Am I wrong?

Tallyollyopia said:

 
To start with, our house has six cats; Rose, Spot, Ra, Slipper, Asia, and Princess. All of the cats (except Rose, who is their mother) are a year old as of February 2nd.

Earlier today (or yesterday) AWM and RB were reminiscing about something that happened last March. The kittens were at that age where they were exploring my room (where they were born--thank you Rose), but weren't really venturing out of it yet. One morning as I was getting ready one of the kittens, Spot, latched himself onto my sweater as I bent down to pick something up. As I was short of time, I just sort of left him there with a hand supporting him in case he lost his grip so that he wouldn't fall. (FYI, that's the same sweater that was later clawed up. I wonder if there's a connection...) Anyway, I reached the kitchen where AWM noticed that I had an orange spot on my sweater, and I explained about Spot. She reached out and grabbed him off my sweater--he screamed as he was ripped away--and held him up to her face. 

Please bear in mind that at the time this occurred the only humans the kittens had contact with were me (who was apparently a great bedwarmer as they climbed into bed with me every night) and IB (whose not living with us now, but was at the time). Not a big selection, and neither of us look like AWM.

Spot screamed louder, and started struggling as she put him in her lap. He burrowed his head into the space between her arm and torso and I let him stay there. (This was back when I thought the kittens were going to be adopted out and I was determined to expose them to as many humans as possible without aggravating their mother. When she  was uncomfortable with the people in the room, I shooed them out.) I collected him on the way back to my room, and deposited him in the cat bed (which has since vanished) with his mother and Ra, who was, once again, eating. (A story for another time.) 

Anyway the two of them were laughing about how funny the kitten sounded when he screamed at being confronted with a close up face of what, from the kitten's perspective, was a monster about to eat him. I don't think that's funny--I think it's cruel. True, no harm came out of it, and Spot is just as well (or mal-) adjusted as any of the others in the litter, but I still don't think it's funny.

Am I wrong? Am I overreacting to this?

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Kat0121 said:

 
No. You're not overreacting. There's nothing funny about scaring an animal to the point where it screams. Spot is also the cat that RB was putting on his shoulders despite the fact that he knows he doesn't like it. The poor little thing was frightened and wanted to stay with you- where he felt safe. Spot has already been traumatized by the whole "riding on the shoulders" thing. He's still a kitten. A baby. Would they do this to a human baby and then laugh when it screamed? 

If this was my family and they were showing my cats with that much disrespect, I would be livid. It's pretty obvious that they see the cats as objects and not family members. I can tell you this much. THEY WOULD HATE ME. Disrespect my kids, I make your life hell. It's pretty much that simple. 

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