Last week we posted this disgustingly cute video of a momma cat hugging her twitchy, sleeping kitten. The video went viral and now has over 20 million deserved views. And it was still as adorable as ever when I watched it just now (important research). National Geographic decided to F our sunshine by asking veterinary surgeon Dr. Nicholas Dodman if the kitten was really having a nightmare and if its mother was really giving a hug. Y U NO let cute things just be cute, National Geographic?
Naysayers will say: You can’t prove cats dream. But if you measure brainwaves in cats, dogs and several other animals, it’s clear that they go through a period of rapid-eye movement, or REM sleep, when the brain is very active. In humans, exactly the same thing happens—and that’s when we dream. [NatGeo]
Okay, so the cat might be dreaming and it might be a bad dream. The twitching of the kitten’s paws also supports the assumption that it’s dreaming: during REM sleep, the production of serotonin stops, paralyzing larger muscles, while smaller muscles can still move, which explains eye, finger, and toe movements in dreaming humans and twitching paws, ears, and whiskers in adorable fluffy kittens.
Please don’t ruin the hugging part for us, National Geographic:
You could refer to it as a hug. They’re mutually bonded and I think they enjoy the presence of each other. Human analogies are not entirely inaccurate. [NatGeo]
So there you have it: totally a hug. (I have awesome reading comprehension.)
Perhaps scientists will say we can’t prove the kitten was having a nightmare and the mother was comforting the adorable little fuzz ball in the same manner by which human moms do. But we have a very important rebuttal: you shut your whore mouth, science.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/Vw4KVoEVcr0?version=3&hl=en_US