One man’s genius solution to help his cat upstairs without going inside has stunned the internet.
Shared on reddit on sunday, user liparch’s video is accompanied by the caption: “First floor [ground floor] is off limits, so I’ve been doing this since I adopted my cat 4 years ago.”
The video shows the cat in the garden from the upstairs window before a cat bed is lowered to the floor on a rope. The cat crawls into the carrier and is pulled to the window by the owner.
With over 15,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments, Redditors are thrilled with the innovative cat transport solution.
One commenter wrote: “I love how the cat is like ‘yes this is my elevator’ and just walks in the box.” Another said: “Rapunzel – let your cat cage down.”
The 24-year-old poster from Belgium told news week: “When I first got the cat, I didn’t get permission from the owner [of the building] because they are afraid of cats. A week later, I started sneaking into their yard to take my cat outside, but they heard me. So I devised the pulley system so as not to make noise if I left it outside.
“But when she saw this she thought it was hilarious and now leave him here if I don’t let him roam the halls.”
In fact, a fear of cats is so common that it has its own name. It is called ailurophobia and comes from the Greek word “ailouros” for cat. Symptoms can range from mild to extreme, but the most common is anxiety when thinking about or seeing a cat.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 12.5 percent of adults in the US will experience a specific phobia during their lifetime. Statistics show that the prevalence of specific phobias is higher in women, at 12.2 percent, than for men, at 5.8 percent.
Four years after adopting the cat, this Redditor said his cat was now fully used to the system: “I’m pretty sure he realized the cat cage came out of his room,” he said. “He came in without much trouble. Since then it’s become a habit and he’s really chill to get in and out.”
One Reddit user called the genius system a “Cat-evator,” while another commenter wrote, “You should put a small speaker in it with elevator music.”
A report by The Pet Savers Foundation shows that one-fifth of renters in the US illegally keep pets. that is, without the landlord’s knowledge. The Humane Society says that more than 70 percent of renters in the US have pets.
After the overwhelming response to his video, poster Liparch said: “My friends have told me before to post a video, but I’ve never found it that funny – probably because I’m so used to it. I’m really happy that people like the video.”
liparch/reddit