The shelter-in-place coworker: our four-legged best friends

Published on

May 18, 2020

We all know that our pets are the real MVPs during the shelter-in-place mandates across our workspaces in New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and Anchorage. We also know that our pets have had to adjust to having their best friends around 24/7. They have risen to the occasion by transforming into the coworker we never knew we needed in our home office.We sent out an informal survey to the agency’s pet owners to “meet” some of our four-legged coworkers and also gain insight on what it’s like to work from home with our best friends. Here’s what we found: We’re heavily a dog-owning agency, but our cat-owning colleagues show up by each having more than one feline in their respective home. Fun fact: Thompson & Co. Public Relations President and CEO Jennifer Thompson has three cats!Our dogs run the gamut of sizes – we’ve got a mini dachshund, a basset hound, an Alaskan husky, Chesapeake Bay retrievers and a German shepherd, to name a few. Our feline friends range from a tuxedo to all black to Somali and blue-point Siamese. Read on for a summary of the survey, and some of our favorite responses.

How did you get your pet?

If there’s one thing that came from this survey, it’s that the majority of us have adopted or rescued our furry friends. They’ve also come from afar, including making the trek from Missouri and Texas to Alaska.

Lukas

How long have you had your pet?

Pet owners at the agency have owned their pets from as recent as March 2020 to nearly eight years.Creative Content Specialist Megan O’Malley just adopted two kittens, Frank and Mo. She calls them her quarantine kittens!

Frank and Mo

What is your pet’s favorite food?

The majority of dog owners reported that peanut butter was the food of choice, followed by carrots and eating grits off of a fork.Our cat owners reported Science Diet cat food and Temptations cat treats as heavy favorites.

Oreo and Tiger

What is your pet’s favorite activity/hobby?

Not surprising, cats loved a combination of mischief (tipping over glasses, attacking feet, etc.) and lounging near a sun-filled window. That sounds about right.And the dogs? Running or laying on top of said owner (oh, and eating). Iris especially enjoys rolling in mud, jumping into the neighbor’s yard, and stealing her brother Barry’s toys. Nice, Iris. They keep their owner Caitlin Weaver of T&C’s digital team very busy.

Barry and Iris

What is your pet’s best office skill?

Who knew our pets could be so multifaceted in their coworking role? Many are owner-proclaimed Zoom meeting professionals, and excelled at paper shredding, delegating, cleaning up crumbs, being a paperweight, and of course, always being there for a midday snuggle.

Lenny

If your pet had a job, what would it be?

This was one of my favorite questions, and boy did our pets deliver:

Mattress tester (don’t we all wish we had this job).
Onsite supervisor at a construction site.
Traffic cop.
Professional snowball catcher.
Professional athlete. Beard is actually a four-time Iditarod finisher!
Therapist.
Rodeo clown.
Food critic.
Deep-sea fisherman.
Assistant Regional Manager.

Beard

What is a fun fact about your pet?

Below are just a few fun facts about our pets – Tweet us @thompsonpr to hear more.

Aspen, a German Shepherd owned by Senior Account Executive Ashleigh Ebert, is originally from Texas and is on her third name because of her travels as a rescue.
Oreo and Tiger, owned by Executive Vice President Gary Scott, are indoor cats, but recently learned that they can open sliding glass doors. Meow-ch.
Miller, owned by Account Manager Bri Kelly, was inadvertently named after a beer. #millertime
Lukas, a Eurohound owned by Director of Digital & Creative Strategy Brad Fleming, broke his fur mom’s leg.