Cat Chat Feline Forum

We all put up with it, don't we?

Cat hair.

Even the most houseproud of us know all about the old joke about 'fur-niture' and dust bunnies the size of sheep crouching under the bed and forgetting to remove throws from said fur-niture before inviting callers to sit down and the guilt on realising that these guys are going to go home with hairy bottoms ...

And I'm not houseproud

For the last few months I've been getting very cross about my 6 year old laptop keyboard, which has had a thrashing: zillion drafts of The Novel as well as lively contributions in the past to snake forums etc, surprised it's lasted this long. My 'd' key began to stick...an th n th 'e'...an th 'f' an I was b ginning to snarl an us som v ry naughty wor s an phras s NOT b ginning with 'arn', 'amn' or 'rat' ... more like 'uck' W ll, you g t th pictur.

I was not a happy camp r.

Then someone on here mentioned an aerosol duster (good on them and thanks because I'd never heard of these) and I found one for £3.99 free p&p from my friend Mr Amazon and gave it a go last night. It didn't half blow out some fluff and dust, but loads of fuzz remained, so I thought I'd run between the keys with a handy toothpick, just gently ...a tuft of something appeared.

I pulled it, and a caterpillar, a veritable HAIRY WOUBIT, climbed out from between the keys!

Honestly, it was over a centimetre long and as thick as knitting wool, and no prizes for guessing what it was.

Impacted cat hair.

I persevered and unearthed some more of the fearsome beasties, and had another go with the aerosol and now my keyboard is much improved. I fear a woubit or two is still lurking underneath the shift and space keys, but apart from that, any typos are now caused by Lil and not by hairy woubits.

But who'd have thunk it eh?

Perhaps that is what was wrong with my space bar. If you remember it was not working unless I clouted it. Now suddenly it's fine - go figure. My problem is the left hinge has gone again - cost me £30 quid last time. So it is sellotaped to a roll of card now. I shall have to see what Santa Claus brings me....

Of course it doen't help with Bob tapdancing all over it.

The joy of cat fur it gets everywhere and it doesn't matter how hard we try to eradicate it lurks in dark corners ready to pounce on the unsuspecting owner.

Our worst culprit was Blue, my frequently mentioned Ragdoll. Long fine pale fur, that used to form tumbleweeds over the laminate floor, and turn all the furniture to pastel colours.

I remember one time a friend emailing us asking if he had been for long wanders, why, he had found Blue fur on his work keyboard.

The other day I dropped something with a bit of glue on it, I pick it up and what is attached, but Blue fur, its been 18 months since he went, and i have hoovered in that time, several times.

We thought after Blue went we would lose the worst of the problem, 3 short haired cats shouldn't be as bad. Then I chose Freyja, white and black with very fine white hairs. needless to say that this is even harder to get off things than Blue's was. Once more our wine coloured bed fleece is gradually turning pink.

Ruth B wrote:I remember one time a friend emailing us asking if he had been for long wanders, why, he had found Blue fur on his work keyboard.

The other day I dropped something with a bit of glue on it, I pick it up and what is attached, but Blue fur, its been 18 months since he went, and i have hoovered in that time, several times.

I used to have a whippet cross dog, Bonnie. She had a very distinctive white band on her otherwise black hairs. Once I was at my Godmother's house (miles from my own house) doing some decorating for her. I was on a plank of wood over the stairs smoothing down some wallpaper when I saw something sticking out of the paper - a black hair with a white band in it! Bonnie had never been to the house, let alone half way up the stairs.

It made me wonder about the validity of forensic evidence (as you do ) A chance encounter with a total stranger and your DNA could end up ANYWHERE! Like half way up the stairs of a house you never set foot in. I have an odd mind like that.

Lol! Hairy!

I'm not surprised - I think they stay with us; I'm convinced of it, and what they may get up to on the astral plane, well only they know...

Cats can't shed hair from their astral bodies. Wanna bet...???

And as for cats and keyboards ... I had another pc which just jammed; the man at the shop said I'd pressed a load of keys down simultaneously and disabled the mouse.

I haven't! I protested, and then remembered numerous catly journeys back and forth across the interesting warm bouncy surface, so congenial to paws...

But what else were cats put on this earth for, other than to disable the mouse?

ps it's just occurred to me that today's Fur-iday, and yesterday of course was Fur-sday. Just a thought

Lilith wrote:But what else were cats put on this earth for, other than to disable the mouse?

Lol Meriad I never got the joke till I'd left the shop, not that the guy would have laughed as he was a rather grumpy type - but it was perfect wasn't it, disabling the mouse

Hey Bobbys girl, glad your spacebar has recovered...now mine's gone on strike!

I got a good few more woubits out from between the keys (it got compulsive, like squeezing zits or unplugging the bath plughole) and a jolly good thing, because if I hadn't realised my pc would have ended up like that Joseph Beuys' sculpture of the felt piano...

But there seems to be a very obstinate specimen sulking beneath the spacebar...wondering if I can tempt it out with a bit of tuna or a nice choccy bar or, what do these guys EAT?

All part of life's rich fluffy tapestry I guess...

I cheat. My computer desk has a sliding shelf for the keyboard. When I'm not using it, I slide the keyboard away. It still picks up some stray floating hairs, but at least the cats can't sleep on it. (Or practise their typing...)