My first, best, cat’s name was Lucy. Lucy was short for Lucifer—as in “luc” = “light” and “fer” = “bringer”—because of the joy she brought to my life. She was small and almost all black, with yellow-green eyes. I loved her more than I’ve ever loved anyone, cat or human, before or since. I had to have her put to sleep 13 years ago today, at about 9pm. She’d had increasing and badly-intersecting illnesses for some time, and when the fluids we were giving her for her kidneys weren’t being absorbed but instead were pressing on her heart and lungs, I knew it was time. I was devastated by her death. No other death hurt that much, before or since.
Lucy, I hope you’re happy as can be in Cat Heaven, with all sorts of flying and darting little creatures to chase, and all the tuna you can eat. Sending love, little girl.
In honor of Lucy, then, here’s a silly thing: How to make a cat using your keyboard
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Cat-Using-Your-Keyboard
In a throwback to days of yore (but last updated September 15, 2021) here’s a wikiHow article about making cat drawings with a monospaced typeface to create “ASCII” type.
A monospaced typeface is important because you want the letters to line up directly underneath specific letters in the text line above.
Examples of common monospaced fonts include Courier and American Typewriter. Many common fonts, including Times New Roman and Arial, are not monospaced. These are known as proportional fonts.
It’s easy to make a cat using your computer keyboard. In a few simple keystrokes, you can create a simple, but cute, keyboard cat. How complex you want to get is up to you!
The author starts with step-by-step instructions for the simplest of kitty art (this example is all on one line, so it works with proportional typefaces too). This one is:
- Equal sign
- Caret (shift + 6)
- Period
- Period
- Caret
- Equal sign
=^..^=
The next example is more complex (no instructions this time but you can probably figure it out):
And it goes on from there. Silly easy fun!
