the nearest would be the North County Animal Services and would she like directions? "No, I'll just call them." Then she stood at the counter and called on her cell phone. She became distraught that she couldn't get past the automated choices and redirected her frustration toward us.
Angrily she told us, "I'm going to write a letter! This is the worst customer service I've ever received! How do they expect people to adopt animals if they don't answer their phone?"
We didn't say anything, just kept working and after a while, we got a call from the back that the meeting was going to begin.
I politely asked her if she would please take her call outside because we had to go into a meeting and weren't actually open yet.
She went ballistic and said, "Your customer service is as bad as theirs!" I said "Thank you." and you would've thought I said "Fuck you!"
"What did you say?"
I looked at her and quietly said in a very kind voice, "Can you tell me what we've done to make you so angry at us?"
"You shouldn't have let me stand here, you should have told me you were not open yet!"
"We were just trying to be helpful."
"You ridiculed that gentleman!"
"Excuse me?" I replied, (pretty sure she was referring to when the med tech, Kathy had come to the counter to ask the gentleman his name and he said, "I'll have to spell it." and we laughed and I said, "oh one of those" and Kathy said, "xzvg..." and he laughed.)
I said, "I think you are seeing things from a distorted advantage and you've brought this in with you, I never ridiculed anyone."
That's when she decided to let us know that "I'm a physician!" Then she asked me what my name was and I decided I was done with her and just stood there and smiled at her. She asked me again and again, I just looked at her without saying anything.
"I'll just say older blond woman."
"Gee, thanks for that."
Then she stomped out. She got all the way to the gate (which had closed after the director had come in) and couldn't figure out how to get out and looked like a prisoner trying to escape as she grabbed hold of the gate and began shaking it. Finally she came back and I went out and pointed out the way for her to get out by the gate to the left.
She quietly muttered a "thank you" as she walked away.
It was pretty funny after that because the man came up to me and gave me his card and said, if she writes a letter, please have them call me for the real story. We all laughed.
The rest of the day, Kathy went around saying, "I'm a physician!"
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