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Shuri attacked me tonight, but it wasn’t her fault.
We were in the kitchen and I was swinging her light-up squeaky mouse teaser and she was laying down grabbing and chewing it, when I spotted a huge (to me) spider about the size of a quarter and not a house spider crawling across the floor. I immediately went into kill-it-before-it-escapes-and-jumps-on-me- when-I-least-expect-it mode. I picked up a cardboard tray Purrsimmon sometimes sits in to squish it and failed the first time, and then all of a sudden felt claws ripping my calf and shin. Shuri had wrapped around my right lower leg and was clawing the helll out of it.
I looked at her and I don’t know if I cried “Shuri!” or “Stop!” but she let go and jumped back and I continued trying to squish the spider before it crawled under something, but I felt blood running down my leg and squishing in my slipper, Still, I was undeterred from my murderous quest and on the third or so try, I successfully squished my frightening foe. Poor thing--I am sorry for my defensive predatory ways, but can’t shake them, and don’t feel the need to against larger than small house spiders inside my home.
Breathing hard, I then assessed the damage on my leg--there was so much dripping down my leg into my slipper making an astonishing puddle! She got those claws in there deep. I proceeded over to the sink and got a paper towel and checked out the many bleeding spots on my leg and started to wipe and press at the ones that were still streaming and got them under control. Then walked over to the bathroom, my right foot sodden slipper squishing as I went--it was a lot! I took it off and cleaned up.
During this time Shuri was darting around and looking at me with her big eyes looking astonished. I gave her a good look to see if she was hurt, but she didn’t seem to be. It’s possible I stepped on her tail or foot as I was hunting the spider, but I don’t think I did and she showed no signs of it. And she would have screamed if I did so, I am sure. She just looked astonishedly at me and around.
I think what happened is that when I saw the spider, I must have started giving off a strong predatory scent or pheromones, straight from playing with her, and so she went into totally alarmed self-defense mode and attacked the scent she picked up of the hunting predator before it could get her. I don’t think she was aware that it was me--she was attacking the bigger predator she could smell before it could get her, being a proactive aggressive-in-play kitty. She didn’t act afraid of me at all afterwards, so I don’t think she realized she attacked me and was mystified at where the danger she smelled was and what happened and didn’t know she had made those wounds on my leg, as she sniffed my leg.
I’m glad she doesn’t know. We were both caught up in our instincts. I was cognizant of what I was doing and could have stopped if something more urgent came up or had other reasons to do so. But her little brain doesn’t have those reasoning brain folds, just the same emotion centers, as we both attacked what scared us.
But it was an impressive amount of blood that poured from my leg into my slipper. Since I didn’t get to see all the blood I shed from when the car hit me, I hadn’t seen that much blood since I had menstrual hemorrhages on heavy flow days. The deep claw pricks sting and will sting on and off for a day or 2 and are still bleeding a little, but I am otherwise all right, and so is my Shuri, thank goodness, but that big damned spider is no more.
How we both looked, which isn’t much different than any other day of 2020:
We were in the kitchen and I was swinging her light-up squeaky mouse teaser and she was laying down grabbing and chewing it, when I spotted a huge (to me) spider about the size of a quarter and not a house spider crawling across the floor. I immediately went into kill-it-before-it-escapes-and-jumps-on-me- when-I-least-expect-it mode. I picked up a cardboard tray Purrsimmon sometimes sits in to squish it and failed the first time, and then all of a sudden felt claws ripping my calf and shin. Shuri had wrapped around my right lower leg and was clawing the helll out of it.
I looked at her and I don’t know if I cried “Shuri!” or “Stop!” but she let go and jumped back and I continued trying to squish the spider before it crawled under something, but I felt blood running down my leg and squishing in my slipper, Still, I was undeterred from my murderous quest and on the third or so try, I successfully squished my frightening foe. Poor thing--I am sorry for my defensive predatory ways, but can’t shake them, and don’t feel the need to against larger than small house spiders inside my home.
Breathing hard, I then assessed the damage on my leg--there was so much dripping down my leg into my slipper making an astonishing puddle! She got those claws in there deep. I proceeded over to the sink and got a paper towel and checked out the many bleeding spots on my leg and started to wipe and press at the ones that were still streaming and got them under control. Then walked over to the bathroom, my right foot sodden slipper squishing as I went--it was a lot! I took it off and cleaned up.
During this time Shuri was darting around and looking at me with her big eyes looking astonished. I gave her a good look to see if she was hurt, but she didn’t seem to be. It’s possible I stepped on her tail or foot as I was hunting the spider, but I don’t think I did and she showed no signs of it. And she would have screamed if I did so, I am sure. She just looked astonishedly at me and around.
I think what happened is that when I saw the spider, I must have started giving off a strong predatory scent or pheromones, straight from playing with her, and so she went into totally alarmed self-defense mode and attacked the scent she picked up of the hunting predator before it could get her. I don’t think she was aware that it was me--she was attacking the bigger predator she could smell before it could get her, being a proactive aggressive-in-play kitty. She didn’t act afraid of me at all afterwards, so I don’t think she realized she attacked me and was mystified at where the danger she smelled was and what happened and didn’t know she had made those wounds on my leg, as she sniffed my leg.
I’m glad she doesn’t know. We were both caught up in our instincts. I was cognizant of what I was doing and could have stopped if something more urgent came up or had other reasons to do so. But her little brain doesn’t have those reasoning brain folds, just the same emotion centers, as we both attacked what scared us.
But it was an impressive amount of blood that poured from my leg into my slipper. Since I didn’t get to see all the blood I shed from when the car hit me, I hadn’t seen that much blood since I had menstrual hemorrhages on heavy flow days. The deep claw pricks sting and will sting on and off for a day or 2 and are still bleeding a little, but I am otherwise all right, and so is my Shuri, thank goodness, but that big damned spider is no more.
How we both looked, which isn’t much different than any other day of 2020:
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I know that look in her eyes all too well--yess, that's the 2020 terrified-and-overwhelmed stare.