AtomicInternet Archived News

After the Barn LAN, I decided I was done running a network cable from my computer room to my bedroom (for my Xbox Media Center Extender), and that it was time to wire it properly. As I've bitched about many times before, my house is absolutely horrible to run wiring through. Feeling particularly inventive, I inspected the joist space between my floors and discovered my bathroom shower access door was directly above an access point, from which I could access the wall the Xbox was against. Having formulated a wiring route, I now needed a way to get the wire from the utility room to the access point. Short a wiring snake, and not entirely certain I could run the path with one anyways, I decided to enlist the help of my cat (Sam), who could easily fit in the joist space. At the very least it would provide some entertainment. Enlisting the help of John and Roy (and the cat), we began by calming him down to minimize his famous freakouts. Next we attached a PETA approved painters tape harness which easily broke free under moderate strain. After an initial attempt failed due to the harness breaking, the second attempt had Sam wandering in circles around the joists (as you can see from the wire path) before my voice and the shaking treat can finally got his attention. Once he decided to head along the planned path, it was all John could do to keep the wire feeding freely around his initial loops for sufficient cable slack. Unbelievably, only 15 minutes into the experiment, Sam arrived on the other end complaining loudly with the harness around his feet. He successfully pulled the network cable 20 feet through the joists. I'm sure it's not the first time a cat has pulled cable, but it's a pretty rare event, and we definitely got a kick out of it. I showed Sam what his work helped me do, but he was far more interested in the can of Tuna I gave him for a reward. You can thank (or blame) John for the "CAT" 5 pun (Category 5 Cable is what my cat ran for me), it was all him.