A couple from Texas have learned the importance of checking their dog’s crate before shutting him in, because they just never know what might be hiding in there.
Whenever pet owner Heather Schauder, 28, returns home, one of the first things she does is to let her miniature dachshund named Ernest out of his crate. But when she rushed over to the metal crate recently, she told Newsweek that she “was surprised to see” that Ernest wasn’t in there alone.
In fact, Ernest was actually joined by the family cat, Louis, too.
Schauder couldn’t resist sending a video to her fiancé, Alex Teti, 30, showing the cat and dog in the crate together to show him the importance of checking the crate before closing it.
“At first, I was annoyed at my fiancé for not being more careful, but when I saw that they were both totally relaxed, I couldn’t help but laugh,” Schauder said. “They were totally fine after I let them out, but it was funny to see the cat in a dog’s crate.
“I took the video on Snapchat to quickly show my fiancé, but I also saved it because the two boys were being so cute,” she continued.
The duo was in there for around five hours, but they had a bed, a blanket, and plenty of water to keep them both hydrated.
After sending the video to her fiancé, Schauder shared the footage on TikTok (@schaud3r) and it instantly went viral. In just a matter of days, it’s generated over 799,000 views and more than 146,600 likes on TikTok at the time of writing.
The caption alongside the video reads: “My fiancé left a little something extra in the dog’s crate this morning.”
Thankfully, Louis and Ernest get along swimmingly, so being stuck in the crate together wasn’t too difficult. Indeed, they are so close that Schauder often refers to Louis as her dog’s “emotional support friend” because he eases his anxiety.
Schauder continued: “I thought Louis would learn his lesson and not want to go in the crate anymore, but just a few days later, I had to pull him out of the crate before we put Ern in. At the end of the day, it was us who learned our lesson to check the crate more carefully, especially the bed that’s all the way in the back where he likes to snuggle.
“By the time I sent the video to my fiancé, I’d assessed that they were alright, so he was able to laugh at the situation. Although he also checks the crate more diligently now,” Schauder said.
The response to her video has been “totally mind boggling” for Schauder, who never expected it to attract so much attention.
Although, after seeing so many mixed reactions regarding her choice to crate Ernest (and Louis, unexpectedly), Schauder has noted that the her pup is comfortable going in there as it has become a safe space.
Schauder told Newsweek: “He goes in there freely and we shut the door while we’re away for longer periods of time, so his anxiety is minimized. If we left him out of the crate, he would run back and forth in the apartment looking for us for 5 hours. So, putting him in there signals that we’ll be gone for a bit and he can take a nap or play with his comfort toy.”
Since going viral, the TikTok video has already gained over 200 comments from internet users who can’t cope with Teti’s mishap.
One comment reads: “How could he not see a cat in that size crate? The cat is bigger than the dog.”
Another TikTok user wrote: “Well he’d be lonely without a friend.”
Another person joked: “The cat would also like to know why there is a cat in the crate.”
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