Sometimes animals know what humans need better than we do – and in the case of one man recovering from surgery, that was some cuddles. Andrew Falloon, Member of Parliament for Rangitata in New Zealand, tweeted out an adorable photo of his dad, who had recently come home from the hospital, snuggled up with a cat – only Mr. Falloon Sr. doesn’t own a cat.
That’s right when the man awoke from a nap he was met with a mystery feline cuddler cozied up by his neck. It seems the pawed stranger had wandered in through the door and decided the recovering patient could use some extra love.
A man recovering from surgery woke up to a cat cuddling him – only he doesn’t own a cat
According to the younger Mr. Falloon’s tweet, his mother had left the door open and the cat saw his chance to creep into the home. “Mum arrived home and found them cuddled up together on the couch,” He told Bored Panda, “She snapped the photo before waking Dad up. He was pretty surprised to find the cat curled up!” Later when he visited his mother showed him the photo, which he graciously shared with the internet.
People on Twitter couldn’t stop tweeting about the adorable pair
To Falloon’s surprise, the tweet exploded across the internet, which he said was never his intention: “After Mum sent me the photo I popped it up on Twitter, thinking it might make a few people smile, but I never expected it would go so far. When I went to bed on Sunday night (New Zealand time) it had a couple of thousand views, when I woke up it was in the millions. Now it’s in the tens of millions.”
So who is this mystery cat? Falloon wrote, “He’s from somewhere in the neighborhood. It isn’t the first time he’s turned up to their house, but his first time he’s jumped up on Dad. Apparently, his name is Ziggy and it’s quite common for him to go wandering.” After his dad woke up the adventurous cat hung out a bit before wandering back out.
The parliament member said his parents haven’t had a cat for a few years now, because ironically, “Up until now my Dad hasn’t really been much of a cat person, but I guess he is now.” But with Ziggy hanging around it seems that there is no need for a new pet, “Ziggy seems to have adopted my Dad, so I’m not sure if they’ll get another cat. My parents are just happy to have him visit every so often.”
All in all, both of the Falloons have been overwhelmed by the attention, “It’s nice to have Dad on the mend after his operation, but he’s a bit blown away by all the coverage. I had to explain to him what Twitter was and how it’s been seen by so many people.”
