Senior Cat Demanding To Be Spooned Every Night by Owner Melts Hearts Online

An image of a cat in a spooning position with its owner—essentially being hugged from the back—has gone viral on Reddit, where it has received over 22,000 upvotes on the online forum at the time of writing.

The image shared by user Big_Lmaoski—captioned "My senior cat won't let me sleep unless I spoon him every night"—shows a cat in a peaceful slumber, snuggled between a blanket and the owner, with just its head peeking out.

According to a study published in 2019 in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology, cats, like dogs and children, have a "similar capacity for the formation of secure and insecure attachments towards human caregivers."

Their attachment style "appears to be relatively stable and is present in adulthood," the study said.

Several other Redditors swooned over the image shared in the latest post, with many sharing their own senior cats behave in a similar manner.

User punipunijelly simply wrote: "Beautiful. I'm crying," while user solitarytrees2 said "that little dude is just precious. Give him [an] extra pet for me."

Twist-And-Shout62 said: "My older cat, now deceased, was exactly the same! I always said she was putting me to bed," in a comment that got over 700 upvotes.

"She was the kitten that chose me by walking into my kitchen and stayed. We moved from apartment to apartment from city to another city and a couple of interstate moves. She was a great cat just like yours," Twist-And-Shout62 added.

BillEvansTrioFan also said their senior cat sleeps with them "every night just like this" and that they "can't move at all!" as a result.

User sabbat1011 wrote: "You BETTER be spooning that cat. All the spoons!," in a comment that got over 600 upvotes at the time of writing. The original poster replied: "He pads my face until I let him in!," in a comment that received 405 upvotes.

User wyrd_werks: "Senior cats get SO affectionate. My 18-year-old man is like that now too. Needs to be touching me and prefers the side my face is on. If I pull him under the covers to spoon he purrs until his purrs turn to snores. Cutest thing ever. Senior cats are so precious. And that blep! Your cat is so cute!," in a comment that got 117 upvotes.

Some users said it feels as if their cat is putting them to sleep, instead of vice versa, when they're pet snuggles up to them in this way.

BenderIsGreat-34 wrote: "My boy does that. It's now the most comforting thing in the world and puts me right to sleep."

Ok-Kaleidoscope5627 said: "I always feel so sad when my cat doesn't tuck me into bed or join me :( I worry I offended them somehow."

User hanging_plateau: "I truly believe that cats are very special and magic beings. I had cats all my life but only with the latest twos I realised how amazing they are."