Golden Retriever Puppy Gives Cat Toy to Play Together in 'Purest Video'

Popular culture always paints cats and dogs as mortal enemies, but in reality, these two creatures can happily live together without any issues. A puppy from Chicago called Otis has melted hearts on the internet after being filmed giving his feline cousin a present.

In the viral post, shared on TikTok on Sunday by the dog's owner, under the username @otisthegolden2, the golden puppy can be seen carrying a feather toy as he walks towards his cousin, a tabby cat called Mac, with whom he desperately wants to play.

The heartwarming clip comes with a caption that reads: "Otis is dying for his cousin Mac to play! He even brought one of his toys to him."

These two animals have long been portrayed as each other's biggest enemy, but any pet owner that has both will not that it is not true, or at least not entirely. A 2020 study carried out by Italian scientists, published in the journal PLOS ONE, questioned over 1,270 pet owners who own both a cat and a dog. It proved that the two can easily cohabitate without much conflict.

The study found over 64 percent of the cats and dogs living together also played together; 58 percent chased each other; and 41 percent fought. Almost two-thirds of the pets sometimes playfully "ambushed" the other. Moreover, cats are more likely to ignore dogs than vice versa, with 42 percent of cats ignoring canines, and 28 percent of dogs shunning cats. Cats were also more likely to attack dogs than vice versa.

The video quickly went viral on social media, getting viewers from across TikTok. It has so far received over 3 million views and almost 400,000 likes on the platform.

One user, Joelle, commented: "This is such a golden retriever thing." And caramel bonbon posted: "The way he picked out a cat toy, 'I saw you play with this so can we play together?"

Jim wrote: "Cats like 'So, listen. We'll cohabitate together because dad moved you in, but that's gonna be it, got it?'" And gfbaker575 commented: "That's just the cutest thing I've seen in a long while. Did the cat finally play?"

User not found added: "Aww, puppy doesn't realize play time is on the cat's terms. a few boops to the nose he'll get the message."

Newsweek reached out to @otisthegolden2 for comment via TikTok chat. We could not verify the details of the case.

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.