That’s my dog Cheddar.
Cheddar is five years old and part Husky and part Golden. His most striking feature are his eyes, one blue and one brown. He’s got a delightful disposition, happy and friendly, and generally glad to be alive.
When I worked at Western University as a faculty member in Philosophy and in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, there was a very big “bring your dog to work” culture. Sometimes in WSFR there were as many as six dogs in the department. In Philosophy one colleague had three big dogs in his office and another’s dog used to sometimes take the elevator down to the ground floor to mooch snacks from the students in the cafeteria.
Guelph, on the other hand, has a lot of official animals on campus. I love the horses outside the vet school and when I have stressful days sometimes I feel better if I go and stare at them. We also have a lot of service dogs in training. But there aren’t any office dogs. They’re not allowed.
Also, when I moved to Guelph and started in the Dean’s role I started working longer days. Cheddar was not impressed.
Now I’ve moved to dean-ing from home in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheddar seems to be really enjoying it. Today we even took a midday walk between WebEx sessions. I’m hoping this doesn’t last very long. I’m already missing my colleagues in person. But I think Cheddar has other ideas.