A Labrador Retriever froze recently when he saw decorative Halloween cats, and his reaction went viral. The dog is named Maverick, and he got his 15 minutes of fame after being frightened by fake felines.
Caught on Video
In the video, the pup was captured standing completely still among a group of cut-out cats in his yard.
This Labrador retriever was filmed hilariously freezing at the sight of decorative Halloween cats. CNN’s Jeanne Moos reports on the copycat dog. pic.twitter.com/Z8iFJOmbIM
— CNN (@CNN) October 13, 2022
“Looks like a decorative dog standing amongst five decorative Halloween cats but the dog is real, a lab by the name of Maverick,” reports CNN’s Jeanne Moos.
Adam Flores, Maverick’s pet parent, told Moos that the first time Maverick saw the cats he stopped in his tracks. “It was like he was frozen in place.” The family cracked up, soon followed by the entire internet.
Is This Dog a Scaredy Cat?
“It looks like you paused him,” one TikToker commented.
“I think your dog is broken. To do a hard reset refer to owner’s manual,” said another.
Moos says it’s like Maverick is trapped in that old Gloria Gaynor song, “At first I was afraid, I was petrified…” But after more than a minute of paralysis, Flores was able to break the spell. Maverick’s cat-a-tonic tail woke up first. But is Maverick really a scaredy cat or does this Lab think he’s a Pointer?
CNN showed the video to Justin McGill, who breeds Pointing Labs at Hunters Point Kennel in Iowa. McGill told Moos that Maverick is pointing. Essentially, his instinct kicked in. According to McGill, the pup’s body language shows that Maverick isn’t scared because there’s no tail between his legs.
“He walked out the door, saw [the cats] and locked up,” said McGill.
So maybe Maverick isn’t a scaredy cat after all.
