This year for Christmas I asked Santa to bring me a pure white cat. To make it a little more complicated, I wanted this cat to be a rescue. It had been several years since we'd had a cat in our family and I was finally ready to admit a new one into the fold. Inspired by Patricia Kennedy's It Was a Two-Cat Night and the adorable image of those white fur balls, that's exactly what I wanted.
I don't normally make a big deal of requests for myself for Christmas, I really love to give gifts and well, if I want something I go get it myself, asking someone else to get me anything has just never been my bag. But this time I wanted it to be a gift. I showed my family the photo on Patricia's post; I wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings.
Apparently, finding a white cat at Christmas is no easy feat. Finding a pure white cat at an animal shelter is even more difficult, it seems. At dinner, one night, my family asked me how I would feel about getting a white cat with gray ears. Shocked, I reminded them that if I received a white cat with gray ears, I would in fact not be getting what I asked for. I thought their mouths were going to hit the table - I really am not usually so difficult to please. They tried again, "well, what if we found a pure white cat with a little bit of black on the tip of the tail?" Again, I reminded them that I had requested a pure white cat - white meant white, not gray or black or any other color they might try to get by me and if they were unable to find me what I had requested, just to let me know, I'd be more than happy to find the cat myself. I guess I should mention that at this point I seriously doubted their ability to listen well.
About 3 weeks went by and finally my husband told me that short of spending almost $1,000.00, my dreams of receiving this gift was just not a reality. Undeterred, I took out my laptop, grabbed the phone and started making phone calls. Within about 2 hours I had identified a shelter, located within 20 minutes of us that had two pure white cats, sisters that had to be adopted together, if either were to be adopted at all. If anything, I'm tenacious.
Bear with me here; there is a message in all this. There are plenty of buyers (clients) that are asked what they want and then offered something other than what they communicate; and sometimes these same buyers communicate in more subtle ways, they're not quite as direct as someone like me. But I wonder how many of these buyers are inclined to do exactly as I did and take matters into their own hands, finding other ways to have their wants and needs met when they realize those they entrusted with their dreams tried to give them something other than what they really wanted.
Jackie
Jackie Peraza, Home Stager - Framingham, Massachusetts
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Jackie, love your post and the message. Yes, the clients will take matters into their own hands when they feel their agent is not listening to them or will find someone who will listen and find what they're asking for.
The cats are cute!!!