On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 12:41:34 +0000, Heather wrote:

Yesterday and today the sudden dip in temperatures and such has made our
house *VERY* dry, despite vaporizers, etc. Our poor cat is very static
filled and crackles as we pet her. I don't think it's a "big deal", but
I'm curious, is there somethine one does to help their pets when this
happens?

This'll happen in dry weather. I get it too - but then my wife and I both
have long hair.

About eight years ago I proposed to somebody the idea of using an
anti-static agent such as Static Guard on strategic spots. Problem is,
though, this *might* harm your cat.

An alternative I came up with thusly is to ground a scratching post - wrap
it under the pile using chicken wire, solder a wire to this, and ground it
by finding a single ground pin or similar and inserting it into an
unoccupied ground on a nearby power outlet. I don't know how viable this
is though, but I imagine it's little more than making sure you don't
happen to have a gas pump nearby for the resulting static sparks to set
off fumes from. =^^=

(This is perfectly safe unless your house is badly- or
miswired - if you're not sure, test the outlet with a simple $8 tool from
Radio Shack or have an electrician test the outlets (with the same tool
=^_^= ) and/or inspect your wiring. Basically, the ground - that third
round hole at the bottom of a plug between the two slots - should NEVER
have a current running through it if it's wired correctly, and that test
thing is a good idea regardless if you're doing anything electrical,
especially where you're plugging the computer in. But I digress,
electrical engineering is off topic for here. =^_^= )


--
Dennis Carr - | I may be out of my mind,
http://www.dennis.furtopia.org | But I have more fun that way.
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