In our previous Day in the Life of a Breakwater Associate post, we got to hear firsthand from some of our team members about what an average day at Breakwater Strategy looks like. But, we all know humans are prone to giving biased recollections of past events, so we decided to ask our pets what an average day REALLY looks like for BWS team members.
Lydie Neill – Mack the Dog
Lydie is so lucky that she doesn’t need an alarm clock. I get to wake her up each morning, letting her know it’s time to start our day with a walk outside with my neighbors and their humans. Once I do my “business,” Lydie turns to her screens to start her work day with a cup of coffee and I get to go right back to sleep on the bed behind her. When voices from the computer disrupt me, I have to make sure they know I’m here trying to sleep, so I walk around and try to get comfortable again. When I wake up, I’ll make sure Lydie knows it’s time to go chase bunnies, chipmunks and squirrels by nudging her when she’s talking to the screen. One fun fact about me… While I might get all the attention, love, food, treats, naps, walks and snuggles I could possibly want, every time Lydie opens the door, I try to run as fast as I can and sneak by her. I will eventually come back, but first I want to sniff everything and run laps around humans as they try (and fail) to catch me. When I do come back, Lydie loves me even more which is fun.
Adi Volosov – Momo the Cat
I’ll be honest, I had very little interest in what Adi does all day, until she explained to me that her click-clacking is what lets her buy me food, so I decided to pay attention. Before getting to “work”, she starts her day by sitting on the couch with a cup of something the color of my kibble and full of those little cold blocks that make a lot of noise and come out of the cold closet near where she keeps my food. She usually stares at a paper box she calls a “book” for a bit before sitting down at her click-clack machine. While she taps away, I’m usually either sleeping in my green castle by her feet or giving her my scariest stare from across the room, hoping she forgets that she fed me lunch already (it works most of the time). Sometimes she’ll pick me up and has me “say hello” to some of those people who live in the rectangle on her desk, which is quite fun because I always get a lot of squeals and applause. My favorite part of the day is when Adi mumbles that she’s taking a “brain break”, because I know that that means I’m about to get a lot of cuddles and scratches…and yes, maybe another helping of lunch. But, the absolute best times are when Adi lets me take a crack at the click-clacking. I think if I keep it up and practice, I’ll be buying myself food soon enough!
Kate Lochner – Nox the Dog (Or District Doodle as Instagram says)
I used to be the one waking mom up, but now she reluctantly drags me out of bed every morning after her alarm clock goes off and is snoozed no less than 5 times. But first, she scratches my belly and I smile, which she calls giving ‘cheeses.’ Now, once I’m up, I’m up! We go on our same morning walk route every day and if i’m lucky, my Aunt Sara comes over to walk with us. Once we get back from our morning walk, mom turns on her work machine with a cup of coffee, and I sleep in my office bed, not to be confused with my living room bed or my bedroom bed. Somedays I’ll sleep all day, others I just sit and stare at mom until it’s time for us to share our lunch and go on my midday walk. If I’m really lucky and its a Friday, we go to Aunt Sara’s house so I can have ‘yard time’ chasing chipmunks and digging in the dirt, while mom finishes her work from the back porch. I play in the yard until my Aunt Sara comes home, then I know its time for the weekend. Which only means one thing – dog park trips!
Simone Jackenthal – Dionysus and Lafayette
Our mom is weird, all she does is sit in front of these big screens all day! We bark, cry, try to play, but nothing seems to get her attention (SIGH). Our day typically starts with waking mom up, going for a walk, eating some breakfast – and then getting locked downstairs while mom goes to stare at her screens. We hate those screens and wish she would just play with us all day! Mom usually comes downstairs around lunchtime to take us outside and we play a little. Then she goes back to the screens, but sometimes if we’re lucky she lets us sit on her lap. We like to bark at the screens when mom talks to them, or when a car drives by… Anyway, we love those days, but we count down for the weekend when we finally get to play all day long with both our moms together!
Steve Weber – Napoleon Connell-Weber
I live for Sundays. 17 of them during the year. Football season. In fact I was born the year the Giants last won the Superbowl. Been trying to help get them back there ever since. In order to do that, I require a lot of rest and a lot of quality nutrition. My parents often get in the way of the first, but they do at least make me a nice sous-vide chicken breast every few days. I’ve tried to get a tryout for the team – I’m probably more in the running back category than, say, offensive linecat – but that coaching staff obviously doesn’t have a good eye for feline talent. So here I am, stuck watching games from the couch, under a blanket, with snacks whenever I want and lots of people jumping up and down screaming and yelling. As long as they pay constant attention to me, I guess it’s not a bad second-best life. Still, just look at me…the speed, the dexterity, the sheer football acumen… and think about what could have been….
Tina Bernardi – Strider the Dog
The human had to be woken up again today. The sun was coming up and I feared she would forget to feed me. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet, but one can never be too diligent.
After breakfast, the human focused her attention on what she calls “work”. I made my best attempts to distract her with squeaky toys but to no avail – until the harrowing moment when my ball rolled under the furniture. I sounded the alarm right away and the human retrieved it. Crisis averted.
In the afternoon, I reminded the human that we needed to go for our daily walk. I courageously defended us from leaves that fell from the trees and chipmunks that scurried across the road. I was unable to catch them, but I’ll try again tomorrow.
Now that we’ve returned, the human has gone back to work. I found a good spot to lay in the sun, so I think I’ll take a nap. Soon it will be time for dinner.
