Cat scratched our baby' face

[Hartley1978]

Our 7 year old feisty female cat likes to be around us but has twice scratched our boy. He is 15 months old and likes to pat the cat but is boisterous. She doesn't like it but does not walk away. She swipes at him. Although provoked she scratched his face and we don't know what to do. Should we get rid of the cat as she is too feisty for being around a 15 month old?

Go and ask your vets advice. There are some plug in scents that help calm fiesty cats.

Also, you need some ground rules for both cat and toddler. The only rule we had was that the cats must always always have a 'get out' clause (no pun intended). So a clear exit for the cat, no shut doors or cornering of the animal. And then hopefully she won't resort to scratching.

My fiesty cat put up with A LOT from dd1 and then grew less tolerant as she got older. The same happened with dd2. My vet said cats normally treated toddlers with more tolerance than adults so hopefully with some ground rules and a calm atmosphere, they can both coexist alongside each other!!

Is the cat neautured?

Supervise your baby when in same room as cat and stop him from annoying her. Allow him to gently pat/stroke her while you hold his arm if the cat is okay with that. Eventually your baby should learn and be old enough to be trusted around cat. This is what we do with our 20 month old, she has had one scratch on the hand. I would never get rid of my cat.

You need to teach your little boy not to touch the cat. We had a deaf cat & my dd grew up being told to be gentle, cat never touched her ever.

I have friends with toddlers & they lunge towards my current, somewhat intolerant cat. I warn my friends, she will scratch if they aren't gentle, so they told firmly not to touch her.

Never too early to learn IMO.

No, you should supervise your child better.
Having said that, we have two cats, one lovely and calm, the other a psychopath. Both black. DD (told not to touch the crazy one) once mistook one for the other and got a nasty scratch on her face- miracle that her eye was untouched. However she learned to make sure which cat is which.

I guess your DS will figure out soon that if he's rough with the cat, he'll scratch him. Until than, just supervise.

It would be very mean to get rid of the cat as it's your DS that's at fault and distressing the cat, not the cat attacking him out of the blue.

DS was constantly covered in cat scratches at 15 months!

Agree with the other advice - make sure the cat has a safe space, supervise when they are in the room together, make sure he touches the cat in an acceptable way, which perhaps might not involve "patting" if he is too enthusiastic. Hold his arm and show him a gentle stroking motion. If he can't be gentle, then take him away from the cat, or take the cat away from him and put it in it's safe place or hold on your own lap so that if he comes close, he can stroke, but only with you holding his arm and showing him. And don't worry if he does get scratched a few times - he will soon learn!

(Softest hippy mother ever here but a cat is an animal and they do need to learn that animals don't respond with words, they will hurt you if you hurt or frighten them.)