Ive name changed for good reasons but help

[Catquest1]

Ok i have posted in the litter tray previously about dcat but i could really do with some advice and i have hopefully name changed.

There is an allegation where i live about a cat who pounced and attacked some small dogs recently. The description is pretty vague but possibly could be our dcat. The claim is that this was an unprovoked attack and this beast attacked repeatedly. Only witnesses to the start of the attack was the dog owners who are understandably upset but the owner was seen to be aggressively kicking the cat whilst pulling his dogs away. Eye witness to end of the incident (so saw the kicking) thought it was our cat but cant be 100% certain.

Now dcat isnt an angel. He does hunt although he is considered a "senior" cat and has got some mice over this nice weather. He does give a warning nip occasionally but this is usually in response to something - for example kids not reading the signs of dcat having had enough (we continue to work on this) but not anything to the level that's being reported. This is a cat who sleeps on the kids beds quite happily and potters in and out. He has faced down a few cats and usually comes off best but id assummed that was just cats for you.

Since this happened we have kept dcat in which he is not happy about but we thought it best. Theres been no change in behaviour here - no signs of distress, eating and drinking well. No change in bowels. Im going to take him to the vet for a check up but im struggling to see how he could have attacked some dogs without some kind of provocation.

Has anyone know a cat attack random passing dogs? Is there anything else i should be doing?

[Fluffycloudland77]

Nope, not heard of a cat attacking randomly or unprovoked. If nothing else why expend the energy.

Did your cat seem distressed on the day? mines shook up after a big fight. Furs ruffled, pupils dilated, breathing heavily.

[Catquest1]

No he appeared as usual when i came back from work for tea and popped out again totally unruffled. Although this was many hours later so possibly he could have calmed down by then.

[Catquest1]

Everything i can find on the good old internet talks about cats attacking dogs in the household or known to them but not random attacks on random dogs outside in the street. He is a domestic cat not a panther.

[crazycatgal]

Unless your cat has an unusually aggressive nature then I would say that it's unlikely to have attacked without provocation.

[ScreamingValenta]

It sounds very unlikely.

[Catquest1]

he doesnt seem overly aggressive - he is quite clear when he has had enough and ive seen him hold his own with another cat but when he has caught one of the dcs with a scratch theres always a reason for it. Never unprovoked.

We have other pets too and he has no interest in them what so ever other than a mild look of disdain even though they are much smaller than him. There was a fix cub hanging around recently and he wasnt interested in that either although it was asleep in the garden

[Catquest1]

Fox not fix

[POPholditdown]

I agree that it’s unlikely if not provoked. In my experience atleast, even when cats feel threatened they don’t always attack straight away but they do the stand-offish, raised back pose to look scary to begin with.

It could be possible that it was a playful pounce rather than an attack? One of my cats has no sense of stranger danger when it comes to other animals and she tries to play with cats she doesn’t know in the same way she does with our other cats.

Hope your cat is ok.

[POPholditdown]

Do you know anyone who lives around where it happened? Maybe someone has CCTV?

[Floralnomad]

There are a couple of cats round here that would have a go at my dog , but I always assume that’s becuase my dog is making a scene to try and get at them ( I don’t let him , he would kill them) . Maybe your cat has had a similar experience with a dog and thinks he will get in first IYSWIM . I tend to find that the cats we have trouble with are ones that live with dogs as they tend to think that because they boss their sibling dog around that they can do that to all dogs , some of them are incredibly stupid . I wouldn’t keep your cat in unless you are doing so to protect him from getting injured .

[Catquest1]

No cctv round here but a neighbour saw the end of it but not the start (which is how i know cat was being kicked quite aggressively by the dog owner). Generally our cat is quite aloof, friendly enough but not the kind of cat to go up to people he doesnt know. He is a rescue cat so i dont know what he was exposed to previously although his last owners (who got him from the rescue) were very kind and didnt have a dog. We dont either.

Ive kept him in because i wanted to see if he had suddenly had a personality transplant and to monitor him really. Also im a bit wary as theres been some heated comments on social media about it all and i dont want him getting hurt or there being any retaliation - my neighbour was really quite unnerved by the owners reaction.

[Catquest1]

Owners are claiming the cat pounced, bit and scratched their dogs repeatedly. And then attacked again.

Tbh i can see him reacting if a dog came too near. I can see him reacting if he was scared and threatened. But i cant see him randomly jumping out as an ambush which is what is being implied

[MrsCatE]

Your NDN is being ridiculous and surely in the wrong at kicking out at your / the cat. What sort of dog do they have that comes off worse to an 'unprovoked' attack from a cat? Hope your cat is OK x

[Icequeen01]

I had a cat which would jump out unprovoked and have a go at dogs who passed the top of our drive. He did it to my friend's dogs once and she was a bit cross and from then on always crossed the road when she walked past our house.

I was mortified when I took him to the vet once and was chatting to the receptionist who thought my cat was lovely (he was to humans) and when I mentioned he could be a bit feisty and sometimes went for dogs she said do you live in X street and said she had heard someone talking about a black cat in X street which was always jumping out on her dog 😳 Luckily I don't think he really hurt any of the dogs and I would never have been able to keep him in - he would have gone insane! I think he was just very territorial!

[Catquest1]

Thank you so much for all your responses. We get on really well with most people on our street so i would hope if anyone really close by had an issue they would have come to talk to us face to face rather than posting a warning on social media.

I dont know the dog owners, cant say i have particularly noticed them walking past and we do have a fair number of people walking dogs passing by - yesterday i noticed a lot less walking through after the warning of a feral pouncing beast cat being nearby.

I can understand someone needing to separate fighting animals although my nice neighbour felt the kicking was disproportionate which is really not ok. My dcat seems fine though and there's still no proof it definitely was him (although its highly likely).

Dh has let the cat out this morning - dcat would not be a happy indoor cat at all and is currently sunnying himself in the back garden

[Oldraver]

Do the posts on FB reveal the dog owner ? If so I would screenshot or record who the owner was in case there are anymore incidents. You have a witness to them kicking the cat.

I would think it more likely that the dog challenged the cat, but the owner probably isnt going to admit that. Really I think this is something that doesn't really warrant putting out a 'warning'. But some people are just dream llhamas and FB feeds this

[HoleyCoMoley]

It seems very unlikely, maybe the dog provoked the cat, was barking, growling and tugging to get it, may be the dog owner was winding the dog up. Kicking a cat is q horrible thing to do, a hiss would have been enough.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/16/cathedral-cat-under-suspicion-following-dog-attacks-in-wells

[Catquest1]

@YetAnotherSpartacus if only my house was as grand as a cathedral!

[AlexaAmbidextra]

My neighbour’s old cat would lie in wait for any passing dog then pounce. He hated dogs and really went for them.

[Weedsnseeds1]

I once heard yowling outside my house and stuck my head out in case it was my cat.
A slightly chubby chocolate lab on a lead was backing away from a hissing, shreaking, outraged cat emerging from under a parked car.
The owner explained she was " introducing the dog to cats in a controlled way".
The lab was about to get its arse kicked and couldn't do much about it as on a lead and, I think, too stunned and horrified to react!

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

if only my house was as grand as a cathedral

:). I bet your cat is as snuggly and as innocent as Louis though :).

[Catquest1]

So if you have a cat who attacks dogs is there anything you can do about it? I still don't believe it but I have to consider it as s possibility

[agedknees]

A cat once attack’s my dog who was minding his own business and was on a lead.

I picked my dog up and chased the cat away. We had only just got ddog from dogs trust. He had been in an abusive home for 3 years and was scared of his own shadow - that’s the type of dog who is scared of cats.

Thankfully now he’s grown into the type of dog he always should have been.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

When I was very, very small I was cuddling a local cat when a German Shepherd approached. Cat fluffed up (in my arms) and did the whole 'MMMMMMMRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW ... GRRRRRRRR ... HISSSSSSSS' thing. He must have felt big and safe being up so high plus, he was all brawn and no brain Dog went into attack pose and growled and snarled. I was terrified. I can't remember what happened, but I think I dodged a bullet.