Our cat ended up biting my mother near her eye. My brother was out at the time, but was telling me what he was told, and apparently our cat went for our mother's eye/temple area twice, and there was blood dripping down her face. For more context, my parents are notoriously bad at pilling our cats. We've had many cats who grew older and needed medication eventually, and my mother does some of the worst things such as putting our cats on their backs, not wrapping our cats in a blanket, towel, etc. when she should, yanking their jaws open instead of using easier methods (ex: applying pressure to the corners of their mouths to get them to open naturally).
My mother also creates such a stressful environment for our cats when trying to give them their medication, it's hard to explain. They always end up very stressed and aware of what's going on so they go into fight or flight, if that makes sense. Me and my brother have tried to tell her how she comes across as intimidating/stressful to the cats and better ways to lead into giving them their medication, but honestly it doesn't work. I've also demonstrated how to pill our cats properly to her and my father, but they don't absorb the information and it seems they just reverted back to their usual ways.
From what I was told by her and my brother, it seems she handled the whole situation very poorly. She tried pilling our cat on the floor of our living room I'm guessing since it's her usual spot, but couldn't do it alone so she was holding our cat in one arm while trying to wake my father who was sleeping on our couch. Our cat was not in a wrap and was hissing at her (which he rarely does, he's 10+ years old and I could probably count on my hands how many times I've witnessed him hissing), and I know he can get rather squirmy when he doesn't want to be held in general, so I can only imagine the force my mother was using to hold him with one arm. Before my father could help, I guess that's when our cat attacked her. Of course I wish my mother wasn't bitten, but with all these things happening and my experience with our cat and my parents history, she was basically asking to be bitten. I just can't fathom why she handled it all so poorly.
My brother has been texting me about his concern about the whole situation. We don't know how bad our mother's injury actually is because she went to bed before my brother got home. I guess he also learned that their attempt was unsuccessful when he got home. When my mother texted me about being bitten, I assumed they had eventually pilled our cat. But about 2 hours later my brother texted me when he got home and said our father was unwilling to pill our cat (I assume because of the failed attempt from my mother). Thankfully, my brother convinced our father to hold our cat and it was a success. My brother told me that our father said he was scared, and mentioned the blood. Our cat is okay right now and I hope our mother is too, but I'm stressed out and not sure what's happening tomorrow anymore. I have such a busy day ahead, but my mind and heart are racing.
It's incredibly frustrating that my parents, especially my mother, can't seem to grasp the things I teach them about caring for our cats. This medication thing is just one of many things. I had an argument with them regarding our cat two weeks ago, so this is just another thing piling up on that issue. I'm concerned about my father being unwilling to pill our cat after seeing what happened to my mother, and claiming he was scared. I really hope they don't end up resenting our cat because of this because it's not his fault and he's one of the most gentle cats we've had. If they just took the time and care to fix how they do these things, it would be easier for everyone involved. I don't live there all the time, and my brother isn't always home, so they really need to learn how to do these things themselves. I've already been having a difficult semester and it's been a struggle to keep on top of my school work. I just hate how so many things have been piling up, and have been incredibly stressed for the past few weeks.