My Cat Sat on My Keyboard and Deleted a Month of Blog Posts
The disaster began during an ordinary evening in Brisbane. I was editing a post about a dog chasing a rabbit when my cat launched herself across the desk, landed on the keyboard and somehow removed a month of blog posts. One moment, my Animals blog held fresh notes about anime creatures, games and odd internet fandoms; the next, the dashboard showed an alarming gap.
At first, I assumed the posts had been permanently deleted. The missing entries covered weeks of small observations, including a review of a creature-collecting game, a discussion of a memorable anime animal and several drafts about dogs, cats and wildlife. Losing that much writing felt surprisingly personal, even though the blog is a hobby rather than a commercial publication.
The recovery process became a useful lesson in backups, database records and calm troubleshooting. It also revealed how easily a pet, a browser shortcut or a badly timed update can create confusion. A home blog may be modest, yet its content still deserves the same care as any other digital archive.
The Moment The Blog Went Blank
My cat had been sleeping beside the monitor while I dealt with a database connection error. The hosting control panel had timed out twice, and I was checking whether the site was using the correct database name. When she climbed over the keys, the screen flashed, refreshed and returned to the post list.
The latest month was missing. There were no familiar titles, no scheduled drafts and no revision links. The site still loaded publicly, which made the problem more confusing. Old articles about anime and games appeared normally, but every recent entry had vanished from the administration area.
I resisted the temptation to keep clicking. Repeated actions can overwrite revisions, empty a trash folder or make it harder to identify what happened. I took screenshots of the dashboard, noted the time and moved the cat to a safer chair. That simple pause prevented a small accident from becoming a larger one.
Checking Whether The Posts Were Really Deleted
The first investigation involved the blog’s trash, revisions and scheduled-post screens. Some content-management systems hide deleted material rather than erasing it immediately. The missing articles were not in the obvious places, so I checked the media library and search results next. Images from the lost posts still existed, suggesting that the content might remain somewhere in the database.
I then opened the hosting account’s file manager and database tools. A connection warning appeared, but the database itself was present. This distinction mattered: a failed connection can make a working website look empty, while actual deletion affects stored records. The post table still contained entries dated within the missing period, although several were marked with an unexpected status.
The posts had been changed to drafts rather than destroyed. A keyboard shortcut, combined with a clumsy click during the refresh, had apparently altered their status. Once the entries were restored to published or scheduled status, most of the articles returned. A few paragraphs were missing because they had never been saved after the previous editing session.
Why Backups Matter For A Small Blog
Before this incident, I treated backups as something needed by online shops and busy news sites. That assumption was wrong. A personal blog can accumulate years of writing, photographs, artwork references and links that would be difficult to recreate. The value may be sentimental rather than financial, but the risk of loss is still real.
A reliable backup should cover both the website files and the database. Files contain themes, uploaded images and configuration data, while the database usually stores posts, pages, comments, settings and revisions. Saving only the visible web files would not have preserved my writing. Saving only the database might have left broken image links or an unusable layout.
Australian hosting plans often advertise automated backups, but the retention period and restoration process vary. A provider may keep daily snapshots for a limited number of days, charge for a full restore or exclude certain folders. Reading those terms is worthwhile, especially for bloggers hosting from Sydney, Melbourne or regional areas where an outage can make support feel remote and slow.
Creating A Cat-Proof Editing Routine
The best technical fix was a physical one. I moved the keyboard farther from the edge of the desk and enabled a screen lock whenever I stepped away. A lightweight cover now sits over the keys when the blog is open but unattended. My cat remains welcome in the office, although she no longer has unrestricted access to the publishing controls.
I also changed the editing routine. Long posts are written in a separate document before being copied into the blog editor. I save after every substantial section and keep dated exports of finished pieces. This is especially useful for posts that combine game notes, fandom references and animal observations, because a single article may take several evenings to shape.
The routine includes checking the public page after publishing. If a new article about a rabbit, a game creature or an anime mascot looks correct in a private browser window, I know the text, images and formatting survived the process. That small inspection catches missing paragraphs before they become part of a larger mystery.
Protecting Readers And The Blog’s Future
The recovery also prompted a review of privacy and security. Even a personal blog may collect email addresses, comment details, server logs or analytics data. Australian operators should handle personal information carefully under the Privacy Act 1988 when the relevant obligations apply, and should avoid keeping unnecessary reader data indefinitely.
Strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication now protect the hosting account, domain registrar and publishing dashboard. I removed an old plugin that had not been updated and checked whether the theme still received security fixes. A cheap or abandoned add-on can create more danger than a cat pressing random keys.
A practical recovery checklist now sits beside the monitor:
- Export the database on a regular schedule and keep copies away from the hosting account.
- Save uploaded images, themes and configuration files separately.
- Test a restoration rather than assuming an automated backup will work.
- Use two-factor authentication for hosting, email and the content-management system.
- Keep pets, drinks and unattended keyboards away from the publish and delete controls.
The missing month changed how I think about my Animals blog. Its posts may be casual, but they record a particular mix of Australian life, online fandom and affection for creatures. A cat can still sit beside me while I write; she simply no longer gets to edit the archive.