Desk for people who work at home with a cat
103 points
by zdw
1 hour ago
| 25 comments
| soranews24.com
| HN
PeterStuer
1 minute ago
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Seems designed by people who definetly do not work from home with cats.

The cats demand to be on top of the desk, within attention reach at all times.

Pro tip: even big cats love to lay in the top cover of a printer paper box. You can adorn the outside, but keep the inside plain smooth cardboard as they are extremely fond of that feel.

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MichaelDickens
52 minutes ago
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I can foresee a design flaw, which is that the cat will ignore all the specially designated areas and sit on your keyboard instead.
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rickstanley
30 minutes ago
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Put a useless keyboard down there and pretend you are typing with your toes.
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conartist6
34 minutes ago
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It could have a special heated area of the desk that isn't used for any technological purpose
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ivraatiems
1 hour ago
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The problem is that cats can flawlessly detect when something was made for them to use, and then will not deign to use it.

Meanwhile, the cardboard box you have forgotten to take to the recycling for three weeks will become their palace.

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mcswell
41 minutes ago
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We got a nice cozy fuzzy cat bed. So naturally the cat decided to sit in...the cardboard box the bed came in.
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pdpi
1 hour ago
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I deliberately leave the most recent delivery box out for my cat to lounge in. Sometimes it’s a small studio flat, other times (like when my 3d printer arrived) it’s a whole palace. She likes them either way.
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PhilipRoman
46 minutes ago
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Mine likes them as well, but usually within 24 hours they're transformed into thousands of tiny cardboard pieces.
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ChrisMarshallNY
13 minutes ago
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Chewy.com deliberately indicates that its boxes are for cats.

Also, their brown paper filler is loved by my cat. He doesn’t like Amazon packaging paper, but is all over Chewy paper. I wonder if they add a scent.

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emeraldd
13 minutes ago
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yeah, this is no go. What you want is a way for the cat to be in a box front and center. So an underdesk keyboard tray that doesn't have room for a cat to sit on, but is big/deep enough for your hands, keyboard, and mouse and a "box" on the desk proper that the cat will naturally gravitate too. Of course, this works best with desktop machines or external monitors and keyboards instead of just a laptop.
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vidarh
39 minutes ago
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Putting "cat desk" into Amazon didn't show any custom desks, but did come up with a wide range of desk attachments for cats, as well as "cat laptop" (a scratching board shaped like a laptop) so this doesn't feel very surprising.

I agree with other commenters that this has about 99% chance of being ignored in favour of your keyboard, though.

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_fat_santa
1 hour ago
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I have a cat bed[1] that's attached to my desk. It's got a "monitor arm" and a bed on top. My cat loves to see what I'm doing all day so she will just lay there for hours and watch me work.

[1]: https://a.co/d/0hymOUdn

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nijuashi
44 minutes ago
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I was hoping to see a glass surface for cats with keyboard and mouse space underneath so a cat can’t sit on backspace and escape key. No luck.
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jollymonATX
1 hour ago
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More like cat tree you might get no work done on but good for te kitties
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MisterTea
1 hour ago
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Seriously. This desk does the opposite of what I need. My cat has no issue getting on top of the desk. I need the desk to keep the cat off the keyboard and a shield over my mousing area before the cat settles it and denies mouse access.
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whynotmaybe
33 minutes ago
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notpachet
1 hour ago
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Maybe something like David Duchovny's hyperbaric hand chamber from Zoolander[0], but with a mouse inside.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJH3pXLa8o0

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CamouflagedKiwi
47 minutes ago
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Valuable lesson about understanding your potential customers. There is in fact zero chance of my cats (and probably most others) sitting where they are supposed to, they much prefer being on top to look around - and sometimes to look intently at the screen as though they are reviewing my code.
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vidarh
38 minutes ago
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There are desk attachments that will allow your cat to lord it over you from on high.
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green-salt
47 minutes ago
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I love the weight limits being described in case someone has a particularly chonky cat
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mgarfias
38 minutes ago
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Was easier when I had a big CRT on my desk, and the cat would just chill on top and bat at the mouse pointer moving around the screen.
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geephroh
27 minutes ago
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Sounds like a good diy project with an old monitor and a raspberry pi...
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markstos
1 hour ago
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Also need a split keyboard so a cat can sleep in between the halves.
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sdoering
44 minutes ago
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I am working from home, my office is actually the former (and current) "cat room". For nearly 10 years my SO and myself were a foster home for rescue cats. And quite a few stayed here for various reasons.

None of them would use the desk. But they really enjoy their cameos in my Teams and zoom calls. And when I am not at my desk, when I am closing my laptop for the day, they instantly enjoy flopping down on the still warm machine.

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vjvjvjvjghv
34 minutes ago
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Since Japan is a rule following society I assume the cats there will sleep only in the designated areas.
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skyberrys
38 minutes ago
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I put a chair next to my chair and now my cat sits there so she can easily bat my USB wires and threaten my hair. She also sometimes hops onto my desk and gently taps at loose things or tries to chew up papers. I think this desk would offend her, but maybe the hole would make for fun surprise attacks at me?
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ge96
38 minutes ago
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Every time I get up my cat steals my chair even though he has his own next to mine
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Someone
2 minutes ago
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[delayed]
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kleiba
37 minutes ago
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Get two identical chairs.
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jmugan
49 minutes ago
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My cat and I want a chair with a little shelf on the back by my head where he can sit.
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Freak_NL
1 hour ago
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> There’s another cat space on the underside of the desk surface, in the normally unutilized space in front of your knees when you’re sitting.

Yeah… If you're of a typical Japanese length. My knees appreciate all the space they can get, and that very much includes the bit of 'unused space' where a cat can go in the article.

(Living in Japan as a student really made me feel like a two metre tall giant at times. Classroom desks at Japanese universities were universally too small.)

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huggerl88
1 hour ago
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They just took a computer desk from the 90s and cut three holes in it.
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goodpoint
44 minutes ago
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Pretty poor design all around.
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tsumnia
12 minutes ago
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For real, what is that? World of Warcraft icons on a generic fantasy background?

[1] https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2026/03/ch...

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mrweasel
40 minutes ago
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Also illegal here in Denmark, if you use it while working from home. Desks must be height adjustable. Your employer is responsible for providing ergonomically correct office equipment. Basically any influencer and YouTuber who's showing "clever" desk hacks or builds fails because their creations aren't height adjustable.

And my cat sleeps behind the laptop anyway.

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andai
14 minutes ago
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Remarkable. What else is illegal there?
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dboreham
6 minutes ago
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Not proper bacon, which seems to be illegal in the USA!
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slopinthebag
25 minutes ago
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Wait, what? Can you chose not to use a height-adjustable desk, and your employer is only responsible for offering you one, or are you 100% forced into using a height adjustable desk?
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mytailorisrich
32 minutes ago
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Just get a cardboard box, like your last Amazon delivery. They are a magnet for cats.
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nickpsecurity
36 minutes ago
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Nah, they like to lay on the laptop to eliminate their competition. They want all our attention.
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shevy-java
51 minutes ago
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I actually hoped for a good solution here, but this is basically a table with holes. I would not dare call such a table a solution for annoying cats. On youtube there are many examples that are better. My favourite one here is where the walls of the room are climbable areas for the cats.
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throwaway290
29 minutes ago
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cat review: 1 star, I want to sleep on my warm desktop tower again
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2OEH8eoCRo0
1 hour ago
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They should add radiative heating. Cats often just want to steal your warmth.
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kevin_thibedeau
1 hour ago
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That's what the tower PC is for.
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