Protective cat attacks man

[yonder]

7. Ahh...I get it now. I've always had cats and except for one, can't say I've seen this before.

Usually they just get scarce when a stranger comes over. Our last one, Vinny, was a big, mellow male. It got along well with everyone and other neighbor cats and dogs too.

Our neighbor had a big, old, friendly and thick-coated Aussie that Vinny accepted just fine. Because of our hot summers, our neighbor would often shave her down to keep her cool. One evening, I was on the back deck when the neighbor came through the back gate with a newly-shaved Rita dutifully following behind. As they rounded the corner and came up on the deck, Vinny didn’t recognize Rita nor get a chance to sniff her out before all hell broke loose.

In an instant, Vinny was on Rita, a very surprised Rita was yelping bloody murder while retreating back to her own yard and neighbor and I were left wondering what the hell just happened. In a while, we got Rita to come back and after some cat growling Vinny figured out who she was and everything was fine.

Cats are our pals, aloof as they sometimes might be. Many people just don’t get it though because cat terms are different than people terms.