I guess I might as well share the first image that came to my mind when the person at my ISP suggested the "power suckle" - since it seems to have put strange images in some people's brains.
My parents, when I was a kid, had a cat that had been taken from her mother too soon. The phenomenon is called "delayed weaner." Apparently a cat with this condition will seek out teat-like objects and try to nurse on them.
At the time, my parents had a comforter on their bed that was tied. You know, with the little tufts of yarn? So the cat would try to nurse on those.
So I had this mental image of this cat - which has been dead more than 30 years now - "power suckling" on that old comforter.
(I also once used the "delayed weaner" description in front of a guy I was in grad school with - another student and I were discussing her cat. Immediately he looked down at his crotch and started to laugh. "Not THAT kind of 'weiner'" I remember saying in disgust)
2 comments:
Speaking of delayed weaners...we've had a couple.
One of Ken's kittens would, until he was at least a year old, snuggle up with him and suck on a earlobe, fingertip or even the tip of his nose! (That's Grey Guy.) Don't know why because he was still nursing at 3 months.
FullHouse loves my gray bathrobes, and only the gray ones. He grabs my shoulder and nurses frantically for 5 to 20 minutes, eyes closed and paws kneading. He was found abandoned or lost at about 5 weeks, and is 4 years old now.
My first job out of college was as a reporter for a small Kentucky newspaper. My editor had a reputation as a crazy cat lady. She regularly came home from work to find cats duct taped into her RD mailbox.
Once she had a bad case of chapped earlobes. You guessed it - the latest cat was climbing into bed with her and suckling on her earlobe whilst she slept.
Not my favorite cat story.
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