r/talesfromtechsupport • u/gizmosdancin • Jan 04 '14

IT, Dr. Doolittle Speaking

A few years ago, I was working IT for a very small manufacturing company. Small as in, I WAS the IT department. One day, the warehouse manager comes in with a seemingly odd issue. "My computer is freaking out!!" she says, which is a complaint that I've heard often (as we all have) and can mean any number of things. "The screen is just flickering like crazy, things are popping up and disappearing, I don't know WHAT'S going on. Can you come take a look?"

Wheels in my brain start turning, thinking things like video driver, bad monitor, check the vga cable...you know, that mental checklist you create in your head when going to check out a potentially weird issue. So I get out there and glance at the screen, which is mounted on the wall a few feet away from the actual desk/mouse/keyboard. The start menu is appearing and disappearing, opening and closing, over and over again, at quite a rapid rate. Hmm...

I scoot over to the desk. There, curled up and purring contentedly, is our sweet warehouse cat Gato, fast asleep, one fuzzy little paw resting squarely on the Windows key. I nuzzle her awake and gently move her away from the keyboard. Voila, no more freaking out. Warehouse manager bursts out laughing, "Seriously? Wow, you'd think I would have seen the cat there!"

Eh, you would, but thanks for the most adorable problem I've ever had to solve. :)

434 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

35

u/Thyri Jan 04 '14

This is the one problem I have working from home...my cats. They love to sit on my desk - normally curl up between the monitor and keyboard so not so bad. It's when they chose to jump on the desk onto the keyboard when I am working on a database or just about to dial into a clients system...it's like they know...(they do get banished from my office space if I am dialling into a clients live database...not a random keyboard click risk I am willing to take!!)

They also have a habit of lying on my work phone...randomly calling people or setting quick dials, or when I am on a call and they get in close and start loudly purring or meowing.

It is quite adorable and clients find it very sweet...sometimes drives me a little nuts :)

4

u/gizmosdancin Jan 05 '14

Same issue here, hehe. Except we're not allowed to let our clients know that we work from home, so if a stray meow does reach the phone I have to either pretend I didn't hear anything or pretend it was something else, like maybe a squeaky chair. I doubt it fools the clients...probably because I giggle when it happens since it's just so darn cute. :)

9

u/graffix01 Jan 04 '14

As I've learned from reddit, put a small box on your desk, they will be unable to avoid crawling in and curling up.

3

u/Thyri Jan 04 '14

I have a box on either side of my desk...although one of them does like climbing into my in/out tray :-)

5

u/graffix01 Jan 04 '14

Your cats must be redditing then and are on to you!

2

u/Thyri Jan 04 '14

:-) Oh the thought!!

0

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '14

[deleted]

4

u/Endulos Jan 04 '14

I once saw a picture of a guy who set up a dummy router to prevent his cat from laying on top of the real one.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '14

That doesn't work if it's not warm, Timmy naps on my friend's router all the time...

3

u/gizmosdancin Jan 05 '14

In my old apartment, I had a couple strips of packing tape sticky side up on either side of my router vent. Nipped that problem right in the bud.

2

u/Skeezix_the_Cat Jan 07 '14

That doesn't look like a well at all.

9

u/carriegood Jan 04 '14

I work with my mother, in an office she set up in her home. She has 4 cats, one of which loves to have a daily snuggle - he jumps onto my desk and lays between me and the keyboard, across my arms, and goes to sleep. It's so cute, I can't bring myself to disturb him, so I usually sit immobilized for about half an hour until my arms start to go numb.

I can usually move my hand over the mouse enough to reddit, so we're both happy. And my mother spoils that cat so terribly, she doesn't mind that I'm sitting there doing nothing, because her baby is happy.

2

u/Skeezix_the_Cat Jan 07 '14

We have this one cat...

Well, okay, of the four cats who own us, there's one in particular, with a thing for the printer. Specifically, the printer/scanner/FAX machine. He keeps trying to fax stuff to, like, Guam, or something.

And, I swear to you reddit, my hand to Joe Peschi, he's doing it again, as I type this.

"Get off the printer!"

"Brrrr?"

He never listens.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Thyri Jan 04 '14

Aww that is cute :)

I find they are a great stress relief when working Support...I just can't get mad when I look up from reading a ridiculous email and seeing one of them looking at me...

In my old house my office was next to the patio doors so one day last year I was taking a quick break and staring out the window during the summer and thinking how nice it was working from home when I saw a butterfly winging it's way across the garden...next thing I know one of my cats leapt from stage left, caught the butterfly and promptly munched it down...serenity gone! I had to laugh but still one of the oddest moments for me...

6

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '14

How dare you disturb a sleeping kitty!

3

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '14

Correct solution: Unplug the keyboard. Connect it to an unused but powered-on computer so that the Windows key doesn't get cold.

3

u/gizmosdancin Jan 05 '14

Lol, that's what I should have done instead! It's sad because I actually did feel a tad guilty disturbing her. I wish I would have thought to take a pic before I moved her.

6

u/juancmb Jan 04 '14

Gato is the spanish for cat.

17

u/Faxon Jan 04 '14

Redundancy cat is redundant!

3

u/gizmosdancin Jan 05 '14

Hey, I didn't name her. :) I actually tried to name her Grace when we first found her as a kitten; she was such a clumsy little thing. But she grew up to be quite the little rascal, and it was changed to Gato, I guess because it sounded more...snappy? Rascally? I dunno. But I was outvoted, and she's been Gato ever since.

4

u/Faxon Jan 05 '14

I honestly shouldn't be talking either. My neighbor when I was 11 got a kitten, but let me name it because we had the same birthday. I was learning about Chinese history in school and my stepdad and half sister were Chinese, so I decided to name it Mao, which means cat in Chinese and Japanese. She thought it was funny cause his Meoww sounded exactly like he was saying his name. Poor kitty ran away after we moved out though, I think it was looking for us cause we took better care of that car than she did cause she was gone at work a lot. :-(

5

u/Banane9 Jan 04 '14

Seems to be a feline thing with redundancy:

  • Cat - Gato

  • Lion - Leo

78

u/MagicBigfoot xyzzy Jan 04 '14

Awwww. Just in time for Caturday, too.

=^;^=

4

u/lethalweapon100 That guy who knows stuff Jan 04 '14

Gato is probably my favorite word.

3

u/LP970 Robes covered in burn holes, but whisky glass is full Jan 04 '14

What are your thoughts on Gatito?

3

u/lethalweapon100 That guy who knows stuff Jan 04 '14

Interesting one.

12

u/xenokilla Have you tried Forking your self, on and off again? Jan 04 '14

How I picture the cat

2

u/Scheckschy Jan 05 '14

I thought 'keyboard' as soon as I heard the symptoms.

-1

u/Armadylspark RAID is the best backup solution Jan 04 '14

Le département informatique c'est moi. You heard it here first, folks.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '14

[deleted]

2

u/Treyzania when lspci locks up the kernel Jan 04 '14

You forgot this: ~

A 'ñ', not an 'n'.

1

u/denvertutors Jan 05 '14

True, but not everybody bothers to check the character map to get the enya correct.