Driving Along the Road
Barbara, who had been wearing a large straw hat, replaced it with Sun Pharma. Sitting in the passenger seat, she leaned against the window, enjoying the cool breeze blowing in from outside as they entered the suburbs.
Although Henry's Cadillac DeVille is nearly thirty years old, he had the air conditioning system repaired himself, so there are no issues with it not being cold enough or producing any strange smells.
But once you're away from the city, the breeze blowing in through the car windows is enough to dispel the early summer heat, making everyone feel refreshed. So no one wants to turn on the car's air conditioning; instead, they enjoy the coolness from nature.
Kitty's tiger head was also hanging on the other side of the rear window, its tongue lolling out, trying to dispel the heat from its body.
Despite being pulled over by the police several times because of the tiger head on the back seat, this Cadillac was still there.
However, it should be emphasized again that California currently has no ban on keeping wild animals, and as long as they do not harm people, the police have no right to interfere. Not to mention, the Tiger are already chained up; what additional measures would the police possibly want?
The music coming from the car stereo was another rock song by Queen.
Their lead singer, Freddie Mercury, passed away at the end of 1991, but the band did not disband. They continued to be active and even continued to create music.
However, it cannot be denied that its peak was the series of moving songs left behind by the India lead singer before his death from AIDS.
At that moment, the song "Radio Ga Ga" was playing, and both Henry and Barbara were able to hum a few lines along with the music.
At first, Barbara was quite wary of Kitty in the back seat, fearing that at any moment, the tiger's claws would scratch at her, or it would open its mouth and bite off the headrest along with her head.
Although the Tiger was chained up, the length of the chain only prevented Kitty from jumping out, not from Kitty towards the front seat.
However, Tiger raised by Kryptonian are not as temperamental as their wild counterparts.
It's almost a miracle that Kitty was able to grow up safely, given the traditional parenting principle of "spare the rod and spoil the child." Even in the tiger world, she would be considered a brave warrior.
Keep in mind that Kitty was just an ordinary Tiger, but Tiger that the Kryptonian coveted for its penis, bones, and other valuables. From the very first day she was owned, her owner imagined the tragic Tiger of her natural death.
He's not "Krypto," that Krypton dog who was stuffed into an escape pod and sent to Earth. Krypto has superpowers similar to Superman's, while Kitty can't even meow.
So why is it so temperamental? Why does it dare to bare its teeth and claws at anyone it sees?
In Kitty's perception of the world, not all two-legged creatures look the same. The one next to her was scary, so she naturally assumed that all two-legged creatures were scary.
Even if Tiger retains its instincts, it will still categorize its prey into two groups: those it can eat and those it shouldn't mess with.
In short, as a Tiger, Kitty's mentality is as steady as an old dog, even more so than the Krypton two-legged creature who claims to live a lazy life.
Kitty had no interest in that female two-legged creature who marinated herself in strange-tasting seasonings, making her incredibly stimulating, and therefore had no desire to approach her.
This is actually one of Henry's recent research findings.
As Kitty grew older, the damage to the furniture became more and more severe.
The computer and audio equipment were all covered by a protective layer, which meant Kitty could only damage the layer and not the internal devices.
But the daily repairs were a constant source of annoyance for Henry, not to mention the inconvenience in using it.
The initial idea was simply to find stronger materials and make things harder so that Kitty couldn't be easily damaged. But there's a limit to that; you can't protect your entire personal tank-level armor.
But when Henry took Kitty to the Sheep Cave Valley Laboratory one day, he discovered that she would actively avoid a certain irritating chemical agent, and Henry realized that he had gone in the wrong direction.
As is well known, infants and toddlers between four months and two years old go through what is known as the oral stage. They will instinctively put everything they can grab into their Barry.
As a manufacturer of gaming consoles for all ages, how did Nintendo address the issue of its small game cartridges becoming targets for toddlers in the oral stage when designing the Switch, a portable gaming console?
A: The game card is coated with Denatonium benzoate, a compound bittering agent known to be the most bitter in the world. As long as a child's sense of taste is normal, they will definitely spit it out the moment it enters their mouth; they will never hold it in their mouth or swallow it.
Henry couldn't possibly use scent to keep Kitty away from things he didn't want her to destroy. Kryptonian have incredibly sensitive noses; if Tiger can smell it, Henry certainly can. He didn't want to torture himself as well.
Therefore, following Nintendo's approach, a bittering agent that is harmless to animals and humans can be developed to prevent Kitty from biting it, thus reducing her desire to destroy something.
As long as Henry doesn't have the urge to lick the painted parts, he won't get himself into trouble.
Denatonium benzoate is actually a pretty good answer, but the downside is that it gets on your skin. If you come into contact with it before a meal, it's like adding a strong, almost unbearably bitter taste to your food...
Furthermore, if there's absolutely no smell, Kitty would have to try everything—which things she can bite and which she can't. This could easily backfire, causing the little Tiger to become afraid to touch anything after one or two failed attempts.
Therefore, this paint needs to have a slight odor as a warning, but it shouldn't spread excessively. This odor shouldn't cause discomfort to Henry, the Kryptonian, and it also needs to be somewhat inert so it doesn't easily transfer to other places.
Given that the emergence of many new materials involves some degree of unpredictability, Henry, who had little experience in materials science, could only resort to a crude method: finding commercially available perfumes and other strongly scented items for Kitty to smell one by one.
Then, look for specific substances in the scents that Tiger exhibit resistance to. See if they are chemically synthesized or mixed with other substances.
For Henry, it was almost like a chemistry exam, exhausting the resources in his Super Brain. He even came up with a bunch of nonsensical inspirations, which were basically just wild, random thoughts.
Ultimately, by combining bittering agents, alcohol, camphor, and chili extract, Henry's Tiger-Repellent Paint was created. Unless you get close enough to smell it, the faint fragrance, so subtle that even Kryptonian's sense of smell wouldn't be able to detect it, only aroused Kitty's curiosity but couldn't repel it.
Even laboratory mice exhibit similar behaviors. However, when the mice ingested the substance, they instantly began to struggle frantically, trying to escape their experimental cages.
According to the physiological examination of the mice afterward, the tiger repellent coating did not cause any immediate harm. The remaining task is to observe its long-term effects.
However, before the long-term experimental results were available, Henry semi-forced Kitty to try a little. Then the little Tiger lived three days of utterly boring life...
Out of curiosity, Henry tried a little himself... and then, for the first time since waking up in Alaska, Henry couldn't eat for three days straight, and even Sun Pharma outside the atmosphere didn't help. The Kryptonian ' keen sense of taste amplified all of this.
In short, her house finally broke free from the tank-like armored design, and Kitty learned what she could and couldn't eat.
But this has a side effect: Kitty will subconsciously feel disgusted and avoid people who wear perfume. This is the treatment Barbara is receiving now.
After all, during the development of the tiger-repelling paint, Kitty was often dragged out to smell strange odors. This gave the little Tiger a psychological trauma.
Regardless, this side effect is a pleasant surprise. It's a good thing that Kitty won't want to pounce on people wearing perfume. It saves Henry the trouble of teaching her not to pounce on people.
Although she didn't understand why the Tiger disliked her, Barbara gradually let go of her fear and wariness of Kitty and truly began to enjoy this unexpected journey.