Message from discussion Golden Geysers

Path: gmdzi!unido!unidui!math.fu-berlin.de!ira.uka.de!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!apple!xanadu!thelema!STella
From: STe...@thelema.uucp (STella)
Newsgroups: rec.pets
Subject: Golden Geysers
Keywords: stitches
Message-ID: <1991May23.174136.6957@thelema.uucp>
Date: 23 May 91 17:41:36 GMT
References: <573@hammer.UUCP> <1991May14.202701.3045@thelema.uucp> <2845@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU>
Organization: Idiosyncratic Anarchic Order
Lines: 46

In article <2...@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> sulli...@edison.seas.ucla.edu (Gary J. Sullivan) writes:
>> STe...@thelema.uucp (STella) writes:
>>pulling the stitches on a panicky cat, it's a good idea to put a wad
>>of toilet paper over her crotch so you don't get a geyser of catpiss
>>up your nose.  But if anyone has found a good way of doing this with
>>minimum distress to the cat, I would like it.  I have the basic
>
>  A good way of getting a cat to piss up your nose?  Gee STella, you're
>  kinda kinky!  Are you busy this weekend?

Sorry, yeah.  But I'll be in LA for a day in July....

Anyway, to answer my own question, what I ended up doing was to, for
several days before stitch-pulling time, pin the cat on her back, and
rub my fingers on either side of her incision, tug just a little on
the thread, and give her a goodie.  By the time it was time to do it
for real, she wasn't panicky at being flopped on her back and handled,
and when I had a third pair of hands I trusted visiting, we
immobilized, clipped, pulled and fussed, with no complaint from
Rhiannon.  (No geyser, either.)

On another thread, rough cleaning, I'm open to suggestions.  Kit'n
Hook, who was my youngest feline till we got Rhiannon, seems to think
that expressing his affections to people is best done by squicking
them -- he comes over for affection, and if I don't put down my book
fast enough or pet him intensely enough, he starts licking, and
sucking, and licking, and licking, and while, in certain contexts (see
alt.sex.bondage for more info) I quite enjoy being tickled,
stimulated, and otherwise driven crazy) I simply cannot DEAL with
being abraded by a cat.  After about two minutes, that tongue gets
excruciating, in a way that even this fan of excruciation cannot
easily enjoy.

Partly it's my own damn fault.  At first, when he started squicking, I
would attempt to distract him by fussing him -- positive
reinforcement, however, tends to increase the frequency of the
reinforced behavior.  Sigh.  I don't want to push him away and holler
at him, because he's such a TIMID cat, but I can't always see him
coming in time to distract him, or pull the blanket up over my skin
(if I cover everything but my eyes/nose/hand, and attempt to read,
he'll either abrade the back of my hand or stick his cute little face
between me and the book and attempt to remove all the skin from my
nose.

STe...@xanadu.com	1016 E. El Camino Real, #302, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
(thelema.uucp seems to work for some, thelema.com has no business working)