"I guess in all the confusion, J- er, my dog must've gotten out of my car. She insisted on coming with me, and I thought it would be okay to leave her there for a little while, then drive her home during lunch," Dave said to the others after attaching the leash to her collar. He didn't care that they'd think he's a bad dog owner, leaving his dog in the car. It wouldn't be for long, anyway. "I'll just walk her out of here and take her back to the car."
As he was walking Jenny out of his office, Joe hurried past him, and then turned towards him for a moment. "Make sure you don't let Jenny escape again, alright?" Dave almost had a heart attack. Someone knew he turned Jenny into a dog? He thought back to what he wrote. 'Everyone will think Jenny is my dog', and realized what happened. At least he wouldn't have to think of another name for her if he'd already accidentally given her Jenny's name.
He took a deep breath to calm down and nodded weakly. "Yeah, I'll try to keep her home from now on. Sorry about that."
"It's bad enough I have to go down to accounting to figure out what's going on," he ranted. "I don't need anyone's pets running around this place like it was their own personal play yard. In fact, you know what? You might as well just take the rest of the day. Take the new account home with you. I have a feeling nothing's going to get done here today. The phone's been ringing off the hook and I need to somehow set up five meetings with five different companies before next Thursday. And now there's this light bulb problem with the accounting department. I'm about ready to just call it a day and go home."
It was rare to see the manager so rattled. Maybe, Dave thought, he should use the pen more often. He quickly patted his pocket to make sure he still had it.
"Yes sir, we all wish we could," he agreed. "When we have one of those days, home is all that's on our mind."
Joe's cell phone rang again and he sighed. "See you tomorrow," he said hastily as he hurried for the elevators.
Dave smiled to himself, gathered together the reports for the new account and waited for the next elevator, where Jenny sat sniffing at a plant and wagging her tail. "Jenny?" She looked up at him and barked once, her tail still wagging.
Her behaviour was a more canine than he felt it should be, and he knelt down. "Are you still in there, Jenny? I wish I knew what you were thinking." She responded by happily licking his face. "Wait a minute... when I wrote that everyone would think you're my dog... that meant you too, didn't it? You really think you're a dog." Even though she'd been nasty to him earlier, he didn't think she deserved this fate. Well... maybe a little, but not as far gone as she was. He stood up again. "If you're still in there, somewhere, I'll try to fix this, alright? But you have to promise me you won't pull anything like you did earlier on me, ever again. Can you promise me that?" He knew it was futile to ask, but he did anyway. Jenny looked up at him and barked happily. "I'll take that as a yes," Dave said with a laugh.