When Rob and his wife Emma began their relationship five years ago, she warned him about her cat, initially named Cookie but soon dubbed Satan due to his difficult temperament. The jet-black feline, recovering from recurring eye herpes, has been reportedly affectionate solely toward Emma, while exhibiting hostility toward others, including Rob. This behavior, Emma explained, stems from a troubled early life; Satan’s mother’s kittens were born in a home where a tom cat father killed one of Satan’s siblings during their infancy.

Rob, an experienced cat owner, found it challenging to bond with Satan. The cat’s animosity manifested as hissing, scratching, and spitting whenever Rob approached, behaviors that seemed aimed at undermining Rob’s relationship with Emma. Satan showed a knack for self-injury timed around the family’s plans to travel, including an incident where he trapped his leg in a washing machine, resulting in the cancellation of a holiday in Scotland.

Despite Rob and Emma purchasing a home together and marrying this year, Satan’s possessiveness toward Emma has intensified. He reportedly follows her closely after her nursing shifts and appears to gaze at Rob with apparent disdain. Recently, Satan’s antagonism extended to targeting Rob’s mail—ignoring letters addressed to Emma but using Rob’s post as a scratching surface and, more problematically, as a litter tray. This has caused practical issues, such as ruining a council tax bill and a newly purchased book.

Economic constraints have prevented the couple from consulting a cat psychologist. Rob finds some solace in knowing that Satan’s hostility is not limited to him. The cat has also reportedly attacked their next-door neighbor and wounded some friends who attempted to interact with him despite warnings.

Emma remains sympathetic and optimistic about Satan’s potential for improvement. Drawing on her Swedish background and belief in the inherent goodness of animals, she advocates patience and compassion, maintaining that these qualities might eventually temper Satan’s behavior. She recently purchased a bow-tie collar in Sweden’s national colors to symbolize this hope, though Rob remains skeptical, comparing the gesture to adorning a notorious figure with a peace emblem.

Rob reflects on Satan’s six-year-old nature, likening the cat’s aggression and defiance to his own behavior at that age. He embraces a stoic attitude in managing the cat’s impact on their marriage, noting that the challenges posed by this feline presence offer a form of personal reckoning. He concludes with a wry nod to the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous assertion that “hell is other people,” suggesting that the sentiment might more accurately apply to difficult cats in intimate domestic settings.