Its fair to say Ive recently started working at a pet shop. My probation period finished in June, and after that, I became a permanent member of staff. Let me explain what that involves.
Every month, the permanent staff at the pet shop are allowed to take home items that have been written off from stock. For example, food in damaged packaging or past the sell-by date, or slightly faulty pet accessories.
What usually happens is we have a chat among ourselves and decide who will take what. I dont actually have any pets myself, but I always manage to grab something for me.
The first time, I ended up with a bag of cat food. My wifes parents have a cat, so I took the food round for them.
Thats when I realised Id probably always end up taking things for cats.
The next time, I picked up a cat scratching post. It was a little torn, but my mother-in-law managed to sew it up without any trouble.
However, when I brought it over, they werent very pleased. Theyd already run out of food, so instead of a thank you, all I got was:
You should have picked up the food. Why didnt you just bring that yourself?
I admit, it was a bit disappointing, especially since Id already explained to them how I get hold of these pet items. This time, I reminded them again, and they pretended to listen and understand.
On the way home, I told my wife that Id buy good quality food for her parents cat every month, and if anys free from work, Ill bring it along as a bonus. And thats what we agreed.
The only odd thing was that a month later, they were out of ten kilograms of food. I asked my mother-in-law about it and she confessed shed already promised her neighbour shed bring some food for their cat too.
She knew Id bring more soon, so she gave her neighbour some from her own supply. But wed just spent a fortune on fancy cat food for them. I explained again I was only getting food for their cat, not their neighbours.
And the reply I got was another outburst:
You work at a pet shop!
They honestly believed I was deliberately not making any extra effort to get food for their cat.
At that moment I realised I had to put a stop to this nonsense. I simply told my wifes parents, as a matter of principle, I wasnt bringing them anything else. It wasnt a good experience, but I made it clear they shouldnt expect anything more from me.
