Both Kako and Kazon had terrible infestations of ear mites when I first adopted them (among several other problems). The damage to their ears was so extensive at an early age that they now have sensitive ears. But Kako’s are more sensitive than Kazon’s. In fact, she often cries out in pain when she scratches her own ears, and watching her try to address an itch in either of them is akin to watching the torture of a defenseless animal. It just hurts.
The most I can do to alleviate that suffering is to keep them as clean as possible through regular douses with OtiCalm, an ear cleaning solution that gently breaks up buildup. This, as you can guess, is not a popular activity, but I know it’s best for them and helps circumvent unnecessary pain and discomfort.
One of the interesting things about their delicate ears is Kako’s eargasms. Although sticking her hind foot in them to scratch an itch is a sure way to elicit painful cries, the same is not true when it comes time to bathe. It feels sickly voyeuristic to watch her hit that just right position that rubs an ear in heavenly ways.
This is never more true than when she lies on the ground and starts bathing with her front paws. If you’ve ever seen a cat cleaning in this manner, you know they lick their paw before using it to clean their face, ears, and other body parts. With Kako, however, the truest joy comes from her head resting on the ground against one of her ears. Each time she licks her paw, she moves her head, and that in turn rubs her ear into the floor. That, poppets, is obviously one of the greater joys she can experience.
The funny thing is this: very little bathing takes place except for the paw she’s trying to use to clean herself. You see, she becomes so entranced with the eargasm that she ends up licking the paw ad infinitum without accomplishing much with it. Instead, she just keeps moving her head back and forth to work her ear against the ground.
I suppose she has the cleanest paws in town because of this. They get a good working over no matter what pieces and parts are skipped in favor of the eargasm.
And when she finally gets that paw working against an ear? Well, bliss ensues. Usually, her entire body gets into the writhing caused by her ecstasy.
That is what you will see in this video. I caught her lying in front of the fireplace as she began to take a bath. I simply turned the camera on and let it record what actually happened. I did stop it right at the end when she stood up to scratch the ear she’d been grinding into the ground. Knowing what that would cause, I saw no reason to record it.
Note that Loki makes a brief drive-by in the background near the beginning of the video as he makes his way to the cat castle off-screen to the left.