Ali Moves in with Us
Ali, Kristull Alyssa is Siru's half-sister and also lives here in Finland. She is co-owned by our good friends the Saviaro family and Salla. In early 2001 the Saviaros decided to take up a six-month working commission in - of all places - Brazil. It was not possible to take their three dogs (Ali, Cucu the Whippet and Pontus the Boxer) with them so Ali needed a place to bunk in for half a year.
Ali had lived with us for her first two weeks in Finland so we knew her well and were happy to have her. We knew she was an extremely kind dog who liked Hippu and Siru and was used to cats because the Saviaros had had two of them. There would be no problem having Ali around.
But longtime readers of our pages know that we insist on providing a home only for pets who earn their keep and we could of course not bypass our regular, bureaucratic employment procedures with Ali, even if we knew her from before.
Luckily Ali had numerous letters of recommendation from her regular employer. In the first one we read that she had previous work experience acting as a playmate, pony and sofa for Ilona, Ilona being the Saviaros' baby daughter. Well, that was not exactly the kind of work experience we were looking for in an applicant, but it did show that Ali had a command of important interpersonal skills which would become handy in our neighborhood. So we read on. The next letter said she was proficient in running rings around Whippets and Boxers. This got us very excited, here was an applicant with obvious potential !
As for a job we could offer... well, we were in a bit of a quandry when it came to that. Our cats were already in charge of protecting our house from rats and mice, and Hippu was responsible for defence against marauding rabbits and Siru for hares. But at more than ten years of age, Hippu was getting old. Was the workload too much for her ? She did seem so exhausted at times, sleeping on the sofa for hours on end... perhaps that was the answer, we could give Ali some of Hippu's responsibilities !
An exhausted, overworked whippet ?
On the spur of the moment we decided to promote Hippu to the position of Quality and Risk Manager (like all organizations we believe we'll be more efficient if we add more middle management, loads of more middle management) and to give Ali the unenviable job of handling all the rabbits.
We instructed our CR (Canine Resources) department to draw up what we hoped would be an attractive package for Ali. For three walks and xxx calories a day (we regret but we are unable to post private salary information on the Internet) she would provide us with complete protection from rabbits of all kinds. Job benefits would include shared office space including a couch, two armchairs and a dog bed. Travel and medical expenses would of course be covered by the contract. Tasty bonuses would be awarded for successful completion of assignments and projects.
Luckily for us, Ali decided to accept the position and got right down to work !
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