Celebrate Dogs and Encourage Their Adoption With One Easy Step!

Photo: Alex Barth

As a single gal who shares her pad with a (wilting) bamboo plant, there are events that I pass over, unaware. Take Your Child to Work Day, for instance, doesn’t cross my radar until I see a co-worker’s kids standing in the office and realize they’ve been alive for over a decade since I’ve worked there.

Today is Take Your Dog to Work Day. It’s not an event we celebrate at my job, although I have to admit, the thought of cute canines running around sends my heart aflutter. As an ethical vegan, I wondered if such a day should exist and how appropriate it is for Joe’s pitbull or Nancy’s corgi to endure a day of varying office temperatures, noises, and goings-on. And ok – I’ll admit it – the logistics of conducting business amid yips, yaps and barks didn’t sound easy, either.

But then I read a little more about Take Your Dog to Work Day:

First celebrated in 1999, Pet Sitters International’s Take Your Dog To Work Day® (TYDTWDay®) was created to celebrate the great companions dogs make and to encourage their adoption from humane societies, animal shelters and breed rescue clubs. This annual event asks pet lovers to celebrate the humane-canine bond and promote pet adoption by encouraging their employers to support TYDTWDay. Employers are encouraged to open their workplace to employees’ four-legged friends on this one special day.

I guess the reasoning is, in one eight-hour shift, a single gal like me might fall in love with a canine cubicle-mate and head over to the local shelter to rescue one of my own!

Listen – I’d love to have a dog, Take Your Dog to Work Day or not. I love my friends’ dogs. I love dogs at the park. I love dogs on tv. Unfortunately, my landlord does not love the idea of allowing companion animals in my apartment. Nonetheless, I can’t not be down with an event that advocates for adoption. Millions of dogs are killed every year in shelters across the country, and yet breeding still exists – whether in cruel, puppy mill environments or in less horrific ways. Any time the word is spread about the plight of shelter animals, that’s time going towards saving lives.

In my daydreams I work at home, in my pajamas, writing about things that matter, with a rescue beagle by my side. Maybe someday, that dream will be a reality. In the meantime, let’s spread the word about animal adoption and make some lucky dogs’ dreams of safe, forever homes come true!