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Sunday, November 29
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I know I know. It's been a month.
With the launch of The Water Dish, I am so busy uploading product information on all the MANY pet products that I can't even start to believe just how saturated the pet product market is. Well, not nearly as saturated as the online blogshops that are springing up everywhere like wild mushrooms, that is.
Nowadays pets and their owners are spoilt for choice, with everything ranging from Mink Oil Sprays to different kinds of cat/dog food, different brands...yet seeming oddly similar yet? That is why no matter how saturated the pet market is, there is still a way to get those consumers to believe that only WE, can provide the information they need to choose the best product for their pet. (And then of course, buy from us lah.)
And of course, neglecting my blog to blog on The Water Dish Blog is another crime I am guilty of. Everytime I start blogging there, I just get so filled with guilt because I have absolutely no time for this poor blog that has been with me for the past 6 years.
But anyhow here I am. If there is one thing I have learnt from setting up my own online pet store - it is compassion.
Not entrepreneurship (how can you learn something like that?), nor accounting - but by merely meeting each and every one of my customers (excluding Branden's friends and relatives whom he delivers to), I have learnt that earning money from these people is not everything.
Firstly, I am speaking of people who are elderly, ranging from their fifties to their seventies.
There is Nancy, a 70-ish but looking more like 50plus lady, who lives in one of those old 2-room flats in Beach Road. I have delivered to her about 4 times, and she orders from us every week. Each week, her orders are at least 3 cartons of cat canned food of assorted flavours and sometimes she orders cat litter.
She feeds stray cats living in her area, and has about 10 or 15 stray cats living in her house. She cannot adopt the other 40 plus cats that she feeds in the neighbourhood though, but everyday, she feeds them at their usual spot.
She is a pint-sized lady and everytime I deliver to her, I always have little chats with her, and she revealed that she recently had to make trips to the doctor because of her high blood pressure and her neck problems. She is also not working and is unmarried.
Although Nancy orders in volume, our profits are negligible, because we charge her at a minimal rate, considering the fact that she is not earning money yet has so much kindness in her heart to provide for all these animals and to take care of them when they are ill. However, Nancy has recommended alot of her friends to us and one of them is her neighbour.
Her neighbour, Shu Qing, remains a mystery. She has only ordered twice from us, once every month, and I only delivered to her once. When I went to her house with Desmond, I smelt a funny skanky smell emitting from her flat. I didn't say anything as I thought it was from the rubbish chute downstairs as she lives only on the second floor.
However, when Shu Qing's son/husband (I do not know), opened the door, it was affirmative that the stench was from their house. A peep into the one/two-room flat shocked me - as the ENTIRE flat was filled with rubbish. Cardboard, plastic bags, newspapers, and many many other things - such that there was absolutely no space to walk. The son/husband of Shu Qing himself had to squeeze through a pile of rubbish to get to the door.
A large dog was standing on some rubbish in the house, barking at us. But they had ordered CAT food.
I didn't enquire much about the dog, because the man was busy haggling with me over the price in the invoice. It was $132.10, but he insisted that we only charged him $130 the previous time. In the end, he gave me $132.10 but immediately called Nancy to complain and I had to return Nancy the $2.10 to be returned to him. In the end I found out that Branden charged them $130 the previous time and paid $2.10 out of his own pocket.
I thought that they were karang guni or something, but Nancy said, no, the son/husband is a retired teacher! And that they are extremely miserly. But I guess since they are feeding stray animals (the large dog is a mongrel stray breed), they must have some form of kindness an compassion in them, and looking at their living conditions, $2.10 is just a small amount to perhaps ease their woes (if any).
Next, there is Elaine, who feeds stray cats in my area. She too, is unmarried and lives with her sister and 5 (stray but adopted from my area) cats. She is a soft-spoken and kind-looking woman.
Every morning before she goes to work, she will go to Pasir Ris Farmway where she rents a cattery space for her 70plus stray cats which she has personally adopted, neutered and nursed in sickness. After work, she goes home and feeds the cats in her own home, and once or twice a week, she goes to Sims Avenue to feed more stray cats in that district, which she has been feeding for years.
Then, about midnight, she continues on to feed the stray cats in my area. I delivered to her last month and she said that she had found 2 kittens and were fostering them in her home until they were ready to be neutered - then she would put them in the cattery with the other cats.
Do not think that stray cat feeders are irresponsible, because ALL the stray cat feeders I know, bring their fostered stray cats to the vet to get them neutered, solely out of their own pocket.
And this is what, I guess, is called compassion. To be able to care for animals that need care and concern. Luckily for them, there are more of these kind souls around than animal abusers who once went on a killing spree and are probably still killing and abusing. For the people who think that animals are a waste of time, effort and money, obviously are more self-centred than they think themselves to be.
The human race is not the only race living on this planet. We as a whole, should learn to be more compassionate, kind and forgiving to others, and especially to the animals who have never meant to interfere with our way of life, nor cause us any harm (except when provoked).
the angels they burn inside for us|2:31:00 AM|
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