This morning Bengal, my older cat, hissed and scratched Aiden, my 10-and-a-half-month old son, on the side of his head. He cried. He bled, a little. Bengal had been sitting on the couch and he cornered her so she couldn’t get away and then grabbed her face. She’s 14-years-old and is uncomfortable around children because she hasn’t been around them often enough until now. Normally she keeps her distance from Aiden and will even sleep beside him. She is fine with him as long as he doesn’t grab or corner her. Bengal would do the same to me if I did the same to her. Memphis, however, my two-year-old cat, loves to be around Aiden and is very gentle with him, only placing his paw on Aiden’s face without claws when Aiden grabs or touches him.
Some people would punish Bengal, freak out or even get rid of her, thinking it’s their job to protect Aiden. But what about Bengal? She is old, tired and afraid. She is an animal, not a human. We don’t use human psychology on animals. If I punished her, she would just be shamed and confused, not understanding why she is being ostrasized for protecting herself and trusting her natural, ingrained and uncontrollable instincts. She will do it again under the same circumstances.
On the issue of protecting Aiden, children and babies need to learn how to treat and respect animals, even and especially at a young, tender age. This is how they will learn to protect themselves first. A little scratch on the head is no reason to get rid of an animal. If your child touches a hot stove, you don’t get rid of the stove. You teach the same child to look both ways before he crosses the street and not to cross if there is a car coming; you don’t petition to have roads removed because they are unsafe. The same goes for animals, even people. We tell our children not to approach strangers and not to grab or hit people or pull their hair. If Bengal viciously attacked him without provocation, that would be a different story. That is also extremely rare behaviour from a cat. The stories you hear about cats attacking children or “smothering” them because they are jealous are urban myths. (If you don’t believe me, Snope it here.) Cats either love the baby or are uninterested.
I admit Aiden has a difficult and confusing lesson to learn. With one cat, he can do whatever he wants but with the other cat, it will result in pain. He will learn. He already has.
blaak sheep 