We hit it off right away. He followed me around while I cleaned his human's house and stole pets and scratches from me whenever he could. We quickly developed a rapport. He would let me love on him while he perched on his cat-tree, then run into each room, just a few paces ahead of me and jump on the highest and most obvious piece of furniture. I'd give him a little love and attention before graciously and apologetically kicking him out.
We did this in a few rooms before we reached the bedroom, where he promptly plopped himself on the bed, exposing his tummy for what I assumed to be, affectionate rubbing. In cat-lover fashion I threw caution to the wind and proceeded to rub his tummy, knowing full-well that I was playing with fire. There's something about rubbing a cats tummy for longer than about three seconds, that causes them to go buck wild on your hand, tearing it up like so many stuffed mice.
With this knowledge in mind, I tempted fate and rubbed Stein's tummy anyway. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. He snapped forward, grasping the heel of my left hand with one of his (ironically named) canine teeth and tore into my flesh, as if he were trying to pull meat from bone. Surprised, despite my suspicions, I puled my hand away, sucking air in through clenched teeth and muttering feline-directed obscenities at the same time.
Stein looked at me with bewilderment in his eyes; eyes that said, "What? What did I do?" He had no idea he had hurt me, or if he did, he certainly didn't care. Chances are pretty good that either scenario could be true. After all, he is a cat and as a long-time cat owner and cat lover, I should have known better.
In that moment of mild shock and moderate physical pain, I felt something else. Hurt. Not the cat-tooth-tearing-through-flesh physical hurt, but emotional hurt. My feelings were hurt. Here Stein and I had shared this bond all over the house and the minute we get into the bedroom, he tears into me. How rude.
Is it weird that I allowed a cat to hurt my feelings today? I suspect it had nothing really to do with Stein; however, he was the metaphor or messenger of my emotions. It's not so much that the cat turned on me for rubbing his belly. They do that. What hurt me was that we had developed a relationship, however brief it was and none of that mattered to Stein. He felt he had cause to take a bite out of me, so he did. How many times has this happened to me with people? Probably more times than I could count.
My reply is based on the question of whether or not you knew why cats behave this way. The article you linked was very interesting and gave a reasonable explanation as to the root of this issue. So, if you knew this prior to your interaction with Stein then your feelings of betrayal are less warranted. However, if you found this article after the attack while doing research for this post then I understand the hurt feelings.
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