**This will be a long-winded post, sorry in advance for the reading**
Sunday. Sucked. I don't really know how else to say it. Woke up with a headache, and nothing went right from then on.
The worst part of my day, though, had nothing to do with the horrible headache, or how things kept going wrong (like dropping my laptop out of the truck when I opened the door).
I think I may have mentioned in my welcome thread that the male Pastel Colombian Red Tail I have, Essus, is being kept at the store that I purchased him from. My husband wouldn't let me bring him home until I either 1) had a job, or 2) got my first financial aid disbursement check from starting back to classes. Well, job search failed horribly here, so I went back to school. I was hoping to have all my financial aid stuff finished and figured out, and to be able to bring home my male by the end of the month.
Wednesday night, after my class, I went to the store to see how things were going. My male was having a horrible shed, so the owner that was working (there are 3) told me to soak him in a pillowcase. I did what I've always done for soaking a snake with a really bad shed - stick it in a pillowcase (wet), with enough water in it's tray to come up about 1/2 the height of it's body. Left the store, said I'd be back in a few days because of classes and plans for the weekend.
Here's where I'm really beating myself up. I had the though Thursday morning that I should call and remind them to check on my snake, maybe take him out and dry his cage. However, I'm also thinking that the guys who run this store all have well over 30 years of experience (each) with snakes, I shouldn't have to remind them to do something so simple. So I don't call.
Yesterday, my rommmates went to the store to get feeders while I was out doing errands with my husband. They call me, telling me "The store needs you to call about something, they didn't say what, but it doesn't seem too important, just like he has a questions for you." So I'm thinking, no big deal, right?
WRONG. So very, very wrong.
The guy from the store answers when I call, and in the most nonchalant, don't-give-a-damn voice, tells me "Your snake drowned. He's dead."
I had to pull over, I was driving when he just slammed it out there like that.
WTF do you mean my snake drowned? Now the guy at the store is trying to tell me that I put way too much water in the cage, and that all he told me to do was put it in a wet pillowcase and leave it in the sink in the back. All I have is my word against his, at this point, but that was not what he said.
Either way, there was not enough water in the tray to have made him drown. I'm wondering if maybe the tray got too cold, especially with the water in it, or if it was some other cause, and the guy just didn't want to own up to it. I really have no idea. All I know is that the snake that I've paid close to $200 for (between the cost of the snake and the feeders while he's been there) is dead. The agreement was the snake would be left there, and the store would maintain the care of it. I would be responsible for feeding it, which was fine by me, I didn't expect them to give the snake free food, lol. To me, this makes it mostly the store's fault for the death of my reptile. I won't say it is entirely theirs - I should have gone with my gut instinct to call them Thursday morning and dry him out. But what I really want to know is why it took 3 friggen days for them to remember to check on my snake. Yes, it took them until Saturday night to go check on him.
Now I get to go to the store tomorrow to talk to the other owner, that I've always had better relations with, and find out what they plan to do. I want at least part of my money back, and I'm trying to decide if I want to get the gorgeous Suriname female they have there, or get a baby Kahl pastel Colombian and start fresh. It doesn't change the fact that I'm really disappointed in the store, but I can't go back and change the past. I've never had any problems with this store or any of the people who work there, and the first problem I have? Friggen MASSIVE.
Not really sure what I'm doing with this thread, I guess just getting it all off my chest. Thanks for taking the time to read it.
