The two of them, Wowbagger the cat and Stormy the dog, have co-existed for 5 years. The dog has always wanted to be pals with the cat, the cat is indifferent mostly but on frequent occasions does rub up against the dog, batting him idly and playfully, and often goes on walks with the dog.
When the dog has gotten overly affectionate in the past, the cat generally just wanders off to a safe spot, gives him a thump with a paw, or hisses (tho that is rare). Early in their relationship the cat did inflict a scratch on the nose of the dog, emphasizing that there will be consequences from excessive overfamiliarity. The dog accepted the chastisement without escalation and it seemed their relationship was cemented at that point. They share the house together, usually sleep in the same room together, are fed at the same time and near each other, and have seemed to have quite the stable 'roommates with some sort of affection or at least acceptance ’ for each other.
So last night’s attack was a puzzler.
The Mrs. and the dog were practicing one of their dance routines (they do performances at nursing homes locally together, with other owner/dog dance couples) as usual in the rec room, while the cat was being a pill, racing around, distracting the dog from his task. So the Mrs. confined the cat to another room where he yowled unhappily. It’s a nice room where he’s been before without objection, however.
He was in there for less than 3 minutes, and released when the dance number ended. Wowbagger then rocketed out past them into the house at large. The Mrs. and Stormy moved to the bedroom where I was sitting, reading, and they both sat down.
Suddenly the cat dashed into the room, aimed himself at Stormy and outright attacked him, jumping on him in full fury! Neither of us have seen that behavior from him EVER in the past. Hissing, yowling, he was clawing at the dog.
The dog responded in kind immediately, with attacks of his own. It lasted perhaps 3-4 seconds before we separated them. The dog calmed and disengaged nearly immediately, the cat dashed out of the room. The only damage (confirmed later) was a large chunk of cat fur removed, but no blood or even skin irritation noted on the cat.
Since that time, the cat has acted perfectly normally. The dog looks at the cat with a sort of WTF glance but doesn’t shy away; the cat wanders past the dog studiously ignoring him the way he does most of the time, with an occasional brush on dog leg in passing.
No recent illnesses or behavior changes on either of them, until last night.
So dopers, any thoughts?
