Cats, and Computers

[Grakrim]

I love cats, I\'m not afraid to admit it. I especially like my cat of 5 years, since she\'s as anti-social as her master; and doesn\'t crave attention like so many other cats, yet stays very close to me most of the day.

Most of the day, I\'m on one of my desktop computers; there too you\'ll find my cat, Maggie, either sitting on the desk, my lap, or, usually, the monitor.  Everyone has always told me its a bad idea to let her lie on it, due to the hair she inevitably sheds; but, the cat-lover that I am, allowed her to stay for sake of the heat and companionship.  Well, following an emergency that occured on my primary desktop, I had to replace it with another.  This emergency swap only involved the computer itself, leaving all the periphals, including the monitor, on my desk.  Maggie happily followed me to the adjacent desk were my computer would be hooked up again, and again, sat on my monitor as I frantically worked to restore my computer.  This monitor was forgein to Maggie, but she quickly got used to it.

However, lately I\'ve been having trouble with the little Maggie.  It all started Christmas week.  My family was in town for the first time in 6 months (it doesn\'t sound like a long time, but its the first time we\'ve been apart so long in my lifetime).  Around 1:00 - 2:00 AM, my brother yells, \"Hey Chris, your cat just puked on your monitor!\"; in I run in a hurry and after inspecting the situation, a large splatter of cat vomit on the top of the monitor, I quickly turned off the monitor and cleaned up the mess.  I scolded Maggie, but, figuring that she was probably sick, didn\'t take it too heavily; my monitor still worked, no harm done.

Now comes yestarday.  I was rebuilding the kernel for my iPAQ, so I wasn\'t present at my computer, however I occassionally checked up on it via ssh from the other room.  A little later, the build being done, I returned to my computer.  The monitor was blank, but still powered on.  I thought to myself, \"Ah, I must have left it in the shell\", so I pressed a key to wake it, no success.  Thinking it was some sort of fluke, I checked the connections and rebooted my computer, again, no success.  Then, I decided to turn my monitor off, and turn it back on; \"Ah, it worked, why didn\'t I try that first?\" I thought to myself.  So I sat down and started working again.  POP! went my monitor.  CRACKLE!  The picture distorted in a variety of ways.  It started to emit a strange, but oddly familiar, burning smell, so I quickly turned on the lights.  And, to my surprise, there was a large puddle of vomit on the top of the monitor.  The stench grew in intensity, and the sounds and distortion shot up in frequency.  I pulled the plug, monitor was dead...
I happened to have an extra 15\" monitor lying around, which was immedately connected to my secondary computer, being far too small for my uses.  I reconnected my old (and I mean old, its probably 10-15 years old), Intergraph 21\" monitor that was connected to my computer so long ago.  So luckily, I\'m not going without a monitor, but still.

My theory is that there\'s something about that monitor that made her sick, possibly something to do with differant levels of heat or radation; or perhaps the plastic, the casing on the monitor was black, as opposed to the white casing on my primary monitor.
So anyway, has anyone else had similar problems with cats and computers?  Or any animal for that matter.

[randomlycrazy]

i havent but i thought your story was funny. lol

[Moogie]

CRT monitors (the normal bulky ones) emit radiation from the screen and from the back where the air can filter through the ventilation holes. Newer CRT makes and models come with quite effective radiation filters to reduce the amount emitted by the unit, but it won\'t ever be able to completely eliminate it.

Older monitors won\'t have so much protection, however. It\'s very likely that Maggie is suffering some kind of ill-effects of this, and I\'d highly advise keeping her away untill you can fit a good, new monitor or better still- a TFT. TFTs emit *zero* radiation and are alot healthier on your eyes, too. The only downside is how expensive they are.

Well, whatever you decide to do, I\'d say keep your kitty away or she could become very ill.

[Grakrim]

As I said, I\'ve had her for some 5 years now, and its only recently come to her getting sick; so it must have been a culmative sort of thing, makes sense considering the radiation, but I\'ve always thought most of the rumors to be urban legends or LCD propaganda, much like the old rumors put out by gas light manufacturers that reading under electric lights would cause eye damage.

I\'m not making that mistake anymore though, I\'ve begun the process of training her not to venture onto monitors now; I suppose I\'ll get a heating pad for her, or make a nice bed somewhere else warm.

As for me, I\'d rather have a CRT, though; I\'ll be blind and decrepit soon enough anyway, might as well live it up  But thank you for your concern, nonetheless, Moogie.

And yes, randomlycrazy, it is rather funny, isn\'t it?  How would you like it if I poured some water on your monitor?

[snow_RAveN]

This is what happens when people use cats as lap warmers

BTW hope it gets well

[Jessyn]

Oddly enough, a guy i know recently had his cat do something very similar.  The cable descrambler sits on top of the tv, and the cat likes to sit up there, but one day, lo and behold, fresh cat vomit, causing shiny sparkles from the descrambler.  It may be the radiation is bad for them, or it might just be a cat thing.

Jessyn

[Pegasus]

Hmm normally cats like to be where energy radition is (unlike dogs who tend to stay as far away as possible) - however it could have been that your cat puked due to hair that she couldnt bind with grass (is she outdoor from time to time? ... considering that its winter it may have been that she didnt find enough grass and therefore tried to get rid of the hair)

Well my cat also seemed to be curious about my monitor and jumped onto it a few times - but i always took her down again and one day she accepted it.

And a good advice ... dont let your cat sleep in your bed ... especially in winter