Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / Owner Cath Shaw Truelove poses with her dog, Fred, at Bees on a Bicycle, her garden shop on Market Street. Fred is doing double duty as an at-home pet and workplace fill-in. Instead of using another human as a scale model to show the size of plants while the store is closed (except for online sales), Fred poses by the plants to illustrate their size.In mid-March, thousands of Chattanooga-area workers traded office environs for the comforts of home in a bid to let teleworking help curb the spread of the coronavirus. In many households, children were also out of school, significant others were sidelined from jobs or likewise teleworking, and everyone was getting used to a new 24/7 full-house routine – including the family pets.
What many teleworkers might not have expected when they settled into their home offices was just how much these four-legged companions would rule the day. Often, they didn’t see themselves as colleagues or associates, but as bosses with their own agendas. These cats and dogs, even the occasional chicken, paid no mind to the workday clock, disdained deadlines and showed little, if any, respect for personal boundaries.
Basically, they did what pets do.
A few weeks into this new arrangement, we checked in with a few pet people to see how things were going. Here are some of their stories.
First in the pecking order