Together, but not for the rest of our lives

Breaking up in your twenties is one thing; in your thirties, another; in your forties, another, but at 68? That's wild, and I'm totally here for it; it's never too late to change your life and try new stuff. I suppose marriage at that age is also about helping each other with tasks that were much easier when you're young but become physically difficult when you get older. I don't mean to be ageist; it's just something my family members who are that age told me or talk to me about in general. Of course, not all is about that, and there's also a great deal of companionship at that age which is about love, friendship, and wanting to stay together; but if we're tired of co-living and want to start over, why shouldn't we? We should finally get past that as a society.

There's one sound that can summon a feline faster than anything else: the treat bag.

It doesn't matter where they are or what they're doing. They could be sound asleep in another room, halfway through an important grooming session, or pretending you don't exist after being told they can't sit on the kitchen counter. The second that bag crinkles, it's game over. Somehow, they hear it every single time.

Within seconds, the house has transformed into a full-speed purr-suit. Cats come sprinting from impossible places, sliding around corners like tiny race cars and skidding across hardwood floors with zero regard for traction. If there are multiple cats in the house, things get even more dramatic. Suddenly it's a furmula one race to see who reaches the treats first.

The best strategists know exactly where to position themselves. Some weave between your legs in hopes of slowing you down. Others sit politely, convinced good manners will earn them an extra snack. Then there are the bold ones who stretch onto two legs, climb halfway up your pants, or start meowing like they've never been fed a day in their lives. Oscar-worthy performances happen every single time.

It's amazing how selective their hearing can be. Call their name three times? Silence. Ask them to stop scratching the couch? Nothing. Whisper the word "treat" or make the tiniest crinkle with the bag, and suddenly they've mastered tele-paw-thy.

No matter how often it happens, it never loses its charm. Watching a cat abandon every ounce of dignity for a bite-sized snack is one of those everyday moments that keeps us laughing. They may play it cool the rest of the day, but when the treats come out, every cat is happy to let their inner snack attack take over.

Raising a black cat is daily cuteness and nightly hazards.

There's nothing in the entirety of common experiences shared by cat parents worldwide more relatable to me than the actual risk of raising a black-furred cat. Not because they're extra spicy in their behavior or something - the voids are actually known to be very sweet, and they borderline the orange cats' silliness from time to time - but because they're literally so hard to spot in the dark. I'm serious. When night descends, there's a 50-50 chance I'm going to bump into my cat, with varying degrees of potential unintentional force. That's a pawblem.

My black cat is named Cassie. I named her like this when she was a wee month-old kitten after Cassandra Pentaghast from the Dragon Age games. The character is a fierce warrior with strong sword swings and an even stronger conviction. She also has black hair… and that's where the similarities between the fantasy character and my cat end. My Cassie is a silly baby, at best. She sleeps on the office table as I write these very lines, and I only know it's her and not a pile of black shirts because she got up from my lap to reach there.

This is a serious(ly funny) problem all pawrents of the voids share. How do we know we're not about to step right on our beloved black-floofed babies in the middle of the night? We don't. We just don't, and somehow our cats are still surprised. For example, Cassie was aghast when I grabbed her from the closet early in the morning, when the room was still dark, because I wanted to wear a simple black t-shirt. Little did I know she was sleeping right on my shirts' shelf like it's a queen-size bed.

Black cats are magic, for sure. But mainly invisibility magic - especially when it's nighttime.

Elderly and/or Entitled?

Could it be that they were using their age to take advantage of this young woman? Or was she just petty and should've given them her seat? I think both things can be true at once, lol. What I don't understand is why this moral issue stayed with her forever; they were just some annoying elderly couple. I know I would've not given them my seat if there weren't any seats left, but if there were, and they were so annoying, I would've gotten up and gone to another just to end the conflict right there; sometimes there is no use in doing the 'right' thing or what the ticket says. Of course, if there were no other seats available, I would've never given up my seat had I been travelling alone in a foreign country.

Gather round, cat people - we've got something good for you today.

There are days when missing our cat hits a little harder than usual. Sure, the longing is always there in the background (that's just part of the cat pawrent package), but every so often it turns into something bigger - like some invisible signal going off in our brain shouting "go home and see your cat", even though it's the middle of a workday and leaving simply isn't an option. Today happens to be one of those days, which honestly makes writing this a bit of a challenge, since our brain is fully preoccupied with thoughts of our cat - how ridiculously cute they are, how funny they can be without even trying, and how much we love it when they stroll over demanding pets.

If you're a fellow cat pawrent nodding along right now, we get it completely. But we're not here to spiral into shared misery about being away from our cats - we came prepared with something better. So instead of moping through the day separated from our floofy roommates, let's do the next best thing: dive into some seriously cute cat content. We know there's no shortage of ways to get your fix of pixelated feline joy online, but you shouldn't have to go digging for the good stuff yourself. That's exactly why we rounded up this batch of feline funnies for you.

So, no more moping - we'll do the same, promise. The day will wrap up eventually, and soon enough we'll all be back home, handing out treats, showering our cats in pets, and soaking in that reunion joy on both ends. Until then, though, we can patch up that cat-shaped gap in our hearts with the funniest feline memes and the most pawdorable cat faces the internet has to offer. It's not quite the same as having your actual cat with you at work, but it's a decent stand-in until you're home again, arms full of cat.

Let's get this meowing mood boost rolling, the cat memes await your spreading smile!

When we are in our first adult years, we think we know it all, but maybe it is useful to hear the advice of the people who came before.

In school, we learn that it is important to learn history to avoid committing the same mistakes. That is not only useful for historical events. It's also important to pay attention to what elders have to say. Even though the world has changed almost entirely, indeed, some things never do. Sometimes something we deem old or obsolete can actually be extremely helpful to younger generations.

Sometimes our grandparents would repeat old sayings as some hidden truth. We would laugh and considerate no more than a simple saying. But once you hit adulthood, you start to realize that they were saying things that were more important and useful than you originally thought. Sometimes they are not just repeating an old saying but passing on knowledge.

This Reddit thread is not only a way to pass on knowledge from the elders to the younger generation, but it's also a way to give their words the importance they deserve. We, young adults, need to lower our pride and listen more. Listen to what others have to say before we form an opinion. We can evaluate what we consider important and what we do not, but only if we first hear what they have to say. Use this thread and others. Ask family members, neighbors, teachers. They have lived in this world longer than you, and that matters. They have experienced things you haven't even thought about yet. So listen and learn. Nobody was born knowing everything.

So ask, ask older people what they would have liked to know when they were younger. What tip do they wish they had heard before they hit adulthood? And use what you need and just know what you don't want. Use it in your favor. Listen to others who have come before you. 
 

Picture a phone changing hands like your 4, and it's a hot potato. That's basically what happened when someone got asked to hand over an office iPhone mid-sentence while still helping a client

The client didn't care about the training schedule. The coworker watching, apparently, cared about nothing else.

A five-minute standoff over a phone handoff is never really about the phone. It's a pop quiz nobody studied for, testing whether you'll drop everything the second someone with slightly more tenure snaps their fingers. Fail the quiz, and you're "difficult." Pass it and you've just taught an intern that office rank beats basic logic every time.

Adopting a cat changes the cat's life, but raising a cat for years changes you as well.

I've noticed myself change a lot during the almost-7-years that I've raised my cat (who's healthy, happy, and going on strong… and tries to sit on my keyboard as we speak). And not just because life can change a lot in the span of 7 years, but because of the fact that raising a cat changes you - whether you like it or not. I feel it myself in many aspects of my life.

First of all, the immediate change was the first time I've felt completely responsible for another soul, which, let's be honest, probably prepared me for motherhood better than anything else I've experienced so far (besides actually becoming a mother, of course). But as time went by, I've come to realise I learned a lot more from my cat: I learned to ask for my personal space - because I've seen my cat do it. Personal space is super important to me, but I've not always known how to ask for it. I learned to for "simple" things I needed - because my cat did. She asks, with no shame, when she "just" wants to play, for example. But it's not "just" play; it's a need of hers, and she asks for it.

But raising a cat isn't only about what we've grown into thanks to having them by our side for years. There's also immense joy in watching them grow as well. I remember how tiny my cat was when I adopted her - she was just a month-old, sickly abandoned kitten, with only half her fur on her tiny body. But now? She's the lady of the house, slick and soft, and looking like the princessiest house cat you could imagine.

And that joy in change is shared with a lot of cat pawrents, as evident in these before-and-after cat pictures below. They were taken by purroud cat pawrents who also raise their cats for years.

Using her power to get revenge. Every customer service employee would like to do this!

Everyone who has worked in the service industry or in customer service wants to get revenge on the customer who mistreated them. Whether you worked at a hotel front desk and had to put up with demands for room upgrades for free, or you worked at a call center where customers scream at you just because. You are always thinking that you could take revenge if you wanted to. You have the power to cancel their reservation, or pay for an extra fee they don't want. You can definitely do that, but you don't. But you think about it, especially when they are really mean, and they underestimate you.

In the story below, the front desk employee saw the entitled customer's mistreatment as an opportunity. As the perfect situation to inconvenience them slightly as a form of revenge. They were talking to her so horribly that she decided to use her job position in her favor. A lot of people compared it to when customers mistreat servers and then their food tastes a little different. That's why you don't treat badly people that serve you, apart from also being a nice person to everyone because it is the right thing to do.

Even though most employees would never do anything to disturb a customer, I wouldn't test it. You always have to treat everyone with kindness and respect. But especially the people who are servicing you. It also stuck with me the fact that this employee could give out a free upgrade that night, and because they treated her so badly, she decided to downgrade the customers instead. If they had been nice, they could have even gotten a better room. Maybe next time, think before you talk and treat everyone as you would want to be treated if you were in their place. Less entitlement, more thank you and excuse me. That is what really makes a difference. 
 

Surrendering a cat after 13 years for any reason is horrible. 

As an owner of a now-senior cat, I can say one thing with absolute certainty, and that is that I want my baby to be with me forever. She's 11-years-old now, Not even that old for a cat. And as someone who writes stories about cats for a living, I know that some cats live to incredible ages. The world's oldest living cat, Flossie, turned 30 years old this year. But it also means that I see the opposite stories, of cats crossing the rainbow bridge far too young. So, I'm a little paranoid about my cat, a little jumpy whenever she does something even slightly out of the ordinary, but it's only because I like her, and I want her to grow into a super senior cat and then to surpass Flossie, as unlikely as that may be. The more years with my cat, the luckier I am. 

So, when I came across this story on r/blackcats, I was baffled. And so was the rest of the internet. This stunning, loyal cat who has been with one family for 13 years… I can only imagine what she felt like the day that her family decided to give up on her. Abandon her. And not that there is any justifiable reason for this, but a reason that is definitely not justifiable is them abandoning their senior cat because she couldn't get along with the new kitten they adopted. Giving up the kitten would have hurt too, don't get us wrong, but in that case, that might have been what we had done, because nothing - nothing - could have made us give up on our senior cat. Now, here she is, back at the shelter where she was adopted from, looking for a forever home yet again. 

People get fired every day, but how many people get told by their manager to quit their jobs instead?

We have all grown quite accustomed to the idea that we can lose our jobs at any given moment. All it takes are three words from our boss, and we are packing up our desks and updating our resumes in order to find our next source of income. That is the way of life, and we all know it. Some people can recognize the signs better and prepare for the day they are being let go. If they plan it right, they can already have a few interviews lined up. They just have to be attentive and aware of their surroundings and of their boss's mood every day. 

Despite knowing that your job is at risk every single day, most of us don't think about that on a daily basis. We go through the motions of our routine,  and if something were to change, well, we'll deal with it when we get there.

When something so unexpected happens, like what occurred in this story, it might not be as easy to get back on the horse and find ourselves all over again.

The employee below has been working at their job since May, and for months they thought they were doing a good job. Their team lead kept praising them, telling them they were doing exceptional work and their performance was at the top of its game. After a few months at the job, the ground suddenly shifted beneath the employee's feet. The team lead started singing a different tune and telling them that they might not be a good fit for the job after all.

But here's the kicker: the team lead is not going to fire the employee. Instead, she wants them to quit themselves. Her approach to this mess is that if she fires the employee, she would have to be honest about it if any prospective employer calls her for a reference. But if the employee resigns, she can give a good reference and leave out the reason the employee "decided" to leave in the first place.

Fair? We'll let you judge for yourselves…

Wholesome cat memes are exactly what we need during turbulent times like these. 

Humanity, as a whole, can't seem to agree on too many things lately. Even the things that seem the most obvious to us, the simplest, things that shouldn't even require an explanation… there is always someone saying the opposite lately. It's tiring. Going on social media, watching the news, and even talking to real-life people are real-life things that should be simple, is the opposite of simple right now. It's draining. It's exhausting. And there seems to be nothing - not one thing - that people can agree one. Except that's not true. One thing remains stable, and that is that everyone loves cat memes. 

Even the biggest cat haters benefit from cats ruling the internet with an iron paw the way that they are. Because the one thing that humanity can and will always agree on is that wholesome cat memes are a net good. They just are. No matter how bad your day is, they will make you feel better. No matter what is going on in the world or on the news, cat memes are always there for you, just waiting for you to smile at them. And no matter how much people in the world disagree about everything, this is something that they agree on. Or at least they should. There's probably going to be at least one rebellious person in our comments saying the opposite just to be contradictory and controversial. But you know what? These people can say it all they want. Really, it's their loss. People online will continue making these silly cat memes every single day, no matter what, and these memes will go viral and find their way to your feed whether you want them to or not. 

Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend

There are few things more pleasurable than watching somebody get what they deserve without us interfering in any sort of way. That type of event can definitely brighten your day. Some people use gossip as a substitute for intimacy. They don't know how to relate to other people, or can't find anything interesting to say, so they start talking badly about somebody else. It can even be a learned attitude, something everyone around you did growing up, so you learned it was O.K. Regardless of what was causing it, this coworker got what she deserved, and it was funny for a while.

Two cats mean double the cats to love, double the cats to cuddle with, and double the cats to commit crimes in your home. 

Having one cat is adventurous enough. I say this from experience, of course. As someone who didn't grow up with cats and didn't really understand them beyond cute and funny cat pictures on the internet, I didn't really know the amount of chaos that one cat could bring into a home. The number of times my cat has run straight into a wall for no reason, the number of times my cat has stolen food from my plate right under my nose, the number of doors that my cat screams at… puzzles get sat on, chairs get stolen the second I get up, valuables get broken, not even on purpose, she's just clumsy. I could go on. And on. And on. And on. And this is just one cat. What happens when you have a pair of them?

Sometimes, it's a choice to adopt another cat. Other times, some cats simply come in twos. Bonded cat pairs. We in the internet community gave these pairs this name for a reason. These cats are meant to be together. Their lives would be incomplete without one another. Their bond is strong as steel, and it's just as unbreakable. And sure, having a bonded pair of cats, in some ways, is the same as having a regular pair of cats in your home. Double the cats to love, to pet, to cuddle with. Double the chaos, the shenanigans, the stolen food items. But it also means this. It means getting to take the cutest pictures of cats cuddling one another that you have ever seen. And since I don't have two cats of my own to take pictures of, I asked our audience to share theirs. 

So you've befriended a feral feline and have been giving them food for months. But no matter what you do they will not treat you with any less suspicion than they did upon first meeting you. A painful feeling that you have failed to familiarize yourself with the feline, but with these tips you could be one step closer to cuddling that cute cat.

Of course such advice came from Reddit's r/Feral_Cats subreddit where all things feral felines are discussed. And as you can imagine this is a biggie. I pawsonally have failed miserably to domesticate a feral feline who showed interest in me. It was the classic case of a cute kitten coming to play on my porch. I fell in love instantly and began feeding her hoping that one day should would love me back. But as time went on nothing changed, she flinched at my every move and refused to eat if I was anywhere near her. And even when I went to the lengths of giving her churu to try and distract her while I petted her, I was met with slaps and cynicism for even trying such a thing.

So if you have found yourself in a similar situation in the past, or are struggling through such times right now, I put together this insightful list of suggestions to give everyone some fresh ideas for how to convince a street cat to become a cat child. I'd like to believe that every feral feline wants to be pampered and loved deep down. They just need us to show them that is what they truly want.

 

The change from being a child to a responsible adult is shocking. And that shock may last longer than you'd ever imagine.

One day we wake up, and suddenly we have bills to pay, mortgages, wills, trusts, even college funds and debt. We don't really notice the exact moment everything changes. We realize it once we are already in serious debt and with a household to take care of. We spend so many years being taken care of by our parents that the moment we have to do it, it seems like we are learning a whole new language. It shocks us and worries us. Is a lot to take care of. One day, out of the blue, we are adults. 
 

What the parents in this Reddit story realize is that they never organized anything. They were lost and had a lot of new things they needed to start managing right at that time. I know it was really stressful for them and that there are probably other families that went through the same thing. But they were lucky to have a family member who asked them about it. It's great that they started managing everything before something bad actually happened. These things need to be taken care of. They are a priority, not something you can procrastinate till some future day you have some extra time.

We have already talked previously about the need to get some kind of financial education at school. I think this also should be in it. It's unthinkable to believe that just because you are an adult, you will know how to manage this paperwork and do it correctly. We need some guidance on these types of matters before we have to face them directly. And not taking care of this and ignoring it is not a possibility. We have to do it, but it would be nice to have some kind of help or guidance to go through it in the best possible way. 
 

Gratitude is more important than you think, and we can all take the time to practice it. 

Gratitude may seem like a woo woo silly word that's used by people who want to emphasize blind positivity. It's not always the case, and actually has real life benefits neuroscience. It's usually seen as a simple emotion, but it actually has immensely meaningful effects on the way our brains and bodies interact with each other and respond to everyday life. Practicing gratitude isn't about forcing yourself to feel happy all the time, but instead it's about intentionally directing your attention towards experiences, people, or moments that are genuinely meaningful to you. There's research to back up the claims that gratitude practices help reduce stress by shifting the concentration of the brain. There's a way to have real gratitude and happiness coexist with bad times, it just takes practice and time to develop. 

That's where cat memes come in. Cats remind us that life is out of our control, and that developing a sense of stability that's essential for us is the most important thing. Everyday stresses will always be there, but we can actually train our brains to handle them better. Cats are really the best mitigator for stress because they just ground us with their cuteness and their whimsical silliness. Without their random energy shifts and zoomies, and strangeness we wouldn't have such moments that remind us of the randomness of the universe. Enjoy these crazy grateful cat memes and remember to appreciate the little things. 

Is it really that important to ensure you have written proof of everything important you are told to do at work?

Anyone who has worked under a boss or a manager will tell you the answer is always "absolutely yes, always document everything."

Why, you ask? Well, because managers don't love to be held accountable for their mistakes, so if they get a chance to pin them on someone else, they will take it without a blink of an eye. All you can do to keep it from happening to you is to have as much proof as possible that you did your job right. That proof can only be explicitly written.

Which leads us to how collecting these proofs should be done: Basically, every time your boss gives you a task or a note, you should go to your email, start a new one, repeat the boss's instructions, and ask for confirmation. Don't make any drastic changes without said confirmation. That way, even if your boss asks you why this one task didn't get done, you can pull up that email and show them that they never confirmed execution.

That was how the employee below got their manager to finally start replying to written requests. At first, the boss only gave vague instructions verbally, so if something went wrong he could pin it on his employees, while they had no way to prove that it happened differntly that how he described it. After taking the blame one too many times, the employee decided it was time to teach the manager a lesson and took it upon themselves to make a change. So, instead of following the boss's vague verbal instructions, the employee asked for confirmation via email. They obviously didn't get a response back, so they didn't do what the boss asked, and when it was time to present the presentation to the client, there was clear proof of the boss's lack of communication.

Cats don't stand on two legs very often, which is probably a good thing. If they did, we'd never get anything done because we'd spend the entire day staring at them.

It always catches you off guard. You're making lunch, unloading groceries, folding laundry, or walking into the room when something looks... off. Then it clicks. Your cat is standing straight up, balancing on their back legs like they've got somewhere important to be. They aren't wobbling around or looking confused, either. They're locked in. Whatever they're looking at has their full attention, and standing upright was apparently the only logical solution.

They really commit to the pose. Tiny paws dangling in front. Neck stretched as high as it'll go. Eyes completely focused on the mission at hand. Maybe they're checking if dinner is finally making its way to the food bowl. Maybe they heard the treat container open three rooms away. Maybe they're keeping tabs on a bird outside that's been taunting them since sunrise. Or maybe they're just being nosy. Cats have never needed much of a reason to insert themselves into someone else's business.

The timing couldn't be worse for us, either. The second you reach for your phone, they drop back onto all fours and start grooming themselves like they weren't just auditioning for the role of "tiny fuzzy meerkat." Good luck explaining that one to someone who didn't see it happen.

Then, just when you've accepted you missed the photo, they'll do it again a week later. Different room. Different reason. Same ridiculous pose.

Cats spend so much time trying to convince us they're graceful, mysterious little predators. Then they stand up for five seconds, completely unravel their own reputation, and somehow end up being even more adorable than before. It's a purrfect reminder that even the coolest cats have their wonderfully weird moments.

You never know when Bridezilla might appear

I wasn't familiar with this concept until a few months ago. I don't know why I ended up reading about it, and now it appears all the time across multiple platforms. People around me don't get married anymore; it's like a foreign concept, or a rather vintage one. In my circle, getting married is something upper-class people do, because they are more tied to traditional family values. I understand that's peculiar, though; most people get married, and not only rich people do, but I come from a very peculiar family. Either way, the concept of a Bridezilla is funny and appealing to me; it's the beast that emerges when the stakes are as high as they can be and one feels like the wedding night is the night everything changes.