Woman Thinks Dog-Friendly Office Is a Daycare and Drops Her Dog There for Months

This story posted in Reddit's "I Don't Work Here Lady" subreddit truly feels like a comedy of errors, an old-school bit from The Three Stooges or something. But it's actually...real life! OP explains that they used to work in an office that allowed dogs. It was one of those open workspaces so there were dogs hanging out everywhere all the time.

Everyone except them had a dog and they always felt left out. While we're setting the scene, it's important to note that there was a doggy daycare across the street. "One day," they write, "a very frantic woman came in and she had an absolutely massive basset hound with her... She ran up to me and said, 'Do you work here?' and I said, 'Yes, how can I help you?' and she said, 'I wasn't sure if you took walk-ins but I read online I could just drop him off? I tried to call but no answer.'"

Now, they weren't thinking about the doggy daycare across the way. They were just super confused. They tried to get some clarity about the situation, but the woman just said, "Well, it doesn't matter how. Look, something urgent's come up and I really need to leave him here. Here's his food he likes and I'll be back in a few hours..."

They thought maybe she was friends with someone who worked in the office or something, so they said OK and asked for her name. The next thing they know, she was gone and they were caring for Otis the basset hound. 

They took Otis around, but no one in the office seemed to know Otis or the woman. Otis chilled all day, and they were happy to have a dog to take care of! At the end of the day, the woman came back to retrieve Otis, and she asked how much she owed. That's when OP realized that she thought their regular old office was the doggy daycare. 

"Now, I probably should've corrected her," OP wrote. "But I loved my day with the office dog and I did want to get paid for supervising this strange dog all day." So they told her it would be $20. She was shocked at how affordable it was! She paid and left, and they thought that would be the end of this silly story. 

But then the next week, she came back! OP thought she must have known on some level that this wasn't a real doggy daycare, so they went along with it. Eventually, Otis started getting dropped off two to four times a week! The office put Otis in their Christmas photo and everything. 

"Turns out," they wrote, "Otis' owner was friends with one of our clients who I guess happened to have the card out on her table... One day Otis' owner came in holding the card and walked up to me and said, 'I can't even believe I'm asking this but... Is that my dog in this photo? This isn't a dog daycare at all. This is just an office, isn't it?'"

OP was busted. They explained that indeed, it was just a regular office that happened to be dog-friendly. They were "terrified" that she was really upset about this, but instead, she just asked, "Why didn't you ever say anything?!" OP explained that they loved having Otis around.

Her reply? "Well, I wish you'd said something sooner. It could've saved me a lot of embarrassment with my friend back there. All right, I have to get going. See you at 4." And she left Otis there! She said, "Where else could I find someone to watch him one-on-one all day for $20?"

And that's how Otis became OP's office dog regularly until his family moved away around the same time OP took a new job. According to OP, Otis' owner found it all very hilarious. 

She'd tell her friends she had to pick Otis up from "work" and when they'd ask if he was a service dog, she'd say, "Nope, he's an accountant."

I'm so glad this situation worked out to the benefit of everybody involved. It could have been ugly! OP could have gotten in a lot of trouble for misrepresenting the business as a doggy daycare, but everyone was happy with the arrangement, thank goodness. Especially Otis.

"He'd never want to get up to leave..." OP wrote, "and without fail, every time she got him, she'd say, 'What's the matter, buddy? Long day at the office?' and laugh hysterically."