Not home alone
THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE EMAIL FROM HIS employer was enough to whip Gus Azusenis into a frenzy. UPDATE, he read, a lump forming in his throat as he noted the urgency in all the capital letters. Then came the word he had been dreading for months: RETURN.
Even without reading the message, Azusenis knew what it would say—that after more than a year, employees at his Chicago bank would be going back to the office. Anxiety consumed the financial analyst as he tried to imagine how he could properly care for Finley, his pandemic puppy, if he had to leave her alone to work long hours, five days a week. “I went into sheer planning-for-disaster mode,” Azusenis says.
Across the room, blissfully unaware, Finley swished her tail back and forth, and Azusenis’ heart broke a little bit more. The year-old Newfoundland had essentially spent her entire life at home with him, and she had no clue their little bubble was about to burst. “I felt crushed,” Azusenis says.
He left the email unopened in a last-ditch effort to delay reality for one more day.
a post-pandemic U.S. look to reopen their offices, thousands of pet owners are experiencing similar moments of emotional turmoil. Poll after poll has shown that they’re worried about how returning to the office will impact their furry companions, particularly after the COVID-19 crisis
