Now that I work at home full-time, our cat, Hank, saves me a lot of eyestrain by standing directly in front of my laptop screen when I’m working, sort of a furry anti-glare coating on my life.
Sometimes, I try to work around him, stretching my neck up, up and resting my chin on his back, or leaning way off to the side, sliding out of my chair, still hanging on to the keyboard trying to type, before I snap out of it. Hey! I think. I have opposable thumbs and he doesn’t. Then I use those thumbs to operate the squirt bottle mechanism that never fails to sweep him off my desk. For at least thirty seconds or so.
I’ve read that cats and dogs can help improve your health, and owning a pet can help drop your cholesterol and blood pressure. With Hank, it seemed a simple enough equation. Work is stressful, so he keeps me from that stressor. Take it easy, he seems to say. Don’t work so hard. Here, I’ll stand right in front of your face, this will help you relax.
It’s really a wash, though, since his other pastime, lurking about and sinking his teeth into my feet, tends to raise my blood pressure a bit. Nothing like that surge of adrenaline from the bite of a sharp-toothed fiend to really wake you up and get you going in the morning.
9 Responses to Cat Screen Saver
Laughing my ass off. I’m going to use that pic of Hank’s ass as the wallpaper to my work computer, so the view will look just like the view at my home computer with a different colored cat ass. Thanks!!
PS — tell Mr Bitey I said Hi.
I want a furry anti-glare coating on MY life! Wait…
I actually wish you’d gotten a shot of Hank in one of his favorite positions: he has his front paws on one side of the laptop, his back paws on the other, and just stands there. I think he’s discovered that his ever-expanding belly perfectly covers the laptop screen.
Also, I’d heard that people who have two or more pets (especially when growing up) tend to be 77% less likely to have allergic reactions. Given the way Hank sheds, this should mean that he has singlehandedly ensured that I will never sneeze again.
Where are you citing these stats from Pulao? Maybe I need to get me a couple of cats. That way, as I grow up, I will gradually de-allergize myself. May take a couple of years, but hey, anything to prove Zach Fordham (a doctor who told me allergies can never be cured) wrong.
I think it looks like he’s being very helpful.
Good kitty.
RE: Allergies — There’s a great thing called allerpet that is some kind of homeopathic I think substance that you sponge all over the cat or dog and it seemed to reduce allergic reactions for me [allerpet.com] I no longer have to use it as I seem to be less allergic to our cats’ fur.
RE: Cat fur — I discovered the Furminator [furminator.com], a novel kind of curry comb that removes more hair from the cat than you would think possible, thus less on your furniture and in cat’s belly, in theory. I use it on my cats and am not sure whether it helps the hairball problem, but their fur is silkier than ever now. Cats didn’t like it at first, but now are getting used to it and liking it better.
I receive no kickbacks from the makers of either of these products.
Hank and Billy MUST come from the same litter. Besides looking a lot like Hank, Billy also sees it as his job to protect me from sights that stress me out. Only he defines stressful sights more broadly than Hank does–instead of “laptop screen,” it’s “anything that’s not Billy.”
Allergy-wise, the stuff that makes it possible for me to have Billy in the same zip code as my sinuses is Simple Solution’s Allergy Relief – Cat formula. Once a week, I soak a rag in the stuff, rub Billy down, dry him off, and I’m good to go. I’ve found it at both PetsMart (or whatever the hell their capitalization is) and PetCo. It’s like ten bucks for a bottle, which lasts a few months. Not a bad deal.
Kris,
I guess either you or Madhurima got a PhD since you qualified to get a cat. Congrats.
I’m glad you’re still doing the blog thing since you were doing it years before it got invented.
Just saw the darjeeling limited, and thought of you and the wedding I never went to. At least I got to mobile–which’ll probably be the next wes anderson movie. I hope you get this comment and email me back. Say hi to Maddy for me.
Eric
Hey there! – Great photos of your cat on the desk. I was wondering, if you don’t mind, if I could post one of your photos on my web site http://www.catonmydesk.com – the site is new, and I am in the process of sourcing photos, videos, whatever I can find at the moment!
Let me know,
Cheers,
Mike