A man’s genius solution to helping his cat get upstairs without going indoors has wowed the internet.
Shared on Reddit on Sunday, the video by user liparch is accompanied by the caption: “First floor [ground floor] is off-limits so I’ve been doing this since adopting my cat 4 years ago. “
The video shows the cat in the garden from the upstairs window before a cat carrier on a rope is lowered to the ground. The cat crawls into the carrier and is pulled up by the owner to the window.
With over 15,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments, Redditors have been delighted by the innovative cat transport solution.
One commenter wrote: “I love how the cat is like ‘yep this is my lift’ and just walks into the box.” Another said: “Rapunzel — let down your cat cage.”
The 24-year-old poster from Belgium told Newsweek: “When I first got the cat, I did not get permission from the owner [of the building] since they are afraid of cats. A week in I started sneaking to their garden to bring my cat outside but they heard me. So I came up with the pulley system to avoid making noise when I let him outside.
“However, when she saw this, she found it hilarious and now allows him here if I do not let him roam the corridors.”
In fact, a fear of cats is so common it has its own name. It is referred to as ailurophobia coming 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, around 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 females, at 12.2 percent, than for males, 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 was coming from his room,” he said. “He got in without much effort. It’s become a habit since and he’s really chill going in and out.”
One Reddit user called the genius system a “Cat-evator,” while another commenter wrote: “You should put a little speaker in it with elevator music playing.”
A report by The Pet Savers Foundation found that one-fifth of tenants in the US keep pets illegally. ie, 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: “I’ve been told by my friends before that I should post a video, however, I never found it that funny — probably since I’m so used to it. I ‘ m really happy people like the video. “
liparch / Reddit