To be seriously pissed off that a cat attacked my child on the way to school?

[daisychair]

I have seen this cat around quite a lot, I'd probably describe it as a kitten, never seen it behave in this way before. This morning, just outside the school gates, it leapt at him, scratched his leg and tried to bite him before running off. I am fairly convinced that the owner walks it to the school with her every day. I've often seen it walking with her and seen it coming out of the house I believe she lives in. This woman saw what happened and quickly crossed the road before I could turn around and say something to her. I am fuming! It looked really sore and was bleeding, slightly swollen and bruised. I have contacted the school to tell them that a staff member must know who she is and they need to tell her not to bring her crazy pet to the school anymore. They don't allow dogs onto the school grounds, I think the same should apply to aggressive cats! The scratch looked quite sore and I think my son was very shocked, as this cat has previously come up to us looking for fuss, so he thought the cat was nice.

When I got onto the school playground, I was told that the cat had been on the playground, hissing and attempting to attack other children and a parent had had to kick it away from her daughter. They said they believed that some kids had been teasing it and it had gone crazy. What kind of person either takes a crazy cat into a school, or allows people to taunt it to the point where it gets into this state?! I intend to mention this to the other mother when I see her - hopefully the urge to slap her for just walking off while her pet attacked my son will have worn off. I actually feel SO angry about this and don't think I'm being unreasonable at all. I will probably see the woman tomorrow, what should I say to her?

[Contraryish]

Whilst the law deems that dogs are under our control and therefore our responsibility, cats are seen to be independent creatures. Which means there's basically nothing you can do.

[Floralnomad]

I wouldn't say anything to the woman as frankly you will end up looking like a crazy lady . I doubt she 'walks' the cat to school, it's more likely that it follows her and as pp said cats are not covered by the same rules as dogs so she is not responsible - particularly if other people have been abusing the poor animal . Hope your DC's leg is ok but just take a wide berth around the cat in future .

[daisychair]

We couldn't have taken a wider berth, to be honest! We were nowhere near the thing. And I have seen her encouraging it to walk up with her, it stops on somebody's drive and she ushers it along! I just can't believe that anybody would hurriedly walk over the road after seeing that their pet is attacking a child! I would've picked my cat up and made sure it couldn't attack any other kids! She left the thing lying in the road too. A busy one. This street seems to be filled with crazy cat people, to be honest. A couple over the road also literally take their cat for a walk. Which includes standing and watching as it shits outside my front door before taking it back into their own home. I'm just so annoyed that other people are so bloody selfish and inconsiderate all the time!

[Pispcina]

Poor cat. It might have something wrong with it.

I would mention, kindly, that it attacked your son and that you've been told it has attacked other children too, and you've been told some children have been taunting it.

I would approach it from a POV of concern for the animal. Animals can't be blamed for attacking, and the woman may not be aware of the situation.

Also you can't walk a cat anywhere with you. It will choose to follow you or it won't.

[Pispcina]

Oh x posts.

You clearly do live in a batshit crazy area.

Sorry, yanbu - but still, let her know it's been treated badly as it may encourage her to try and keep it away from the school.

[daisychair]

The woman was definitely aware of the situation, she was standing right next to it when it did it and quickly walked off. It was walking alongside her down an alleyway and trying to attack all the children they walked past. It just got lucky with my son and managed to attach itself to him!

[HatFullofStars]

I suppose you could ask her if it would be possible to keep the cat in the house when she's doing the school run, and emphasise the children upsetting her cat rather than the cat attacking the children.

My uncle's cat used to follow him all over the village, he certainly never walked it.

Hope your DS is over his shock.

[insancerre]

Water pistol is needed I think

[BitOutOfPractice]

Oh crikey OP - I hope your poor DS is OK

I woud have to say something to her I'm afraid. Perhaps take some pictures of DS's injuries and show them to her and ask her what she's goingt o do to reduce the chances of it happening again

[daisychair]

That's the thing, she would've seen that the kids were teasing it cos it was with her the whole time. I don't understand why she allowed that to happen! Hopefully, the school will tell her not to bring it onto school grounds anymore. I get the feeling she just doesn't care. She carried on walking home while the cat decided to lie down on a busy road, leaving the poor lollipop lady and other people trying to get it out of the road whilst obviously being a bit reluctant to go near it! I think she just didn't want to deal with it.

[TheCowThatLaughs]

Should your ds be seen by the GP? He might need antibiotics and tetanus

[Pispcina]

Sorry I meant to say aware of the teasing-the-cat situation. She may not know about this. Worth mentioning it. Poor cat

I had a right bastard of a cat once, he came free with the house I rented off my boss. Well I say free, it was more a condition of living there.

Attacked my feet every single bloody morning as I came down the stairs.

He was a hissing, spitting, ball of fluff and I hated him. His previous owner was mentally ill though and hadn't treated him very well so he was probably a bastard because of that. I was really happy one day when I sat near him on the sofa, and he let me stroke him a bit and actually purred slightly

[Happybodybunny12]

Bloody hell who are these cats who comply with owners wishes to go anywhere other than where they want to go. Cats don't usually give a fuck.

Give it a wide birth op or if you are really scared take some water with you to flick it if the cat launches another attack.

Maybe the school needs an assembly on how teasing animals is not acceptable. If I saw any kid teasing any animal they would be told off immediately.

[Happybodybunny12]

Yes cat bites are full of nasty germs op. Think tetanus lasts 10 years but presume he's younger than that so should be ok.

[PtolemysNeedle]

It's definitely worth raising with the school, crazy cat lady needs to be told that she needs to try and prevent it from going onto the school grounds. And if you are going to say something directly to crazy cat lady, then tell her that if you see her cat behaving at all aggressively towards your child or anyone else's then you will be picking it up and dropping it off on a motorway.

[SnowyPiglet]

I would definitely talk to the crazy cat woman. Do you have a camera phone? I would make videos if poss of what the cat is doing, and make sure cat owner saw me doing it. Can you talk also to teacher at school gates or playground supervisor? If you manage to get photos/video of cat doing horrid things, show it to head teacher at school perhaps & get them to warn the children not to tease animals, and tell her to lock the cat in house in the mornings.

[daisychair]

I bloody hate confrontation but honestly feel that I will be letting my son down and somehow sanctioning this if I walk past her tomorrow as though it never happened. She's totally aware of what happened and just walked off. I know people aren't legally responsible for cats in the same way they are dogs, but surely most people wouldn't think that meant it was ok to just stand there watching kids tease their pet or watching their pet scratch and try to bite anybody walking past! But I suspect that the fact she did those things means that nothing I say to her will make a difference.

[Floggingmolly]

Bring a water pistol with you in future.

[ACSlater]

I wouldn't tell her "you'd drop it off on a motorway"; I'd punch you in the gob if you said that to me.

[TiggieBoo]

Keep an eye on that scratch, OP, if it's drawn blood. DH has ended up in A&E once after our cat scratched his hand, 2 weeks of antibiotics, IV drip, a hand swollen to twice its size. It wasn't fun at all.

[daisychair]

I don't think he needs antibiotics or tetanus or anything, I checked and the cat definitely didn't get teeth into him, just claws. I cleaned him up with an alcohol wipe and put a plaster on. I assume that's adequate?

[BarbarianMum]

'water to flick at it?' I'd take a stout stick and wear boots if I thought some animal was going to try and bite my kids. Obviously, OP keep well away from it if you can - and yes speak to the school. Children should not be teasing animals. Owner (if she is the owner) sounds bonkers.

[Fluffycloudland77]

So people are teasing this cat? No wonder it's snapped.

[CatthiefKeith]

Happybody, my cat follows me to the shops, the pub, weightwatchers and playschool. I don't encourage him, the little bastard only does it to show me up.

Worst was the day at the doctors when he kept walking up to the automatic door, then leaping backwards in fright everytime it opened. The receptionist kept looking up and smiling expecting to see a patient, and various people in the waiting room were sniggering at the idiot 3 legged cat. I pretended not to know him.

In response to the OP, definitely bring it up with the school. I have to shut mine in when I go to playschool or he follows, surely this woman could do the same. I imagine the poor cat is terrified of the noise, people and presumable scooters etc whizzing around!

[daisychair]

Haha, there's no chance of me threatening to drop it off on a motorway! I'm nowhere near aggressive enough to say something like that! But I do think that confrontation with her would be a bit of a worry. She seems quite rough, lives in my street and I do hear her swearing at her kids quite a bit, generally being a bit horrible and rough. But then I don't want to walk past her like it didn't happen cos I'm too scared to say something to her!