A teenager punched his mother and grandmother when they stepped in to stop him from assaulting a cat.
The women were forced to intervene when they saw Jai Craik, 18, squeezing the pet cat so hard that it squealed in pain.
Craik then flew into a violent rage and threw punches at the female members of his family, Perth Sheriff Court heard.
The teenager, from Tiree Place, Perth, admitted two charges of punching his mother and grandmother at his home on January 10.
Depute fiscal Tina Dickie said: “They were within the living room. The accused was holding the family cat and began to squeeze it.
“The witnesses were aware the cat was in pain and in fact it cried out in pain. His mother went over to the accused and tried to take the cat from him.
“But the accused resisted. They became involved in a scuffle until the cat was freed.
“The accused was in an enraged state and began to shout at his grandmother. His mother attempted to calm him down.
“He punched his grandmother on the shoulder and back and began to shout at his mother. As she turned round to walk away he punched her on the back as well.”
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said he accepted there were “issues” in Craik’s background and that the situation had arisen from a history of family tensions.
He deferred sentence for Craik to be of good behaviour.