Nicole, that stinks!  One thing I have noticed is that there are some
folks here who have English as their first language but are horrid
readers, and that the ones who are poor or careless readers tend to not
even realize it.  Ironically, the better readers are more inclined to be
the ones who check their reading and try to think of alternative ways to
interpret posts.  Hopefully, it was someone who just has poor reading
habits/ability rather than someone being nasty.
 
I found your post to be very clear as one in which you hoped to prevent
a situation from getting out of control so that no animals would suffer,
and when I send you academic references on hoarding you proved yourself
to be polite and considerate enough to say thank you.  I know that to
folks who do thank people this doesn't sound like much, but believe me
when I say that some others haven't yet learned to take one or two
minutes just to hit "reply" and write in "Thank you".
 
Hopefully, the person who hurt you will reflect on what she or he did and
learn to not jump so rapidly to wrong conclusions and not to draw blood
without cause.
 
>I do not intend to flame you, nor do I intend to harass or degrade you.
>I think you have already done that to yourself.  To save face, please
>email me privately or send an anonymous post to the FML explaining
>yourself.
 
In handling it this way you again show yourself to be true "class act"!
That is a very considerate and gentle way for you to suggest dealing with
the situation.
 
BTW, you may pass on all of this post to your DM if you so desire.
 
>Thank you's go out to all of you honest and honorable folk.  I believe
>(even though I work for Petco) that I have a friend in the FML, but if
>everything I say is going to cause me to get a visit from the DM, forget
>it.  It is not worth risking my job and income to defend something I
>can't even begin to explain...
 
It's a Catch 22, isn't it?  We ALL want folks who are good with animals
to be in pet stores, yet when one who truly cares shows up and tries for
progress then one (or two, three?) people do what they can to hurt that
person.  It makes it double Catch 22, too, because if you lose your job
then any personal animals or foster animals you are supporting are harder
to buy needs for.
 
It may pay to say nothing about pet stores for a while and when you do
post about them to not name to the store -- whichever it is that you work
with at that point.  That way you still get to enjoy the considerate
folks here -- almost everyone -- while getting out of the firing range of
the few who don't read well at all, or who don't care who they hurt or
how badly as long as they get to fight or hurt someone.
[Posted in FML issue 3874]