Here at the Daily Dot, we have an unofficial tradition of sharing GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you into the circle. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.
Cats, as we all know, are the true rulers of the Internet and of the home as well. It can be a struggle dealing with self-actualized gods on four paws, insisting their human slaves do their bidding: clean the litter box, feed them, pet them, let them out, let them in, feed them, pet them, turn the tap in the bathtub on because they’re bored… you get the idea.
Sometimes you just want a way to shut off all the demands and get some downtime for a couple of minutes.
Now there’s a solution.
First surfacing on the ForGifs website and posted to Tumblr by th3cr4zydj—where it collected over 45,000 notes—this instructional GIF shows how to deactivate an agitated feline. It’s a capture from a clever video first posted by a Madrid veterinary clinic. The 3.4 million views seem to say they’re on to something.
Since the uploading to YouTube, it’s inspired a small army of imitators, as cat owners try it out for themselves. According to the notes on the video, the deactivation impulse kicks in because this is the way mother cats carry their kittens, as a deactivated kitten is presumably easier to carry to safety.
While it’s a nifty trick, the real marvel of this GIF videos is the expression of bewilderment on the cat’s face. Look into these baby blues and tell me that kitty doesn’t deserve a treat for letting us mess with him!
