The Lighter Side: The Office Assistant

Since Judy frequently gets asked about the source of the occassional background noise when she's on the phone with clients and colleagues, we figured we'd post some pictures of the noisemaker. It's Luna, a very friendly 6-year-old black Lab/St. Bernard (adopted from a no-kill shelter) who weighs in at 100 pounds. Her favorite activities include monitoring translations on the laptop (see picture), guarding the print dictionaries (see picture), and taking a nap next to the desk. She also enjoys scaring off potential intruders by barking at the top of her lungs. Even though her translation skills are quite poor, she has the title of Canine Office Assistant II, Vegas office. If she passes her evaluation this year (she didn't last year, failed the "being quiet when the client speaks" portion), we might promote her to Canine Office Assistant III, which comes with a second biscuit a day.

Do you have an office assistant/sidekick? Dagmar's in Vienna is Junia, a 10-year old former resident of Vegas (and dual citizen). More on her mischievious office antics to follow.


10 comments:

Alejandro Moreno-Ramos on March 16, 2010 at 12:14 AM said...

I look forward to learning about Junia :)

Kevin Lossner on March 16, 2010 at 1:39 AM said...

Maybe I ought to interview Luna for the "Dogs in Translation" site :-)

Our three (a Deutsch Drahthaar and two Wire-haired Magyar Vizslas) are great assets, especially when it comes to dealing with those dangerous delivery men. But quiet while I'm negotiating on the phone is a skill that all three have yet to master, so there is often "time out" in the crate next to my desk.

pennifer on March 16, 2010 at 7:11 AM said...

I love labs!

I have 3 office assistants here - Harmony the standard poodle and Simon and Sez, cats. Harmony is also still working on her no barking certificate. None of them are proficient in anything other than holding down furniture and rugs.

Rachel on March 16, 2010 at 11:08 AM said...

Luna is beautiful! My assistant is Zora, a very loving calico cat. She often assists as a lap warmer, but sometimes she likes to guard the monitor—which has the unfortunate effect of blocking my view and tends to get her sent to lunch early. :)

Tess on March 16, 2010 at 11:56 AM said...

Luna looks wonderful and I can't wait to hear about Junia. My office assistants (yes plural) are Leah, my 4 year old Golden Retriever and the best company during long computer hours and my favorite personal trainer. The other two are more quiet but love to help me type and warm my lap and they are Timi, a 7 year old tabby and Nico a 9 month old tabby. Perhaps I should let them do my blogging.

Anonymous said...

I came across this webisite on accident, and I was shocked when I saw the picture of your dog, it is identical to my year old lab/springer spaniel, infact I have a picture with him infont of the computer that I would like to share with you, for a second I thought it might be a dog from the same litter! Beautiful pup!

Tom Ellett on March 16, 2010 at 6:05 PM said...

My office assistant is Oscar, a two-year-old orange and white tabby. Unfortunately I haven't yet managed to teach him that the occupant of the desk chair should do the work that needs doing.

NinaG on March 16, 2010 at 8:21 PM said...

My office assistant is Clio, a Golden Retriever/Corgi mix (looks like a giant Corgi). Although she's not a translation whiz, her language skills per se are very good. Her German is far better than her English, though.

Andrea Riffo on March 23, 2010 at 5:31 AM said...

My office assistant is Strider, an 11 year-old (sort of) siamese cat.

His main duties are keeping my lap warm during those long Winter hours and prying me away from the computer every couple of hours to pet him and stretch a bit :)

Judy Jenner and Dagmar Jenner on March 26, 2010 at 11:52 PM said...

@All: judging from your enthusiastic comments, most translators have a beloved office assistant. We really enjoyed hearing stories of your best friends. As promised, a post about Junia, the feline assistant, is coming up in the future. If you would like us to publish a picture of your loyal companion, just send it to use and we will include it in the next post.

@Alejandro: post coming up, we promise. Junia is an Austrian-American cat. Born in Vegas, went to college in Vienna.

@Kevin: perhaps your brilliant hunting dogs would *potentially* be used to help facilitate payment on outstanding payments? Kidding -- they are gorgeous and apparently talented. Luna tries to hunt desert rabbits, to no avail, which is good. We are very impressed by your entire dedicated website to your assistants; wow!

@pennifer: can you put all your assitants to work?

@Rachel: when you send Zora to lunch, can you ask her to pick up a latte for you? You could tuck some money in her collar. :)

@Tess: we bet blogs by cute pets would be really interesting. Perhaps Leah could blog about keeping you in shape.

@Tom: hehe, maybe you need to give Oscar a very small, achievable task, such as fetching the newspaper. Ah, wait, he is a cat....

@Nina: you are my dog training inspiration, since Clio seems to listen to German. With Luna, it doesn't work that well, and she appears to prefer Spanish.

@Andrea: Strider sounds like the perfect work/life balance coach!

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