A couple has been praised for stopping their vehicle to help an animal in distress—even if they first thought that animal was a chicken.
Brandon, who posts to TikTok under the username @brandon.joseph2, shared a clip to his account on May 24 which has gone viral, having been seen by millions.
In the clip, Brandon is traveling down a dark road with a woman when they notice a strange figure on the sidewalk.
As Brandon slows down and starts recording, a woman can be heard asking: “is that a chicken?”
But as they pull up beside it, it quickly becomes apparent that it’s a cat, with a bag that has become stuck on its head.
They first worry the cat may have been hit by a vehicle, but while its loud yowling proves it’s in distress, it appears to be otherwise healthy.
Brandon gets out of the car and approaches, and the cat allows him to get close and pull the bag off—even remaining still when he fails the first time, telling the camera “it’s tight!”
The cat continues its mournful yowls, but as soon as Brandon gets the bag off, it’s gone like a flash, sprinting down the abandoned sidewalk, as Brandon laughs and shouts “all right!”
He gets back into the car, still chuckling, before telling the woman: “Poor thing, man.”
Brandon’s video caught a huge amount of attention online, being viewed more than 2.3 million times and racking up more than 511,000 likes since being posted on May 24.
Animal lovers flocked to the comments, praising Brandon for his efforts, as one wrote: “Thank you both for helping that cat, he was suffocating in that bag.”
“So now I have to add cutting bags, crushing cans and somehow squishing jars to my list of things I do with my trash to prevent wildlife harm,” another said, one one joked: “Thank you for rescuing that chicken.”
“He sounded so terrified those low-pitched meows always scare me, he was probably suffocating for a while, you saved his life,” one commenter said.
And as one emotional commenter declared: “My HEART stray cats only vocalize on purpose, and the loud yell he was doing usually means he’s calling for someone to hear him!”
Cats will yowl or howl for a number of reasons, and often due to some form of distress. It could be physical, from pain or illness, or emotional distress from worry, frustration or boredom, according to a vet-reviewed report from PetMD.
A pet cat may yowl over separation anxiety when their owner is away, and senior cats could produce the noise if they suffer from cognitive dysfunction syndrome and dementia. The noise can sometimes also be heard in unneutered cats as part of mating behavior, or as a warning for other cats not to intrude on their territory.
Newsweek has contacted @brandon.joseph2 via TikTok for comment on this story.
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