Quote Originally Posted by Slim View Post
I think that sometimes in our effort to be family friendly and accomodating, we hold back from telling people like it really is. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to type, "Listen to what I'm saying, you little window licker, before you kill your pet!"

The same restraint keeps me from asking how they plan to kill the next one when they show back up on the boards with a new animal.

One of my first Air Force supervisors told me that he could always fix dumb with the proper application of training, but that stupid was terminal and could never be fixed... Took me a long time to figure out that he was right.
Oddly enough, my former Navy manager at my job says the same thing about our customers, though he's referring to people who are idiots with gadgets.

All of the above people have all put "I don't want to feel like a bad pet owner please help me I really love my animal" or "I'm a good owner I swear"... and sometimes I just want to tell them no, they're not and just leave it at that. But of course that's inciting drama and I'd get smacked with a warn for it.

It's truly frustrating when you try the flies-with-honey method over the vinegar, you phrase the advise as nicely as you can, and you're met with "well how much is that going to cost me because I don't feel like spending that much" or "well my uncle's brother's dog's son-in-law said that corn snakes eat crickets so I'll believe them more than someone on the internet" GAH. This is why I refuse to work in a pet store, because while they need people who are more educated on the animals, I don't think the corporation would enjoy me beating customers over the head and calling them nitwits for refusing to get more than a kricket keeper to put a mouse in or insisting that they'll feed their BP a mealworm and everything will be fine.