Cat attacks me violently

by Rachel
(Philadelphia)

We "adopted" a four week old kitten about a year and a three months ago, that had been found abandoned by his mother in a city lot. He was extremely sweet and very sociable, in fact the people who had found him had been carrying him around for about two weeks, a gentleman and his 12 yr old daughter on summer break, trying to find him a home. They did not really know how to properly take care of such a young kitten, but they had the best intentions, and so that is how I found myself holding this tiny kitten in an art supply store one afternoon three weeks after my beloved 15 yr old cat passed away.

The poor kitten was almost bursting with worms and fleas, but after a vet trip he was dewormed and treated, and we nursed him back to perfect health and named him Boo. He started out sweet but very playful, and looking back was always a little aggressive, although when they are so young it seems cute. After growing through the first few months without a sibling to teach it how to play nice, he began attacking me at odd times, seemingly challenging me to play. When I would not abide he began to get more and more violent in his actions, eventually sinking teeth and claws deeply into my ankles and wrists, causing me to have to literally pry him off. At other times he was sweet and loving, not territorial and generally cautious but not aggressive towards strangers. My husband was allergic but tolerated having one cat out of respect for my having always had one, but refused to allow another one in the house... so we were forced to try things like spray bottles and shaking coins in jars whenever Boo would show aggressive signs like dilated pupils and rapid tail flicking. This helped when I was paying attention, but once or twice a week I would be startled by an attack on my arm or leg when at the computer or in the bathroom getting ready to go out. Another hot spot was when we were in bed reading before lights out, when he would come and lay on us, purring, then suddenly wrap himself around a wrist and sink the claws and teeth in. We had to close him out of the bedroom at night in order to keep from getting attacked in our sleep, should an arm or leg stick out from under the covers.

Eventually my husband developed a tolerance to cat dander and agreed to get another cat. When Boo was just over a year old we adopted a sweet little boy Oliver, 5 months old, still young but with enough spunk to keep Boo on his toes. There was never a hiss during introductions, and it turns out Boo is rather submissive to the new kitten, and now they are pretty good pals. They do get a little aggressive with each other, but no fur flying, and when one yelps they stop.

My problem is that Boo still attacks me out of nowhere on too frequent an occasion, and usually when I walk in the room while they are chasing each other around, and he can really try to jump up and even grabs my arms while I am standing. As you can imagine this can be really disarming (no pun intended), and I am wondering what I should do when he does attack me, since it usually is very painful and my instinct is to yell, grab him by the scruff, remove him from me, and place him in another room and close the door.

I have discussed options with my vet and she first suggested another cat to absorb some of the play aggression. Since that hasn't completely helped we are talking about putting him on Prozac. I know, seems ridiculous, but I have almost permanent scars at this point!

Please note I have always had cats in my life, and I have a pretty good basic knowledge of them. This is a totally new experience, though, and as you can imagine it is frustrating and emotionally draining. I am really tired of having scars on my wrists and ankles all of the time, but do not want to give up on him since most of the time he is a good boy. The other cat is a doll and has not bitten me once in 4 months.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

~Rachel