Sophie Scherg must have thought her morning was looking up when she met a sweet-looking kitty while out jogging. It was the perfect excuse for cat-lover Sophie to interrupt her run (and we always welcome those) and spend a few minutes petting a cat.
Is anything more soothing and enjoyable than chilling with a furry little cuteball? Not really. It certainly lifts the spirits. Strokes and cuddles have been scientifically proven to make humans and cats happier.
A friendly (looking) cat
However, this random little petting session didn't go as Sophie expected. The cat, who Sophie had never seen before, seemed super friendly. In fact, it initiated first contact by strolling up to Sophie and rubbing against her leg in that special way cats do.
And it was purring away nicely. That's usually a sign that a cat is happy, content, and generally just loving life.
But then the cat switched. Big time. The purrs turned to hisses, and the cat launched a surprise attack. It bit and scratched Sophie's leg. It even started chasing Sophie after she backed away.
What a furry little psycho! You could say the encounter turned out to be a complete 'cat-astrophe.'
Sophie had her camera out ready for a super-cute cat video and managed to film the entire 'attack.' She then shared the footage on TikTok.
It's now racked up an incredible 26 million views, 5 million likes, and almost 60K comments.
"Well done for keeping your cool," posted one viewer. "You're a cat lover. You didn't get angry and saw the funny side."
"Maybe it was just having a bad day. Then again, it's always the ginger ones," suggested another viewer.
Are ginger cats more aggressive?
There's no scientific evidence that the colour of a cat's coat is linked to higher levels of aggression. But 80% of ginger cats are male. And, like with most species, unneutered male cats tend to be more aggressive than females.
So should you avoid ginger cats in the future? That's up to you. But it will take more than a few scratches to stop us from making friends with EVERY SINGLE CAT we see.
