A formerly "feral" cat named Pepper has left the internet in tears after his owner shared an emotional video of how his life changed when she adopted him.
In the viral clip, shared on TikTok on Friday by the dog's owner, under the username Feraltofamous, the cat can be seen enjoying his new home and his new owner and all the love he's been receiving.
The video compares pictures of him when he was still feral, and pictures of him loving life as a house pet, never going cold or hungry, or homeless again.
@feraltofamous Conversations with a feral cat. After 12 long years, he finally listened to me #cattok #rescuecat #peppertok #feralcat #tnr
♬ Somewhere Only We Know - rhianne
Further down in the comments, the cat's owner says that Pepper was 100 percent feral when she met him and was scared of her for the entire 12 years he lived outside her door, before finally allowing her to love him.
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), approximately 3.2 million companion cats enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year.
About 100,000 of them are returned to their owners, and 2.1 million are adopted. At the same time, about 530,000 shelter cats are euthanized each year.
Even though cats are always portrayed as cold and manipulative creatures who use us to get food and comfort, it turns out that they actually do feel love for their owners!
A 2019 Oregon State University study published in Current Biology, suggests that cats exhibit the same attachment to their owners that babies show to their parents, with the kittens in the study acting distressed when their caregivers left and happy and secure when they returned.
The study also mentioned that the cats still acted this way one year later and the responses were similar to how human children react to their parents.
The video attracted cat lovers from across the platform, and it has received over 197,100 views and 30,300 likes so far.
One user, Lynn Peeters922 said: "I'm not crying you are." And Everythingpretty95 added: "There was no reason to make me cry in public transportation."
Emmaklickerklacker said: "the love of an animal cannot be compared to anything, it is simply deep and pure." And Sami wrote: "My gosh that cat loves you so much. Look how he holds your face while you're asleep. he's protecting you."
Another user, Little_Legs_Reads, said: "Never knew love until I took in an abandoned cat." And Be_Swheet22 added: "I'm fighting the tears and I'm losing! bless you he looks so happy." hel.l morgan wrote: "oh I bet he thinks he's died and gone to heaven."
Newsweek reached out to Feraltofamous for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.
Do you have funny and 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.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Maria Azzurra Volpe is a Newsweek Lifestyle Reporter based in London. Her focus is reporting on lifestyle and trends-related stories, ... Read more
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