Animal Cruelty!

[grouchyoldcoot]

Annie, recently promoted to Household Problem Cat, has a behavioral problem. She'll purr contentedly when petted, and then suddenly attempt to kill you. When this happened again this evening I threw her in the shower and left her there while I cleaned out the wound in my hand. I doubt she learned anything, but by damn I felt a lot better.

Comments

[sue_n_julia]

Try hissing at her when she does it. Follow that with a sound smack on the flank or a flick of the ear -- this is kitty language that tells her she is misbehaving.

S

[grouchyoldcoot]

No time to hiss- she bolts from the room at top speed as soon as she attacks.

[bhudson]

I thought that's just what cats did?

[grouchyoldcoot]

Nope- just calicos.

[bhudson]

Oh, that explains it.

[ariannawyn]

I resent your impugning of calicos. My childhood calico was tolerance personified, whereas my tortoiseshell, Grendel, was similarly prone to attacking without warning after reaching his petting limit. Of all people, I would not have expected you to engage in racial stereotyping. ;-)

More seriously, as already mentioned, if you pay attention you can usually see the signs that the cat is reaching her limit before the actual attack. Or you can gauge her general tolerance level and stop petting her after a set amount of time.

[pondalorum]

Some cats do that. I think they have sensitive skin and get sore easily. The trick is to pet them for a while but stop BEFORE they start snapping.

[grouchyoldcoot]

The trouble with Annie is that she is simultaneously very demanding and prone to sudden violence. The only way for me to get anything done while she's around is to keep skritching her with my off hand- but that's not conducive to the kind of attention I have to keep up to avoid getting raked.

[blk]

I take it it's time to attack her and trim her claws again? :)

[grouchyoldcoot]

That would be a real plus. They grow quickly, and I can't trim them without help.

[cellio]

There's a trick that works for some people that involves pouncing on the cat with a towel and wrapping quickly. Then you extract one foot at a time. Annie sounds like she'd be a challenge there, but if you haven't already tried that you might want to give it a shot.

[erink]

This is totally normal for cats. That's why I hate them.

The only solution is to have them like you, and there's probably no recipe for that. It's ironically like dating, now that I think of it....