I was at the till at PicknPay this morning, having done my usual Monday morning check of all the expired produce that they continue to stock on their shelves. (This morning’s list featured “fresh” fish, cauliflower, broccoli and naan bread, with dates ranging from the 21st to the 24th. Lovely.) (We’ve been here before, remember?)
While waiting for the cashier to total up my shopping, I heard a baby crying somewhere behind me. No biggie: I am aware that babies will do this from time to time. The only odd thing about this one was that it sounded rather like a cat. Another cry, and I turned around because it really did sound like a cat, and the simply reason for that was that it was a cat.
There was a man holding a wrapped cat three checkouts away from me.
Obviously, everyone – including the many staff present – now being alerted to the fact that there was a man carrying a pet around in a food retailer, immediately asked him to leave the premises along with his disease-ridden feline. Except of course, they didn’t.
Food safety, standards and hygiene obviously don’t count for much at this “flagship” store of our local number one two supermarket chain.
You know I love a bit of microbiology, so here’s a short list of things that cats can give you (these are obviously just microbiological things, not airy-fairy things like “unconditional love” or stuff like that:
Toxoplasma
Ringworm
Salmonella
Campylobacter
Giardia
Cryptosporidium
Roundworm
Hookworm
A real nice mix of bacterial and parasitic infections, right there.
A wonderful addition to the expired foodstuffs you can also pick up and pay for at my local supermarket.