My cat has been attacking my face.

Question
My cat will be a year old sometime around the end of July beginning of August. My father found her when she was a few weeks old in front of our house. For the past 3 months or so my cat has been attacking my face. When she first started to do it she would stop after I would pop her. Lately though it has been getting worse and she's getting a lot meaner when she does it. I can be sitting in my chair and her sitting on my floor or in my lap and she jumps up from were ever she is to my face and start to attack. Now when she attacks my face and I go to move her she goes straight to my hand and attacks it. She’s also starting to leave scars on me. I don't know what’s wrong with her. She has always has been nice to me up until this. She has nothing to do with my mom or dad unless they feed her for me when I’m not home or sick, nor does she do this to them. I love my cat and she is usually very loving to me. Any ideas on how I can get her to stop attacking me like this?

Answer
Hi Ashley,

The first thing you want to do is take her to the vet. A change in behavior like that might be the symptom of something bothering her. If she checks out okay let's do a walk through of different things that can cause the aggression. Has anything changed in the house? Is there a new person or animal around? Does she see or hear an animal outside? Have you been someplace where there are animals? All these things can trigger her behavior.
Think at when she has this behavior. What happened right before? Was she at a window or door? Was someone over?
You have to play detective here. If you can't figure out anything that is upsetting her, and she checks out okay, write back and I'll be able to help you further. But I think one of these things are the problem. Good luck and write back.

Ciao, Karen