Exact Moment Cat Scratches Woman's Eye, Leaving Her Blind, Caught on Video

A woman has lost her eyesight after being scratched by her own pet cat.

Over 6 million TikTok viewers have watched the moment @cleothecitykitty attempts to kiss her white cat's nose, but was then struck with a paw.

The video, captioned: "You can NEVER trust even the sweetest animal. Luckily the vision loss was temporary," highlighted the potential dangers associated with seemingly harmless pet interactions.

Newsweek reached out to Nicky Trevorrow, a behavior manager for the U.K. charity Cats Protection, for comment on the viral clip.

She said: "Most animals need space and can find kisses to the face too much and quite confrontational. Despite the kind intentions here, it shows the importance of understanding and being able to read cat body language and facial expression, for example, the ears going back and the cat leaning away.

"Bear in mind that cats have a limit to how much petting they can handle. They generally prefer short but frequent interactions of play and petting. In contrast, people often interact less often but more intensely and this can be a bit much for some cats. If your cat shows aggressive behavior, your first step should always be to visit your vet who can check your cat's health and rule out any health-related causes."

In another video, the TikToker described the incident as a "freak accident" and stated she had learned a lesson. She vowed never to go too close to her cat's face again after losing her vision for three weeks.

Shane Kannarr, medical reviewer at All About Vision, told Newsweek: "The cornea, or clear part that goes over the iris is vital for vision. The outermost layer is the epithelium. If it is abraded it will be very painful, can impact vision and causes an infection risk since this barrier is an important part of our eye ability to prevent infection. These abrasions often require antibiotics.

"Severe abrasions may require a bandage contact lens to heal. The layer underneath this is called the stroma. This area does not heal well and can scar easily. If the abrasion is into this layer, it can require antibiotics, steroids to prevent healing and takes longer to heal. A scar can cause permanent loss of best-corrected vision.

"As far as vision loss the most concerning would be a scar from a corneal abrasion. If this happens, in some cases, a procedure called phototherapeutic keratectomy will remove the scar and restore vision."

More than 8,000 users have commented on that video, which also has 412,000 likes.

One comment said: "It's not about "trust", we gotta learn to respect them, including their needs and boundaries.. stop expecting them to behave as humans."

"I love cats sm [so much] but they're so unpredictable it's scary," said another.

Newsweek reached out to @cleothecitykitty for comment via TikTok. We could not verify the details of the case.

Do you have any adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.