Outsmarting Your Cat/Coworker
7 Ways to Mitigate Pet Boredom While You Work From Home
Shockingly, watching me commune with my laptop for 9-15 hours a day is not sufficient entertainment for Junipurr, who has been promoted by Covid-19 to cat/coworker, the 2020 equivalent of singer/songwriter. You’d think that the ferocious typing and juggling of back-to-back conference calls would be scintillating enough to keep her bad jujus (boredom) away. But no. Word on the street, though, is that working from home is a privilege and you still gotta deliver, perhaps more than ever before, if you wanna bring home the bacon.
Same boat?
With any new job there is a learning curve. Just as we humans have had to adapt and pivot to pandemic conditions, our furbabies are learning to navigate new scope. They may have been boss at home furever, but being boss while you are at work (from home) is an expansion of responsibilities. In their effort to figure out how to boss you in this new capacity, they may:
Squat on your keyboard and swipe at you with murder mittens or type frantic SOS messages to the mothership (“6adfdjjjjjjjjjj!”)
Meow as if that audition for a role in the opera were imminent or gossip away about your manager, especially while you are on an important call …with said manager
Sprawl on your office chair and/or head
Insist on maintaining a five hour paw-holding session
Empirically verify that the power cord is, in fact, not a piece of licorice (which they are also not allowed to eat)
Drink your coffee or push that offensively basic brew (“What is this?! I only drink single origin organic free-range pour-over”) off the table
Snore loudly while you are feeling a little tired yourself
You get the picture.
Ok, one more, only because it’s the most shudder-inducing of all: Stare silently at you, with a hint of disapproval, from behind the monitor.
If you are juggling a demanding job and a demanding furbaby, I feel you. Here are seven ways that have helped me prevent and alleviate my cat’s boredom while working 9+ hours a day in her line of sight.
Ritualize safe space. If you have an area in your home that can be energetically fenced off (e.g. a office, a garage/attic where furbaby does not deign to go, or a fabulous work pod in the backyard), then by all means relish your fortune and try to enforce a “no furbaby distraction” zone. Close the door, maintain British imperial guard-worthy poker face, and eventually your cat *may* associate that place with your unavailability. However, if you, like me, live in an unintentionally tiny home, or have a cat who shadows you wherever you go and does not subscribe to the social construct of “office,” then designate a safe space through ritual. Once a day or once an hour - whatever frequency your work and your cat’s nap schedules can sustainably accommodate - stop what you are doing and physically step away from your computer to take a connection break with your furbaby. Note, surfing Instagram on your phone or participating in a one-person Cheetos eating contest do not count. The magic ingredient is your undivided attention. I once read a pro tip from a mom on helping her (human) foster child cultivate a sense of inner locus of control, which in turn naturally led to the child’s greater ability to experience calm. Two words: “floor play.” This mom would designate one hour a day, at the same time every day, during which she would dropped all of the other important things on her to do list (#momlife) and get on the floor, literally, to play with her child. What they played was completely dictated by the child. If the child wanted to play trains, they played trains. If the child just wanted to lay on the floor and cry a little or be rocked, she held that space and her baby. Can you imagine how grounding and empowering that kind of intentional presence and space-holding must feel? *Goosebumps* Tactically, I recommend putting this connection break in your work calendar so that the habit is automated and doesn’t only happen if you remember or the powers at work have mercy. Call it what you want - connection break, furbaby time, boss 1:1. Before the break begins, set a timer so that you don’t need to worry about being late for your next meeting. Finally, have a simple ritual (e.g. gentle nose rub) to signal that the break is over so your cat has closure. P.s. You may find yourself less stressed and depleted at the end of the day too :)
Make thy home a jungle gym. When I was in elementary school, I had a PE (physical education) teacher who knew that kids are monkeys at heart. Once a month, in between the “run a mile per state protocol” and “learn humility through sit-ups,” he’d set up a jungle gym replete with rope swings, trampolines, and climbing walls. It was catification for human children, and it was the highlight of my K-12 career. Guess what, friend? There is also catification … for cats! Down low there are crinkle tunnels and ripple rugs, up high there are cat trees and aerial highways. Importantly, it’s not just about buying or building a bunch of stuff. As the furbaby parent, you gotta keep that passion alive. Rotate the toys (cat toys are like fashion - what’s old becomes new and hip again with a bit of distance), move gear around (“Whaaa? The cat tree I have been scratching and perching on for the past month is now in the middle of the room? It must be a new offering from my admirers!”), and layer toys with gear.
Feed your Baby Einstein. Did you know that furbabies need intellectual stimuli and activities to encourage mental development, just like human babies? The read-aloud-together equivalent for cats is food puzzles, and the “Mozart for babies” equivalent for cats is cat TV. The world of food puzzles designed for cats and/or dogs is vast and ever-growing (I went on a cat puzzle HAUL early into the pandemic), plus you can also DIY with toilet paper rolls and set up a scavenger hunt around the home. Cat TV is even easier to “turn on.” Check out the Cat TV set-up section in Resources for a breakdown of the two types of tele for cats.
Expand her world. There’s something about sunshine & fresh air that do a body, feline or human, good. However, where I live in the US, my local animal shelters and vets strongly recommend that cats be kept indoor-only, given the numerous threats to their well-being outdoors. But that does not mean our furbabies can’t enjoy any sunbathing al fresco. Safe options for expanding your cat’s world include supervised patio playtime, harness and leash walks, and stroller rides (see Resources > Pro Kit). A catio, if you have mad money or carpentry skills, is a fabulous way to level up (see Resources > Trust Fund). Remember that you can also bring the outside in with cat-safe plants. If the plants are the olfactory stimulating kind, e.g. catnip, silver vine, valerian, then it also counts as a low-key form of intellectual stimuli, so twofer :)
Invite her to “help” with daily chores. This is a centuries-old parenting trick. In fact, entire Food Network shows have been developed by parents who have mastered this hack. In my household, Junipurr particularly loves to coach me on two chores: cooking and making the bed, esp if fresh laundry is involved. Everyday when I am about to cook dinner, I position her cat stroller (aka movable throne) near the kitchen, which signals to her to jump on top. As I meal prep, I run each ingredient by her superior feline nose and *consult* her opinion … before going ahead and doing what I was going to do anyway. It’s the conversation that matters, and Junipurr takes her job as Sous Chef incredibly seriously. She has even developed her own form of sign language: lick lips if she likes the smell of the ingredient, turn 90 degrees away if she doesn’t, turn 180 degrees away and make a horrified face if she really doesn’t (sorry, persimmons!). Junipurr also likes to supervise making the bed, and we’ve invented a game using fitted sheets called The Marshmallow (see if you can figure out the game with these two clues ;). Review the chores you need to do everyday and see if there is a way to build an interactive component for your furbaby. Note, this is not a move for maximizing efficiency, but parenting is about balancing efficiency with play, no?
Flex, literally. I know, I know — groan. Alas, unlike sitting at the desk, lounging on the sofa, or doing snow-angels in bed, physical activity like yoga or a cardio routine seem to be entertaining for our pets to watch. Maybe they are tickled by how much less fit or flexible we are than them, or they feel called to help us prevent injuring our bodies/dignity? In any case, Junipurr comes alive when I attempt to practice yoga. She finds it particularly hilarious when I do downward dog, judging by the way she sashays around my shaking limbs then sits with her nose almost touching mine before guffawing. Or licking her paws. Since we are the ultimate beneficiaries of this tactic (double groan), maybe our pets really do know what’s best for us...
Give the gift of space. There are two principles at work here: (1) when you remove yourself from the home, for example by going on a walk, you allow yourself to recharge, which is essential. Self-care is the foundation for loving on others. (2) Not having access to you 24/7 gives your furbaby space and opportunity to practice self-soothing. After all, boredom is not an enemy. Learn from the wise Icelandic teacher who teaches her first-graders to knit so that they learn to sit with boredom and, perhaps, begin engaging with their boredom. For our cat/coworker, too, boredom is an energy with the potential to be transformed.
Did any of these seven tips resonate with you? What do you do to prevent, alleviate, or transform your pet’s boredom while you work? As Guy Raz exclaimed in a recent interview, thriving during this pandemic requires getting fearlessly creative and bold. Please share your experiments & epiphanies below so we can learn in community!
