What looked like a medical emergency in the snow had one cat owner preparing for a $1,000 vet visit—until she took a closer look and discovered there was no cause for alarm.
Owner Stacey let her 4-year-old Bengal cat, Tony, outside her Canadian home to enjoy the freshly fallen snow at the end of December. She began filming, and on cue, he decided to conduct his business, but thankfully, she kept recording, because she spotted what looked like “pink pee.”
In her December 27 TikTok video posted to her account @vampregrl, Stacey gasped at the bright color standing out against the powder. Tony covered the evidence and looked back at her as if he had done nothing wrong. Stacey, on the other hand, immediately decided he needed to go to the vet—even if an emergency visit cost $1,000. But before leaving with Tony, she told Newsweek via TikTok that something prompted her to go outside and take a photo for the vet.
“I gently moved the snow with my boot, heart pounding as I prepared myself,” she said. “Nothing. I moved more snow. Still nothing. Became a bit more aggressive at moving the snow with my boot when I saw the pink Nerf ball.”
With a sigh of relief, Stacey went back inside, looked at Tony and shook her head. She then rewatched the video, laughing at both her own reaction and Tony’s.
“Tony is a rescue because he had out-of-the-box pee problems,” she said. “It’s not medical. It’s about texture, so one of the reasons it was such a shock is because Tony has a pee-pad box.”
House soiling is the most common cat behavioral issue that owners report, an article from Cornell Feline Health Center states. Felines might eliminate outside the litter box due to medical issues, an aversion to it, or the preference for going outside the box. For Tony, he prefers soft surfaces, which is why Stacey uses a puppy pee pad inside the litter box.
“He sure likes to mess with me,” she said. “He’s a funny boy with so much character.”
Viewer Reactions
With over 3.3 million views and 330,000 likes on TikTok as of Tuesday, users flooded the comment section claiming they would have “thrown up from panic.”
“The immediate, ‘You’re going to the vet’ is so real as a pet parent,” commented a viewer.
Another jokingly added: “He did that on purpose.”
A third person said: “WHAT are the chances? I swear they know how to make us stresssss.”
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.
