Unexpected attacks from cat

[matildamarsh]

Our 2 yr old female cat will attack my ankles/lower leg while I am cooking or just out of the blue. She will attack me while I am on phone or packing/unpacking suitcases for travel. On the other hand she is so loving to me sleeping in my lap or beside me on the bed. She adores my husband. She randomly attacks our Australian Shepherd on her soft rear spots. We are bringing home a 3 month old female kitten so maybe it will give her a playmate. How to break the biting? She draws blood nearly every time.

 

[sirentist]

My cat does this to me, too! I think it's some weird kind of state-dependent learning because she only does it when I'm going upstairs at bedtime or to take a nap. She's especially likely to do it if I'm barefoot. I think it's a version of playing for her, but, like your cat, she does go all-out and has drawn blood a number of times. This is the only behavior she has like this; she's not aggressive in any way the rest of the time.

I go up and downstairs all day, and she's fine, but if I'm going up to rest, that's when it happens. I'm part of the problem, here, though, too, because I almost always stop and ask her if she wants to come upstairs with me. She seems to associate that with whatever it is that gets her into ankle-predation mode.

At first I tried negative reinforcement -- water bottle, swatting at her, yelling, etc. -- and hoo-boy, does that NOT work, lol! I got the exact opposite result of what I was hoping for. It just made it worse. Then I started trying to move more slowly as I walked past her, so my feet would look less like skittery delicious prey, and that is the primary thing that's made a difference. It seems like moving quickly is what sets her off. I'll also just stop if she starts getting that "look" in her eyes, and will turn to face her and reach down to pet her or talk to her. It seems like she only does it when she's behind me. Also sometimes I can snap her out of it by giving her something else to focus on, like a toy or the laser light.

It's gotten much, much better, but I haven't figured it out all the way, so I'm still on slight alert every time. Which in itself probably contributes to the problem, ha. I know if I stopped asking her if she wanted to join me, that would likely solve the problem, but if I don't do that, she'll just stay downstairs, and I do love the little bit of contact she'll allow when she sleeps at the foot of my bed. So to me it's worth the risk.

Anyhow, I hope you get some other, more helpful, responses and have better luck than I have with figuring it out. Eleven years on, and this is still a minor issue with us. It usually takes us around a full minute to make our way up the stairs.

Good luck! And definitely come back and say if you find any tricks that work.

 

[red top rescue]

It may be helpful to both of you @matildamarsh and @Sirentist to follow another thread currently going on called http://www.thecatsite.com/t/320806/bud-went-ballistic-on-me-and-tore-up-my-arm-and-hand. 

About bringing home a 3-month old female cat to live with an only-cat 2-year-old female, I guess it's too late now but I would have advised against it.  It's not that it cant work out, but in my experience, if the females are not related or did not grow up together from kittenhood, most of the time the best you can do is get a distant truce.  More often the resident female will do her best to chase off the invading baby female, so you should be extremely careful and do the proper introductions very slowly so as not to create any bad incidents between them.  I would have advised you to get an adult male, older and more experienced with other cats, for your female.  Even a male kitten might have been better, since she might want to mother him.  I've only had ONE experience where two unrelated females bonded, and the younger one treated the older one like that was her mama, and the older one had had kittens not too long before they met, so they have established a mother-daughter relationship.  It did take the older cat awhile to do that, but the younger one did all the friendly baby body language things, and the older one was sucked into mothering again.

If you scroll up to the top of the page, right underneath the brown bar is a search box.  Type in "introducing kitten to cat" and search and you will get quite a few other threads and see how it went with others here.  There are also plenty of articles to be found here and elsewhere on this subject. 

 

[matildamarsh]

Thank you Sirentist for your encouraging words.  One of our grandsons named her CAT so that is what she responds to. She does seem to attack me less the older she gets and so hope she is kind to the new kitten we are getting this week : )

 

[matildamarsh]

Thank you Red Top Rescue for your advice. I will check the link you posted. We are committed to getting the new kitten she saved for us. I chose a female over a male due to past experience with males as they get older spray where ever they want to mark their territory. I had wanted to go to local animal shelter to get a grown cat but thought that may not work then niece had free kittens  : )  I plan to keep them separated and protect the baby as much as possible.

 

[red top rescue]

Actually, in my experience, if the cats are neutered and spayed, there is not usually any spraying until you have more than 5 cats, and then it doesn't matter whether male or female, some will spray and some will not.  There are always exceptions.  I had a friend who had a spayed female who was an only cat and she sprayed all the walls in his apartment.  I suspect that someone who lived there before him had a cat, maybe one that sprayed.

 

[matildamarsh]

Knock on wood CAT our resident 2 yr old female has not attacked me or the dog since we brought home a female kitten Lilly. We crated Lilly for over a week before letting her loose at times now only crated at night. She is a ball of energy getting along with everyone. The two females seem to enjoy playing. Thank you for your help