Being in the presence of five cats who begrudgingly allow us
to cohabitate with them, I can say with great authority that
cat fur and dander has the ability to accumulate in great
quantities in and on virtually any surface at an alarming
rate (and that's with cats who more or less define the term "inert";
more active ones tend to boil off residue at an even higher rate).
We figure the accumulation rte is about enough to build a new cat
from cast-off parts about once a week.
All that said, I've yet to have any failures that I can attribute
to fur or dander, save for the occasional fan that bitches about
wanting to be cleaned. However, every disk drive that I've got
has sealed HDAs, so YMMV, big-time. Surprisingly, I've not
had issues with keyboards (save for the time that Kamali, the
18+ pound Maine Coon, snapped a keycap off while traversing a
Sun type-5 keyboard) or monitors (despite the fact that Tempest
finds 21" Sun monitors to be The Most Perfect Place to Bask). Cat
_piss_, on the other hand, is about the most destructive material
to metal and electronics I've ever encountered.
As for training -- the spray bottle technique works only with
weak-minded cats; the more willful ones simply narrow their eyes
and continue misbehaving while looking at you. Sticky tape is
only modestly effective, with the effect rapidly attenuating as
the tape loads up with cat fur.
Oh, we have a Canine Unit as well. She flops over on her back and
shows her belly anytime a cat walks near. While cats are allowed
near the machines, the dog isn't, as she has a distinct
bull-in-china-shop quality about her...
--
Chris Kennedy
chris_at_mainecoon.com
http://www.mainecoon.com
PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97
Received on Wed Dec 12 2001 - 12:52:28 GMT