Cat aggression against son

Pattern, our family female 3 year old indoor cat, just spayed week ago,
viciously attacked our 10 year son last night. He suffered two gashes
from her in his head, requiring trip to emergency room. Stitches
required. Also, scratches close to eye and others on sides of his back.
Dr. said he was lucky the eye wasn't damaged. Didn't see how it
started but believe he was playing down on floor probably directly in
her face and she freaked. All my wife and I saw was him standing with
cat wrapped around his head and he was trying to pull her off.
Hospital asked if incident was an intentional attack or provoked, if
intentional, report to animal control would be required. We believe it
was a little of both and cat attacked in defense even though he was
playing with her. She has shown signs of aggression in past if
provoked due to playful activity but nothing as violent as this. I am
posting this message to ask if there have been similar incidents to
their children and should we pay attention to any signs in cat behavior
because of the recent spay. Or, are there any animal behavior experts
in this group who tell me if this attack was part an inherent defense
mechanism due to a sudden approach directly to the cat. Thank you.

"cacht22" wrote in message
oups.com...
Pattern, our family female 3 year old indoor cat, just spayed week ago,
viciously attacked our 10 year son last night. He suffered two gashes
from her in his head, requiring trip to emergency room. Stitches
required. Also, scratches close to eye and others on sides of his back.
Dr. said he was lucky the eye wasn't damaged. Didn't see how it
started but believe he was playing down on floor probably directly in
her face and she freaked. All my wife and I saw was him standing with
cat wrapped around his head and he was trying to pull her off.
Hospital asked if incident was an intentional attack or provoked, if
intentional, report to animal control would be required. We believe it
was a little of both and cat attacked in defense even though he was
playing with her. She has shown signs of aggression in past if
provoked due to playful activity but nothing as violent as this. I am
posting this message to ask if there have been similar incidents to
their children and should we pay attention to any signs in cat behavior
because of the recent spay. Or, are there any animal behavior experts
in this group who tell me if this attack was part an inherent defense
mechanism due to a sudden approach directly to the cat. Thank you.

She may have been extra defensive because of residual pain from the spay (I
know I would have knocked the head off of anyone coming near my stomach
after my hysterectomy). I would not only watch the cat's behavior, but
closely watch your son's behavior when they play together (sometimes
children don't realize how rough they're being and can't empathize with a
smaller being). For now I would curtail *any* of your son's playing with
your cat, especially any unsupervised play until you can determine the
dynamics between the two.

Hugs,

CatNipped

CatNipped wrote:
I would not only watch the cat's behavior, but
closely watch your son's behavior when they play together (sometimes
children don't realize how rough they're being and can't empathize with a
smaller being).

I would agree. Children can pull a cat's tail very quickly, without
the parent seeing what's going on. The cat may have been reacting to
this. I remember when I was a child our family cat scratched me pretty
badly. My mom asked me what I had done to make the cat scratch me.
Sure enough, I had been pulling her tail.

For now I would curtail *any* of your son's playing with
your cat, especially any unsupervised play until you can determine the
dynamics between the two.

Yes, definitely supervise. I hope you aren't considering declawing the
cat, as this could only make the problem worse, and then you'll have a
biter.

No inherent defense reaction unless your child or some one in the house has
been abusive to the furball

Please don't take this wrong but 10 year old boys are not the gentlest bunch
of the group. at this age they have a tendency to be a rough neck and be
extremely curious without any common sense. It sounds like he was rough
housing got a little to rambunctious or a little curious and the furball
showed him who the boss was the hard way.

Specially after her recent operation just imagine your private areas worked
on would you like some one even bothering you yet alone touching the area

Cats don't attack unless there is a reason during playful activity over
stimulus will cause a nip or a scratch but that is the humans fault for not
looking at the signs of a cat becoming over stimulated. For a cat to attack
likes this there had to be a reason. You saw the child with the cat wrapped
around his head. that means he was on the floor face near the cat for what
ever reason probably checking out the surgery area or rough housing with
the cat. The cat reacted for whatever reason his face was the closest thing
to be attacked. Your son out of natural reaction grabbed the cat and rose
up natural human instinct to get away from the problems. By trying to
forcefully removed the cat on aggravated the situation for the cat was all
ready made nervous by the standing up it made the wounds worse than it could
have been.

You said there has been aggression in the past sounds like your child has
not learned his lesson but keeps going back for more. You need to watch
both the child and the cat

All my kids including myself and everyone out there when we were growing
up no matter how much parents tell them what will happen we all would will
try it
Human beings are inherently stupid when it comes to learning experience you
can tell them the pan is hot yet they seem to get burned everytime

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 08:01:43 -0800, cacht22 wrote:

Pattern, our family female 3 year old indoor cat, just spayed week ago,
viciously attacked our 10 year son last night. He suffered two gashes
from her in his head, requiring trip to emergency room. Stitches
required. Also, scratches close to eye and others on sides of his back.
Dr. said he was lucky the eye wasn't damaged. Didn't see how it
started but believe he was playing down on floor probably directly in
her face and she freaked. All my wife and I saw was him standing with
cat wrapped around his head and he was trying to pull her off.
Hospital asked if incident was an intentional attack or provoked, if
intentional, report to animal control would be required. We believe it
was a little of both and cat attacked in defense even though he was
playing with her. She has shown signs of aggression in past if
provoked due to playful activity but nothing as violent as this. I am
posting this message to ask if there have been similar incidents to
their children and should we pay attention to any signs in cat behavior
because of the recent spay. Or, are there any animal behavior experts
in this group who tell me if this attack was part an inherent defense
mechanism due to a sudden approach directly to the cat. Thank you.


You must impress on your son and any other children that you cannot play
with a cat like you play with a dog. If they do, the cat will get mean.
I had to impress this on a neighbor's 35 year old son. Some people find
this hard to understand. Sometimes cats will get full of anxiety for no
reason that we can see. Good luck. MLB

Appreciate all your reponses to my post and will take extra caution. No
more trips to ER. Didn't want to be too verbose in my original post but
will say here that since her spay week ago, she has been extremely
affectionate toward myself and wife, and for the most part, kids too.
She's on our lap every chance that is available, not to mention
burrowing under covers. Just not like her prior to the surgery. Been
wondering if vet gave us back the right cat! Guess kid got to close to
her surgery scar. Thanks again. RJP

cacht22 wrote:
Appreciate all your reponses to my post and will take extra caution. No
...prior to the surgery. Been
wondering if vet gave us back the right cat! Guess kid got to close to
her surgery scar. Thanks again. RJP

why don't you just ask him if he's aggrivating the cat

you could turn your web cam into a nanny cam

http://www.digi-watcher.com/

that's just one of several programs for the job.

although! from your description, I think the cat has already drew the
line.

Toodles