A woman taking an online test feared she would be accused of cheating after her pets caused chaos behind her.
Grace Yetter, a 23-year-old student in Georgia, was recently sitting a test from home with a "lockdown browser," which watches and listens to the student to ensure they are not looking at notes, or conversing with someone to get answers. But, as she told Newsweek, disaster struck while she was only about halfway through the exam.
"I heard my cat start to throw up on my mom's bed, and I kind of just sat there with my hands on my face because I couldn't do anything," she said.
The cat threw up again, and as Yetter panicked over not being able to move, her pet dogs sprinted down the hall to check on the cat, making even more noise.
"I then heard him come into the room I was taking my test in, and he started meowing at me with the most pitiful meow I ever heard," she said. "At this point I had to talk to him so I just said his name and told him he was alright. He then proceeded to throw up again right behind me."
Yetter was forced to explain to the camera what was happening, and while she finished her test, "at this point I was so worried and distracted I could barely focus."
The chaotic scenes led Yetter to email her professor explaining the situation, worrying her movement and speech could flag her for cheating, and she shared the email to her TikTok account, @yettergrace, which has had over 640,000 views since being shared on September 10.
The video starts with an email sent from Yetter to her professor, explaining she was distracted during the test by her cat who was repeatedly vomiting "and was meowing at me."
"I said his name during the test to calm him down, but I am positive I didn't look away from the camera, but I wanted to email you and let you know in case it flagged me."
It then switched to a photo of the culprit: a fluffy orange cat.
"He will be the reason I fail this test," Yetter wrote in the caption.
Yetter told Newsweek, her test grade suffered, but her class grade remains high, and in positive news, she revealed the professor emailed back "and said thanks for letting her know and she hopes my cat is alright."
She wrote in a caption to a video update showing her professor's response: "My professor is really nice, so I had a feeling she would understand."
TikTok users were in stitches, with many sharing their own stories, including one who wrote: "My roommate's cat lit his tail on fire while I was in a zoom class for my small group lecture," but added that the cat was fine after the ordeal.
"My dog kept scratching to be let in my room while in the living room and I kept looking at her and they made me turn the camera to show my dog and me going over to open the door for her," another admitted.
And one shared: "My dogs started an MMA fight on my bed while I was filming for my ASL test."
Yetter said she "loved everyone sharing their similar stories. I didn't expect that, and some of the stories are so funny, too."
As for her cat, Yetter assured everyone: "He is fine, he recovered quicker than I did from that whole incident!"
There are many reasons a cat may begin vomiting, according to Pet MD. It could be caused by a serious underlying issue such as cancer or kidney disease, or as a side effect to medications. However, cats can also vomit from eating something that doesn't agree with them, or even just from drinking too much water.
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