With respect to David Harmon’s explanation of the levels of biting and clawing… I’ve never actually had a play bite that broke skin. Not that I remember, at any rate. Come down a little hard on my hand, yes, but not break the skin. And irritated nips don’t tend to break skin either – those I would class as “1.5” on your bite level scale; they’re not quite “angry” bites, but they’re a warning that you’re crossing a line, and if you don’t stop, there *will* be angry bites and scratches. Not all cats nip – Imber hisses and snarls instead – but some do.

Also note that with some cats (again, not all), if they play-bite, they may follow it up by licking the area they bit. And quite often (though not always), play-bites involve rubbing the belly area, or playing with the belly area. (Not to say nips and angry-bites don’t, but I’ve rarely had a play-bite from a cat in any other position, whereas nips and angry-bites can definitely come from any position.) There are cats who enjoy being on their back (or preferably side) and having their belly rubbed. Brightspot used to fall asleep in my arms resting on her back. Thor will lie on his side and stretch and say (in Felinese), “Somebody, please rub my belly and pay attention to me!” Imber has decided that lying on her back isn’t as bad as it was, since I stopped putting her in that position to clip her front claws – but will still prefer to lie on her side if her belly’s being rubbed or we’re playing.

And ironically, despite (or maybe because of, who knows?) handling cats for my entire 36 years, and getting plenty of nips and scratches (and the occasional bite) along the way, I’ve never had any reason to worry about cat scratch fever. I didn’t even know you were supposed to disinfect cat scratches and bites (if they broke the skin) until I was in my teens. Sure, I’d wash them, if the cat had recently been to the litter box (smell of litter, yuck – and the dust! 99% dust free indeed! Hah!), but otherwise, nothing.

As for human body language cues… my theory is that there are two levels to NT cues: the basic, fully instinctual, “This Is Human(NT)” body language, that is hardwired (smile, frown, grimace, etc – the real basics); and the near-instinctual, “This Is My Culture(NT)” body language, which is learned, but in a way that’s linked somehow with the instinctual body language. I’ve also heard that people diagnosed with Asperger’s, at least, tend to understand the body language of other Aspies without the difficulty we face comprehending NT body language. I can’t say whether the latter is true or not, but I know that my first “in-person” Aspie friend and I can chat and be relaxed with each other in a way I haven’t been able to do with NTs. (My *first* Aspie friend, I know only through the internet.)

I also know that if I’m with just one or two people, I can get the gist of what they’re saying with their body language, but it’s cognitive / intellectual, not instinctive, and there is a processing delay because I have to (subconsciously) go through my “body language library” to determine what each expression or posture means. It’s easier with family and friends I’ve known for a while, because I’ve had a chance to build up my “specific” body language library for them, as opposed to needing to go through the “general” body language library.

Unfortunately, add another person to the mix, and my ability to read them goes right out the window. It takes too much processing power to read three people; even two people can be pushing it, depending on the circumstances (like, say, I’m tired, or I’m starting to head towards overload or meltdown…).

*shrugs* But that’s probably a topic for my own blog post, so I’ll just say I’m done, and hand over my $2. ;)

:) tagAught

Orac at Respectful Insolence has written an open letter to David Kirby and Dan Olmstead, urging them to speak out against the subpoena. I’ve linked to it in my own blog entry on the subject, “In defence of Kathleen Seidel”

Kev Leitch is urging as many people as possible to link to that letter, and spread it around the internet.

The Integral, in defence of Kathleen Seidel

Our cat, Dennis, tolerates being picked up alot and even likes it….he even doesn’t mind kisses….Athena tends to overdo it though….Dennis treats her as if she is his mother…..even pretends to nurse! Ivan won’t tolerate that at all; he says “no” and gently pushes the cat away or puts his hand in front of Dennis’ face. Feline behavior is most fascinating!

The Integral

I have learned to discern the many kinds of sounds she makes, and can usually tell when she wants food or water, or if she wants attention, or if she hears a noise or is lonely or wants to be left alone or just make sounds at us. Sometimes she likes to make sounds to get our attention, probably mostly because of how we’d lavish her with attention when she’d make cute sounds, and so she’s trying to say, “hey, give me attention!”. And who could help but oblige her?