A beloved tuxedo feline named Chester, who spent five years as an apartment cat, became a viral sensation after his owners recorded his utterly confused and cautious reaction to encountering stairs for the very first time in his new house.
The video, which captures Chester’s perplexed stare at the multilevel structure, was shared by his owners, Karys and Max. They told Newsweek about their adorable cat and how Chester has adapted to the stairs since. Since their clip was posted, it has received over 275,000 likes.
“When you were an apartment cat but now live in a house and have no idea how stairs work,” the owners captioned the video. “It took him a couple of days, but he’s getting more comfortable with the stairs! Dolly powered through them right away.”
The Stairway Surprise
Karys and Max, who adopted Chester after fostering him during the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020, confirmed that the move was Chester’s first time seeing a home with multiple levels. Before moving to the apartment, Chester had a difficult start, having been “trapped in a garage with 30 other cats in a hoarding situation,” Karys said.
Given his background, it is understandable that new changes take time.
“This was his first time seeing a multilevel home … He was very, very timid of the stairs at first,” the owners added. “It took him a couple of days to be comfortable going down them all on his own.”
The sheer novelty of the stairs resonated with others who had moved felines from single-level homes. One commenter shared a similar memory: “When my grandma passed and we had to rehome her cat, the new owners sent us a video of her sniffing the stairs in utmost suspicion after being a bungalow cat most of her life.”
New Home, New Habits
The good news is that Chester is quickly adjusting to his new, vertical environment. “Now he drags his toys down the stairs to bring them to us,” his owners shared.
The change in environment prompted some humorous speculation from commenters about how the new stairs might affect the cat’s health.
“My chunky cat got skinny when we moved to a house because of suddenly having to go up and down stairs,” one person posted.
However, another user expressed anxiety over their feline’s upcoming move: “We bought our home (haven’t moved in yet) and I’m terrified of how my cat will be, because he’s only used to small sets of stairs, and he tore a ligament already on a small set of stairs.”
Despite Chester’s initial shyness around new things, Karys and Max said he remains the “absolute sweetest cat in the world.” Max said they feel “so lucky” to have him, describing him as “so cuddly” and absolutely loving being around the pair on their laps.
“He’s still really shy around new people, and change takes him a bit to get used to, but he never loses how sweet he is,” Karys said. “He’s never hissed or swatted at us or anyone.”
The small moment of confusion over the stairs seems to be simply another sweet reminder of his gentle nature.
