You might think a kitten's job is superficial and without much gravitas. However, a kitten provides a unique, specialized and comprehensive set of services to her humans! Humans, infamously inept at survival on their own, require at least one kitten to keep them safe and focused on what matters (the kitten, OBVIOUSLY).
GENERIC JOB DESCRIPTION FOR A KITTEN:
If you wrote a job description for a kitten, what would it include? Some phrases that go without saying include "self-starter," "independent," "fast learner" and "energetic." One would also expect a long-term employment relationship and a commitment to bringing love, happiness and a certain level of crazy to one's humans.
THE FINE PRINT:
(Because humans care about details and small-type). A catnip habit is not a bar to employment, and a kitten with a criminal record is welcome (including thieves and serial killers).
JOB BENEFITS OF KITTENING:
And what does a kitten get in return for her extensive services and her particular set of skills? Benefits include food, fresh water, clean litter, grooming, affection, playtime and attention. We know you know how to demand what you need. Also, humans offer routine and emergency medical care (if you can call it a "benefit," as most cats wouldn't).
SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS FOR A KITTEN:
HUMAN MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION:
Humans can't be trusted to manage their affairs properly! A kitten must always supervise her humans to ensure their safety.- Make sure your humans don't sleep too much. Strategies to ensure your humans don't sleep too much include sticking your wet nose in their ears, pawing their faces, laying on their faces, biting their toes, jumping on them, wrestling with your fursibling on the bed, barfing loudly, singing the song of your people, creating mayhem (LOUDLY) in the other room and playing with your toys in their bed ... all while your humans try to sleep. Additionally, a kitten shall function as a human's alarm clock when necessary (according to kitten time to keep the human on the straight and narrow).
- Distract humans from useless work. Make sure they focus on what really matters.
- Get into everything. A good kitten keeps her people busy and on their toes. A kitten should also know how to utilize silence to manipulate her people.
- Don't take no for an answer. People need challenges to be their best selves. They also must be put in their place regularly.
- Bite your humans for no discernable reason. Just bite them. And enjoy chewing them like a teether. Repeatedly.
- Steal what your humans shouldn't have. Humans shouldn't have items you deem dangerous, superfluous or just plain yours. Protect humans from themselves.
- Snoopervise EVERYTHING. Without a kitten's oversight, humans are likely to do things wrong, incompletely or inadequately. A kitten should be the ultimate task manager, ensuring humans complete necessary tasks.
HUMAN TRAINING:
Humans tend to be undisciplined and hard to train. A kitten must adequately break in her humans to teach them how to be good attendants to her needs.- Know better than your humans. An enterprising kitten can determine what humans don't want her to touch or get into and touch/get into them anyway.
- A kitten must train her humans to accept her as the boss.
- Trip humans. A kitten who trips her humans ensures that humans pay more attention to their surroundings to keep them safe.
- Lead humans when they require guidance and don't take no for an answer. [Though things get messy if you trip humans while they follow you].
- Use cuteness to get your way. An adept kitten knows when she's pushed the limits of her humans and effortlessly transitions into looking irresistibly cute.
- Bite the humans into submission.
- Show humans how little they understand and teach them to accept their shortcomings. Humans fear what they don't understand (which is a lot!). A competent kitten knows how to confront her humans with seemingly nonsensical behavior (ex. the crazies, finding novel places to sleep, etc.) so that they accept uncertainty.
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT:
A human's domain is a dangerous place. Around every corner lurks danger and calamity, yet a human walks around wholly oblivious to the perils around her. A kitten must protect her humans from their ineptitude in managing their surroundings.
- Security. Watch everything. A kitten must watch everything in her domain from the highest spot in the house. Nothing moves without her knowing about it.
- Kittens should not be afraid to drown suspicious items in their water bowls - or at least elicit a confession. Human intelligence is lacking; a kitten ensures her humans don't suffer as a result.
- Laundry inspector. Are clothes that come out of the dryer clean? Are there any dryer gremlins in the pile of clean clothes? A kitten holds down the laundry, so it doesn't run away. Additionally, just after the clothes come out of the dryer is the ideal time to fur your humans' clothes fairly.
- Toy tester. Check every item in your house for suitability as a toy.
- Enjoy
playingkilling. Everything. Humans are infamous for being oblivious to the dangers sparkle balls and micey pose to their lives. Ensure the safety of your humans by thoroughly killing these bad boys repeatedly.
- Gardening. Likewise, humans overlook the dangers house plants present. Un-plant the plant, kill it and sift through the soil to ensure no dangers are present.
- Body burier. What do you do with all the things you kill? Your litter box serves other disposal needs.
- Check everything brought into the house. Are there any dangerous stowaways? Any people-eaters? Other cats?
- Shopping bag checker. Did your human unwittingly bring home a monster from the grocery store?! And what kind of treats did she get?
- Box inspector. A kitten must ensure all boxes that enter the household are unoccupied by nefarious entities, safe for humans and know their place. Additionally, a kitten must ensure no household gremlins take up residence in the box.
- Food inspector. Can it fit in your mouth? Is it food? Does it taste okay if it's not? Can you get away with it before your human is the wiser?
- Counter patrol. A kitten must patrol the counters throughout the house for things that shouldn't be there. Are there any pens just waiting to attack your humans? What about glass zombies? Kill dangerous interlopers or, for innocuous items, check the presence of gravity.
- Gravity checker. Do items knocked off a surface fall to the ground? If not, alert your humans that your household might no longer reside on Earth.
- Get into everything to ensure no threats lurk where humans fail to look. Neglected spaces common among humans include the refrigerator, washer, dryer, dishwasher, closet and pantry.
- Water checker. Ensure any standing water in your household is free from vampire sharks. A kitten should not have to worry about competition for biting. A kitten neutralizes dangers flowing from the tap (a kitten might accomplish this by smacking the water around the room). Taste-testing required.
- Waste prevention. A kitten should minimize household waste by eating what could be considered food and playing with items that would otherwise go in the trash.
- Paperweight. A kitten must secure her humans' papers, or the papers might fly away or the humans will lose them.
- Cat fur depositor. A house is not a home until a critical mass of fur accumulates around the house.
- Make a mess. Making messes ensures that humans keep a clean house (they can't resist cleaning up your mess and more, too!).
- Slayer of blanket monsters and laundry monsters. A kitten must be unafraid of the legion of lost, renegade socks just waiting to attack from the dryer after attaching to the sheets.
- Ceiling-support. A kitten must check the ceiling to ensure it does not collapse around her humans.
HUMAN CARE:
Humans are incompetent to care for themselves. A kitten knows what her humans need and how to provide it.
- Massage therapy.
- Purr therapy.
- Bed-warming.
- Head-warming.
- Adequate grooming. Humans' baths are barbaric and incapable of keeping them clean.
- Efficient huntress. Without a kitten's hunting skills, humans would likely starve. Human diets require copious amounts of sparkle balls and micey.
- Biscuit-making.
- Sadness and ennui-reliever.
- Kittens require a lot of sleep to fulfill their duties. Luckily, humans find sleeping kittens adorable and benefit from incessant cuteness.
- Enjoy being photographed, and don't mind the pawparazzi. A good kitten knows taking pictures of her is food for the humans' souls and makes them happy.
- Toilet clock. Humans need reminding to go to the bathroom - without a kitten on their bladders, they'd forget.
- Assistant (as the humans see you, though you are the boss in reality). Humans struggle to complete the most basic tasks like typing or using the printer. A kitten must help her humans complete their typing and office machine-related tasks. Do not let it bother you if your humans say what you type doesn't make sense. They aren't smart enough to understand.
- Provide a cat scan. Scan yourself on a regular basis to ensure the humans' scanner works.
- Test buttons. Test buttons on the printer and keys on the keyboard to ensure they work under the proper amount of pressure (your body).
Did we forget any items in the job description or expectations for a kitten?
Maybe some kitten should've read the job description before taking the job!
As it's Thankful Thursday, we're thankful for our kitten! Our world wouldn't be the same without Latte's spunk, dedication and love.
© 2022 Momma Kat and Her Bear Cat - Written and Published by Katherine Kern.
All text, pictures, images, and other content are original and copyright by Momma Kat and Her Bear Cat [K. Kern], 2015-2022. No content on Momma Kat and Her Bear Cat may be used without the owner's [K. Kern] written permission. If you see this post posted on a site that isn't Momma Kat and Her Bear Cat, please contact cats@mommakatandherbearcat.com.
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Bear always wrote his own job description ...
That is quite the job description but it sure is accurate! Thanks for joining our Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I need to hire some employees? ~Latte
DeleteLatte my goodness times like this it would be wonderful to have a twin to share in the fun and chores
ReplyDeleteHugs Cecilia
I know! Ellie just sleeps all day! Good help is so hard to find! ~Latte
DeleteYou deserve a raise, little one!
ReplyDeleteI will be sure my Momma sees this! ~Latte
DeleteOh my whiskers, you’re the hardest working kitten ever and clever too! What happens when you’re an adult?
ReplyDeleteErm ... my humans get more sleep? ~Latte
DeleteBrilliant. We knew kittens were hard workers with a myriad of responsibilities, but we never knew just how difficult and overwhelming. We think Latte should get extra treats for all that hard word. XOCK, angel Lily Olivia, angel Mauricio, Misty May, angel Giulietta, angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Cooper Murphy, Sawyer & Kizmet
ReplyDeleteWe kittens might be small, but we're mighty! ~Latte
DeleteYou sure nailed a kitten/Cat's job on the head & then some. You sure do your job very well. Keep Up The Good Work.
ReplyDeleteCrystal, Angel Tigger And Daisy Mae
Thank you! I think I need to negotiate a better contract! ~Latte
DeleteYou work so hard and deserve lots of treats and long naps!
ReplyDeleteEllie naps enough for the both of us! That's for sure! ~Latte
DeleteI love this! Such in depth detail put into the hard wurk that goes into being a kitten. I miss the good ol days when nuthin was expected of me other than to be cuuuute and cuddly. Oh. Wait. I'm still living those days. Happy St. Patricks's Day, Miz Kat. Love yoo! Dori
ReplyDeleteYes, Dori. Yes, you are cute and cuddly! And you do it with so much class! ~Latte
DeleteLooks like Latte is keeping you in line! Manna and Dexter would definitely agree with this job description. They are not exactly "kittens" anymore, but they still keep the blanket monsters and laundry monsters in check. I'm safe with them around!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are in excellent paws! ~Latte
DeleteMy gosh, you do even more than *I* do!!! Your sisfur however is playing it smart in case you didn;t know. She is letting YOU do it all.
ReplyDeleteI know! That girl does nothing but sleep! And she's the one that gets the Squeeze-ups! ~Latte
Deletelatte thiz post iz spot on ...mite we say ewe iz gorgeouz two.... thiz izza grate post that getz
ReplyDelete984 PAWZ UP ...we troo lee N joyed it and red it two de gurl sew her UNDERSTOOD ....we cracked UP
at de toy let clox....me, mackerull eye hafta follow de gurl TWO de toy let... ta make sure her doez
knot... UZE MINE ~~~~ ♥♥☺☺
I forgot that! I have to supervise my humans in the bathroom too! It's FASCINATING! ~Latte
DeleteTHta is an excellent job description 100% accurate! If only humans were.....so independent. Fast starters, quick on the run, it would sure be a good thing. Love allthe photos. THANK YOU for sharing.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine how hard life must be for people without a kitten? ~Latte
DeleteSweet, sweet kitty photo and such truth in the captions ~ fun and creative post ~ Xo
ReplyDeleteWishing you lots of love and peace in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
I do take a good picture if I say so myself ... and I like being the star! ~Latte
DeleteLatte, I hope you get paid well for all you do. :)
ReplyDeleteNot well enough! I think I should negotiate a new contract! ~Latte
DeleteThat is a very comprehensive job description. You work very hard.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be nice if Ellie helped from time to time! ~Latte
DeleteThis post is pure purrfection...just like you, Latte!
ReplyDeleteThank you for noticing!!! ~Latte
DeleteYou did nail this purrfectly.
ReplyDeleteHave a purrfect Thankful Thursday. ♥
Thank you! ~Latte
DeleteYou definitely didn't forget anything. I had no idea poor little kittens had to work so hard. Happy St. Patrick's Day! XO
ReplyDeleteI think I need to negotiate a better contract! ~Latte
DeleteSounds like you're one busy kitten who deserves a raise!!
ReplyDeleteThat's what my lawyer said too. Well, Bear's lawyer. Ellie hooked me up. I definitely need a contract! ~Latte
DeleteLooks like you've got this job down pat 😻
ReplyDeleteI know! Just in time for me to not be a kitten anymore! My first birthday is next month! ~Latte
DeleteAMARULA: Hey Latte!I think we pretty much have the exact same job definition! Especially the part about "Make sure your humans don't sleep too much" (and looking gorgeous!!!!)
ReplyDeleteWe come by the gorgeousness naturally, right? We're born with it! ~Latte
DeleteWow. That is some job description! Being a kitten is serious business, we can see. But you are definitely doing a bang up job, Latte!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think I should get a raise! ~Latte
DeletePurrhaps I missed it but another very important kitten (and cat) job description is to demand as many small furry mice and little glittery balls as possible and shoving them into every hard to reach space in the house (under the frig, stove, sofa, etc.)
ReplyDeletePurrs & Head Bonks,
Alberto, Oliver & Lily
Hahahaha. True. And then alternatively refuse to play with them because the milk ring was taken away!
DeleteNailed it in one girl! Got to be the purrfect job description!!!
ReplyDeleteToulouse
*** Blushing *** Thanks, Handsome! ~Latte
DeleteWe agree, kittens are experts to keep humans focused on what matters ; and most kittens share the same name : "Nooooo", MOL ! Purrs
ReplyDelete{GASP} How did you know what Momma calls me?!? Did she tell you? ~Latte
Delete