Lyds is declawed, which, I know: horrible. But we had never had cats before and we just figured that's what everyone did, and now I realize that it's actually pretty mean and wouldn't do it if we ever got another cat. However, it's done, and partially as a result (she's 9) she tends to bite.
Generally, she's docile and friendly, even if she's not particularly loving, but she's a cat, not a lap dog. So she does her own thing, and hangs out with me occasionally, but generally prefers to be in the room with us even if not snuggled up next to us. Our special time together is, somewhat grossly, in the bathroom, where she follows me dutifully every time I get up to pee and she sits there on the rug contentedly getting scratches. This has also translated into her getting out of her bed at least once a night to follow me when I get up to stumble blindly to the bathroom. I get to pee, she gets her scratches, and that's where everything goes south.
I don't know if she wants to play, or just wants more attention, or if she sees my pasty white bare legs flashing in the dark room, but as I go to walk out the door back into the bedroom she attacks and bites the crap out of one of my legs.
She did this to my mom, when she lived at my parents for the first 8 years of her life, and my mom used to lock her out of the bathroom for precisely this reason. In the year+ that we've had her, she hasn't done this to me but in the last week or so it's happened a few times and now I have these lovely bruised fang marks in my legs. I really don't want to stay up playing with her when I'm trying to sleep, and I think locking her out would just delay the attack until I opened the door again. I'm considering scooping her up and throwing her in the bathtub before I make my escape, but that might risk my arms getting bitten instead.
Mind you, she never does this to Joe, but then she also doesn't follow him around like she does with me. I guess I just have to take the attention with the bite marks, but seriously you'd think there'd be an easier solution than sacrificing my poor pale legs at 3am.
2 comments:
We had an 8 year old cat declawed. I discussed it with my vet thoroughly b/c I really deplored the idea, but it was either that or get rid of the cat because she was destroying our house. She suffered no ill consequences from it. I can't say I ever want to do it again, but I did what I had to do.
Speaking of gross bathroom "cuddle" times, my parents used to have a cat that when my dad would go to the bathroom to do his sit down business, the cat would curl up in his underwear as they sat on the floor between my dad's legs. Euw!
Be careful with the biting...if she ever breaks the skin, you'll want to be checked out by a doctor. Cat mouths are pits of nastiness and can give you a very horrible infection, even if the cat never goes outside. One of mine bit me hard on the hand, leaving fang marks, and in the morning my hand was swollen to double its size and I had red streaks starting up my arm. The doctor gave me a powerful antibiotic shot in my butt (ouch!) and said next time, head to the emergency room, as apparently cat bites qualify as emergencies.
Incidentally, both of my cats hang with me in the bathroom...one prefers to have his cuddle time while I'm sitting down. Go figure.
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