My cat, Trixie, has the unique habit of nursing my hand (only the soft, fleshy area between the thumb and forefinger.) She has been doing this since she was about 4 months old -- she's now one and a half years old. She'll usually do this several times a day, nursing for 5 to 10 minutes. It's the oddest feeling - a combination of her cold, wet nose with her warm, wet, sandpaper tongue licking and sucking on my skin! The slurpy, sucky sounds are quite loud and my hand gets very wet and slobbery! Of course, Trixie is making biscuits the whole time and purring (pretty much the only time she purrs although she's quite the happy cat!) It doesn't take a psychology degree to figure out that Trixie is regressing back to her kittenhood during these moments - she was 8 weeks old when she came to live with me and eating hard food already but perhaps she was taken from her mother a little too early. I thought she might outgrow this habit but she hasn't so far. Actually, I hope she never does because it's quite endearing - we really have bonding moments.

I thought Trixie was quite unusual, but yesterday one of my co-workers told me her 4-month-old kitten does the same thing except her Gracie nurses the crook of her arm. She hopes her baby outgrows the habit - not me! I just wish that cat saliva had skin conditioning properties - I'd have the softest hands in town!