What do YOU do with pets in the home office?
Pets.
God love them.
The Inspired Cat thinks (perhaps rightfully) that she owns the whole place. Including my bill basket.
Cat and mouse at rest
Read on and you’ll discover that it basically *is* her house. I can’t imagine my life without her, so I know pets are here in my life to stay. However, having pets in your home office presents some small challenges.
Keeping pet issues at bay
What is currently working well for me:
A designated resting place. When I’m not in the office, Inspired Cat thinks that my Captain Picard Chair is her bed. Fortunately, it’s big enough for the both of us. In reality, she has a real pet bed on my desk that she uses a lot. It’s close enough for me to pet her, but out of the way enough that I don’t need the turf for work stuff.
Noise-canceling headphones. Sassafras is fastidious. Just ask Bridget. Her licking (Sassy’s, not Bridget’s) is sometimes incessant and it can drive me up a wall. Especially when I’m trying to concentrate on something. Agh!
Yelling at or otherwise dissuading a cat from doing anything it wants to do is pointless. Not to mention, rude. And I don’t want to lock her out of the office because I’m a big ol’ softy.
So I use noise-canceling headphones once a day for about 20 minutes to block out the noise and keep working. Then, once the lick-fest is over, Inspired Cat deigns to take her afternoon nap on my desk. It’s very sweet.
What I’m currently working on:
Cat toys. Everywhere. There’s the collection of feather toys, ribbons, the catnip pillow. If you have pets, you know what I mean. I’ve managed to move the scratching post to another room, but I haven’t found a handy way to store toys that she likes to play with during the day. It’s an organizing dilemma, I tell you.
Mom’s lap is a bed. We just can’t find a win-win for this, either. I don’t have enough lap or arms for her to lay on me/have me hold her while I’m trying to work at my computer. She looks at me adoringly and I usually give in and pick her up… but I “hate” that she can play me like that. Doesn’t she appreciate everything I do to keep food in her dish and a roof over her head? Doesn’t she know I have work to do?
It’s true what they say: Dogs have people, cats have staff.
What do YOU do to keep pet issues at bay?
Dogs? Cats? Echindas? Enlighten us. What works really well for you? What are you working on?
Share your insights and ideas! Your comments on your own process are welcome. House rules: Give advice to me or others only when it’s specifically requested. This makes exploring safe and learning possible for every reader.Organized under Uncategorized. Labeled as boundaries, home office, pets, self-employment, What do YOU do.
290 days ago,
Sarah Tieck said:
Fun topic! Well after some carpet eating and digging, our pet bunny has been banned from having free run of the office … it is pretty cute to see her delight when she gets to run inside (with supervision!) and explore the usually forbidden space.
290 days ago,
Christy said:
Jen, this is a great post!
We are owned by two cats.
I built Mimi a window bed (a padded shelf on level with the window ledge). Once I did that, she quit trying to come on either the desk or my lap. The squirrels are far more interesting than I am.
Hannah, on the other hand, does as she wishes, when she wishes, in the manner she wishes. I don’t even try. The nice thing is that she doesn’t like the clickedy of my keyboard and thus leaves me be … usually.
290 days ago,
Cairene said:
It can *seem* annoying – and I do have to be intentional about how I respond to his hints – but thank goodness my dog insists on being walked otherwise I would rarely get out for as much fresh air and exercise as I do. Max is a crucial member of the self-care and perspective departments.
On the other hand: I don’t know how I would get through class calls without sending him to playcare on Wednesday afternoons!
Cairene´s last blog ..Pulling loose threads.
290 days ago,
Christine Martell said:
I have multiple designated cat areas for the two cats who hang out with me. I have two office chairs, one for the cat who gets there first, and one for me. I have a second area at the window. Basically I watched where they wanted to be, and built areas there.
By consistently telling the one who is a constantly lying on the keyboard of the laptop to get on her chair— out loud in same words everytime— while putting her there, she actually seems to have learned the command. Now I just tell her to get on her chair and she does it. Doesn’t stop her from trying to get on the computer though.
Christine Martell´s last blog ..Getting control of email
289 days ago,
Darcy said:
Ooh, I’ve got a good one for the toys. At least this works for Miss Peaches, President and CEO of The Peaches Corporation (of which Darcy, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary). We put a shallow bowl for toys under a table next to where we keep her scratch pads. We put her toys in there, and she can still get them out to play with them as she likes, but then we can also easily put them away when there are too many strewn about. It’s been working pretty well for a few years now.
I actually set up a chair next to my desk for herself to occupy so I could see her while I work because she’s just so doggone cute. Spending more time with the cat is a big reason why I want to work from home.
Darcy´s last blog ..Book: Jacquard’s Web
289 days ago,
Bneato said:
I agree with Darcy–shallow container keeps toys corralled but still accessible for kitties:)
Bneato´s last blog ..Shhhhhhhhhh!
289 days ago,
Lori Paximadis said:
Like Darcy and Bneato, we corrall the cat toys in a shallow basket. They can go after what they want whenever they want it. It will all eventually end up under the couches, then we fish them out and stick them back in the basket.
I have never had any luck getting a cat to actually sleep or even hang out in a cat bed. They go where they like. In fact, there’s one settling in on my wrists right now.
Lori Paximadis´s last blog ..tidbits: turkey edition
288 days ago,
Alyson B. Stanfield said:
I tolerate the most hideous cat perch (on top of a plastic crate) and also a wicker cat bed on top of my printer. Tofu Cat is always making copies or faxing something for me! My husband is in the process of building a ledge for me so I can get rid of these things. They have quite honestly become the bane of my existence. No more tolerating them! But I love the cats in the office. The only time they bother me is when another animal wanders into our courtyard (deer, fox, other cats). Then they can go berserk. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Alyson B. Stanfield´s last blog ..Letter for responding to donation requests
286 days ago,
jennifer said:
@Sarah – Pet bunny! Bun-buns rock! Yay for finding a win win!
@Christy – Yes. You clearly know your place. Servitude.
@Cairene – I love the contrast of your comment with all the cat owners’ ones. There’s some kind of symbiosis that happens with dogs (except, as you mention) the barking dilemma during teleclass calls. “But Mom, I’m *protecting* you!” It’s great that you have an exercise coach in your pet – Inspired Cat refuses to help me with this!
@Christine! Funny! Those laptop keyboards are warm! But I’m so impressed that you have taught your cat to obey a command. How cool! I’ll bet she sees it differently, of course, but I’m still impressed. I also like what you said about paying attention to where they hung out before setting up stations for them. Sheer brilliance!
@Darcy – I cracked up at the “wholly owned subsidiary” description. There is nothing better than a cat to help us work on any remaining ego issues.
Awesome. Sounds like you’ve got a great system for the toy issue, too!
@Lori! That’s an impressively long comment to type with a cat on your wrists!
Thanks for braving it!
@Alyson – Exactly. The sacrifices we make.
I love your description of the cats faxing! One time I came back to my office (when I still had a laptop) and Inspired Cat had made an Outlook appointment with me and was attempting to save birds.com as my homepage. 