My cat attacked me!

[Sophia123]

Baylee is a 3 year old calico and the sweetest cat you will ever meet. She is very gentle with our puppy and pretty much lets him play with her as long as he wants – when she’s had enough she just walks away. We clip her nails and she doesn’t mind one bit, she just sits there and sometimes falls asleep. She doesn’t mind the vet; she just sits on the counter purring during her examination. So you can see she is pretty calm (most of the time).

When she was a kitten she was crazy though. She would attack my arm by wrapping all her legs around it and bite as hard as she could! We tried everything to stop this behavior (spraying her with water, shaking a can of pennies, etc) and it seemed to work. For a little over a year now she hasn’t tried to bite me and she never uses her claws, so I thought her aggressive behavior was just kitten stuff.

Then, yesterday she was lying on her back and I was petting her belly when I noticed a little cut on her lip. I wanted to see what it was so I held her down and tried to examine her lip. She tried to resist a little but not too much. After I took a look at it, I released her and sat back down on the couch. Then she pounced at me and sunk her teeth as hard as she could into my arm! I screamed and it scared her a little and she let go, but then she bit again! Harder! My arm was bleeding and so I tried to get up and she had a crazy look in her eyes! She wanted to come after me again! I didn’t know what to do and so I took the blanket off the couch and threw it over her and carried her in the bathroom and locked her in. I left her there for about 20 minutes and when she came out she was normal again.

My husband and I are planning on having kids soon and I am so scared that she will do this to a baby!
When she was biting me I had to pry her off my arm, if she was biting a kid they would have never gotten her off - and that really scares me.
My arm is now swollen and I have 6 teeth punctures on my arm.

Why would she do this? What can I do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?
I think I am going to take her to the vet and see what they say, but any advice anyone has for me would be very much appreciated.
I adore my cat and the thought of having to find another home for her when we have kids devastates me, but this is what everyone is telling me.
Has anyone had this happen?

[chico2]

Before anything,you have to go to the doctor,catbites can cause a very serious infection.I know from experience after two visits to emerg and a lenghty treatment by a wound specialist.
If Lucky was still around she could explain it better than me...
In my case,Rocky attacked me,on 2 occasions,after seeing a strange cat outside from the window,it's called something like reversed aggression.
With your cat,her wound is probably sore and she attacked you thinking you would touch it again,but who knows what goes on in their little minds
It might never happen again,but you can discuss it with the vet..it's not a totally uncommon thing.My vet put Rocky on meds for anxiety,but I discontinued it,since he is not a nervy cat,but sweet and gentle,instead I do my best to avoid him seeing any threat from the outside.
It's always safer for you to let a vet deal with any injury the cat might have,it's not the same with all cats,but it's always better to be cautious.
I don't think it will happen again,after the doctor saw my bleeding wounds,he said to get rid of the cat...but I love Rocky and the thought never entered my mind.

[happycats]

I, like Chico, have a cat (Jay, 9 years old) who attacks the first thing he sees when he see's a strange cat outside!! usually it's another one of my cats, but he has turned on me and my husband (before we knew what was going on).

Jay is a wonderfull, loving, afectionate cat, who is never aggressive (until he see's a strange cat) So we have worked with him for 9 years!! He still does it, but we can usually stop him from attacking anyone, by talking calmly to him, ( we say " it's okay Jay, it's okay Jay" in a calm gentle voice) we also arm ourselves with pillows, to scare him if he goes to attack anyone.

We have 1 child, who is 4 now, and he has never attacked my son, we have also told my son never to go near him when he starts, (Jay lets out very loud screaming sounds, when he first see's a cat) so at least there is a warning!
the thought of getting rid of my cat, when we decided to have a child, never crossed my mind.

[Sophia123]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will go get my arm checked tonight because it is quite swollen and tender.

I will also take her to the vet to talk about it.
I do feel that teaching kids how to behave with a pet is just as important as training the pet how to behave with kids. So many people I know let their kids terrorize the family pet and then once the pet reacts, they blame the animal which seems completely unfair to me. I definitely plan on teaching my kids how to play properly with the animals. I’m sure I am stressing over nothing I just don’t want to be too naïve about this so I am trying to prepare early!

[chico2]

Sophia,please take care of your arm...the infection can spread and end up being very dangerous.
I have a 2 inch long scar on my leg,a deep dent..the infection was so rapid,the wound after cleaning was almost to the bone and had to heal naturally,no stiches on catbites....Good Luck with the kitty!!and like Happy Cats said,there usually is a warning..in Rockys case,his tail start whipping and then an awful scream......so far so good,we don't have many strays in this neighborhood.

[happycats]

Originally Posted by chico2

and like Happy Cats said,there usually is a warning..in Rockys case,his tail start whipping and then an awful scream......so far so good,we don't have many strays in this neighborhood.

OMG Chico, I swear our cats must be twins!! Jays tail also starts whipping, he also puffs up, and a scream (I can't describe it, it's so loud and scary, almost like a baby screaming, but worse, like a scary movie scream) It scares the heck out of me every time!! The worst is when it happens when I am sleeping, that scream makes me jump right out of bed!!

[Melei'sMom]

I realize this is an old thread and I am not a cat expert like some people on this forum but I think everyone missed an important bit of info about the attack on th OP

Originally Posted by Sophia123

Then, yesterday she was lying on her back and I was petting her belly when I noticed a little cut on her lip. I wanted to see what it was so I held her down and tried to examine her lip. She tried to resist a little but not too much. After I took a look at it, I released her and sat back down on the couch.

She had a cat on it's back and forced it to stay there when it didn't want to and then touched an injury...I would have bit her too! Even I know you don't do that to a cat!!