There’s a beggar I see on the corner almost every day on my way home from work. She has a cat that stands by her and poses with her and her sign. Her cat looks much better cared for than she does.

I don’t give her anything because I’m honestly too poor to.

One day, I see an ambulance parked near where she stands. I see her being loaded onto the ambulance. I don’t see the cat anywhere. I don’t know what possesses me to, but I park my car and wait. After the noises die down, I start hearing a “mrrrr” noise.

Her cat slowly creeps its way out of hiding, walks over to her sign, and lies on the ground. I pick the cat up and carry it to my car.

I take the cat to the vet to get it checked out. The cat doesn’t have a chip, but it’s not my cat, so I opt not to chip it. We get the cat some shots and a prescription for some medicine for fleas and ticks.

I care for the cat at my apartment for a while, waiting. Every day, I check to see if the beggar has come back.

A few months later, she’s back, though she looks very sad. I drive home, then drive back out to her, and deposit her cat in her arms.

I learn, for the first time, her name and her cat’s name. I also promise her that, next time something happens to her, I’ll try to care for her cat, and I give her my contact number.

So far, both she and her cat seem to be in good health.

I live in a flatshare with three other people. I’ve been feeling a bit down recently because I’m trying to finish my doctoral thesis and I am mostly working from home with my funding finished. It hasn’t been the easiest time for me, and I am not looking forward to my birthday as my boyfriend is currently out of the country and all my friends are pretty busy with one thing or another.

My birthday comes around, and I get a knock on my door. One of my housemates is there with a cake, singing Happy Birthday. What makes it extra sweet is that he checked the cake for the lowest amount of milk as I am lactose intolerant.

I bump into my second housemate later, and he gives me a round of Happy Birthday. He then hints that he and my other housemates are getting me a birthday present, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I thank him and tell him I will act surprised, thinking it will be something small.

After dinner the next day, I get another knock on my door while working. It’s the two housemates who are home, and they have a box for me. They heard that my mum gave me a jigsaw puzzle, and I mentioned that I am a huge puzzle fan in passing, so they give me a giant puzzle mat. Now I can do the puzzle and roll it up to store it while in process.

It might seem like such a small thing, but it really touched me after all the stress of the past few months. I am currently doing my puzzle with my housemates occasionally stopping by to do some backseat puzzling.

I started a new job as a lorry driver and had perhaps the worst possible thing happen on delivery. I lowered my tail lift to the ground, and the back door man took the delivery off and reloaded my tail lift with waste and returns. Our tail lifts have ramps that lock upright to restrain the load on the tail lift. It is impossible for me to see from the trailer, and the back door guy must ensure that it is safely locked before I move the tail lift. He gave me the all-clear and I lifted away. I pulled a cage off the tail lift into the trailer and I heard the worst possible noises: crashes and the screaming of a child.

I lept out of the trailer and noticed that the contents of the tail lift had fallen off the unlocked ramp and landed on a small girl who was passing by with her school group. She seemed mostly unhurt but obviously upset. She had two teachers looking after her, so I ran to the back door guy to ask what had happened. He hadn’t stowed the tail lift and was having a cigarette when he should have been supervising.

I reported the incident to my office, and then I followed their advice and reported the incident via the store’s incident report line. The back door guy lied and said that nothing had hit the girl, just landed near her and scared her. When I got back to the yard, I went straight to the office and wrote a statement admitting to any errors I think I made, as well as the fact that it was witnessed and I took details.

Fast forward a month. I’m dragged into a meeting and suspended pending investigation and likely sacking. The manager attempts to steamroll me, but I manage to speak up.

Me: “I will not sign anything here or agree to anything without a Union representative present.”

Reluctantly, the manager calls in a rep, who talks me through everything. He has me accept the suspension and explains that it’s a formality and that the main investigation will be where I can make my case. He somehow gets the investigation arranged for the next day. During the investigation, he lets me speak but adds context or helps me to explain things better. At the end of the meeting, he makes his own statement, which calls out the main three reasons that I was suspended.

Rep: “‘Number one: the incident wasn’t reported properly.’ [My Name] followed the direct advice of management and then further wrote a statement without being prompted. ‘Number two: the tail lift ramp was not secured.’ It was impossible for [My Name] to see if the ramp was secure, and he relied on the back door guy to clear it. He can’t be held accountable for the ramp since he wouldn’t have been able to secure it even if he did see it. ‘Number three: [My Name] did not immediately check on the person who had been injured.’ Firstly, had the ramp been stowed, this would not have happened. Second, the girl was being attended to by her teachers, and [My Name] wouldn’t have been able to help much more. He did offer to call an ambulance and offered to share details when asked. All in all, whilst this is a horrible, unfortunate incident, [My Name] was incredibly unlucky to get caught up and did everything right from his end. I don’t see why it took a month for this to be investigated since [My Name] did report it.”

The end result was that I was completely cleared of fault. The back door guy was sacked for not doing his job properly and not reporting the incident. The store manager was sacked because he did not ensure that his staff knew the correct back door procedures, and the third back door guy (who should have assisted with the delivery in the first place) was put on final warning for not doing his assigned duties. (He was actually clocked out on break during the incident.)

Shortly after the lockdown in my area ended, everyone was required to wear masks in public. It was kind of annoying because stores could get fined if a customer didn’t have a mask on. I mean, I understand the reasoning, but it’s not like it’s MY fault that a customer stepped in the door and got missed in the bustle. But whatever.

This guy comes in without a mask, so we ask him — very nicely — to put one on, and he just goes off, screaming about his rights, and blah, blah, blah.

Now, I have allergies and, due to sinus drainage, I get this ridiculous deep-throat cough that literally sounds like I have tuberculosis or something. It strikes without warning, and I cannot control it, usually for a good two or three minutes. It’s bad.

This guy is at the height of his rant when my cough strikes!

My coworkers are actually all used to my cough and typically explain to customers that it’s just from allergies. This time, they all collectively — without discussing it — decide to use this opportunity and take a step back from me.

The guy’s rant fizzles quickly and he slowly backs out of the store, and my coworkers share a laugh. I join them once I’m done coughing!

I work in a life insurance call center where I primarily deal with agents and agent staff.

Caller: “If cryogenic freezing occurred and they were able to successfully reanimate the client long after the insurance payout had already occurred, would they have to pay it back?”

I transferred them to life claims since I only handled policy service.