I’m also allergic to them. Not the outside. I can pet a dog or ride on the elevator with one. But when they lick me, I break out in hives. And have you ever managed to keep a dog from licking you? I challenge you to do so.

Anyhow, when I saw the news that tomorrow, June 26, is “Take Your Dog To Work Day“, it made me glad I mostly work from home. Call me a spoil-sport, but I really think a holiday like that should require an office-wide group conscience vote. Having pooches running around barking and shedding all over the place, potentially doing gawd knows what on the carpeting and distracting people during the workday sounds kind of like a nightmare to me, much like when your boss brings in their toddler and lets them barrel down the hallways shrieking and flinging rubber bands while you’re tasked with looking after the brat–uh, I mean baby…(er, flashback??? Nahhhh.) Yet who wants to be the wet blanket who nixes all the fun?

HOWEVER. Then I learned more about the holiday (which isn’t an ‘official’ holiday, by the way’). It turns out Take Your Dog To Work Day was actually created in 1999 by Pet Sitters International to help animal shelters and humane societies rescue needy dogs and get them adopted into welcoming homes. People bring their own pooches to work and that’s supposed to create awareness–and enough dog envy–to make people consider adopting a dog of their own.

So, now I’m thinking that maybe the distraction and disruption might be worth it, all in a good cause. The needs of the many (canines) and the mitzvah their owners are doing for canine-kind outweigh the inconvenience to the doggie-indifferent. Do you agree? Do you think your office should allow pets, even for a day?