Hey, and welcome to Inside the Tortoise Shell!
I’m Rachel, one of the assistant managers at Pet World. This blog is focused on our staff- their animals, their careers at Pet World and their lives outside of Pet World! Former staff members can look back, present staff members can see what their fellow coworkers are up to, customers can peek into the lives of their favorite staff and prospective employees can get an idea of the kind of folks who work at our store. Here at Inside the Tortoise Shell you’ll find opinion pieces, catalogues of the different pets we own, favorite Pet World moments and updates on staff birthdays and graduations. We’re here to have fun and to share some of the behind-the-scenes action here at Pet World.
This week, I did a poll on which Pet World owned animals our staff members would rather have as a pet:
Click to make it larger
Some staff choices were well thought out:
Faith: "Goliath. He's easier to feed, less mess, no noise, not needy. Perfect pet."
Mariah the scientist: "Tortoises. If I'm going to study an animal, I have to be able to catch it."
And some were...well...not.
Ellen: "Tortoises! I would put hats on them."
Fitz: "Tortoises because I could put rhinestones on them and spell out my name."
Conclusion: We love the tortoises about as much as you guys do.
Our African Spur Thigh Tortoises live at Pet World in the winter and out at our privately owned land preserve we call “The Tortoise Farm” during the summer months. We have five Spur Thighs right now, two males and three females, four of which were rescues. #1 Male (we can be pretty creative with our names) is our biggest boy, with Dos Equis as a close second. Our oldest female, and most well known tortoise, is Mosaic-or Mo for short-named such for the imperfections on her shell. The youngest female and smallest tortoise, Baby, was unintentionally hatched at Pet World in Y2K- the same time store owner Sherry got pregnant with the twins! “Love was in the air,” Sherry says about the timing.
You'll also notice Fletcher has the fewest votes. This is because Fletcher, as an 18-year-old Amazon parrot, like many older birds, only genuinely likes and can be handled by a few people. She may be the charming voice greeting you at the door at Pet World, but that charm comes with quite the attitude. While Fletcher does have male suitors, she tends to prefer female friends over the boys. Out of 24 employee responses, two employees picked Fletcher as their pet of choice- both women.
Fletcher’s popularity with the staff shone through in places during the poll:
Ian: "I'd pick Fletcher! Wait…Did you say dinner or pet?"
That's all from the Tortoise Shell this week, but stay tuned for next time when I try to get managers to share their embarrassing Pet World moments.
Birthdays this week:
Ciera, Fall 2013 hiree, is turning 21!
Ande, Small Animals and Birds Manager and Kids Programs Director, is turning 21!
