• oO (unregistered)

    Frist cat always wins

  • MP79 (unregistered)

    spotted a good picture floating around from this the other day. "If it not meant for sits, why is it made of warm?" did like. also, never work with animals or children, applies to computers as well as television :)

  • (cs)

    Yeah, but what happened to his mouse?

  • SoWhat (unregistered)

    I am sorry, I miss TRWTF in todays story. Are people with cats TRWTF ?

  • (cs)

    My cat would never do this, he's afraid I would eat him, and I am sure suspects that is what happened to the last cat that wouldn't stop pissing on the carpet.

    And yes he is almost truely afraid this is the result, when he was a little kitten he tried to get food off my plate when I was eating on the couch, I promptly picked him up, stuck his head in my mouth, bit down and waited for him to relax and give in. Been the perfect cat ever since.

  • (cs)

    lol! Cats are the best! Always so helpfull when working on a computer!

  • scott (unregistered)

    Had a cat puke on a laptop once. Cat puke is surprisingly corrosive.

  • Some Jerk (unregistered) in reply to SoWhat
    SoWhat:
    I am sorry, I miss TRWTF in todays story. Are people with cats TRWTF ?

    It was probebly a Dell or something and they forgot to tell us.

    CAPTCHA: sino - Indecisive

  • Grzechooo (unregistered)

    Cats are awsumly useful, killing laptops, naming volcanoes, and so on.

  • (cs)

    Time for a CaTscan app...

  • (cs)

    Rather than keeping his cat away from his laptop, perhaps he should clean the kitty litter a bit more often.

    We have three cats (the fourth one is MIA) and they do crazy things (after all, they're cats), but they never peed or puked on any piece of electronics.

  • Some Jerk (unregistered)

    ummmm... Laptops get lots of pussy?

  • Sizik (unregistered)

    The owner must have been pissed.

  • Some Jerk (unregistered) in reply to Sizik
    Sizik:
    The owner must have been pissed.

    better to be pissed off than pissed on?

  • (cs)

    Sure, blame the cat...

  • My name (unregistered)
    significant blackening around the docking connector, and a strong smell of carbon

    TRWTF is that this is not explained (or I didn't get it)

  • Some Jerk (unregistered) in reply to My name

    That's the gross part. the fool actually attempted to power up the well greased laptop.

  • Swedish tard (unregistered) in reply to KattMan
    KattMan:
    My cat would never do this, he's afraid I would eat him, and I am sure suspects that is what happened to the last cat that wouldn't stop pissing on the carpet.

    And yes he is almost truely afraid this is the result, when he was a little kitten he tried to get food off my plate when I was eating on the couch, I promptly picked him up, stuck his head in my mouth, bit down and waited for him to relax and give in. Been the perfect cat ever since.

    I've done this to a few kittens as well, with an equally good result.

  • Poor Suffering Bastard (unregistered) in reply to Some Jerk

    Looks like it was either a D800 or D810. Nice laptops, we just retired 15 of them, bought the new E6520 models.

    Dell laptops are wonderful - and their service is as well. Never had a problem with the desktop or laptop service.

    Switches, now, they are fun to get tech support on. The phone support guy was so stuck on 'What is the Service Tag' that he simply could not understand that it was a SWITCH. No tag.

  • Gunnar Wolf (unregistered)

    Years ago, I had a Compaq Armada 4120 (120MHz Pentium) as a home server. Very neat little machine, it outlasted its life prediction for over ten years - And it might even be working today, were I to find use for it.

    As a home server in a household with several cats, it produced a similar effect to what you describe. We once felt the smell of urine in that room - So, very scared, I shut down and disassembled the laptop, cleaned the (soaked!) motherboard, battery, keyboard, hard disk and casing... Let it dry for some hours, and without much hope, connected it again.

    The computer continued working without even a hiccup for several more years.

  • Andrew (unregistered)

    TRWTF is cats urinating. I mean, what's up with that?

  • Cathoum (unregistered)

    I find it very difficult to believe even a "strong smell of carbon" could mask the odor of cat urine well enough to fool not one, but two people.

    Also, did it sit on the dining room table or the desk all weekend?

    The whole thing sounds made up.

  • Haz Nohow (unregistered) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    TRWTF is cats urinating. I mean, what's up with that?
    As with everything they do, they want to see how you react.
  • some pony (unregistered) in reply to Cathoum

    It only needed to fool one. The other person could very well be faking innocence/ignorance. Many cases are like that because "how are they going to find out"

  • Dave (unregistered)

    Shenanigans.

    There is no way that a cat would take a leak anywhere that it likes to sleep.

  • (cs) in reply to Cathoum
    Cathoum:
    I find it very difficult to believe even a "strong smell of carbon" could mask the odor of cat urine well enough to fool not one, but two people.

    Also, did it sit on the dining room table or the desk all weekend?

    The whole thing sounds made up.

    It wouldn't actually be a smell of carbon at all, since carbon doesn't have a meaningful vapour pressure until you get past 3000 kelvin, so there's nothing to smell. At 3400K or so, it's a bit warm for anyone to want to put inside their nose...

    More likely, it would have been a smell of scorched plastic, and yes, I agree, cat piss would normally smell stronger than that.

    What I want to know is how the screws got visible quantities of corrosion, even in the presence of the sort of stuff that's normally in urine, in only a weekend...

    As for the location, I expect that it's either a result of wonky anonymisatio, or the natural evasiveness of idiots who know they've done something stupid and don't want to admit it...

  • Some Jerk (unregistered) in reply to some pony

    I suspect that at the time this story was written... only a handful of facts were remembered. The rest is likely a dramatization.

  • Don (unregistered) in reply to KattMan
    KattMan:
    My cat would never do this, he's afraid I would eat him, and I am sure suspects that is what happened to the last cat that wouldn't stop pissing on the carpet.

    And yes he is almost truely afraid this is the result, when he was a little kitten he tried to get food off my plate when I was eating on the couch, I promptly picked him up, stuck his head in my mouth, bit down and waited for him to relax and give in. Been the perfect cat ever since.

    Well, sure he's been perfect. Headless cats rarely misbehave.

  • TurdCrawler (unregistered)

    It could also have been a male cat spraying to protect territory, which may make more sense. This happened to a friend's laptop. It is surprisingly corrosive and a foul order.

  • ROFL (unregistered) in reply to oO

    @oO: I think you mean:

    Pist cat always wins

  • the beholder (unregistered) in reply to Dave
    Dave:
    Shenanigans.

    There is no way that a cat would take a leak anywhere that it likes to sleep.

    Having owned several cats over the last 25 years I'm inclined to agree. Some of them eventually marked nearby furniture but sleeping spots were always off-limits.

    Of course, just because the customer said the cat slept on the laptop it doesn't mean it ever did. Most likely that was just his excuse for the signs that a cat had touched the device.

  • (cs)

    Our cat (female) loves microwaves and electric space heaters. And clean dishes. No computers yet, unless monitors and speakers count. But somehow it knows carpets are off limits.

  • dr memals (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic

    the urine pooled under the laptop leaving the very ends emerged in urine for whole time the laptop stood there. Happens all the time.

  • yet another name (unregistered)

    I could have used that cat many years ago. A customer complained their overnight backup was failing. Dialed into box (on a 1200 baud modem, this is how long ago it was) and the log files looked ok, device was present etc. Did a test run, called them and the tape was making the right noises but not writing.

    Eventually we had to go and open the system to discover the drive belt for the tape was gone. And what's that smell? and that nest? Yep, the mice got tired of being woken up at 1:30 am every night in their nice warm house, so they took care of that noise.

  • Altreus (unregistered)

    Learned this lesson with a router and a litter of kittens. They like warm, flat surfaces too.

  • TrogL (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic

    If you've been around cats for awhile, you become deadened to the smell. You only notice it if someone else points it out to you.

  • abigo (unregistered)

    This is a repeat:

    http://thedailywtf.com/Comments/The-10-Key,-Mr-Kashmere,-and-More-Support-Tales.aspx

  • abigo (unregistered)

    To keep animal in the house is close to sick. Especially those that walk around freely, piss and shit where they please (fish and birds are different).

    I'd make him pay for that laptop and the support time. Then, I'd fire his ass.

  • ahydra (unregistered)

    cat urine >/dev/sda

  • foo (unregistered)
  • Spewin Coffee (unregistered)

    "After thinking that the smell was ammonia-like, it dawned on him.

    Cat urine."

    I'm thinking there are a few sentences distinctly and disturbingly missing somewhere around here.

    "It dawned on him: Cat urine. He immediately got up, ran to the bathroom, vomited, and washed his hand thoroughly. After donning a biohazard suit, proceeded to bag the entire laptop and sterilize the place, disposing of the equipment in the biohazard waste bins that all sensible IT departments have. He then wrote up a report for HR on the employee on maintaining a sanitary work environment including corporate equipment and HR subsequently took the cost of the laptop out of the employee's paycheck as all sensible businesses would. The employee learns their lesson and just shoots the cat."

  • (cs) in reply to the beholder
    the beholder:
    Dave:
    Shenanigans.

    There is no way that a cat would take a leak anywhere that it likes to sleep.

    Having owned several cats over the last 25 years I'm inclined to agree. Some of them eventually marked nearby furniture but sleeping spots were always off-limits.

    Of course, just because the customer said the cat slept on the laptop it doesn't mean it ever did. Most likely that was just his excuse for the signs that a cat had touched the device.

    Agreeance. I've got a colony of a dozen or more feral cats that like my patio as a dormitory because there are lots of flat, cushioned surfaces. But it's also covered, so any smell of urine accumulates and makes it unpleasant for all concerned. It took them only a short time to discover this.

    I've watched through my kitchen window as one of the sleeping horde stirs, rises, stretches a few times and then gets out of his comfy chair and wanders away. Five minutes later, the same cat strolls back in, climbs up in the same chair and goes back to sleep. I don't know where they're going to the toilet, but I know it's "elsewhere".

  • Weeks before D-Day (unregistered)

    I was at an older relative's house visiting, about to leave. But before I left, I offered to help set up their DVD player, which wasn't playing to the TV after they changed their Dish config.

    As I craw in the back and wire the RCA jacks, I feel my shirt get damp. Seems the cat likes the nook behind the TV, and regularly uses that area as a litter box. I'm polite, finish my work, and wash myself many times (as much as possible) before I go.

  • (cs) in reply to Spewin Coffee
    Spewin Coffee:
    "After thinking that the smell was ammonia-like, it dawned on him.

    Cat urine."

    I'm thinking there are a few sentences distinctly and disturbingly missing somewhere around here.

    "It dawned on him: Cat urine. He immediately got up, ran to the bathroom, vomited, and washed his hand thoroughly. After donning a biohazard suit, proceeded to bag the entire laptop and sterilize the place, disposing of the equipment in the biohazard waste bins that all sensible IT departments have. He then wrote up a report for HR on the employee on maintaining a sanitary work environment including corporate equipment and HR subsequently took the cost of the laptop out of the employee's paycheck as all sensible businesses would. The employee learns their lesson and just shoots the cat."

    You must not be around cats very often.

    I grew up on a farm and we had cats, among other things. Things that don't bother me include cat urine, skunk smell, and various kinds of manure including cattle and chicken. Obviously I would clean up afterwards, but you get used to it and eventually it doesn't seem that gross anymore.

  • jkupski (unregistered)

    I'm the submitter on this (though I submitted it at least six months ago, so my memory is a bit hazy). To answer some questions:

    Yes, this really happened, though things appear to be a bit embellished by whoever posted this.

    Yes, it was incredibly disgusting, and copious amounts of soap were used on our hands once we figured out exactly what the problem was.

    No, the smell of cat urine was not recognizable until we had disassembled the laptop. The scorched smell was significantly stronger, though it did smell decidedly weird.

    It was a Dell Latitude D630.

    There really was significant corrosion on the screws and other metal parts, though I agree it seems unlikely hat it happened only over the course of a single weekend. Which is even more disgusting, when you think about it.

    I had a cat once that would piss pretty much everywhere, and would sleep where it pissed, so this didn't strike me as too weird. I hated touching the bastard, because he always stank. TRWTF is that my ex-wife saw no problem with this. Thankfully, she is an EX wife.

  • Some Jerk (unregistered) in reply to jkupski
    jkupski:
    I'm the submitter on this (though I submitted it at least six months ago, so my memory is a bit hazy). To answer some questions:

    Yes, this really happened, though things appear to be a bit embellished by whoever posted this.

    Yes, it was incredibly disgusting, and copious amounts of soap were used on our hands once we figured out exactly what the problem was.

    No, the smell of cat urine was not recognizable until we had disassembled the laptop. The scorched smell was significantly stronger, though it did smell decidedly weird.

    It was a Dell Latitude D630.

    There really was significant corrosion on the screws and other metal parts, though I agree it seems unlikely hat it happened only over the course of a single weekend. Which is even more disgusting, when you think about it.

    I had a cat once that would piss pretty much everywhere, and would sleep where it pissed, so this didn't strike me as too weird. I hated touching the bastard, because he always stank. TRWTF is that my ex-wife saw no problem with this. Thankfully, she is an EX wife.

    I have to ask... was it her insistence on letting the cat snuggle in bed that seperated you two??! :p

  • (cs) in reply to jkupski
    jkupski:
    Yes, this really happened, though things appear to be a bit embellished by whoever posted this.
    It was posted by Mark Bowytz, so yes, embellished. He's better than he used to be though; we no longer need to refer to stories being “Bowytzed”…
  • markj (unregistered) in reply to jkupski

    I can believe corrosion happened that quickly. Cat urine is amazingly destructive -- I think it's the combination of uric acid and whatever components keep it wet and sticky for days. A regular mild acid solution would dry out pretty quickly and do less damage, I'd bet. I would be this is a male cat, because males' urine has an extra nasty smell (the stickiness is there to make it cling to things like trees so the territory marking lasts longer).

    Coca-Cola has the same combination of acid and stickiness, and also seems to destroy most electronics.

    We once had three male cats, all neutered, and they did thousands of dollars worth of damage

  • andrew (unregistered)

    Back when I worked in hardware testing/repair for satellite tv set-top boxes, we got a batch of failed units that had been in use in the field. One particular unit reeked of cat pee, and even stunk up the lab before we opened the FedEx box. I ended up foregoing our test procedures, opting instead to use a pair of pliers to carry the unit to the dumpster. The bright side of the whole thing was that I got to use the phrase "catastrophic feline urinary saturation" in my report.

  • Sociopath (unregistered) in reply to Spewin Coffee
    Spewin Coffee:
    HR subsequently took the cost of the laptop out of the employee's paycheck as all sensible businesses would.

    Then the employee sues the company for a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and wins big in court.

    The court rules every exempt person in the company must be retroactively paid overtime, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional unexpected payroll expenses.

    Everybody in HR is instantly fired for exposing the company to hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal liability over a $500 piece of electronics.

    I laugh, collect my overtime bonus, and go on vacation.

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