Laughter as Cat Waves Bye to Owner Leaving House: 'I Have Chaos to Unleash'

A video of a cat appearing to wave goodbye to its owner has gone viral on TikTok.

The clip was shared from @winverwaves, the TikTok account of Winver the Waving Kitty, and has had 39.3 million views since it was first posted.

A message overlaid on the video reads: "My boyfriend sent me this video of our cat waving bye to him while he was leaving for work."

A voice in the clip says "Bye," while a hand is seen waving at the cat. The clip zooms in on the feline, sitting at the top of a cat tree, waving one of its paws in the air while looking towards the camera.

The cat's apparent ability to wave goodbye is not surprising as our feline companions are incredibly intelligent. They are capable of being taught quite complex commands and can even decipher speech directed at them by their owners, according to an October 2022 study.

The study, published in Animal Cognition, found that "cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans, when sentences are uttered by their owners."

When hearing sentences spoken by strangers, the cats did not appear to discriminate between typical adult-directed speech and cat-directed speech, the study found.

However, "training a cat is a little bit more difficult than training a dog, as humans are a little less important to them," cat behavior expert Celia Haddon told Newsweek in April 2022.

"They have tested out cat training in cat shelters and found that the cats really enjoy it. But it does need somebody who understands reward training," she said.

Several TikTok users were amused by the cat in the viral clip, saying the feline was keen to get the owner to leave.

The_Cocoa_Box wrote: "He's not waving bye, he's like bye, go ahead go human...out!"

AC said: "He's like 'leave already—I have chaos to unleash'."

User @ali_the_glitch said: "He was saying 'get lost now.'"

Potato aka Tato wrote: "Hahah, awww the cat's like 'remember to close the door behind you!'"

Others were simply touched by the cat's gesture, such as Vanessa who said, "I would not be able to leave after seeing this cuteness."

User angiegarcia2644 agreed, saying, "I'd call out of work."

User michardmouse said: "He's making sure you see him do it too."

Olivia wrote: "He keeps looking at yours to make sure he's doing it right."

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment. This video has not been independently verified.

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