The other day at work—I’m director of The Carrot Culture at OC Tanner—a company-wide e-mail came around from the folks in HR. The subject line that popped up in the corner of my screen was too good to ignore: “Please Stop Feeding the Cats.” The mere title itself was enough to raise an informally unanimous chorus of snickers among the cubicle plains tenants, especially given the message’s sender. Here’s what the email said:

FYI…
The County Animal Services has requested that we ask our employees to stop feeding the feral cats that are hanging around the campus. There is an ordinance prohibiting feeding cats without licensing them, apparently feeding them is claiming some sort of ownership, so please refrain from feeding these feral cats or catch them and take them home.

Human Resources

It wasn’t long before actual laughs began emanating from across the office. CATS?! Apparently our “campus” is in danger of being overrun and possibly overtaken by a gang of hooligan kitties. I was reminded of the post-apocalyptic Washington DC depicted in the 70s Sci-Fi classic “Logan’s Run.” Remember Peter Ustinov living among the ruins of our nation’s capital along with a million cats? In my informal poll, consisting of three others, nobody could remember ever seeing a cat around the building, much less cracking open a can of Chicken of the Sea for it.

An associate of mine almost immediately emailed me a photo from the popular site www.lolcats.com  (here is the link to the actual photo) When viewed immediately after reading the original HR edict, you cannot help but wet yourself from laughter.

I found myself powerless to resist what I did next: I hit ‘reply all’ to HR’s email and pasted the photo of “fatty fatty cheezeburger catty” into the message. I hit ‘send’—meaning all 1900 employees with email were going to receive my reply. To my company’s levity credit, I only received one somewhat negative response. Most were grateful for how good the laugh felt. Wherever I wandered on campus the next few days I was lauded for my heroism. (I just looked at the photo again, for the 20th time, and it STILL made me laugh out loud.)

To be honest, I am a fervent objector to “reply all” emails. And I’ve not been shy in sharing that view. But every so often, when it feels like it’s really going to be funny, I pull the trigger. And though most people call me on it, when it really hits the mark, I am quickly forgiven the breach of office etiquette.

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