The week is closing out and as we tally up all the final costs and earnings you had better find your emotional bill leaning to the side of pawsitive. So just in case you find yourself falling short and you need a little something to push you over the line we have this wholesome collection of funny felines.

We often spend the end of our working weeks reviewing what we have achieved in the week that has passed and in how much time we have done it. But one metric that hardly ever gets reviewed is whether we have come out of the week happy. By which I mean, has our experience at work been an overall pawsitive one that makes us want to come back next week, or was it a dumpster fire that would have better been avoided. Of course the best outcome for all of us is to come away with a pawsitive week, but seeing as that can be tough to control if you base your metrics solely off the interactions you have had at work, you need to also include extracurriculars in and around your actual work.

Take for example this cute collection of comedic cats, it is a source of pawsitivity for so many of us cat lovers. Seeing our funny feline friends get up to their silly and strange hijinks is a high point in many of our days. And if we give ourselves enough time to enjoy these feline delights, then we might actually find ourselves feeling better about the bother of work and overall having had a wholesome week at work. So dive in and restore your emotional balance.
 

Scam the scammer

This could be a good step-by-step guide to getting back at someone who scammed you on any platform. This time, it was on Craigslist (I hope I'm not the only one who was scammed there). Either way, I've never heard of somebody going as far as staying for a specific amount of time to prove the sold object works. A specific amount of time that allows them to leave before it naturally stops working.

Gratitude is free, which is exactly why some people refuse to spend it. This isn't really a story about a broken-down car, it's about a boss who treats other people's time and money like a renewable resource she never has to pay back.

Who knew the cone of shame could double as a martini glass?

Recovery might not be every cat's favorite pastime, but these adorable felines are making the most of their cones. Whether they look like tiny purrtinis, fashionable lamps, or little satellite dishes, one thing's for sure: they've turned the cone of shame into the cone of fame.

What does a cat that has been missing for a month sound like?

If you didn't know, cats learn to meow from being with humans. They learn that being vocal gets them what they want. That's why you hear them meowing when it's time for dinner, especially if you are ONE minute late serving it. So what happens when you hear a street cat meowing non-stop? You should probably be at least a little bit concerned, because that might not be some feral tomcat, that might just be a family's beloved pet lost on the streets.

 TikToker @miijoouuu recently had to stop and chat with a very vocal cat out on the streets. She was on her usual nightly stroll when she heard some incessant meowing. Like, loud and nonstop, which is very bizarre behavior for a street cat. Usually, they want to stay quiet and stealthy. So, she decided to go and inspect. She found a skinny orange cat, loafed up in the dirt, meowing for help. 

When she approached the cat, they were very friendly and kept meowing. This is when she realized something was definitely wrong. This was not a wild cat thriving in the wild, this had to be somebody's pet lost and afraid. So she followed him, scooped him up, and then went to work on the apps trying to see if anybody posted about a missing cat in the area. 

Low and behold, she found a picture of a cat that looked just like him, but with more meat on his bones. It turns out his family has been looking for him every single day for an entire month! When she brought him home, both the family and the kitty were emotional. He kept purring and making biscuits and the family couldn't thank their new hero enough. 

So, if a cat on the street strikes up a conversation, you should definitely stop and listen. You may end up being someone's new hero. 

Why does every cooking disaster start with confidence?

Lately, I've been watching a ridiculous number of cooking videos on YouTube. It always starts the same way. Someone calmly explains a recipe, everything looks easy, and by the end of the video they've created something that belongs in a fancy restaurant. Naturally, I convince myself that I can do the same thing in my own kitchen with absolutely no problems.

The reality tends to be a little different. I've learned that there is a huge gap between watching someone confidently chop vegetables at lightning speed and actually doing it yourself. Somehow, professional chefs make every step look effortless. Then I attempt the recipe and immediately discover that I've misunderstood at least three instructions and forgotten a crucial ingredient.

What keeps me coming back is that cooking is one of those skills where failure is part of the process. Nobody becomes great at it without accidentally burning something, oversalting a sauce, or creating a meal that looks nothing like the photo. Every disaster usually teaches you something useful, even if that lesson is simply not to leave the kitchen while the stove is on.

I also think cooking failures are funny because they're so relatable. Everyone has experienced that moment when a recipe starts perfectly and then suddenly takes a dramatic turn. One minute you're imagining compliments from family and friends. The next you're staring at a tray of food that somehow resembles a science experiment more than dinner.

The good news is that optimism is usually stronger than common sense in the kitchen. No matter how many recipes go sideways, most of us keep trying because we remember the rare occasions when everything actually works. Those small victories are enough to convince us that the next meal will be the one that finally turns out exactly as planned. Or at least that's what we tell ourselves before opening another YouTube tutorial.

Some bosses need a costume to believe someone's working, because apparently staring at a laptop in sports shorts doesn't count unless it comes with a collar. This isn't really a story about a dress code. It's about a manager who can't measure competence directly, so he's grading effort by fabric choice instead.

Here's the thing about "professionalism" arguments in a job with zero clients and zero in-person meetings: they're not about clients or meetings. They're about a manager's personal comfort with what work is supposed to look like, dressed up as a business principle. Nobody's getting confused about whether the company takes itself seriously because one analyst wears running shoes. The spreadsheets don't care.

One aspect that can make a work environment go from calm to toxic is competition among colleagues.

There is this "new trend" in restaurants where managers expect servers to receive positive reviews that mention the server who took care of the customer. Some even go as far as counting how many reviews each server got and defining things like bonuses out of that statistic. This is problematic on many levels. First of all, it makes customers uncomfortable, as they have a server that is more preoccupied about them writing their name on the review than about serving them. Secondly, it's an unfair way to measure customer service, as it doesn't take into account real good service and instead just good convincing tactics to force the customer to leave a review. And lastly, it creates a competition among coworkers that turns the environment into a toxic competition.

This last one may be the most important. This kind of competition has so many missing screws that servers start to notice that it creates a hostile workplace where, instead of focusing on good service, employees have their mind on making customers remember their server's name. It also may produce bigger problems if servers start to try to get servers with better reviews in trouble. This could produce problems in the food, uncomfortable situations with customers, and even having to fire good servers.

This Reddit story reminded me of the sentiment that this whole system can produce on some servers. This envy and frustration can develop into a problem for the restaurant. I believe it's better to focus on the day-to-day work servers do instead of focusing just on the reviews that only some customers leave. And if you are a server going through this right now, a great way to step up your game is being more assertive, repeating your name a few times over the night, and making the customer feel like a priority, even though you have more than 10 customers at the same time. 
 

Isn't it awful to get caught up in the middle of family drama that is not your responsibility? 

Families can be a real source of drama when they want to be, some more than others. Parents argue, siblings get estranged, couples split. It's all very human, but also very stressful if you're caught up in the middle of it all. No one should be playing middleman in a private discussion, especially your children. Kids are never responsible for adult problems, and should never be burdened with them. 

Redditor u/Gaarouille had an unfortunate childhood experience with an adult secret. When he was about 10 years old (he was just a little kid), he heard his mom talking on the phone with a man who wasn't his dad/her husband, along with the words "I love you." The mom was quick to tell her son to keep her secret, and he did, obviously. Years later, someone told his dad about the affair, and the son played the part of the confused kid, not daring to tell his dad the truth. 

I feel so sorry for this guy. He expressed that guilt has been eating him alive for so many years. This is why kids should never be forced to deal with adult problems. Beyond the fact that the mother had an affair, which is questionable on its own, being so reckless that your kid found out is definitely worse. Do what you will in your own time; mess up your marriage if you want, that's none of our business. But don't put such a heavy burden on your ten-year-old son!

Parents are some of the greatest influences we have in our lives. They are the ones who teach us to talk, to walk, to deal with people and society, and most importantly, they teach us to love. Keeping hurtful secrets and making them lie is not the way to do it. It'll only make your kids grow up to be lonely and distrustful. If I could speak with this guy, I would make sure to tell him that the lies are not his fault. He was young, trusted his mom, and did as he was asked. If anything, he was trying to be a good kid; no one would blame him for that. Luckily, Reddit commenters are already trying to make him feel better. 

We all know that cats have "selective hearing", but how can you tell if your cat is just really good at ignoring you or actually deaf?

Felines are famous for listening only when it suits them. They're the kings and queens of following directions that they invented themselves and ignoring all others. Demands like "Get off the counter!" or "You're not allowed up there!" simply pass through one ear and out the other. It's part of the joys of being a pawrent, realizing that your own power is limited. It's a humbling expurrience, truly. But then again, there are some cats that can't listen at all, and many of them are pure white cats with a recessive gene that predisposes them to blindness and deafness.

After adopting a pair of meowjestic Maine coons, our cat dad from Reddit's r/cats community is wondering if his new kitty's previous diagnosis is actually true. One of the pair, Yuki (the foofy, white cloud of a cat), was deaf, according to his previous pawrents. However, now that Yuki is in his new dad's house, he has seen him reacting to certain sounds. So, is Yuki truly deaf or just really good at ignoring whichever hoomans take care of him?

This is the question he asked the meowmbers of the cat community, and as we would expect them to, they came to his adorable aid.

There are benefits to a cat being deaf. You don't have to worry about them running for their lives whenever you vacuum, and the 4th of July will pass by like a nice, Summer breeze. However, if Yuki truly is deaf, he will have to find a way to communicate with him that is safe and understandable for both of them.

The work week is a toughie, it drags on and on and is seriously lacking in the amount of face time we get to have with our cute cat kids. So to keep you meowtivated to finish the working day and get home to your rambunctious rascal we made this cute collection of cat memes.

While the studies are not conclusive at this point, there is a lot of evidence that speaks to the energizing and uplifting pawer of cat memes. Not only for the cat loving hooman, but for all hoomankind. There is something about laying one's eyes upon a regal feline and reading some words that contradict the cat's appearance that tickles the hooman soul and keeps us motivated to power through life.

So with these marvelous feline memes wielding such pawer, there comes great responsibility too, which we take upon ourselves here. That being the delivery of the purrfect cat meme to make you feel mentally invigorated and prepawed to take on the challenges of the day as and when they come. And we have not taken that responsibility lightly when carefully selecting the memes to be included in this meowtivating collection of cats. With that being said, we invite you to dive in and emerge from the waters rejuvenated and restored by the all mighty pawer of feline kind. 
 

For the lady, a filthy martini with 12 skewered olives?

Yes, please! That is the dream drink for me. Everyone is like, "it sounds like you just want a snack, not a drink." Bestie, can't a girl want both? I want a drink AND a snack. It's called girl dinner; look it up. Dang. I'm just out here at happy hour trying to live my best life, and people are judging my sodium intake. You go back to worrying about your protein, Steve! I can worry about myself. Sorry, went off there. I need a martini. 

But alas, I am still at work; it is not happy hour yet, and I'm fighting off a panic attack. So the next best thing to an actual dirty martini is martini memes. I can't drink 'em, but I can share them with my besties and get them craving one as well. So then when it is time to clock out, they will also want a dirty martini and will meet me somewhere for happy hour after work. You see? Work smarter, not harder. 

You either love or hate olives. It's always been that way. I have never met someone who is on the fence about them. So if you hate olives, that means you also hate dirty martinis. Which, ew, what? But also, you do you, boo. Can I have your olives?

Whether you love dirty martinis or not, you'll still LOL at these memes! It's the happiest of hours when there is laughter involved.  

Our feline fur babies are more unique than snowflakes. Making the task of raising them that much tougher than it needs to be. If it wasn't hard enough finding a food that our cats and our wallets agree upon, you then have to handle their particular drinking habits. But thanks to a clever group of pawrents we may have a few helpful hints as to how to get your choosy cat child to drink enough water.

Reddit's r/CATHELP subreddit is quite direct in its intentions, it hosts a space for pawrents in crisis to have their concerns heard and helped. So when one pawrent posted pleading for help with their cat child who refuses to drink enough water the community leapt into action. And seeing as this is a very common problem for feline pawrents, I myself have done many rounds of battle with a cat who refused to drink enough. We figured we would extend their helping hands to you so that anyone dealing with this problem will have some support and tools to deal with it.

If you are lucky enough not to be afflicted by this problem I will briefly illuminate you on the subject. Water is incredibly important for cats as under our care they do not quite get the same kind of liquid intake as they would in the wild. Wild prey contains far more juice than even the fanciest wet food, so us pawrents are left with the challenge of ensuring our feline fur babies are well watered to make up for their unnatural diet. But problematic cats tend to be very particular about their water consumption, meaning that if the water container is not in the purrfect spot, not off the purrfect type, or not of acceptable quality they simply will not drink. And so you see how harrowing a problem this can be for the pawrents who handle it on a daily basis. So I hope these pawrental insights are helpful to those of you fighting the good fight. They shall drink their water yet!
 

Can a family betrayal be forgotten just because years have passed?

A recent college graduate was left with more than $60,000 in student loan debt after her parents secretly gave most of her college fund to her sister's business years earlier. After discovering the truth and receiving no apology from her sister, she refused to attend her wedding.

When it comes to family disputes, there're no right or wrong answers on how to respond or forgive. Because of the deep connection to relatives, and especially siblings, these wounds take longer to heal, and it's more than obvious that someone would still be angry for something that happened years ago. 

I think the part that must be hurting the OP so much is the fact that everyone lied to her: her parents and her sister. They didn't let her know she could count on her college fund because they helped her sister; instead, they lied to her and told her that the money was gone due to some bad investments. And since things like this can happen to anyone, the OP did nothing about it.

She still went to college, and after graduating, she's facing a debt of $60,000 because her parents did not let her know in advance how to solve things. And the worst part is that her sister wants her to be her bridesmaid, as if nothing happened. I'd be as mad as the OP is.

Her parents, the one that her sister her college fund, are blaming her for wanting to ruin the wedding, and they are making her feel even worse for not forgiving and letting things go. And the only thing that the OP is demanding is an apology from her sister, who knew all this time where the money from her business came from, and never said a word. Is that too much to ask?

The much-feared group projects

Back when I was in college, I had to work in groups all the time, and many of these things happened to me. And I suppose they happened to anyone who went through any sort of formal education. I genuinely don't know why teachers put people through stuff like this. I've thought about it many times; it might be because they want you to learn that in life, things don't always go as planned and you have to, very often, work side by side with people who don't care about anything or who purposely ruin everything. Obviously, it's not because they think group projects work better than solo ones; too many years have gone by that prove that theory wrong. This Redditor shared a story about how she got back to her groupmates that is a very good example of how to do it the elegant way; I even wish I could go back and do this instead of getting into petty, never-ending arguments about who's working and who's not.

After watching his father lose his job despite correctly predicting staffing problems caused by outsourcing, this customer found one small but satisfying way to make the bank spend money every month.

It has been said that "The only things certain in life are death and taxes," an adage commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin. However, I think ol' Ben, or whoever actually first said this, had never worked for a corporation before. If they had, there would surely be a third item in that list about the pursuit of profit or something along those lines.

From Florida to California, and the start of a new life of healing with a tiny kitten next to the mother and her son. 

Grief is a mysterious character. He shows up out of nowhere when we least expect it. It's not just about crossing the rainbow bridge, or a betrayal, or something specific. It takes many shapes and has to do with any type of loss, which life is always full of. In Reddit's r/cats, the unthinkable happens. A man's life is turned upside down when his father passes away. He has to relocate from Florida to California with his mother who just lost the love of her life. As we get older, these types of things may hit harder. When we marry, there's an expectation of growing old together, and when it doesn't happen it could be devastating. There's a lot of pressure put on the son now, but with the help of their furry new friend, things may get better quickly. 

They wanted a dog, but the cat distribution system had something else in mind. They found a tiny rescue kitten behind their house, and decided that it's the purrfect time to get a kitten. Pets can be so overwhelmingly healing, and it's important that they have each other (and the cat) now. Read the full story below, and try not to cry! 

As always, the CDS chooses you when you least expect it.

The CDS has a funny way of choosing people who have no interest in it. We, cat people, could be sitting here, waiting for the CDS to hear our calls for years on end, and it simply won't. But then someone who doesn't like cats, has never wanted cats, has never so much as shown a slight interest in cats, will be chosen. We don't know exactly why this happens all the time, but we do know that these matches always end up working. 

You could be a dad who "hates cats", but once your kids adopt one, you fall in love with it more than any of the other family members. You could be a mom who has never wanted a cat, but once you've been chosen, you love that cat nearly as much (and sometimes more) than your babies. And of couse, you can be allergic. 

The couple who shared their story on r/CatDistributionSystem found themselves facing an issue that isn't quite so simple to solve. The girlfriend is allergic - to both cats and dogs. And although both of them have been getting puppy fever lately, her allergies could not allow them to just go ahead and get a pet. So, they left it up to fate. They called out to the universe and said that they will not go out of their way to look for a cat or a dog, but if one finds them - if one chooses them, they will not fight it, and they will do everything that they need to do with these allergies to keep their pet in the home it chose. And just like that, the CDS heard their call, and barely a few days later, a tiny kitty was following them home. 

Help! My boss is a teenager

Personally, if I were put in this situation, I wouldn't know what to do. What this employee did was far from perfect, but it was an honest mistake. Not everyone can plot the most perfect act of malicious compliance every time they're wronged, although I wish things worked that way.

We all know that teenagers have a hard time controlling their emotions in a healthy, civilized way; that's why I don't think getting yelled at by one of them is weird at all. The worst part is that the employee trained him for that, or well, not specifically for that, but for the job, lol.

Bonding with a feral cat is one of the most gratifying experiences ever. But what do you do with that cat when you have to move?

Anyone who has ever tried bonding with a feral cat knows that it is one heck of a task. They are distrustful and careful by nature. Humans can be unpredictable, and these cats know that. It takes a long time for a feral cat to trust a human. Might even take years. But when they do, it is so gratifying. Finally, even if we can't take them home, we're able to spoil these cats just a little bit, giving them treats and pets and the love we know they deserve. 

The couple who told their story on r/Feral_Cats have been feeding and bonding with their feral cat for seven whole years. They love this cat, and this cat loves them, but she is still at least semi-feral and living outside. Of course, life goes on. Things change. People grow. They reach different stages of life. And this couple decided that it was the right time to buy a home. In that home, they prepared a whole room for their semi-feral cat, and they were hopeful. They just didn't realize how difficult it would be to convince her to get into a carrier. 

It got to the point that the couple was regretting buying this home, saying that they should have simply stayed in the old one until the sweet kitty crossed the rainbow bridge. And after their family couldn't understand their struggle, they turned to the internet, and the internet… did not disappoint. When it comes to cats, the internet does not give up. And people gave this couple some interesting advice. Very creative. And just like that, the kitty is coming home with her humans.