It doesn’t matter what age an owner might be; they’ll always give their pets the royal treatment.
Mara Rago recently spotted her 95-year-old mother, Lucille—affectionately known as Mama Lu—walking down the stairs instead of using her stairlift. She told Newsweek via email that her mom usually takes the lift to go upstairs, but when she’s feeling up to it, she’ll walk down on her own. This time, however, it wasn’t Lucille’s decision to use the lift. Her cat called the shots.
In a March 2 Instagram reel posted to the account @mama_lu_rago, Angel, her 3-year-old deaf cat, can be seen comfortably perched on the stairlift as it glides down the steps, while Mama Lu carefully follows behind. When her daughter asks what’s happening, Lucille calmly explains that Angel “won’t get off the chair.”
Rather than asking her feline companion to move, Lucille lets the cat enjoy the ride, prioritizing her pet’s comfort over her own convenience. Rago laughed at the situation, noting in the caption that she finally got her mom to exercise.
Rago initially worried when she saw Angel enjoying his chariot for the first time but couldn’t help laughing. Since that day, Angel will jump up on the seat and, depending on what Mama Lu wants, will take the ride.
“Now, when she needs to sit down, he perches himself on the footrest below the chair and takes the ride with her!” she said.
While concern about her mom’s safety is always at the forefront of her mind, Mama Lu insists on her cat going for a ride, and Rago admitted, “Sometimes Mama Lu is always right.”
Angel has earned the royal treatment for good reason. He was rescued from the streets of Saudi Arabia through the organization Bridges from Kuwait. Mama Lu adopted him months after the death of her beloved black Manx cat, Diva, leaving her heartbroken.
From day one, Mama Lu and the cat have bonded. Every night, Angel meows loudly to signal bedtime—oblivious to the fact that he’s deaf—while she watches Seinfeld reruns. Rago said she’ll hear her mother whisper her love to Angel, sometimes waking her up in the middle of the night.
“I want to say, ‘Ma, he can’t hear you, but I can!’ but I would never disrupt the love she professes on deaf ears every night!” she said.
Viewer Reactions
The Instagram video quickly went viral, reaching more than 12 million views and 4,600 comments as of Wednesday. The fame left Mama Lu mortified, not because of the attention, but because she felt she wasn’t dressed to impress.
“Mama Lu is 95 and ALWAYS dressed up on the daily,” Rago said. “Her eyebrows, lipstick and black hair are her trademark. When this video went viral, she was mortified because she had that Halloween nightgown on!”
Viewers weren’t concerned with attire. Their focus was on the undeniable truth: pets call the shots, no matter your age.
“Love this, even though it’s backwards! It’s what we do for our furbabies!” wrote one user.
Another said: “Rule number one when the cat comfy, do not move it, no matter what.”
A third person commented: “Your mom is adorable! And that slow blink from the seat thief.”
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to [email protected] with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
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