Watching cats experience things for the first time is truly one of the greatest joys. 

We think that every single cat owner will agree on this one thing, and that is that watching cats react to things is simply one of the best things about having cats. Cats are so expressive. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They make faces all the time, and we, as their experienced owners, know exactly what those faces mean. Of course, you get to see most of these reactions when your cats are itty bitty kitties. I don't think that I will ever forget the way that my tiny kitten reacted to seeing a computer screen for the first time, the way that she sat right in front of her screen with her tiny head tilted, following the motions of the mouse across the screen. But even now, even when she's 11 years old, I always watch her. I let her sniff new things to let her experience more of the world. I buy her new little toys, give her new and interesting snacks. 

Normally, the reactions that our cats have to things are quite mild. They get used to the world at some point. But sometimes, every once in a while, we will catch them off guard with something, and their reaction to it will be etched in our minds forever. And that is certainly true for the cat in today's story. He's a deaf kitty who loves experiencing the world, so his owners, every once in a while, take him out on a leash. And on one of these hot summer days, they took their cat to the beach… where he encountered strong wind for the first time. And his reaction was so silly and hilarious that the internet made it go viral instantly. 

Should you be expected to answer work calls when you're off the clock if you're not even on-call?

A worker who wasn't scheduled to be on-call missed multiple calls during a major workplace emergency while spending their day off away from their phone. The next morning, their manager confronted them and announced a disciplinary meeting, leaving the employee worried about possible consequences.

I can only imagine the fear in this employee's head after the conversation he had with his manager. And the worst part is that it was in front of his coworkers, leaving him super embarrassed and ashamed of what happened. However, I find this topic to be super interesting for a lot of different reasons, starting with what a day off really is. Of course, it's the day when you can disconnect from work and relax for a bit. In this case, the OP decided to enjoy the day while working on the car.

Now, I also understand that emergencies can happen, and it's important to contact the right people in order to get this situation fixed. But something that I will say is that it's fundamental to have an emergency protocol and policy very well dictated, since situations like the one the OP mentioned can happen, as well. So, instead of getting blamed by the a¡manager, if they had a better protocol about this issue, this whole thing could have been avoided.

I would suggest to the people who work here that, besides the employee who is currently working, they should also have an emergency employee available when this like this occur. I know that they have one, but somehow they ended up calling the OP because of this emergency, and that's not something he is available for. Anyways, this is about organizing the situation and being more prepared for the next emergency.

Cats will not let anything in the world stop them from being their best cat selves. 

One of our favorite things about cats is that they do not let anything stop them. We humans are not always quite as strong. It's enough for one migraine to catch me off guard, and my whole day is ruined. Meanwhile, my cat, when she was sick, pretended that everything was fine for two weeks, playing around, causing chaos, doing everything normally, until she couldn't anymore. Until I caught her, red-pawed, with a fever higher than she has ever had. Cats don't let illness or disability stop them from living their best lives. A deaf cat will scream louder than any other for his breakfast. A blind cat will still play around and cause chaos just like any other. And tripod cats… probably don't even realize that they are one leg short of other cats, jumping around, playing, and doing as many shenanigans as they feel like doing. 

The cat in today's story certainly didn't notice. Or maybe he just didn't care. Why would he? Everything in his life started working out purrfectly right after his operation. The following day, the right human found him and he got adopted into his forever home. And not only that, this human, knowing that cats will never let you know when they need something, knowing that their new kitty was probably cold after his operation as he's recovering… this human crocheted him some shirts. The cutest kitty shirts that we have ever seen. And now, warm, happy and loved, this kitty, tripod as he is, is jumping around and doing everything that any other cat would do. And his human… is crocheting new shirts for him as we speak because he just seems to absolutely love wearing them. 

When someone else makes a mistake at work, do you let them know or do you stay out of it?

It seems like there is no wrong or right answer here, and every person makes a judgment call when they find themselves in that situation. It really all depends on the type of mistake that was made, the person who made it, and whether or not it even concerns you.

If the person who made the mistake is, say, your boss, who's notoriously bad at receiving any type of feedback, most people would prefer staying out of it and letting the boss figure it out on their own. But if the mistake was made by a coworker you genuinely care about and can help, maybe you will prefer letting them know about it and finding a way to fix it together.

The mistake that was made in the story below is a tough one, and the employee who discovered it truly didn't know which course of action they should take, mainly because they didn't want everyone to know that they were even slightly involved in the mix-up.

It all started when this employee asked their boss to take a step back from a complicated project. The boss agreed, but forgot to take the employee out of the email thread that discussed the project with the rest of the team. This led the employee to receive emails where the team discussed the project and the employee's decision to remove themselves from it, stuff that they definitely were not meant for the employee's eyes.

Here is where we come back to the first question - should the employee tell their boss that they are still on the thread, or should they stay quiet and see how it plays out? If someone finds out they were reading all these emails, it could get awkward, but the thought of confronting their boss about it makes the employee even more nervous.

Eventually, the employee chose one of these options, and the result turned out to be not as bad as they expected. Read the rest of the story below.

Cat things include: ripping up all the toilet paper, knocking fragile objects off tables, and midnight zoomies. 

"Cat things" are the seemingly evil and destructive instincts that make cats unmistakably cats. They're behaviors that don't always make sense to humans, yet feel perfectly logical within a feline worldview governed by comfort, curiosity, and quiet authority. A classic cat thing is loafing—tucking paws neatly beneath the body as if transforming into a living bread roll. Does your cat do this? It's so funny to copy a shape without even eating bread! Who knew they were such shapeshifters? Another cat thing is laying in direct sunlight, they simply love it. And did we mention sleeping? Napping itself is a major cat activity, often done in places that seem inconvenient, impractical, or mildly alarming, such as the edge of furniture or inside boxes far too small.

Cats are also known for intense countenance. Staring at walls, ceilings, or empty corners is a respected pastime, even if no visible cause exists. And who could forget their knack for knocking things onto the ground. It doesn't matter if it's your car keys, lipstick, or a fragile object sure to break when it hits the ground. This is less about destruction and more about curiosity, physics, and control.

Cats are the least impressed animal in the animal kingdom. It's like they're paid actors who didn't get paid enough and are about to abandon set. Some cats cuddle up, and others destroy, but they're all nonetheless cats. These hilarious and wholesome cat memes are sure to give you the right idea about a cat's core identity, whether you already know it or not. 

We have this idea of how rich people behave, but is it true or just what films and TV shows show us?

As someone who is actually really far from being rich, I do think we don't have the best idea of how people in that tax bracket actually act and behave. My perception of them is mostly created by the image that media and films have been curating of it, and not really what it's actually like. Also, there is a difference between someone that manage to build a business that did really well and is now in a good financial position due to it, as opposed to someone who was born with a family empire and had to just maintain it and invest without really having to start from 0 to 100. So, can we really say how rich people behave when they are so different types of people with money?

What starts as a simple offer to help can quickly become frustrating when every move is corrected…

Looking forward to one last day on the boat with family, one woman instead found herself stuck in the kitchen after her sister-in-law insisted on cooking everything left in the fridge. Even after volunteering to help, she was repeatedly corrected over harmless details, leaving her wondering whether the goal was preparing food… or making sure everyone followed her instructions.

Something we need to learn in life is how to choose the people we go on vacation with. Is not the same to have a great relationship with your in-laws, and another completely different thing is to have to live with them for weeks during a holiday. And the whole issue here is how people like to enjoy their free time: some may prefer to relax and reduce the duties to the bare minimum, while others cannot help but be busy all the time.

And this last thing is what happened with the sister-in-law of the OP. During their last day on vacation, the woman decided to cook every single vegetable that was left in the fridge before they left because she didn't want them to go bad and waste them. Although this is a good idea, I don't think it was the best decision when it comes to the last day of vacation. The family proposed an easier meal idea, but she refused and was eager to prepare a bunch of dishes and use all of the remaining food.

Here is when the wife steps in and offers to help make all of this food faster, so they can all enjoy the day outside in the sun. She thought she was trying to accelerate the process, but in reality, the sister-in-law became a terrible manager and decided to supervise her with every step of the recipe. She complained about the way she shopped for food and multiple other things, leaving the OP exhausted and irritated, since she was only trying to help her.

What is the worst thing you could possibly do or say in a job interview?

There are many ways to guarantee you come up short during an interview. Many of them, as it turns out, are completely outside your control. A hiring manager might have already settled on an internal candidate, taken an irrational dislike to your résumé, or decided for some unexplainable reason that they don't think you'd be "the right fit." Still, there are plenty of genuine pitfalls to avoid, and these hiring managers gathered in an online community to share the moments that instantly made them decide they weren't going to hire a candidate. I promise that nothing you have done in an interview is as bad as some of these.

The advice given by the hiring managers serves as a pretty good guide for avoiding some extreme job interview blunders. 

In a space dominated by performative acts, where everyone is trying to present the most polished and employable version of themselves, interviews really take the cake.

Let's face it: corporate life exists in an almost liminal space compared with the rest of reality. Everything is canned and sterile—much like that idiom I just used. Managers and employees stick to familiar, carefully approved scripts. Outside of talking about the weather, weekend plans, and sports, few people seem willing, or perhaps properly trained, to venture beneath that tepid surface.

Job interviews concentrate all that corporate artificiality into a single uncomfortable conversation. The interviewer pretends that "What made you want to work for our company?" is a meaningful question and that they don't hate their job. The candidate pretends that they didn't just Google what the company was 5 minutes before they walked through the door. Then they swiftly answer the follow-up question by confidently stating that their greatest weakness is that they care too much about their work. Everyone understands that a performance is taking place, yet acknowledging it would break the spell.

If you're like me and really struggle with interviews, you might also struggle with the entire idea of putting on this performance in the first place. And you probably have a tendency to overthink them because of this and try to predict and rehearse how the entire thing is going to go from start to finish.

Unfortunately, all that overthinking can leave you tied up in knots. You rehearse every possible question, memorize perfect STAR answers, and become so focused on appearing natural that you forget how to actually act naturally. Interviewers can usually tell when someone has spent too much time preparing.

The trick, apparently, is to perform without appearing to perform. You need to seem prepared but spontaneous. Basically, you need to deliver exactly the right performance while convincing everyone in the room that no performance is happening at all.

Of course, sounding a little over-rehearsed is hardly the worst thing a candidate can do. There are plenty of faster and far more bewildering ways to remove yourself from consideration, and you may raise an eyebrow at what some candidates apparently consider acceptable to do or say during a job interview.

When we leave our pets in the hands of someone else, anything could go awry. 

It can be scary to rely on someone else to take care of our pets. They're one of the most precious things to us, and any pet owner knows the fear and paranoia that could come when you leave for vacation and someone else is caring for your pet. Ideally, the person taking care of your pet is someone you know and trust, but that's not always the case. Take the story below for example. This guy travels for work and he'll sometimes hire a local pet sitter to come in to take care of his senior 13 year old cat, and to let his dog out to go to the bathroom. He's usually pretty relaxed, but everyone has their breaking point. He has one simple rule, and that's that the interior garage door has to stay closed and latched so that nobody can go into the garage. He leaves everything in the kitchen so there's no reason for someone to be using the garage anyway. 

Twice now, he's come home and the interior garage door isn't fully shut. It's an obvious giveaway, and he's immediately disappointed to see this kind of thing. He leaves everything in the kitchen. He worries because if it's not fully shut then someone could get in, and his pets could get out. His dog is curious and could go snooping around that area, and his cat will immediately run towards the door if she sees it open. He wonders how he should navigate this situation. He doesn't want to pay for someone who isn't doing his job. He asks the internet if he should message them something explicit, or add a door alarm, or if he should just stand up for himself and find someone else. The internet comes in with sweeping advice, and it's a must read. 

Sometime to spend more doesn't mean getting a better product…

Knock-offs are great to save some money but still get the product you wanted. Sometimes they are even more expensive than the real thing, because they are so awful and short-lasting that you end up having to buy multiple instead of simply spending more on the more expensive product. We see this with clothes. You buy the cheap one for the supermarket, and after two washes it completely deforms, but you spend more on a name-brand one that is actually 100% cotton, and suddenly it lasts for years. But that is not the case with knockoffs. Sometimes they turn out to be even better than the more pricey option. But when?

If you think that when work has simply become too much and turned your mind to mush there is not much you can do other than stare blankly at a wall, then you are wrong. You can cover yourself in cat memes and feel their pawisitve vibes tingling through your extremities.

At least metaphorically, we would not recommend actually covering yourself in cat memes, that sounds like a lot of printing and paper cuts. No, it is much better that you enjoy funny felines in the context of a list such as this one where we have brought together some of the most cackle-inducing feline funnies that you will have come upon this week. All carefully curated with the exclusive purrpose of making you feel better and letting your brain breathe. After all, work cannot be everything in life and cats are the least likely to ever get a job in most households so why not take a leaf out of their book.

So whether you enjoy the peculiarities of cats pretending they have real jobs, or you are a connoisseur of clawminal cat comedy, or you are only in it to wash your eyeballs with sweet cattos, this list has got something for you. We hope that you emerge refreshed and reset, ready to take on whatever might come your way for the rest of the day. And as the old kitten saying goes 'Hang in there.'.
 

Why would a coworker be bothered by an employee's decision to secure her personal belongings? Why would he become so fixated on it? 

The only reason I can think of is that he wanted access to her stuff. It doesn't prove that he personally took anything, but it is weird. It shows a lack of respect for a reasonable workplace boundary. This retail employee is new; she doesn't know the people working there in the pet store, so why wouldn't she take some privacy measures? And most importantly, why wouldn't she lock her locker? I mean, that's actually the reason why lockers exist. To lock your stuff.

This coworker's reaction actually proves why protection is necessary. Trust works in both directions. Adding a lock just ensures no one can access them without permission, and coworkers who respect that expectation have no reason to feel accused. Employees must be able to expect that their belongings will remain untouched, and our friend here is not actually helping with those strange comments.

The worst part of it all is that no one else seemed bothered by this decision. Just him, a 30-year-old man who seemed personally offended by her new precaution and began making public comments about it, suggesting that using a lock meant she considered her coworkers thieves. And he didn't keep things private; he brought the issue up in front of other employees on purpose and mentioned it while they were working on the store floor. 

Well… the truth is she had to put a lock because she found out another coworker had used her perfume without her knowing. So, rather than making a big deal out of it, which she could have done but she didn't, she just began locking her locker. So she had a good reason, and now this man has given her another good reason to keep securing her personal belongings.

Most times when a cat is in peril the original rescue is enough to ensure its ongoing safety and security in life. But the story we have for you today required no less than two rescues conducted by completely different people to get this scared cat child back to their pawrent.

Cats are a complex bunch. There are many kinds and creeds amongst feline-kind, but one that many of us cat pawrents are familiar with is the indoor recluse. The cat that is more shadow than cat. They only eat and use the facilities at night or when you are not home and if you see them sitting within 20 feet of you, you know that you are experiencing their version of cuddle time. That is the cat who had to be saved from the floor of a hotel. The kind of cat who has never answered to its own name in its whole life.

Now this is a task that no hooman unfamiliar with felines should ever undertake but it happened to be that way and through some relatively uncertain circumstances the cat was removed from the inside of the hotel and left outside. Why could the staff not wait for his pawrent to come? Why did they not contact him? We are not sure but what this led to was a second rescue mission to find the frightened feline wherever he might be hiding now that he has been set loose into the world. But being the timid type that he is, it was not going to be easy to find where he had been holing up. But with a whole heap of heart and hope this pawrent finally found their sweet cat child and put the story to bed.

 

By the time Wednesday hits, the week starts to feel a little too long, doesn't it? You're right in the middle of it, but it feels like it's ages until we finally get to the weekend. Hang in there. Kittens might be the solution.

Kitten memes won't move Friday any closer, but they can make the wait feel more manageable. If you are a tired human in need of a well-earned moment of distraction, consider this post your midweek boost in kitten form. 

That is the charm of kittens. They make small moments feel funnier, softer, and sillier. They don't need an elaborate plan to have a good day; they need your blanket. So, perhaps we need something from them as well. Without even trying, kittens always bring a gentle energy that makes us feel better. One clumsy attempt to climb onto the couch can soften our mood instantly. Seeing a kitten just existing improves our day. It's hard to stay completely serious while watching a baby cat discover its own tail or fall asleep in a funny position. Their innocence is comforting for us, and we can't help but let them melt our hearts with their sweetness. They ask nothing from us except a few seconds of attention, yet they give us a good dose of humor and warmth in return. You don't need to own a cat or even understand every strange feline decision. The sight of tiny paws and a fluffy face usually does the job all by itself. 

Improving your Wednesday does not require changing the entire day. Sometimes, you need a short pause, something wholesome to focus on, and a reminder that there are plenty of soft and silly things in the world. These kittens are ready to provide all three. After all, even one small smile can change the rhythm of an otherwise exhausting Wednesday afternoon. 

Alright, you know what you need to do. Keep it up, tired human. You are just halfway there. Let the kittens help you, borrow some of their soft and silly energy, and keep moving forward. The weekend is getting closer with every hour. Enjoy!

One person reached the end of their rope and said they plainly refused overtime with a one-word sentence. That single word turned a whole office upside down.

The story starts with a stable workplace that slowly turned toxic. Workloads jumped across the board. Stress spiked. The job stopped feeling like what anyone signed up for. Then came the breaking point. More work got dumped on one person during a vacation-heavy month. A plain no landed. No shouting. No drama. Just a reminder that work hours exist.

How far ahead is it possible for us to plan and prepare?

Planning has a limit, in every aspect of life. A woman shared on r/TwoHotTakes that she had an unexpected turn of events that complicated things. She lives in a foreign country with her husband, and a college friend was scheduled to visit and stay with them, along with her own husband and three-year-old child. That way they could save some money on accommodation and food. Unfortunately, one of the homeowners, the husband, got unexpectedly very sick and was very contagious. His wife called her friend to let her know and to tell her it was dangerous for them to stay in the house. She even tried to ask some friends if they could stay with them, but no such luck. So far, it seems like she did everything she could, but the friend might not think the same. The woman said her friend pretty much ghosted her for two days after that and seems to be giving her the cold shoulder for ruining her plans.

Truth is, no one can predict getting sick; otherwise, emergencies wouldn't exist. And if it was something contagious, as she said, it was in the other couple's best interest and that of their child not to stay in a place where they could catch the same sickness. They have a three-year-old they need to protect. Getting offended over someone being sick and supposedly "ruining your plans" is a very immature reaction, especially when the safety of the kid could be at stake. 

On other notes, traveling is beautiful, and you're really lucky if you have friends who can provide accommodation free of charge. However, even if you have them, it is not their obligation to let you stay with them in their own house. Traveling is a luxury, and no matter how generous your loved ones might be, no one should show up on someone else's doorstep expecting to be let in for free. Everybody should calculate the expenses beforehand and determine whether they can afford it on their own or not. A friend's generosity is circumstantial, not something we should depend on for treating ourselves to expensive experiences.

If there's one place a cat is determined to reach, it's the kitchen counter.

It doesn't matter how many times they're told "off," how many times they're get gently placed back on the floor, or how carefully the kitchen is cat-proofed. Give it a few minutes, and they'll be right back where they started. Some cats don't even wait for you to leave the room before making their next attempt.

From a cat's point of view, the counter is simply the best seat in the house. It's higher than everything else, it smells like food, and it's full of things that are way more interesting than the toys scattered across the living room. Why chase a feather wand when there's a grocery bag that hasn't been investigated yet?

Once they're up there, every item deserves a proper pawspection. Fruit gets sniffed. Mail gets sat on. Paper towels become batting practice. That glass sitting a little too close to the edge? It's basically asking to be tested against gravity. Nothing escapes a cat that's decided kitchen quality control is part of the daily routine.

Trying to stop them usually turns into a game they have no intention of losing. You put them down. They jump back up. You block one route. They find another. Before long, it starts to feel like the counter has become their favorite room in the house.

Eventually, most cat pawrents reach the same conclusion. The counter was never really theirs to begin with. It just took the cat a little while to claim it. The sooner everyone pawses the debate, the sooner the self-appointed kitchen inspector can get back to making sure everything is exactly where they left it.

What type of conversations do you have with your cats?

When you have talkative cats, you feel the obligation to answer every 'meow' they throw your way, and in time, you learn to understand what each one means. Every cat owner knows that cats are not vocal towards other cats, since they have other ways to communicate, so the only reason a cat makes a sound is in order to signal something to its owner. It's up to us hoomans to determine whether our cat's meow is meant to alert us that it's time for breakfast, demand a snack, or remind us that we need to clean the litter box.

The thing about our cats' awwdorable meows is that, in time, it becomes less of a one-sided exchange and evolves into a whole conversation. When our cats talk to us, even if it feels more like they are screaming at us, we feel the need to reply. We need to let them know that they are being listened to, that we hear their concerns, and that we are going to do something about it. Even if it's 3 in the morning and the last thing we want to do is have a conversation with our cats about their half-empty food bowl, that is what we are going to do.

We have to admit that it is really fun to get to have conversations with our cats, even if in reality we don't really know what they are saying to us. We know them so well that we can practically translate each cat word to the hooman language, and even if they have no idea what we are saying back to them, it still feels like they understand. 

At this very moment, for example, our cat is telling us to stop working and come give her some much-needed cuddles and kisses, so that is what we are going to do. We leave you in the good hands of this collection of hissterical cat memes, to make sure you never feel alone!

How could anyone just throw their loyal cat onto the streets?

As people who love their cats as much as we do, stories like the one we have for you today, baffle us. Simply baffle us. It has never even crossed our minds not to take our cats with us when we move. Our cats are our family. They depend on us as if they are our kids. Most of them don't know anything other than the lives that we have given them. Our cats are spoiled and loved, well-fed and surrounded by comfy beds and blankets. 

My cat, at this point, doesn't even hunt flies anymore. She used to. Used to hunt them down and snack on them when she was a kitten. But now… she requires a higher standard of entertainment, and flies simply don't cut it. The thought of her out there, on the streets, fighting for every scrap of food, for shelter, fighting other cats… it's impossible. She couldn't. She would end up like Flerken. 

Flerken was a house cat. A regular house cat. The life of a house cat is all that he knew. But then, one day, without any warning, his family abandoned him when they moved. They didn't bother looking for another family for him. They didn't make the minimal effort to bring him to a shelter or even a vet. They just threw him onto the streets. They broke his heart. They broke his trust in humans. And they put him in a position where he was being bullied by the other stray cats and couldn't do anything about it. Eventually, when he ran out of options, he went to another human on the street to ask them for help, and thankfully, they were good humans. 

It took Flerken weeks to even begin to open up, and we don't blame him. After a betrayal like that, we wouldn't have trusted humans either. But his new human was patient and truly wanted to help. So, it didn't matter how long it would take. All that mattered is that Flerken ended up learning to love again. 

Sometimes something you did for fun or to help out can become a great business idea

Business ideas are everywhere. You don't have to be a genius to find a living in something you created. Sometimes we think that the only way to get a living wage in the current state of the world is to find some corporate well-paying job, but that isn't necessarily true. Maybe your next job isn't as an administrative assistant at a company. Maybe that "dumb idea" you had turns out to be a business. A real one that actually provides you money to live and is something you really like.

Today we have one of those stories, a person who saw a problem and created a suitable solution for it. That's how businesses start. He saw that on his HOA's Facebook page, the neighbors were always asking what day to take out the trash so the garbage truck would pick it up. They had changed it, and it created a huge confusion among residents. It got to a point where the HOA was answering the same question every single day. This person saw that issue and imagined a really simple solution. To create a text message reminder that would be received by neighbors the day they had to take trash out.

It was something very simple, but very useful as well. The HOA was so grateful they didn't have to continue answering the same question again and again that they offered this user $25 a month for the service. But it doesn't end there. This system got people talking, which ended up getting this person several businesses. Other neighborhoods started to pay him for that same service, but not just for trash day, but for other things as well. This person is currently making $125, which doesn't seem like a lot, but they are saving this extra income and having a better financial situation than they used to due to something they didn't even expect to be paid for. So, if you have an idea, try to put it into practice. It may turn out to be a great business idea.