Hi all, I am here again joining in on the weekly writing workshop with Mama Kat.
Please check out her site and vlogging, she's hilarious!
Today I'm going to be telling you all about an experience that I wish I could shake from my memory.
The summer after my freshman year in high school I decided I wanted to get a job. I knew that I wanted to work with animals. On the first day of summer break I set out to apply at all the local businesses. Before setting out, my dad sat me down and gave me a little pep talk. He told me to "own it" and that if I was brave, honest, and kept eye contact I would have a shoe in against all the other teenagers looking for work. Yeah, my dad's pretty awesome!
The first place I walked into was the local vet clinic just down the street from our house. I took a big deep breath before walking in and gulped down all my fears of rejection.
Within 20 minutes I walked out of the clinic with a JOB!
I was the new kennel tech (which is a fancy way of saying shit scooper, dog bather, animal feeder, and kennel scrubber). But hey! It was a job and I was STOKED!
I had the crappiest shift anyone could hope for. Split shift 7am-11am & 2pm-6pm. I'm pretty sure it kept me out of trouble haha.
After a few months of working there I had experienced many animal deaths (I had to help with numerous euthanizations, in which the bodies were kept in bags in the back room til the cremator guy picked them up), and all kinds of horrific scenes with injured animals. I was already contemplating quitting because half the time I broke down in tears on my walk home. I just wanted to save all the animals.
On one bright hot morning in August I walked to work like usual. I opened shop and started walking the dogs, rotating animals to clean kennels and cages, and feeding. I walked into the back room to get the specialty foods (for the fancy pets that had their own special foods). The light was on the back wall of the room which was like a long hallway lined with kennels on each side (think set of creepy horror movie..).
Being 15 and scared of many things..I usually swung the door open as wide as I could to cast as much light into the room while bolting down the hall at the speed of lightning to get to the light switch before the door shut and left me in the darkness of the creepy kennel room.
So there I am, opening the door to the kennel room to get the food.
I swung the door open nice and wide, I leap and start running down the hallway, the door slowly closing behind me..
When all of a sudden I TRIP. I tripped and fell on something in the middle of the floor.
(Have you ever seen that one scene in the movie Sunshine Cleaning where the girl falls on the gross mattress and jumps up just as fast as she fell? Well..that was me in this moment!)
I jump up and clamber my way to the light switch.
I flip the switch and spin around to see what tripped me, and what it was that I fell on top of.
Immediately I gasped and covered my face.
It was a large..VERY LARGE thick black bag in the middle of the floor. The content was a large (150+lb) dog. A dog which I had been caring for, I had aided in his xrays, his medication, his general care while he was on the mend from some sort of sickness.
Well, the dog had died the night before and was too big for the doctor and assistant to put up on the table where the other deceased animals were usually laid (for the cremator guy).
I put all the animals in their clean kennels, fed and watered them, and got the hell out of there. I left a note saying something along the lines of "THANKS A LOT FOR LEAVING ME A FREAKIN' NOTE TO TELL ME TO WATCH OUT FOR THE GIANT DEAD DOG IN THE HALLWAY (which I tripped over)! HERE'S A NOTE FOR YOU: I QUIT!"
I cried and laid in bed the rest of the day. I was sure it was the worst day I'd ever experience (oh, 15 year olds are so dramatic!).
The next day my parents made me go in person to collect my check and apologize for my abrupt notice. Pfff!
THAT is one experience I would love to shake from my memory. :)
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