Who Let The Dogs In? More Companies Welcome Pets At Work

Charlie is an ideal colleague. He's energetic, knows how to handle bullies and has serious people skills. His work mostly entails riding on a cart pushed by Kim Headen, who fills orders in the warehouse at Replacements Ltd.

"He loves coming to work," Headen says. "He beats me to the door when we pull up in the parking lot. He knows his way in and to go exactly where I sit."

Charlie is a Yorkshire terrier. He's among the 400 people and about 30 animals who come to work at Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Replacements, where other varieties of fauna regularly come to visit.

"We've had customers bring in a duck, a potbellied pig, a possum," says public relations manager Lisa Conklin, who hopes to bring her horse, Azim, to work one day.

But consider this: Replacements makes and sells fine dining ware.

"Here's the interesting thing, is that we have never had a pet break anything here," Conklin says. "We've had people, myself included, who have broken a number of these delicate pieces. But we have never to our knowledge had a pet break anything."

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