Do pets hold a grudge? (reposting it from another forum) →[More:]So, about a week ago, my darling pet kitten, who we’d gotten about a month and a half ago, and who has the habit of dancing around like a spider monkey, came running at full speed into my feet from behind, and got accidentally stepped on. My foot landed on its front left paw (I think), and as soon as I heard its scream, I immediately pulled it back. But it did land on the poor thing for just that slight second, and for the next moment or two, it meowed a lot, and hobbled on its feet. And then, as miraculous as it seemed, it became perfectly alright, running from one end of the house to another. For a moment there I thought we had a real actor in the house, or actress I should say, not that I didn’t think it was in real pain, but I was extremely worried that I might’ve done some real damage. And after feeling a helluva a lot sorry for her, I took it in my arms and brought it as close to my face as I could, and it just smacked me with its paw. I mean, this was a real mean slap—like in the movies—thwack! To which I laughed, and told my mom and my sister (who the cat adores by the way—they both treat each other like mother and daughter—and well deservedly so, since she’s the one who brought it from a friend’s place, and has been taking good care of it ever since). So anyway, I bring it close to my face again, and it slaps me, but not as hard as before, so I bring it a little closer, and that’s where I make my fatal mistake, because this time, it jabs its front claw into my nose, and the next thing I know, all I can feel is this excruciating stinging sensation running down through the front of my nose, and tears are starting to form in the corners of my eyes. I give the cat to my mom, and stumble towards the washbasin to look at the damage done, and lo and behold—there’s a pretty deep scratch running down the centre of my schnoze. And blood has already started to ooze out of it. I’m thinking, okay, it could’ve been worse, and I can’t stop laughing at how the cat felt compelled to get its own back. Now, I’m seriously in the frame of mind that we’re square, but throughout the week, whenever I try to pick it up, it just whips out its claws and starts to growl aggressively, even when I’m trying to play with her, and I feel really hurt, since I didn’t mean to have harmed her in the first place, and not having made a big fuss of the whole flesh tearing incident, I thought we were going to be fine. And just when I’d given up hope, until today afternoon it was still hissing at me, Pepper (that’ the name my sis’s given it), finally forgave me (I think). It’s not struggling to get out of my hands anymore, and we had a good snuggle session a few moments ago. [Man, am I glad it decided to forgive me, because the last thing I need on my conscience is a cat who thinks I’m not good!]