Pets and Repair People

by Courtney Mroch | More from this Blogger

26 Oct 2007 10:22 AM

Photo by Thiago Felipe Festa

This week I finally got around to calling GE to schedule a repair on our dishwasher, which was part of their massive dishwasher recall. The day before the technician was scheduled to come out, a computer called to verify that I wanted to keep the appointment.

After I confirmed I did, the computer voice informed me that if I was a household with a dog or cat I either needed to stay on the line or press another button (I forget which it was now) to hear some important information about how my pets could affect, and possibly interrupt, my service call.

This sort of freaked me out because I wondered what the heck they were going to either take out or put in that might be hazardous to Murph, Kitty, or Tabby. Yikes!

Alas, no. Instead I was warned that all pets must be "put up" while the tech was in the house.

Um, okay. First of all, what are my pets? Dishes? Toys? I don't "put up" my pets like they're some kind of object. Second, doesn't everyone monitor their pets when a repair person comes in their house?

I never put Murph "up" when people come to fix things. Murph barks when they first come to the door, but he barks and runs away from them. I always explain this as I open the door to greet the repair people, and sure enough they always laugh when they see the dog who was making such a ferocious racket race off into the other room.

Such was the case yesterday. The repair man who came was extremely friendly. While he fixed the dishwasher, we had a nice conversation about the recall, the repair he was doing, and the differences between liquid versus powder cleanser and if one's better than the other.

I also couldn't resist asking him about the warning I'd gotten when I verified the appointment the day before.

"Has there been a lot of problems with pets biting you guys or something?"

"Actually..."

He went on to explain that, yes, some people aren't very good at all about monitoring their pets. In Tennessee he said he runs into a lot of dogs that are barely legal, like pit bulls, and some techs refuse to go inside until they're sure the dogs are locked away somewhere.

I asked if he'd ever had problems and he told me about a time he got nipped by a little shih tzu. He was outside with the owners, didn't know a dog was even in the house, when suddenly the dog charged at him, nipped at his leg, then immediately high-tailed it back inside. No skin was punctured or anything, it was more of a fly by biting, and he was fine. It all happened so fast the owners weren't sure the dog had even bit him, but they were good about it all.

I joked him that being licked to death by Murph or being pestered for pets by the cats was the only thing he had to worry about in my house.

He said, "Sometimes that's just as bad."

Ah yes, doggie breath is something only a pet parent can love, and affectionate cats have a way of interrupting work flow. On purpose. As they have a habit of doing frequently when I'm writing.

Maybe I should reconsider that "putting up" thing...

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Learn more about Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a wife, a proud pet parent, and a writer. She's been with her husband, high school sweetheart Wayne Pryor, over 20 years, married 11 of those. She's "mom" to Mr. Meow, a.k.

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