Only traumatic one was when I was spanked for crying.

That's what I hate to see in public. "I said!" whap "STOP" whap "CRYING!!" Yeah, it mostly doesn't work.

I got a lot of mocking by my elder sibs for whining, so my parents didn't have to do much punishing for that (which I did do a lot--youngest child syndrome, I think!).

All this talk about punishment reminds me of what happened over the weekend in Vegas. We were staying at my sister and BIL's house, which has five dogs and a cat in residence as well as the humans. When I came down Sunday morning, the dogs were being obviously ignored by my sister, who was definitely pissed. I asked her what was up--the dogs had managed to open the pantry door and raid it overnight, leaving saltine crumbs and mac&cheese dried pasta all over the kitchen, dining room, and outside (they have a doggy door to the patio/pool). When she was cleaning up the mess after yelling at all of the dogs (although she's pretty sure the instigator was the youngest of the bunch, they all took advantage of the booty), she never did manage to find two of the cheese packages, but she did eventually fish out an empty saltine sleeve from the pool's filter that afternoon.

BIL spent the rest of the morning installing an extra childproof hook on the pantry door (the one that was already there was obviously not enough). The dogs didn't even bother to look guilty.

I was spanked as a kid, but only in response to extreme provocation, only as a last resort and never in anger. Once I got a old enough for guilt to work, the spanking stopped. Occasionally I would ask my father if he could beat me like some of the neighborhood kids Dads did instead of the "I'm so disappointed speech". His response was that "If all I thought you deserved was a beating I'd give you a beating. You've earned this speech and are going to listen to it."

My best friend's youngest brother got into trouble for something and was sent to his room. They heard the door slam and then the sound of him crying (dramatically) which was typical. But when the crying continued for much longer than usual someone went to check on him. He had recorded himself crying, put the tape on continuous play and crawled out the window to play outside.

Kathy, I'm guessing those cheese packages will have turned up say 6 or 8 hours later. Dogs iz gross.

He had recorded himself crying, put the tape on continuous play and crawled out the window to play outside.

Hilarious.

OK, so the vet gave me some spray thing that's supposed to be good for the cat's teeth. How the hell do I spray something in his mouth?

Bravely??

I just sent my passport info off for a Bhutanese visa.

I can't figure out how to hold his body with one hand, open his mouth with another, and work the spray bottle with a ...third?

How the hell do I spray something in his mouth?

The only way I can do something like that is if I wait for my cat to meow. When I had to give her liquid antibiotic when she had her teeth cleaned, I would pick her up, wait for her to start bitching in protest, then shove the eyedropper into her mouth and squeeze. By the end of the week, she stopped complaining as much, which made it harder for me to give her her medicine.