A dog is man’s best friend, but for one Newfoundland broker, his black lab was so much more. He was part of the business.
A dog is man’s best friend, but for one Newfoundland broker, his black lab was so much more. He was part of the business.
“Shadow was my best marketing tool for six years,” says Ian Murray, co-owner of The Mortgage Centre – Advantage Financial Services in St. John’s, Nfld. “We don’t do house calls, so the clients come to our office. And Shadow was a great way to break the ice with new clients.”
Shadow was a constant fixture at the Lemarchant Road office for six years, before developing a painful degenerative nerve disease in his hind legs. Unable to see him suffer any longer, Murray made the difficult decision to put him down a few months ago.
“We’ll eventually get another dog, but it has to be the right dog,” says Murray. “Every day we miss Shadow. And it will be a rescue dog – we always go for rescue dogs. And it has to be able to interact with people. Shadow was amazing around people.”
Murray laughs when he remembers how past clients would pay a visit to the office, and walk right by him to bring treats for Shadow.
“They weren’t coming to see me,” he smiles. “They were coming to see him.”
Murray’s office “is not your typical steel and glass office,” he points out, but an older remodeled home – complete with home-like furnishings and a fireplace.
“We’ve had so many people tell us, ‘This is just like a home,’ especially after they see Shadow sleeping on his bed beside my desk,” says a wistful Murrayy. “Yes, we’ll get another dog, but I don’t know when; we’ll know it when we know it.”
