First blood has been drawn

We adopted Sophie in July. Shes about 1 and 1/2 year old, and started life as a feral.

Anyways, in the 6 months we've had her, she's never shown aggression to anyone, even play aggression. She's more of a jump and run type when startled. If overstimulated she'll sometimes give you a soft nip, but never enough to even hurt, just to startle.

Anyways, in the morning we have a routine we're I sit on our recliner chair and she'll jump up on my lap for petting, happy and purring. She's a very affectionate and cuddly cat.

So I was petting her like always. But out of nowhere she decided my arm looked like a fun toy in need of killing! She latched onto me and raked her hind legs over my forearm. It hurt like hell! I yelped and pulled my arm away, and she jumped off and ran away.

But she drew blood for sure.

This photo was taken while fresh. They actually look darker now agents my pale skin now that they've scabbed over. I have some smaller scratches on my hand and wrist but those hind leg scratches are the worst ones.

My feeling were kind of hurt after that [emoji]128560[/emoji] She's never done anything like that before and I can't figure out why it happened. There was no reason for it as far as I can tell, no startling noise or anything like that.

I don't know what happened [emoji]128532[/emoji] Nothing like that happened since and she was rubbing agents my legs less then 5 minutes later. Why do you think she snapped like that?

Hi rissaroo1234, It is indeed a bit puzzeling. First thing to rule out in a situation like this is a medical issue. Does she have pain or a pain spot somewhere? Check her over carefully or even see the vet should it happen again. That said, a cat that was a feral may have poor human interaction skills and you may just have been lucky so far that she has not had an excited moment while in your lap earlier.

The right response is to withdraw, pull back and yelp a bit so she knows she has hurt you. As you did actually from what I read. She may 5 minutes later have been trying to make it up. Just don't punish her, she won't understand. To her this is okay behaviour and she will only learn otherwise if you can teach her in cat speak. As I described.

Also do you have daily play sessions with her? This may help her relax and allow for a show of some aggression toward 'the prey' (the toy). Is she your only cat? Cats learn a lot from each other and generally all cats do whole lot better having a play mate, health wise and behavioural wise.

Do you clip her nails with a special cat nail clipper?  

Orientals said:

 
Hi rissaroo1234, It is indeed a bit puzzeling. First thing to rule out in a situation like this is a medical issue. Does she have pain or a pain spot somewhere? Check her over carefully or even see the vet should it happen again. That said, a cat that was a feral may have poor human interaction skills and you may just have been lucky so far that she has not had an excited moment while in your lap earlier.

The right response is to withdraw, pull back and yelp a bit so she knows she has hurt you. As you did actually from what I read. She may 5 minutes later have been trying to make it up. Just don't punish her, she won't understand. To her this is okay behaviour and she will only learn otherwise if you can teach her in cat speak. As I described.

Also do you have daily play sessions with her? This may help her relax and allow for a show of some aggression toward 'the prey' (the toy). Is she your only cat? Cats learn a lot from each other and generally all cats do whole lot better having a play mate, health wise and behavioural wise.

Do you clip her nails with a special cat nail clipper?  

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As far as I can tell, she doesn't have pain anywhere. She did have a vet stay before we got her, according to the shelter. They said she had what they called the flu for cats, and had to be put on liquids. Thats why she was a little underweight when we got her. But she's all better now and has shown no signs of sickness or pain, and she got her weight back to normal (even to being a little too tubby!) pretty quickly. I don't think that would cause a sudden change in behavior though. 

Sophie was a runt who was abandoned by the mother as a very young kitten. She was found by a good samaritan who brought her to the humane society. She was bottle fed and raised at the shelter. The staff said they estimate her to be about a year old when I adopted her. But she did grow up around other cats at the shelter. She was living in a large community cat room when we met her with at least 20 other cats. However I don't know how long she had been in there, or if she had a surrogate mom or not in her early kitten months. She seemed to get along with the other cats fine though. 

I didn't punish her, but I'll admit to being a bit peeved for a while. I did of corse forgive her though. I do try to play with her at least once a day, but she's usually more interested in rubbing up agents me. It's hard to get her focused on a toy. We did have a wand toy that she really liked... but she grabbed it in her teeth, pulled it out of my hand, ran away dragging the whole thing behind her, and hid it somewhere, never to be seen again... I did just buy a new one though (luckily this one is pretty cheap) so I will start using it to play with her again at least once a day. 

She is our only cat. Well kind of. We have a feral kitten who we are trying to socialize, but she's regulated to a separate room and we keep the two apart. Eventually we will introduce them, but only when the kitten can be trusted enough to be let into other rooms and has been cleared by a vet of anything contagious. She's not shown any signs of health problems but it's better safe then sorry. 

I do have a cat claw clipper and I do trim them when they get long. She throws an awful fuss about it though, and so I usually only do her front paws. She's really good about not scratching furniture and using her cardboard scratchers like a good kitty. 

So yah, I don't know what happened. I'm hoping this was just a fluke thing. But if it happens again I'll bring her in to a vet. She's probably due for a check up soon anyways