And here I thought it was just me with the bad attitude towards "Joe Public"
My brother's friend kept nagging to see my snakes. He never asked me directly, kept nagging my brother to ask me. Eventually I told my brother that if he wants to view reptiles he should go to a reptile park. My brother sms'ed him accordingly. He was really offended at my "rude" refusal apparently. He does not think it rude to keep nagging to enter someone else's home, invade their privacy and expect them to entertain him for few hours. He is not and never was a friend of mine.
The guys that work at the petshop near me have now started nagging again to see my collection. They periodically ask me how many snakes I have. I usually avoid the question by saying I haven't counted recently but unfortunately I have bought a few reptiles from them over the years so they have a rough idea. I also used to buy my snakefood from them. What irritates me the most is that they then proceed to point me out other customers as this person who has a lot of snakes or tell them about my collection when I am not around. So I get to hear "she's the one with all the snakes" sotto voce when I am in the shop or more directly "oh you're the one with all the snakes" and even worse "how do you manage with so many snakes?"
I hate it. Why is it anyone else's business what or how many I keep? Why do they think they can invade my privacy simply because I am a customer at a shop they work at? Its the persistence of these people that puzzles me more than anything else. They just don't get the message. I am not going there as often now as I am sourcing rats and mice from someone else but he doesn't always give me enough. Sometimes I have to pop in there to augment the order.
On the bright side my biggest critic moved out of the house this weekend so I no longer have to pretend to be sorry for the bunnies and the baby rats. Now I can have snakes in all the bedrooms
"You and I wear the dangerous looseness of doom and find it becoming. Life, for eternal us, is now; and now is much too busy being a little more than everything to seem anything, catastrophic included"- e e cummings