There’s probably more to this story then were being told. Domesticated cats don’t do this sort of thing unless there was something else going on.
“Domesticated cats don’t do this sort of thing unless there was something else going on.”
Catnip, beer and a few careless words about the loyalty of dogs.
I have to agree, something else was going on which raises the question of what was he doing with the knife? For the situation to reach that point he would have had to been engaging in a protracted and I might add stupid effort to subdue an animal by putting it under duress. I incurred an inch long clawing this weekend when one of my cats panicked as I was putting him into a carrier for a vet visit. I can understand where the cat was coming from and he and I are still on good terms but then I didn’t engage in a protracted battle. Years ago I got a good bite from my dog when I attached a leash to his collar while he was acting a bit nervous. We didn’t hold it against each other in that case either.
I suspect the only detail left out was the injured man's blood/alcohol level.
> Domesticated cats don’t do this sort of thing unless there was something else going on.
You’re probably right. About 15 years back, my mother had a little 7 pound female cat who got cornered on the front porch by a doberman who was not on a leash. The cat had to defend its life. It did it by killing the dog.
Had the dog gotten hold of the cat, even once, the cat would have been dead, but the cat was quicker.
Well, my late wife had a Doohickey Long-haired Box Pooper SomethingOrOther that positively would go absolutely bat doody just about once a month.
The vet said it was a result of psycho problems created by in-breeding to get the particular breed that it was.
But that cat was able to rip the heavy drapes off the wall of our quarters, these were Army-issue drapes, and totally shred them.
If I picked the cat up to put it in it's cage, I used welding gloves and the demon spawn still bit through them.
Our vet refused to treat the cat.
After my wife's death, I attempted to give the cat to a good home, but every one seemed to sense the evil in that thing.
I finally had it put to sleep by the vet, and he was glad to do so, having been mauled a few times my it.
I, myself, have no particular use for house cats.
OXYMORON ALERT!
TeaPartyReveler, I thought the same thing until my best friend called me one day and said she’d been attacked by her brother’s cat and that she was recovering at her mother’s house. To be honest, I thought she was..well..full of it, and that she was being a bit of a sissy.
So I went over to her mother’s house, and guess what I saw? She had be shredded to ribbons! Her legs were a mess, her face was a mess, and her left breast was so badly mauled that it bears the scars of that attack to this day.
She had been cat sitting for her brother, as she’d done MANY times in the past. The animals had both known her since kittenhood and had never displayed this type of aggression. The attack came in the middle of the night while she was asleep. She managed to fight it off long enough to get to the bathroom and hide. Fortunately, her brother’s apartment had a phone in the bathroom (this was in the days before cell phones), and she called her other brother to rescue her.
Her brother came and when he saw her, called an ambulance. The bedroom looked like a murder had taken place in it, as the bedsheets were heavily stained with blood (they took pictures). Animal control was called and both cats were taken to their vet (only one of the cats had attacked her).
The ER cleaned and dressed the wounds, the cats’ vet declared that both cats were healthy, and my friend went home to Mom for a few days. The cats’ owner chose not to put the attacking cat down (I would have), and she never set foot in his apartment again until the beast was dead.
I tell you...I’d never seen anything like it — had never HEARD of anything like it! — and felt terrible that I thought she’d been BSing me.
I don’t know why these cats freak out like they do...I’ve had cats all my life and none of them have ever done so, but whenever I hear of a story like this, I remember what happened to my friend. I still shake my head in disbelief when I think of it.
Regards,
PS: She also got what I guess was cat scratch fever...she ran a very high temperature for days afterwards, and swelled up like a balloon wherever the cat had scratched her.
On the contrary...
I owned a cat that could do this...took six years to break her of the habit. Until the day she died though...I’d see that funny look come across her face I’d be spraying a water bottle at her. Yes, a water bottle was sufficient to stop the attack and break her ‘spell.’ She sent me to the ER twice and was quarantined once.
Current neighbor’s cat is the same way. He has actually had the police called and been to court over the cat. He gets that same crazy look and you then know you’re a goner.
I’d bet it is much more common than you think.