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Did he only scratch her, or he also bit her? There is a BIG difference...

If the kitty bit her, and broke her skin, you need to take your daughter to the ER.

Scratches are easier... Clean them well with peroxide, bactine and put some neosporin on it.
I did have a bite and treated it with Colloidal Silver, it was fine... HOWEVER: Bites can be very dangerous, and since this is a child we are talking about here please make sure those were only scratches... if it was a bite and broke the skin TAKE her to the ER. Do not play around with a cat bite.

No, humane society will not put her to sleep... Is Levy up to date on his shots? Take the certificate with you, the ER needs to report the incident by law.
If he is not Up to date on the shots, then it is a problem.
Levy will be named a dangerous cat though, and if another incident is reported, them he will be put to sleep.

First take her to the dr if needed... In my state cat attacks are NOT reported ... YES most HS would put a cat down if it were brought in and someone said the cat liked to bite or had attacked...

I taught all mine NOT to bite and claw as soon as I got them .... for scratching playing with paws is what I use

How long have you had him? Has he done this before? My Billy is a bit temperemental, I have 5 cats, 4 are girls and Billy obviously a boy, he does scratch and bite if you do something that annoys him, or sometimes just when you are petting him, my kids tend to leave him alone. I am sorry that he has done this to your daughter, maybe speak to your vet nabout his behaviour. x

I am so sorry your daughter was injured. Other posters are right, take your daughter to a doc now to be checked out. Every cat is different, I would definitely talk to a vet about his behavior, I am wondering if this is out of character for him? My two cats get tunnel vision when they see another cat, and if I'm not aware of it they will attack me if I try to mess with them at that time. Sorry your daughter was hurt!

Well, my first thought was is he fixed and is this the first time he acted out like this? Is there any possibility that your daughter didn't notice warning signs from him while she was taking the picture? I'm not saying this is her fault, or that your daughter's safety isn't of the utmost concern, but just trying to get a feel for whether this is a one-time incident and your cat was so frightened he was lashing out without realizing what was going on - my boy has nipped at me coming out of sedation for a dental, but it wasn't his fault, in my mind.

But, if you end up feeling you simply cannot keep him, and you cannot rehome him, please take him to your vet and put him to sleep. Don't just let him out the door and let him take his chances. Let him go to sleep peacefully. This has to be a terrible decision for you, but I think you'll feel even worse if you just let him out and don't know what happens to him - and chances are his fate would be kinder at the hands of your vet.

I hope your daughter is ok - this must be a terrible day for her. I'd get her back from the lake and get to the acute care or ER now, though, if possible.

PRONTO!!!!! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO MESS WITH!!

Wow. I don't know what to tell you about Levi. If this behavior was never properly corrected then it is probably quite deeply ingrained. I did convince a foster I took in that communicating with me with his teeth was NOT acceptable, but I am no genius. It took months. And YES he bit me - twice - and required powerful antibiotics.

honestly?

i think you should tell your daughter not to pick up and hold the cat when he doesn't want to be held.

if your daughter had been walking by and minding her own business not doing anything to bother the cat and then he attacked her hard enough to draw blood THEN i would be thinking about re-homing the cat. but that is not the situation. if you have a cat you know is temperamental why on earth would you be picking him up and holding him while you were taking pictures?

if he is aggressive enough that he needs to be put to sleep immediately it is rather hard to believe that she did not know him scratching her was a likely outcome. a 14 year old is old enough to know better - i have a 15 year old myself. if poor levi is not normally aggressive to this point i sure as heck wouldn't be talking about putting him down.

i will say it: when my kids get bitten or scratched it is usually their own fault. not the cat's.

First thing - get your daughter to a Dr.

Second - let's look at Levi's behaviors. To get to the bottom of this, more information is needed. We'll do our best to help you through this.

1) How old was he when you got him?
2) At what age was he neutered?
3) When did you first notice he was more aggressive?

Depending on the answers - I would most definitely talk to your vet. Get him in for an exam & full work-up, as there may be something wrong causing him to lash out.

Sometimes weird things can trigger a response in cats, is it possible he saw another cat/pet he dislikes (either outdoors or another pet in the home)?
Is he afraid of anything in the home that could have caused him to freak out?
Can you think of any "common denominator" in all the instances in which he has shown aggression?

You keep mentioning the scratches.. .believe me, they don't matter. Those heal. I still have some scars from a similar incident myself years ago.

You also said her bite bleed a lot. Good! Maybe that will help.

You said you've had this cat for a year? Exactly how long ago did he get his kitten shots? If you have any paper work at all listing his last rabies vac, dig it out and have it handy. Try to get in touch with your vet as soon as you can. If they try to make you get him in quarantine see if it can be done at your vet's, and have them make sure nothing is wrong with him while he's there.

I suggest you either read through posts on anxious cats or ask for more tips to help. Get some feliway diffusers going.

I hope she heals up ok. My wrist and arm swelled a lot even through I was on antibiotics, it was very painful. I don't know if they sent her home with anything for the pain, but it might be ok to use tylenol if it doesn't interact with anything else she takes.

Do they want her back in Monday to see her regular doctor?

Was the flash on while taking the pictures? I know my cat is scared to death of the flash on the camera and I have to turn it off if I'm trying to take a picture of her.

I'm glad to hear you got your daughter to the ER and they got her all fixed up, cat bites can become infected very very easily.

I'm glad your DD is okay and on the mend.

I also would recommend getting the Feliway diffusers and using them. That might help him calm down some. Does he have playmates in the house?

I wouldn't pick him up anymore than absolutely necessary since he doesn't seem to like that.

I am glad that your daughter is okay. My grandson was bitten by my cat and had to be in the hospital for 2 days. He was little and the bite did not bleed and it became infected.

I still have the cat that bit him, she can be very loving and sweet but when she wants to be left alone, we just let her alone. She does not like to be picked up but she loves to be petted. She ALWAYS gives us a warning when she is agitated. We have had no other incidents because we pay attention to her warning signals.

The doctor made a special point to tell us not to blame her, but to be careful of little children with her. We are and things have been fine.

I hope that things will resolve and Levi will be able to stay with you. Talking with your veterinarian may also help.

I am glad she is on the mend, and that you are not putting him down... Something triggered this attack... I hope he is ok, not in pain or something... Sometimes cats when in pain will do stuff like that. I would follow the others' advice and take him to the vet just to be on the safe side.
It doesn't seem to me he is an aggressive cat, but he got startled.
Bugsy is a ragdoll, just about the sweetest cat in the world, and he shredded my arm once when he escaped to the building's second floor and I tried to grab him. I Have a scar that is about 7-8 inches long. It was ABSOLUTELY my fault. He was scared, and he reacted... Cats will react like that when they panic - for us in the other end, it might seem (and feel) like an attack, but for them it is not, they are just braking free of what is terrifying them.
I seriously doubt this was a deliberate attack.
This IMO was a reaction, and that provoked a reaction on the part of your daughter, and then your cat reacted some more, and so on...
Just my two cents...
It is important to read the cats body language, and be aware that they do have claws and teeth, and when they get startled and scared, it might not be pretty...

I hope your daughter is feeling better.

I am glad that you are not putting him down, and you are trying to work with him on this.

I know my cats will hiss at ME if I have been petting another cat, and they smell it on me. Did your daughter mess with any other animals that day?

I agree with this 100%.

Cats give very clear signals when they don't want to be touched, petted or otherwise manhandled, particularly by children. I'm sure the way it happened was that she grabbed the cat, held him while he was struggling really hard to get down, and he attacked when she wouldn't stop. That's what ALWAYS happens in these types of situations.

Until you teach your kids to respect your animals' personal space, these types of situations will occur. You keep asking the question - why did he do this? What you should be asking instead is - what signs did your kid ignore that the cat was agitated? Cats make it really obvious when they don't want to be picked up or held or whatever. They growl, hiss, paw, scratch, bite, struggle to get down, etc. She picked him up and I'm sure he struggled but she just HAD to get the picture, so she ignored it and he lashed out. There's nothing surprising about that. It would be more surprising if he didn't lash out.

Some cats never want to be touched. Or they only want to be petted if it's their idea and not yours. With those cats, it's necessary to respect their space and just let them come to you if/when they want some interaction. Otherwise, the only smart thing to do is leave them alone.

I'm glad your daughter is ok but you really have to teach her to learn to respect the cat's personal space. Instead of putting him to sleep or tossing him outside where he will probably get hit by a car, tell your daughter not to aggrevate the cat.

I'm glad your daughter is on the mend, honestly my Billy cat can be very aggressive. Last year I broke him and another cat (who had come in through our window-next door but ones cat) fighting up, Billy bit me so hard, he latched onto my thumb and wouldn't let go, it was the most painful thing ever and it made me physically sick but if I hadn't broke them up one of them would have ended up dead. I can be petting Billy sometimes and he will just turn on me but now if he does start to act a bit aggressive if I shout at him loudly and firmly and say Billy No, he does run off and then I won't pet him until he has calmed down. I think sometimes male cats can just be a bit like this, the best thing to do is just tell your daughter to keep her distance. I agree that if he had just attacked her for no reason then yes I would consider taking action. I think he just didn't like being held, definetely like I tell my kids to be very wary of Billy and they are. I would just see how it goes for now. x

Riley is the same way. He can be VERY affectionate on HIS terms, but he doens't like to be picked up or bothered when he is not in the mood. If you aggrivate him, he will scratch and bite. We have learned to just not mess with him when he is like this. 99% of the time he is a normal cat. I would never consider killing him or turning him out. When I get scratched it is generally MY fault because I didn't listen to the warning signs of his agitation.

OK, having read through this thread, I now have a pretty clear picture of what happened.

The daughter picked up the cat and was holding him. She thought he looked cute, so she let go of him with one arm and got out her camera. She probably had a less than comfortable grip on the cat, and he might have already been trying to get down. Then the flash went off, and the cat panicked.

Trying to hold a panicked cat, as Carolinalima said, is a lot like trying to wrestle with a running chain saw. And the problem is that the cat was probably a little disoriented, maybe a little blinded by the flash, and he couldn't find the floor. Something was holding him, and he just wanted to get away.

I'm sure your daughter learned a valuable lesson, but I'm afraid she may have lost the trust of the cat in the meantime. I don't have anything to suggest, but I have to say that if you brought the cat into our local shelter with the story that he bit your daughter, he would at best be put in isolation for ten days and then euthanized. No shelter can afford the liability of a possibly aggressive cat.

I agree with these and the others who posted in this vein. The cat was provoked. NOT deliberately, but he found himself in a scary circumstance and reacted in a normal cat like way.

Teach your daughter how to treat the cats, and all animals, with respect.

Teach her that this was not kitty's "fault" this was not a personal attack and she has no reason the fear the cat, because you don't want your daughter growing up to be an animal hater because of one freak accident.

Teach her that kitty reacted to what to him was a scary situation, and as far as kitty is concerned it's over now, and if she treats the cat the way he wants to be treated, it is not likely to happen again.

I totally agree with these posts. I've been injured by cats so many times over the years and when I was younger it would not only hurt my skin, but my feelings, too, and it would embarrass me and make me angry. Over the years I've learned cats are not like puppies and some other animals. They do show signs of getting annoyed. My kitten has obvious ones, her pupils grow very large, she goes rigid, tip of her tail twitches, and then the biggest sign for me is a growl or hiss. My friend has a cat who is great with petting for about 2 minutes, then he will pinch your skin with his teeth. He bit me on the foot while I was asleep at her house one night!
I also hope you can work with Levi, IMHO I do not think he is aggressive, he just has a few buttons that need to be learned. I -cannot- pet my kitten on the belly, and I cannot touch the base of my Persian's tail, it makes him mad.
I hope your daughter can move past the scare of this incident, and I hope you all and Levi can work it out I always try to put myself in the "paws" of the animal. How would I feel being in this position, not understanding most of what is going on or the language being spoken? Just my humble opinion and I hope everything works out

I have seen and handled thousands of cats, from tiny kittens to real ferals that you can not touch unless they are sedated - out of all of those cats, I can think of just two who would attack without warning signs for no reason, and both were most likely abused, given their condition and general attitude, and lashed out at everyone, it didn't ever suddenly happen.

My guess is, either the camera startled your cat and he freaked out or he gave warning signs that your daughter ignored. I have been bitten by one of my own cats when I scared him waking him up from a deep sleep, he didn't mean it and rarely even hisses, he is a gentle boy - I am not going to hold my actions against him for an accident.

As far as being more aggressive in general, he obviously was not so aggressive that you worried about him in your home when you have a child, so what kind of aggression is it? Different types of aggression are dealt with in different ways.

I hope your daughter's arm heals soon with no complications/ swelling, but as strangewings said, the wounds heal