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ET ISSUE 2143 Saturday 7 April 2001Feline managers If you have cats, working from home is tricky, says Susan Elkin
HOME-based workers are popularly supposed to suffer all sorts of difficulties: lack of self-discipline, time-wasting friends and little in the way of companionship. But all this is peripheral. The real drawback - and the one which no one mentions - is feline: you're in the house so, of course, the cat wants to be with you. That, after all, is what we're for, isn't it? To keep cats company.
So it was that when I gave up full-time teaching, innocently planning to pursue a career as a freelance writer, I hadn't allowed for the fact that my cats would have other ideas.
I have a first-floor room which I use as an office. Here, surrounded by cats, I attempt to plan work, write articles, speak to editors and other writers on the phone. (Until recently my cats numbered only two and at the moment I'm down to one, but "surrounded" still seems the right word.)
Rupert, my surviving cat, is a slightly built black-and-white whose favorite trick is to dash through the door at about a hundred an hour as if chased by some fierce predator. He lands in the middle of my desk, skidding on the shiny surface. All my carefully arranged papers are instantly scattered. Rupert then sits in the middle of the chaos he has created, purring and exuding that extraordinary confidence in his irresistible attractiveness at which cats are so good.
Rupert's deceased twin sister, Alice, was a more solid and staid cat whose determination showed in other ways. She would pound into the office in her heavy, purposeful fashion looking for a snug place to bed down - usually my desktop wire tray of current papers, thoughtfully placed as it is by a nice warm table lamp. It's less than helpful if someone rings and I need to refer to something.
"Oh yes, I think I've got your letter here," I say, adding under my breath, "but I can't get at it because it's underneath a sleeping cat."
If I push Rupert out of the way he will sometimes go into my deepest desk drawer for a second-best snooze. Fine, unless I need access to the files inside. Once or twice I've shut the drawer by mistake: much anguished scrabbling and plaintive crying when he wakes and finds himself boxed in.
No cat likes a human paying attention to anything that distracts from the proper business of communicating with it. To get my attention while I'm speaking on the phone, Rupert bats at the telephone wire and the pen I'm making notes with.
He also believes that if I'm gazing at the computer screen or studying a book or paper, I'm failing in my duty. So he sits on anything I'm trying to read. I recently finished a short book and kept the work in progress in a ring binder. Whenever I opened it, Rupert invariably planted himself squarely on top. Another strategy is to position himself between me and my computer to cut off my line of vision. For good measure, he often jumps across the keyboard, too - peppering my prose with lines of cat-gibberish.
And how do cats get to be such skilled map readers? I write travel articles, so I often need to spread out maps, usually on the floor. The mere rustle of a map being unfolded brings Rupert hotfoot. He then firmly sits - with unerring accuracy - on exactly the country I need to look at. And it's no good shutting him out. He picks relentlessly at the carpet outside until resolution (and the carpet) is worn away by the irritating noise.
Cats are not, of course, allowed in commercial offices. Just as well. They could bring industry and commerce to a complete halt single-paw-edly.
-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001
Now that is a really cute and accurate article.
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
"Rupert, my surviving cat, is a slightly built black-and-white whose favorite trick is to dash through the door at about a hundred an hour as if chased by some fierce predator." Have you noticed they don't do that scrambling around quietly? More like a herd of cats stampeding the premises. I have decided the sound effects are part of the game.As far as important papers, you simply have to develop the art of the paper decoy.
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
Anyone for National Cat Day? heheheheCute article. My cat sleeps on a file box right next to me. She doesn't dare get on the desk since the last time she did it, she and a bunch of papers went over the edge. There isn't much room for her now anyway.
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
The three cats that live here are really not that much of a problem. Angie will jump up on the desk then on top of the computer screen, in order to finally arrive on the window ledge. Georgie, the fourth one that died a while back, use to plop himself right on my hand which was on the computer mouse and lay part way on the key board. I would put him down off the desk, or move him over to another spot and he would just keep on coming back like the energizer bunny.It's sorta odd how cats do certain things. When I'm in the "office", that's where Angie will sit on my lap at the desk, when I'm in the parlor and sitting in my chair...Patrick will jump up on my lap and expect his time and to be the center of attention. Shotzie waits until I go to bed and sleeps with me.
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
"My cat sleeps on a file box right next to me. She doesn't dare get on the desk since the last time she did it, she and a bunch of papers went over the edge."Cats are like ornery kids, sometimes they have to learn for themselves.
I had a really cute little apartment in the Twin Cities ages back, when my coon cat was still with me and still very agile at the time. The only place I never saw her attempt to go was on top of the turntable. I can only assume she tried it sometime when I was not looking. Certainly no way she would have listened to my words of advice.
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
Dottie posted that picture Monday in the cafe at ICLOL
She has a different picture of some nutty animal everyday. LOLOLOL
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
Most cats are fascinated by water and the enormous bucks I squandered on a cat fountain have been worthwhile. Two of the cats are particularly fond of water and so we have a holed styro cup in Sweetie's shower. It's routine now: after his shower, Sweetie fills up the cup and the cats sit there and try to catch the "water snakes" dribbling out. We're thinking of putting a gallon plastic jug in there now. . .
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001
I loved that article. I work from home and we have 5 indoor cats. The one cat that is "mine" will get on my computer table and lay on my arms while I try to type or else use the keyboard for a pillow - usually on the space bar. We had to take the screen savers off of the computers because the cats loved to smack at anything that moved on the screen and would usually end up on the keyboard, starting programs, etc.One of the other cats will come in a meow until I get up to let him outside and if I try to ignore him,he jumps on my lap (and weighs about 20 lbs) or gets on my chair behind me and lays wedged between my back and the back of the chair (real comfy).
I can relate to the laying under the lamp as during the winter 2 of my cats loved to lay on the table under the lamp. In my office I have had to give the cats a space in front of the window that is theirs - no books or papers. I still have problems convincing the cats that my big laser printers are not for the cats. My cat loves to watch the paper coming out of the printer and will sit there as long as I am printing stuff.
The dog lays under the desk with the printers on it and that is her space and just demands lap time every so often (since she is an Australian shepherd, that is just the front half of her).
I wouldn't give it up for anything.
-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001