6 ms·
I can foresee a design flaw, which is that the cat will ignore all the specially designated areas and sit on your keyboard instead.
by MichaelDickens 6mo ago
I can foresee a design flaw, which is that the cat will ignore all the specially designated areas and sit on your keyboard instead.
- rickstanley 6mo agoPut a useless keyboard down there and pretend you are typing with your toes.
- dhoe 6mo agoThey're predators. They are very good at understanding where your real attention is.
- drgo 6mo agothis is a good way to lose a toe or two
- egypturnash 6mo agothis is an invitation to toe crimes
- conartist6 6mo agoIt could have a special heated area of the desk that isn't used for any technological purpose
- andix 6mo agoIt doesn't work. I have the laptop next to my screen and an external keyboard. The cat always chooses the cold external keyboard instead of the warm laptop, because that's the center of my attention.
- x______________ 6mo agoPast experience with cat-wrangling over the years have taught me one thing (amongst many): It doesn't matter what the object is, if human cares about it, cat will use said object as a cat would, in order to communicate with human. Communications from cat tend to be along the lines of: I'm hungry, or in most cases, I want attention (play/stimulation). Past objects observed: Keyboards, houseplants, pens & pencils, kitchen area counter and anything on it, pet ants, rock and fossil collection.. the list goes on. And related to cat areas, the secret that I've found was to never rely on buying fancy cat furniture but rather making a unique spot for cat every few days. Blanket for comfort, areas always in sight range of the work desk but not in it (to be distracting for work). Bonus points if you visit and pet cat when they're sleeping in those spots to reinforce that this is their spot and all is well with safety and comfort. And same for toys, makeshift toys are cheaper and more effective than overpriced pet store shenanigans (Eg: elastics, pieces of string tied together, sandwich bag clips, small bouncy toys). The secret there is also reinforcing playtime with those toys by simply playing with cat! Edit: written with cat at arm's length distance in makeshift bed in a chair~
- ProllyInfamous 6mo agoI awoke this morning to newcat lapping from my bedside drinking glass (with a dash of tea/caffeine). She has two other waterbowls... but I guess is mad at me because the edible I ate last night caused me to sleep in too long for her breakfast likings. Lil'shit knows this is not allowed, on a tabletop she's not allowed upon, no less! ---- I'm not a cat person and somehow have inherited a black kitten from each parent. ---- At least she didn't curl up napping upon my Apple Silicon (thankfully kess attractive than older Macbook AMD GPUs)... that's when I know I've actually fucked up #catWorld
- ordu 6mo agoWhen I was dying from COVID, it was an agony that lasted for two or three days. I don't remember the most of it, but I had no will or strength to get up. My cat was pissed off about me not feeding her. Obviously she was, though I didn't witness it with my own eyes, I was too deep into that COVID thing. At some point she decided that enough was enough, so she came to me and sat on my face. But the real devilry was the piece of shit that was stuck to her fur. I can tolerate my cat's ass on my face, but not her shit. I was fully awake in seconds. And she got her food. I always thought of her as of the stupidest cat I knew, but that event convinced me otherwise. She was the smartest cat, she was smart enough to conceal her intelligence so as not to raise my expectations for her behavior.
- ProllyInfamous 6mo agoYou've heard of the [in]famous cartoonist/commentator _catturd_, I hope...
- enlyth 6mo agoYeah after investing in countless cat toys from the pet store, I found out that my cat's favorites are (in no particular order): - McDonald's paper straw - Bird feather from outside - Empty toilet paper roll - Shoelace - Strap of Velcro - Bottle cap
- 6mo ago
- pjmlp 6mo agoExactly my thought, given my experience with fellow felines.
- isolay 6mo agoMakes sense. Cat probably thought you were grooming and warming up the keyboard just for her.
- andix 6mo agoExactly. Contrary to popular belief cats don't sit there because a laptop keyboard is warm. They also sit on external keyboards or even in front of a tablet without a keyboard (blocking the view to the screen). They just want your attention.
- whimblepop 6mo agoI'm not sure if this is enough for demanding cats, but I used to type with a small dog bed directly in front of me and my keyboard behind it, so that I'd work typing with my arms around my elderly chihuahua every day. She seemed to like it a lot, and she basically had my attention every time she stirred. I also felt that it was probably good for me for her to break my flow and demand my attention every now and then. It helped remind me to get up and stretch and be human better than I otherwise would have done.
- groovy2shoes 6mo agoi came across a manuscript once that had a bunch of inky paw prints across a page. the scribe clearly tried to blot one of them, merely smudging it, then decided to let the rest be. it was in a very beautiful hand, and the full page must've taken hours to write. that scribe's exasperation echoes through the ages. i wish i could find that MS again. to be fair, the page was probably arranged in a nice sunny spot at the time of the incident.
- PebblesRox 6mo agoAn example of a pawprint manuscript: https://art.thewalters.org/object/W.305/ https://art.thewalters.org/object/W.305/
- groovy2shoes 6mo agoawesome, thank you! i'm not surprised there are more of these. i may be a little surprised i don't see them more often ;)
- freedomben 6mo ago
- dbacar 6mo agoThat is inevitable :)
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- nottorp 6mo agoExactly! Although my last cat was nicer and slept between the keyboard and monitor. Pushing aside every small piece of crap that I kept on the desk of course (had to regularly gather sd cards that she pushed off the desk) but at least she let me see and type!
- Vedor 6mo agoMine too likes to lie between the keyboard and the monitor, but if I want to actually work I still have to remove her from the desk. The issue is that, while she usually is a lovely cat, the hand movements over the keyboard are turning her predatory instincts on, and sooner rather than later she's going to bite...
- tauroid 6mo agoSplit keyboard. Far enough apart and you have a dedicated cat zone.
- ctippett 6mo agoRebuttal exhibit A: https://imgur.com/a/Eu8zKMm https://imgur.com/a/Eu8zKMm
- burnt-resistor 6mo agoSplit keyboard mounting each half to the chair and VR headset instead of a monitor. That way, they can't get in front of the monitor or walk across the keyboard. A frmr coworker of mine wrote a Linux kernel module (not an April Fools' joke) to detect and prevent feline input... either stuck or neighboring keys. I don't think it was ever merged.
- dcminter 6mo agoMy wife, being a genius, has a decoy keyboard. Pretty effective, it usually has a cat sitting on it.
- PebblesRox 6mo agoI tried this for my toddler but unfortunately it fooled me more often than it fooled him.
- tdb7893 6mo agoI put a nice box with a pet safe heating pad and blanket and the cat never sat on my keyboard again. When she wanted my attention she then just stood in front of my face and then would sit back on the blanket eventually
- fwip 6mo agoYep. I have one of these on my desk: https://www.amazon.com/Generic-Cattop/dp/B09F8QQPJH/ https://www.amazon.com/Generic-Cattop/dp/B09F8QQPJH/ (a heating pad shaped like a laptop), and our cat will spend 90% of my workday on it, and the remaining 10% is spent getting my attention (or getting lunch).
- type0 6mo agoOr more likely on top of your tower pc