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When Pets Are Your Coworkers

We all go to work every morning with our unconventional co-workers.  Children and pets are the ones we meet at the proverbial water cooler each morning.  But if you think about it, how crazy is this job?  Harkin back to the day when you actually commuted to work, dressed…wearing make up with your hair actually combed, and had discussions with adults.  Hey, it wasn’t all that great compared to your new office environment!

My children are packed off safely at middle and elementary school every day, however my matching set of cats and one year old Labrador Retriever are fine work companions.  Well, maybe not fine but they are very present and eager every day.

A friend recently reminded of the needy little monsters I’ve created in the cats.  My husband and I adopted them back in the early 90’s and they are hedging on turning 19 at this point.  I’m convinced they both made a deal with the devil-their soul for eternal life because the end is no where in sight.

That being said, I love them dearly but as co-workers they stink.  First of all, they both go into four alarm panic mode if their food bowl (I feed them dry food) is low.  Meaning, that if they’ve eaten their way through the top of the food they worry and fret thinking, “My God, we’ll starve to death…when is my next meal coming?”

That’s when I started with my co-dependent behavior and began to provide them with the gratuitous “top off.”  Yes, folks instead of ignoring their pleas I find the Cat Chow and top off the bowl. It gets them to stop whining and I can get back to work.

However, sleeping is also a little difficult.  Pets and children are the only co-workers who actually wake you up at 4AM because they suddenly NEED a treat.  My black and white cat, Soho actually has a “I need a treat, get your butt out of bed STAT” routine.

It begins with simple meowing at my side of the bed.  I’ve learned to ignore that and I think he understands that I ignore it because he seems to move onto step two pretty fast which is shaking the blinds in our room.  He takes his little furry paw and shakes the blinds furiously, while meowing.  I often picture him holding cat training classes with a white board, a pointer and a step-by-step diagram of “how to get exactly what you want” because there is an actual method to his madness.

I digress.  Now the pillow goes over my head in a desperate attempt to sleep.  When he sees the pillow, he knows that he must resort to drastic measures so he prances over to the full length mirror we have propped up against a wall and starts to slam that back and forth against the wall until I drag myself out of bed to locate the treats.

I know what you are saying and doing…shaking your head, rolling your eyes.  Hey, I’m doing it to myself!  But in my misguided attempt to sleep…just sleep and make it all go away I’ll do it.

Of course if that were my children I’d just simply lock them out of the room.  Is that bad?

….and I haven’t even started on the dog!  She recently returned home from having knee surgery and the pain killer they gave her provided her with the same look a 70 year-old woman gets after a bad face-lift obtained in Mexico.  Have a good day.