Story By Joseph Golder
News Editor Ajda Ender
This adorable footage shows how a cat that was rescued as a stray kitten jumps into a shop owner’s arms for a hug in a daily ritual that has melted the hearts of netizens.
Footage shows a rescue cat leaping up to wrap itself around its owner’s neck during its daily greeting ritual at a household goods shop in Ardesen, Rize Province, Turkey, undated. ( Clipzilla/NX)
The CCTV footage shows the cat greeting its rescuer at a household goods shop in the town of Ardesen, in the Turkish province of Rize, on 18th May.
Ferhat Hayat, the owner of the Hayat Ticaret shop, said he found the animal roughly a year ago, abandoned outside his premises as a sickly, motherless kitten, and took it in and cared for it.
The cat now arrives at the shop every morning without exception and remains on the premises for most of the day, spending a significant portion of its time in the area around the till, according to Hayat.
The shop owner said the distinctive greeting began entirely by accident, when on one occasion, the pair made eye contact and he instinctively opened his arms, at which point the cat launched itself straight at his neck for a hug.
The behaviour has since become an unbroken daily fixture, with the cat repeating the leap every time Hayat opens his arms to receive it.
Hayat initially recorded the scenes on the shop’s security camera with the intention of sharing them with relatives, but the clips subsequently spread rapidly across social media.
The videos attracted attention well beyond Turkey, and Hayat said he has received messages from people as far afield as the Netherlands and Switzerland, puzzled as to how a cat could display such apparently devoted behaviour.
The animal is now widely regarded in the local area as the shop’s official mascot.
(Joe Golder/Clipzilla)
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