[HN Gopher] Desk for people who work at home with a cat
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Desk for people who work at home with a cat
Author : zdw
Score : 305 points
Date : 2026-03-27 15:31 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (soranews24.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (soranews24.com)
| jollymonATX wrote:
| More like cat tree you might get no work done on but good for te
| kitties
| MisterTea wrote:
| 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.
| notpachet wrote:
| 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
| whynotmaybe wrote:
| Something like this?
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/b1tay1/the_decoy_keybo.
| ..
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| They should add radiative heating. Cats often just want to steal
| your warmth.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| That's what the tower PC is for.
| huggerl88 wrote:
| They just took a computer desk from the 90s and cut three holes
| in it.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| > 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.)
| ivraatiems wrote:
| 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.
| pdpi wrote:
| 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.
| PhilipRoman wrote:
| Mine likes them as well, but usually within 24 hours they're
| transformed into thousands of tiny cardboard pieces.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| 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.
| mcswell wrote:
| We got a nice cozy fuzzy cat bed. So naturally the cat decided
| to sit in...the cardboard box the bed came in.
| bartvk wrote:
| We once got a cat bed with a soft canopy. It held up due to
| the stiffness of the fabric. The cat found out that it's
| possible to make the canopy sag by putting her full weight on
| it. She never actually slept inside it, only on top of it.
| When she died of old age, the bed looked old and disheveled,
| but the inside was pristine...
| fullstop wrote:
| 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.
| zdware wrote:
| Same habit here!
| rationalist wrote:
| I just put an appropriately-sized cardboard box on the corner
| of my desk.
| linsomniac wrote:
| Ditto, a short box from wet cat food worked really well to
| keep my cats off the laptop.
|
| I have a USB keyboard and external monitors, so the laptop
| sits off to the side, and is warm, so they loved to sleep
| there. Particularly a problem since it also has a button that
| powers off the laptop. I made a keyboard cover, but even then
| it was problematic with them sleeping on it (thermal
| throttling).
|
| Putting a box on the desk solved that, they prefer it, until
| a second cat wants to join the party, which is thankfully
| rare.
| markstos wrote:
| Also need a split keyboard so a cat can sleep in between the
| halves.
| _fat_santa wrote:
| 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
| archagon wrote:
| Hah! Is your cat bed ergonomically adjusted?
| MichaelDickens wrote:
| I can foresee a design flaw, which is that the cat will ignore
| all the specially designated areas and sit on your keyboard
| instead.
| conartist6 wrote:
| It could have a special heated area of the desk that isn't used
| for any technological purpose
| andix wrote:
| 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 of the warm laptop, because that's the
| center of my attention.
| rickstanley wrote:
| Put a useless keyboard down there and pretend you are typing
| with your toes.
| dhoe wrote:
| They're predators. They are very good at understanding where
| your real attention is.
| drgo wrote:
| this is a good way to lose a toe or two
| egypturnash wrote:
| this is an invitation to toe crimes
| x______________ wrote:
| 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~
| ProllyInfamous wrote:
| I awoke this morning to newcat lapping from my bedside
| drinking glass (with a dash of tea/caffeine). She has two
| other waterbowls... but I guess _is mad at me_ because the
| edible I ate last night caused me to sleep in _too long for
| her breakfast likings_.
|
| Lil'shit _knows_ this is not allowed, on a tabletop _she 's
| not allowed upon, no less_!
|
| ----
|
| I'm not a _cat person_ and somehow have inherited a black
| kitten from each parent.
|
| ----
|
| At least she didn't curl up napping upon my Apple Silicon
| (thankfully kess attractive than older Macbook AMD GPUs)...
| that's when _I know_ I 've actually fucked up #catWorld
| enlyth wrote:
| Yeah after investing in countless cat toys from the pet
| store, I found out that my cat's favorites are (in no
| particular order):
|
| - McDonald's paper straw
|
| - Bird feather from outside
|
| - Empty toilet paper roll
|
| - Shoelace
|
| - Strap of Velcro
|
| - Bottle cap
| unsnap_biceps wrote:
| I think variety is the key, and we've had really good
| outcomes by having a few pet shop toys (feather on wand,
| squeaky mouse, ball with bell) that we bring out for a few
| hours every few weeks and then put away, so it doesn't turn
| into something normal for them to ignore.
| financetechbro wrote:
| Cat + bottle cap around the hours of 3am - 5am seems to be
| a preferred form of entertainment, from my experience
| brewdad wrote:
| Elastic hair ties have always been a favorite of my cats.
| My wife has to hide them unless she wants to be gifted with
| the "kill" at 3am.
| teamonkey wrote:
| They are incredibly communicative animals. Their problem
| seems to be that I am a very stupid creature that often does
| the wrong thing, like not feeding them every time they're
| hungry, sitting at a desk instead of playing with them,
| carrying them out of the room when they were clearly trying
| to get on the kitchen counter, and so on.
| miriam_catira wrote:
| Or, god forbid, stupid creature that I am, I buy _the wrong
| flavor food_. Then it's all "why are you trying to poison
| me, hooman? do you not love me anymore??"
| embit wrote:
| One of the best Human-Cat interactions scenes about food
| in a movie is the opening 10 minutes from movie The Long
| Goodbye
| dylan604 wrote:
| From my direct multi-year study, the surest way to have a cat
| _not_ lay in a specific place is to place a fluffy cat bed in
| that place. Also, no toy is more precious to a cat than a
| non-toy item stolen from the hooman with hair ties being one
| of the most precious items.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Exactly my thought, given my experience with fellow felines.
| isolay wrote:
| Makes sense. Cat probably thought you were grooming and warming
| up the keyboard just for her.
| andix wrote:
| 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.
| whimblepop wrote:
| I'm not sure if this is enough for demanding cats, but I used
| to type with a small dog bed directly in front of me and my
| keyboard behind it, so that I'd work typing with my arms
| around my elderly chihuahua every day. She seemed to like it
| a lot, and she basically had my attention every time she
| stirred.
|
| I also felt that it was probably good for me for her to break
| my flow and demand my attention every now and then. It helped
| remind me to get up and stretch and be human better than I
| otherwise would have done.
| groovy2shoes wrote:
| i came across a manuscript once that had a bunch of inky paw
| prints across a page. the scribe clearly tried to blot one of
| them, merely smudging it, then decided to let the rest be. it
| was in a very beautiful hand, and the full page must've taken
| hours to write. that scribe's exasperation echoes through the
| ages. i wish i could find that MS again.
|
| to be fair, the page was probably arranged in a nice sunny
| spot at the time of the incident.
| freedomben wrote:
| Partially correct. For sure a lot of it is getting attention,
| but they _do_ care about the warmth. I 've walked in to my
| office plenty of times to see my cat sitting on my laptop
| when I haven't even been in there for hours. She will even
| find the laptop and lay on it when it's in random places
| around the house. Reproduced with three different cats over
| the yeras. The warmth is definitely a cat magnet.
| butvacuum wrote:
| sometimes its scent too.
| saghm wrote:
| When my cats want warmth, they go on top of my desktop
| tower (or on my lap under the keyboard tray). If they're at
| the level of my desk, they're almost definitely angling for
| attention.
| nkapias wrote:
| Noticed that in my absence, cats hang where I spend the
| most of my time when present. If for a few days I only come
| home to sleep I'll usually find them on my bed. If I work
| at my desk for a week, then the next days they'll be found
| on my chair. And so on.. A somewhat reliable habit
| indicator.
| saghm wrote:
| I have a keyboard tray and a desk with two monitors. Both of
| my cats love to stand on the space in the desk of whatever
| monitor I happen to be focusing on more (preferably blocking
| as much of it as possible from my view). They know _exactly_
| what they 're doing.
| dbacar wrote:
| That is inevitable :)
| nottorp wrote:
| Exactly!
|
| Although my last cat was nicer and slept between the keyboard
| and monitor. Pushing aside every small piece of crap that I
| kept on the desk of course (had to regularly gather sd cards
| that she pushed off the desk) but at least she let me see and
| type!
| tauroid wrote:
| Split keyboard. Far enough apart and you have a dedicated cat
| zone.
| ctippett wrote:
| Rebuttal exhibit A: https://imgur.com/a/Eu8zKMm
| dcminter wrote:
| My wife, being a genius, has a decoy keyboard. Pretty
| effective, it usually has a cat sitting on it.
| tdb7893 wrote:
| I put a nice box with a pet safe heating pad and blanket and
| the cat never sat on my keyboard again. When she wanted my
| attention she then just stood in front of my face and then
| would sit back on the blanket eventually
| fwip wrote:
| Yep. I have one of these on my desk:
| https://www.amazon.com/Generic-Cattop/dp/B09F8QQPJH/ (a
| heating pad shaped like a laptop), and our cat will spend 90%
| of my workday on it, and the remaining 10% is spent getting
| my attention (or getting lunch).
| type0 wrote:
| Or more likely on top of your tower pc
| shevy-java wrote:
| 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.
| jmugan wrote:
| My cat and I want a chair with a little shelf on the back by my
| head where he can sit.
| CamouflagedKiwi wrote:
| 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.
| vidarh wrote:
| There are desk attachments that will allow your cat to lord it
| over you from on high.
| CamouflagedKiwi wrote:
| I have a bookshelf and a cat tree near my desk, they do
| indeed do that.
| green-salt wrote:
| I love the weight limits being described in case someone has a
| particularly chonky cat
| sdoering wrote:
| 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.
| goodpoint wrote:
| Pretty poor design all around.
| mrweasel wrote:
| 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.
| slopinthebag wrote:
| 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?
| mrweasel wrote:
| For work you must use a height adjustable desk. It doesn't
| have to be electric, you just need to be able to adjust it
| to your correct work height. If you don't use it, and I
| don't know work at your kitchen desk, that's technically a
| violation of workspace rules. Your boss tell you to use a
| proper desk, because if they don't they can be fined.
|
| You also can't use the keyboard and trackpad on your
| laptop. You must be provided with a separate keyboard,
| mouse/trackpad/trackball and a monitor. Working on your
| laptop is for emergencies or very brief tasks.
| andai wrote:
| Remarkable. What else is illegal there?
| dboreham wrote:
| Not proper bacon, which seems to be illegal in the USA!
| cestith wrote:
| Not illegal, but much harder to find than the sliced,
| cured belly meat (often from the side of the belly)
| usually meant when we just say "bacon" without
| qualification. One can get Canadian bacon, cured side
| bacon, cured back bacon, uncured pork belly, uncured side
| meat, uncured back meat, turkey bacon, beef bacon, and
| several other things in bacon-like categories. If you
| just say "bacon", though, you're probably going to get
| pork belly meat cured with salt and/or some form of
| sugar, and possibly smoked.
| mrweasel wrote:
| You can't stuff workers into rooms/offices without access
| to daylight.
| type0 wrote:
| In Sweden, not checking on your cat at least twice daily is
| illegal
| flakiness wrote:
| This comment made this post worthwhile. Thanks for the tip!
| tsumnia wrote:
| 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...
| nijuashi wrote:
| 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.
| vidarh wrote:
| 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.
| ge96 wrote:
| Every time I get up my cat steals my chair even though he has his
| own next to mine
| kleiba wrote:
| Get two identical chairs.
| olyjohn wrote:
| 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.
| Someone wrote:
| Could be because that one is warmer because you sat on it.
| skyberrys wrote:
| 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?
| mgarfias wrote:
| 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.
| geephroh wrote:
| Sounds like a good diy project with an old monitor and a
| raspberry pi...
| nabbed wrote:
| I came to post the same thing. I assume my cat liked the heat
| emanating from the CRT's vents on top.
| nickpsecurity wrote:
| Nah, they like to lay on the laptop to eliminate their
| competition. They want all our attention.
| vjvjvjvjghv wrote:
| Since Japan is a rule following society I assume the cats there
| will sleep only in the designated areas.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| Just get a cardboard box, like your latest Amazon delivery. They
| are a magnet for cats.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| cat review: 1 star, I want to sleep on my warm desktop tower
| again
| emeraldd wrote:
| 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.
| PeterStuer wrote:
| 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.
| wombat-man wrote:
| There's just no room on my desk. But I put a chair next to mine
| and sometimes she sits there to watch.
| drfloyd51 wrote:
| I put a small blanket in an inverted printer paper lid. Instant
| hit.
|
| The can was always at arms reach for scritches and cat
| debugging.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| 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.
| ana_lysis wrote:
| I have a relatively big office chair and do exactly this. I
| ordered the chair online so I didn't know that it would be
| quite so big. Now my dog has learnt to hop on to the chair and
| curl around behind me. I do end up sitting on the edge of my
| seat but obviously my dog's comfort takes priority.
| wiether wrote:
| The website design, the post content, the pictures... I get a big
| OO's web feeling reading this; that's weird!
| gib444 wrote:
| I will never understand the accomodations people make for a pet
| which gives you so little in return. If most owners were 100%
| honest and in private I reckon at least 50% would admit their cat
| is an asshole.
|
| I mean they don't even smile like a dog. They look miserable most
| of the time!
|
| It's like an abusive relationship where nothing you do will
| please them LOL
|
| Yes, I'm a dog person ;)
|
| There must be something to the toxoplasmosis theory
| cestith wrote:
| I'm a dog person, but most cats are lower maintenance than most
| dogs.
| gib444 wrote:
| High ROI though
|
| Does your cat welcome you every day when you come home like
| you're the most awesome person in the world? Doubtful! Dogs -
| hell yeah
| drgo wrote:
| I recall reading that ~30% of humans have evidence of
| toxoplasmosis. But, it is unclear whether that is harming their
| intelligence. Statistically, cat owners have higher IQ than dog
| owners (pls do not shoot the messenger unless you want to
| provide further evidence of the validity of this observation).
| gverrilla wrote:
| > so little in return.
|
| That's simply not true. You clearly never had a cat.
| gib444 wrote:
| Pray tell
| QuantumGood wrote:
| I have a rolling wire rack with plants on it next to the desk.
| One shelf is dedicated to a cat bed and toys.
| omoikane wrote:
| I agree with all the comments that say the cats will likely not
| use the desk as designed, but note that they did manage to take
| all these photos with the cat in the designated places, albeit
| not a single photo with the person actually typing on the
| keyboard as opposed to playing with the cat.
|
| Maybe the desk really is designed for people who work at home, if
| their job is cat photographer.
| munchler wrote:
| > 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.
|
| "Normally unutilized"? This is where the drawer goes. Otherwise,
| it's just a glorified table, not a desk.
| impoppy wrote:
| That's silly. Cat will get on your keyboard anyway. The only real
| solution is to get heated floors. So my cat prefers sitting under
| my chair or desk and never gets on it.
| windowliker wrote:
| If only we could plug our cats in and use them to type. Call it a
| purrallel port.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| They prefer cat-5 cabling.
| himata4113 wrote:
| All fun and games until the cat ends up sitting in front of your
| monitor, just like my cat is doing right now because it is warm.
|
| Had to move my browser up to see what I am typing.
| bombcar wrote:
| You need a stand such when the cat's weight is detected in
| front of the monitor, the monitor is lifted up.
| himata4113 wrote:
| Then the source of heat will disappear and the cat will
| simply move to the 2nd monitor.
| cf100clunk wrote:
| I cannot tell if this is real or satire, but it is brilliant for
| online cat people.
| jldugger wrote:
| I'm sorry Japan, but this is not how cats work. Cat "flight or
| fight" response is to run and climb a tree. They prefer to be up
| high, not down low in some cabinet. Feels safer for naps.
|
| Something like https://desknest.com seems much more likely to
| work.
| ciberado wrote:
| Electric blankets. I put mine in the chair next to me and my cat
| will furiously ask me to turn it on each morning. Three hours of
| peace.
| baddash wrote:
| my cat personally wants to be between me and the monitor right in
| front of my face. so maybe designing a desk with like, a dip or
| hole or something where the cat can go into would be good
| kabdib wrote:
| Lap-insistent cat made it impossible to use a keyboard. I finally
| bought a desk-height cat "tree" (maybe a shrub...) and put it
| beside my chair. He'll move to it after some scratching, and he's
| happier because he can actually nap.
| m3047 wrote:
| I swear that once upon a time I sat at a desk, and it had a label
| printer sitting on it, and the box of labels was in a box fed
| through a hole pretty much like that... except I think it was
| kinda square with rounded corners. The "shelf" under the main
| part looks like you could put a retractable keyboard mount under
| there. Is this a joke?
| hinkley wrote:
| Just put a box top on the corner of your desk as a cat trap.
| amelius wrote:
| Nobody else worrying that a cat may be caught under the wheels of
| your office chair?
| tusuegra wrote:
| Working from home in Buenos Aires with two cats. Can confirm: no
| amount of designated cat space will prevent them from choosing
| exactly the spot where your hands need to be.
|
| My actual solution ended up being a cheap heating pad on a shelf
| right next to my monitor, at the same height. Cats are heat-
| seeking missiles, so in winter it works about 80% of the time. In
| summer nothing works and you just accept the situation.
|
| The real issue nobody talks about is video calls. Clients see a
| cat walk across your keyboard mid-demo and suddenly the
| conversation shifts from your product to your cat for 10 minutes.
| Not the worst sales strategy honestly.
| FpUser wrote:
| I just put round cat bed on my desk to the left of my keyboard.
| Works like a charm. It is close by so I can play with the cat /
| pet it and cat does not use my keyboard as a bed.
| xybernetex wrote:
| Yeah, fantastic idea. 'Cept that whole cats are waaaaaay more
| intrigued with what a human has to do than what it most well
| thought out for it.
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(page generated 2026-03-27 23:00 UTC)