About a year or so ago, my cat completely flipped out and started attacking me. My arms were completely cut up with blood dripping, to the point where when I finally got away there were blood stains on walls where I had rounded corners trying to get away from the cat. And once I did get a closed door between her and I, she was hissing and throwing herself at the door trying to get me. Crap was flying out of her ass as she was trying to rip me apart, it wasn’t a pretty scene. The cat was literally acting like she was fighting to death.
Later, the vet said that she probably had a seizure, and since I was playing with her at the time, associated me with it, and fought for her life. After a few days, things went back to normal, and it hasn’t happened since.
Now I don’t live with that cat anymore, because I went to college. Yesterday my roommate swore that the cat we have here was attacking her, and was evil. :rolleyes: I explained, that no, he was just playing and tried to describe a real cat attack, but don’t think she comprehended how bad a real cat attack is.
I tell you all of that to ask you this. Have you ever been attacked by a cat in the manner that I described, or worse?
Oh yes. I volunteer at the SPCA and in February, we were trying to socialize a feral cat. He was sitting on my lap when he completely flipped out and attacked my face. It was really out of nowhere, like from cuddly to vicious in less than a second. He sank his claws into my head on both sides of my face, and got me badly on the left side, less than inches from my eye. Blood everywhere.
Went to the ER, got antibiotics, but that wasn’t enough. My eye swelled up so bad I could barely open it. I looked like I coulda been a contendah. My doctor made me go to the hospital for 2 days for IV antibiotics. Now, there’s just a small scar over my left cheekbone. It was bad but it could have been worse. Thank god I was wearing glasses.
The cat was neutered and released, btw. I wouldn’t let them euthanize him.
Mine will “play” attack, most often when he’s bored. But he knows better than to go after bare skin. OK, occassionally he forgets, but a verbal reprimand will get him to stop and be very contrite.
I think I’ve had my skin broken by tooth or claw less than 20 times in my life, with lots of interactions with my and other people’s pets. Usually pain (trying to bandage or medicate hurt kitty) or fear was involved.
I was at my brother-in-law’s engagement party and was sitting on the step when a nice, black kittie strolled up to me and rubbed against my leg. I petted him for a few minutes, then he ran up the rest of the steps and flopped down on the carpet. I reached up to pet him again and he just sat there, then bit my hand 3 times in seconds.
My bil’s future mother in law said, “Oh yea, he’s nasty and bites” Uh, thanks.
He basically sank his teeth in to the drumstick part of my thumb. It hurt for about a week.
I excused myself and went to the washroom to run some cold water on it. Also to avoid anyone seeing me cry. I wasn’t crying because of the pain, it was more like I had my feelings hurt. Weird.
I have a couple of scars on the back of my hand from it.
Not me, but my parents’ vet was attacked by their cat bad enough to have dripping blood (according to my mom, who was there). It was then that the vet made the decision to declaw the cat, as there had been other attacks on my parents and sister, though not as bad (although the cat did have a tendency to go for faces).
I think it should have been euthanized. It’s miserable, you can tell that just by looking at the thing.
My mom told me that happened to her once, before I was born.
Her cat Inky turned on her and on her brother who was visiting at the time. He ended up fending off Inky with a kitchen chair, kind of like a lion tamer. From Mom’s telling of the story, it was quite scary.
They had Inky put to sleep after that- the vet thought she had a brain tumor or something like that, and couldn’t be trusted not to do it again. I think that was the right thing to do.
Our nasty white cat Tom-Tom. When I was giving him a bath, he decided he’d had enough and clamped his jaw on my right wrist. I had to put him under water and punch his nose to get him to let go.
I had a mostly indoor cat who would make a break for it occasionally. The bad thing was that, once he was outside, he was totally freaked out by the experience. He escaped once, and when I cornered him to bring him back inside, he attacked me quite ferociously.
Then, when he was back in the house, he must have smelled like a whole new kitty to the other household cat, who freaked out totally because of the “strange” cat. I had enough sense not to get in the middle of that one.
Last summer a stray cat had babies outside of our warehouse at work. When the kittens were born we were having record high temperatures and several of the babies died within a few days of being born. It was horrible. I called the animal shelter and they had no room. I called Animal Control and they said they would immediately be put down. So I took one of the kittens home. Mama cat got the other remaining kitten and hid it so I couldn’t rescue both of them.
Anyway, I took care of the baby but he was still really wild. With me he was pretty tame. On the other hand, he HATED my boyfriend. Before we moved in together, BF would feed and water the cats and clean the litter box when I was out of town. Every time he went into my apartment the kitten would go after him. The worst was one morning I left for work, BF decided to try and suprise me by going and straightening up my place for me. While he was there, the cat went berserk. Stalked him, jumped on him, clawed up his leg really badly. Then he bit his hand to the point of blood flowing. A day later he was unable to move his hand and it was swollen badly.
We recently moved in together and I had to take the wild kitty to the shelter.
Davenportavenger and Anne Neville, we did discuss putting the cat to sleep, but really couldn’t bear the thought of it, since it had previously been one of the sweetest cats I have ever seen. Also, my mom was able to calm the cat down, because she had been the only one our cat had ever actually listened to in the first place. If she ever did turn on my mom though, there probably would be no other option but to put her down. But I hate to think of that, because I love the cat so much even now. Hell, even when she was attacking me I was trying my best not to hurt her, just to get her away.
Thanks for the replies, maybe now my roommate will see I’m not just making things up-- then again, I thought the scars I showed her would be enough.
My cat went psycho on me three years ago. Not because of anything I did; he was being taunted by another cat outside, calling him names through the window or something. But I saw him sitting on the windowsill, raised hackles, big tail and all, and tried to calm him down by approaching him like " Oh, don’t be silly, here let me pet y…" Well, fangs and nails ensued.
I backed off, while he came after me slowly, growling. I closed the folding door between it and me, and then he exploded some more and tried to attack me through the door. Almost as if he had waited to go completely berserk untill there was a door safely between us.
I gave him a few minutes to cool down and then opened the door. He walked slowly around me, looking at me in a I-won’t attack-you-if-you-don’t-attack-me-but-God-help-you-if-you-do-attack kind of way. I didn’t touch him, but I did speak to him in a stern but calming way, and I avoided to look him in his eyes directly. In the end, he got calmer.
My roommates were scared by the way my leg was covered in blood. Puncture holes, two deep scrathes, a tiny piece of flesh missing. I had to go to the hospital to get some antibiotics.
Afterwards, I called a cat psychologist to figure out why.
I’ve since learnt to respect signs of “no” in cats. Big tail, hissing, raised back? Stop what you’re doing and give him a wide berth. Even so, it took me over a year to trust that cat again, but even then, I wasn’t sorry to leave him with my ex when we parted.
Holy crap. Another reason not to have cats. Anyway, I do have a story, though not so bad.
I was staying at a friend’s house for a week or so. Her cat was indoors only. She asked me if I would attempt to walk her cat on a leash, and see if it worked.
Well, next day she went off to work, and Poe and I got to work. I put the cat on the leash and carried it outside. I attempted to walk one direction. Cat refused. Tried the other direction. Cat arched its back and just sat there.
Probably tried for 5-10 minutes and then I sat down out of frustration, on the stone steps.
Across the street a dog came out, and the cat FREAKED. Tried to run back to the house, but I was blocking the way, so it clawed me up. I half-stood up, trying to get out of its way, when it sank its teeth into my inner thigh. I was wearing jeans, and the teeth went right through. I finally got back inside, and let the freaking cat off the leash.
Yes. While some military friends of ours were waiting for their house, they were staying in a hotel. He had to go away for a week, so she headed to her family’s house for a visit. I cat-sat for them.
One night when I went to feed, water, and play with the cat, it went ballistic. Hissed and bit and clawed my feet and legs. I had to throw the bedspread over him to get out of the room, and he was still spitting and hissing after I closed the door. I sent my (now ex-)boyfriend to feed and water him after that, as there was no way I was going back there.
About three months later, these same friends and my ex and I were all out for the evening. Ex’s sister was watching our kids at the friends’ home. The cat all of a sudden went apeshit on her. She got all of the kids into one room and phoned us - in the background I could hear the cat freaking out and trying to claw his way through the door.
I wouldn’t go to their house after that unless I knew that the cat was locked in the basement. They didn’t have the cat put down until some months later, when he clawed at their daughter’s feet as she sat at the table.
I am now mostly afraid of cats. Stupid Elmo. Anyway, I have a really bad allergy to them, so it’s just as well that I can stay away from them.
Oh, I wasn’t saying that your cat should be euthanized, but that my mom’s should have been. I’m sure there are cases of isolated attacks by cats who never turned on their owners again. Although I have read that dogs are never the same after seriously attacking people and should be put down for that reason.
When you think about it, cats are really just tiny versions of some of the deadliest animals on Earth. It’s surprising that 99.9% of the time they’re such angels.
In my experience(eight years of pet sitting), cats are more likely to bite than dogs. I’ve yet to be bitten by a dog, but it’s happened five or six times with cats, for various reasons. They were startled, angry, annoyed, territorial, playful and carried away, even. I’ve never been attacked as badly as some of these dopers, but I agree cats are not to be trifled with. The worst attack I’ve had was from a huge orange tom named T.C.(Town Crier) who was coming into my apartment through a hole under the sink and making himself at home. I chased him out with a broom and he was not happy. When I turned to go, he ran up behind me and bit me on the calf, the little bastard. He didn’t come back, though.
I think that cat was sorely provoked and tried very hard not to hurt anyone. Some cats hate being put on a leash, and Pinky tried to get away for a while before he did the inevitable, which was climb that guy’s leg. I hope poor Pinky was OK.
Maybe I have Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to cats, I dunno.
Egregious example of my pro-cat bias, despite being badly injured by a cat. Soooo… Let me also say, I hope the guy was OK, and I’m sure that hurt like a mofo. In fact, I know it did. He probably needed a course of antibiotics after that, which is not fun. Just a bad situation all around.
