Canadian correspondent Laura McQuillan's cat Rambo nearly got a starring spot on RNZ on Tuesday, after she made enough of a racket her owner had to leave the room to escape the yowling.
Rambo, a Siamese cat, was annoyed her owner wasn't available to take her out for a walk and made her displeasure known in the background while McQuillan spoke to Morning Report.
"I live in an apartment building and there's coyotes and stuff, you can't let your cat go outside, but she goes outside on a harness on a leash," McQuillan said.
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"She just really wants to go outside all the time. She's on her harness on the leash with the door open, but she's just not moving. So, I'm just kind of worried that there's going to be some howling."
Most pets would have been happy to see their owners at home, but McQuillan said she and Rambo realised over the Covid-19 outbreak there was a limit to how much time they could spend together.
"She was really glad when I started going back to the newsroom as well, because it was just too much contact between the two of us."
It's not the first time pets have made an unscheduled appearance on Morning Report. Host Corin Dann's dog suddenly started barking during an interview with Finance Minister Grant Robertson in April.
Thankfully Robertson was a good sport about the interruption, noting Stanley just loves to talk about economics.