My cat attacked me!

My 1 1/2 year old cat Nibbler out of the blue attacked me while I was walking into the kitchen. He's never attacked anyone before and the only thing he gets aggressive at is dogs. He's actually the most affectionate of my cats, he always wants to cuddle and have me pet him all the time.

He climbed my back clawing me all the way up, jumped off and then tried to climb me again but by then I figured out what he was doing. Needless to say I had no idea what he was doing at first. When I grabbed him off my legs he looked all mad and yowled at me, and I grabbed the water bottle I keep when they're bad and squirted him until I could grab him and lock him in the bathroom. Right now he's crying to get out.

I don't get why he would do this, I'm pretty upset and sad. The only positive thing I could get out of this was that my other two cats got mad at him and the oldest, Toby, was all ready to fight Nibbler off. That was pretty sweet.

So yeah, help?

Someone with more experience and expertiese should be here shortly to help answer your question, although locking your cat in the bathroom is not teaching the cat anything but fear and confusion. (won't connect that him in the bathroom has anything to do with him running on you) If he was afraird or startled by something, locking the kitty in the bathroom may just scare the kitty more. Was the cat scared by something, or annoyed? Sometimes when my cats see another cat outside they direct their attention to me instead, because they need to release that energy. Or was the Cat hyper and playful at the moment? Sometimes you need to find the root of the problem in order to nip the problem. (is this the first time it happened?)

Are all the cats spayed or neutered? Often hormones can make a cat act pretty crazy. My Garfield IS neutered, but I have a foster cat in a bedroom. I think he can smell her, and it has made him act more aggressive towards my two female cats lately. (They are both spayed, too.) The foster cat won't be spayed until her kittens are old enough...then snip snip for her, too!

They're all fixed and I locked him in the bathroom b/c I was scared he was going to attack me again. I live in an apartment and didn't really have another place to put him since theres no seperation between my living room/dining room/kitchen and I need to get in my room.

Maybe he was scared, but I don't know why. I walked into the kitchen, picked up the paper towel roll they had shredded, put it up, and that's when he jumped at me. I don't think he was the one who shredded it so I don't think he was mad I took it. And he seemed too angry to just be following the paper towel roll.

this is the first time anything like this has happened. My cats have never attacked me, they're all really sweet.

Edit: I think he was scared and tried to climb me. He's a pretty big cat (19 lbs) and I let him out after asking for an apology (he meowed lol) and now hes walking around all scared like and won't go to the kitchen. I have no idea what he's scared of.

Aggression can be a response of pain. It can be triggered by another cat marking your home- are you on a ground floor apartment? Are there other cats outside? Do you keep your windows open? I would invest in a few feliway comfort zone room diffusers and plug them in. Do not show fear or this cat will feed off of that and attack you again. Do not make eye contact with him, if the attack happens again get him to the vet for a checkup

Originally Posted by maryanny

this is the first time anything like this has happened. My cats have never attacked me, they're all really sweet.

Edit: I think he was scared and tried to climb me. He's a pretty big cat (19 lbs) and I let him out after asking for an apology (he meowed lol) and now hes walking around all scared like and won't go to the kitchen. I have no idea what he's scared of.

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You know, that's what I was thinking when I first read your post, it sounds kind of like something spooked him and he was just climbing you to get up high! My Garfield is such a doofus sometimes rather than jumping on my lap, he tries to impale me with his talons and pull himself up! OUCH!

And remember, he is a kitty. A dog that attacks its owner may be trying to take over as leader of the pack...but kitties already think they are in charge...so there is no problem with them taking over! LOL!

You have both had a scare....I hope that is the end of it. Read through the stickies at the top about kitty aggression. You can learn so much here at TCS!

He may stay out of the kitchen for a while. He may not know what happened either, but just that something scary happened in the kitchen.

I am very glad your kitties are neutered. Sometimes people post about behavior problems and don't realize many of them can be avoided by getting rid of those darned hormones!

I used to have a blue Burmese, Smokey. Not long after we were married, Mike's father and mother came for the weekend. He'd never seen them before. When they arrived, I let them in and Smokie leapt on his father, tiger like and he really meant it. His father was rather surprised to say the least. Then Smoke attacked their dog!
Unfortunately, I was helpless with laughter as I thought it was really funny but my husband and his parents failed to see the funny side of it!