People Around The World Report Their Hearts Stolen By Adorable Kitten Sleeping On His Back

Apr 17, 2020 by apost team

In July 2019, Chata from Japan became yet another cat to have attracted the Internet’s attention – at the tender age of 2 ½ months. His method was extremely simple: be adorable and sleep on your back like a little human.

Chata was a red-and-white kitten with big blue eyes. All kittens are born with blue eyes and they usually start to turn color when the kitten is about a month old. Since Chata’s eyes were still blue at this age, they will probably stay blue.

Chata, who is now roughly a year old, is also a Munchkin, a cat breed known for having short legs like a Dachshund or Welsh Corgi. He sleeps on his back with his legs straight, and he appears to be smiling as if enjoying some very sweet dreams.

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Munchkins, which were named after the little people in “The Wizard of Oz,” owe their short legs to a mutation. While cats with short legs have been described at least as far back as the mid-20th century, Munchkins per se weren’t bred until the 1980s. They are one of the smaller cat breeds which may explain why many have the unusual habit of standing on their back legs like prairie dogs.

Chata’s owners had only opened their Instagram account, @chavata2023, the previous January. They named it after Chata’s older sister, another Munchkin called Chavata. She is a brown tabby that is several months older than Chata. To go by the pictures, she usually sleeps on her side in a more typically feline position. Chata’s penchant for sleeping on his back had earned him 41K followers by July.

Not surprisingly, Chata has also appeared on YouTube:

Chata’s sleeping habits aren’t just adorable, they’re a tribute to the good care and love his owners have given him. Different feline sleeping positions have different meanings. For example, a cat that sleeps curled up in a ball is trying to protect its more vulnerable parts or stay warm.

Conversely, a cat that sleeps on its back with its belly exposed is showing total trust and confidence in the people and animals around them. A cat’s abdomen is its most vulnerable part, and a cat will thus usually try to protect it. A cat that sleeps with their stomach exposed is showing confidence that nobody will try to hurt it. The belly-up position also makes it a bit harder for the cat to quickly flee the scene.

Chata isn’t the only cat to go viral simply for a novel way of sleeping. A few years ago, Sophie, the domestic longhair, made the rounds for her habit of sleeping in a doll-sized bed. Sophie had been rescued from a hoarder when she was around three years old. She quickly became devoted to her new owner and wanted to sleep in the same room with her. Curiously, she wouldn’t sleep on the owner’s bed, but on a nearby dresser. Sophie’s owner thus got her a little bed complete with blankets and a stuffed animal, and Sophie would sleep there every night.

Have you heard of Chata the sleeping kitten before? Have you ever seen a cat that slept on its back like a person? Please share your stories with us and pass this one along to your friends so they can see something cute today!