When Cole was diagnosed with cancer 10 months ago, pursuing our cross country quest was the last thing on my mind. Thanks to Cole's fortitude, the excellent care provided by the vet school and his insurance company, we snagged 5 states in the Northeast last September and the final 5 in the Northwest in February.
In recognition for helping us with our bucket list, I wanted to bring a bucket of chocolates to Cole's insurance company headquarters in Seattle.
As quality control officer, I made it my duty to perform random samplings.
Before I drained both buckets we hurried to Trupanion HQ to thank their team for being a part of ours.
Cole and Garrett are two of over a quarter million pets insured by Trupanion. The Seattle office hosts about 400 devoted employees.
There's definitively something fishy going on here. Everyone is smiling and happy. Must be something in the water. Could it be the personalized work spaces?...
Gotta love a leaf light canopy! Or could it be the 200 cats and dogs at work with their human counterparts?
No typo. 200. I wanted to take more pictures of this amazing place, but as you can imagine, I had my hands full worrying what The Great Squirrel Hunter might do if he came snout to snout with a cat. And I was quite frankly distracted by the guy zipping around on a gyro skateboard.
"Be yourself. Everyone else is taken" -- Oscar Wilde. What better quote to inspire teamwork and inclusiveness.
Trupanion was founded by a fellow Canadian, Darryl Rawlings, and he continues to lead the company today. He gave us a personal behind the scenes tour.
I met Trish, the associate who originally signed up Cole.
Cole being his aloof self made himself scarce even for the professional photographer, Jared Ream, who joined us on tour.
Pete and Garrett can certainly ham it up though.
They would revel in the attention here, with 5 full time dog walkers to exercise all the dogs, they'd have plenty to see and do.
Our tour continued... past Darryl's corner office. Oh, did you miss it? He has a cube in the middle of the scrum.
Now, I was getting to the bottom of the very suspect cheerfulness I sensed in the corporate culture at Trupanion. It points to a very dynamic leader.
We continued our sleuthing.
Meeting and thanking team members along the way. Currently, they have in house day care for employee's children and in the future, they hope to donate office space for cancer research trials. Talk about being on the ground floor of serving up compassion.
We left Seattle with fond memories and two hand made cards by Trish, which crown our journey map.
We now personally know who has us covered.
It's with immense gratitude that I thank Team Trupanion for being part of Team Cole's pit crew. Wouldn't still have my best friend at my side without you.
