The Glade 4.0

Yeah, me and Ry like to play rough. Arrrr!

_________________
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Most housecats are declawed. I imagine the risk to the child's eyes was rather less than has been implied.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

My cats are not declawed.

RE: eye danger - In this case, I agree with DE. I split apart the GIF and checked the part where the cat makes contact with the child. The cat essentially wraps it's forepaws around the child's head and the bite seems to be at the top of the head. Additionally, the cat in this GIF may have been declawed which would help explain the parent's immediate inaction when presented with a tantrumy child and a cat obviously on edge. In this case, eye damage was not or may not have been, the concern.

On the contrary, I have seen my son standing next to an end table where my cat, Sully (the lazy, non confrontational one) was laying. My son did nothing but get a little to close to the cat's face and Sully lashed out a paw and caught him under his eye with a claw.

LK, I can't see how you can say that clawing of the eyes is not a concern. With clawed housecats and children who may be face to face with them, there is NO reason that a parent should not immediately intervene. Never since that one incident have I let my son get that close to either of my cats, whether they are on edge or simply lounging on the sofa.

_________________
This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

I've got these little faux-dog like creatures and when I walk them, kids sometime come out and want to play with them. I'm asked "Will they bite?" and I always reply "They have teeth".

Humans need to be trained to live with animals more than animals need to be trained to live with humans, mostly 'cause the onus is (and should be) on the most intelligent species.

I'm not always sure that's the humans though, truth be told.

_________________
In time, this too shall pass.

Gotta go with LK and Taam on the lesson learned. We do have a "big dog", and my girls learned early on that you don't hit people, and you DON'T hit animals. If they had hit the dog, there would be absolutely no chance of him reacting like that cat. Hell, when my youngest was learning to walk, she stood up and held her balance by holding the dog's lower lip; the dog just stood still and wined until I extricated him from the situation.
A responsible owner will train their pets; you don't find that happening much with cats and small dogs. If a "big dogs" does that, there is an immediate hew and cry for the "aggressive dog" to be put down. If a cat or a small dog does it, they're "defending themselves" or "they're cute".

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Heheh, I always answer "Yes", saves a lot of explaining about how they should treat animals, because as you note, they usually have no clue. They're better than the one's who just run at the dog screaming...

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Vindi:

Can't say that your example of your dog's training is apropos here.

Dogs can be trained and it also ends up ingrained in them to protect your children as they are seen as part of the family.

Don't know that I have ever seen much in the way of success when it comes to training cats.

I am going to have to stick by my guns and say that, given the opportunity, I will always step in to prevent my son from being scratched or bitten my my cats. If other cat owners prefer to let their cats attack their kids to teach them lessons, then more power to them.

_________________
This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Large dogs will be less likely to have a reaction like this cats, simply because they do not perceive the child as much of a threat. To a big dog, like a Golden Retriever or a German Shepherd, a small child is simply not that big. If an adult human smacked them in the same fashion, they'd be far more likely to bite.

A housecat on the other hand is the same size as, or smaller than, a fairly small child. The child's action simply appears more threatening.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

_________________

Ok, maybe I am missing something, but the child looks like they are already crying as the video begins, so if the child is lashing out at the cat by hitting it, I am just wondering if the cat already did something to the boy that made him cry. He is doing what a child that age may do. Maybe, it doesn't bother the parent because the cat is de-clawed? My cats, it bothers me because I know what it feels like to have Lacey stab a claw into my flesh and run down my back when the garbage truck went by, it isn't nice, so i don't think I would want my cats wrapping their paws around Sean's head. That's just me.

_________________
"None is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people safe as they are the
ultimate guardians of their own liberty."- Thomas Jefferson

"Yeah, I'm rehearsing my poker face. I don't handle stupid well. *sigh*" - Farsky

How old does the kid look? I think that' s a factor. Well, not how old he looks, but how old he is...

_________________

Tend to agree with the cats = jerks comment.

Also as a side note, I have never seen that sign before. (minus the added kitty, that is.) What is that a sign for? "Warning: Abnormally high curb"

_________________
This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

I throw in my 2 cents that that kid was throwing a tantrum of a sort that should not really be tolerated. That kid seems old enough that he should know that behavior isn't ok. So yeah, I'd say I fault the parent not for filming the event or failing to swoop in and save the kid from earned danger, but for not taking action against the behavior that caused the problem in the first place.

In the end, it doesn't seem like the kid was hurt and he was better off getting a lesson from the kitty than getting no lesson at all.

_________________

Kids throw tantrums. What would you do to prevent the (maybe) 3 year old in that clip from throwing a tantrum? Beat him? Kids normally do that, depending on their personality, at that age and are gradually weaned away from it. There is no magic "I will not tolerate your behavior" button, there is no manual. Kids will be kids, and you have to accept that. They aren't miniature adults who will somehow understand that "mommy will not tolerate your ****".

_________________

Ezekiel 23:19-20 

What Rynar said.

2 year old is going to throw a tantrum. It's about how the parent handles it.

The issue here isn't about how the tantrum is handled or how the parent should be curtailing said behavior that ended up with their screaming/crying/tamtruming child face to face with a cat on edge. It is about the responsibility of the parent in the situation as it is now presented.

If I am filming my screaming child, who has a propensity for hitting people/animals/things and he ends up sitting face to face with my cat while continuing throwing said tantrum, my first response isn't to keep filming. It would be to intervene between child and cat. I can teach him the same lesson minus the scratches or potential eye damage.

Apparently, I am in the minority though. Seems most would rather let the cat do what it's going to do, scratch their child, and then give them the "See, I told you that was going to happen" speech.

_________________
This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

QFT

_________________
"None is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people safe as they are the
ultimate guardians of their own liberty."- Thomas Jefferson

"Yeah, I'm rehearsing my poker face. I don't handle stupid well. *sigh*" - Farsky

Incidentally, that does not look like a 2 year old to me... that kid looks a bit past 4. I have a nephew who just turned 3 and was told he's 'big for his age' and that child looks larger and more coordinated. Look particularly at the head-to-torso ratio. That kid is old enough to know better and chose to hit a pointy creature who was showing 'back off' body language.

I DO think the parent should have stepped in before the kid hit the cat... but once the kid started it the cat had every right to finish it, and since it was too late to prevent the accident I sure wouldn't go over and coddle the kid, which would amount to rewarding him with extra attention for his poor behaviour.

I'd also like to point out that hitting a cat like that is a sign that the parent has already failed.

Cats don't have rights to anything, much less the right to "finish a fight" with my child. I'd have broken the cat's neck on the spot. Taamar, exactly how much child raising experience do you have, if you honestly believe the last thing you wrote? I have to believe the answer is: not very much.

_________________

Ezekiel 23:19-20 

This is gonna go places.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Taamar:

I have a 2 1/2 yr. old and he looks just like the child in the pic. No way gifkid is 4+

You are also making a statement that the child looks like he should know better. I don't know what you see that could lead to that observation.

I agree with your very last statement though, 100%

_________________
This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Sorry you missed the rest of my post.



A responsible owner will train their pets; you don't find that happening much with cats and small dogs. If a "big dogs" does that, there is an immediate hew and cry for the "aggressive dog" to be put down. If a cat or a small dog does it, they're "defending themselves" or "they're cute".

If people believe that's just "what children do", and that's just "what cats do", then the two don't belong in those people's households at the same time.

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

I sure made it through that stage of parenting (with a cat in the house) just fine, thanks. I prefer not to raise my child to think that hitting has no consequences. If it had been an unprovoked attach on the part of the feline I'd agree with you 100%, but it wasn't. I'm not going to spend my life protecting my child from the unpleasant consequences of poor choices when the stakes are pretty low, which they were.

As an experienced cat-owner, that cat wasn't being aggressive, he was purely defensive. He displayed 'go away' body language before the brat whacked him (and that was a really powerful smack, intended to hurt, not ward off) and then, when attacked, struck once to make the kid back off and then retreated. Cats generally use front claws for grasping or warning scratches, not real damage. A truly dangerous cat would have grabbed the kid with front paws and claws, and then would have raked with back. His eyes weren't in danger, that wasn't an attack meant to harm.

If the cat hadn't retaliated I'd have whomped the little bastard myself.

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

For 2(1d4) + 1d6.

Enough to kill most first level mages.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

The kid has a round face, which makes him look younger, but his torso is twice the length of his head, which is a 4 year old proportion. 2 year olds have torsos about on and a half times their head height.

How ever, if he IS a 2 year old then its a huge fail, because he should never have been left with the cat in the first place.