Sukie and Debra wrote over the last two FMLs about people's lack of respect for the bond others can have with their pets--I had a rather horrid experience on Monday evening when I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up Amelia's proglycem. Generally, the pharmacist/cashier gets the medication, looks at the price, sees there's no insurance, and then asks me if I know how expensive it is. When I see his/her eyes start to widen, I say "Yep, I know how expensive it is, it's not a surprise." So on Monday, the cashier expressed sympathy for me having to spend so much on my medication, especially when it tastes so terrible. I said it wasn't for me, it was for my pet ferret who didn't care for the taste all that much either. The cashier looked at me and said "Not only do you not kill it, you spend all this money on it!" I was dumbfounded to say the least! I wanted to blow up at her, but I also felt that obligation to be good ferret PR person. So I just said she was a very special ferret to me, and when the woman asked if ferrets were those animals that tunnel under your yard and raise heaps of dirt or if they were those animals that climb trees and steal eggs or if ferrets looked just like rats, I set her straight politely. But I can tell you that I was shaking when I left the store! It's hard enough knowing that my ferret is slowly dying despite my best efforts to keep her going without people making such insensitive remarks. Even if she didn't care for ferrets (or whatever animal she thought a ferret was), A) she could have shown a modicum of compassion for another human being's pain and B) I drop a lot of money there every month and she could have demonstrated better customer service. Not that it's about the money, but from their point of view it probably is. I'm definitely switching pharmacies and writing this one a letter explaining why (this incident was a last straw in a generally unacceptable level of customer service). Maybe I'm being hypersensitive, but that was just a horrible thing for her to say. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have said that if the pet were a dog or a cat, and she definitely wouldn't have said it if Amelia were my child or grandmother. I still feel sick when I think about it. Regina [Posted in FML issue 3665]