Playing cat and mouse at work has never been so adorable.
Unless you happen to work in an office with a particularly open-minded pet policy, clocking in to start your shift means several hours without any animal companionship. But if one team of Japanese designers has its way, soon you’ll have a way to simulate the soothing squeeze of a kitten or puppy’s paw with this special PC mouse.
The Pnitty Mouse takes its hard-to-pronounce name from puni puni, the Japanese onomatopoeia for the feeling of something pleasingly squishy. From above or in front, the Pnitty Mouse looks like a pudgy paw.
But the Pnityy Mouse’s emotionally healing iyashi powers aren’t limited to its enchanting topside appearance. The real charm comes when you flip it over.
Underneath, you’ll find five pink pads. Not only do they look cute, they’re designed to recreate the joyous sensation of pressing your fingertips against the soft paw of a six-month old pup or kitty.
The pads are covered with easy-to-clean silicon, and the designers promise that even after thousands of stress-relieving presses, they won’t lose their springy elasticity.
However, you can’t just walk into an electronics store and buy a Pnitty Mouse. The designers are currently seeking the monetary means to produce the peripheral through crowdfunding site Makuake. As of this writing, they’ve achieved 20 percent of their goal of one million yen (US$8,330), with 51 days left in the campaign. Backing options start at 4,850 yen, which gets supporters a Pnityy Mouse plus an additional central paw pad, to be placed wherever you think you could use one.
The Pnityy Mouse Makuake campaign page can be found here.
Source: Hachima Kiko
Images: Pnityy Mouse Makuake campaign website