This healthcare worker deals with losing a parent and immediately hits a wall with management, who tries to deny the full bereavement leave clearly stated in the union handbook. Five days entitled becomes one day offered, and every extra bit of time will require calling off as if grief operates on a schedule approved by the staff rota. Handbook rules look less like policy and more like folklore passed around in the break room; every plea for relief is met with "I'll check the handbook" and a shrug.

Management prefers to interpret union agreements as loose guidelines, parsing compassion like limited stock in the backroom. Even with a physical copy and clear language about eligibility, the response is a familiar game of delaying tactics and half-promises of future answers. Standard procedure means offering condolences and then instructing staff to call in sick if comfort requires more than a shift or two.

Thanksgiving might be about family, gratitude, and sharing a meal, but if you have a cat, you already know it's mostly about defending the food. The second a turkey comes out of the oven, cats appear from thin air like tiny, furry kitchen inspectors. They'll sniff the air dramatically, sit exactly where you need to stand, and stare at the bird like they're preparing a heist. While they don't technically help cook, they do provide emotional supervision by meowing loudly whenever you chop something edible.

During dinner, cats act like they've never eaten a single meal in their life. They'll politely sit by your chair, blink sweetly, maybe tap your leg with a paw… and when that doesn't work, they upgrade to parkour-level table climbing. But after all the begging, plotting, and turkey worship, they usually end up passed out under a table like the rest of us after too much food.

Still, Thanksgiving with a cat is something special. They remind us to slow down, sneak an extra treat, and enjoy the warmth of a full house. Even if they're just thankful for turkey scraps

This story helped us decide, once and for all, what is better – an Airbnb or a simple hotel room. The answer? hotel room all the way.

Why? Well, because when you book a hotel room, there is no way for the reservation to get randomly canceled because the host doesn't feel like hosting. Generally, you get what you signed up for in a hotel room; no surprises, no weird hosts, and no need to deal with customer service.

How does this story teach us this valuable lesson? Well, this Airbnb guest was supposed to stay in a room in the host's house for one night. But when they got there, no one was at the house, and the host was nowhere to be seen. When the guest finally managed to get a hold of him, the host reported that he would not make it home that night and that he had to cancel the reservation. 

Stories like these really get us. There's nothing we love more than a wholesome hooman doing the right thing in a situation where they could have just gone on their merry way. In this story, the narrator claims that they can hear meowing outside for hours. At first, they assume that it's just an irresponsible neighbor who left their cat outside. Once the meowing stops, the person assumes that their owner let the cat in. But then, it starts to rain and howl, the meows pick back up again, and the hooman starts worrying. She goes outside in the cold and rain to locate the cat, try to get it to come to her so she can save it. 

She lays under her neighbor's truck for hours in the wet, her husband texting her to come inside already and forget about the cat, but she persists. She doesn't stop until the cat comes up to her and she can take it inside. She makes an appointment for the vet, and says it was all worth the pain and rain to save this little kitty. The heartfelt magic behind the story is unlike so many other stories. The holiday spirit really does exist!

We should all be a little more neighborly. Instead of ducking your head behind a tree so you can avoid small talk with your next-door neighbor, flash them a smile and ask them about the weather. Even though it might feel a little painful at first, setting the foundation for a trustworthy, nurturing relationship with your community members will benefit you more than it will hurt you.

You should know by now, though, that not everyone will build a "trustworthy" relationship with you out of the goodness in their heart. Some will act nice one moment, then demand something from you the next. The difference? It depends on whether they feel slighted or not.

In this next story's case, the person who shares the tale apparently imposed their own idea of a property line when they installed their own fence close to their neighbor's—even though the fence is on their property, so it shouldn't matter.

This might sound a bit confusing, but all you need to know before jumping into the narrative is this: The neighbor's fence exists solely on their own property, but they expect the resident to pay for half of it because they are "using it". How? Who knows. Scroll to read.

Good morning, cat lovers. We all know the pain and pleasure of waking up in the morning. We're probably waking up for work, which is the painful part. But we're also waking up to our precious kitties. Our cats give us life energy. I mean, who doesn't love those morning meows and pressing of paws on our faces while we're trying desperately to continue our dream in the arms of sleep?

Let's face it – cats don't care about your alarm clock. Their cutesy little meows in the morning are the alarm clock. Their tiny internal clock says "zoomies at 6:03 AM," and by the sacred laws of the universe, you must follow in command. They'll meow, scratch, purr, flop right on top of your chest, or gently (yet persistently) bat your eyelids like they're trying to power you on.

Through their internal chaos, we still think they're endearing. That little loaf demanding food is also reminding you that you are loved, needed, and absolutely owned. So you drag yourself out of bed, feed the furry overlord, and suddenly the world feels a little softer. Because starting your morning with a meow is basically caffeine for the soul.

Ahhhh, there's nothing like a little scam to wake up to in the morning. Whether it be $10 or $1000, being unfairly taken for a dime hits the ego like nothing else. When you know someone is so obviously taking advantage of your kindness, simply to make an extra buck or two! This traveler was ready for vacation and extremely excited about his accommodation…he wasn't going to settle on anything this trip, and even paid the $10 for his accommodations parking spot…It's the small things!

However, after arriving at the Airbnb, he quickly learned that his luxurious parking was actually just a spot on a public street near the house. Key word: public, Key message: free! He was annoyed by the homeowner's entitlement and confronted him for charging a parking fee on a free, public road. His response? 'Well, you should have done more research on the area before agreeing…' He was now fuming, and it wasn't about the money. It was about this homeowner's sly attitude…so he reported him to Airbnb, potentially ruining his "only form of income" over a $10 scam…

Cat children are the light of our lives, there is no denying that. And when we gift our only cat children with a brother or sister, well, things get a whole lot cuter. Because much like hooman children, and heck, even much more so than hooman children, feline siblings understand each other in a way that we hoomans simply cannot. After all, that pesky species barrier does stand between us, whether or not we believe that we biologically birthed out cat children.

So for all of you who might be still on their way to adopt their first cat child, and those of you who are considering getting a second, we made this list of cute cat siblings growing up together to show you just how heartwarming and wholesome having a feline family within your family can be. So kick back and do your best to get to the end of the list before rushing to contact your local rescue to adopt yourself a catto, after all it is a big decision that should not be made rashly, especially not when you have heaps of pawdorable pawsitivity pumping through your veins.

We all have that one memorable holiday meal that gets turned into family legend! 

Some meals just do not go to plan, as you'll know if you've ever cooked a meal in your life. And for some reason, when the pressure is on, like for big holiday meals, the meals that don't turn out well effect way more than just one person. If you forget to turn the oven on before putting in the turkey for 6 hours, you're going to leave a lot of cousins with grumbling stomachs. 

It could be so much worse than just forgetting to cook the turkey, though! One family wound up with the entire dinner on the floor! When that happens, it's time to call for backup, meaning call for a dozen pizzas to be delivered to your home. And then of course, there are just a bunch of dishes that no one in their right minds should be eating. That is a good reminder to make sure your turkeys are fully cooked through, and that you're using actual recipes to make your dishes, and not just using your imagination. Check out all the impressively unappetizing meals below before you spend time with your own family and eat some dishes that are hopefully 100x tastier.

Cat children, you can't live with them, and you cannot trust them not to play with knobs that they have no idea what they were made to do. At least that is the case for the protagonist pawrent in this story who had to find out the hard way that even though you might not use an oven as an oven and as a storage unit instead. That does not mean that your cat child is not susceptible to turn on said oven out of sheer curiosity and keen interest.

Though, much to the good fortune of this feline pawrent, their cat child ended up owning up to their transgressions and alerting their pawrent to the potentially devastating situation that was unfolding before it was too late. So at least everyone involved could come away with some lessons learned, even if it was a little expensive to learn said lessons.

This resident and her husband were tired of the constant leaf-blowing, and we honestly don't blame them.

That being said, what they did to retaliate wasn't exactly neighborly behavior either, and folks in the comments section were quick to point that out,

Still, this story had a lot of us feeling like Cate Blanchett, who has become known on the internet not just for her acting but also for her passionate views on the pointlessness of leaf-blowing. Think about it. You're moving a pile of leaves from one side of your lawn to another, only for the wind to inevitably bring those leaves back to where they once were. 

Plus, you're making an insane amount of noise that drives your neighbors crazy. You're probably making a new enemy in the neighborhood every time you use your leaf-blower. Then, there is the fact that leaf-blowers aren't even environmentally friendly. As the Oscar winner has noted, the pointless use of leaf-blowers is an apt metaphor for our inadequacy as a human species.

Keep scrolling below for this neighbor's petty revenge, which may or may not have been warranted.

Hello, fellow meow masters, fellow feline fanatics, fellow crazy cat people, and all other cat lovers worldwide. Happy Cat Chaos Day! Oh, you never heard of Cat Chaos Day? That's ok, don't feel bad about it. We literally just invented it this second. We just really wanted to celebrate the sheer chaos of our little floofy feline friends, their complete coo-coo cat antics, and bask in their glory. And no, we didn't need a special day to do it, but we still wanted to. Why? Because cat chaos deserves special recognition. A special day for a special kind of chaos.

It's 5 AM and your cat decided to sing you the song of their people? Chaos. It's any random time of the day, and your cat got into the zoomies to run on your walls? Completely chaotic. They see a bird outside the window, and for some reason, the only sound coming out of their mouth is "ekekek"? That's poetic chaos. Cats are the masters of chaos, and celebrating it with a special Cat Chaos Day seems only fitting.

So join us in this coo-coo celebration of cat conundrums, of fuzzy feline antics, of everything that makes cats hilarious. Let's do it with a bunch of chaotic cat memes - just as we celebrate everything about cats around here. Brace yourselves - cat chaos is coming!

Some neighbor stories are sitcom material, minus the laugh track. One house, two driveways, endless chaos. The neighbors are parked like they are inventing new Tetris moves, blocking the start of the driveway and forcing episode after episode of waiting games just to get home. Even when a car finally moves, there is another one blocking the split in back or sitting smack in the middle of your precious parking spot.

The new low blows have come fast. Now they are dropping garbage on your turf, not just small things either, but three mattresses. Bulk disposal on someone else's property is peak community energy. Security cameras catch almost everything, but invisible boundaries do not seem to matter. The laundry cart incident is still fresh in the memory. One neighbor needed it, took it, and apologized in shaky translation. No harm meant, but also no warning.

Every request is met with more confusion than malice. If anyone just asked to use a spot or toss some bulk on your curb, there would be compromise and shared frustration, not silent theft and property party tricks. It is not about language. It is about basic neighbor courtesies and asking first. English, Spanish, or a phone app is fine. Mutual respect is not limited by dialect.

Look, we're not saying we're happy to know some people's houses are broken into. When a burglar breaks into your home, your sanctuary, it's an insane level of privacy invasion, let alone the physical damage from stolen goods. But we can't say that we're sad when the said burglars are cats. Yes, they might invade your most private place, and they might've stolen some of your food - but cats are the only burglars you forgive, forget, and invite them again for another round. And another. And another, until you officially adopt them. It's hard saying "No" to the floofy feline you suddenly find in your home -  their cute face and constant neediness are downright pawdorable.

Cats being home burglars is just their nature, and the Cat Distribution System utilizes that fact in every opportunity it gets. It sends these cats right into their forever homes, without even asking the hoomans first. Not that the CDS asks any person in advance, but some of their adoption matches are way more subtle. But not these ones. When a cat waltzes into your home like they own the place, you know the CDS made a decision you can't refuse, can't deliberate, can't think about. You just accept the obvious fact - this cat lives here now.

Family gatherings. Something we looked forward to every year as a kid, excited for all the time you were going to spend playing with your cousins, with everyone together and warm cozy vibes supported by good food and conversation.

Blissfully oblivious to the planning, the coordination, and the cost of everything. When dinner was called, all you had to do was grab a plate and dig in.

But, where did all of that food come from? Sure, Mom would get up at the crack of dawn to start the day-long process of cooking the stuffed turkey, but aside from that and the apples you peeled for apple pie, you really took all of that for granted.

If you've ever cooked a meal for four or so people, you know how much work and how expensive even a simple meal can be. (When did food get so expensive?) By the time you account for all of your extended family, numbering 10 to 20 people, it's an exorbitant cost that one person couldn't possibly shoulder. 

While you can get away with freeloading when you're a kid, by the time you're an adult-sized kid, you need to contribute beyond peeling the apples. Still, you can't just go blindsiding people with costs, especially in this economy, and just because you decided to splash out on food for the holidays doesn't mean that everyone in your family is going to be able to match you. 

Who is in the wrong here? It's hard to say, but I think the poster gets the edge on this once since she wasn't privy to the expectation of cost. Still, how much does a plate for a whole extended family cost these days? I'd be shocked if it wasn't somewhere north of $50.

Dogs are more or less predictable - they always want to try new things, smell new smells, play with other dogs, chew on stuff, eat, and sleep. But cats? The only predictable thing about cats is that they are pawsitively unpredictable. Sure, cats love to sleep and eat, but guessing what they'll do besides those two things is like finding a needle in a haystack - impawssible. You might come home to find them stuck inside your bathroom cabinet, or find out that they've somehow managed to open the tupperware full of cookies and take a bite out of every one. On extremely glitchy days, you might even come home to find them chilling in the fridge (pun intended).

But this is also the reason why we love our little glitchy and silly kitties - they keep our lives, well, purrfectly interesting. Their curiosity knows no bounds, and we never get tired of seeing what they'll come up with next. That's not entirely true; we do get tired of them nomming on our hair every time we try a new shampoo. But other than that, we love to watch their glitchy little brains work. 

You may be a cat pawrent like us, or just a cat connoisseur, but either way, you're going to get a hilarious kick out of these purrfect pictures of cats being nature's glitchiest and silliest creation below. They're cutely chaotic and 100% full of feline fun!

Food allergies are taken very seriously on flights, but this passenger seems confused about what medical issues she actually has going on. 

Any allergies should be taken seriously, but not all are created equal. For instance, maybe you're a little allergic to a hair product that makes your skin itch when you wear it, so you just avoid it. Or maybe you know that if you eat shellfish, you'll break out in hives, so you keep that out of your diet. But some people have extremely serious allergies that can be life threatening, and even if you don't have one, you probably know someone who does. Nut allergies are one of the most common ones. If you went to school with just a single kid who had a peanut allergy, your school may have banned peanut butter all together. It's just not a laughing matter — for some folks, even a scent of their allergen can cause their body to start the allergic reaction, sending them to the hospital. 

For those with allergies that severe, traveling can be nerve wracking. Luckily, airlines do take this kind of thing seriously, and they can keep passengers with special requirements safe while traveling if they know about these allergies ahead of time.

However, this person claims to have allergies, and maybe they do…but their self-typed note about it is just bizarre, as you can read below. Read it for yourself, then see if you agree with what the commenters are buzzing about too. 

Neonatal kittens are pawsitively challenging to care for. They need around-the-clock care for anything from frequent feeding to stimulation to help them go to the bathroom. It's exhausting without a mother cat. So when a litter of day-old kittens was left at this animal shelter, the employees weren't sure all of them would make it. All of their neonatal foster families were full, and they didn't have the resources needed to properly care for them. But, with a purrfeclty amazing twist of feline fate, 'Acorn' was brought to them as well. Acorn was post-partum, but without kittens. It was a match made in heaven.

After introducing Acorn to the litter, she immediately pounced into action. She adopted these babies as her own, cleaning them, caring for them, and feeding them without a paws of hesitation. She needed a reason to keep living just as much as these kittens needed her to care for them. They ended up saving each other, and this just warms our little hearts a million times over.

Now that the kittens are older, Acorn has retired from meowtherhood, and they're all looking for their furrever homes. We think it's time Acorn gets treated like the awwdorable baby she is, but inside, we know she is a hero.

Living the adult life means that, unfortunately, you can't have a "day off" from your responsibilities, least of all from your job, whenever you want. No, being an adult means that in order to have a day off, you have to request it in advance and get it approved. Sometimes it even takes months of planning just to get one day of peace and quiet. 

When the hardworking project manager in the story below decided to take one day, just one day, off work, they didn't want to be bothered whatsoever. What is the point of a day off if you have to answer calls or think about work? 

However, this manager's coworkers clearly didn't think the same way, as they had no problems texting and calling the project manager while they were away. So while this PM was having lunch with their family, after months of being devoted to their job, they had to turn their phone off just to stop it from ringing. 

When they finally called back to see what was so urgent, they were met with passive-aggressive remarks about wanting to be left alone on their day off…

Life for stray cats is difficult as it is. Dealing with weather changes, with humans, with other animals, looking for food and shelter all the time - that is difficult enough. Imagine the same thing for a kitten though. A tiny adorable kitten who is just starting to discover the world. The rate of survival for stray kitties is unfortunately not particularly high. But for a beautiful kitten, for a striking, unique kitten that stands out in the world like the one in this story, the chances would have been much, much lower, if she had no been found in time. 

A white bobtail kitten, that is what this kind person found in a drain pipe near Goodwill. The kitten was terrified, and animal services refused to help because the kitten wasn't stuck, she was just scared. But the rescuer knew, the same way that we know, that this kitten had to be rescued, that there's no telling how much longer she would have survived out there all on her own without help. So, they spent hours, sitting there, trying their best to get the kitten to trust them long enough to bring the kitten home.