As a freelance writer, I work from home most of the time. Recently we got a new kitten from the Denver Dumb Friends League. She was about three months old when we got her, and has been surprisingly little trouble. She used the litter box right away without any trouble (I guess she learned from the other cats there.) She is playful and curious, and even tolerates the four-year old chasing her and picking her up. During the day, she sleeps a lot.
Occasionally, she hears the clicking of the keyboard and comes running. I’m not sure if she just likes the sound, or what. Sometimes, she’ll get all the way up on my desk and stare at the mouse pointer as I move it around the screen, even pouncing on it with her little paws occasionally. I can’t decide if she has a sense of irony, or is just too cliched in her thinking 🙂
Yesterday, I was writing in my office in the basement. The kitten was upstairs somewhere, content to play or sleep. I needed to go to the bathroom, but the words were flowing and I was in the writing zone, so I ignored the signals from nature and kept at it. As time passed, my bodily needs grew more urgent, but the end of my project grew very near as well, so I kept at it.
That is when the kitten jumped up at my side, trying to make my lap in a single bound and having to use her claws to pull herself up instead. I yelped and hit my knee on the bottom of my desk. And, yes, she literally scared the piss out of me.
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Now, I have a special collar for when I’m working at home writing. This one has a little bell so when she slinks down the stairs and wanders up behind me, I at least have a chance of hearing her and finishing my sentence before having to prepare whatever muscle that is that keeps your bladder closed for an attack.
I’ve always heard that the bell is to keep them from hunting birds and other animals, but now I can’t wonder if that isn’t an excuse from sheepish owners who needed a more publicly suitable reason than, she made me wet my pants.