The earplug thing is--yikes. Definitely a red flag.
But mostly the person I feel sympathy here for is the cat. Cats regularly drawing blood when they're engaged in play (as opposed to when they're frightened and defensive, or overstimulated and want to be left alone) is not normal. I have never had a cat who displays that level of violence and of the probably more than a hundred friends' cats I've known I can think of exactly one where that was an issue. It is possible they have an unusually aggressive cat; it is more likely to me (especially between the fact that the LW clearly doesn't like cats to begin with and the BF does not understand cats well enough to set and maintain a feeding schedule) that neither of them really understands how to engage with a cat in a way that makes it feel safe while giving it sufficient physical and mental exercise.
LW should probably dump BF, but man, I sure hope that if that cat doesn't get rehomed, one or both of his humans does some studying on cat behavior.
no subject
But mostly the person I feel sympathy here for is the cat. Cats regularly drawing blood when they're engaged in play (as opposed to when they're frightened and defensive, or overstimulated and want to be left alone) is not normal. I have never had a cat who displays that level of violence and of the probably more than a hundred friends' cats I've known I can think of exactly one where that was an issue. It is possible they have an unusually aggressive cat; it is more likely to me (especially between the fact that the LW clearly doesn't like cats to begin with and the BF does not understand cats well enough to set and maintain a feeding schedule) that neither of them really understands how to engage with a cat in a way that makes it feel safe while giving it sufficient physical and mental exercise.
LW should probably dump BF, but man, I sure hope that if that cat doesn't get rehomed, one or both of his humans does some studying on cat behavior.