The Beauty of Retail

The beauty of retail is you just never know what will happen next. And luckily, I work for a family that is very dog friendly. Creative people, dog lovers - ya gotta love it.

We have a store dog who provides therapy for us on a daily basis. We often bring our dogs in for visits. Sidney as made several visits in the name of social training. Which reminds me, it's time for another visit. Every so often a customer will bring their pocket pet in, or a service animal will enter the store on a shopping foray. Nothing like a dog or a baby to bring work to a stand still.

Today, over the paging system I heard "would the owner of a black lab tied to the handicap sign in the parking lot please return to customer service". Well, now, that is a first. They probably didn't know how pet friendly we are. At first I thought I'd imagined that page. I looked at a coworker and asked is she heard what I heard. When the page was repeated a second time I realized I'd heard correctly. As a manager, I knew I'd better investigate. As a dog lover, I knew wild horses couldn't keep me from checking it out.

As I got to customer service I could see a young boy holding on to a large black lab outside the doors. I ask the gals at customer service what's the story on the dog. Well, the lab was left outside while the owners shopped. Perhaps they are new to lab ownership. The lab decided waiting was no fun and proceeded to chew through his leash. Such a labby thing to do. Luckily another shopper snagged the dog preventing him from wandering off, or in to do some shopping of his own.

I took a moment to visit with the boy and his dog. After all, I hadn't had a dog fix in hours - what was I to do! While the lab wasn't particularly tall, he certain made up for height in width! He was a big boy. His name, fittingly, was Angus. Perhaps Angus daydreamed he was chewing his cud, when if fact he chewed his leash. Or perhaps it was an ingenious move that lab's have perfected over century's. Call it leash de jour, call it relieving the boredom, call it what you will. But Marley, and labs all over the world would be proud of Angus. And thankfully, this urban escape artist was roped in by a thoughtful citizen who is no doubt also a dog lover.