Saturday, January 28, 2006

Early Amazon: Dogs

Amazon allowed dogs in the office. The most famous was Rufus.

Rufus was the proud child of two early Amazonians. He was a friendly, fun Corgie, a pleasure to have around.

In the deteriorating Columbia Building on 2nd avenue, having dogs was not much of a problem. Water leaks might have been a problem, but dogs were not.

Once Amazon moved to fancier surroundings, it took some effort to find a pet friendly building. Apparently, one of the sticking points on the PacMed building lease was whether dogs would be allowed. While I find it hard to imagine Rufus ever would have been banished, some others doggies may have.

This was quite serious. The bond between man and canine was so strong that some threatened to leave Amazon if their furry companions were banned.

Ultimately, PacMed allowed dogs. The battle was won. Dogs, once again, roamed free.

To this day, Rufus has a presence on the Amazon.com website. If you fail to find a page, Rufus will be there to help.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It used to be, Amazon.com actually advertised the dog issue on their web site for hiring. I just looked around, and could find it no more.

I do recall interviewing with Amazon and being told "oh, we don't have that here in our building."

Greg Linden said...

I think the PacMed building at the Seattle HQ does allow dogs, but the US1 and US2 buildings do not.

Unknown said...

It looks like the pages no longer contain him. Sigh.