Battling Your Cat for WFH Peace: How to Reach a Truce

The increase in remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an inevitable battle with our beloved cats. An intense struggle has begun between owners who want to focus on work and cats who desperately want attention.

As a freelance writer, I am one of those who face this battle day and night. This time, I'll introduce the ways my cat obstructs my work and the solutions I've found.

Troubled by my cats who want to interrupt my work

As a freelance writer, I've been working from home since before the pandemic. When I lived in an apartment, my beloved cat would often walk across the keyboard, altering my manuscripts several times.

I couldn't get any work done like this. But it was also hard to keep ignoring my cat, who would demand attention during work... So, when I built my custom home, I made a clever adjustment. I created a "cat room" next to my study where my cats could relax.

I installed a glass panel between the rooms so my cats could see me working. I did this because Kotaro (a tabby cat, male), one of my cats, has separation anxiety and cries if he can't see me.

...That's a plausible excuse, but in reality, I'm just a crazy cat person who wants to be in my cats' eyes all the time. This clever idea solved my remote work problems, and I was able to enjoy peaceful writing time.

However, three years after building the house, my private life changed. Due to circumstances I won't go into here, I divorced my husband after ten years together. I continued to live in the new house we built. After about three or four years of living alone, I started cohabiting with a new partner in my home.

When people change, so does the use of rooms. My new partner preferred to have his own room. However, the only private room in my house was my study. So, I decided to give him my meticulously designed study and started working in the living room downstairs.

And so, as you might expect, days of my cats intensely interrupting my work began.

I found myself receiving so many interruptions that I wanted to tell my past self, who thought "if I install a cat-walk near the computer, the cats will relax there," "You don't understand cats at all!"

Jiji (a calico cat, Munchkin/female), in particular, started diligently interfering. She's usually a tsundere, but for some reason, her "want attention" mode activates only during work.

On nights when I have a lot of free time, she'll roll around on the carpet with a look that says, "Oh, you're free, aren't you? I'm busy." But...

Jiji would trot onto my computer desk, regardless of what I was doing, and settle in front of the keyboard. She'd deliberately stretch her legs and linger in front of the keyboard, hoping to be picked up.

Her adorable pleas always left me completely defeated. I'd hug her as she demanded, and my work would be interrupted.

I even tried a "solution" I saw on social media...

This can't go on. I'm going to want to hug them forever... Feeling this way, and realizing the severity of my writing time being eaten up by cat magic, I tried a "distraction countermeasure" I saw on social media.

Among them, the solution that seemed most effective was to place a box or basket next to the computer. Cats love narrow spaces and are creatures that embody "if there's a box, I want to get in it." I thought, with this, I could peacefully work while watching my beloved cat sleep soundly. I thought I had definitely won.

However, despite confidently trying it, the result was just me and the cat staring at an empty basket. The basket that wouldn't act as a "cat trap" eventually became "something in the way" and ended up as a towel holder in the washroom.

Maybe it's because the basket is too small. Not wanting to admit defeat, I blamed the basket and this time placed the cat bed I used in the living room next to the computer.

My cats were curious about the cat bed that had suddenly moved next to the computer. However, this strategy ultimately ended in failure.

Since it felt a shame to discard the clever idea I had come up with, I put a fishing cat plush toy in the cat bed for a while. I was enjoying the "feeling that a cat was in it."

The calm came with a cat-first solution

How can I protect myself and my manuscript from my beloved cat's interference? After my failures, I started thinking more deeply and carefully observed my cat's behavior when she came to interfere.

Then, a question popped into my head. "Wait, maybe they're not asking for attention, but coming to call me when they're hungry...?"

So, I tried offering a small amount of treats when they came to my computer. Immediately, the "I love you" (hallucination) directed at me stopped, and everyone rushed to the treats. After eating, they didn't come to my computer anymore and started relaxing in their favorite spots.

I see. It wasn't me they wanted, but treats. Perhaps because I realized this, even though I saw a solution to the problem for the first time that day, my heart didn't feel refreshed.

Realizing the happiness of having my manuscript altered by cute paw prints every day

After all, for my cats, "food > servant." What seemed like attention-seeking was actually love for food. Perhaps sensing my disappointment, my cats started interfering with my work even after they finished eating.

As if seeing through my heart, which was jealous of the treats my cats loved and, contrary to my initial plan, had started to wish for their interference, not only Jiji but also Kotaro and Leon began to frolic around my computer.

While I was happy, it also meant I was back to square one. I started to be troubled by manuscript alterations made by cute paw prints again.

So, I made a small adjustment by widening the space to the left of my computer, allowing my cats to lie down there. And as if they understood my intentions, my cats started to relax in that spot.

Sometimes, they even exert "cat pressure" to demand food.

While interference can be troublesome, days without their attention are sad and painful. After contemplating countermeasures against remote work interference, I've come full circle and decided to interpret my cats' disruptions as "courtship behavior" towards me.

Do they really love me that much? Perhaps they're inscribing their love into my manuscript? A sinful servant, so beloved... With this mindset, I "sentence" my beloved cat, who is eagerly seeking attention next to my computer today, to a "hug punishment."

Instead of struggling to make them endure their desire for attention, conveying affection with a few hugs and cuddles to satisfy them might be a surprisingly effective countermeasure against interference.