It was the second day in the new job. By my desk, I’d noticed a rodent trap. I don’t know about you but I’ve had rodent traps next to every desk I’ve worked at in this town.
I hope it’s not just me. That would be worrying. Anyway, I was looking at the final edit of an awards submission when, bejesus! The biggest rat I’d ever seen passed by my feet.
My first instinct was to stamp on it (I know, violent). But then the mist cleared and before me was the most beautiful sausage I’d ever seen. Sausage Moon.
Sausage Moon is the agency dog. Now, I’ve poo-pooed agency dogs for donkey’s years, thinking it’s all a bit of an "aren’t we alternative" agency thing. But I fell in love straight away.
Sausage (we drop the Moon part of his name) belongs to Gary. Before Gary bought Sausage, he politely and rightly asked if he could bring a pup in. And, after picking up the smallest silver dapple miniature dachshund in the world from Wales, he arrived on a Monday morning, unzipped his bag and Sausage jumped out.
Since then, Sausage has been in creative meetings, greeted visitors at the front desk, won over clients in tricky situations, defused tension, taken the edge off the Monday blues and gone to the pub on Fridays even without Gary.
He hangs out on the fourth floor with the girls, has his own slide in our creds deck and once left a little present in the boardroom just before an important client meeting.
I think we all need a little cuddle at work sometimes. Spontaneously cuddling your fellow workmates may not be very sensible. But cuddling a pooch is perfectly acceptable.
Sausage brings out the best in all of us. When you see him, you can’t help but smile. When he hops up on to your lap, your heart grows a wee bit and the world is somehow a brighter, better place.
Nicky Bullard is the chairman and chief creative officer of MRM Meteorite