When I adopted my dog Glen, my mother gave me a warning. “You have to be careful. Before I had children I bought a cute dog. I loved him more than anything. He was really cute. Then I gave birth to three kids. They were pretty cute. But my dog…” Thankfully she got distracted criticizing something else about me, but the message was received.

After a year, it seems her prediction is coming true. Glen is really cute. Luckily, I don’t have any kids to love less than Glen, and Mixte is helping me maintain my family tradition of (really) loving dogs (a lot).

At Mixte, we bring our dogs to the office. Glen comes every day. We have snacks for humans and dogs, a water bowl and a water cooler, and a porch for everyone to soak up the San Diego sun together. We also share our workspace with clients, our neighbors stop by for coffee, we feature the work of local artists and we host meet-ups for cyclists. Our office is more than an office. For Glen and me, it’s a family room.

And my favorite part about Mixte: nobody thought it was weird when I announced Glen would be having a first birthday party. They might’ve thought it was weird when I told them it would be a themed pawlitical campaign party, with a face cake, and a voting (photo) booth, and a mock partisan election and a hashtag (#voteforglen) but they kept it to themselves.

And when I announce Glen’s official podcast launch, Chiweenies For Change, and tell Mixte about his tumblr account, I think they’ll still like me.