Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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CAT VIDEO CENTRAL — The Internet loves cat videos, whether it's kitties courageously saving human boys from aggressive neighborhood dogs or felines react ing strangely to the jumping sound from Super Mario Bros.
The world wide web also has affection for unlikely friendships between animals of different species. There's even a great PBS documentary called "Animal Odd Couples" dedicated to the subject (and conveniently streaming on Netflix).
If you like either of those two things, feast your eyeballs on this bite-sized "Awwww"-filled moment of companionship between a 12-year-old pig named Mortiz B and a 2-year-old Ragdoll cat Leonardo DiCatzio. No, seriously. I'll spare you the list of some of the best famous-person-turned-cat-name puns, but just know I have a lengthy list on my iPhone.
In the short clip, Leonardo seemingly strokes his tusked bedfellow while purring away into the camera. The authenticity of the video, uploaded by the German YouTuber Nicolle von Eberkopf, is disputed in the comment section. Eberkopf even writes ambiguously in the "About" section, "Real or Fake: Is this really important? Just enjoy the Moment :)"
Whether the feline is being puppeteered into petting the pig, or extending his paw in an act of comfort of his own volition may be irrelevant. At its deepest level, the video is a commentary on humans' desire to anthropomorphize animals in the hopes of calming our fears on the anarchic nature of the animal kingdom, à la Stephen Jay Gould's famous essay "Nonmoral Nature." At its shallowest, it's a bit of escapist entertainment that gives viewers those familiar cat-induced warm-and-fuzzies. Your choice.
