Recently I am having to ignore my cats completely apart from giving them their food, due to my submission deadline is approaching like a bullet train. So one of my two cats started to voice his need for attention and the more I ignored him, the more he tried... I think he decided to try new tricks and for the last few days if he can't get my attention, as a last resort he jumps on my desk, so acrobatically finds his way to my keyboard and lays down on it while I'm typing. If I am reading, he then places himself on the open book or paper that I'm reading. Now he pretends that he's asleep on my notebook (that I was taking notes on just before starting this thread). It's funny though, never when I'm procrastinating :-)

Do you have pets? How do you make time for them? Do they behave strange with your changing schedule?

yep, I have two cats and they ALWAYS sit on my desk on the exact paper I'm reading - even when I put a big pillow on the side of the desk for them to sit, they always prefer my book/note paper. I have a pullout keyboard tray thing under my desk and they also try and wedge themselves between that to get on my lap.

My dog loves me writing up because it means I'm at home nearly 24/7 and get bored so take her for lots of walks. I also get bored and play 'where's the duck?' game which involves running round the house with a pink toy duck that goes "quack quack quack quack" when you squeeze it - taking turns being chased by the dog and chasing the dog for said duck, until the dog goes into 'wall of death' mode and cannot be calmed down - its a nice relief from writing!

I have a very well "trained" cat!!!!
When I am working on my desktop. she sits next to the printer and just looks at me! And when I am reading on the couch, she just sleeps next to me, touching me!!!
However, every time I visit my mum with my cat, she doesn't want me to even touch a book, and she starts biting it!!!

We have gerbils. They don't really notice us at all let alone respond to work patterns! :-)

maybe we should add them to the acknowledgments section, to thank them for their understanding, and not eating the research papers. :-)

I like this thread, I have a horse and three dogs, can't imagine working from home without them! My horse doesn't live with me but I go to the yard see to him twice a day, when I am really busy with work I give him a few weeks off ridden work, I do that twice a year and it seems to do him some good as although he goes a bit feral and becomes quite bargy and difficult to handle, he comes back into work better than when he stopped.
My two older dogs sleep on my bed when I work, they have a very calming influence; my Yorkshire terrier puppy is fine once he has had a walk, otherwise he just sits on my bed yapping at me for attention, or steals things from my room and hides them around the house!

I have two "exotic" rodents (not saying what as it'll give me away to the masses on the anonymity front). I think writing up has been good for them! I've worked from home a lot more so am there for them more and they come out for a run more often which suits them. They also seemed to have tamed a lot more which makes me smile, because they were quite wild when I got them.

They do occassionally sit on my laptop to eat through and it means I end up with random letters typed into my documents... so I have to be extra careful on the proof-reading front!! And one of them has tried to make a bed out of my books on the bookshelf, so has shredded a few corners... but luckily only of the books I don't ever read so I don't mind really!

My dog also loves having me at home all the time. She spends hours sleeping next to me, and I also take her for a walk every morning. We'll also play ball games when I need a break. So, dog loves the PhD! And she's definitely going to be in my acknowledgements.

I was thinking lemurs. I hope its lemurs but not sure if they are rodents or what? I guess they are marsupials or something?

Sneaks... I also kind of wish it were lemurs... I think they're primates though. They look monkey-ish anyways. I may investigate!

Chrisrolinski... one of your suggestions may be correct. But which one? Hmmmm! haha. Either way they're amazingly adorable and seem to enjoy my PhD (probably more than I do). :p

I just discovered one of my cats sitting in the little tray I use for recycling A4 paper under my desk.
She complained a bit when I tried to dump a handful of scrap paper from this chapters draft on her.....but she forgave me and came to sit on my knee instead!
I wouldn't be without my two cats...such great company when you are in the house alone with academic thoughts whirling around your head.
M:-)