Amy Czerniec and the dog that broke her heart

(Above: Amy, circled, at launch event for Y-LinK: Young Leaders in Kenosha.)

Amy called me around 12:30 on Monday afternoon. I wasn’t surprised that she was crying, but I did not anticipate exactly what triggered it.

“That damn dog,” she sobbed. “How do they know?”

Amy had gone up to Oak Creek that morning to part company with her work. Her employer was unable to keep her on any longer, and had proposed a nonemployee, independent contractor arrangement. After considering it over the weekend, Amy decided it wasn’t going to meet her needs. Monday morning was spent clearing out her desk, handing off files and her cell phone, and hugging her colleagues and now former boss goodbye.

She got through all of this fairly well. It was certainly an emotional morning, since she had grown to care for her small group of coworkers very much. The office is situated in a house, and they had become somewhat like a second family to her. Still, she held it together, turned, and walked up the stairs to leave.

Suddenly, Kevlar came running up the stairs behind her, which he’d never done before.

Kevlar is the owner’s large Rottweiler who, from time to time, would make persuasive vocalizations when Amy was eating her lunch. Their relationship was very casual. Amy would take him outside occasionally and play with him once in a while, but he’s a mature dog who would not necessarily get up from the floor just because someone entered or left a room. He was mostly interested in food.

Monday, however, he acted differently toward Amy. At one point, he came bolting directly to Amy’s desk, then leaned his heavy body into her as she began to pet him.

Now, as she got to the top of the stairs, he ran to get his rope toy, insisting that she play tug-or-war with him. She did, but soon started sobbing, told him goodbye, threw the toy and left. She called me from the car.

Amy’s position was “Market Relationship Specialist.” She is a natural born connector — a person who remembers names and faces and business opportunities, and is terrific at putting people together for mutual benefit.

She has spent yesterday and this morning emailing farewells to South Suburban Chamber of Commerce members and networking group contacts she may not be seeing so regularly — letting them know she valued their time together, and that she is looking for her next enterprise.

We bought her a domain and put up a quick home page as a point of contact for her from now on: AmyCz.com.

We figured it would be easy enough to say and spell and remember. Feel free to pass it along, if you know someone.

In the meantime, she’ll be helping me find Web design customers. (We also bought MarkCz.com and I’m working on a little landing page for it.)

Or who knows? Maybe the blog will take off and we’ll roam the world reviewing food and movies, and shooting wildlife video with our Flip Ultra HD.

Maybe someday, we can even get her a big, goofy dog.