She took her second rat pup pretty fast - good news there. Her striking has diminished significantly but I am still not handling her much other than to apply the betadine, and when I do that I usually lift her out with a hook. She is intense. I have to sort of nudge her head back from her tail so I can lift it for the application pretty much every time, and she's calmest if she has a little hunk of sphagnum masking her head. It's clear when I go to do this she's thinking "AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU LIFTING MY TAIL!?". A few times I have put her back by hand and not gotten any "thank-you's" by mouth. She seems a lot less stressed by that operation than she does when her lid comes off.