For as long as I’ve worked for Iams/Eukanuba, we’ve been able to bring our dogs into the office with us when we feel like it. Bailey and I are very lucky because we are usually able to work from home—but this past Friday was TAKE YOUR DOG TO WORK DAY, so we just had to spend the day at Iams/Eukanuba headquarters to enjoy the celebration!

I took so many photos on Friday! It took me all weekend to sift through and narrow them down to a few representational shots. Also over the weekend I happened to read a post from Jaime, over at Thoughts Fur Paws that gave me some inspiration. I hope you like this photo essay of Take Your Dog to Work Day, Iams/Eukanuba-style!

This was the premier of Bailey’s new stroller! OK, go ahead and laugh at me for buying my dog a stroller. In my defense, my old girl has arthritis which causes her discomfort if she has to walk too far; her cataracts are interfering with her ability to see; her hearing is starting to fail; and she’s just not getting out of the way of people’s feet fast enough anymore. So I felt a new stroller was a good investment if I want to continue to share this kind of event with my pooch. And I think she likes it better this way too.

The first thing we did on Friday was to take a tour of the building to check out the four-footed fur buddies celebrating the day! (Normally we practice a little common sense—we don’t all bring our dogs at the same time—but on Friday, there were more dogs than usual!).

Allison and Lil’ Roo (Shih-tzu, “a bouncing 3-year-old baby boy!” Allison’s words, not mine!)

Roo says, “Hello Bailey!”

Annie and Champ (Yellow Labrador Retriever, 2-years old).

“Uh, no, I’m not doing any work today unless there’s a biscuit involved.”

Bunker, a 6.5 year old Golden Retriever.

Chelsea (Miniature Schnauzer, 5 years old) takes a meeting with mom, Chris (facing camera), Connie (left) and Valerie (right).

Meanwhile, back on Chris’ desk, Gladys the floor cat (she lives on the 4th floor of the building) is tremendously annoyed that today is about dogs. She refuses to participate and plans on spending the day in her box lid.

Tony (a Rat Terrier, who was 5 years old this month), is totally psyched that this is TAKE YOUR DOG TO WORK DAY, and cannot be persuaded to take a nap before the pawty (that’s his office bed, underneath the desk).

“That’s OK Tony,” mom Deanna says. “You can nap this afternoon.”

Atlas (2 years old, Doberman), who is a regular at the office, waits patiently for mom Christine to return from the copy machine.

In the next cube over Flash (Goldendoodle, 6.5 years old) is wishing mom would let him out so he could play with Atlas (more about that later).

Flash and Alison.

Julie is babysitting little Diva while Jason (Diva’s dad) attends a meeting.

Jason and Diva (10 weeks old, Afghan puppy). Jason breeds Afghans.

What a cute future champion (and I don’t mean Jason!).

Diva has her own special space in Jason’s office.

(Humans, left to right) Kim, Mario, Malisa and Pam talk about the Hope, the Poodle mix that Kim just adopted from Luv4k9s, and the shelter cats that live with Mario.

This is Jack (Affenpinscher, 9-years old), who shares his life with Malisa.

Bailey and Cricket (also an oldster, she’s a 14.5-years old Yorkiepoo adopted from SICSA) say hello.

Cricket and mom Pam (check out Pam’s interview).

Mere and Beaglegeuse (pronounced Beagle-juice), an 11-year old Beagle.

Mitch and Kuddles (10-year old Maltese)

That’s Carmella peeking round the post!

Carmella (7 month old puppy Mixed Breed) lives with Rebecca.

Bailey and I looked in on one meeting that seemed to be going to the dogs! (Flash, Atlas, and Champ figured since it was TAKE YOUR DOG TO WORK DAY, why not have a ruff-and-tumble meeting?)

Finally, cooler heads had to intervene or no work would have gotten done. Its rest time for playful pooches!

Scott and Bailey (11-year old Chocolate Labrador with a great name!) on their way to the pawty in the courtyard!

Teddi and Rachel from the Humane Society of Greater Dayton brought puppies (!) that were looking for forever homes.

Adoption discussion?

Our friends from SICSA (Travis, Sea, and Michael) had Kroger gift cards available. This is a great program—you get the Kroger gift card from SICSA, load it with money at Kroger, and then each time you use it Kroger gives 4% of your purchase back to SICSA.

Mick, Minnie, and Elizabeth were on hand from the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center–there’s a wonderful video of Mick on YouTube (see below).

Richard, Melody, and Deborah from the Miami Valley Pet Therapy Association also joined our celebration. They do incredible work in our local hospitals, libraries, schools and medical centers, with children, seniors, veterans, and others who need a furry shoulder to lean on.

We also were visited by Jessalyn and Jennifer who represented 4 Paws for Ability. This group is devoted to raising and training service dogs for children and adults who have developmental disabilities. This includes autism-assistance dogs, seizure response dogs, mobility-assistance dogs, hearing-ear dogs, in-home companions, and street companion dogs.

Bailey was having a great time at the pawty!!

At the end of our celebration, we took a group photo.

Bailey was exhausted! Good thing she could snooze the rest of the day away in her new stroller!

What a fabulous TAKE YOUR DOG TO WORK DAY!!

[7/18/09 Note: I have re-formatted this post because the formatting did not survive when it was imported from Blogspot to WordPress. Formating changes only, NO text changes.]