On Mon, 13 Nov 2017 07:18:57 -0800 (PST), wrote:

snip

Sounds like pet-bite syndrome. Some general advice that might or might not suit you. Cats are famous for their emotional state varying all over the place quickly.

Ain't that the truth.

When petting you need to keep an eye out for signs of irritation like tail swishing. If that happens, switch to the introduction type of petting, where you offer them a hand to sniff and only pet as and when invited.

And this is supposed to be a 'companion animal'? Sounds like it would
be better off living on it's own somewhere?

Sore/painful spots can also cause a sudden switch to biting.

And if that was most other (and not even 'companion) animals, they
would just move away or possibly yelp (if a dog) etc. They would be
very unlikely to bite or scratch for such things.

I think cats are just pompous, arrogant and pointless. ;-)

When daughter was up the RSPCA place the other day they were 'petting'
the pigs [1], horses and goats and none of them bit her because they
had had enough attention (I'm not saying they couldn't, just that they
didn't, even though they were all much bigger than a cat).

Cheers, T i m

[1] From the photos they showed me it looked like the pig had gone
into a coma after getting a good 'scratching'. ;-)