My Big Oops

Yesterday morning I felt awful because I had forgotten to follow through on a pet sit for my dog Maisie and I had to attend a six hour meeting starting in the late afternoon. Maisie, a five year old Morkie, part Yorkie, part Maltese, is so patient when I work, and I’m a bad pet owner, and here it was National Pet Week! Long story short, I scrambled and came up empty...what to do?

I didn't like to leave Maisie home alone for that long, and I couldn’t take her to the interviews I was overseeing, though she might have been a great ice breaker. I decided I would take her the work, where she often sleeps very comfortably in my office, and visit her during the breaks. It wasn’t ideal, but off we went.

We took a walk before the meeting, enjoying being outside on one of those spring afternoons where you can hear the maple leaves growing, smell the earthworms doing their thing in the dirt, and watch all the tulips dancing with the daffodils. Perfect. Maisie did her business and I cleared my head enough to notice something I’d left off the interview agenda.

Of course I gave Maisie a Kong toy to play with and to ease my conscience. But the best thing that happened was that a fellow interviewer’s teen found my office a good place to spend some time, and he was great with Maisie. He took her on the all-important post-dinner walk, and she kept him company while he played computer games.

And after the meeting was over they both joined us, both happy to get on with whatever came next, helping us make the transition from tough choices to home.

While it wasn’t smart to wait so late to plan for my pet’s care, and I’m lucky I can take my pet to the office, my mistake led to some insights, some deeper connections, and a tail wagging ending to a long day.

So hats off to pets and to their mostly responsible caregivers – being present to and understanding of one another's needs is how we make ourselves worthy of the company we keep!