Imagine taking your cat to the vet and letting the cat sit on your lap while you wait in the lobby. If a child came up to your cat and wanted to pet it, would you be okay with that, or would you protect your cat from the child?

In this story, one cat owner is in this situation and does not want the child to pet the cat; however, she’s wondering if she was too harsh about it.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for yelling at a kid not to touch my cat?

My cat Patches just turned 14 recently and was diagnosed with asthma earlier this year. I take her to the vet every few months for an antibiotic shot that seems to help her breathe better and avoid making her have to go through being on an inhaler.

Anyway, the last time I took her to the vet I had her out of the carrier in my arms. The staff was fine with this since there was no one else in the room. If a dog came in, I would put her back in and zip her up.

So, I’m waiting for the vet to come out to get us when all of a sudden the door swings open.

It’s a mom and kid who is about 5. They don’t have a pet with them so I’m guessing they’re there to pick something up.

The cat was not as excited to see the child as the child was to see the cat.

Patches is startled but doesn’t go back to the carrier so I just continue holding and petting her.

While the mom is at the counter talking to the receptionist, the kid looks my way and immediately shouts “KITTY” and starts to run over to me.

That makes Patches jump back in her carrier because she doesn’t like small children because of some bad experiences when she was younger.

I’m starting to zip up the carrier when the kid tries to pet her.

It seems like everyone overreacted here.

Without thinking, I yell out: “DON’T TOUCH HER!”

The kid backs up and starts crying cause I yelled, but I’m more focused on zipping my cat in.

At this point, the mom turns around and STOMPS over to me fuming.

How could I yell at her kid and make her cry, it’s just a cat, she’s only a child, I should just let her pet the cat.

She explained her perspective to the mom.

I tell the mom that her kid has no right to touch my cat, shouldn’t be running over to people’s pets and expecting to pet them without permission because that’s just asking to get a scratch or a bite mark, and she needs to teach her kid how to approach animals the right way, etc.

The mom doesn’t say anything back and just takes her crying kid and picks up her stuff and gives me a major stink face when leaving.

I got through my appointment without any other interruptions and no one in reception really have any comments on it.

She’s not sure if she messed up or not.

I later told a friend about it and was told I was too harsh on the kid and shouldn’t have made them cry. That I could’ve approached it more delicately.

I don’t think I did anything wrong because I was protecting my cat because a lot of kids don’t know how to handle and treat animals in my experience.

I don’t know, am I the jerk here?

I don’t think she needed to let the kid pet the cat. I do think she could’ve been a little nicer about explaining that to the kid, but I assume she yelled at the kid out of fear and wanting to protect her cat.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This situation never would’ve happened if the cat had been in the carrier the whole time.

This person is on the cat owner’s side.

Another person points out WHY it’s a good idea not to have a cat on your lap at the vet.

Nobody thinks the child should’ve approached the cat.

The vet lobby is not a petting zoo.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.