Screens and paw washing

Dear Thera,

Something is wrong with my humans. They have stopped leaving the house and are spending all their time staring at screens. They barely notice my existence. What's wrong? Is this a symptom of the virus I keep hearing about? Have they finally been assimilated? Is there anything I can do?

--Screened


Dear Screened,

This is not a symptom of the virus. It's your humans' way of trying not to catch or spread the virus. If you look closely, you will notice that the excessive screen use has three main components, two of which are good and one of which is highly problematic.

1) Teleworking. This is good, and you should try not to interrupt it too much. As I've said before, work is what keeps the kibble coming, so try to tolerate it.

Demonstrate effective napping behavior.

2) Social connection. Since your humans are staying at home, they will quickly get lonely if they don't communicate with other humans. So try to tolerate this one as well. Remember that humans are a more social species than we are, even if we ourselves are more social than they sometimes give us credit for.


3) Obsessive news watching. This one is the real problem. While your humans need to stay informed, staying glued to the media channels is not healthy for them. Try to distract them from this behavior if you can. You can also try modeling effective alternative behaviors, which include napping and careful paw washing.

Come on, people, wash those paws!