Tales of Two Dogs

Build-A-Bear Workshop is quite the place.  At the World BearQuarters, people can bring their dogs to work with them. It’s great being able to walk around the office and pet dogs.  They even come to meetings.  I’m sure this is part of the reason Build-A-Bear Workshop is on the 100 Best Companies To Work For list.  Here are two stories from this past week:

Tale #1: A Birthday Party

One day earlier this week I heard rumblings from nearby in HR about a birthday party.  Naturally, my interest was piqued.  I always enjoy celebrating a good birthday… and the cake isn’t so bad either :-).  I did want to intrude though so I went to take something over to another person’s desk and she was going to the party, as was someone else nearby.  I figured since one of them wasn’t  “officially” invited, but was still going, that I could go as well.  That was when I found out that the party was for Jose.

Jose is a dog.  A fun dog – and apparently a very lucky dog.  Jose had a party.  His dog friends and their owners were invited.  We went into Bear U (yes, that is what Build-A-Bear calls their large meeting room/auditorium) and had cake made with honey and peanut butter for the dogs.  Let me clarify – the dogs had cake.  I might have been jealous…

As the dogs played with each other and ate, I thought that these dogs have a pretty good life.  Especially Jose, he even got gifts.

Tale #2: The Missing Pup

Today I got to work and heard comments about some beagle going around the building.  Shortly thereafter, Laurie sent an email out to the BearQuarters with the subject line of “Did you lose a very cute beagle?” and the body of “If so, you can find your pup in Operations…s/he has been contained :-)”.  Soon after I found out that the beagle did not belong to anyone at Build-A-Bear.  Someone saw the dog outside the office door, thought he belonged to someone who worked there, and let him in!

This beagle was pretty lucky (like Jose).  Note to dogs: if you are lost, make your way to Build-A-Bear Workshop.  Of all of the places to end up, this was it.  Several people went up and down nearby streets to see if anyone had lost the dogs.  Others called area vets and shelters to see if anyone reported him.  No one had.  In the meantime, notices about the lost dog were posted on Fido Finder and Craig’s List.  One person responded to the posts, but for the wrong gender dog.

As all of this was going on, the lost beagle was given plenty of attention (he was pretty well behaved).  The beagle, whose name we do not know, was given food, treats, and toys to play with.  He even got to play with other dogs.  Eventually though, he seemed to realize he was in the wrong place and got sad.  Nevertheless, this beagle was not taken to the pound.  Rather, one of the BearQuarters employees took him home for the weekend and will continue to try to find the owner.  Perhaps he has a chip?

This beagle ended up at the right place.  One intelligent pup.