It’s a Dog’s Life
Finally seeing what’s been right at the end of my nose.
For the past two years my human has been working from home. Sitting in her office in the front room, I keep her company by lying on the toy box that is perfectly placed underneath the window, meaning I can look out onto the street and keep her notified of anyone passing by. I like Postman John very much, I dislike the Shih Tzu with the silly hair in equal measures.
The first time my human worked from home it was a real eye opener for me.
The very first time my human worked from home she spent the day unpacking her computer and excitedly rubbing her hands together. I ate a lot of biscuits because I was being such a good boy, and I have affectionately been named as Chief Biscuit Sniffer on all work-related correspondence as a result.
On average, my human and I spend around eight hours a day together in the front room (much to the cat’s dismay), but just recently there has been a decrease in our office escapades. We are of course still spending a lot of time together, even more time than usual to be honest, and I initially thought I might wag my tail right off with how happy I was to have everyone around me all of the time. I mean, who doesn’t want to play ball all day and lounge around on the sofa? Well, it turns out that my human, my other human, and their baby, do not.
I am sensing that my humans are feeling a little lost.
Admittedly, seeing my humans so out of sync is worrying. Some days my breakfast is delivered to me in bed bang on time, other days it’s pushing 9am and I’m left wondering if I will smell the sweet smell of a dental stick ever again. I’m trying to think when I first recognised that something was amiss, I think it was last week when there wasn’t a new toy hidden in the weekly shop. I remember my human looking just as sad about it as I did.
Being part of a family business is hard.
Watching my human working from home is very rewarding. Each time that a new piece of work is completed I get an awful lot of fuss, and I am involved in everything from start to finish. My human talks me through all new projects and explains to me what the outcome will be at the end. The outcome is always the same, even if the steps to getting there differ. The outcome is always that our entire family will benefit from it because being a family is at the heart of everything that we do. I really like that.
Listening to my humans talk about not being able to see members of our extended family really troubles me; imagine if I was told I couldn’t sniff Toby through the fence? I don’t know how I would I feel about that. It’s not something I can ever imagine happening. I guess it makes sense that my humans are trying to shorten the distance between our other family members using social media, even though they’re feeling so far apart.
My humans are resilient.
Helping my humans through difficult times is a top priority of mine and I make sure that I’m always available for hugs should they need them. Sometimes it is a little annoying when all I want to do is lick my paw, but I understand that not everyone has the same coping mechanisms that I do. Yes, one of my humans thoroughly enjoys playing with a football, she just doesn’t love chasing after it on her own with the enthusiasm that I have.
How my humans have adapted to change, however, is impressive. I am so proud of them. Using the technology that they have available to them, they have been able to communicate with pretty much everyone important to them every day. Imagine if even when all of this uncertainty is over my humans still used a good amount of social media in addition to their other methods of communication. Imagine if other people did the same…
The possibilities are endless.
You can find me and my human online. We trade as Sawdon Social Media, and our web address is www.sawdonsocialmedia.com. We’re of course always available on our Facebook page too. Head on over and give us a wave; making new friends is so much fun!
Chief Biscuit Sniffer xx
Written by Norman Sawdon-Molloy