I’m the keeper whose job it is to buy all of our supplies. One of the great things about that is hearing the comments I get from people around town as I’m buying those supplies. See my previous post about Stocking the Animal Department Kitchen.

We use about 10 -12 gallons of bleach a week cleaning animal cages, exhibits, and pools, and I ususally end up buying large quantities of bleach (100 bottles) at a time to be a little more efficient.

Normally, I’ll call a store ahead of time and pick up cases, but I decided the other day to go out and get a small carload, just to get us through the holidays. Well, when you are pushing a cart full of bleach down the store aisle, you would not believe how many people give you raised eyebrows, passing comments, or just stop you to ask questions.

“Oh my gosh!”

“Are you doing a lot of cleaning?” (Yes!)

“Is bleach on sale or something?” (Yes!)

“Do you work for a laundromat?” ( It feels like it when it’s time to wash all of pig’s blankets!)

The absolute winner, though, was the mom of three kids with a cart of laundry detergent, a mop, diapers, and baby wipes. She said nothing, but her look as she eyed my cart was pure relief — someone else had more cleaning to do than her!