A social media video that recalls a deceased cat's sweet relationship with a delivery driver has broken hearts across the internet.
The viral video, which has been viewed more than 6.8 million times since it was first shared to TikTok on November 26, introduced TikTokers to "sweet boy" Lolly, a well-loved cat who passed away shortly before the clip was shared online.
The video captures the delivery driver's distress after turning up to Lolly's family home to deliver an item without knowing that the cat had passed away. The driver can be seen searching for Lolly, before heading back to his van after failing to find him waiting on the porch as he usually did.
Lolly's owner told Newsweek that the deliver driver had befriended Lolly through previous visits to the house, and that he would "always" pet him on the porch while dropping packages off.
Heartbroken viewers were shown the delivery driver looking around for the cat and calling out his name. The footage shared on TikTok had been caught by Lolly's owner's security camera.
"Lolly was our family cat and he was the last in a bloodline of cats. We got his grandma Snookems 23 years ago, and his mom Safeara came from her. Lolly was a part of her first small litter," Lolly's owner, Isaac Bowen, told Newsweek.
"He was, by far, the sweetest cat we have ever had. We called him the 'million dollar cat' because even though he was born into the family, he ended up stacking up thousands in vet bills from various illnesses and injuries. He passed away in early November at the age of 16," he added.
Bowen told Newsweek that the delivery driver seen in the video would "frequently stop to pet Lolly."
"The footage shown is actually not the first time that he'd looked for him, we weren't aware of that until after I posted the video. We found out because people were asking for footage of him petting Lolly, but we ended up finding more footage of him looking for Lolly instead," the late cat's owner explained.
"We were very happy to see that the TikTok community wanted to thank him as much as we do for his love of Lolly, and they even ended up buying things from an Amazon wishlist that we made after being asked to by the comment section," he added.
Lolly's family are still waiting for the driver to deliver a parcel again, so that they can surprise him with the fundraised gifts, and have planned to post online his reaction to the TikTok buzz that came as a result of his "love" for Lolly.
"I find that the fact Lolly touched this many people extremely heartwarming and also quite proper. I would always tell him that 'the people love you buddy' while I petted him. My family and I all completely agree that he was the most special cat we've ever gotten to be with, and we are so happy that so many people see the impact he was able to have on others," Bowen added.
Lolly appears to have had the same effect on TikTokers while he was still alive. Isaac's first post about the cat, shared on May 10, has been viewed more than 57,000 times to date.
What Do the Comments Say?
Since it was shared to the social media platform on November 29 by @TiredIsaac, the TikTok post has been liked by over 1.3 million users and commented on more than 10,000 times.
"That's lowkey soul crushing," one user wrote.
Another user added: "He was probably looking forward to delivering to the house too."
"He's probably so sad," shared a third user.
The TikTok post can be seen here.
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.
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