Senior Cat Suffering From Nightmares Breaks Hearts: 'Poor Baby'

A cat named Willow has melted hearts all over the internet after a video of her waking up from a nightmare and looking to her owner for comfort went viral on social media.

In the video, shared on TikTok Wednesday by her owner under the username Byakkobayliss, the cat can be seen waking up in the middle of the night screaming, and then reaching out to her owner, who was asleep close to her in bed, for comfort.

Her owner can be seen instantly waking up as she hears her furbaby calling her, giving her comfort, until they fall asleep again, paw in hand.

The heartwarming clip came with a caption that read: "Willow gets nightmares sometimes," followed by: "Willow is not going to go quietly into that good night."

According to cat care blog Senior Cat Wellness, it is possible that cats experience nightmares.

The website read: "Cats enter REM sleep while dozing, so cats do dream. This makes it almost certain that cats can endure night terrors. It is believed that cats' dreams are re-enactments of the events of a day. If the cat had a bad or frightening experience, it may be re-lived after dark."

Byakkobayliss told Newsweek that Willow is 19 years old. She's had her since the cat was eight weeks old, which is almost the cat's entire life and the majority of hers, so they have a very close bond.

Byakkobayliss said: "She's a very clingy snuggle bug who spends most of her time asleep nowadays, and she loves to sleep next to me or on me. She's also lost her hearing in her advanced age, so she doesn't know how loud she is. The vet has a theory that she's screaming because she's trying to hear herself.

"It doesn't cause her any pain, so it's usually sweet and adorable (except when I'm sleeping). In fact, I have a joke with friends that Willow has two modes: sleep and scream (for the purposes of this we have decided that purring is a soft scream). She's always been a dreamer, but she has a bit of dementia, and I've noticed an increased frequency in her nightmares—sometimes when she wakes up she's not sure where she is or what's going on, but otherwise, she's surprisingly healthy for her age.

"I'm aware that I won't have her with me forever, and I've never loved anything like I Iove her, so her passing will absolutely destroy me. There's no way of avoiding it or decreasing the amount it's going to hurt, so I started the TikTok channel as a sort of way to begin processing that and hopefully to reach some people who might love her as well; and it's surpassed all of my expectations and I'm so incredibly grateful."

The video quickly gained popularity on social media, attracting animal lovers from across the platform, and has so far received over 1.4 million views and 277,300 likes.

One user, ze holzwurm, commented: "My cat gets nightmares too, when she wakes up she's so confused. she'll turn 21 this year." And Mel said: "you sleep holding her paw?!" Caleb Faulkner added: "poor baby, you're such a good mama to her."

Shay Jensen wrote: "Aww this makes me cry poor baby girl." And Honeyvine Rescue Cats said: "is she elderly? my senior baby gets scared sometimes if he can't see us, esp when he wakes up." Chief added: "My heart just disintegrated."

Another user, Apapaia, commented: "Mom I had a nightmare! My pillow had polyester filling instead of memory foam!" And Lelouch said: "My Mickey gets nightmares as well. He wakes up randomly every night making noise and comes to cuddle with me."

Colin MacDonald wrote: "scritches are an instant fix." And Amanda Diaz9840 added: "mine too!! scares me every time since she sleeps directly next to my face."

Slut4tenochhuerta said: "[I don't know] if it's nightmares but my cat will start twitching violently while sleeping, I just pet him to slightly wake him up out of it."

Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.