alt Hacker NewsDesk for people who work at home with a cat
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The problem is that cats can flawlessly detect when something was made for them to use, and then will not deign to use it.
Meanwhile, the cardboard box you have forgotten to take to the recycling for three weeks will become their palace.
I have a cat bed[1] that's attached to my desk. It's got a "monitor arm" and a bed on top. My cat loves to see what I'm doing all day so she will just lay there for hours and watch me work.
Seems designed by people who definetly do not work from home with cats.
The cats demand to be on top of the desk, within attention reach at all times.
Pro tip: even big cats love to lay in the top cover of a printer paper box. You can adorn the outside, but keep the inside plain smooth cardboard as they are extremely fond of that feel.
Putting "cat desk" into Amazon didn't show any custom desks, but did come up with a wide range of desk attachments for cats, as well as "cat laptop" (a scratching board shaped like a laptop) so this doesn't feel very surprising.
I agree with other commenters that this has about 99% chance of being ignored in favour of your keyboard, though.
yeah, this is no go. What you want is a way for the cat to be in a box front and center. So an underdesk keyboard tray that doesn't have room for a cat to sit on, but is big/deep enough for your hands, keyboard, and mouse and a "box" on the desk proper that the cat will naturally gravitate too. Of course, this works best with desktop machines or external monitors and keyboards instead of just a laptop.
Heh, cool. It's the complete opposite of my idea - an office chair for people who work at home with a dog. It's just a regular office chair but double wide - an office loveseat maybe? Anyway, the point is that the couch just isn't ergonomic enough for me to be productive, but I like when my dog cuddles me while I work.
I was hoping to see a glass surface for cats with keyboard and mouse space underneath so a cat can’t sit on backspace and escape key. No luck.
More like cat tree you might get no work done on but good for te kitties
Lap-insistent cat made it impossible to use a keyboard. I finally bought a desk-height cat "tree" (maybe a shrub...) and put it beside my chair. He'll move to it after some scratching, and he's happier because he can actually nap.
If only we could plug our cats in and use them to type. Call it a purrallel port.
Nobody else worrying that a cat may be caught under the wheels of your office chair?
Just put a box top on the corner of your desk as a cat trap.
my cat personally wants to be between me and the monitor right in front of my face. so maybe designing a desk with like, a dip or hole or something where the cat can go into would be good
I put a chair next to my chair and now my cat sits there so she can easily bat my USB wires and threaten my hair. She also sometimes hops onto my desk and gently taps at loose things or tries to chew up papers. I think this desk would offend her, but maybe the hole would make for fun surprise attacks at me?
Since Japan is a rule following society I assume the cats there will sleep only in the designated areas.
Valuable lesson about understanding your potential customers. There is in fact zero chance of my cats (and probably most others) sitting where they are supposed to, they much prefer being on top to look around - and sometimes to look intently at the screen as though they are reviewing my code.
Also need a split keyboard so a cat can sleep in between the halves.
I agree with all the comments that say the cats will likely not use the desk as designed, but note that they did manage to take all these photos with the cat in the designated places, albeit not a single photo with the person actually typing on the keyboard as opposed to playing with the cat.
Maybe the desk really is designed for people who work at home, if their job is cat photographer.
I love the weight limits being described in case someone has a particularly chonky cat
Electric blankets. I put mine in the chair next to me and my cat will furiously ask me to turn it on each morning. Three hours of peace.
I am working from home, my office is actually the former (and current) "cat room". For nearly 10 years my SO and myself were a foster home for rescue cats. And quite a few stayed here for various reasons.
None of them would use the desk. But they really enjoy their cameos in my Teams and zoom calls. And when I am not at my desk, when I am closing my laptop for the day, they instantly enjoy flopping down on the still warm machine.
Was easier when I had a big CRT on my desk, and the cat would just chill on top and bat at the mouse pointer moving around the screen.
All fun and games until the cat ends up sitting in front of your monitor, just like my cat is doing right now because it is warm.
Had to move my browser up to see what I am typing.
Every time I get up my cat steals my chair even though he has his own next to mine
My cat and I want a chair with a little shelf on the back by my head where he can sit.
The website design, the post content, the pictures... I get a big OO's web feeling reading this; that's weird!
I have a rolling wire rack with plants on it next to the desk. One shelf is dedicated to a cat bed and toys.
> There’s another cat space on the underside of the desk surface, in the normally unutilized space in front of your knees when you’re sitting.
Yeah… If you're of a typical Japanese length. My knees appreciate all the space they can get, and that very much includes the bit of 'unused space' where a cat can go in the article.
(Living in Japan as a student really made me feel like a two metre tall giant at times. Classroom desks at Japanese universities were universally too small.)
They just took a computer desk from the 90s and cut three holes in it.
I swear that once upon a time I sat at a desk, and it had a label printer sitting on it, and the box of labels was in a box fed through a hole pretty much like that... except I think it was kinda square with rounded corners. The "shelf" under the main part looks like you could put a retractable keyboard mount under there. Is this a joke?
I'm sorry Japan, but this is not how cats work. Cat "flight or fight" response is to run and climb a tree. They prefer to be up high, not down low in some cabinet. Feels safer for naps.
Something like https://desknest.com seems much more likely to work.
Just get a cardboard box, like your latest Amazon delivery. They are a magnet for cats.
Nah, they like to lay on the laptop to eliminate their competition. They want all our attention.
> There’s another cat space on the underside of the desk surface, in the normally unutilized space in front of your knees when you’re sitting.
"Normally unutilized"? This is where the drawer goes. Otherwise, it's just a glorified table, not a desk.
That’s silly. Cat will get on your keyboard anyway. The only real solution is to get heated floors. So my cat prefers sitting under my chair or desk and never gets on it.
I cannot tell if this is real or satire, but it is brilliant for online cat people.
cat review: 1 star, I want to sleep on my warm desktop tower again
I actually hoped for a good solution here, but this is basically a table with holes. I would not dare call such a table a solution for annoying cats. On youtube there are many examples that are better. My favourite one here is where the walls of the room are climbable areas for the cats.
They should add radiative heating. Cats often just want to steal your warmth.
I will never understand the accomodations people make for a pet which gives you so little in return. If most owners were 100% honest and in private I reckon at least 50% would admit their cat is an asshole.
I mean they don't even smile like a dog. They look miserable most of the time!
It's like an abusive relationship where nothing you do will please them LOL
Yes, I'm a dog person ;)
There must be something to the toxoplasmosis theory
I can foresee a design flaw, which is that the cat will ignore all the specially designated areas and sit on your keyboard instead.