Scratch

Our cat scratched me as I was carrying her upstairs.


Going home, I found the cat sitting at the table on the first floor.  We normally do not allow the cat to go down.  When it was little, the litter it belonged to got poisoned and died; she was the only survivor.  Matriarch nursed her to health, and applied eye drops on her when cataracts started to form.  She got out of that ordeal, but one eye remained foggy.  So Matriarch named her Juana, the one-eyed cat.


I scratched her between the ears and she gave no hint of resistance.  I think she rather enjoyed it, with her mild purring and closed eyes.  I picked her up under her forepaws and proceeded to go upstairs.  Juana doesn't usually go downstairs; she's got plenty to occupy her upstairs and food to satisfy her cravings.  But when she goes down, it means she's after one thing, and that thing is never food.


It was smooth sailing until we got to the second floor, when Juana started acting up, and try to remove herself from my grip.  She tried every which way to buck herself off of my grip, scratching me in the palm and the back of my hand in the process.  For some weeks now, she's been trying her best to elude the people in the house, hiding under tables and sprinting for the open door.  Or else mewing incessantly at the door, hoping someone would relent and open it for her.  And now that she's finally downstairs she doesn't want to go back up again.


No matter how many times I replace my hold on her, she would just buck up and try to escape, scratching me more.  She got a good hit, drawing blood on my palm.  I decided then to change tactics and take a firm hold on her nape, and Juana went limp.  I'm not sure how or why, but both cats and dogs go still when held that way.  Probably they remember when they were pups and their moms handle them that way when moving them from one location to the next.  Anyway, it did the trick and I was able to get the cat back up without any more incidents.


Juana and I aren't very close, but she's usually not violent.  But one does not simply deter a feline in heat from her natural urges.  And I guess we are like cats in that respect; going to all lengths and doing everything in one's power just to get that itch scratched.