A professional musician tested his skills as he perfectly played guitar to match a cat's meows.
Martin Motnik, 52, originally from Germany and now living in Nashville, Tennessee, is a professional bass player in the band Accept, but told Newsweek "my first instrument was indeed the guitar."
Recently, Motnik was staying with his girlfriend, Jessica Brewton, 39, who is the proud owner of rescue cat Boo. And as a brilliant video shared to Motnik's TikTok account @martinmotnik shows, Boo is a very vocal animal.
In the viral video, viewed over 28 million times since being posted on February 2, Motnik uses Brewton's Ibanez guitar to perfectly mimic Boo's demanding meows.
"I got the idea when I heard his meow, which always reminded me of bending a string on an electric guitar," Motnik told Newsweek. "One day I picked up the guitar and mimicked him, and one evening my girlfriend captured the interaction on her iPhone."
He and Brewton showed the video to friends and family, who "all said we need to post it, and that it would go viral"—and that's exactly what happened.
The video, liked 7.3 million times, first shows ginger cat Boo, sitting on the floor and letting out a meow—then pans to Motnik, who perfectly mimics the sound on the guitar.
Boo then lets out two short bark-like meows, with Motnik again imitating the noise. The cat, unperturbed, keeps going with his vocals, repeatedly followed by Motnik's guitar in a unique duet.
TikTok users loved it, with one commenter aptly summing it up: "Dude got purrfect pitch."
"Okay but his ear is impeccable," one wrote, another joking Boo "tried to throw y'all off guard" with his bark-like meow.
"Big fan of whatever this is," one user said to the tune of 40,000 likes—and as one put it: "Actually insanely impressive."
Motnik said the enormous response to his video was "impressive," but admitted, "I'm not too surprised since the internet was basically invented for cat videos!"
He also confirmed they're planning on making more duets with Boo, who is "our precious boy and lives like the cat celebrity that he is."
There are many reasons a cat might meow, and different pitches may communicate different things. Kittens usually vocalize to let their mothers know they are cold or hungry, but as they age, cats generally stop meowing to each other, using their voice to communicate with humans instead, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
Cats may meow to greet people, get attention, ask for food, or ask to be let in or out of a room.
Boo was adopted from the Atlantic Humane Society nine years ago, with Motnik urging people to "adopt, don't shop," and shared some of the new internet celebrity's quirks with his army of new fans.
"His favorite dish is tuna with a glass of ice water; he loves to dip his paw in it. He also likes road trips and we take him along to the grocery store in his cat backpack," Motnik said.
Motnik himself works as a freelance studio bassist alongside his work in his band, and has worked alongside major musicians in releasing two solo albums.
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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