Why not put a lock on your bedroom door? It is not fair to the cat that he gets chased and cornered to the point where he feels he must defend himself. I'm definitely on the side of the cats - but they can inflict pretty serious damage.

having children learn to respect the privacy and feelings of an animal is a part of parenting. children must learn to respect animals. ss clearly has a problem with this.

as your bedroom is a "safe zone" for your cats and the ss is not listening to you to stay our of your room, its the ss fault that he got scratched. the cat is defending himself.

ss is young and has to learn not to chase or tease the cats. you must enforce these rules and bm also has to talk to the young man.

this sounds so much like bm when the skids were young. bm always let cats out of the house to get run over by cars and constantly adopted dogs and then gave them away. bm even abandoned several easter bunnies (bought on impulse) in the woods after the initial novelty ended. this is animal cruelty. these domestic rabbits were surely some coyotes next meal. utterly clueless and heartless. this of course taught a lesson to her children that animals dont count for much and dont have feelings. one of the skids was trying to throw our pets out of the house when her school friends came over. i put a stop to that immediately.

i am sorry for that poor dog of bm. btw in some states it is illegal to leave a dog outside on a tether. its inhumane.

I'm actually surprised Kitty comes out when the kid is over. But then there may not be that many places for Kitty to hide depending on your apartment. My kitty has passed on now, but when someone (adult or kid) came by, if Kitty had decided she didn't like nor want anything to do with that person, you'd never know I had a cat. She'd find one of her little hiding spots, make herself comfy and settle in.

Forget about what BM does at home with her animals (somebody should stake her out in the backyard, *SMH*) , that poor dog isn't around and scratching the kid. Your cat is. So focus on what you have to do in your home. You know the kid can't be allowed to keep chasing and scaring Kitty, so that needs to be your focus.

What consequence does the kid get when he chases the cat or when kid goes into your bedroom knowing he is not suppose to? He's five now, not two, so no excusing his actions. He's been coming to your home EOWE for a year now and spent a month or so there last summer. There's been plenty of time to teach kid 'no' means no.

You know at pre-school the kid doesn't get to just get up and go chase another kid into a corner. You know he doesn't just sneak up and get in the teacher's desk. If the school and teacher can 'teach' the kid to follow rules in the classroom, your SO certainly can at home.

Keep your bedroom totally off limits. It's your cat's safe place. Give the kid consequences if he chases the kitty around when kitty comes out of the bedroom. No evening bedtime cartoon or put his blocks up on the top of fridge. It's up to you and SO to figure this out and handle it so it comes to a stop.

If my kid were to be coming home more than once with cat scratches I'd be contacting you too. BM doesn't have cats in her small two bedroom apartment, you do. It's up to Dad to control the kid on Dad's time. BM will shut up and your kitties will definitely thank-you.

OP, is it possible to have an outside run for the cats when skid is over? If you have the space or the situation is right. Keep the brat away from the cats. It's not fair them being terrorized by children who have not been taught to behave kindly to animals.

SO needs to teach his son not to chase pets. It’s borderline abusive to chase animals, kid isn't a year old. He understands language so he needs to be taught to leave pets alone. No it’s not cats’ fault but certainly not BM’s either. Any parent would be concerned re scratches. As crazy as she is BM cannot come to your Apartment and teach kids not to chase pets. Your SO can though, and he should.

I have two furballs myself. When SO and I moved in together SS8 now 9 would chase them sometimes and run after them. Luckily my cats were use to me doing that to them as my way of playing with them. The oldest loves this game he always has. When I catch him he lays over and lets me rub his head. They other one is good with it but he mostly just lays over and lets me rub his belly. SS had to learn at first that they had to trust him before they would let him really play with him.

He would chase them, he was never mean about ti just thought some things were funny. It took time and he learned, now he asks how to pick them up the right way and how to hold them. They are still both really young I think that helped. He has chased them with his remote control car thing that is the same size as them. The one just ran and hid the other ran but would only go a few feet and then come out and see it and keep peaking at it. He thought it was more a game.

Kids need to learn to respect animals. Tell BM to go to hell and stop complaining and teach her kid how to behave. I am sorry you corner a cat and they hurt you, you deserve it. It is really that simple. SS will sit there and horse play with our 80 lb dog and roll on the ground with him. We are always telling him he hurts you that is your fault. The other day the dog got really excited during the play and stepped on SS's back and scratched him. Did not break the skin, it was just red. SS was crying, SO and I both simply said sorry that hurt let us see, ok no blood, well we told you and it was your fault.

SS was mad at us because we did not treat him like a baby. Best of luck.

Like others have stated, the child needs to be taught proper pet etiquette.

Also, stuff happens - and quickly.

Also... also, BM needs to be informed she needs to mind her own business, and maybe... just maybe, once she’s in a place of displaying outstanding pet ownership herself, then she might have a leg to stand on when it comes to such complaints.

Report what she's doing to her dog, please.

BM and pets, I swear: A few years ago SS kept coming over covered in little red bumps. It would be a smallish patch either on his legs, arms, neck, etc. BM kept insisting it was my small dog who ss had been around already for years with no skin issues. It got to the point where I had to put my pup in the bedroom with a baby-gate and vacuum our living space before ss came over because dh didn't know what to do(this was before he got a lawyer for visitation and she would deny dh picking him up if he didn't do it).
Fast forward a few weeks later and ss tells dh that "he wasn't supposed to tell him about the bugs".
Turns out BM had bedbugs.....we are lucky they didn't spread.