why does my cat attack my feet

You cross the room and something detonates from under the sofa and fastens onto your ankle. This is not a declaration of war, however it feels at the time. Your feet, particularly your feet in motion, are the finest prey the cat has, and pouncing on them is not malice. It is a small predator practising the only trade it knows.

your feet are prey, and prey that flees is irresistible

A cat is a hunter with nothing to hunt, and your feet are the best moving target in the house. They dart, they twitch under a blanket, they disappear round corners, they behave exactly like the small scurrying things a cat is built to ambush. So the attack is play, and play in a cat is rehearsal for the hunt: stalk, pounce, grab, bite. It is most intense in kittens and young cats, who have energy to spend and instincts freshly switched on, and it tends to strike when the cat is under-exercised and bored, which is to say most evenings.

how to keep your ankles

The fix is not to punish the hunting, which is as fixed as breathing, but to give it a better target. Play with the cat properly every day, with a wand toy or something it can chase, stalk and finally catch, and tire it out on purpose, ideally before the times it usually ambushes you. A cat that has emptied its tank on a toy has nothing left for your feet. The one rule you must not break is never to use your hands or feet as the toy, because a cat that learns your body is the game will keep playing it, harder, as it grows. When the ambush comes anyway, do not squeal and run, which only confirms your feet are excellent prey. Go still, end the fun, and redirect it onto a toy. Give the instinct somewhere to go and your ankles become boring, which is the highest compliment a cat can pay them.

Related reading from my desk: why does my cat get the zoomies, the same pent-up energy at full sprint, and why does my cat bite me, on the difference between play and warning.

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