[bikerbill]

People always truck out snubbies when this question arises ... shooting a j-frame or LCR in .38spcl accurately enough to hit a moving cat would be beyond my abilities and I'm guessing an inexperienced shooter would have the same problem ... a reasonably sized semi in 9mm would be my suggestion, giving her more ammo for the inevitable misses and a far easier-to-shoot platform ... as always, let the lady decide, but make sure she realizes that while a j-frame might feel good in her hands, it leaves her with a hard-to-shoot weapon that takes lots of practice to shoot accurately while reducing the number of rounds she has available to actually hit the cat in question ...

my wife, incidently, has shot my (now-departed) Smith 637 and absolutely hated it ... hard recoil, heavy trigger pull ... she put it aside after 20-30 shots ... she loves my .22mag revolvers, however, and keeps an LCR in .22mag in her nightstand ... not the best for SD, but little recoil and she's made it clear she does not want anything bigger ...

and even if she can shoot well on paper targets, a moving target is a whole 'nother can of worms ...