Cats have a tendency to sleep in the oddest places. Boxes. Piles of laundry. The random book. Computer keyboards.
I'm lucky. As I have a giant cat and a keyboard that pulls out from under my desk, it is rare for me to find Buster flopped out there. He tries to climb up on it while I'm working, but to no avail. I'll always move him back to my lap or the floor--generally the floor, as it is pretty much impossible to type with him in sprawled out across my legs.
That being said, I'm not necessarily the target audience for PawSense, a cat-proofing device for your keyboard. This is what the screen looks like when a cat claiming your QWERTY as his/her domain:
I'm a fan of the idea. When Buster has managed to heave his bulky mass onto my keyboard, chaos ensues. He's managed to shut down programs, "edit" my writing with tons of random letters (example: "... when I woke up this morninadacx90jermnaelmfa/kjadfa;o4i5u45 trgfgaa"), and generally pull me out of my happy little writing hoodoo that I get going after about an hour.
PawSense detects when a cat is on the keyboard based on the big mash of keys that the cat's feet crunch down on when flopping around. Basically it attempts to create enough noise to get the cat off of the keyboard. But the most important feature is that it locks up all of the keys so the cat can't destroy any work in progress. It works with a variety of Windows formats, though there are no Mac versions.
The problem stems from... well... the cat. Cats sometimes just don't care about anything. Check this guy out:
You could detonate a nuclear device in that room and that cat would not even flinch. Nerves of steel, my friends.
Not having tested PawSense myself, I can't vouch for its efficacy. What I can say is that the reviews are positive, the website is very friendly, and I suspect that this is a good product as long as your speakers are near your keyboard.
And for those of you with children--BabySense is in the works.
For more information and to purchase PawSense go here!
