Pet Sitters to all employers: go furry on Friday

LOS ANGELES — Bob Page will welcome more than 50 dogs, two ferrets and the odd duck into his china shop on Friday. Lucky for him, his employees don't own bulls.

Friday was Take Your Dog to Work Day, a campaign sponsored by Pet Sitters International to promote pet adoption. The group doesn't track how many workplaces participate, but said in the months leading up to it last year, nearly 100,000 people visited takeyourdog.com.

Page's company, Replacements, Ltd., in Greensboro, N.C., is the world's largest retailer of old and new china, crystal, silver and collectibles. And while the four-legged turnout will be bigger on Friday, it won't be that much different than any other day because employees at his plant are encouraged to bring pets every day.

The invitation on Page's company's front door reads: "Well-Behaved Pets Welcome," and it extends beyond Page's 490 employees to visitors, buyers, tourists and travelers, said spokeswoman Lisa Conklin.

"When you walk through here, people are smiling," explained Jeanine Falcon, vice president of human resources.

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association says about one in five U.S. companies allow pets in the workplace. Many of the companies are smaller, but a few of the larger ones are Google, Amazon, Healthwise in Idaho and headquarters of the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C.

Sophie, a 5-year-old bulldog, not only goes to work every day with her owner, the Rev. G.T. Schramm, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Shepherdstown, W.Va., but she has a job and a title too.

As "special pastoral assistant," her job is to greet and to listen. "She has an uncanny way of knowing when somebody comes in here upset or out of sorts," Schramm said.

And if there is a room full of people, it is her job to circulate and greet everyone, he added.

At Bare Necessities in Avenel, N.J., about 10 percent of the company's 90 employees planned to bring their dogs with them Friday.

Each dog owner makes a donation and the company, which sells branded intimate apparel for men and women online, matches the money and sends it to a local shelter, said Kiera Lim, director of acquisition marketing.

Lim and her husband, who also works for the company, will be bringing their boxers, Pixie, 2, and Jax, 3.