Everyone’s on their best behavior when someone comes down from corporate—even when that someone is a farm pup named Molly from Corporate, here to make sure that scritches are scratched and tails are wagged.
We sat down with Molly’s hooman-ager and doggy dad Tyler W. to talk about the “corporate culture” at their home, Molly’s unique talents and the inspiration behind her Wacky Pet Names winning name.
Reminiscing about his childhood pets, Tyler recalls, "My parents would always make sure we got senior dogs. Senior dogs need the loving, because they're kind of overlooked. When I moved out, got married, had my own family, I wanted to do the same thing.”
Little did Tyler know, fate had other ideas. Tyler continues, “One of my wife’s coworkers, their parents had a farm, and their farm dog had puppies. They brought pictures to work. I'm at work and then I see these text messages: ‘Look at these puppies.’”
At first, Tyler was hesitant about the time commitment that onboarding a puppy would require. “I was like, ‘No, we don't want a puppy. It's a lot of work. We want older dogs who are chilled out.’” At the same time, he couldn’t resist the allure of the puppies in the picture. After much consideration, they were soon welcoming a new hire to their home: an energetic intern named Molly from Corporate.
Training was difficult at first. Molly from Corporate was very young and needed a lot of attention. “I couldn't go anywhere and couldn't leave her at home by herself,” Tyler says. “It was a lot of chewing on things or running around and quickly outgrowing everything, whether it's toys, mats, crates, whatever. Teething was its own adventure.”
Fortunately, Tyler’s employer offered a lot of leeway and time spent working at home to get Molly from Corporate up to speed. Over time, their bond grew until they became inseparable. “She became my dog, because she was there with me day in and day out.”
“So, before we even got a dog, we're going over names, what to go with. And we had a whole list narrowed down,” Tyler remembers. From the get-go, Tyler and his wife knew they wanted a fun, creative—dare we say wacky—name that fit their puppy’s personality.
At first, they didn’t go to the boardroom for inspiration so much as they looked in the fridge. “The front runner for a while was ‘Ketchup,’ because she was like a dark, ruddy red color, which she kind of grew out of when she stopped being a puppy.”
He continues, “I was pushing for ‘Mike,’ but my wife said, ‘You can't name a girl dog Mike.’ I still think you can—don't let your dreams be dreams—but she shot that one down.”
The couple eventually landed on the name Molly for their puppy, which seemed like a fit for a farm dog. However, they soon realized that going the conventional route wasn’t really their style.
Tyler says, “When we had Molly in her puppy training class with us for new puppy parents, there were two other Mollys. So, before we went with Molly, [we said] we've got to have something to make her different. What will make her unique and show the world she's not just another Molly? I was like, ‘She's Molly from Corporate, because that commands some respect.’”
He adds, “She was almost ‘Brenda from HR,’ but she doesn't have ‘Brenda from HR’ vibes. So, we couldn't do it. She's not a Brenda—she's a Molly.”
The name turned out to be the perfect pairing for Molly’s uniqueness. Tyler adds, “You go to whatever pet store or your vet, [and] Molly from Corporate's here. And that was the whole plan, go to that store, ‘Molly from Corporate? Corporate sent someone? Who's Molly? Why did corporate send someone?’ And then it's just this big-eared goof trouncing along the side of us.”
Their clever naming garnered accolades from more than just management. Molly from Corporate ended up as the top vote getter in the 2024 Wacky Pet Names celebration, alongside fellow winners Tony “Scarface” Baloney and Thor Odinbun, God of Bunder.
A dog with a wacky pet name needs to be a little wacky herself for the name to fit. Luckily, Molly from Corporate comes with her own unique quirks to help live up to her Wacky Pet Names fame.
“[She loves to] chew on anything really hard,” Tyler says. “When she was younger, we got her antlers if we're outside doing yard work or garden work. Otherwise, she likes to find bricks and cinder blocks to gnaw on.”
Tyler employs numerous strategies to keep her away from her teeth-breaking chewing. Stuffed animals seemed like a softer option for a while. Unfortunately, like any true corporate raider, she doesn’t know her true strength.
“The sad thing, she really loves stuffies,” Tyler says. “But this is a dog that will chew on bricks for fun, so that stuffy is not going to last long. It's really sad if she gets one, because we have to quickly take it away—she doesn't understand ‘No, you're going to destroy that in seconds. You're too strong. You don't know your own might.’”
Aside from doing a major re-org on her stuffed animals, Molly loves networking with colleagues—in the form of belly rubs. “That's the big thing,” Tyler says. “If she's somewhere with someone that she knows or likes she's going to drop to the ground and roll over for a belly rub because she is a ham.”
Bricks, antlers and stuffies aren’t the only thing Molly from Corporate has downsized in her day. One such incident led to a frightful situation in the aftermath of a winter snowstorm. Tyler says, “This is where I think maybe her local fame kind of started.”
Tyler was hunkered down at home after an ice storm made the roads impassable. A neighbor was throwing miniature tennis balls around with his smaller dogs to keep them entertained in the cold weather. Meanwhile, Molly from Corporate looked on, waiting for an opportunity.
Tyler says, “We try to do a good job about watching Molly in the yard, making sure there's things that she won't eat or whatever.” However, his diligence was for naught; when the moment arrived, Molly snapped up one of the tennis balls.
“I saw her get it,” he adds. “Gone. Swallowed it, immediately, because Molly will eat or destroy anything she can because that's just who she is.”
That initiated a tense waiting game. It was a Sunday, so Molly’s veterinarian wasn’t open. The emergency veterinarian was closed due to the icy roads, which were too dangerous to travel regardless. Luckily, Molly was protected by Nationwide®, which means she had access to licensed veterinary professionals at Nationwide VetHelpline®, who offered support while they were unable to travel to a veterinarian.
“We were waiting, trying to figure out what's going to happen,” Tyler remembers. However, the next day, her condition started to change. Tyler says, “She wasn’t holding down food. She's just drinking. Monday rolls around … and we take her into the vet, and they do their first ever laparoscopic retrieval of a tennis ball from a dog. She didn't love it, but she made the front page of the emergency vet's website for that procedure. And they all thought she was just the best dog, and she was so good for it.”
Despite the discomfort, Molly from Corporate took the experience in stride—maybe even a networking opportunity. Tyler says, “She made so many friends there that day. It was just a big adventure for her. She didn't feel great, but she got to meet all these people and go to a cool new place. She doesn't know she's on the website, but she sure is. So that's our girl.”
Tyler says, “I don't know what I would have done otherwise, because you can Google any kind of symptom or thing and find all these very different things you're supposed to do. I don't know. And it's my dog, and she's laying next to me on the couch, obviously not feeling great, and I'm freaking out.”
He continues, “The ability to get a vet on the phone at 7 at night on a Sunday in the middle of an ice storm means a lot. And the ability to take her where she needs to go after hours to get emergency surgery—and not have to super worry about the cost—also means a lot.”
“[Pet insurance] alleviates a lot of stress and pressure,” Tyler adds. “Takes it off your mind, so you can go, ‘No, I'm just going to get her the care she needs, and I'll be able to afford it.’”