When Dogster HQ moved offices recently, our team got a reclaimed-wood table and some amazing custom Italian Greyhound wall art by in-house artist Nigel Sussman. Editor-in-Chief Janine Kahn is a major neatnik, so we did pinky swears and pledged we wouldn’t clutter our new workspace with tchotchkes, half-eaten candy bars, and other assorted detritus.
As part of our new minimalist look, Community Manager Lori Malm added a miniature Zen garden with a Pekingese Buddha to her workspace. Its simplicity was calming, but the air fern looked lonely.
I decided that the little garden was ripe for a pranking. That bare sand was begging to be filled up.
I dug through my mountains of knickknacks at home and found a tiny sombrero that had once graced a mini tequila bottle. I put it on the Buddha Peke before Lori arrived and sat back, hoping she wouldn’t notice for hours or even days.
Dangit! She saw it immediately. But the game was on.
The next day, the other Peke got a cocktail umbrella.
I added little pieces of crap every day, mostly old dollhouse bits and pieces. The garden here has a sword, a telephone, and a bottle of Coke.
That gold book might look like the Ten Commandments, but it actually says “MAY YOU LAND IN HEAVEN AN HOUR BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD.” (Irish proverb, apparently.)
Grandfather clock, silver snail (an escargot fork, but who’s checking?). Lori was getting used to coming in every day and finding yet another invader.
Completely mixing up cultures, we now have a furry-headed Viking with a donkey.
A lady’s hat for the other Peke plus a dog for the dogs. (What? Goofy had a dog.)
Uh-oh! The monkey has arrived !
Just behind Buddha Peke is a double-decker London bus, and at his feet is a birdhouse. And the monkey seems to have dropped his broom.
We’re running out of room in the Zen garden, so I might reclaim my bits and pieces and let Lori have her peace and quiet back. She can rake the sand with her tiny brush and take a calming breath or two. I bet the Pekes will have some good memories, though.
Do you play pranks on your co-workers?
