That Optic Orange tabby still has to share the one brain cell common to all ginger cats and is still quick enough to dart underfoot if that one brain cell misfires just the right way.
It doesn’t even have to be malicious, beyond the usual casual death worship all cats share.
Yep, mostly a battery capacity issue… Being online 24-7 uses a lot of NRG
I solved that problem by painting the furniture my dog liked to chew with extremely hot chilli infused oil. She learned, fast.
Rascal is black, and if I’m walking through the front hall and the kitchen, which have dark brown floors I’ve learned to shuffle rather than lift up my feet. When I inevitably kick him, I remind him that it’s his own damn fault. I’ve tried putting a collar with a bell on him, but he just pulls them off (and sometimes hides them).
My mother once tried that with a puppy, using Tabasco. Furry little mutant liked Tabasco.
My cats are experts at getting in my path. Bonus points for doing so when their severely myopic human is not wearing her glasses and/or there’s little light in that area.
They know. They hate you. They fantasize all night about how yummy your ears and other easily eaten bits are.
You’re too big to kill directly, but once they successfully lure you into falling and breaking a hip or bashing your head on the coffee table corner, they shall feast as Royalty upon your sorry and cooling carcass.
For thus is the way of Feline Overlords.
One piece is the favorite chair of one of the cats, though.
To return to the thread topic, there are “deadman switches” available on the internet that can automate the process. Here’s a cursory search result for an amateur trying to make one.
It would be trivial to have an Arduino or similar micro-controller hooked up so it it sends out emails if the “I’m still alive” button was pressed, and send a “send help” message if the device had no interaction for a set period.
Makes me wonder if there’s an airtag app that says “watch out - the cat is too close…” It should even do a height difference by GPS so it knows when you are vertical and the cat is near your feet.
Logical thing would be - beep if it’s off but not on the charger. Then be sure when you do take it off, to put it on the charger…
We had a young puppy who was starting to chew furniture. We got a tube of some stuff that you’re supposed to rub on the the legs so they won’t chew it anymore. She put a dab on her finger, the dog came over, sniffed at it, then ate the whole gob down. This caused her to get hiccups; her first time ever getting hiccups…the fear in her eyes when her whole, tiny body shook from the hiccup was hilarious.
What if you’re crossing the street & get slammed by a bus? If you were holding your phone it may very well either be smashed or, more likely, have gone flying; maybe it’s in the sewer drain or in/under a bush; IOW, it’s unfound or unusable. I don’t even run with my phone. However, I do have an engraved ID with my name & my emergency contact’s name & phone # on it. I don’t have one of theirs but RoadID is one of the bigger brands out there.
I’m still carrying contact info on a paper card in my wallet, as well as on my phone. I suppose a bad enough accident could leave both my phone smashed and my wallet soaked in blood making everything in it illegible, but there’s a limit to what I’m going to worry about.
I’m not carrying my wallet around the farm; but at least one of my neighbors does know how to contact at least one of my emergency contacts. She’d know how to reach the others. Most of my neighbors would at least recognize who I am if I weren’t smashed too badly, and there’s a notifications list fairly obvious in a main desk drawer; plus it wouldn’t be hard to find the wallet.
FL DMV has a system where you can register that info connected to your DL. All first responders in the state have access to that info.
But I bet this state is one of the few. Also doesn’t help much if I’m incapacitated while out of the state or country
When I buy a commercial airline ticket, one of the fields is for my emergency contact. Presumably that’s to notify next of kin if the flight goes down.
PD always handled that, not us but I believe that the PD where you met your demise contact the PD where you live (according to your DL) & the local dept sends someone out to do the notification so that even if you died out of state, your local PD would be informed & they know that there may be an emergency contact listed in your DL info.
I’m guessing it’s more than just a phone call from dept to dept otherwise the same a-holes who SWAT people would probably go one extra step to find out about your family members & call your local PD & state they’re from {the town your relative lives in} & that your relative became a hood ornament while trying to cross the street & could you, local PD, notify next of kin who live in your district.
It might seem very callous, but if I am dead, I’m not capable of caring anymore. So not something I care about much.
None of my friends know my family’s details. There is one conceivable but really convoluted path that my death might make it to my family, but it is quite unlikely, via internet accounts I have.
IIRC your passport application includes emergency contact info. (At least, the Canadian one…)
I recall an incident many years ago, where some older fellow had gone to the big city, was walking down the street and keeled over with a heart attack. Apparently he was not carrying his wallet or ID, was alone, nobody knew who he was, it took a day or two to figure it out - not sure how they did it, I presume canvassed nearby hotels.
Our neighbour went away one weekend and we noticed that for 24 hours, their front door was wide open. The first day we assumed it was simply airing out, but it was stll in the same position the next morning. We called into the house, no answer, so we called the police. It’s a double door, I presume they did not properly secure the second door floor and ceiling bolts and it blew open. The police somehow got hold of him or a relative, I assume they looked up his home ownership with the city, then (based on name) contacted the local temple to get more infomation. We now have a list of contacts for them, a niece lives 2 streets over.
So there are ways. Easier if you are the police.
Just ran across this, so I’m waking this barely sleeping thread.
Here is a free and open source app for android which will send a text message or make a call if you don’t interact with your phone for a period of time.
For example, you can set it so if you don’t unlock your phone for 16 hours, it will put up a notification, and if you don’t acknowledge that in 60 minutes it will then send a message to your emergency contacts.
Just installed it. Pity that you have to enter phone numbers to add emergency contacts in stead of choosing from your contacts list, but anyhow, let’s give it a try
Frankly I’d rather have to enter the numbers. The alternative is to give the app, and the company behind it, complete access to your social contact graph. Which is dumb and dangerous. (I recognize this app is open-source non-commercial, but most are not).
It’d be nicer if the permission structure around apps had been designed with privacy first. e.g. Where allowing an app to access your contacts locally on the device did not provide a way for them to export them wholesale to their servers for subsequent use and sale.
But that ship has long since disappeared over the horizon.
That’s not bad for a free solution. A downside is that it only sends the notification if your phone is on at the time. If the phone dies before the timer is activated, the message won’t be sent.
Along those lines, someone living alone should be proactive about making sure their phone’s battery life is long and reliable. Have a few contact chargers around the house so that you can easily keep your phone topped off. Get a new battery if the battery life starts dropping off. That way if something does happen, your phone will stay on for as long as possible.