“Take Your Dog to Work Day” (from a Dog’s Point of View)

I don’t know what marketing is — after all, I’m a dog. But I do know that Brighton Agency is a place my mom goes every day. It’s a place she calls “work.” Four times a year, she packs up my things, lectures me about being good and brings me with her — and from a dog’s point of view, Brighton’s “Take Your Dog to Work Day” is a very special day. These people really like dogs!

I don’t know why my mom is always so excited about weekends; this Brightonia place is cool! There are lots of nice people, tons of snacks and dogs of every size. We accompany our humans to things called “meetings,” where people talk a lot, laugh once in a while and write on a big white board on the wall. It’s pretty inspiring to watch these humans do what they do — I think they call it “brainstorming.” Once in a while we get caught up in the moment and one of us dogs will shout out an idea, but the humans in the room seem to mistake this as barking, as opposed to us throwing out brilliant marketing concepts. (Their loss.) Meetings are tiring, so in between them I like to nap at my mom’s desk.

At lunch, she takes me for walks around a place called Clayton. I don’t know what that means, but it sure has a lot of interesting smells. We pass a lot of people walking around quickly while wearing fancy clothes, and some of them seem surprised to see a bowtie-wearing-Chihuahua mix in their midst. I like the Brighton patio best, where I can frolic, sniff the other dogs and enjoy something called “happy hour,” which seems to be very popular among these Brightonian people.

I like to think that they let us dogs come to work because they realize how smart we are, or because our humans miss us dogs as much as we miss them while they’re away. That may be part of it, but apparently, it’s also for something called a charity — you see, Brighton Agency often looks for ways to support its community. In exchange for bringing us dogs to work, our humans pay a small donation, which Brighton matches to help local dogs and cats in need. And helping homeless pets feels almost as good as a belly rub.

A Brightonian must be a breed of human, like Chihuahua is a breed of dog. If so, I think it’s my favorite breed. These people work hard and they are very collaborative; it’s clear they’re a good pack. And as I mentioned, they really like dogs.

Now, if only I can talk them into installing a fire hydrant in the office.

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