Elizabeth Downs woman Michelle Johnstone attacked by own cat Matty and hospitalised

An Elizabeth Downs woman has told of the horror when her beloved feline friend turned on her, attacking without warning.

An Elizabeth Downs woman has told of her shock after the cat who nursed her through her mental illness suddenly and savagely bit her arm without warning.

Michelle Johnstone, 41, has lived alone with cat Matty for six years and that her “special boy” stayed by her bedside for months as she recovered from a deep depression that kept her off work and isolated socially.

Ms Johnstone said Matty was always a self-confident, self-assertive cat, but had never shown any aggression when last month a friend brought over a small, friendly white Maltese Shih tzu dog.

Matty was described as a self-confident, self-assertive cat – but had never shown any aggression before.

“He was yowling at the dog, so I grabbed him to take him outside and he resisted. He scratched then he bit right into my arm, in several places and I couldn’t get him off me,” she said.

The attack left her as one of more than a dozen of South Australians hospitalised each month because of savage pet cat attacks.

A Maltese Shih tzu like the one which triggered little Matty to attack his owner. Picture: File

Ms Johnstone was later admitted to a hospital emergency room where she had eight stitches.

“My arm swelled right up and so they kept me there for three days. The pain was horrendous – and the whole thing was borderline traumatic.

“When I came home from hospital Matty was sitting on the bed like nothing happened and started meowing at me for food – and I just thought you arsehole, how could you do this to me?”

When asked if she was going to punish Matty, Ms Johnstone said: “Are you kidding me? How do you punish a cat?”

It’s a question cat lovers are dealing with on a near daily basis in the state – what do you do when your beloved kitty cat leaves you with devastating injuries?

Matty the cat dug right into her skin and wouldn’t let go.

At least one person is hospitalised in South Australia every three days, on average, due to a “cat strike or other incidents involving cats”, with Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showing there were 2747 injury hospitalisations across the nation where a person was bitten or struck by a cat in Australia in 2021–22.

Cat behaviourist and founder of Catology, Chris O’Neill, said human-directed aggression from cats told us a few things about the beloved pet.

“If the cat doesn’t have something wrong with them, like with nerves or tooth pain, then it’s normally a reaction from the sight of another cat or in this case a dog.

“This winds them up so much that they get into a panic and just unleash on the nearest thing. They are overstimulated and just trying to get rid of their angst and anger.”

Catologist Chris O'Neill says “we can never truly know the mind of a cat”.

Michelle says her cat has been among her closest friends over the last few years while dealing with a mental health condition.

Mr O’Neill said when a cat lashes out, in particular at its owner, he undertakes an investigation.

“I had a client that was under their house and they were doing work under their house on some plumbing. When he came inside the cat sniffed his knee and then just attacked him viciously, and would just not settle down.

“It turned out that other cats were coming over and urinating under the house, and this has set his cat off.”

“In another case it happened every time someone brought the mail in because it turned out a neighbourhood Tom was spraying the mail.

Matty is now back to normal and “acts like nothing ever happened”.

“Cats are only semi-domesticated, they are still semi-wild. They have not evolved like dogs.

In their own mind they are still a tiger.”

He recommends that people reconsider how to best create an environment inside for cats that best allows them to express and explore their natural instincts as “a lot of behavioural problems from cats comes from them being kept indoors”.

Meanwhile, Ms Johnstone is moving ahead with her little tiger cautiously.

“He is back to sleeping on my bed. But to him it’s like nothing has happened – if anything he has been meowing at me like I did something wrong.”