Cats Struggling To Catch a Mouse Dubbed Real Life 'Tom and Jerry' in Video

A video showing a mouse easily escaping the clutches of a cat and her kittens is being dubbed a real-life version of cartoon favorites Tom and Jerry.

First created by legendary animation duo William Hanna and Joseph Barbera back in 1940, the trials and tribulations of Tom and Jerry, a cat and mouse regularly at odds with one another, are an enduring classic with a new film and series released in 2021.

While the slapstick elements of the duo's antics have played a large part in their continued success, at its heart Tom and Jerry is an underdog story with the idea of a mouse regularly outsmarting a cat at odds with expectations. Or so we thought.

Now, a video posted to TikTok by pet owner Nina Boyd has gone some way to shattering the myth that cats have the edge over their rodent rivals.

In the clip, which has been viewed over 400,000 times, Boyd's feline friend, Cleopatra, can be seen trying - and failing - to catch a large stray mouse that can be seen darting around the confused feline.

"This some Tom and Jerry type s***," Boyd wrote alongside the clip, which can be viewed here.

Cleo isn't the only cat seemingly struggling to nab the mouse though, with several kittens appearing almost fearful of the rodent, which, given their age, may be the first they have ever seen.

Whatever the case, their owner appears thoroughly unimpressed, expressing audible shock and disappointment on the video. But while the clip appears to show the mouse running rings around the gang of cats, the reality may be a little more complicated than that.

According to Chris Hughes, Curatorial and Collections Assistant at the Grant Museum of Zoology, cats often play with food like mice, birds and other small mammals for a very specific reason.

"The act of cats 'playing' with their food is so that they can hone their hunting skills," he told University College London. "Playing' is seen more in indoor domestic cats as they have not had to learn to hunt from their mothers, who would normally teach their kittens to hunt as early as 6 weeks old."

While the cat in the video may well be teaching her kittens how to hunt, it does not appear to be going very well - much to the delight of people on social media.

DeeDee1913 said: "think your cats are broken" with a_x.x_p quipping: "the mouse is chasing them."

Niknak687 asked: "Have you tried switching them off and on again I think they are broken?" Reeeeeeeeee.eee, meanwhile, commented: "Looks like they made a new friend."

Elsewhere, nicolajayne855 expressed relief at the fact the cats were struggling to catch their prey, writing: "I'm so happy that they're not hunting, the downside to owning cats is their gifts."

Rebecca Gilbert was also keen to stress that not every cat is an adept hunter. "My old cat used to be scared of mice," she recalled.

Newsweek has contacted Nina Boyd for comment.