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Things New Parents Should Know #17 - Feed the Kitty

One of a baby's favourite places in the world is lying on it's father's bare chest. It's warm, the baby can feel and hear the heartbeat, and there's the skin contact. Interestingly, if the contact is skin to skin, both mothers and fathers will react to the temperature of their child's body, becoming slightly cooler if the baby is warm, warmer if it's cool.

In the 1952 Warner Brothers Cartoon Feed the Kitty, a big brutish bulldog called Marc Anthony ends up with a small kitten as a 'pet.' The kitten likes sleeping on Marc Anthony, and as it kneads his back to get comfortable, a wonderful array of comically pained expressions pass over the dog's face.

These same expressions will pass over your face, as your child digs his sharp little nails into your chest, and repeatedly kicks you in the testicles.