I strongly believe that a cat's reflection is 90% based on its master. That girlfriend of yours must have been a real man hurter.
I've had many cats in my life, as have my family members. Once when my dad was living alone back in KSA while my family was away to vist a sick relative, he was left alone with a 1 month old kitten that he had to train on his own basically.
The kitten's name was Felix, and basically when my mum, sis and bro. got back home, it had turned into a little fucking demon. For the lack of a better word, the best way to describe my father's sense of fun is naughty. He would slightly pull at the cat's tail (nothing painfull) to get it's attention, and then would take part in 1 one 1 combat where the kitten would be doing battle with his hand. He never hurt the kitty, but all this made Felix really naughty.
When my family came back the state of Felix was such that he'd climb to the top of the fridge and then would jump on the back some unsuspecting person's neck. He never used claws, but it was dangerous. He would also kill pigeons and bring them back to the house to share his contribution, and would climb to the top of cupboards and just pounce on our poor guests.
Once there was a bird which had built a nest on a window near the top of the building. Felix spotted the baby chicks in the nest from below and thought long and hard. He then ran up the stairs to the top, where he jumped to the net behind the window and kept hitting till the baby chicks fell. He proceeded to run downstairs where he had a tasty meal. Poor baby chicks.
Our neighbors saw everything and didn't do anything to stop him.
Felix was one crazy cat, and my siblings loved him. Unfortunately he was hit by a car and died when he wasn't even a year old. He was a lean black cat with white mitten like hands. He also had really bushy tail and it was sad when he died.