Meeting an American Icon

Today I met Lassie. Yes, I know this sounds crazy. However, because of some relationship or association that Lassie has to the parent company who owns the company I work for, Lassie came to my workplace today.

When I first got the e-mail announcing that Lassie would be visiting, I thought, "That's cool" and just went about my day. In my mind, I thought, ok, some collie is going to show up. We'll get to pet the dog--whatever. No big deal, right? Surely there have been like 100 Lassies over the course of the last few decades. It's just another dog. However, when the dog actually showed up, it was a whole different story.

Grown men were clamoring for the opportunity to go pose for a picture with Lassie. The dog was so well-trained, intelligent, calm (and beautiful, for that matter) that as soon as you laid eyes on her, you immediately were thrown back to your childhood and you believed that this dog actually was Lassie! When people held up cameras, the dog (being the professional she was) actually looked at the camera and posed. It was the coolest thing.

Yes, I confess. Today, I was rendered completely starstruck--by a dog.