Is your workspace comfortable?

It better be after what I spent on this chair.

I actually use a chair that I brought home from work in the mid-90s. I have a fan when it's hot (my office is upstairs in the warm part of the house). It's a nice big room (a bedroom) with a good window with a nice view. I play music. My cats hang out with me. ... all good things. Bad things include: it's really easy to pop downstairs and eat too often... one of my cats has been peeing in my office and that sucks a lot.

Not usually, and there's not much I can do about it. The boiler sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. We can't have heaters in the rooms as they're not safe for the kids. There's lots of heavy lifting involved. Seating is child-sized. Etc, etc. Nothing I can do about this; it's all part of the job.

Yes because I'm at home, and not working, just doing personal stuff on the computer. I have chair cushions, music, open windows, lots of plants, bright colors, a big flat screen, and a Mac, so always comfortable.

I'm at college. It's cool.

Yes, I would say so

Sometimes it's a bit too hot or too cold, but I just dress in layers so it all works out fine.

The office at work is generally too cold all the time, even in summer. I have a portable space heater I have to use pretty much year-round to keep from freezing.

Do you have a litter box up there? The standard ratio for litter boxes is 1 for every 2 cats and then add 1 more. We've found some cats just don't like litter boxes. We have a few regular empty dish pans around the house for them. You just have to check it daily and rinse it out. I'd suggest a dish pan if the cat goes in the same place repeatedly.

We've also tricked them by cleaning the area real well, then putting a cat bed over the spot they're peeing on. We use short square laundry baskets from WalMart with blankets inside for this.

To kill cat urine odor totally we use this stuff called X-O. Works really well. Available at http://www.xospray.com or at qvc.com

No. There are 4 of us sharing one office and one exam room/lab. It's a scheduling nightmare. To change soon, hopefully.

It's too hot in the summer, and too noisy because of all the coolers buzzing.

Thanks for the help/advice.

We tried extra litter boxes, including one in my office. But, she still did it, so I moved it out. We still have 1 extra in the basement and 2 main ones (for 2 cats). She's often peeing against walls, like spraying (despite being female). We get the impression it may be territorial or something. She fights with our other cat (a male from the same litter) a lot. She will growl and hiss if she just smells him on a blanket or something. She's kind of crazy (has a number of odd behaviors and personality quirks) but she can be very sweet and friendly too. She's small too (maybe a runt?)

She's got several places around the house where she pees. One is on the carpetted steps going upstairs. Texture seems to be a key factor. She mostly does it where there's is rug. In my office I actually put down a plastic mat along the wall and in front of some file cabinets where she did some damage and it seems to have worked (hasn't peed there since). I'm not sure about a dishpan (too smooth), but I have considered something that might simulate her preferred conditions (rug against a smooth wall), maybe a towel in a dishpan? Still, putting it on the stairs would be hard and there's a lot of other places. We are using some other stuff to break-up the pattern she likes (we use styroform strips against certains walls and it seems to help).

We've used a lot of "Nature's Miracle" which I assume is similar to X-O. We buy it by the gallon now (mail-order, pet stores charge way too much). It mostly works well, but in some places there's still and elusive odor. The stairs are very tricky and I haven't been able to get rid of the smell there, despite soaking a large area. We're pretty much resigned to just replacing the wall-to-all carpet on the stairs and upstairs after the cat is gone. I actually just replaced one of my metal file cabinets that she'd peed on (and it got inside/under the lower drawer). I just couldn't get the smell to go away. Now, I have the file cabinets raised up on wooden blocks and the plastic mat in front too.

We've caught her doing it a few times and she usually runs away, like she knows she's doing something bad. She's kind of evil (when she's not being really cute and friendly). But, we love her and though we joke about getting rid of her, I'm sure we'll just hand in there and deal with the problem as best we can. Thanks again for the support. I know you love cats and we do too.

Sounds like one of mine. X-O doesn't work like Nature's Miracle. My wife gave up on Nature's Miracle because it never totally got rid of the odor.

They do have a habit of spraying right in front of you, like they want to show you they've done bad. We've never found a way to stop them of the behavior and can only try ways to block them as you are doing. For us, no one pees on the stairs but they love the stairs as scratching posts, gradually pulling out the threads until one day the carpet will be bare. They did that in the old house so I put in laminate flooring on the stairs instead.

Sounds like your cat has anxiety problems and just doesn't get along with the other cat. Not much you can do about it. We have two main culprits who spray or go on the carpet. Not bad considering how many we have. My wife more than kids about getting rid of them.

I'm a teacher - we have no real workspace and as usual, the facilities for staff in Victorian schools are abysmal.

I'll pick up some X-O and give it a try, thanks.

Yes very very comfy in my computer room

I don't work in the traditional sense. Most of what I need I have to bring, and that includes a fan and a heater.

X-O might appear costly but it is diluted 50/50 with water so it goes a long way.

Another thing if you don't have one is to get a blacklight flashlight. Cat urine glows white under black light. We have one and they can be gotten inexpensively on eBay.

we got one of those blacklights a while back, but it didn't really help us find anything

I want to walk around the garden with one of those, and see which flowers glow

Wanna make love to you under the strobe light!

My office is comfortable. There's an air conditioner that was useful when it was hot. There's heat that I assume will kick on when it gets cold enough. When I work at home, it's pretty much the same. No AC there, but it also stays very cool in my apartment even on hot days.

Uhm... *sniffs bill's coffee*

> I actually use a chair that I brought home from
> work in the mid-90s. I have a fan when it's hot
> (my office is upstairs in the warm part of the
> house). It's a nice big room (a bedroom) with
> a good window with a nice view. I play music.
> My cats hang out with me. ... all good things.
> Bad things include: it's really easy to pop downstairs
> and eat too often... one of my cats has been peeing
> in my office and that sucks a lot.

I recall you mentioning somewhere you work out of your basement. Or was it that you have all your hardware stored in there?

I used to have the computers that ran this website (and others) in my basement, but in the last year I switched to using a hosting service in Texas. I still have some of the old computers in my home, but they are off.

Schools are not comfy..
I'm not exaggerating at all when I say you can hang meat in the school. Seriously, it is soo cold you have to wear a parka in September (good thing no one owns a parka)..Cold doesn't help people learn better, nor does it deter inappropriate attire..All it does is upset people.

Well my "workspace" where my computer is, is a combination living room, dining room, den, and office. I used to have my bed in there too but managed to sneak it into the other bedroom. I wish I had a big house to myself instead of just a couple of rooms. I have no room for anything so it is not comfortable or efficient...