I am being abused!

krazy kat2

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Fluffy has started beating on me! A few weeks ago, she slapped me on both sides of my face, and scratched me a little. I thought maybe I had accidentally squeezed her or pulled her hair, so I let it go, but have been watching for cues as to what might set her off. She will beg to be petted and be all over me most of the time, but will sometimes be a little snippy and nip at me, or swat at my hands, I thought was playing or wanting attention. This morning she crawled up into my lap just like always, and I put her down whe I go for more coffee, she jumps back up when I sit back down. She will go back and forth between us of her own accord. This morning out of nowhere, she slapped me several times on the sides of my face, leaving scratches in my cheeks, temples, and hairline, and even a pawprint bruise. I didn't think such a small cat could hit so hard! I don't understand this at all! She jumped right over to her daddy, leaving a big scratch on my thigh, and hid her face in his shoulder. He asked me what I did to her, as I am sitting there with blood running down my face! I looked back at her as I was leaving the room to survey the damage, and I swear she was smirking at me. I have done nothing bad to her, nothing has changed in the house, litter boxes are clean, and she is healthy. She has always been a little snappish at times, but never like this. She has been her usual sweet, loving self this evening, but I am beginning not to trust her. I feel like it is just a matter of time before she gets one of my eyes, or a bad gash on my face, but she loves to headbutt, and rub noses. She has not ever jumped at me from that action, always from my lap, and always in the morning.
 

yarra

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You should get some soft paws while you are trying to figure out where the "turning on you" is coming from.

Maybe if she relizes that she is not inflicting damage on you, she will stop!

Little booger!

www.softpaws.com
 

starryeyedtiger

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I think you should report her to the police and get an order of protection taken against Fluffy lol. I'll send Colin over right away to take a statement! (he's a cop) ....

In all seriousness though, i highly recommend reading up on the body language of kitties- you can tell a lot of information about your cats mood by simply the wave of their tail..and so on. I highly recommend "Cats for Dummies" - even for the most experinced kitty owners, there are good suggestions and tips- they have an excellent section that covers body language and how to handle aggressive kitties. Also, Soft Paws are a good idea too
Hope this helps. Keep us posted, and keep the neosporin handy.
 

valanhb

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I'll move this to the Behavior forum for you so we can help you get to the bottom of this.

Honestly, my first inclination is if she's trying to be the alpha female? Although I haven't heard of cats trying to be dominant over people - more that dogs will do that. I'm sure our more experienced cat experts will have some ideas for you.

I do like the idea of putting SoftPaws on her so that she can't actually scratch you, at the very least.
 

buzbyjlc10

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Soft paws are great! Oliver enjoys using my thighs as scratching posts (even though he has plenty of proper scratching places!) and the soft paws have saved my skin!

But I hope you figure out what this crazy behavior is! I remember a friend's kitten would bat at and nibble on my nose when I used to hold him, but it was definitely more play than aggression (and he was really tiny, so there was never harm done).
 

kittyluver27

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Originally Posted by krazy kat2

Fluffy has started beating on me! A few weeks ago, she slapped me on both sides of my face, and scratched me a little. I thought maybe I had accidentally squeezed her or pulled her hair, so I let it go, but have been watching for cues as to what might set her off. She will beg to be petted and be all over me most of the time, but will sometimes be a little snippy and nip at me, or swat at my hands, I thought was playing or wanting attention. This morning she crawled up into my lap just like always, and I put her down whe I go for more coffee, she jumps back up when I sit back down. She will go back and forth between us of her own accord. This morning out of nowhere, she slapped me several times on the sides of my face, leaving scratches in my cheeks, temples, and hairline, and even a pawprint bruise. I didn't think such a small cat could hit so hard! I don't understand this at all! She jumped right over to her daddy, leaving a big scratch on my thigh, and hid her face in his shoulder. He asked me what I did to her, as I am sitting there with blood running down my face! I looked back at her as I was leaving the room to survey the damage, and I swear she was smirking at me. I have done nothing bad to her, nothing has changed in the house, litter boxes are clean, and she is healthy. She has always been a little snappish at times, but never like this. She has been her usual sweet, loving self this evening, but I am beginning not to trust her. I feel like it is just a matter of time before she gets one of my eyes, or a bad gash on my face, but she loves to headbutt, and rub noses. She has not ever jumped at me from that action, always from my lap, and always in the morning.
Sorry, I just have to tell you this. Your Pepper looks a lot like mine lol!
 

katkisses

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I have no idea where it's coming from, but with some cats, depending on their all around attitude I will give off a yelp, just like the sort of yelp a cat gives when you accidently step on it's tail. When you do this your cat will probably give you a concerned look, that's a good sign-it means "Oh, but I didn't mean to hurt you!!!" On the downside I probably wouldn't give the yelp if this was a VERY dominate cat, the yelp shows weakness-and dominate cats will pick that up and might attack more. When my cats start playing too rough with me, or get mad and swat, claw, or bite I give a yelp and they always give me the "Iam sorry" look and lick my arm or hand-which is a submissive sign. It has worked wonders for me.

I hope you find what her 'trigger' is though. Good luck with Fluffy!
 

tru

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My Magic has done that to me in the past and made me a little leary for a bit too. His smacking me like that was usually when I was holding him in the baby position though.
I learned from the position of his paws when he was thinking about it and I tell him he better not then put him down.

For discipline for such behavior I have a Cat PlayPen set up in the living room that the misbehaving kitty gets put into.
Do you have a cage, crate or something like that in which to give her a time out? If not, maybe shut her in the bathroom for a brief time or something like that.

Now that I think about it, Little Bit pulled something similar when he first moved in and I had to keep him at a bit of a distance for a while too. He liked to be pet, but seemed to get over stimulated too easy so I had to be careful for a while. I don't have any problem with him now.

Magic is older though and will start to get his paws in position if he is tired of me coming or trying to get burrs off so I remember to watch that devil cat and always ready to turn him and set him down before I get got again.

I hope it's only a temporary thing and you can't get her past that behavior quickly.
 

valanhb

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If she is trying to be dominant, would hissing at her when she does it work? I'm not an expert, but I know that my Ophelia (who is Alpha, well, most of the time) hisses at Trent when he does something she doesn't like (like smacking her on the head trying to play
)
 
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krazy kat2

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The more I think about it, I think she may be jealous of me interacting with her person, my SO. With our work schedules, we spend the majority of our waking hours together in the morning, sitting at our computers, having coffee. I haven't figured out if she doesn't like me paying attention to him, or vice versa. She is a little love bug most of the time, even with Scooter and Pepper, and has only been a real little butthead a few times. Those times were really bad, though. I hope it does not come to having to put her out of the room, since everyone but Pearl hangs out together at some time in the morning, and we do a lot of petting and playing with them during that time.
I will try the Soft Paws. Not only are they just adorable, but they could save a lot of wear and tear on my face and hands.
 

zissou'smom

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All the cat aggression I've ever seen has happened when someone was holding or otherwise restraining a cat. Zissou playbites and scratches the way kittens do each other, exactly not hard enough to hurt. If it does hurt, I go "Owww!" and she looks sad and cuddles up to me like she's sorry. The one time she ever attacked me was when we were on a walk and she saw another cat, I didn't, her tail got all puffy and her hackles went up, usually when she's scared she wants me to pick her up, so I did, and she punched me and hissed and scratched my face. My sister's cat either attacks you when you pick him up, or waits a while after you put him down and freaks out running at you across the room and bonsaing your face.

My point is, maybe stop picking him up at all, and your boyfriend stop picking him up, and see if the aggression gets better. If he gets up in your lap or whatever, or rubs against you, pet him, if you want to initiate sit down on the floor with him, but don't pick him up. Do that for awhile and see if it helps.
 
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