How does the cat find the 'Delete' key?

[Cutter John]

Just a stupid question, and observation.

Okay. I'm the proud owner of both rats and four cats. I can't count how many times I've been posting here or on another forum when one of the cats (or a rat) wanders by, takes one step on the keyboard and 'Poof!' my entire work-in-progress is just gone. No UNDO, nothing. Its like it never existed.

My question is, how? I've written a test message and tried pressing every possible key, but nothing. Theres not a single keystroke I can find that will simple irretrievably erase all my work. Any ideas? Or is this just an example of feline magic?

 

[Dale]

Cats are, despite their natural cuteness and lovability, inherently evil. This extends to their generating a disruptive field of feline negativity which cancels out positive energy of any and all sorts. A cat coming in contact with your keyboard in any way allows the field to negate any work you may have done as though it never took place.

This same phenomenon is what allows a purring cat in your lap to lull you to sleep despite your best intentions to stay awake and/or go do something productive. People think it's the tranquilizing effect of the purring itself, but in fact it's this negative energy field disrupting your neural processes.

Purring, meanwhile, is just the feline version of mocking laughter.

 

[Jadzia]

My question is, how? I've written a test message and tried pressing every possible key, but nothing. Theres not a single keystroke I can find that will simple irretrievably erase all my work. Any ideas? Or is this just an example of feline magic?

The simplest ways I can think to make this happen:

ctrl-A / shift-pageupdown (to select everything)
delete/backspace/enter/return/crtl-X/ctrl-V (or indeed any character) (to delete selection)
any character key pressed thereafter will prevent an undo.

Seems like it would require a bit of a walk around the keyboard to manage that lot.


or the keystroke for new document (ctrl-N) can make it seem like everything has been deleted.

This is more feasible considering the keys are relatively close together.


Also, hitting the alt key (easy for a cat jumping up) can bring the menus up which gives keystroke access to several functions that could delete a document, albeit with save confirmation.

Funny story

 

[Cutter John]

Yes, I don't think there was that much gymnastics involved. Just step...step *blip* ARRRGH!

And its not just the cat, but the stupid rats do it too when I let them out to play on my desk. The rodents are learning!

 

[Franklin]

The problem with mine was never the keyboard, but the cat knew how to turn of the power strip. I'd be working, and just like that, everything's off. I'd look under the desk, and sure enough, there's the cat, laying next to the strip, starring at me.

 

[Neroon]

Anyone trying to mediate a peaceful coexistence between keyboards and cats, should be reading "The Silent Miaow", by Paul Gallico.

 

[kitkat]

Cats are, despite their natural cuteness and lovability, inherently evil. This extends to their generating a disruptive field of feline negativity which cancels out positive energy of any and all sorts. A cat coming in contact with your keyboard in any way allows the field to negate any work you may have done as though it never took place.

This same phenomenon is what allows a purring cat in your lap to lull you to sleep despite your best intentions to stay awake and/or go do something productive. People think it's the tranquilizing effect of the purring itself, but in fact it's this negative energy field disrupting your neural processes.

Purring, meanwhile, is just the feline version of mocking laughter.

Best. Post. Ever.

 

[trampledamage]

My two-year-old son has similar skills. Somewhere in the lower left corner of the keyboard is a key-stroke shortcut for closing Firefox without warning. I know this because he'll just be pressing the keys while waiting "patiently" for me to finish reading an e-mail before we play Thomas the Tank Engine games and suddenly, Firefox is gone...