So on Tuesday night I was petting my cat Copper in the usual way, which is where I lay on the bed, drape my arms over the side, and pet her while she’s on the floor. She has a fear of being on elevated furniture, so she doesn’t come on the bed a lot. Her fear might relate to the fact that she lived in a cage in an animal shelter for the first three years of her life, and she had no place to truly call home.
Now she does. I adopted her about ten months ago, and it’s been a wild yet fantastic ride.
So I like to pet her as much as I can. This time was different though. I pet her for about seven minutes while she lay on the floor. I stroked her coat and pet her forehead and cheeks, which she loves.
I was petting her side and I kind of pushed down just a little bit. Maybe it was a heavy pet. But out of nowhere she struck at me. Scratch! Her razor-sharp claws, like Wesley Snipes’s sword in Blade, or like Excalibur, lashed out and she scratched me on the inside of my forearm.
Damn! That hurt a bit. Not a lot, but a bit. She drew blood, two good streaks on my arm.
I was in shock. Because what hurt much more than the scratch was the fact that she scratched me in the first place. Somehow she felt I was threatening her or being unkind to her or bothering her in some way, and she needed to defend herself. That’s what I think she felt.
She’s only scratched me one other time in the ten months she’s lived with me, and that was early on when I tried to lift her up on to the bed and she didn’t want to be picked up. So that was understandable.
But this was different. We were just having our usual petting session when she scratched me out of nowhere. I went into the bathroom to put some Neosporine on the two cuts. They weren’t that bad, they really weren’t.
Then I went back into the bedroom, and Copper was sitting on her haunches in the middle of the room. I said “Copper no! Bad! Don’t do that Copper. Don’t scratch me.” That was about all I had the heart for, because I love her too much to get too angry at her.
But I did feel a combination of mild anger her, plus curiosity at why she did it. Because I think the scratch meant something was happening in her life that made her feel a little unhappy. Maybe she reached out and hurt the only person she could, which was me. Who knows?
I told my mom about it, and she told me that sometimes you can overpet a cat. Later she googled it and sent me some links, and indeed you can in fact pet a cat too much. Cats are very temperamental, they’re not like dogs, who enjoy endless petting. Sometimes a cat has just had enough, and apparently the change can happen very quickly.
So maybe that’s what happened with me and Copper.
That was yesterday, and since then things have been a little weird between us. I kept my distance from her last night after she scratched me. She mostly just slept in her favorite spot, which is on top of a stack of laundry on a chair in the corner of the bedroom.
Today I tried to engage her more. Around 3pm I went into the bedroom and lay on the bed, hung my arms over the side, and called to her.
“Hey Copper, come her, it’s OK, I’m not mad. I love you Copper.”
She jumped off the chair, and on to the top of the TV stand. Then she jumped onto the floor and walked over to me.
I hesitated for a moment, and then I began petting her. She was walking around a little slower than usual, and she was giving me a weird look as I pet her. Then every minute or so she would lay down on her side away from where I could reach her.
If I could unravel her expression when she looked at me, it was a mix of guilt, defiance, and curiosity. She knew something had happened between us, and she knew that what she did had had an effect on me. I think she even knew it hurt me a little.
So she was a little guilty I think. But maybe she also felt like she didn’t have to apologize, or to explain herself to me, or to be contrite in any way. Because I had pet her a little too hard, or for too long, and she was just letting me know she had had enough.
Now I think she was curious, as I was, about what the scratch would mean for our relationship going forward. It’s just like when two partners or friends fight, and then they wonder if it will change the relationship in some way.
For my part, I still love her deeply, and I don’t think it will change anything.
But I’m not so sure about Copper. About an hour ago I went into the bedroom to pet her. I pet her for a few minutes, but she was a little more shy and hesitant than usual, and she gave me a suspicious look a few times.
I wonder if she’s going through something in her life. Or maybe the universe is emitting ultraviolet rays that are affecting cats in weird ways. Or it could be that some higher being from the fourth dimension possessed her and had he scratch me. Who knows? Psychology, science, and spirituality all might be able to explain it.
All I know is, I want my Copper back, the Copper from before she scratched me. I don’t want her to be suspicious of me, or to feel that I might try to hurt her. I don’t think she will feel that way, I really don’t. I just think maybe she needs a day or two to process the whole event, and then we can mend our relationship.
In the meantime, I’ll continue petting her for as long as she’ll allow me, but I won’t push her. Sooner or later she’ll warm up, I know it. And then we’ll go back to being best friends.
So Copper, hang in there with whatever you’re going through, and we’ll get through this together. I know we will. We love each other too much for something like a scratch to really affect our relationship.
Tomorrow is another day. We’ll see how you are tomorrow Copper.
Stay tuned.
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