Protective cat attacks man

[steve2470]

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eta: Changed subject line

[yonder]

1. Was it the dudes pants/pajamas that set it off?

It was not taking any prisoners.

[wnylib]

6. It was his presence. A stranger in the cat's territory.

Some cats are as territorial as dogs. Mine is. But mine at least gives a warning growl first.

I had a friend come into my place to look after the cat when I was away for a week and there was no problem. But the cat knew my friend.

When someone comes in that the cat doesn't know, she watches them very carefully, sometimes from the top of the kitchen cupboards. If I accept the person, the cat does, too. She comes down from her observation point and rubs their legs.

But, if it looks to the cat like the person is a threat to me, the cat growls first, then takes a pre attack posture. She scared the hell out of a doctor from my insurance
company who came to do a routine wellness check. When the doctor put a BP cuff on my arm, the cat stood between us on full alert, staring at the doc. When the doc pumped up the BP cuff, the cat growled and got into an attack posture. I had to calm down the cat before the doc could safely proceed.

[yonder]

7. Ahh...I get it now. I've always had cats and except for one, can't say I've seen this before.

Usually they just get scarce when a stranger comes over. Our last one, Vinny, was a big, mellow male. It got along well with everyone and other neighbor cats and dogs too.

Our neighbor had a big, old, friendly and thick-coated Aussie that Vinny accepted just fine. Because of our hot summers, our neighbor would often shave her down to keep her cool. One evening, I was on the back deck when the neighbor came through the back gate with a newly-shaved Rita dutifully following behind. As they rounded the corner and came up on the deck, Vinny didn’t recognize Rita nor get a chance to sniff her out before all hell broke loose.

In an instant, Vinny was on Rita, a very surprised Rita was yelping bloody murder while retreating back to her own yard and neighbor and I were left wondering what the hell just happened. In a while, we got Rita to come back and after some cat growling Vinny figured out who she was and everything was fine.

Cats are our pals, aloof as they sometimes might be. Many people just don’t get it though because cat terms are different than people terms.

[wackadoo wabbit]

2. And this is why we should all be grateful that cats aren't any larger than they are ... n/t

[Maraya1969]

3. That is the funnies thing I've seen in a long time!!!!

[Lady Freedom Returns]

4. It's humans are away and the guy was messing with it's stuff.

And yeah, I said it's stuff. Cat owners will tell you, they bring in a cat, the cat now owns everything.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. My elderly neighbor woman's newest cat...

... which had been FERAL until she finally gained his trust and affection, slowly over many months, immediately attacked a large dog which had ran upon her as she sat outside. The dog ran back to his owner, who had unleashed it (illegally), to hide behind the man while warily looking back at the cat (which didn't chase the dog that far). As if the dog was thinking, "That cat is crazy, man!"

The neighbor woman apologized to the dog owner, who was livid at her because of the cat attack. Then she reminded him that his dog shouldn't have been unleashed to run at her, and the guy then quietly leashed his dog and walked away. His dog kept looking back at the cat, fearing it would do it again, but the cat just sat next to the neighbor and watched them leave.

Edit: That happened before she allowed the former feral cat inside her home to interact with her other cats, and she feared that muscular cat would tear apart her other cats. Instead, the cat has been very meek around them as he cautiously tried to gain THEIR trust. They'd hiss and behave aggressively towards him, and the former feral would just walk away to try to befriend them another day. And that indeed happened eventually, according to the neighbor. The previously outdoors cat is now more playful and kitten-like than any of the others, which also surprised my neighbor.