A clip of Sam the German Shepherd’s “flabbergasted” response to the feline was posted to TikTok by user thatshepherdsam. At the time of writing, the clip had garnered over 1.2 million views with many commenting on how they have experienced something similar with their dogs.

Dogs are thought to be one of only a handful of species capable of displaying what appear to be jealous behaviors akin to the kind exhibited by a young child reacting to their mother showing affection to a newborn sibling, according to a 2021 study from the University of Auckland.

Sam is a clear case in point if the footage shared on social media is anything to go by. In the clip, the canine appears happy to be sat alongside her owner and the cat but soon reacts once the feline moves closer to her human friend. For Sam, that reaction takes the form of several angry pats of the paw on her owner’s duvet.

When that isn’t enough, she then lunges forward, pushing the cat out of the way and putting it directly in front of their human parent. The cat, for its part, ends up looking a little awkward, clearly not comfortable with the canine housemate’s demand for attention.

Sam’s jealous reaction had viewers in stitches, with fans racing to comment on the clip.

Many sought to put a voice to Sam’s anger. Jordanevansx0 imagined her saying: “excuse m-, EXCUSE ME” with josselyn1035 reckoning Sam was actually saying: “Wait a damn minute, wait a DAMN minute.”

Brian Jarrette thought she was telling her owner: “He’s, like are you serious?! Right in front of me?!” while Riley Blattner thought it was more like: “mom you better not DARE touch her don’t even think about it.”

Most found it entirely relatable. User Turicke said: “My German Shepherd does the same thing. Can’t hold or pet the cats around her.” Irishgal74 agreed, commenting: “that’s my Shepherd too,” with loveneverfails adding: “They want to be the only one getting attention. Mine is like that, even with the hubby.”

In 2021, researchers from the University of Auckland sought to explore the concept of jealousy in dogs with an experiment that saw 18 dogs presented with situations where they observed a social interaction between their owner and a fake one.

As part of the test, a barrier was placed between the dog and the fake animal to obscure them from view. However, in each instance, the dog made forceful attempts to reach its owner after seeing them stroke the fake dog. By contrast, in a control test, the dogs were less bothered when they saw their owner stroking a fleece cylinder rather than a dog.

This was crucial as researchers noted that the dogs only reacted when their owner interacted with a perceived rival rather than an inanimate object and that their response only occurred as a result of that interaction, thus supporting the notion that dogs display jealous behaviors.

Newsweek reached out to thatshepherdsam for comment.