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rom Today�s Boston Metro:
Dead animals, boiled toad found at Petco
San Francisco
The San Francisco Attorney General yesterday accused Petco Animal Supplies Inc. of numerous health and safety violations at its two San Francisco stores, seeking to block the chain from doing business in the city. Prosecutors said inspectors found sick and dying animals in a freezer in one of the stores and dead animals mixed in with live ones in some cages. Officials also said many animals did not receive enough food or water and were kept in dangerous conditions, which in one case caused a toad to be boiled to death because its cage was too hot.
Finding that in the paper on my way to work this morning made me feel ill. Ladies and gentlemen, don�t shop at Petco. Please.
On the other hand, I suppose it makes me glad we brought Clyde home. If he was going to die anyway, regardless of where he was, better that it be with us, where he was loved and pampered and attended to in those two weeks than in a store where the animals are treated like that. I can�t imagine finding him in the condition he was in and, instead of calling the vet and doing everything to save him, putting him in the freezer to die. Horrible. Heartless. Evil.
Not that I think all Petcos are like that. Necessarily. I don�t know that anything that horrible would have happened to Clyde�s sweet little self. But the fact that that chance is out there makes me sick.
The Boyfriend called them on Tuesday. They gave us the option of getting our $24.99 back or getting another guinea pig. I told him to take the money if he wanted it. I don�t want anything from them. Certainly not another pet.
I�ve managed to get through my day this far without crying. I�m considering that an accomplishment.
I cleaned the rest of his stuff out of my bedroom last night. The Boyfriend had already taken the big things out, but I cleaned up the stray pieces of food, threw away the receipts from his food, the packaging from his toys. I kept the guinea pig bounce back toy on my dresser. It almost made me smile. Almost. The Boyfriend tried before he left, too. I said a very halfhearted goodbye to him. I felt little in his arms as he hugged me. Shortly after he drove out the driveway, I said goodnight to my mom and crawled into �his� bed in the guestroom. It felt safer there, somehow. I put the timer on the TV, fully expecting to be asleep before Charlie told Joey that she threw off his game and settled back against the pillows.
About 20 minutes later, the phone rang. I could hear my mom talking and laughing with whoever was on the other end. As she came up the stairs, I decided she was talking to the Boyfriend, saying, �Why don�t we tell her together, then.� She came in and handed me the phone, sitting on the edge of the bed. �Hi,� she said. �We wanted to cheer you up and thought you could use some good news, so��
The Boyfriend chimed in, �Our trip to Pickity Place on Sunday with the Mitchells? It�s not just with the Mitchells. There are 20 of us going��
�To celebrate your bachelorette tea!� My mom interrupted, smiling hugely.
They�ve apparently been planning this with Carla for a while now, pulling together some of my favorite people. The Boyfriend is picking up a van on Sunday morning to drive us all up there. We have the whole back room of the restaurant.
Once again, I am reminded that despite the bad things that have happened in my life, I am so very, very lucky.
It will be a busy weekend. Tomorrow, I meet Wendy for the first time. Tomorrow night, we�re having a Longaberger party. Saturday, the Boyfriend and I are off to Provincetown for the day to meet up with his friend Jack and Jack�s girlfriend Caitlin. Sunday, we head to New Hampshire.
All good things, though.
Focusing on the good things.
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