Man Takes Adorable Photo of His Dog, Then He Notices a Photobomber

A pet owner was left "crying with laughter" after discovering his cat had photobombed an otherwise adorable picture of his dog.

David from Cumbria in the U.K. has garnered a significant following on social media with posts and videos, shared under the handle RoseTintedSpectrum, that tend to focus on the subject of retro video games.

However, one of his most recent posts on X focused instead on the antics of his 1-year-old cat, Rebel, and what he was doing in the background of an otherwise adorable picture of his 2-year-old dog sibling, Zelda.

It's often incorrectly assumed that cats and dogs struggle to cohabitate. However, a 2020 study published in the journal PLOS ONE suggests otherwise. In the study, 1,270 people who owned both a cat and a dog were quizzed on their day-to-day habits.

Researchers found that over 64 percent of the cats and dogs living together also played together; 58 percent chased each other; and 41 percent fought. The study also found that almost two-thirds sometimes playfully "ambushed" one another.

David said that Zelda and Rebel were prepped for living alongside each other from the get-go. "I got Zelda from a family who'd raised their dogs with cats, which was needed as I already had cats," he told Newsweek. "Rebel was picked up as a kitten and got used to Zelda very quickly."

Though David says Rebel and Zelda have bonded over "a long standing love of eating as much as possible, whenever possible," their relationship is a little more complicated than just a straight up friendship.

"They are very much friends, although it's more of a 'big sister/little brother' dynamic," he said. "I've accidentally trained the dog to tell the cat off whenever he's doing something he shouldn't by making a 'Psst' noise. Zelda will then charge off round the house looking for him and a Tom and Jerry style cartoon will then play out, ending up in a gentle boxing match as Rebel stands on his back legs and throws right-hook while Zelda looks at him bewildered."

Rebel might be capable of landing the occasional right-hook, but his biggest knockout blow was an accidental one in the form of the photobomb.

"I took a picture of the dog as she'd brought her favorite Teddy up to bed with her and I was going to show someone," David explained. It was only upon closer inspection of the image after that he realized his cat, hidden in the backdrop, had unleashed a "gigantic yawn" at the exact moment the picture was taken.

David later reacted as anyone would in that kind of situation.

"I hadn't noticed the cat in the back of the shot until I looked at the picture again, and promptly spent 20 minutes crying with laughter and sending it to everyone I knew," he said.

He subsequently posted the image to X, figuring: "If I have to cry with laughter, so does everyone else. It's the law." Rebel had better watch his back with Zelda around. Especially if David gets his camera out.