Anyway, here goes:
I'm sorry, ma'am, but your new dog is an asshole.
Monday morning, a woman came to finalize the adoption on a chihuahua that was on stray hold and she had been visiting every day for almost a week. I had the pleasure of retrieving her little man and taking him to the back for his microchip. He was already neutered, but no one came for him.
First off, when I approached the kennel, he just looked at me. I had walked through two rooms of pit bulls begging for attention, and this little dog just didn't want any. I cautiously entered his kennel, closed the door behind me, and talked to him nicely while staying as far away from him as possible. He suddenly leapt up from his bed and lunged at me while snapping and snarling. He then went back to his bed, cowering, with his head in the corner, not looking at me or responding. I leashed him up without further incidence and walked him calmly back to the back of the building.
Two staff members worked to get his microchip implanted. The woman holding him actually dropped him at one point because he tried to bite her. We discussed his behavior, whether he was safe to adopt out, and decided that, if the woman was informed of his behavior and decided to adopt him anyway, that was fine.
So I walked him up to the lobby, and his reaction to her was exactly opposite the greeting he gave me. He ran to her, wagging, and jumped into her arms and showered her with kisses. I was surprised, but that's typical chihuahua behavior: they bond closely with one person, sometimes quickly, and to hell with everyone else.
I then told her the behaviors I had witnessed in the past 5-10 minutes and advised her to be very careful with him around strangers and children. If he had shown that behavior on intake, he would not have gone up for adoption. She made a face, but acknowledged the information.
Two days later, she posted this review:
I told my supervisor, and I was right to inform her of her new dog's propensity for trying to bite people. I hope he does great in his new home, despite his moron of a mom.
While I'm at it, here are a couple other unfavorable reviews that are just stupid:
Where my paparazzi at?
Still mad.
This dude hurt my feeling.
Guy came in yesterday looking for his lost cat. The cat had been missing for about two weeks, but he was just now making it to the adoption center because he saw a cat that looked like his on the website. I asked him for the ID number of the cat he had seen on the website and he told me there was no number, which is just factually not true. I gave him "a look", because I'm very expressive like that, and he looked again and said, "Oh, there it is." I asked to see a photo of his cat and agreed that the two looked very similar. I then called a kennel attendant to take him back to see if he could ID the cat.
The cat in question had come to the shelter as a stray bite cat 12 days ago. Stray bite animals are first put on bite quarantine for 10 days to ensure that they did not transmit rabies to their bite victim, then held for stray hold. They are not on the website during quarantine, but this guy would have seen his cat if he had come to the shelter in person every 2-3 days, which is what we advise people to do, just in case.
He returned to the front desk after looking at the cat and said, "They said you could tell me where the cat was picked up. Can you do that?" I said, "I sure can!" and told him the street, city, and zip. He said he didn't know where that was, and I shrugged, indicating that I did not know where it was either, but any dumbshit with a smart phone could look it up.
He then focused in on me and looked me square in the eyes for the remainder of the "conversation". He told me that the people at our shelter were the least helpful. I said, "I'm sorry?" He then, still staring, said loudly, slowly, and deliberately, "You have a terrible personality." to which I said, "What?" "You should not be allowed to talk to people." again, slowly and deliberately. At this point my face completely flushed, which I think is my body's way of distracting me so I keep my damn mouth shut.
I said, "I'm sorry you think that." He then said a few more things about us not being helpful, then he left. He didn't say if it was his cat, and he didn't let me tell him that the cat would be euthanized at the end of the stray hold because it had bitten someone.
Oh well?
I found out later that he had been awful to the multiple staff members trying to help him, who had gone above and beyond to try and help him identify this cat. Par for the course, I guess.
One guy was nice.
On the flip side, I had a young man come in to reclaim his dog. He had come in a couple days ago to get his dogs, but he didn't have enough money to reclaim both dogs, so he had reclaimed the one with the face injury so he could take care of him. He came back for his girl, though, and he remained nice throughout the whole transaction, even when I hit him with a surprise citation, which is an additional $100. He should have been issued the citation for animal at large when he reclaimed the first dog, but the staff member that was helping him missed it.
He was not happy about it, but he didn't take it out on me and remained pleasant. I really wish we could give a discount to people just for being nice. I did ignore the boarding fee that was lost due to a clerical error by the person who had helped him before, so I saved him $20, which he appreciated.
