Past experience with cat-wrangling over the years have taught me one thing (amongst many): It doesn't matter what the object is, if human cares about it, cat will use said object as a cat would, in order to communicate with human.
Communications from cat tend to be along the lines of: I'm hungry, or in most cases, I want attention (play/stimulation).
Past objects observed: Keyboards, houseplants, pens & pencils, kitchen area counter and anything on it, pet ants, rock and fossil collection.. the list goes on.
And related to cat areas, the secret that I've found was to never rely on buying fancy cat furniture but rather making a unique spot for cat every few days. Blanket for comfort, areas always in sight range of the work desk but not in it (to be distracting for work). Bonus points if you visit and pet cat when they're sleeping in those spots to reinforce that this is their spot and all is well with safety and comfort.
And same for toys, makeshift toys are cheaper and more effective than overpriced pet store shenanigans (Eg: elastics, pieces of string tied together, sandwich bag clips, small bouncy toys). The secret there is also reinforcing playtime with those toys by simply playing with cat!
Edit: written with cat at arm's length distance in makeshift bed in a chair~
Exactly. Contrary to popular belief cats don't sit there because a laptop keyboard is warm. They also sit on external keyboards or even in front of a tablet without a keyboard (blocking the view to the screen). They just want your attention.
It doesn't work. I have the laptop next to my screen and an external keyboard. The cat always chooses the cold external keyboard instead, because that's the center of my attention.
I have food periodically delivered from Chewy, and I keep the box. Each month, the old box is recycled and the new box is put to use: https://i.imgur.com/lFgp63O.jpeg
There is definitely an attraction aspect related the "freshness" of the box, as there are squabbles over which cat gets to use the new box. These squabbles wane over time, until the new box arrives.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Heh, cool. It's the complete opposite of my idea - an office chair for people who work at home with a dog. It's just a regular office chair but double wide - an office loveseat maybe? Anyway, the point is that the couch just isn't ergonomic enough for me to be productive, but I like when my dog cuddles me while I work.
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.
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.
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.
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?
> 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.)
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.
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?
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.
I can foresee a design flaw, which is that the cat will ignore all the specially designated areas and sit on your keyboard instead.
Past experience with cat-wrangling over the years have taught me one thing (amongst many): It doesn't matter what the object is, if human cares about it, cat will use said object as a cat would, in order to communicate with human.
Communications from cat tend to be along the lines of: I'm hungry, or in most cases, I want attention (play/stimulation).
Past objects observed: Keyboards, houseplants, pens & pencils, kitchen area counter and anything on it, pet ants, rock and fossil collection.. the list goes on.
And related to cat areas, the secret that I've found was to never rely on buying fancy cat furniture but rather making a unique spot for cat every few days. Blanket for comfort, areas always in sight range of the work desk but not in it (to be distracting for work). Bonus points if you visit and pet cat when they're sleeping in those spots to reinforce that this is their spot and all is well with safety and comfort.
And same for toys, makeshift toys are cheaper and more effective than overpriced pet store shenanigans (Eg: elastics, pieces of string tied together, sandwich bag clips, small bouncy toys). The secret there is also reinforcing playtime with those toys by simply playing with cat!
Edit: written with cat at arm's length distance in makeshift bed in a chair~
Exactly. Contrary to popular belief cats don't sit there because a laptop keyboard is warm. They also sit on external keyboards or even in front of a tablet without a keyboard (blocking the view to the screen). They just want your attention.
Makes sense. Cat probably thought you were grooming and warming up the keyboard just for her.
It could have a special heated area of the desk that isn't used for any technological purpose
It doesn't work. I have the laptop next to my screen and an external keyboard. The cat always chooses the cold external keyboard instead, because that's the center of my attention.
Put a useless keyboard down there and pretend you are typing with your toes.
Exactly my thought, given my experience with fellow felines.
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.
I have food periodically delivered from Chewy, and I keep the box. Each month, the old box is recycled and the new box is put to use: https://i.imgur.com/lFgp63O.jpeg
There is definitely an attraction aspect related the "freshness" of the box, as there are squabbles over which cat gets to use the new box. These squabbles wane over time, until the new box arrives.
We got a nice cozy fuzzy cat bed. So naturally the cat decided to sit in...the cardboard box the bed came in.
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.
Mine likes them as well, but usually within 24 hours they're transformed into thousands of tiny cardboard pieces.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
The website design, the post content, the pictures... I get a big OO's web feeling reading this; that's weird!
Heh, cool. It's the complete opposite of my idea - an office chair for people who work at home with a dog. It's just a regular office chair but double wide - an office loveseat maybe? Anyway, the point is that the couch just isn't ergonomic enough for me to be productive, but I like when my dog cuddles me while I work.
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.
More like cat tree you might get no work done on but good for te kitties
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.
Something like this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/b1tay1/the_decoy_keybo...
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
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.
There are desk attachments that will allow your cat to lord it over you from on high.
I love the weight limits being described in case someone has a particularly chonky cat
Also need a split keyboard so a cat can sleep in between the halves.
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.
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.
Sounds like a good diy project with an old monitor and a raspberry pi...
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?
Since Japan is a rule following society I assume the cats there will sleep only in the designated areas.
Every time I get up my cat steals my chair even though he has his own next to mine
Could be because that one is warmer because you sat on it.
Get two identical chairs.
I think they like the heat. They also love to sit on warm car hoods after the car is shut off. Maybe a heating pad set on low would attract them.
My cat and I want a chair with a little shelf on the back by my head where he can sit.
> 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.)
They just took a computer desk from the 90s and cut three holes in it.
Just get a cardboard box, like your last Amazon delivery. They are a magnet for cats.
Nah, they like to lay on the laptop to eliminate their competition. They want all our attention.
Pretty poor design all around.
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.
This comment made this post worthwhile. Thanks for the tip!
Remarkable. What else is illegal there?
Not proper bacon, which seems to be illegal in the USA!
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?
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...
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.
cat review: 1 star, I want to sleep on my warm desktop tower again
They should add radiative heating. Cats often just want to steal your warmth.
That's what the tower PC is for.