| cheapbag214s |
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| Joined: 27 Jun 2013 |
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| Location: England |
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Each day Within the Life
It is a sweet spring morning and also you awaken inside a spoon with your family dog. She sleeps on, profoundly content in her doggy dreams. It seems unfair to wake her to get up, but wake her you do. She stretches and yawns and smiles. "What a great girl," you murmur.
You sigh, operate and start your entire day, convinced that the best of it may be behind you. Your job pays the bills, and that is about it. You've been at it for a long time and you are bored. The boss knows less than you need to do and earns twice your salary. Your co-workers sport friendly smiles and stab you within the back for very little gain. You routinely execute orders which make no sense, and 50 % of time your projects is undone by fickle management. At best,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], you're ignored. "If only I could make a living surrounded by dogs,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," you grumble.
5 years afterwards a cold January morning, you're awakened before dawn by the telephone. You can't see outside but a frigid wind rattles the windows. Your two labs surround you,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], occupying the majority of the bed, and you have to shove them aside to get to the telephone. Though barely awake,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], you're aware that phonecalls at this hour are never great news. Last night you stayed at your dog daycare and grooming business long after closing to untangle the mess someone had made from the cash register tape. You're exhausted and frustrated because in the end, the tape still showed $100 more than you based in the drawer. Your employees are honest, so it's probably an overring, but you'll still have to straighten it out.
"Sorry to wake you," croaks Jake, your daycare manager. He sounds as if someone has had a sander to his vocal cords.
"You're sick," you grumble having a guilty insufficient concern.
"Yeah." Jake's reply is but lost inside a fit of coughing.
"Ok,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I'll go in. Feel better." It isn't much, but it is all you are able muster. You make a mental note to call Jake later to determine how he's doing.
The night time table clock says you have Twenty minutes to shower and obtain to operate in time to spread out at 6:30. You grab clean jeans and a sweatshirt and head for the bathroom. Glancing out the window,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], you see that your car is included in ice,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], shining brightly in the glow of the street light. So you rush in your pj's to start the engine and defroster. Afterward, you're chilled to the bone,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], therefore the hot shower's a godsend. No time to linger though; you need to rush back outside to chip the partially melted ice off the car windshield.
You pull into the shop's parking area at 6:40 and, of course, two customers stand in their cars while their dogs slobber in the windows in gleeful anticipation of another play day. You open the store doors, apologizing profusely. The shoppers hand you their leashed dogs and hurry back to their cars. They're late for work too. You place concerning the opening routine, filling mop buckets with water and animal quarters disinfectant. Regardless of how often the dogs go out, indoor mistakes are inevitable.
The shop is too hot because someone jacked up the thermostat. A month ago employees prevailed upon you to have confidence in them to consume heat responsibly, saying it's freezing each morning. So you removed the thermostat's locked cover. As you reprogram, your already dark mood worsens at the thought from the careless waste of money. Thankfully the store has gas heat instead of oil.
Customers arrive,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], mostly in bunches,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], so some wait impatiently while others chat. It's important to connect with them, especially as you're the owner, which means you try to register what people tell you while noticing that the grooming dog and the owner wait at the opposite end from the building. You long for coffee.
Between bunches of arrivals, you look into the fenced in outdoor potty area and find it's a skating rink. Safety is a high priority for the dogs; if a pup pulls a cruciate ligament word can get around. At 8:00am your daycare attendant arrives, explaining that she's late because her car wouldn't start and she's nervous that history will repeat itself when she tries to head home later. You interrupt her lament to inquire about that they leave her coat on and start chopping up the ice in the outdoor potty area. When she sees that you are making coffee she decides to hold back so she will fill her travel mug. You wonder whether it could be unreasonable to bark at her to get moving. Best to hold your tongue. But one customer or any other will request you to take their dog outside immediately because they haven't had some time and pup just eaten her breakfast.
The new arrivals are crated or leashed in position until 9am to be able to prevent gang-ups at the door as more play pals check in. If owners haven't given their pups ample potty time, the latter will pee and poop while confined, thus soiling themselves. That means a complementary bath,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which does not please the groomer. She's an active schedule (thanks be!) and chafes at disruption for any non-paying client.
Sure enough,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a golden retriever's owner asks that her dog be taken outside immediately, so you send her out to keep the ice chopper company. The latter is on her mobile phone looking to get her boyfriend to check her car at lunch time, so little chopping continues to be accomplished; and the golden's too nervous concerning the slippery footing to do her business. Customers wait,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], so you rush inside. "You require more help,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," one advises. "Yeah, you wanna pay it off?" you think. Already rent and payroll suck up 60% of the revenue. The groomer has arrived and also you ask her that will help you with check-ins. She doesn't like it,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], you realize, but she pitches in good-naturedly. You want to kiss her.
Miraculously,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the potty area is almost clear by 9am, which means you and the daycare attendant let the dogs out one group at any given time. You will find three separate play areas in the building for small, medium and enormous dogs, respectively. They're separated by half-height walls, unlike other dog daycares which keep your various play groups in separate rooms. Either set-up works, depending on operating procedure and staffing, however, you prefer the open arrangement. The walls are sufficient so the dogs can't leap over them, while allowing broad visibility. For safety's sake, the groups never mingle and every dog enjoys romping with compatible play pals.
The very first "out" routinely proves noisy and chaotic; morning energy fuels the commotion, which you attempt to short circuit by getting the dogs outside as quickly and efficiently as you possibly can. Through the years you've researched the issue and tried numerous approaches but nothing has brought it under control. At some point you tried releasing the dogs two at a time, but that provoked a torrent of protest from those waiting their turn, while prolonging the process. You have three groups of 8-10 dogs and your goal is to buy through the first "out" as quickly as possible, while staying outside with each group long enough for business to obtain done.
Once all the dogs have relieved themselves outdoors, you set concerning the business of the day: supervising and having fun with the pups. You've emptied bins of toys onto the floor and hang out buckets of clean water in each play area. Reams of paperwork await, but when you're short staffed clerical work can't be important. The dogs romp, play tug of war, and compete for human attention. By this time every day, you remember why you went into this business. True, cleaning up indoor poop isn't any fun, and some dogs have to be watched closely lest they escalate fun and excitment into aggression. Spray bottles of water are scattered around on the top from the walls to discourage nasty confrontations. Both you and your staff are trained to recognize early signs and symptoms of aggression, so there's usually no problem. If there is, it's because of morning energy, and also you understand how to make use of your body to herd the dogs away from each other, then grab collars and set the offenders inside a brief time-out. Whatever, most of the time spent using the dogs proves a highly effective stress reliever.
You're in your feet most of day, circulating with the play areas behind your daycare attendant. Fifteen minutes of each and every hour are spent outside; the rest of the time you're busy answering phones, rinsing and refreshing water buckets, cuddling dogs,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], mopping up after accidents, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The "outs" and the play keep the floors and half-height walls covered with muddly pawprints, and also the air is filled with dust,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], no matter your expensive air filtering system. Respiratory ailments are typical among dog daycare workers and groomers.
Around noon, you feed the dogs whose owners have requested it,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], then take a seat for your own lunch, a microwaved something out of your stash in the freezer. The dogs recognize employees as their alphas so they follow suit, repairing to spread out crates or the couches for any brief rest. It is a sweet moment. The barking subsides and you will hear the music that accompanies play during the day. You talk to the groomer and daycare attendant and wait for the afternoon attendant to arrive. Since Jake has gone out, you'll work twelve hours today, whereas you always are available in about now. After years of long days, you are feeling you've earned your 6-hour day; you resent extended shifts.
As the shop is calm you leave your newly arrived afternoon daycare attendant to watch the dogs as you tackle the most urgent clerical items. You have to look into the bank balance and pay some bills. The schedule needs to be amended to include the updates that customers brought today. Discounted, pre-paid passes have to be updated daily, and email from customers should be checked a couple of times each day. Soon the dogs begin to stir which means you leave the job partly done and start circulating through the play areas again.
A special afternoon passes that just about the morning,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], except that the dogs are less boisterous. Forget the puppies, though; their energy seems boundless. Owners let you know their dogs distribute before leaving the parking area during the night, which lets you know you must have done your job. You've promised each newcomer that they'll get a tired dog in the evening. The afternoon attendant does a thorough cleaning starting about 4pm so that by closing the place is ready for the next morning. You try not to nag about laundry that does not make it in to the dryer before closing, or windows that remain smeared with doggie saliva. "Think long haul," you know yourself. Generally, your staff is good at their job.
By 6:30 pm you're too tired to think but you still need to tally the receipts and justify the bank deposits and register tape. Somehow you get through it, soothed by your dogs' soft snoring; they've settled into their beds next to the office following a busy play day. Tonight everything tallies easily, so you're on the way home by 7pm. As you lock up you think to yourself, "Long day, but it sure beats the other jobs I've had."
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