How can I avoid giving my cat static mini shocks?

Lately, as I stroke one of my cats, there seem to be static electricity going on. She always gets her nose or ears zapped whenever I stroke her. So she's getting more apprehensive to let me stroke her now. How can I avoid this? I though about rubbing my hands with a bounce sheet or lotion, but that doesn't seem very attractive to me, and I don't want that stuff in her fur. Is there anything else you would recommend?

I put lotion or water on my hands when there is static electricity in the air.

Any kinda of humidifier will help this problem and I've suggested my dad's solution to this on here somewhere before... we take a 50/50 mix of liquid fabric softener and water and put it in a spray bottle or CLEAN (I mean VERY clean, for obvious reasons) hand held bug sprayer (you know, the canister with the hose that you pump up by hand and then spray with) and lightly mist the carpets in the house... you obviously want to make sure your pets are not in whatever room you're spraying until it is dry and definitely dont want to spray your pets directly... this reminded me to let my dad know that we need to do this in my parents' house like ASAP as the poor cat is walking around with his hair up on end from static and the dog cringes before anyone pets her! You can see the poor animals light up in the bedroom at night when they roll around on the floor or sheets!

I remember last winter frequently zapping my cats when giving nose bumps. They never stopped with the nose bumping, though, so I suppose they knew the shocks weren't my fault.

OK, I'll try some of these suggestions. Thank's!

I am the most static person around my boss won't even take papers from me because I zap him

The 50:50 solution worked great for me and i constantly use lotion as well to help.

But as Tim said, they give each other nose bumps and gt zapped so they don't blame me too much

You might also try rubbing the fur with a unscented bit of fabric softener (the sheets). I read this in a cat magazine. It will reduce the static and it won't leave a residue that is harmful to the cats.