During the five years Peanut and I have lived together, we have learned how to get along pretty well. Mostly, of course, I have accommodated his wishes, but he also follows a few of my rules. For example, once I figured out that he doesn't like to step onto fingers (which took me a few months), I taught him to step onto my flat, outstretched right palm when presented heel side first. He's very good about that now, and will step onto my hand a good 99% of the time. Just try to get a cat to follow direction so well!

The one exception is when Peanut is sitting on my shoulder, or the collar of my shirt. Then, he can be pretty hard to budge. Often the only way I can get him to leave is to lure him away with a tasty seed. Obviously, this isn't a good solution. Twice now — and I'm not proud of this — I have carefully taken off my shirt, and had him step into my hand from there. Obviously, this isn't a good solution either. Peanut prefers the tasty seed idea, I'm trying to figure out something else.

Frank update: Frank is still spending most of his day sitting on the food or water dish that sit on the floor of the hospital cage. This concerns me: the ground is not a safe place for a prey animal that isn't feeling well. So either his foot is really bothering him, or he is familiar enough with the hospital cage that he feels safe on the ground. Hopefully it's the latter. The good news is that — through the miracle of Neosporin — his foot is looking much better. And, despite a terrifying moment when he was limp in my hand, usually he struggles and bites me when I smear ointment on his foot.