Pre-Dawntreaders

A little known secret at our house:  Before sunrise, our cat population appears to double.

Obviously there is nothing to be seen by looking outside into the dark.  But if a cat does chose to take a look, a mysterious cat duplication occurs.

Sometimes it appears that I have up to six cats with me at during my pre-sunrise breakfast.

This morning Frenchie was twinning by looking out the front window.  That is an important window to attend; neighborhood cats frequently pass by and stare inside before ambling on back to their own houses and their own food dishes.

This morning Hart has already reported to his cube tower in order to get an early start on his day's work load.

All four of our cats are employed by Bernie to  serve as his office Catministrators.

The Bossman was still upstairs asleep when I peeked in on the office staff.  Once the Bossman gets up, the other cats hang around until it is signaled that he heading in to the office.  Then they all do a stair-pool together.

A "stair-pool" is sort of like a car pool, except the commute is a walk downstairs instead of a drive somewhere. 

The three upstairs cats cluster around Bernie feet as closely as possible during their morning stairway commute in order to make it feel like a real commute.

Sometimes one of the cats will decide to "drive" themselves  to work, and they zig or zag inappropriately on the stairs causing a traffic jam to occur. 

Occasionally there is a crash or even a pile up if Bernie isn't mindful of flow of the morning cat traffic around him.

Once they arrive at the home office, each cat nestles into their particular office space, Bernie fires up his computer, checks in with his team in South Carolina via email, and their work day begins.

It is no secret that the cats consider their work space to also be a napping space.  They feel quite comfortable napping away about 80% of their work day. 

Bernie says a couple of them snore too...

Ever so often one of them will wake up and go off to visit the  litter and catch a snack in their break room.  When one is gone, it is not uncommon for another one to casually sneak over and take over their office space.

Bernie, as their Director, keeps tabs on this sort of underhanded office politics.  He is quick to re-settle the catministrator who  has overstepped a boundary.

Occasionally he is on a conference call and doesn't notice the subtle power play until suddenly a full on cat fight breaks out in the office.

Frankly I think it is hilarious that this sometimes happens when Bernie has his phone unmuted and the SC team gets to hear cats hissing and screaming at full throttle. 

The SC team was pretty shocked the first time it happened; now they pretty much know each cat's name and probably are rooting for their favorite cat to win the current brawl.

Sigh.

Such it is, and always will be, in every workplace, human or feline.

Somebody is always looking for a little more say and another way to make sure they get what they think they deserve.

Moonset, as seen on my sans cat commute to my job two days ago.

It is still predawn here.
Must get back to my pre-dawntreading tasks.
Must get myself prepared for another day of journeying to the edge of the world, and then on to Aslan country.

Since I can't have a cat with me at work, I wish Reepicheep was going with me instead.
Wouldn't that be grand?
Wouldn't it?