The Mason Business Center.

Pulling into the parking lot, I got a good view of our new dog park!

Our new dog park.

On our first day in the new office, the dog park is not quite done yet. But very soon it will be!

I knew I was in the right place when I saw this sign at the door!

The dog elevator.

Because there are so many people working at the MBC (the Mason Business Center), we wanted to be considerate of people with allergies and people who would (I know you’ll find this hard to believe!) rather not be around dogs. So there is a specially designated elevator specifically for people bringing their dogs to work. You can see by how it’s decorated that it’s very dog-friendly! Our dogs also have their own stairwell—for pooches who’d rather have the exercise of walking up stairs instead of the ease and comfort of an elevator ride.

The walls inside of the elevator are also decorated.

This is a huge facility, so it’s helpful to have directions to Pet Care.

This is the entry into the Pet Care section of the facility.

A touch of our old home!

This dog statue used to sit outside of one of our larger meeting rooms in our old home. It’s one of the first things you see when you come into our new office area!

Kersee, our first VP for Canine Communications

Kersee was our official door greeter up until 2002. I had not ever seen this portrait of her, but I recognized her instantly! She was a great dog, and it’s fitting that her portrait be at the gateway to our office.

The plaque beneath Kersee’s portrait.

Claudia, our first VP for Feline Communications is also remembered.

Clawdia's Plaque

When I walked into the Pet Care office area, I was amazed at the order! Boxes were where they were supposed to be, everybody was unpacking (and having a great time), and by 10 AM we were all back to work as if we had lived in this new office for years!

The clutter of unpacking in Consumer Relations.

Getting everything put away

Almost done!

A few boxes left to unpack.

What a beautiful facility, and a great place to work! I am amazed at the attention and care given to make our area look so pet-oriented! There are dog and cat murals painted on all the walls!

All the walls have dogs and cats on them!

The style of this mural is very retro for us

The style of portrait of the dogs and cats which make up our wall murals has a lot of sentimental value for me. When I first joined Iams in the ‘90s this was the style that had been used on many of our marketing materials.

A Terrier tilts her head with interest.

Another touch from our old home—the little statue of the puppies in their bed that sits between these two desks.

A version of our Mission Statement runs through each mural: “P&G Pet Care exists to enhance the health and well being of more dogs and cats.”

Back at our old home, we named our conference rooms after breeds of dog and cat. The Mason Business Center is big enough that room numbers matter. Of course, that doesn’t stop us from giving each of our new meeting rooms over to a specific breed of dog or cat and putting up the art work that “flavored” our meeting spaces in our old home!

The plaque that named the Siberian Husky room came south with us and now marks a new meeting space.

Our new version of the Retriever room.

The ceiling of the meeting room directly outside of Consumer Relations has paw prints on it!

Here’s a quirky whimsical welcome at the entry to a Pet Care area.

One of our new break rooms.

Within a couple of hours, Jen is moved in and focused on work!

At the start of this post I posed a question: Could we really pack up our 2,000 boxes, our artwork, and all the bits and pieces that make an office a home and resume working at a brand new location on the next business day?

Oh yeah! No problem!

Next: An Iams & Eukanuba Celebration!

The “For Sale” sign went up in early September.

So we spent September and part of October going through all the stuff we had accumulated during the time we live in our buildings on Poe Avenue.

And then, suddenly, it was our last week in the building. The week started with a “garage sale” and silent auction. A lot of that stuff that we had collected–stacks of branded tee shirts, pens, notebooks, clocks, watches, along with used office supplies—were all put in one room and we each purchased some memories to take home. And much of the dog and cat oriented art work that we had collected over the years was put up for silent auction. Our garage sale and silent auction raised over $7,000 for the United Way of Greater Dayton.

Shelley finishes packing in between phone calls.

Marti is nearly finished packing.

Boxes waiting to be loaded.

Sue, Consumer Relation’s move captain, has got it all under control.

Even with our downsizing, there seems to be no end to the boxes!

By Friday morning every cubical and office had a sign that said, “Checked and Ready to Move!”

 Friday October 23 was moving day, and we were required to be out the door by noon. Of course, it rained. If I was of a maudlin frame of mind, I might say that the sky cried to see us leaving. But I’m far more cynical—it rained because it made things more inconvenient and wet.

Marti got saturated loading last minute things into her car.

The ramp is down, the boxes are getting loaded.

One last look at our sign.

Over the weekend, the moving company would deliver our boxes to our new home.

Next: Iams & Eukanuba Find a New Home!

You’ve probably heard of the AKC (American Kennel Club) and the CFA (Cat Fanciers Association). Have you heard of Meet the Breeds?

 A few weeks ago (October 17 & 18), some of my co-workers were at the Javits Center in New York City (wish I had been able to go!) where they attended the AKC-CFA Meet The Breeds sponsored by Pet Partners, Inc. This really cool weekend event allowed people to “meet” 160 dog breeds and 41 cat breeds. Each breed had its own designated space that was designed and decorated to reflect the breed’s attributes, characteristics, history, and heritage. People attending the event were able to pet the dogs/cats/puppies/kittens and to question and talk to breed experts. What a great way to learn about different breeds of dogs and cats!

My buddy, Jason Taylor (from our External Relations team), was there to present a contribution to two outstanding organizations, the Bulldog Club of America and the Winn Feline Foundation. 

Munch looks on approvingly as Jason presents a check for $10,000 to Evelyn Heath of the Bulldog Club of America's Charitable Fund. To Munch's left are Adam and Deirdre Nardelli, Munch's owners.

Have you seen the Iams dog and cat ads we’ve been doing lately that call attention to the fact we’ve added prebiotics to our pet foods? The two breeds starring in these ads are the Bulldog and Cornish Rex. In fact,  the canine star of the ads — Munch the Bulldog – was at Meet the Breeds!

Everybody at Iams fell in love with Munch when we first started looking at his photos and video. He has such personality! That Saturday at Meet the Breeds, Jason and Munch presented a donation to the Bulldog Club of America. We know that they will put our contribution to good use to support the breed.

Janet Wolf, the executive director of the Winn Feline Foundation receives a check for $10,000 from Jason. On the left is David White of the CFA holding Artie the Cornish Rex.

The next day, it was Artie’s turn to shine. Artie is a Cornish Rex, and he is a magnificent example of his breed—sleek, healthy, and beautiful. The Cornish Rex is the breed of cat featured in our new marketing campaign for Iams Cat food. That Sunday, Jason and Artie presented a donation to the Winn Feline Foundation, to help honor and celebrate the unique Cornish Rex breed.

What an incredible event!

The grand total at the end of week 6:

309,353 pets adopted!

Here the breakdown:

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Do you have a favorite shelter that you would like to see win some free food?

Feed Pets in Need-vote for your favorite Iams Home 4 the Holidays shelter. Each month, for the next 13 months, the shelter with the most votes gets a month’s supply of free food!

The Life’s Better Sweepstakes-You and your favorite Iams Home 4 the Holidays shelter could win a FREE YEAR of food!!

• Send in the registration card included in the adoption kit you receive when you adopt a pet from an Iams’ Home 4 the Holiday’s shelter
• You can also enter online.
• Every pet owner registration card also enters the shelter for a chance to win a free year’s supply of Iams Pet Food!
• There’s a total of four drawings (2 per dog parents and their shelters, and 2 per cat parents and their shelters)
• Official Rules, for those who like to play by them.

SHELTERS/RESCUES: It’s never too late to join us! We’re going to get 1.5 million pets into furever homes by the New Year!

Hilary Swank and Mike Arms enjoy a photo op at the Helen Woodward Animal Center with K9 buddy Andy

Dave with Katie and Lacey

Over the short time that I’ve known Dave (he’s been part of Eukanuba for over a year), I’ve learned to really appreciate his passion for dogs. And any time an opportunity presents itself, he’s the first to jump up and yell “I feed Eukanuba!” 

1. What pets share your life?
We have a 12 year old Yellow Labrador Retriever, Katie, who picked out from a breeder. I was deploying quite frequently as a US Marine at the time, and Katie kept my wife company and a lot less lonely during my absences.
About a year ago, we recognized that Katie, as most older dogs do, was starting to slow down, and be much less active. We thought it would be a good idea to find a puppy to keep her company. As luck would have it, while doing a store-check one weekend with my kids, we happened upon a rescue-adoption program, and just fell in love with our second dog, Lacey (because she likes to chew shoelaces). She is now 8 months old, and is a mixed breed, probably primarily Chow and Black Lab. Her tongue is spotted and her hair stands on, but she also howls like a Beagle and jumps straight up like an English Springer Spaniel, so there’s no telling what’s really in her family tree!
At any rate, she and Katie get along great. Katie’s activity level has gone way up, and Lacey has a great companion to show her the ropes around the house.

John (of Avenue K9), and Dave participate in "Pins for Pets" at our recent blogger summit.

2. What is your pet’s most unusual habit?
We took Katie, as a puppy, to the beach. We thought that she really liked licking the sand off her paws, but later realized that she was eating the sand. She had pure sand poops for the next two days!

3. What’s your favorite story about participating in a dog event?
I really enjoyed participating in the Morris Animal Foundation “K9K” Event – a walk to help raise funds to cure canine cancer, held in Sep, 2009, in Estes Park, CO. The locale was fantastic – right at the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. Not only did we get to enjoy all the great dogs that participated, but also the Elk that really covered the landscape

4. What is your favorite part of working at Pet Care?
I truly believe in our mission “to enhance the health and well-being of more dogs and cats.” The science and research behind our all-natural food really gives credence to this mission. We’ve feed Eukanuba or Iams products to both our dogs for their entire lives, and both dogs thrive on the true nutrition that these products deliver.

Dave cuts the ribbon on the new agility course at the PAWS shelter in Middletown, Ohio.

I just downloaded this TV commercial into the Iams YouTube account. When I first heard talk about this ad, I was a little uncomfortable–I thought we might offend some of the Bulldog affectionados out there. But how could anyone not fall in love with this very handsome pooch? I smile every time I watch him strut down the street. What a dog!

Caroline, who is on staff for Romeo the Cat

Amy, who blogs at Love Meow

Lana from Petside

Nicole from DogTime 

John from Avenue K9

Dr. Janet, who blogs at About Vet Med

Dr. Eric who blogs at The Dogster and Catster Vet Blog  

And Karen, the The Cat’s Meow on Catster blogger, who brought her flat cat Skeezix who blogs at Skeezix’s Scratching Post.

 I am working on an overview of the event which I will post in a few days. For now, check out these wonderful sites!

On our way, Thursday morning.

I wish I lived in Provincetown, MA. At least for one day–this Saturday.

I adore Lily Tomlin and I’ve heard through the grapevine that Provincetown has a dynamite dog park, the Pilgrim Bark Park. 

Ms. Tomlin will be performing at the MacMillan Pier on Provincetown Harbor this Saturday August 29 in a benefit event for the Bark Park: “The D Word, A Top Dog Event!” There’s a silent and a live auction at 5 pm with show time set for an 8 pm curtain. Tickets are not cheap–hey! fund raisers are NEVER cheap and ALWAYS worth the cost–and range from $75 to $250 (available through www.onlyatthecrown.com . But what a great cause!! There are over 70 businesses and 70 artists participating, so you know there’s gonna be some good stuff at the auction.

If you are anywhere near Provincetown, MA this Saturday, this would be a great way to spend your evening!