Orange You Glad She’s Not YOUR Problem, Folks?
I used to work at a doggie daycare on the Upper West Side in New York, and we had some very… “colorful” clientele.
One of my favorite stories happened with a fairly new client and her cute little poodle mix.
New Client: “I would like to bring Roscoe in for boarding this week. It’ll be his first time away from home.”
Me: “That’s great! I’d be happy to give you a tour of the boarding area and the schedule so you can see what he’ll be doing and where he’ll be sleeping.”
New Client: “That would be great.”
We head into the boarding area, and as I’m showing her around, she seems to get more and more uncomfortable with the different areas. She occasionally stops and emits a “hmmm” as if she’s studying the architecture of the facility. I will pause to say that this is probably one of the nicest doggie daycares I’ve ever worked in.
We finally get to the kennels where the dogs sleep at night, and this client seems to lose it.
New Client: “Oh! Oh, this will not do! How can you put dogs in here?!”
Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m not sure I understand. Our kennels are temperature controlled, they have access to fresh running water, they’re rated for safety, they have raised beds, and there is enough space for them to move around comfortably.”
New Client: “This is a disgrace! I can’t believe you allow dogs in here!”
Me: “Ma’am, what part of this room is upsetting you exactly?”
New Client: “They’re…” *whispered* “…orange!”
Me: “Yes, ma’am, they are orange…”
New Client: “I can’t believe you would put a dog in an orange room! It’s disgusting! It’s cruel! You must repaint this room for my dog to stay here! He can’t live like this!”
This rant about “orange” goes on for over five minutes.
Me: “Ma’am… you do know that dogs cannot actually see the color orange, right?”
The new client looked more confused than I’ve ever seen anyone look. Either she wasn’t aware that the spectrum of color a dog can access did not, in fact, include orange, or she just had a problem with the color herself. Either way, after a conversation about how dogs see color, she calmed down and boarded her dog.