A cat’s first meeting with their owner’s new kitten didn’t exactly go to plan, as a video shared by their owner shows.
Freya the Siberian Neva Masquerade had been an only child for much of the first two years of her life with owner Ashley Wilneff.
“I grew up with a dog and my boyfriend grew up with cats, so as soon as we moved in together, we knew we wanted to get our own pet,” Wilneff told Newsweek. “I happened to come across Siberian cat accounts on TikTok and started doing more research on the breed. What stood out to both of us is that they tend to have more dog-like personalities where they love to be around people, follow you around everywhere, and are super affectionate.”
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After tracking down a local breeder, the couple finally met Freya. “We fell in love with her and knew we had to bring her home,” Wilneff said.
Freya enjoys a happy and active life as part of the family. “She loves cuddling, has a habit of hunting/stalking us as a form of play, playing fetch with her mice toys, laying out on our balcony when the weather is nice, and she enjoys going out on walks in her harness,” Wilneff said.
However, the harmony that once existed shifted a little with the arrival of her new younger brother, Teddy, and when it came time for them to meet, Freya was a little frosty.
In a video posted to TikTok under the handle @freyathesiberian, Freya can be seen shooting a stare over at Teddy as the camera zooms in. She momentarily looks away, as if in disbelief at what she is seeing, before turning back to look at her new kitten companion again.
At the time of writing, the video of her reaction had been watched over 1.1 million times, with viewers in stitches at her response. “That baby looks mad,” one wrote, with another noting Freya reacting to the new arrival with an eye squint.
Though cats are often considered to be solitary pets who prefer their own company, there is plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise. A 2022 study published in the academic journal Nature found that cats who lived together were often so close, they could learn and identify each other’s names.
Researchers studied 48 cats that cohabit with at least two other pets, either in a home or at a cat café. The cats were shown a picture of one of the felines they lived with while scientists monitored their response whenever the cat’s name or an unrelated one was said out loud. They found that, if a cat stared at a photo for a long-enough period, it was an indicator that they knew the pictured animal’s name.
Freya might not have been on first-name terms with Teddy when they first met, but Wilneff is pleased to report that tensions have eased considerably since that first encounter. In fact, the two cats have become friends.
“She has gotten really comfortable with Teddy, which we are very happy about,” Wilneff said. “We took it very slow with introducing them as we wanted to avoid having Freya feel stressed or like she was being replaced. We started with keeping Teddy in a separate room for a few days and had them smell each other from under the door, eat across from each other, etc.”
Wilneff said that, while the first couple of weeks were difficult, it’s an entirely different story now. “When they first met face to face, she was definitely unsure about him since she had never been around other cats, and she would smack him or run away if he got too close. But now they are always near each other and play together,” she added.
“Freya has even gotten comfortable with sleeping next to him, and they have started grooming each other. It took about a month for them to get to this point, but I think Freya is very happy about having a little brother, even if her grumpy face says otherwise,” Wilneff said.
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