Reading about the moron who had her cat offed for defending himself from her precious little darling (in English: brat), reminded me of the one time we had a cat get aggressive towards a member of human element of the family.

Diamond was our first cat as a family and was a rescue from the neighbors down the road. They were told to get him a new home or be kicked out of military housing as they had more than the (then) three pet quota. They told me about it just before I went into the hospital for an emergency hysterectomy and, if I remember correctly, some my anesthesia dreams involved the cat and I sharing the same ultimate fate, in short, we both were dying. I don't remember if any of this went into the negotiations with Rob about getting the cat, but we ended up with Diamond.

Diamond was a blue black cat with a very broad chest and head. The family we'd got him from had 5 kids and were very active, coming into our house must have been like a vacation for him as we only had three kids and no other pets. However, Diamond got cranky one day, walked up to 7 month old Amanda and whacked her across the face. She was totally innocent as she had just got up from her nap, was freshly diapered and sat on a blanket on the floor to play where I could keep an eye on her from my bed. (I hadn't been home from the operation that long) Rob saw the cat walk up to Amanda and slap her and had grabbed him in an instant, marched him to our bathroom and gave him a cold shower. Meanwhile, I comforted Amanda and calmed her down, which was hard to do with all the hissing, spitting, cursing and thumping coming from my bathroom. And the cat was even more noisy. Needless to say, Diamond never started anything again.

A couple of days later, Mandy got aggressive and pulled Diamond's fur. He looked up at me pitifully and tolerated it. I grabbed Mandy and pulled her away from the cat and told her, "No! Bad! You hurt Diamond Kitty." Diamond seemed to understand right away and slapped her the next time she pulled on his fur. He didn't use any claw, just his paws. I didn't punish Diamond for defending himself. Mandy learned to respect Diamond and he learned how to defend himself against the wild animals without getting a cold shower. All my kids learned that kitties have hot paws and that people have to treat them with respect.

Copyright © Pam Shirk
December 19, 1999