Take your domestic cat to work?

In case you missed out, June 17 was Pet Sitter’s International’s (PSI) Take Your Cat to Work Day®. A day dedicated to taking your kitty cat to work with you.

Non-cat people probably laugh at the notion of even considering taking a cat to work. All they see is an animal that sleeps all day. Or that is antisocial and embraces a “poof be gone” attitude. They don’t understand how unique and multi-dimensional cats are. Nor do they really understand how much our feline fur babies enhance our lives.

But we cat parents know otherwise.

No two domestic cats are alike

Of course, not all domestic cats want to be taken to your workplace. Like us, cats have unique different personalities and dispositions. For example, I recently took my own kitty cats here to Club Cat, OC’s first luxury cat hotel. I was concerned that may have been a mistake. They both become hysterical the moment I take the mobile carriers out. They assume they are visiting the vet so they run and hide. After finding them in one of the usual hiding places, a huge wrestling match to get them into their carriers ensues. Running late, exasperated, and often with scratches on my arms, I usually win.

Adding to the drama, our oldest, Maximus Decimus Meridius, gets car sick. By the time we had pulled up to my cat hotel, vomit and other bodily functions permeated my car. (Why did I think taking my cat to work was a good idea again?)

Like his older brother, our youngest kitty cat, Wilbur, was convinced he was getting a shot.

But after a few hours of rest and relaxation, they were utterly confused. Why aren’t strange humans donning cats and dogs on their shirts prodding us? Why are there toys and things to lounge on and interesting videos to watch? To this day, they still have no idea where they went. A kitty cat twilight zone perhaps. But they don’t have to know because I know. They went to work with me. Thanks Pet Sitters International!

Business is personal for a domestic cat hotel

This year, I spent “Take your cat to work day” playing with other people’s cats and thinking about how there is no way I would have been able to take my cat to work with me in an office setting  a few years back. And how happy I am that I left a high paying but unsatisfying career for something much more meaningful.

What also came to mind was a comment a colleague of mine made to me back in 2014. She said, “Shana, for you, business is personal.”

I literally think about that statement on a daily basis.

It changed the course of my professional life because it made me realize that life is too short to waste doing something you just don’t want to do. No matter how much you are getting paid. (I must sound like some annoying inspirational speaker. Stay with me anyway please.)

See, I am the kind of person who pours myself into my work and my work relationships. But over the past 25 years, I found that it was hard to immerse myself in corporate America when nobody else seemed to be doing that. For my co-workers, business wasn’t personal. Business was just business.

Domestic cats deserve personal

In the last four months, since Club Cat opened, I’ve learned a lot. But one of the most important things I’ve learned is that taking care of someone’s kitty cat is very personal business.

We have the honor of taking care of our customers’ beloved kitty cats at our place of work not just one day per year, but every day. And that is such a blessing for those of us who are self-professed Cat-oholics. Because we get the amazing opportunity to get to know each and every kitty cat who stays at Club Cat.

But let’s face it. In the domestic cat boarding business, business is not only personal. It’s purrsonal.