Lost dog
During one hot summer in Austin, I was performing first time services for new Bulwark customers and training a new technician. It was getting late in the week and the two of us had performed several first time services, so I told the trainee to get started on the outside and I would go inside, talk to the new customer, and get started performing the inside service. I expected the trainee to come inside after doing the weephole screening and power spraying the perimeter, but after about half an hour, he had not yet come inside. I explained to the new customer that I was going outside to check on my partner and that I would be back inside in just a few moments. The hose was on the reel in the back of the truck, the weepholes were already meshed, but the trainee was nowhere to be found around the outside of the home. I didn’t want to start yelling his name and cause any of the neighbors to question the professionalism of the technicians working for Bulwark, so I decided to finish the inside service, and think about where the trainee could have gone. I completed the interior work and explained to the new customer, what I had done on the inside, what products were used and how they worked. After thanking the customer and in the process of walking out the door, the customer said very calmly and nonchalantly, “make sure the dog doesn’t follow you out the gate, she has a habit of escaping” and the customer followed me out into the yard. As we walked, I recognized the trainee, sweat dripping off of his face and petting a little dog in the yard. The customer then told the trainee, “I’m surprised you two are getting along, she’s quite an escape artist, anytime someone comes into the yard, she gets out”, to which the trainee replied, “oh no ma’am we pay close attention when there a pets in the yard, we would never let anything happen to someone’s pet”. The trainee and I left the home and hopped into the truck and asked him, “where’d you go, I was looking for you?” To which he replied, “That little dog got out when I was reeling up the hose, so I tried to catch her.” “I have been running all over the neighborhood for that last half hour. I couldn’t pick her up and carry her the three blocks back here because I’m allergic. So I caught up to her and fed her my sandwich to get her to come to me. I took off my belt and made a leash and the two of us walked back to the house right before ya’ll came out.” We laughed for a few minutes and I offered to buy him a Gatorade and something to eat. As we pulled into the parking place at the convenience store, there was an unmistakable “LOST DOG” picture and poster in the store’s window from one of the previous escapes by his new friend.
Russel Shoffner
Branch Manager Austin
Recent Comments