I am employed at a 24 hour CVS/Pharmacy. I am the Jane-of-all-trades, so-to-speak, and master of none. While 20 hours of my 40 hour work week I am actually the inventory person, (cycle counting, scanning overstock upstairs to fill shelves downstairs, pre-order, etc. and so on) I also double as a photo technician up front,pharmacy cashier, and shift leader when necessary. Anyways, you get the gist of it-- I am a large piece that keeps this particular store in order. Anywho, getting to the matter at hand.

I'm an all-out animal lover. With the exception of arachnids (like tarantulas) and certain species of lizards, I love all animals. Of course, being on this site, I have the softest place in my heart for guinea pigs and other rodents. I was, however, born and raised around dogs. While I claim to be no expert or veterinary-savvy person, I know quite a few old-wives remedies that have worked in addition to modern medicinal recommendations by my grandfather's dogs' veterinarian. However, I had a lady come in the other day asking SPECIFICALLY FOR an oatmeal shampoo for her dog. I asked her to be a bit more specific, I.E., was she looking EXACTLY for oatmeal soaks or for an actual oatmeal-based shampoo? She gave me a perplexed look and responded with, "Here's what the vet gave me." Lady hands me the slip of paper. All it says on it is Selsun Blue Sensitive Shampoo and oatmeal-based shampoo. The shampoo part was underlined THREE times though. I rubbed my head and contemplation, and then showed the lady that we recently (within the past six months) started getting in Aveeno shampoo with a small bit of oatmeal and wheat base within its contents. The lady adamantly shook her head and replies, rather abrasively: "NO! That is NOT what the veterinarian SAID! She told me SPECIFICALLY that it HAD to be comprised MOSTLY of oatmeal, not just some extract." Soooo... as patiently as I could muster given her uncalled for attitude problem, I walked her over to our skincare/soap aisle and showed her the regular boxed Aveeno, which, any of you with children or who have had poison ivy or chicken pox is very well familiar with. She again stubbornly shook her head and retorted, "NO NO NO! It's a SHAMPOO consistency, NOT a gritty mixture of oatmeal." At this point I was becoming frustrated. In all honesty, when my dog Casey, (may he rest in peace--02/20/1987-01/28/2005) had an episode that required an oatmeal bath, the Aveeno grits inside the box was what his vet recommended and worked just fine. This lady was quite obstinate and insisted that her veterinarian SWORE that CVS, Walgreens, or Rite-Aid would carry what she was looking for. I continued to ask the woman if the vet gave any more specifics, I.E., an actual marketed brand name. She then rehanded me the slip of paper, which simply said, "Oatmeal shampoo twice a day for four days; Selsun Blue every other day for one week." I finally threw my shoulders up in a huge shrug and encouraged the lady to go on the internet and order something through Doctor's Foster and Smith. The lady scoffed, "I DON'T have that kind of time. Chancy <presumably the dog's name> can't wait for this treatment, it needs to be started ASAP because he's been scratching and itching and causing scabbing and bleeding for too long now. I GUESS I WILL JUST HAVE TO GO TO PETCO." The lady was getting ready to storm out, and being an opponent to Petco (unless my grandfather sends me there with his own money and tells me to pick up food for his dogs) I tried getting her to just purchase it directly through her dog's veterinarian. The lady, in an overly huffy tone goes, "WHAT, DO YOU THINK I'M MADE OF MONEY OR SOMETHING? Let's go, Betty! <probably her friend that she was with>" And off she stormed.

GAAAAH!!!! What the :censored: did this lady want me to do, walk on water for her? Seriously, folks, I was nothing but helpful and kind to this lady, but she was hell-bent on finding the PERFECT shampoo for her dog. Which I understand completely, I do, as we should all be doing this for our animals. What I DON'T understand was why she was being so obtuse and vague with me, and moreover, why the veterinarian didn't give her any specific names for the "oatmeal SHAMPOO" as opposed to just "oatmeal BATH". Can somebody here who knows a lot about dogs help me out here? Also, what advice can I give to a customer who comes in and then wants to go to Petco because, *gasp*, CVS'Pharmacy is just that--a PHARMACY! :eek: (I meant no sarcasm towards any of you here in that last statement--this was just directed at my general annoyance over the situation I was placed in last night.) If anyone could help me out, I would be very much so grateful. Thanks, folks.

Hi, this is Tricia, piggy mommy to Skittles, whom we've had since early May, and Rose & Petunia, whom we adopted from a rescue in early June. I just realized it has been a few months since I last posted or visited here, and just wanted to say that everything is going fine with our piggies. They have all been healthy and are growing big. We estimate Rose & Skittles to be about 7 to 8 months old, and we estimate Petunia to be around 9 to 10 months old. They are still growing and gaining steadily, although Skittles & Petunia appear to be mostly full-sized. Skittles currently weighs 1236gm (2.72 lbs), Petunia weighs 1270gm (2.80 lbs) and Rose weighs 972gm (2.14 lbs). Rose is petite compared to the others. Petunia & Rose are spayed females, in case anyone didn't know that and was wondering why we have mixed genders in the same cage. They are still in their same 2 & 5 C & C cage with fleece bedding, which works well for us. They are still eating KM hay & pellets, although I'm wondering if we should reduce the pellets. They currently get about 1/4 cup each per day.
We also have 3 cats as part of our family, ,although we now have a kitten that isn't exactly ours, but was dumped at our house a few weeks ago by an unknown blue van, and we still have her. She is very sweet, but we still haven't named her, as we always thought 3 cats was enough. However, the kids are enjoying her.
Anyway, I wanted to say hello to all my friends here who helped us get off to a good start with our guinea pigs, and to let you all know that we are all still doing well, and I hope you are all doing well as well.

So I was grabbing hay off the bale to replenish my pigs' hayrack and somehow a strand of hay jammed through my skin!? It ran almost the entire width of my palm and was just above the layers that would cause considerable bleeding. Needless to say it was incredibly painful to remove and as I did so I became nauseous and almost fainted (I'm a bit of a wimp that way). Has anyone else ever had this happen to them, or even hear of it happening?