The way a mother cat decides to cope without having her kittens around her is enough to shatter anyone’s heart.
A July 5 TikTok video posted by @finny.mp4 explains that the owner’s cat, Ms. Kitty, had six litters. But not once did this momma cat get to keep a kitten. Six times she parted with her babies.
Even though this cat doesn’t have a kitten anymore, her motherly instincts didn’t disappear. In fact, she shows these instincts every evening, but instead of kitties, she turns to socks and stuffed animals.
The text on the clip reads: “And now, late at night she gets little stuffed animals or even folded socks and grooms them, meowing for all her babies she lost.”
Newsweek reached out to @finny.mp4 via TikTok for additional comment.
Grooming and licking are a daily part of a cat’s routine and they will typically spend between three to five hours a day grooming themselves. It’s their way of keeping clean. But it also helps regulate their body temperature, stimulate circulation, cool themselves down and eliminate parasites, infections or allergies.
Cats will sometimes groom each other, which helps create a special bond. But like Ms. Kitty, cats might have to turn to different objects like stuffed animals if another feline isn’t with them.
The Better With Cats website reported that cats licking toys as it is a soothing behavior. Cats also mark their scent and claim ownership of the toy they’re constantly licking, which mimics what they would do in the wild.
In Ms. Kitty’s instance, she does it for comfort. The stuffed animals and socks she grooms now carry a familiar scent, making her get attached. Now, she seeks out those objects in her nightly routine to help cheer herself up.
‘Once a Mama, Always a Mama’
The heartbreaking TikTok clip reached over 740,200 views, 203,200 likes and 628 comments as of Wednesday. Viewers couldn’t hold their tears back.
“I’d be in tears every night,” said one TikToker with another adding: “Don’t do this to me right now.”
A viewer wrote: “Once a mama, always a mama, poor baby, but she knows she’s loved, safe, and knows you’d do anything to help her if you could.”
Others commented about similar experiences: “We rescued a cat whose kittens died. Before she passed every night she’d walk around the house crying for her babies and it would break me every time.”
Screenshots from a July 5 TikTok video of an owner’s cat who had six litters. The cat didn’t keep any kitten and now grooms stuffed animals or socks at night in place. @finny.mp4/TikTok
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