My cat fried my computer monitor!
By Katlady2
@Katlady2 (9904)
United States
May 22, 2008 1:06pm CST
Talk about the surprise of the day! So there I was, happily playing on Mylot finally, when all of a sudden my computer screen went black on me and I heard what I thought was my cat hissing (I didn't notice the screen until after I had heard her though). Angel loves to sleep on top of the monitor, so I thought something had upset her. I looked, and she was staring down at the top of the monitor like something was wrong. Then I heard the noise again, and at the same time the stench of burning plastic about slapped me across the face. That's when I noticed the screen was black and there was no power to the monitor. Poor Angel got tossed off the desk, as did just about everything else I could grab. And then I think I ended up unplugging just about every single cord near the desk to make sure I undid the right one. From the strength of the odor, I'd say I barely avoided having an electrical fire in my house. I unplugged it just in time though...no smoke or flames thank God! Come to find out, Angel had drooled on the monitor while she was sleeping and it got down inside. Go figure! So I called hubby at work to see if he had another monitor there, and sure enough he did. So he brought it home with him and hooked it up. The main difference between the one I'm using now and the one that fried is the size. The old one was about 21 inches. This one is 13 inches. I feel like I need binoculars to see the darned screen! 
Has something bizarre like this ever happened to you and your computer?
Have a great day everyone! Hugs.........Carryl
Has something bizarre like this ever happened to you and your computer?
Have a great day everyone! Hugs.........Carryl8 people like this
23 responses
@Katlady2 (9904)
• United States
22 May 08
Awww...thanks hon. Actually she had the name when I got her, and I promised the kids I got her from that I would keep the name just for them. I'm glad there wasn't a fire too. It scared the daylights out of me for sure. I'm planning on getting a flat screen monitor to avoid any more situations like this last one. LOL
1 person likes this
@jerzgirl (9291)
• United States
23 May 08
Holy mackeral, Kat - that's a lot of slobber!!! What was she doing, dreaming of "dem mousies"? 
LOL
Does your monitor have a cord that plugs at both ends? At the monitor as well as at the outlet? If so, next time, just unplug it at the monitor....that is, if there IS a next time. We all hope there won't be! 
LOL
Does your monitor have a cord that plugs at both ends? At the monitor as well as at the outlet? If so, next time, just unplug it at the monitor....that is, if there IS a next time. We all hope there won't be! 2 people like this
@webeishere (36313)
• United States
22 May 08
I am glad that you as well as Angel are okay. I had a cat years and years ago chew through the cords casuing a blackout as well of my puter and monitor and lamp. She had chewed the poer strip cord that everything was plugged into. I hate tiny monitors. Grrr! I have a 19" which is just right for me.
HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~
2 people like this
@Katlady2 (9904)
• United States
22 May 08
That's the size I want to get. AND it will be a flat screen....that way Angel can't sleep on it, although I'm sure she will try to do a balancing act on it at least once. LOL! I have one cat that used to try to chew on the cords, but a couple of tennis shoes and a squirt bottle (aimed away from the cords of course) changed his mind real quick like.
1 person likes this
@mtrekster (179)
• United States
27 May 08
oh dear, i am glad you are ok.
a computer is replaceable.
you arent
1 person likes this
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
22 May 08
Hiya Katlady..Pyewacket here...my cousin Kissy is snoozing and my mom is taking a break from her article writing for now, so I get to hog the computer for awhile...for shame on your kitty Katlady, what a bad kitty. But oh, my you were lucky that nothing serious happened. I can't even get on top of my mom's monitor cause it's a Mac computer and they have thin monitors, not what my mom calls the clunkies. Sure glad you were able to get a new monitor though even though it's smaller...tell your kitty, bad kitty, bad kitty...LOL..oh, drat...mom's coming back...gotta go.
Pyewacket
1 person likes this
@Katlady2 (9904)
• United States
22 May 08
Hi Pyewacket. I'm glad you could steal a moment on your mom's computer. Angel knows she shouldn't have been up on the monitor. But she loves it because it's so warm. But she can't get on this one because it's slanted downward too much at the back and she slides right off. LOL! I'll tell her that she's grounded by her favorite pal.
1 person likes this
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
22 May 08
Well don't ground Angel for too long..lol...I have something to tell you...Long time ago, my mom used to have more kitties, not just us two...anyway, there used to be a kitty named Baloo...boy, what a trouble maker he was...he used to chew through the extension cord wires...well, many times my mom hadn't realized this, and she pick up a cord and yikes...my mom would get slightly electrocuted...it's a wonder her hair did stand up..dont worry, she'd be okay, but it was kind of a nasty jolt for her
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (92719)
• United States
24 May 08
I thought I was going to have a similar situation, only with my computer instead of my monitor. When my dog was just a puppy he wasn't completely house trained yet. He peed on my computer tower (it sits on the floor, have no other place to put it). Fortunately, it was mainly on the outside, and I managed to get a Q-tip in the side and get rid of the slight amount of urine that had gone into where the disks are supposed to be used. I can't wait for my monitor to be fixed. My dad's friend will be doing it next week. Until then I'm using my parents whenever I can come over.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
28 May 08
My story isn't nearly as serious as yours but my cat, Squirt, who is a very big boy decided to plop down on my surge protector strip one night and turned everything off while I was right in the middle of typing something. Everything went off and my screen went blank; I thought something serious was wrong at first but it was just my silly cat! I'm sure glad you got yours unplugged before anything awful happened! You know what they say about curiosity and cats - although that really wasn't curiosity but just your cat doing what cats do best, right?
Annie
1 person likes this
@blackbriar (9076)
• United States
27 May 08
LOL Poor Angel..being tossed aside when she had no clue why you did it. If you let it sit for a few days, it will dry up and possibly work again. Lightning spilled a glass of milk on my desk a few years back and some dripped onto my keyboard as well as the power strip my puter is plugged into. I quickly shut everything down, cleaned off the key board best as I could and the power strip. Then let it air-dry for a week b4 hooking everything back up and turning it on. Still working great to this day. My power strip is now mounted to the inside of my desk where nothing can spill on it again. Now I just have to watch how I move my feet cause I can easily shut this puter down by moving a foot wrong. lol
1 person likes this
@Katlady2 (9904)
• United States
28 May 08
LOL! My power strip is right next to the desk, and I somehow always manage to hit the off switch with my toe. Right now the big monitor is sitting up in the attic. Maybe next weekend I will talk my son into bringing it back down and see if it still works or not. If it does, I will be so happy!
@Feona1962 (7526)
• United States
25 May 08
Holy crap...Glad to hear all is okay..One day my grandson was using the computer and the speakers were smoking and he is yelling...Smoke, smoke!! It smelled really nasty in here for a day....
1 person likes this
@twallace (2675)
• United States
23 May 08
Now you can go and get a flat screen that way she can sleep near it instead of on the monitor. More safe; she should have gotten burned or something. Thank God that it was just smoke and not a fire. Your lucky and I 'm glad tha the cat is fine. Be safe.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (180703)
• United States
24 May 08
That's scary. It's a good thing nothing happened to your cat. I always work on a laptop and the cat just ignores it. I think the dog likes it because it is warm. Glad everything is alright!
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
23 May 08
carry I think I would just die if something
happened to my new led thin modern big
monitor. my old one just gave up the ghost
'and started having just lines across
then finally just blanked out. no cat but I
guess old age got the better of the poor thing.
we got these free back when my son worked for
a company that was putting in all new computers
and monitors.He bought me my new one for Christmas
and its a real delight. myold one was like your thirteen
inch one.
1 person likes this
@mikeysmom (2088)
• United States
23 May 08
that is freaky. glad you have another monitor you can use so you do not have to be without your computer. i hate being without mine and it gets me in a really bad mood as i rely on it for so many reasons.
1 person likes this
@nixxi76 (3191)
• Canada
23 May 08
Wow Katlady you're not kidding about a suprise of the day! I can't say anything like this has happened to me but I'm sure glad you and Angel are okay. I can imagine the panic you felt though. I had to laugh about the part I was reading when you wrote about poor Angel getting tossed off the desk as I was seeing this clearly. It's not funny but I apologize but just imagining it.
I use to have a 13" screened monitor and it was not very good but now I have a 19" and it's amazing so I'm sure you're going to miss your old monitor until you can buy a new one.
I hope you have a less suprising day as you already have had!
1 person likes this
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
23 May 08
That is bizarre. Thankfully, my cats prefer sitting on the keyboard as you're trying to type. Their hairs do get tangled underneath the keys. But that's an easy fix.
My ex had computer bug problems - real bugs. He had his computer next to a sliding glass door leading to the side porch of his house. All day long, he let his dogs and cats out that door as he sat at his computer. Each time he opened it, some creepy crawly creature would find its way into his "office." Wasn't he surprised when one morning, thousands (he says) of baby spiders came rushing out of the top of his monitor.
When his computer stopped working all together and he took it to a computer geek, the dude told him he had a bug. The ex thought he meant a virus, but the geek showed him a huge roach that had gotten fried inside the tower.
1 person likes this
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
23 May 08
My mom is in an assisted living center now, but when she was still healthy, she lived with my sister for a while. Somehow, my mom was able to completely wipe the hard drives from two computers! To this day we don't know how she did that.
1 person likes this
@Raeyden (46)
• Singapore
23 May 08
LOL! That was really interesting! i thought angel peed at the computer, i didnt know cats drool! haha!
i only remember last time, i lost a hamster. Just somehow went missing. we searched the whole house but we couldnt find her. we finally gave up hoping she will come back 1 day..
one day i was just surfing the net and i heard a weird sound. Sounds like something was loving inside or under the computer. i looked down and saw my little hammy storing food under the computer cabinet.. i was surprise she didnt get an electric shock lol because hamsters do have the habit of chewing stuff..
@darkoutlaw (25)
• United States
23 May 08
it would seem cat drool is the computers greatist enemy. some one worn bill gates!... then again ehh let him find out on his own
1 person likes this
@pholdermomof3 (214)
• United States
23 May 08
I left my laptop on one day and I came back and the cat had clawed 4 of the keys off! It had music on it and I guess the cat didn't like the music.
