Thanks, lovely ladies. You are balm for the soul....I am definitely on the mend. I have improved as the day has gone on. Almost no coughing!!!
Sharan, you caught me out. It is still true I have the tights problem with my kitty.
But...what I realized is that he strangely isn't as destructive to my opaque tights.
When I am bare-legged or in nude hose or micro-fishnets, or any kind of thin, delicate, fancy hose, he has a habit of stretching up and hooking his little claws into them. Instant hose ruination!!!
Weirdly, he doesn't do it when I am wearing pants! (Or maybe I just don't notice it as much.)
And he seems to regard dark tights as pants substitutes. Which sounds really weird. But -- it's a fact that I have had these Hue tights for several years and they only have one little catch in them (not a run, and it's not in a visible place). Admittedly, I don't wear them a ton, but I have been wearing them SOME. And he hasn't ruined them.
So I decided to take a risk with tunics/ dresses that would look okay with heavier weight opaques. Much as I would love to "lighten up" with nude hose, I also need the thicker tights for winter warmth. So this is all an experiment to see how it feels over the longer term.