Blue moon

I know people get a little crazy around the full moon, and yesterday's "blue moon" was no exception. Here are a couple lovely stories from yesterday, and one from today to round it off:

"No, Thank You."

20-something kid with an attitude walks in with a smiling older woman. He tells me he's here to pay a fine. I ask if he has any paperwork. He says no. I ask who the citation would have been written to. He gestures irreverently to his mother and says, "I guess her." She continues smiling and gives me her name. I find the dog that they reclaimed, but cannot find the citation in the computer. I confirm with him that they did get a paper copy. I tell him that I'm going to have to go figure out which citation he's paying, since it's not in the computer and he forgot his paperwork. He says, "How long is this going to take? I gotta go."

Well, sir.

Since you forgot your paperwork, I'm going to go track down the citation so I can enter a payment and you won't get taken to court.

It's going to take a minute.

Our ever-vigilant finance guy finds that the citation is logged and offers to bring out the paper copy when he finds it, and also call downtown because they were going to report the civil fine to the court that day. I thank him and return to the lobby. Since he's in such a hurry, I give the guy two options: he can wait until the copy of his citation is found so he can get a receipt, or he can go ahead and make the payment and I'll mail him a receipt. He happily hands me a wad of $20 bills and starts to walk off. I ask him to hold on so I can make sure I have the correct mailing address, and then he leaves. His consistently delightful mother thanks me as they leave, and I have $200 in my hand with no receipt.

Kids these days.

"I have so many pictures of my cat."

Lady comes in, and right away she's putting off bad vibes. She's walking too fast, she's too stiff and her face looks like she smelled something bad as a child and it stuck like that. She tells me that she's there to pick up her 17-year-old cat. I'm thrilled.

A few hours earlier, a very nice gentleman came in in a panic because he had called animal control to come pick up a cat that was under his house. He didn't think the cat was in good shape, it had no collar or ID, and he didn't want the cat to expire under his house. Later on, his wife saw a post from a neighbor on their community page, saying that her old, Siamese cat had escaped. He had come in to make sure that the cat was still with us and to try and get the cat back home. We had to inform him that we could only release the cat to the owner, and he could reimburse her fees if he wanted to, but he couldn't pay us directly.

The owner called us to confirm everything, and was told that she needed her ID, proof of ownership and payment to reclaim. She said she did not have any proof of ownership. We informed her that, legally, we had to have some proof of ownership to release any pet to an owner. She said she would be in the next day.

So when she comes huffing in, I'm so excited to see her, because I know she's going to be a lovely customer. And it's 5 minutes before close.

I ask for her ID, and she hands me her drivers license. I ask for proof of ownership, and she says she doesn't have any. I say, again, that we need to have proof of ownership to release a pet. She says, "Who else is going to want a 17-year old cat?" When I ask about vet records, she says, "I'm a vet, I take care of my own pets." When I ask about photos, she retorts, "Why would I take pictures of my 17-year-old cat?" I give her a blank look, because there's just nothing I could say that wouldn't get me fired.

I check with management, because while she does not have proof, there is fairly easy line to follow, if not direct. I couldn't fathom not having one photo or record for a 17-year relationship, but I love my cat (as my t-shirt today says) and I have a bajillion photos of her from the past year that I've had her. I can only imagine that, in 17 years, I'll have a bajillion times 17 photos of her.

Management says go for it, just to get the cat out, because it would have been euthanized the next day otherwise. The lady pays the fees, we box up the cat and send it home.

Sometimes you just get "the warm fuzzies."

Nope, Still Don't Like Chihuahuas

Today a family surrendered a little chihuahua with a nub-tail. She was nervous, in typical chihuahua fashion, but she walked well with me and was friendly with me in Receiving. She crawled into my lap and let me pet her while they got ready to do her vaccinations. When they got started, I left.

When I checked on her later, she was Rescue Only. She did fine for vaccinations, but when they went to move her from the holding kennel in Receiving to the adoption floor, she freaked out and started biting and nipping.

I don't like chihuahuas. I don't trust them because I can't read their body language. They always look scared to death and like they're about to bite you. Even the nice ones. I don't like disliking an entire breed, so I try to work with those I can and not be so discriminatory.

So, I grabbed a bed and a blanket and went to see my little friend. She was in quarantine and was very excited to see me once she remembered me. She wagged her little nub and jumped up and down, then crawled right into my lap when I sat down. I was rubbing her head, and rubbing her belly, and then, all of a sudden, she bit me right in the face, getting my nose and my right cheek. I pushed her off my lap, which offended her, and she tried to get back in my lap. I told her No Ma'am, and left the kennel.

She didn't break the skin, and it was only red for a few minutes. But man, that hurt my feelings.