I posted on this board almost exactly a year ago when our family cat was put to sleep (she was my birthday present when I was a teenager but stayed with my mum when I moved out). My mum was very lonely and soon adopted a rescue cat - Twiggy.
Twiggy is a female tortie who is 10 years old. We didn't know a lot of background except she was living with an elderly person who passed away, and when a family member went to retrieve Twiggy she attacked her - she was taken to the vet to be put to sleep but the vet gave her to the rescue centre instead. It wasn't clear if she was an indoor cat or had been outside.
Twiggy settled in ok - we learnt that she would attack our hands if dangled in a certain way or if using a toy which didn't have enough distance between us and her. She occasionally attacks ankles / feet. She is mostly indoor but goes in the garden in good weather - she did try to go beyond the garden but then cried because she was too high and needed help getting down. We have never been able to pick her up and struggle to get her to the vet. She will sit in my mum's lap and is very soft and soppy when sat on "her pillow" on the sofa. Despite having access to the whole house she chooses to stay in the (fairly small) lounge most of the time.
We have had some incidents of redirected aggression due to cats she sees out of the window. On 2 occasions in the past couple of weeks, 1 particular neighbourhood cat jumped up at the lounge window when Twiggy was sitting there. Today when it happened, my mum was sitting in the same room but not interfering at all. Twiggy jumped from the window and sought out my mum to attack her, with several attempts before she injured my mum's hand which has deep cuts and is swollen so she can't use it. My Mum is 70, lives alone except for Twiggy, and loves cats but is upset and quite afraid. In this instance there was a clear trigger and Twiggy must have been terrified but I'm not sure how much we can control what happens out of the window. I suggested blocking half of the window so she can't see out but as mentioned she chooses to stay in this one fairly small room and is mostly indoor so I worry about limiting her stimulation further. We are going to try some cat deterrent tactics for the garden - Twiggy isn't too bad if another cat is just sat in view, but this particular cat is trying to attack her through the window.
Just posting for some support as I'm sad for my mum who is frightened of being attacked again - I'm also worried as it could have easily been her face which got scratched. Our family cat who was put to sleep last year was the most docile thing so it has been hard to adjust to a cat that lashes out more. Obviously from her history we knew she had a tendency to react that way but assumed things would settle when she had stability again - largely they have but that is because we have learnt to be wary and learnt what causes her to scratch.
If anyone has bright ideas I'd love to hear them as I'm feeling quite sad! I found Twiggy at the rescue centre and suggested her to my mum but feel i made a mistake - perhaps someone else would have been better placed to deal with the outbursts because it's just making my mum upset.