Cat Realizes He's Already Inside After Scratching at Door in Funny Clip

A video of a cat's dumbfounded reaction to realizing he's been scratching at a door demanding to be let in, despite already being in the house, is racking up millions of views online.

The clip was uploaded to TikTok by SLP_McKittenBoops. It features a white and gray striped cat by the name of Basil and has already been watched 2.7 million times.

Basil's antics certainly fly in the face of scientific convention concerning feline intelligence. While cats have smaller brains than dogs, academics have highlighted some important distinctions concerning the makeup of the feline brain.

Writing in Psychology Today, Berit Broogard, a professor and the director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research at the University of Miami, noted "cats have more nerve cells in the visual areas of their brain, a part of the cerebral cortex, than humans and most other mammals."

The cerebral cortex is the area of the brain responsible for things like planning, decision-making, memory, and problem-solving. Yet those skills were noticeably absent for Basil in the viral clip. In the video, he can be seen desperately scratching at a glass paneled door.

It's immediately apparent that Basil is eager for his owner, who is sitting nearby filming, to let him in. There's just one problem: As the clip shows, he's already quite clearly inside the house and is simply standing on the wrong side of the door which, to make matters that bit more embarrassing for Basil, is open.

"My love," his owner can be heard pleading. "You are already in the house!" After several seconds of pawing at the door, Basil stops. Looking back at the room behind him, he seemingly realizes he's made a grave error before slowly stepping around the open doorway and into the room where his owner is filming from.

"He felt so dumb," an onscreen caption reads, and judging from Basil's reaction, that's a fairly on-point summation of the situation.

That was certainly the consensus among those watching the clip on social media, many of whom took to the comments section to admit they felt embarrassed for the feline.

Reflecting on the tragicomedy nature of the footage, only.flans_ said: "The fact that cats feel embarrassment made this both sadder and funnier."

Kuuvlohv couldn't help but laugh, however, writing: "When you first called for him he looked like 'damn, it sounds like we in the same room.'" Riottonitedragon's favorite moment, meanwhile, came when "he looked back to confirm he was in the house."

Despite the blunder, Manu Mani was still impressed at "the fact he understood" what his owner said and that he had made a mistake. Skayreis agreed: "That was a literal conversation where every word was understood!"