This house has forced hot air heating, so the air in here tends to get pretty
dry if the furnace has been running a lot, and the low humidity breeds static
electricity. I'll reach over to pet Minnie, or she bunts my hand with her head
or goes to sniff my fingers, and ZAP! That's especially true if she's just been
rolling around on the rug...sometimes I look at her and I can see that her fur
is standing up, and since she's purring, I know it isn't because she's agitated.

She especially hates it when her ears or her nose get zapped. After that happens
a few times, she actually whines when she sees me reach out to pet her because
she's afraid of getting zapped again.

Once this happened in the kitchen, and when she whined, I walked over to the
wastebasket - which is stainless steel on the outside with a plastic inside that
you lift out to empty it - and touched the outside. Sure enough, I got zapped,
but then I was able to pet Minnie without her getting zapped too.

So here's how smart my kitty is: She saw me do that once, and since then I've
often noticed her rubbing her fanny against the wastebasket before she comes
over to solicit my attention when we're in the kitchen - undoubtedly to avoid
getting her ears or nose zapped when she makes contact with me. This cat is so
bright it's eerie sometimes.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY