Sometimes family support stops looking like support and starts looking like a long-term payment plan with guilt attached

This story has the same energy as a house that has been running on fumes for years while everyone inside keeps acting like someone else will magically fix it. A young adult tries to keep things afloat after graduation, takes on bills that are not theirs, helps cover rent, buys groceries, and even gets pulled into loans like this is some kind of bad financial relay race. At a certain point, helping out stops being temporary and starts becoming the family business model. And naturally, the people benefiting from it get very attached to the arrangement.

When a home runs on guilt, borrowed money, and one person's overtime shifts, the end result is usually less a family residence than a very expensive group project with terrible leadership.

Are you ready for your weekly dose of heartwarming Friday felines?

Fridays are tricky because you feel like they should be the easiest day of the work week, but they're not. Your brain is working at an all-time low capacity because you're exhausted from Monday (and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday), you have no drive to get any of your work done (see previous example), and you're daydreaming of being in bed with your cats. We get it. We're right there with you. The day keeps pounding you with teams calls,  passive-aggressive messages from your managers, and a clock that seems to move at a glacial pace.

It's enough to make anyone stand up, quit, and walk out without saying bye to anyone.

But if you do that, who will pay for your cat's weekly delivery of premium wet food? Who will get their luxury cat couch reupholstered? Who will pay for their self-cleaning automatic litter box? They don't have anyone but you, and these bills won't pay themselves.

So, we must resign ourselves to actually doing our work, but not before we scroll through our weekly purrscription of heartwarming Friday felines and a healthy portion of sweet feline silliness. These funny felines give us a meowment of softness in our pawsitively challenging day, and make us smile when the world tries to bring us down. You might be surprised how much a few wholesome cat pictures can turn your day around.

Or, you might be like us and know exactly how much a compilation of cute kitties like this can make your day better. If that's the case, we won't stop you. Scroll to your heart's content, enjoy your meowment of gentle feline serenity, and we hope you have a very giggly day and pawsitively purrfect weekend!

Some questions are better left unanswered.

We, as people, as opposed to robots, in relationships, should aim to consider context when answering a question or even when we're just chatting, but sometimes simple distractions or routine creep up on our daily conversations, and we end up getting on our loved one's nerves. That's exactly the case for the Redditor who shared this story.

Every cat owner, at some point in their lives, will discover that their cat has one extremely strange habit. 

There is a turning point in the life of every cat. Everything is normal, simple, calm - up until that very moment. One day, they will wake up and discover their thing. The one thing that they are not supposed to care about at all, but are obsessed with with all of their hearts. We have seen some cats obsess over sweet peas. We have seen some cats choose the sink as their favorite napping spot. We have seen cats obsessed with almonds - but not eating them, just attacking them over and over.

And today, as told by a very confused and frustrated owner on r/cats, we have a cat who has become absolutely obsessed with watching bird videos on the TV. It's the owners' fault, really. The kitty didn't even know such a thing existed until they showed it to him. And now, every morning and every night, it is the same story. The cat demands that his owners turn on the TV to the specific videos that he loves, and he will stare and commit kitty crimes until they cave to his demands. 

Can a relationship be salvageable after finding something like that?

Very few things in relationships are as countable as money, so when we do the math and the facts don't add up, we probably should go back to square one and reevaluate our future with the other person. Nine times out of ten, it's very hard to find a balance, and leaving becomes part of the equation.

This owner's solution to a recurring problem is to take food away from his employees

And the employees are tattling about it!

Working in food service is tough on the body, as anyone who's done it can tell you. You're going to need to comfortable shoes and you'll need a proper meal before working. 

Since you're already at a restaurant, most owners will let employees eat for free. Some offer unlimited meals, while others specify just one meal per shift. 

Workers are walking many miles per day in this active role, back and forth between the kitchen and their tables, so it makes sense to feed them. And restaurants serve thousands of meals per day at some locations, so who cares if the staffers are the ones eating a small fraction of those breakfasts, lunches, or dinners? 

This owner cares, and he's got a petty solution for it that his employees aren't going to be happy about, as one of them leaked in a Facebook post that spread across the internet. 

The only thing worse than working in an office is working in an office that uses the "hot desk" system.

If you are unfamiliar with "hot desks", it is a term to describe an office with desks that are open for anybody. No assigned seatings, no desk is reserved. You come to work in the morning, you choose one of the remaining free desks, and you get settled for the day. Then you do it all over again tomorrow.

While the office might save a few bucks from this system, we have never heard of an employee who actually enjoys sharing a desk with their coworkers. It is almost always a cause for some friction between the employees, and you can be sure that there will be at least one employee who thinks they are better than everyone else and tries to prove it by claiming ownership of one of the open desks. Usually, the one everybody wants the most.

That is exactly the case in the office from a story posted on Reddit's r/pettyrevenge Subreddit. While everyone in the office was trying to make the hot desk system work, one employee tried to rig the system by taking over a desk and leaving it in a state that ensured no one else would use it. He would constantly leave his coffee cups and other garbage on the desk just to make it look like the desk was constantly in use, even on days when he wasn't even in the office.

This led one of his coworkers to take action and put an end to the childish behavior. Every time this employee was not in the office, the coworker would either mess with the desk's cables, readjust the monitors, or even add more trash to the desk to make it look significantly less appealing. Eventually, this caught the manager's attention, who was appalled that someone had left a desk in that state, and proceeded to remind everyone of desk etiquette and cleanliness principles…

When it seems like everything is catching on fire, we use the internet for a moment of comfort. The peak comfort comes in cat form. 

Everyone in the world knows one thing right now: everything is… kind of chaotic. Not just where you are. It's chaotic everywhere. And still, we all choose to get on the internet and take in more of that chaos. Of course, there is a reason for it beyond all of us being mildly addicted to social media. There is logic to why we keep going down this rabbit hole. It's cats. Duh. On the internet, there is chaos, but there are also always cute and funny cats. And that makes it worth it.

If all silly cat memes and pictures and stories were to suddenly disappear off the internet, we don't know how we would live. This is our coping mechanism. It's how we deal with life and with the news and with every other bit of stress that comes our way. We need all the cutest cats and kittens on the internet. We need them projected onto our eyes as we doomscroll before bed and first thing in the morning, because a world without internet cats is a world we don't want to contribute to. 

Is quitting with dramatics better than a simple, quiet exit?

Listen, I love a good dramatic exit. Give me the works, bestie! I need the excitement. You're leaving us all here in this desolate workplace, the least you could do is leave us with something to gossip about for the next few months. That being said, it takes a lot of courage and idgaf attitude to quit with pizazz like that. Would I quit like that? Probably not. I said I like to hear about the drama, perhaps even witness it. I don't like to be a part of the drama. That being said, oh baby, did we enjoy reading this quitting story on r/talesfromthejob by Redditor u/cmhopkings7443.

Her co-worker was wildly under-appreciated. She describes her as the kind of employee who did everything before it even needed to be asked and fixed mistakes before people even caught them. So, of course, when the company got ambitious, they promoted her. Unfortunately, they wanted to pay her under market value, like, way under market value. And what do we always say? Act your wage, queen. When they refused to give her the proper salary, she quit most epically. Honestly, we applaud her and wish we could have witnessed such bravery.  

Cats have many stereotypes, most of which aren't virtues, but we love them anyway. How does your cat show impoliteness?

Cats can be…more than impolite. Where dogs are known for being friendly, devoted, and loving, cats are known to have many qualities that are the antithesis of those. Cats, as loving and friendly as they can be, aren't always that way. It really depends on the cat, and even the nice ones have a cat-esque air to them, meaning that they could be introverted, judgmental, sassy, or antisocial. They're known to have zoomies at midnight or later, just to stop you from sleeping. They're known to look you right in the eye and knock your keys off the table, just to watch you pick them up. They could be sleeping on top of you, snuggling with you, and seemingly in absolute bliss and then suddenly give you that rapacious meow before running away from you swatting their paws. 

Despite their impolite behavior, we love and accept them anyway. There's something adorable about their attitude (or should we say, cattitude?). It's as if they know exactly what they're doing and they don't really care how it even affects us! They're just too tiny, fluffy, soft, and snuggly for us to get actually mad at them, and there's something beautiful and special about that. So here's to cats, no matter how sassy, mean, unfriendly, or diabolical as they can be, they're still our little babies.  

Fur baby pregnant with another fur baby? Sounds like one of the cutest things ever. 

On Reddit's r/cats, a person posted that a pregnant cat was found in the rain. It's unclear how long the cat has been there, but one thing is for sure: she needs safety. Being pregnant means she has different needs, and though the person doesn't know for sure if she's pregnant or not, she takes her in anyway. The cat is immediately sweet and affectionate, she's so grateful to be saved, and though a bit (understandably) skittish, she is friendly. She starts out very cautious, and even won't go up to the food that the woman provides. It takes more patience than that: she puts wet food on her finger and lets the cat lick it off of her gently. This brings them together quickly, and the cat gets more and more comfortable. 

There's always the question of, "did this cat belong to someone else?" So the woman does what she should do and makes a post about the cat. If no one reaches out, then we can safely assume this sweet little tortie will have a new home anyway. So what are you waiting for? Scroll down for story and photo on this pregnant tortie. 

This Virginia-based customer service representative was recently promoted to a supervisor role when she was reprimanded for refusing to follow a controversial mandate.

The employee turned to Reddit's r/legaladvice subreddit community for guidance, as she expects that she will soon be fired for defying orders she felt were unethical. The question that remains, however, is whether or not the actions of upper management were actually illegal.

In a workplace environment where productivity and efficiency are prioritized above all else, it's important to, at the very least, question the ethics of something when new protocol is introduced. Blind acceptance and rule following can easily backfire in their own way down the road. 

Maintaining a balance between following company policy and upholding one's own moral backbone can be difficult to do, especially when management has decided to start recording interactions with customer without their expressed approval.

A decade of job security can disappear fast once a family business starts running on feelings and unanswered calls.

I find it really frustrating that you can't know when working with family is going to be a nepotism dream where every coworker hates cause your untouchable, and when it's gonna be a mixing  -finances-and-family nightmare where you bet dad-boss and lose both jobs. For this daughter, it was unfortunately the latter.

And just like that, A family business just turned into a family problem when one daughter discovered that helping dad can apparently come with all the charm of a real job and all the stability of a mood swing.

Kittens require round the clock care in their early days, a task that towers above most. But when this cat mom came across an abandoned newborn, she did not hesitate to take the challenge head on and ensure the safety of the precious feline she had found.

The entirety of this story from Reddit's r/kittens subreddit is quite the outlier when it comes to feline rescues. Beginning with the fact that this cat mom was out for a stroll with her cat in a baby stroller. A level of pawrenthood that most of us can only dream off and one that she seems to enjoy rather effortlessly.

We can only assume that the fact she has gotten her feline child comfortable in a stroller means that this is no ordinary pawrent, and that her superior skills are what led the Cat Distribution System to present her with a screaming kitten to challenge her cat caring skills. But alas, the kitten was no match and with a great deal of effort it soon became a part of her fur family. Delivering a shining example of what it takes to make things work. Because even though the solution was not comfortable, the reward was more than worth it. 
 

The office would run more smoothly if more cats were in charge.

Every workplace has a few different types of employees. There is a person who answers emails before anyone else has finished their first cup of coffee. There is the coworker who somehow knows everything that's going on. And then there is the employee who appears briefly, contributes very little, and still manages to leave everyone wondering what exactly they do all day. Cats, surprisingly, have mastered all three of these roles.

In fact, if you've ever lived with a cat, you already know they take their professional responsibilities very seriously. Whether those responsibilities include supervising your keyboard, inspecting every package that enters the house, or sitting directly on top of important paperwork, they approach every task with absolute confidence. Qualifications are optional. Confidence is mandatory.

Of course, no feline employee is complete without a healthy sense of workplace boundaries. Human workers spend years learning how to say no to unreasonable requests. Cats are born knowing. Ask a cat to do something it doesn't want to do, and you'll immediately receive a look that clearly communicates that your proposal has been reviewed and rejected. It's an admirable skill, honestly.

Then there are the cats who excel in management positions. These are the ones who monitor household activity from elevated locations and silently judge everyone's performance throughout the day. They rarely offer constructive feedback, but they are always available to observe. Sometimes from a bookshelf. Sometimes from the top of a refrigerator. Sometimes from directly behind your computer monitor.

The hardest-working cats, however, are the morale officers. They show up unexpectedly, demand attention, accept praise, and then leave before anyone can assign them additional responsibilities. It's a system that would probably improve workplace satisfaction everywhere if more companies adopted it.

The cats in this collection represent the very best of the professional feline workforce. They may not answer emails, attend meetings, or meet deadlines, but they do provide something every office desperately needs: a welcome distraction. So if your own workday is moving a little slower than you'd like, allow these hardworking cats to demonstrate what true workplace dedication looks like. Or at least what they think it looks like.

Dressed up cats are the cutest, there is no denying that. But that cuteness comes at a price, after all our feline fur babies are not ones to suffer humiliation silently. And this hissterical collection of cat child pics contains the meowments before they got their sweet revenge.  

It is a price that all cat pawrents have learned to pay. Of course for each pawrent the price is different, some pawrents only pay for the top tier things like dressing up and bath time, while other pawrents have to pay up just to scoop up their cat children for a cuddle. It is a constant struggle in the life of a pawrent, striking the right balance between loving on your cat and letting them live their life so they do not maul you in your sleep. But that is the price of having a tiny tiger living in your home, you cannot control them, you most certainly do not own them, and like a vengeful roommate who cannot stand your behaviors, they will exact their petty revenge.

So if you want to indulge in the joy that is cats in costumes we invite you to kick back, relax and scroll this list to your heart's content, because finally you get to absorb all the awwdorablness of a fashionable feline, without any possibility of retaliation.
 

There's something comforting about bad design and DIY fails. We've covered those. We've laughed, we've shaken our heads, and we've felt a little better about our own life choices. But every once in a while, the universe insists on balance. And balance, in this case, looks like a guy in his backyard who has built something that absolutely should not work, and yet, somehow, completely does.

This post is for those guys. And gals. Mostly guys, though, and mostly guys of one type, let's be honest.

What would you do?

Life never ceases to give us difficult options. The aspect of choice can be maddening; sometimes it feels easier to be given a fate then having to take on the responsibility of deciding. In Reddit's r/CatDisrtibutionSystem, this woman hears a brazen little kitten meowing loudly on the street. It was in front of her grandparent's block, and her whole family ended up getting involved. The kitten ran up to her immediately, and she stayed with the kitten while the kitten was making biscuits on her lap the whole time. Her mom shows up with cat food and water for the little thing, and they took her home. She decided to make a Facebook post because she could tell the kitten was from a family. The kitten seemed like she was used to people and wasn't very dirty. 

That night, she barely slept because the cat was snuggling up to her, and she was lost in thought about who the cat belonged to. She received many comments from people congratulating her on her new cat, but deep down she knew she couldn't keep it. That's when it happened: someone messaged her that her cat as of two weeks has ran away, and she sent photos of the cat to confirm it's hers. Lo and behold, it was hers! But there's a caveat to the story that isn't solely about the love this woman cultivated for the cat. It also has to do with the fact that the photos of the cat's original home don't look as clean or comforting. The woman really worries that the cat won't be as happy or well taken care of. What will happen in the end? And would you give the cat back if you knew? Read the full story below to see what she ends up deciding. 

What's going on with the college freshman class that's making this academic advisor so concerned? 

College students need lots of help navigating their first year of school. 

Some kids arrive without knowing how to do their own laundry. Some are so used to Mom and Dad waking them up for class that they oversleep for their 9 AM classes. Others are well-adjusted more or less, but still get anxious, and need reassurance about their path through their first semester or 2. Not to mention that a lot of college students enter without being 100% sure of their major. 

An orientation leader can really help out in some of these situations. In fact, a lot of colleges enroll their freshmen in a mandatory class dedicated just to navigating through the twists and turns of university life. 

But this academic advisor is very, very concerned about the latest crop of students that have been walking through the doors of the school. The advisor, lizz781, did not mince words in a post to r/Teachers: the kids are totally unprepared for their college journey in a way that they've never witnessed before. 

Why is this HOA steaming over the way this homeowner followed the rules? 

Buying and upkeeping a home is a great pleasure in life. But many people purchase their homes, realizing they're in HOA neighborhoods, but not realizing how much the HOA rules will cramp their style. 

When you first pay your HOA dues, you may already be wishing you never moved into HOA territory. Then, you get a fine for something like leaving your own car in your own driveway. You ask yourself how you could get a fine, hundreds of dollars, for something so small and fixable. 

Then, you begin to plan what you'll do next, which is exactly how this father made his own HOA totally irritated with his creative evasion methods.