The heartwarming moment a senior stray cat had his first experience of indoor life has melted hearts online.
The text overlaid on the viral video read: “POV: You’ve been an outside cat for all your life and the lady that’s been feeding you brings you inside.”
After feeding Sammy as a stray for some time, Ditty decided to bring him indoors when she noticed he had infected paws. “He was a stray outside my house and I noticed his infected paws so I took him to the vet and brought him inside,” Ditty told Newsweek.
Despite his years spent outside, Sammy has quickly embraced his new indoor life. “He loves the inside life and is absolutely obsessed with pets, cuddles, and fuzzy blankets,” Ditty said, explaining that Sammy has shown no desire to return to the outdoors and will be staying with her for good.
According to Catster magazine, there are currently an estimated 60-100 million stray and feral cats in the U.S.
In 2023, roughly 3.3 million cats entered shelters. Of all shelter intakes that year, 48 percent were strays, 18 percent were transfers from other shelters and 25 percent were relinquished by owners.
On TikTok users flooded the comments with support for Sammy’s new journey, sharing similar stories of their own rescues.
User @hippiedippymamma wrote: “My former feral tuxedo girl wants nothing to do with the outside anymore. She said no thanks!” While others, like Lysistrata, said: “My formerly feral cats leave my bed only to eat.”
Viewer ScarletWitch9 said she had also rescued a stray cat: “Last month I found outside a ginger girl. I was over the moon. Now she definitely feels like home.”
Others were delighted to see Sam enjoying his new home indoors. “He’s so sweet,” said AmandaLyn44. “I hope he enjoys the fluffiest, softest and biggest beds for all his days.”
Another viewer, Kikipoke, said: “Sammy is a big sweet boy! Lovely of you to bring him in.”
“He suits being indoors,” added viewer Mev_sh.