I wanted to share my sadness with you all. Yesterday a man made an appointment for his cat to be groomed. He is an adorable gray longhair cat. I groomed him and when I called to tell the owner that he was done, the phone number I called was out of service. This was the first time they came to the salon, so I thought it was odd that he would give me a number than doesn’t work. Well, he never came and got the cat, so now he is in the shelter that Petco has 
This has never happened before and I don’t know how I could have prevented it.
This has happened several time where I work. Sign of the times. I think people feel a salon is a “safer” place to dump their pets. Usually someone here feels sorry for the dog and takes it themselves when the legally required hold period is up or has a friend/relative/neighbor who will take it, because we know our shelters are a death sentence for most dogs and cats. So I guess it sort of works out the way the owner wanted.
All of my rescue cats (and I usually have anywhere from 10-15 cats at any given time) are kittens that were dumped in front of the store. As soon as I get one batch fixed/vaccinated/rehomed it seems like I walk in and find out the opener found yet another box by the door…at least the people who make an appt and then vanish shared the pet’s name/age/vaccination history which makes it a little easier to regroup and rehome.
[QUOTE=gaitedincali;7451438]
This has happened several time where I work. Sign of the times. I think people feel a salon is a “safer” place to dump their pets. Usually someone here feels sorry for the dog and takes it themselves when the legally required hold period is up or has a friend/relative/neighbor who will take it, because we know our shelters are a death sentence for most dogs and cats. So I guess it sort of works out the way the owner wanted.
All of my rescue cats (and I usually have anywhere from 10-15 cats at any given time) are kittens that were dumped in front of the store. As soon as I get one batch fixed/vaccinated/rehomed it seems like I walk in and find out the opener found yet another box by the door…at least the people who make an appt and then vanish shared the pet’s name/age/vaccination history which makes it a little easier to regroup and rehome.[/QUOTE]
Wow… I had no idea this was a common occurrence. Unfortunately I can’t take in another cat. I guess we should start asking for ID or maybe have the customer pay up front for services at least… this is sad.
Or at least test dial the phone number while they are at the desk.
Happened constantly at the pet store too. pets left by the door, tied to the door and more. Every 2-3 days all spring we had kittens left.
The ones that stuck with me:
several kittens less than a day old, no mommy- still wet. We bottle fed
adult mastiff- nice but 150lbs- no where to put him- went to shelter
mom pulls up to pet store door- kid (7-9) runs in, throws a box on counter and runs out- mom drives away tires squealing…in box is a parakeet. poor kid
BEAUTIFUL snowshow siamese in a box. Had a tumor. Writing on the box says “my name is____ i am sick.” our vet’s tech adopted him
My feeling is that asking for the fee up front is a good idea as is testing the phone number or ask for 1/2 the fee up front with the rest due when the groomed animal has been picked up.
I am so sorry to hear all these stories.
So sad! But thank you guys for helping.
A battle scar from my childhood:
Single mom trying to her life with two kids together, as well as her “look good” for her elegant mom. For the first time in the history of our family, a cat gets knocked up before she is spayed and we have a batch of kittens. We have to drive down to grandparents for Christmas and bring the animals. Mom decides the kittens must be gone by then, No Matter What. Our local shelter (maybe kill 'em) was an option for her. I was 10 and had no resources. But we were walking by a pet shop that had some kittens in their window and I went in to ask if they’d take ours. They would and did.
It sucked huge dick to be a little kid and feel like I was the only one standing between these kittens and perhaps their death. I’ll always be grateful to that little mom-n-pop pet store for saving me from one of the expressions of the chaos and dysfunction that was my family growing up.
This happened to a friend of mine, but with a dog. She worked at a grooming salon, and a man, also a first-time customer, brought in a dirty, matted dog for bathing and grooming. When she called the number when the dog was groomed and ready to be picked up, there was no such phone number; it was made-up. The only other info. the man had written down was “Tobias” as a last name. Ten years later, my friend still has the dog, who she named Tobi, and Tobi is a much-loved member of the family. 
Is it horrendous to ask for their Driver’s License as ID for a new customer? I’m not sure how that would go over with your customers.
Another thing you might face, is that here at least, it is not illegal to abandon cats. The police will do nothing even if you have the license number. It IS illegal to dump dogs here, but even so they are rarely punished.- So you might not be able to do anything even if you can id the customer.
Best advice I have for you is post a sign that says abandoned animals will be taken to local animal control…and hope you never have to.
We did take in local dogs/cats- but we only had so much space and only took healthy ones. We had big signs saying abandoned kittens will be taken to animal control…but everyone knew we never did.
It is a special kind of sick feeling to pull up to work and find 37 cats and kittens outside in rubbermaid tubs…ALL sick with upper respiratory, and 9 kittens dead of suffocation because idiot owner didn’t poke air holes.
Course there were the people who would call and say “If you don’t BUY my kittens I;m going to kill them.” My reply was always “Fine, good luck with that.” I don;t negotiate with terrorists.
That’s so sad 
And exactly how my mom ended up with her dog!
[QUOTE=LauraKY;7451883]
Is it horrendous to ask for their Driver’s License as ID for a new customer? I’m not sure how that would go over with your customers.[/QUOTE]
I would think it’s okay, esp. if you tell new clients you’ve had to start doing this because of the number of dumped animals.
If I was a new client and the shop owner told me this, without making me feel like she suspected me, I’d happily comply. And if any new client stormed out in a huff you can be pretty sure they were planning on dumping. Of course you’d then have to deal with the worry of what they actually did with the poor cat or dog.
Maybe with new clients, if you don’t have security cameras at your place, you could have a staff member unobtrusively step outside & take a license plate number.
Or wait, do you take walk-ins? You said this guy made an appointment. Don’t you take a name & phone number with the appt.? That way you could check the number before he even came in.
[QUOTE=Anne FS;7453638]
Or wait, do you take walk-ins? You said this guy made an appointment. Don’t you take a name & phone number with the appt.? That way you could check the number before he even came in.[/QUOTE]
Do you know how many appointments most shops get in a week? Do you really want to go through calling each customer back to confirm a number? And even if you could confirm it, doesn’t mean that the customer will come back for the animal. I’ve been in business for 5 years and have yet to have an animal abandoned. It happens I’m sure, but I don’t think it’s even a once in 6 months incident. You’re adding a lot of extra work to your schedule, and it’s not at all going to guarantee that the animal gets picked up.
Where I lived in Colorado had a humane society with sheltered cages on the front porch, and it was available 24/7 for when the shelter was closed, so people could put animals in there, and they would be safe and sheltered until the employees arrived. They still had boxes of puppies tossed over the fence around the rest of the parking lot, and animals tied to the fence and abandoned. I don’t understand people at all.
[QUOTE=Anne FS;7453638]
Or wait, do you take walk-ins? You said this guy made an appointment. Don’t you take a name & phone number with the appt.? That way you could check the number before he even came in.[/QUOTE]
This is Petco. We do take walk ins. He gave me a name and phone number, but I never thought to check someones phone number, this has never happened before. But I guess now with new clients I should check, but how awkward is that… here let me call your number to see if its legitimate… and I know Petco won’t let me ID, that could drive away customers.
It wasn’t the right avenue but at least he brought his cat in rather than open the front door and say good luck. I hope he finds a really great home.
At a clinic where I worked we had someone drop of a dog named “fugly” for a two week stay. Six weeks later, I finally got ahold of them after countless phone calls and they casually told me they “didn’t want him back.” I rehomed him and he went on to have a great life but it broke my heart that someone could leave their dog like that.
There is no stopping the determined dumping and all you can do is add a line to the fine print on the admission form that spells out that abandoned animals will be sent to the shelter after x days or x attempts to contact, sign here, and hope for the best. Sorry, but the test-every-phone number or get a driver’s license number for every single new client is crap in real life when you are trying to run a business or get through your day as an employee. Maybe having new clients leave a deposit or something would help, but some people would just pay it and feel even more “justified” about their dumping choice because they paid something, in their mind.
OP, sorry for the abandoned kitty at your place, but I’m glad he is lucky enough to get into a shelter organization that might find him a good home. Very sad and stressful situation for everyone.
[QUOTE=shayaalliard;7453323]
Another thing you might face, is that here at least, it is not illegal to abandon cats. [/QUOTE]
But you’d have a case for theft of services. OP was hired to groom the cat and did so. Go after him for the money he owes for that if the cat abandonment is not illegal.
[QUOTE=ElisLove;7453971]
Do you know how many appointments most shops get in a week? Do you really want to go through calling each customer back to confirm a number? [/QUOTE]
No, not at all. Only for brand new clients at their first-time visit. That cuts the number down enormously.
