Behavioral Problem?

We adopted a Maine Coon from a shelter about 3 years ago - he is
nearly 6 years old now. He is the only cat and an inside cat. We
have no children, so it is only my husband and myself.

In April, I went out of town for one night. Buddy, the kitty,
attacked my husband in bed that night - this was the beginning. Buddy
is usually a very laid back, well mannered kitty - so this event was a
little strange, but perhaps it was because I was gone.

Nothing more happened until the past couple of weeks. And, I have not
gone out of town since April. If my husband is walking through the
house with bare legs, Buddy runs after him and tackles his leg and
bites - drawing blood. This is happening every couple of days now.

Any ideas about why he is doing this? And how to break him of doing
this? He doesn't do this to me - just my husband.
Thanking you in advance!
Sharon

Response from Buddy's Mom :

We adopted a Maine Coon from a shelter about 3 years ago - he is
nearly 6 years old now. He is the only cat and an inside cat. We
have no children, so it is only my husband and myself.

In April, I went out of town for one night. Buddy, the kitty,
attacked my husband in bed that night - this was the beginning.
Buddy is usually a very laid back, well mannered kitty - so this
event was a little strange, but perhaps it was because I was gone.

Nothing more happened until the past couple of weeks. And, I have
not gone out of town since April. If my husband is walking
through the house with bare legs, Buddy runs after him and tackles
his leg and bites - drawing blood. This is happening every couple
of days now.

Any ideas about why he is doing this? And how to break him of
doing this? He doesn't do this to me - just my husband.
Thanking you in advance!
Sharon

And beside what Cheryl has already said, it could be something
medically wrong. I won't bother scaring you with extremes but it
could be something severe or it could be an infection or something
even more trivial. Maybe your husband treated the cat poorly during
your vacation away from home. Maybe he treated the cat poorly
without even knowing it. The cat may be in pain and is reacting to
the person he likes the least.

One of my uncles had a pit bull when I was a kid that would try to
rip the throat out of anyone wearing a dark blue, dark green, or dark
whatever suit, jumpsuit or similar outfit. We never could figure it
out until one of the people the dog tried to kill came back over
wearing shorts and a t-shirt and the dog was just fine. Come to find
out the previous owner of the dog had beaten it mercilessly while
wearing a dog training suit. I guess in an attempt to make a mean
dog for fighting or guard?

Maybe Buddy didn't like being left home with a man?

Gabby seems to act this way with my spouse. She relentlessly fights,
claws, bites and hisses, although she is playing, but when you want
it to be over, Gabby rarely takes the hint. Unless it's me.

The 2 best bets are probably to ask your hubby if he noticed anything
odd or perhaps did anything to scare the cat... even accidentally.
The 2nd choice is take Buddy to the vet to rule out any problems you
may not notice in an otherwise healthy kitty.

Good luck!

--
-Lost
Remove the extra words to reply by e-mail. Don't e-mail me. I am
kidding. No I am not.

Hi
Thank you for your response. We have not tried the laser pointer with
him. But that is an excelant point. I just told my husband tonight -
that if and when this starts to happen, to calll my name because Buddy
isn't like this with me at all. I told him that we really need to
stop this action NOW before it becomes a huge problem. My husband
does not tease Buddy. I think it is more a jealous problem,
personally, but have never had this happen before and have cats all my
life and I am 60.

I do remember talking to Buddy's former owner and asking if there were
issues - and was told to watch out if your ankles were bare - so maybe
this was why they got rid of him and it took a couple of years here
for him to restart that practice.
Sharon

On Oct 13, 7:57?pm, Cheryl wrote:
On Sat 13 Oct 2007 07:19:59a, Buddy's Mom wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav
roups.com:





We adopted a Maine Coon from a shelter about 3 years ago - he is
nearly 6 years old now. He is the only cat and an inside cat.
We have no children, so it is only my husband and myself.

In April, I went out of town for one night. Buddy, the kitty,
attacked my husband in bed that night - this was the beginning.
Buddy is usually a very laid back, well mannered kitty - so this
event was a little strange, but perhaps it was because I was
gone.

Nothing more happened until the past couple of weeks. And, I
have not gone out of town since April. If my husband is walking
through the house with bare legs, Buddy runs after him and
tackles his leg and bites - drawing blood. This is happening
every couple of days now.

Any ideas about why he is doing this? And how to break him of
doing this? He doesn't do this to me - just my husband.
Thanking you in advance!
Sharon

Sharon, since this is a new behavior, maybe he can be broken of it
by deflecting his attack to something else. Shamrock did this to
me, but it was right from the start, and it can be very scary to
have to walk past a cat that you know is going to attack your
legs. Does Buddy react at all to a laser pointer? I used to
carry one with me at all times, especially in the summer and
months when I was wearing shorts. A quick deflection of interest
from my legs to the red dot worked wonders. I would forget to
bring it with me sometimes, and he'd have a go at me. But I think
Shamrock has something more going on and is on medication because
he not only attacked, you could tell he was just an unhappy cat
when he wasn't in your arms. He would attack everyone around him.
Very lovable to me one on one, and extremely intelligent. But he's
always been this way. If Buddy just started it, something could be
bothering him.

--
Cheryl- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

In article ,
says...
Buddy's Mom wrote in news:1192274399.310889.251680
@e34g2000pro.googlegroups.com:

If my husband is walking through the
house with bare legs, Buddy runs after him and tackles his leg and
bites - drawing blood. This is happening every couple of days now.


I once read that if a kitten is taken away from his mother at too young an
age, the kitten thinks that almost every one he comes in contact with is a
potential playmate.

I had a cat when I was a kid that constantly would grab your wrist and bite
it when you tried to play with it or pet it more than a few times. At
night, if my arm was hanging from the bed while I was sleeping, I would be
awoken by the cat with his paws around my wrist. She would give it a quick
bite and walk away, but she never drew blood.

She also loved to be petted on her stomach - for about 20 second and then
she would grab your wrist with her claws, bite it quickly and then lick it.
It was her way of playing with what she thought was her brother.

What did we do? We lived with it. When she became a senior cat, she
outgrew it, possibly because she loved her sleep too much to bother.






My first cat Randy was like that. He was an ankle biter for his first
five years or so and then outgrew it.

But the one early separation cat we had was Emily. She was six weeks old
when we got her. She bonded to the SO in a very big way. If he'd leave
for any duration she'd tag his clothes to let him know she was
displeased.