We adopted two kittens from the shelter over a year ago. The male
has matured into just a bundle of love — I adore him. The female has
matured into a standard cat, who does not care one whit about people
and everything has to be done on her terms. As I said, a standard cat.
One can definitely tell the difference between the two cats when
they're around my laptop. The boy will very carefully walk around it
and other obstacles in... whatever he decides his path is. The female
simply can't be bothered, and will walk straight over the keyboard.
If you have a "keyboard cat" like I do, I've a software
suggestion for you.
PawSense is the brainchild of BitBoost Systems, which seeks to
solve the very problem of cats walking over your keyboard. PawSense
monitors keyboard input for values typically distinct from human
typing — cats' paws typically strike more than a single character
at a time — and locks the keyboard until a human unlocks it,
either by clicking in a particular spot or by typing specific
input.
PawSense likely runs as a service on your Windows computer,
monitoring the keyboard for unusual input. The software can play
a sound as an attempt to startle your visitor and to train her
(or him -— my bias) to keep off your keyboard.
PawSense is available for download for $19.99. BitBoost uses
Paypal to handle transactions. One word of advice: the download
form requires two inputs - one is associated with the name of the
purchaser, and the other is a purchase ID. That purchase ID is
displayed on a screen during the transaction, but it is not
included in the confirmation email coming from Paypal. Do yourself
a favor and copy down or take a screenshot of that purchase ID
while it's displayed on the screen so you'll have it when needed.
Otherwise you might find yourself e-mailing BitBoost support for
assistance (like I did) — and by the way, BitBoost support was
very responsive. I had reached out to them yesterday afternoon,
and had the fix waiting in my email this morning.
One more thing: PawSense was last updated to run on Windows 8,
though it's running fine on my Windows 10 machine.
Perhaps an unintended additional benefit of PawSense is that
it could make you a better typist. I've triggered the PawSense
software twice since typing this, telling me my accuracy could
improve.
Learn more about PawSense.