Jenks is a 1 year old neutered male. He is pictured to the right. Short story is that I rescued Jenks. I got him at 3 days old and bottle fed him. He is very close and loving to me.

My darling daughter Natasha over a 6 month period convinced me that she could take care of a rat. After some research, I agreed to a Hamster.

One of my biggest objections to adding a rodent to the household.... I thought our cats (Jenks and April) would eat the rat.

Natasha overcame my objection by keeping all the animals out of her bedroom for 1 month. Maybe the rodent would survive my household and die of old age. Hamsters only live 3 years.

Natasha has had Teddi (the hamster) in the house for 1 week. And Jenks finally got a chance to attack Teddi's cage. All week long Jenks has been sniffing at Natasha's closed bedroom door.

On Friday, Natasha's friend left the bedroom door open. Teddi was with Natasha in another room. Jenks pulled the cage apart and spreaded the hamster's seeds over the carpet. I helped Natasha clean up the mess.

Fast forward to Saturday....

I didn't see it coming. I was attacked by Jenks.

I had handled Teddi... OK, I played with the Hamster for a couple of minutes. He is cute from his little pink toes to his stubby tail. If Teddi is held 15 minutes a day, he will be friendly.

After holding the hamster, I decided to take pictures of Jenks. Jenks was sitting on my bed chilling out. I took a quick picture and Jenks turned toward me. He smelled my hands and attacked me. The second picture shows Jenks biting me. I also got scratched.

I was stunned and didn't defend myself. And somehow I thought it was important to take a picture of Jenks biting me. I did learn something new. Cats like sharks close their eyes while biting.

So there is a new rule now. After handling Teddi everyone has to wash their hands and arms.

And I may be putting water guns around the house... just in case an aggressive cat needs to be chilled out.

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Cat Attack