GC, I had a Maine Coon cat once. He was a great cat to us, possibly because he picked us. (When we lived out in the country, he appeared one day and continued to sit on our porch until we went from feeding him outside to bringing him inside and, over the years, paying hundreds of dollars in vet bills to patch him up after he went after other cats, dogs and, in one spectacular piece of stitching up, a raccoon.) Anyway, they are very powerful cats and can do a lot of damage. He certainly needs to get out of her house, but they really are good cats and I'd hate to see him put down.

eta: Maine Coon cats have very distinct personalities. It's quite possible that there are many people out there who would get along fine with the cat.

I knew a Maine Coon that savagely attacked one of her owners- technically the GF of the primary owner. They had to dose her with kitty Xanax or Prozac or something for a while.

It was freaking rough though, the night it happened.

vw, go play with the kidlets, the get yourself a fancy coffee drink, and go home to post funny kidlet stories to us.

(((GC))) I'm sorry your m-i-l is stressing you out.

I knew a Maine Coon that savagely attacked one of her owners- technically the GF of the primary owner. They had to dose her with kitty Xanax or Prozac or something for a while.

My brother an his wife never had to deal with being attacked personally, but there have been times when there cats suddenly start going after each other. Sometimes it's been bad enough that they put up temporary screen doors INSIDE the house. Weirdly, though, everytime this happened they got a new cat and the attacking would stop (although twice the problem just transferred so the former attackee was now going after the new cat while the former attacker just suddenly chilled out).

vw, sj is wise.

((GC)) Since your MIL is causing you stress, graciously accept DW's offer to go to dinner without you and think of a nice way to thank her for being so thoughtful.

They had to dose her with kitty Xanax or Prozac or something for a while.

This cat has been on kitty Prozac since the ER incident, which was around 6 months or so ago.

My sister's cat doesn't discriminate - she'll bite anyone. Went after me and I ended up in the ER with an infected bite. When I asked my sister if she'd put the cat on kitty prozac or something she said she'd think about it.

I tried to get my parents to put their old cat, who never attacked me but once cornered me in the basement, on kitty prozac but my dad didn't really believe he was a threat at all. But I've had cats of my own for almost 20 years and family cats before that and that cat was psycho. He passed away suddenly earlier this year though so it's no longer a controversy. (I had nothing to do with his death!)

Also--she'll put the animal down but she won't release it to a sanctuary? This doesn't sound very rational.

I'm assuming she'll back out of this at the last minute too.

Let the Missus deal with it, Cookie. She offered and she means it.

((((GC and family)))) Can you take the cat? Or might the cat take to a playmate? Or, for that matter, is there something in DW's mother's body language?

I ask the last because Teddy was a feisty terror in his young days. Once I was videotaped holding him. I had a habit of arranging my mouth a certain way so he wouldn't claw me on the fleshy part of the lips. And I saw that the arrangement gave me a very angry look, which Teddy no doubt saw as threatening. I promptly stopped it, and Teddy stopped trying to claw me when I held him.