Is there anything I can do about a cat attacking my dog?

Question

There was a cat in the middle of the path, a man walked past it with his dog on the lead and it was fine. So i put my youngest dog on the lead.

next thing i see, the cat runs at my oldest dog and scratches her, she yelped and ran forward - terrified. She then tried to get to me but is scared and skirts round the edges. She was 4/5 metres away and not going any closer - when the cat charged at her.

As i get to her picking her up, my other dog is still on the lead touching my foot - my daughter is behind me screaming as it shocked her, and her dog was hurt. She'd left her scooter and ran at me.

Then the cat charges at my dog on the lead and scratched her across the face, making her mouth bleed!!! While Im holding the two dogs, my 6 year old is leaning behind me and i was watching so it couldn't come back.

The man with dog who was there says "sorry, thats my cat - these two are best mates, no idea whats going on!" He didn't care and didn't ask if my dogs or daughter were ok. Just went and patted his cat.

Is there anything I can do about this?

Answer 1

Carry a can of compressed air with you. If the cat gets aggressive, give her a blast of the compressed air. It does not leave her wet, as water would, but it does make a hiss that she won't like, and the puff of air will discourage her.

This is especially good if the cat has an owner. Even though water won't harm the cat, it might annoy the owner to see her wet.

I've used compressed air in the past for cats and it works very well.