It’s a Dog’s World, Kind Of

I think I need to change the name of this blog from Less Dana, More Good to Less Dana, More Shay Shay. Anyone who has read ten or more of the over 2,000 posts has met Shay Shay our beloved labradoodle. I am not alone in the love of my dog.  
Today I looked at Facebook and saw a post from my boarding school room mate Nancy, celebrating the birthdays of her two dogs, Boo and McGee with homemade meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting. She implored her college aged daughter Sarah to “get home soon. We’re becoming crazy dog people.” Too late, Nancy, but you are not alone.
Earlier this summer a friend, who had a son graduate from college, told me he was looking for a job with the only criteria being someplace he could take his dog to work. I was a little skeptical, but am clearly out of touch. He got a fantastic job in a week and a half, taking his dog on the interview to make sure he liked the place.
I was talking to my new editor, Amanda and she said I should bring Shay into the office so I could meet some of the young new hires. I told her about my friend’s son and his job search. Amanda quickly quoted the stat she had just read that 17% of businesses are dog friendly offices. It is a cheap perk for a business to offer its employees and I think everyone is happier with a well behaved dog around.  
This morning as Russ and I were about to go out the door to church Shay stood at the top of the steps and looked at us with that, “Please take me” face. Why don’t churches have dog friendly services? God loves dogs, that’s why “dog” is “God” spelled backwards. Certainly when I think about beings that are most spiritual dogs rank high; they love their neighbor as themselves, they honor their mother and father and they never take the Lord’s name in vain.
With more and more people looking for jobs that allow dogs I hope that dogs will be welcomed in more places like restaurants. The idea that it is unclean to have a dog in a place where food is being made and served is ridiculous. Everyone with dogs at home usually makes and eats food in the same place and none of us have died from it yet. All those people with service dogs get to take them in everyplace, why not let the rest of us?