Cat Inspects Editorial Process

Thursdays are usually the most hectic for The Caravan crew. Working frantically to meet the afternoon deadline, editors are racing from workstation to workstation, making sure the pictures are in, the headlines are spellchecked, and the articles have been ‘laid out’.

Nervous laughter sometimes interrupts the melee, but it is rare for the newsroom to receive feline dignitaries.

But that’s what happened around 2pm on Thursday, March 21.

In walks a cat which looked like a cross between a Norwegian Forest and Brazilian Shorthair.

The feline parked himself next to reporter Mariam Salah, right behind the English layout station. Some of the Caravan crew thought it was “OMG so cute” while others steered clear of Cat (we nicknamed him Cat).

The editorial process chugged along while Cat took a nap, despite the hustle and bustle in the newsroom.

As news spread on the newsroom WhatsApp group, some editors – who have a peculiar fear of cats – angrily vowed not to come to the newsroom that day. Ahem … J.T.

With the English section of the paper wrapped up, Mariam and Social Media Editor Bedour Hafez started petting Cat, who was enjoying all the attention.

The editors then spotted a mistake in the English layout. Apparently, an article had bled off the page and a paragraph from the Captain Marvel film review looked suspended in mid-air.

Quick fix, Cat is happy. Arabic layout finished. Issue sent to the printers (we call it ‘put to bed’ in journalistic lingo) by 4:42pm – a record for this semester.

My work here is done, said Cat. Now go home and celebrate Mother’s Day. Somewhere on campus, students need my help. I’m off to do my magic.

And with that, Cat got up and left our newsroom.

Next week, Cat?