Shpongle

...make my rear computer speakers crackle?

I notice it every once and awhile. Funny thing is the front speakers (which the cat is usually close to when I'm petting him) don't make any noise. Just the rear speakers.

Cofffee

It's probably related to static. It seems I am forever zapping my cat when I pet it (But the cat doesn't seem to mind).

Static discharges can affect devices even if you aren't directly touching them. Static can cause a blip on your radio or TV , and sometimes other equipment can be affected, depending on the size of the shock/surge, the path to ground and the quality of the wires / power supply powering the device.

Early radio pioneers even used large spark gaps to transmit morse code over relatively long distances.

Nowhere357

I think the cat-static is interfering with reception, as opposed to sparks jumping into the radio wires.

(Try petting the cat in the dark!)

Wyz_sub10

Sometimes I get several "mini-shocks" when petting cat. It feels quite odd.

I must say, when that happens, the cat *does* appear to feel it.

Lobstrosity

Well, I can hypothesize as to the cause of the static. First, petting your cat will transfer charge from your cat's hair to you hand. This is the same kind of thing that happens when you rub a balloon on your clothes or on a piece of fur and then note that it will stick to things. The static charge will build up on your hand until the electromagnetic forces are great enough to allow it to discharge back into your cat's fur (the fur is an insulator, so there is a potential barrier that opposes such discharge). The amount of charge transferred during this equalization process is actually quite large--easily enough to fry electrical components were you to discharge onto a circuitboard. Given the magnitude of this charge, one could reasonably expect a non-negligible magnetic field to be generated over a very short timespan. Moreover, this magnetic field will have an incredibly steep gradient in time. It is not unreasonable to assume that such a gradient could induce short bursts of current in surrounding wiring, which might very well create short bursts of noise in a speaker (i.e. static).

Daisy

If you spit on your hand before you pet the cat (or spit on the cat directly), you won't be shocked. But you may shock those around you.

My husband thinks that that is really gross. Which it is, but it works.

pz

The real question is, what does your cat think of this practice?

Jackalope

Depends on how you've bonded with the cat. My cats would just think that I was being Momma Cat and washing them. But they lick each other's fur as a communal grooming thing. They also all really treat me as their mother cat, probably because they're all rescues and two of them were tiny (7 weeks old) when I rescued them. Someone with less of a pack hierarchy bond with their cats would probably get less favorable results.

Nickle

I'm just thinking the wrong things altogether.