Cats and mice are not the closest friends. Domestic kitties evolved from predatory wild cats who used to hunt prey. These small prey— birds, reptiles, and rodents— were the yummy food the wild cats needed to survive and grow— so, it’s no surprise that no matter how domesticated your cat may be, there’s still a little hunter on the inside.
Back in 1999, Huan, a chubby kitty from the Pichit province of Thailand, was embracing her natural-born huntress. She lived at home with her owner Charanai Nanoontum and loved spending her free time hunting down yummy “presents”, like birdies and mice.
Huan (whose name means ‘fat’ in Thai) couldn’t get enough of her cat-and-mouse games. There’s nothing this chubby kitty loved more than eyeing out a target and testing her mouse-hunting skills. Then, out of nowhere, all of that suddenly changed.
One afternoon, when Huan was searching for fun and adventure, the curious kitty made an exciting discovery. Hidden in her home’s small closet sat a teeny, tiny mouse. Now, Huan could have stretched her paw back and given it a good bat— but something about this mouse was different. It seemed to draw out some feelings the chubby kitty just couldn’t explain.
“When Huan found [the mouse], I thought she would eat the mouse as usual, but she didn’t,” Charanai said.
Instead, “Love took over.”
Nobody could have ever predicted, but in that one moment, Huan’s entire world changed. Although she had always been a mighty huntress, something about the rodent made her heart turn to gold. Now, she and the little mousie were the best of friends.
When Charanai, Huan’s owner, saw her tough kitty interacting with a little mouse, she was completely shocked. Much to her surprise, the two animals quickly became a bonded pair.
Charanai named Huan’s mouse friend Jerry, and the two spent all their time together— cuddling, napping and eating food.
Huan the kitty and Jerry the mouse became so close Huan actually started protecting the little rodent from other cats and dogs. To show how thankful he was for the favor, Jerry would clean the cat’s paws in return. In the book Mews Items: Amazing But True Cat Stories, Charanai is quoted as saying the other cats in her household were “baffled”.
When media outlets discovered Huan and Jerry’s oddball friendship, the world immediately went wild.
See some of the amazing footage below!
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