My Cat Scratched My Baby...I Need Advice

And I have both! Would still put my kid before my cat!

Teaching the baby that he is not allowed to play with the kitty is NOT putting the cat before the kid!!!

Right. But if kitty continues to scratch baby, then you have to make a decision about what's more important. Sounds like most people would choose to put the "feelings" of the kitty first (getting it declawed is cruel, getting rid of it is horrible, etc). If the kid is getting hurt because of the kitty, the kitty has to go.

I'm sorry... but if the cat was running away and trying to hide then it obviously wasn't the aggressor.

Nope, I still don't care who the aggressor was. Baby got hurt by the cat. Don't care why! The cat is the one that needs to go. My puppy learned to let my toddler climb on him, pull his ears and tail, without an agrressive response. Usually just a lick. It isn't that my baby is naughty, but because he is 20 months old and learning the world and testing his boundaries (and thinks the dog is fun to play with!). I live to protect my children, especially since they are at an age that they cannot protect themselves. As I've said, if my dog ever hurts one of the kids, it is him who leaves. No questions. My kids safety is #1 priority, not my dog's "feelings".

Wow, some of these replies are pretty harsh, and clearly from non-moms. When your child gets hurt, you overreact. You freak out. And temporarily, you despise the thing that caused your child's pain, even if that thing isn't to blame.

Yes it's impossible for any of us to have empathy. There's no universe in which we could possibly understand because we've never given birth. You're SO right. How logical of you.

While I don't typically agree with declawing, if you really wanted to keep the cat and ensure that your little one doesn't get hurt, I think I could make an exception in this case.

Claw clipping could "help" but it's not going to solve the problem, they can still scratch though the scratches won't be as bad with blunt claws. Also consider that your cat might not even let you do that, depending on it's personality. The same thing goes for those rubber tip thingies. Though they might be a great solution, kitteh might kill you in the process!

What a situation to be in...it's hard for me to even think of one solid suggestion for you. I have two cats and can't imagine what I would do in your predicament. However, I can safely say that baby's welfare needs to come first...so...I would go with the following suggestions (in this order:

Try to clip/tip, see how that works for you.
Give kitty a squirt from a water bottle when he's near the baby and say NO!...hopefully he'll associate the squirt with baby and keep his distance. Hell, I taught both of mine to give paw and that's much harder! :laugh:
Declaw or find a new good home if all else fails.

Good luck!

So the cat gets punished because a child runs after it and scares it? That seems ridiculous to punish the cat by squirting for defending itself. :huh:

It also seems ridiculous that a child could have a life changing encounter with the cranky cat, because of course it's just defending itself. But because the cat is just defending itself, I guess we could teach the toddler that eye patches are cool

I do hope OP finds a solution.

I am very happy that I will never have to deal with this situation. I'll take animals over children any day of the week.

Kids, particularly toddlers, are magnets to dangerous things. I don't know why, but I've witnessed it again and again with my own children and with children of friends. It leaves us shaking our heads, but it also causes us to make sure knives and other dangerous things are out of their reach, and it certainly would cause me to get rid of an aggressive cat.

Declawing is sick.

You can file your cats claws down and have those soft paws put on. They are rubber claw caps. You will need to it once a month but it works and doesn't bother the cat.

I have kids. I have a cat. Keep this in context. You are making it sound like the cat went on a crazed rampage after the child. If that were the case, I would be the first person to say put that cat down. This was a completely different situation. Choosing to share your life with an animal in your home involves inherent risks, that should be evaluated prior to ever getting one. Choosing to climb walls, involves risks, but one evaluates those risks, does what one can to alleviate them, then takes an educated risk. Does not guarantee a life free of accidents. Injury can still occur. Does that mean the parent who takes their child climbing, is a poor parent for introducing risk?

At no point does a rock climbing wall decide for whatever reason it doesn't like my child's behavior and choose to attack.

Yes, having children and pets does involve risk. That's the whole point of the thread. At what point is it an acceptable risk.

The OP said her less than 2 year old child nearly lost an eye. So no, the pleasure of cat ownership does not equal my kid being blinded, in my eyes.

My two, functioning eyes. Because I hate cats.

No, climbing does not make a decision to attack, but equipment fails. There is user error, as well. Perhaps fastening the harnesses incorrectly. That's where learning how to climb as safely as you can, because you love it, makes sense.

The cat has cat behaviour, should we want to share our lives with a cat, we learn what those behaviors are and how to teach our children how to respond to and treat them. Because some of us love cats. Are there animals who are aggressive? Of course there are. If it sounded like an aggressive cat in the OP, my advice would have been very different.

I love my children. I have never placed our pets above my children, but I have taught the kids how to act with animals, thus animals share our lives and our home.

And I have both! Would still put my kid before my cat!

Teaching the baby that he is not allowed to play with the kitty is NOT putting the cat before the kid!!!

Right. But if kitty continues to scratch baby, then you have to make a decision about what's more important. Sounds like most people would choose to put the "feelings" of the kitty first (getting it declawed is cruel, getting rid of it is horrible, etc). If the kid is getting hurt because of the kitty, the kitty has to go.

I'm sorry... but if the cat was running away and trying to hide then it obviously wasn't the aggressor.

Nope, I still don't care who the aggressor was. Baby got hurt by the cat. Don't care why! The cat is the one that needs to go. My puppy learned to let my toddler climb on him, pull his ears and tail, without an agrressive response. Usually just a lick. It isn't that my baby is naughty, but because he is 20 months old and learning the world and testing his boundaries (and thinks the dog is fun to play with!). I live to protect my children, especially since they are at an age that they cannot protect themselves. As I've said, if my dog ever hurts one of the kids, it is him who leaves. No questions. My kids safety is #1 priority, not my dog's "feelings".

This is Fluffy Monster:



I adopted her from a shelter. She is afraid of children because she was given to a toddler who was not taught how to treat an animal and was allowed to do whatever she wanted. Her tail was broken and I most likely imagine that she retaliated, and then beaten by the parents.

I don't think it is too much to ask to teach a toddler to stay away from the cat. The cat isn't seeking out the toddler... after all... the toddler is scary. Comparing a cat's behavior to a dog's isn't even relevant.

*edited to add - Please ignore my big ugly toes. Should've cropped that pic!

Your animal is your responsibility just as much as your child is. You commited to buying and animal and giving it the best life you can give it. I don't care how amazing your pet is (cat, dog, gerbil, duck, rabbit...), you MUST supervise children and animals at all times. There was the sweetest, most beautiful chocolate lab at the animal shelter whos family gave him away because he "knocked over" their toddler. Well, duh he knocked it over! Just watch your cat and keep them separate until your child is old enough to understand how to correctly play with the animal/

I have kids. I have a cat. Keep this in context. You are making it sound like the cat went on a crazed rampage after the child. If that were the case, I would be the first person to say put that cat down. This was a completely different situation. Choosing to share your life with an animal in your home involves inherent risks, that should be evaluated prior to ever getting one. Choosing to climb walls, involves risks, but one evaluates those risks, does what one can to alleviate them, then takes an educated risk. Does not guarantee a life free of accidents. Injury can still occur. Does that mean the parent who takes their child climbing, is a poor parent for introducing risk?

At no point does a rock climbing wall decide for whatever reason it doesn't like my child's behavior and choose to attack.

Yes, having children and pets does involve risk. That's the whole point of the thread. At what point is it an acceptable risk.

The OP said her less than 2 year old child nearly lost an eye. So no, the pleasure of cat ownership does not equal my kid being blinded, in my eyes.

My two, functioning eyes. Because I hate cats.

No, climbing does not make a decision to attack, but equipment fails. There is user error, as well. Perhaps fastening the harnesses incorrectly. That's where learning how to climb as safely as you can, because you love it, makes sense.

The cat has cat behaviour, should we want to share our lives with a cat, we learn what those behaviors are and how to teach our children how to respond to and treat them. Because some of us love cats. Are there animals who are aggressive? Of course there are. If it sounded like an aggressive cat in the OP, my advice would have been very different.

I love my children. I have never placed our pets above my children, but I have taught the kids how to act with animals, thus animals share our lives and our home.

So was the cat not aggressive because it only came close to clawing the kid's eyeball? Had it actually dug a claw into a 14 month old child's eye could we maybe then decide that the cat was feeling a bit moody that day?

The cat can have all the cat behavior it likes. We can sit down with cat psychologists to examine the cat's feelings and see if twice weekly therapy sessions might prevent the cat from attacking again.

While you do that I'm gonna throw out the mangy animal that attacked my kid.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: we're almost done here folks. This has to be the fastest I've ever seen a thread hit 500 replies. Kudos to us and our incessant bickering!