Occupational Hazards

Motivating oneself to work on a cloudy, cold Sunday can be challenge enough without seven highly unmotivating factors within easy eyeshot: Two cats asleep on the bed, another asleep on the chair I’ll have to occupy in an hour or so, yet another one asleep on the recliner in the living room, and the last stretched out atop the television case, sleeping quite comfortably. Then there’s the large dog asleep at the foot of my chair, and another one, the puppy, curled up on the couch, happily and increasingly sleepily gnawing away at a rawhide “bone.” The third dog, Nina, is the self-designated protector of the household and all within it, so she prefers to stay outside--but I’m pretty sure that if I were to look out the kitchen window, I would see her curled up in the corner of the yard between the house and the garage, asleep. This is not an environment conducive to maintaining the degree of alertness one needs when tackling medical reports.

When you first start working at home, you will be offered all kinds of advice and warnings from people who have tried it and succeeded (or failed). Prominent, of course, is that you must keep potential distractions--kids, spouses, phone calls, or, in my case, sunshine streaming through a window--to a minimum. You’ll be advised to keep your work space separate from your living space (and my work computer is indeed separated by 4-5 feet from my bed, 6-8 feet from my “play” computer, the one I use to write and go online for news and photo-edit, etc.). One self-described “crazy cat lady” who had a couple dozen cats told me that she put up a screen door between her office and the living room so that the cats could see her, and she could see them, but they couldn’t take up residence on her chair or stretched across her monitor (these were the days before flat screens; cats LOVED stretching out on those old-timey monitors).

Nobody ever warned me about the dangers of the cozily sleeping cat(s) on the kind of day people call “made for sleeping.”

Xena, the large sleeping dog, has now awakened--she apparently senses that it is almost time for me to begin my shift, and wants to make a trip outside. Dogs DO learn your schedule when you work at home, by the way. I used to have a Pomeranian, Pixie, who would get antsy and try to lead me back to my office when it was just about time for me to go to work. Cats are aware, as well, although they handle the situation differently: One or another of my matriarch cats, Sabrina or Evi, will curl up on my work chair about 10 minutes before I need to settle into it, practically daring me to move her.

Guess I’ll follow Xena’s example and step outside for some fresh (frigid) air.