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.

Ozzie:

Has attacked me (complete with scarring and infection)-check
Has attacked the other cat-check
Screen up permanently dividing the two cats-check
Kitty Prozac-check
Has bruised other people and in one case drawn blood--check
One of the sweetest cats I've ever owned/known 95% of the time-check