Sometimes animals know what we need better than we do – and in the case of this man recovering from surgery, that was cuddles. Andrew Falloon, a member of Parliament for Rangitata in New Zealand, tweeted an adorable photo of his father, who had recently come home from the hospital, cuddling with a cat – only Mr. Falloon Sr. doesn’t own a cat.
When Mr. Falloon Sr. woke up from a nap, he was met with a mystery feline cuddler cozied up by his neck. It seemed the pawed stranger had wandered in through the door and decided the recovering patient could use some extra love.
As the younger Mr. Falloon tweeted, his mother had left the door open, and the cat saw his opportunity to creep into the house. “Mum arrived home and found them cuddled up together on the couch,” he said, “She snapped the photo before waking Dad up. He was pretty surprised to find the cat curled up!” When he later visited his mother showed him the picture, which he graciously shared with the internet.
To Falloon’s surprise, the tweet went viral, which he said wasn't 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 that mystery cat? As 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 father woke up the adventurous cat hung out a bit before wandering back out.
The parliament member said his parents have not 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.” However, 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, the Falloons have been overwhelmed by all 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.”
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