Before revision: Kick the cat (or kick the dog) is a metaphor used to describe how a relatively high-ranking person in an organization or family displaces frustrations by abusing a lower-ranking person, who may in turn take it out on one's own subordinate.
After revision: Kick the cat (or kick the dog) is a metaphor used to describe how a relatively high-ranking person in an organization or family displaces frustrations by abusing a lower-ranking person, who may in turn take it out on theirtheir own subordinate.