A short video showing a dog and a cat curled up together, with the feline gently lifting a paw to stroke the pup, has melted the hearts of thousands of viewers on social media—prompting its owners to ask a simple question: “Is this normal?”
The TikTok clip was shared on January 10 by under @thebillieandsmoke and has since been viewed more than 740,000 times, attracting over 123,000 likes along with a wave of amused and emotional reactions. Set to sentimental music, the video shows the pair snuggling closely, an intimate moment that contrasts with the long-held belief that dogs and cats struggle to coexist.
“We think that, after all these years, there’s still a widely held perception that cats and dogs do not get along,” the pets’ owner, California-based Lauren Vogel, told Newsweek. “We alluded to this in our caption, and we had many commenters join in on the debate.
“The best part was getting so many cute and touching photos of people’s dog/cat duos cuddled up,” Vogel added.
The video had been captioned: “Is this normal between cats and dogs? Because this love. Comment below & let us know (first time cat owners here!).” According to the owner, the responses quickly moved beyond a simple yes-or-no answer.
Viewers flooded the comments with stories and images of their own dog-and-cat households, turning a single clip into a broader conversation about companionship.
“Conclusion: there is no ‘normal’, but we feel really lucky either way,” Vogel, who shares the pets with her husband, Max, added. “People seem to think that the way Billie and Smokey looked at each other in the video was ‘humanlike.’
“There were quite a few commenters who said they believe that our pets are a married, human couple, reincarnated,” Vogel said.
She added that many viewers appeared to see something deeper in the interaction.
“It seems a lot of people out there wish that humans, with all of our differences, could get along with each other as well as this little cat and dog do,” she said.
Billie, the couple’s dog, is a 3-year-old Chihuahua and cattle dog mix adopted from Big Love Animal Rescue when she was just 8 weeks old.
Smokey, their cat, is a roughly 9-month-old kitten believed to be a blue tabby. He was rescued from Rory to the Rescue around three months ago. Vogel said Billie had always shown an affection for cats, and the couple had hoped to add a kitten to their family one day.
“Smokey seemed really special when we met him, and we were told he had been fostered with a dog, so we took the leap,” she said. Although the couple were given guidance on how to introduce the two animals gradually, those plans quickly became unnecessary.
“Those went out the window when they became instant best friends,” Vogel added.
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