By: Adina Levin, Co-founder of Collab
Collab is a dog-friendly community. Over the years we have had some extraordinary animals take part in the everyday culture of our space. The first Collab dog was Elias.
He was our beautiful Wheaton Terrier that Marc and I were lucky enough to love for 14 years. He was an incredible life force, and everyone who knew him fell in love with him immediately. He was quirky and moody and demanded to leave Collab every day at 4:30. It was common for him to begin barking around 4:15 in the afternoon and he would not stop until either myself or Marc walked him home to eat dinner. Elias spent every day of the last 7 years of his life at Collab. He happily shared the space with Emma. Elias and Emma made a special appearance in the video below which was done about six years ago by Make Magazine.
After Elias passed away it felt like every part of life was painful. It was very hard to be at Collab without him. He lived an exciting life and was a huge part of all of our adventures leading up to us starting Collab. We miss him every day. After Elias passed away, having Emma at Collab was a comfort. I think there is a specific energy that dogs carry that makes everything feel a bit better.
Emma is an adorable dog that everyone at Collab loves. She wanders around the space quietly waiting for someone to drop a piece of food. She is charming and well behaved and a sweet, little pleasure.
About eight months after Elias passed away, Marc and I rescued two pups, a brother and sister that we named Annie & Otis. They were homeless on the streets of South Carolina and thanks to a dear woman, Michelle Neufeld, from Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue, we were able to adopt these two hysterical, beautiful creatures.
It didn't take long before the little duo to claim Collab as their official territory, which keeps all of us on our toes. Especially messengers and unexpected visitors.
Having dogs around the space is lovely. When we first moved into Collab nine years ago, the building said "no dogs!" We put up a bit of a case about it, and here we are nine years later, and the building is buzzing with canine friends. No matter how stressful the day gets, when you look over and see these faces, you can't help but take a big deep breath and smile.
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