It’s an amusing little TikTok video which has captured the imagination of the viewing public. It was made by a woman who is thought to live in America with the TikTok handle @Queefly online. It’s been viewed a lot of times. This is a multi-companion animal home.
In the video we see her 15-year-old Labrador retriever, Bailey in front of Snickers the family cat who arrives behind him. The way I read the video is that Snickers instinctively wants to mess around with his dog companion. He wants to play as he instinctively nibbles his thigh and it seems that he gently slaps him on the hind leg.
@queefly luckily she’s okay 💜 #dogsofttiktok
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
This prompts the dog to move forward. Some people say that the cat pushed him down the stairs 🤔. This can’t be the case in my opinion. The nibble prompts Bailey to move forward and down the stairs where, because of his age, he loses his footing. He falls down at the bottom of the stairs and his owner is greatly concerned. He’s okay though.
Some viewers say that because the dog was slapped on the leg, he jumped forward to get out of the way and that caused him to slip. There’s a big debate between viewers as to what went on.
It is clearly incorrect to say that Snickers deliberately pushed him down. This is humanising the domestic cat. It is putting thoughts into his head; human thoughts (arghhh). It’s the kind of thing that humans might do. However, you may have a completely different viewpoint to me which I would respect.
The Daily Mail opens up their article by saying that it’s a ‘shocking video’ in which a cat got caught pushing an elderly dog down the stairs. It’s click bait language.
What I like about the video is the voice of the woman. This makes me smile as she is either a good actress or genuinely very concerned about Bailey’s health. She says that her cat is too smart for his own good.
RELATED: Do domesticated cats actively seek out fun? – YES is the answer.
It’s an amusing video which opens up a debate about cat behaviour which I guess is a good thing. On a slightly more serious note, in a 2018 survey of 748 homeowners around the world it was found that more than 80% believed that their companion animals were comfortable with each other. It also found that domestic cats were three times more likely to antagonise dogs than the other way around. And this is shocking: cats are 10 times more likely to injure dogs in a fight than vice versa! 😒.
I have seen amusing videos of timid dogs being frightened to pass cats on the stairs. An indication that cats rule the roost in the home. Although I am sure that that is not always the case. It’s just that when a big burly dog is frightened to step past a cat resting on the stairs you can make an interesting video. Therefore, that kind of cat and dog interaction get seen online whereas the normal friendships don’t.
Here’s another question. Did the cat attack the dog because it was attacking her little boy or did the cat attack the dog because the dog was in her yard. I once had a cat that attacked any dog even if it was just walking passed our house. There are other video’s of cats protecting people from dog attacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZa8FdYNw1o
Online there are many video’s of cats attacking dogs but no video of cats killing a dogs. But many dogs are videoed killing cats.
This is a very well-known video. I have always interpreted this as the cat and dog having a close relationship, one that goes back to when the child was very young indeed (newborn). The cat relates to the child as offspring. And therefore, she defends the child from an attack by a dog. I think this cat behaviour goes to the way cats relate to people. We still don’t know exactly how they relate to people. But my view is that normally they treat their human caregiver as a surrogate mother but sometimes as their offspring. It is a slightly confused situation for a domestic cat. I don’t think the cat is protecting her territory in this instance. I’m not sure domestic cats actually protect territory from dogs because dogs don’t have home ranges and therefore there is no competition between cats and dogs over the tenure of a piece of land. Although, the cat you describe always attacked dogs that walk past your house. There are two possible reasons aren’t there? One is protecting their home range and the other is protecting the occupants or an occupant of the house. At the moment my feeling is that cats don’t protect home ranges from dogs and if that is correct your cat was protecting somebody in the home. Do you agree with that or disagree? 😉.
It could be she was protecting me because she was a neighborhood stray. I think her owners moved and left her behind. She became famous to dog owners and they never walked their dogs on our street, lol. The neighbors liked that cuz this was before people picked up the pooh. She accepted our dog but no other. 🙂
Very well written Michael. I have 5 chihuahua’s and one big fat old 70 pound dog. The cats rarely interact with the chi’s but most of the cats rub, cuddle and sleep with the big dog Ellen. But Ellen just runs thru everyone without a care she knocks them down or steps on them, she is a very rude big dog, lol.