Nicole writes:
>Well, all will be fine until Daisy come over and starts licking my
>hand....Until, with no warning, tries to take a chunk out of my hand!
>I end up with 4 bloody welts on my hand from her sharp little teeth.  So
>in a nutshell, it's like a lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, CHOMP!
 
Hi Nicole,
 
My Zinc (female sable, ~6 yrs old) does this as well.  She does not do
this to my husband -- only to me.  Mostly it's my hands, especially on
the fleshy part, but she also will do it to my arms.  She used to lick
first, but now she'll sniff and pause (like she's thinking about
something) and sniff again.  At this point, I give a warning "Zincie,
Be GOOD ..." which sometimes works, but mostly sends her to a different
body part (i.e. other hand or arm), where she sniffs again.  This is my
warning.  I should know better than to keep my hand or arm there because
I know she seems to be unable to help herself.  Next thing I know, she's
biting me and her whole body is getting into it.  She seems to mean to
really get some flesh.  Although it's not a bite hard enough to break my
skin (yet), it's definitely deliberate and thought-out.  The bites do
leave marks and hurt for some time later.  Sometimes I think it's just
luck that she doesn't break skin, but mostly I believe that she's knows
it hurts me and doesn't intend to break my skin.  She has broken my skin
before (when we first got her), so I know that she's capable of doing so.
Oddly enough, if I do nothing, she'll open her mouth enough to get a
better, more firm, grip and go in for another bite -- MUCH harder.  I
haven't let that continue very long because I do believe that she would
just keep doing that until my flesh was ripped apart.  Yelling stops her,
but she just goes to the other hand or arm to do the same thing.  She's
a determined little fricker.  Then when I put her down on the floor.
She'll immediately come back onto the couch and seek me out!
 
Perhaps she's trying to tell me something???  I believe that smell
definitely has something to do with it.  It doesn't seem to matter what
soap I've used or whether I recently washed my hands.  My husband uses
the same soap and she doesn't do this to him.  He thinks it's funny.
One time he was finding some humor in it.  So I rubbed my hands all over
his and got my "smell" all over his hands.  And she bit HIM!!!!  So, I'm
certain that there is someting about the smell on me that is either
offensive or delectible.  I've just learned to read her signals and take
action myself (i.e removing myself or making body part inaccessible).
 
Best of luck,
suzanna donahue
[Posted in FML issue 3896]