This piece has many influences, perhaps the most obscure being the title itself, which comes from the motto of the Clan Chief of Scottish Clan Chattan, which is: "'Touch not the cat bot (without) a glove'."
That same motto was also used for the title of one of Mary Stewart's best-known novels, "Touch Not The Cat", which came out in 1976.

Of course, such words and imagery already tug at some far deeper cultural undercurrents, specifically the ancient cultural association with the cat as a symbol of savage, dangerous sensuality that we lust after, all the more so in our hot-blooded youths, before our proverbial embers have reached the perfect, smouldering coals to allow us to barbecue...

And there are few symbols so instantly and powerfully evocative, such as the witches' familiar black cat with arched back, and the near-insane mother-hen level of protectiveness that those of us so blessed as to be owned by black cats feel around Devil's Night and Samhain/Hallowe'en that immediately follows.

There are also certain scents that one may associate with powerful imagery and equally primal associations, not just from cats themselves, but some other things too, such as cedar, sandalwood, spruce, juniper, and pine.

Those of us likewise fortunate enough to have worked with big cats in real life come to know an even wider palette of evocative scents, and can imagine the hungry and searching male tiger in the aromas of cooking basmati rice, or the spruce/juniper note of the proud and sassy male bobcat that are sometimes echoed in fine, white wines such as Sauvignon Blanc.

I have likewise alluded to the old, Eastern European legend of 'lynx pearls'.

One final piece of inspiration was an odd memory from back in my zookeeping days.
Basically, I met an oldtimer, who made an anecdote (which I have striven to keep in his original vernacular), which was based on all the different species of cats he'd seen mate over the years, specifically that (in his words): "Tomcats of most species, he just makes his injection, and jumps away, but cheetahs, lynxes, bobcats and ocelots, well, they do the 'sewing machine'."

It was so odd, yet in a 'cat-professional' frame of reference, it made so much sense.