Cat's 'Powerful' Punches During Playfight With Pug Delights Viewers

A hilarious video of a cat and a dog playfighting has gone viral on TikTok with over 1.5 million likes and 8 million views. In the video, posted by @jessie__noel, a ginger cat can be seen sitting on a coffee table, while a black pug called Nora runs around below it. The cat appears to get the her in a momentary head lock, before smacking the pug seven times, who appears to be enjoying it. One user commented, "Them hits were powerful."

Subsequent videos show the animals playfighting, snoozing near each other and playing. In one video, the original poster replies to a comment stating "If that cat still had nails the dog would not like those paps," with, "Replying to @monromiss77 to settle everyone's assumptions, the cat has nails that are trimmed every 2 weeks. he knows the difference between self defence & playing with her."

"Fighting like cats and dogs" is a phrase defined by Merriam-Webster as "to fight or argue a lot or in a very forceful and angry way," and just like Garfield and Odie, the stereotypical cat and dog relationship tends to follow the evil cat and clueless dog theory. A study from 2018 entitled "Evaluation of the relationship between cats and dogs living in the same home" argued that the number of cats and dogs living in the same home in many parts of the industrialized world is increasing, however, very little is known about the typical interactions that occur between the two species.

The study found that most owners believed that their cat and dog got along well. It also found that "typically the cat appeared to be the main controller in determining amicability in the cat-dog relationship." Owners' perceptions of amicability were more influenced by "cat factors" than "dog factors," "with variables such as the age at which the cat was introduced to the dog (younger age predicted greater perceived amicability), the cat sharing food with the dog and picking up a toy to show the dog (although the latter was observed by few owners) were included in the final model."

User JenJen commented, "This my my pitty and kitty! He has no idea she hates him."

User Peaches wrote, "She's fighting to the death and he thinks it's just a game."

User OG_Aunt_Mary said, "dog thinking it's a massage."

Newsweek reached out for comment.