Video of white cat refusing to leave man’s grave goes viral

People ask why this white cat is so interested in this man’s grave. The deceased man loved cats. The white cat tries to scrape and get at the man’s corpse. Relatives surrounding the grave try to pull the cat off. They are bemused. What is going on? There are two possibilities. The cat is grieving the loss of the man and wants to be reunited or the cat simply smells the corpse and is interested in it which is typical of the inquisitive nature of cats. I favor the latter. There is a third option – see below….

Malaysia: Relatives of the deceased man who loved cats are trying to figure out why this beautiful white cat is so interested in his grave. The white cat was not one of his pets. We are told that the cat is a “hometown cat near the mosque”. I’m not sure what this means. It probably means that the cat is a community cat living in and around the mosque. Perhaps the grave is in the grounds of the mosque.

I would like by the way to immediately remark that the women in the video have no idea how to handle domestic cats! Sorry to say that if it sounds harsh. But it is quite apparent that they’re unfamiliar with handling domestic cats and this cat looks like he/she is domesticated. Two women grab the cat by his foreleg; completely incorrect but the cat is very tolerant. Their behavior indicates that there are less true domestic cats in Malaysia and more community cats than in the West.

This beautiful cat scrapes at the ground where the man is buried. The man is the grandfather of the person, Zarul Hisham Md Zaid, 27, who made the video (believed FB username: Soffuan CZ). The people standing around the grave are relatives, I believe.

I feel an obligation to try and explain what is going on. I am meant to be an expert. I’m going to suggest something practical and unemotional as opposed to something to do with grieving and loss. I don’t think that this cat is grieving the loss of a man who loved cats. That may be the case but I don’t think it is. The cat is probably smelling the scent of the body. I’ll make the presumption that this man was not laid to rest in a coffin because it appears to be a Muslim funeral and the tradition is that the deceased is clothed in a white shroud and there is no casket.

The cat is interested in the scent coming out of the ground. The cat paws at the ground and scrapes at it. It is as if she wants to get at the corpse. It is an act of inquisitiveness. The smell interests the cat and that interest may be linked to food. Alternatively, you could argue that this is an example of a cat who wants to be reunited with a person she considered to be her owner, now deceased. However, I don’t agree with that idea. It is too far fetched for me. Another difficult to accept alternative is that the cat is using the freshly turned over earth as a litter box. Yep, that’s a possibility.

People often prefer to believe the grieving story because it fits neatly with our sentiments and emotions in this context. However, I think the answer is more scientific and practical as mentioned above. What do you think?