Hulk the bully

Scariest cat EVAH.

Hulk was among our early foster animals, and was not a cat for the faint of heart!! He was HUGE, CRAZY, and was the ONLY cat that our rats were ever scared of.

He came to us from the Victoria SPCA because he needed to recuperate from recently being neutered. He was one of those tough tomcats who had the huge jowly cheeks to indicate his dominance. He was also absolutely gi-normous, and knew it.

We set him up in our spare bedroom and kept the door closed for the first few days (as we always do - cats acclimatize to smaller spaces easier than a whole house). I went in on the first day to just be present. I sat quietly and read a book for a while. He was hiding behind the computer monitor when I first went in, but he eventually came out and climbed onto my lap for attention. I petted him absently while reading, and he purred up a storm...until he had had enough, at which point he whirled around, dug his claws into my wrist, and bit my hand. I was quite shocked and froze. He jumped away and went hiding behind the monitor again.

I have to say, I know it shouldn't have, but it really hurt my feelings that he did that. I think if I had been expecting it I wouldn't have taken it personally, but I did. Not logical, I know, but there you go.

That was the first of many such attacks from Mr. Grumpy-pants. We tried valiantly to socialize Hulk anyway. We would pet him for a brief period of time, which he really liked, but then when we stopped and backed away, he would attack!! We protected ourselves by only approaching him in pairs and having the non-petting person stand by at a safe distance with the squirt gun. When the petter stopped, they would say "now!" and the non-petter would squirt Hulk in the face with water as he began his attack. He would then hiss at the watergun and retreat to a safe distance (usually behind the computer monitor) and the petter could escape unscathed.

We also let him out of his room to roam the house every now and again. Yes, we are suckers for punishment. He would come down into the living room and wander around. When we thought he had reached his limit of peaceful co-existence time, we learned to shoo him gently back to his room with a broom. Pick him up? NOT a good idea. Shoo him with a foot? Only if you already have too many feet and need to get rid of one. Don't worry, we were very gentle with the broom.

Hulk went back to the SPCA, leaving many war wounds in our household. Mark had puncture wounds in his calf that got infected but eventually healed, and there was one minor incident with the dog that required us to pull shards of claw out of the dog's face. Poor pup was trying to AVOID Hulk at the time!

What a killer attack-cat.

We never knew what happened to him after that. If his aggressive behaviour was due to hormones, he eventually should have settled down as a result of the neutering. If, however, his aggressive behaviour was due to him being insane, he may still be terrorizing households as I write this story. Either way, I'm glad he's not still lurking behind my computer, planning his next attack.