A few readers share tales of cats turning on humans:
My 68-year-old mother has three cats. One of them found itself caught in the handle of a plastic bag two months ago. As she freed it, the panicked feline bit her hand. This was around 9:30pm on a Thursday night. Friday morning she woke up to find her arm swollen to the elbow, unable to bend her wrist, and in what she described as the "worst pain I've ever felt". Her doctor admitted her to the hospital, where she stayed for THREE NIGHTS, on an IV drip to kill all the bacteria. For a while, they were considering surgery to release the pressure the infection was putting on her arm.
From what her doctor said, cats have really really dirty mouths. They also have long, pointed teeth, so when they bite, they go deep (dogs have cleaner mouths and tend to tear the skin). I've always been told that if a cat bites you, you should go to the doctor or ER immediately.
Another:
Here's the story about how an outdoor cat scarred my little sister physically and emotionally.
She has a pet rabbit whom we all dearly love, and we mostly keep him inside the house, where he hops around wherever he wants. If we take him outside, it's inside a pen, and only with supervision, because one of our neighbors have an evil outdoor cat. It kills with impunity, and not for food. It'll stalk, kill and decapitate small animals, then just leave them around our yard and and everyone else's.
A few years ago we had a litter of wild baby rabbits living in our backyard. And my sister, being the rabbit lover that she is, loved to go outside and feed and watch them. Then came along the evil cat. As soon as it came into our yard, she knew what it was going to do. She tried to scatter the baby rabbits, but the cat managed to corner one in our garden. My sister panicked and tried to shoo it away, and the cat hissed and scratched her, leaving a scar on her leg that is still there today. Then she had to watch helplessly as the cat stalked a tiny baby rabbit and then bit it's head off. She can't even look at cats these days without being frightened.
So basically, the whole point of this story is: cat owners, please be aware that your outdoor cats may like to play in trees and bring you "presents", but you are not the only ones who have to deal with them. Outdoor cats roam neighborhoods freely, and often get into scuffles with other animals and humans. The least you can do is be considerate.
All of the previous stories and commentary in the "Your Little Purring Murderer" thread are here.
The Dish 