Though most cats weigh less than twenty pounds, they can turn into a deadly cyclone of fur, fangs, and claws when scared or upset. While taking care of a cat for a friend for a few months, I ran into a few complications.Snowball was a huge black cat with a white front and paws. She was really a lovely cat to look at and was a friendly and sweet animal if or when she got used to you. Until then, her black fur looked not unlike a puma pouncing with full force. Her lemon-yellow eyes took on a special tinge of violence when she was scared. She went from cute to crazy in an instant.I decided to keep her in one room at a time so she wouldn't become overwhelmed and occasionally she came out and socialized or rampaged; we could never predict which.
Living in the convergence zone, I get the worst of the weather the Puget sound area has to offer and if the power ever goes out in Western Washington, it will go out here first. Such a storm happened one cold winter while I had a nasty cold. Bundled up in layers and a hoodie under my down comforter, my own cat sitting at my feet with a blanket over her, I suddenly heard a thump. Snowball was lonely and had decided to visit. Used to sleeping under the covers with her owner, Snowball jumped up on my bed and tucked her head under the blankets. She soon bored of this though and upon seeing my own cat, decided that she needed to take higher ground. So she sat on my chest. Among Snowball's many issues was gas and extreme jumpiness. As a cloud of noxious gas came towards my nose, she kneaded her claws into the collar of my sweatshirt, about two inches away from my jugular. I couldn't help it and I coughed. Fur up, back hunched and ears perked,and she looked at me for a second her yellow eyes contemplating whether or not to put an end to me then and there. Luckily, I earned a temporary reprieve but she kept kneading my hoodie endlessly with her claws. Luckily for me, my nose was still plugged from the cold. Still, she was pungent.
I do not know what she could have eaten, but that cat continued to have awful wind for quite some time and any sudden noise or movement meant a sudden shift from kneading my skin with her paws and making my face and throat into julienne strips. I heard a family member come in the front door downstairs from my room and considered yelling. Instead, I tried a sort of stage whisper in a calm voice, "Help. I'm stuck!"
About an hour later, Snowball grew bored and jumped off of the bed. It was not the first or last time Snowball and I would have an issue.
