I used to be a management consultant living in Chicago. My biggest client was a woman named Michelle who was vice president of a Fortune 500 company. Actually she held that position at several different Fortune 500 companies over the years I knew her, and at each new job she continued to hire me to work for her.
We became friends in addition to our business relationship. That's when I invited her to visit me in Chicago; she lived in Connecticut. She stayed at our home for a long weekend, and after many years of hearing about them, she finally met my two yorkies.
When Michelle awoke the first morning, she came into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and the newspaper, which she took back to her room to read. That's when we heard her scream. She had climbed back into bed to enjoy her coffee and newspaper, and discovered that one of the dogs had peed on her pillow.
We could tell by the guilty look on his face that it was Zack. He had never done anything remotely like this before, and I was speechless. All I could think about was why did he have to pick my biggest client?
At this moment my husband came to the rescue. He told Michelle that she should take it as a compliment, that Zack must really like her and he was staking a claim to her by marking her pillow.
Zack died nine years ago, but we still laugh when we think about this embarrassing moment. In case you are wondering, both the business relationship and the friendship survived. And in case you've read my newly released book, Dog Sense: 99 Relationship Tips from Your Canine Companion, this is NOT one of the relationship tips in the book!
