Have pets, will work (or try to)

It may sound silly, but the biggest challenge I've had since I've been working from home is dealing with pets.

We have three cats and a dog, and usually they're quite joyful to take care of. The cats pretty much do their thing, and now that it's getting a little warmer (65 today!) they're going outside more. Even Sterling, our surgically-repaired pup, had been used to being left alone all day long before Jean and I got married.

Well, they seem to go buggo during the daytime. Sterling barks and barks and barks at the mailman, passing trucks, or his own imagined tormentors. I was doing a phone interview with a freelance client in January and the dog went off so loudly the guy stopped talking and made a quip about "this interview going to the dogs."

The cats have their own set of challenges. Most people's cats are distant and aloof, staying hidden for hours or days at a time, never paying their masters any mind unless it's feeding time. I wish I had this problem. Our cats are affectionate -- too affectionate, if you can believe there is such a thing.

They simply want to be at the center of things all the time. They want to be petted and fed scraps and otherwise catered to. Half the time when I'm blogging, I'm doing it with a feline curled up on my lap, or trying to type even though I can't see the screen because somebody is pacing back and forth on my desk.

When I worked at the Star, I occasionally worked from home, but it wasn't really my bag. I like going into an office every day and interacting with other folks. At least the kind with only two legs...