Why does my cat attack my hand when I try to play with toys?

by Ethan

I'll start this off by saying I'm pretty sure my cat has some form of anxiety. We got him off the street as a young kitten (and I mean middle of the road with heavy traffic), and ever since then, he's always seemed very uneasy most of the time.

He does have moments of relaxation where he'll sit on our laps and purr while letting us pet him, but a majority of the time he seems very tentative and wide-eyed.

One thing that he's always seemed to enjoy though, is playing with his various toys. Recently, however, when I play with him using various toys that have a handle for me to hold on to, he'll stop, look up at my hand, and meow in a tone that I've identified before as his request for me to stop doing whatever I'm doing because he really doesn't like it.

He'll even start ignoring the toy and jump up to attack my hand. But what's weird is I'll stop and drop the toy, and he'll continue trying to play with it, even letting me pick it back up to resume whatever we were doing before.

Any idea what he's trying to say there?