A TikToker has gone viral after posting a story about how her cat got stuck in the drywall that her contractor put up.
Online cat content is usually harmless fun, but a video posted by Ashlin Hadden (@ashlinhadden) has amassed over 71,700 views and garnered plenty of questions from users.
@ashlinhadden #fail #alwaysAshlin #funnyvideos #funny #contractor #singlemom #singlemom #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Ashlin Hadden
In the clip, Ashlin shows the audience her bathroom, which is being renovated while she was away on a business trip. According to her, the contractors pulled out the bathtub to put in a new shower. However, when she got back home and was looking for her cat she says, “I could hear the cat crying from somewhere in here,” while gesturing to the new shower wall.
She continues to explain that she had to punch a hole in the wall and as she expected, her cat came out of it. “Yes, the stupid ass contractor drywalled my cat into the drywall underneath the bathtub,” she says. She claims her cat had been stuck inside the wall for three days when Ashlin realized that it was in there.
However, if Ashlin thought that posting her story to TikTok would garner sympathy, she was wrong. The majority of commenters said that the situation was her fault and that she should have invested in a cat-sitter if she wasn’t going to be at home while the contractor was working. In fact, many online sources like the Just Cats Clinic, have suggestions for what to do when you have cats in a home where construction work is happening as they are notorious for finding their way into hard-to-reach spaces.
“I have seen this happen before. It’s not the contractors fault, it’s yours,” one user said quite plainly.
“I was ready to say don’t blame the contractor but that’s been said already!” said another, referring to the many comments siding with the contractor over the woman and her drywalled cat.
Viewers with construction experience also weighed in. “I don’t usually do animal checks when I do drywall so….” one user said.
Another echoed the same, saying “Yeah checking for your cat isn’t something we do…”
One user even asked Ashlin directly, “Do you really think he did it on purpose? Cats are stealthy little creatures. I seriously doubt he knew the cat was in there.” Ashlin replied to the comment, noting that she didn’t think the contractor left her cat in the drywall on purpose. But, she continued, “I do think that if you are going to leave a hole over night that they should have at least covered it.”
However, viewers were so unanimous in their message that Ashlin defended herself in the pinned comment of the video. “1. I wasn’t told they would be cutting a hole. 2. Yes they knew about the cat. 3. Yes I shut the bedroom AND bathroom doors before leaving,” she wrote.
Ashlin also replied to one user who commented, “Everyone agrees it’s your fault. Not the contractor,” with a video captioned “MY FAULT,” responding to all the criticism.
@ashlinhadden MY FAULT! #viralvideo #catoftiktok #alwaysashlin ♬ original sound – Ashlin Hadden
In the second video, which received only 5,156 views, Ashlin reiterates that the contractor knew about her cats being in the house when he was putting up the drywall. She also states that she wasn’t aware they would be cutting a hole in that particular place in the wall and that she had been told the job would only take one day.
The comments for the second video were a little less harsh, with many viewers saying that it was an accident and nobody’s fault. However, many people reiterated that Ashlin should have got a pet sitter to watch the cats since they are notorious for hiding in small, dark spaces.
The Daily Dot reached out to Ashlin via Instagram direct message.
Update 2:44pm CT Oct. 7: In an Instagram direct message exchange with the Daily Dot, Ashlin explained that her viral video reminded her how quickly viewers will jump to conclusions.
“I have played around with TikTok before a little but never get more than a few views,” she said. “This ‘viral video’ reminded me very quickly how quickly people jump in to judge without knowing the whole story… AND how important it is to tell the whole story in the first TikTok.
She added that she didn’t explain the full story in the first video, which led her to receive a lot of hate from viewers.
“My phone was going crazy and wow people were rude…” she wrote. “The whole story is: I hired a contractor to replace my bathtub. They didn’t get the job done before I left on a business trip. The contractor knew I had cats. The job was in the master bathroom. I shut the master bathroom door and shut the master bedroom door.”
Ashlin noted that this is normally what she does when she goes away for just a few days, which allows her cats to roam the rest of the house, excluding the master bathroom and bedroom. Along with an automatic food feeder, water bowl, and self-cleaning litter box, she believed her cats would be perfectly fine.
“I was not told the contractor would be cutting a hole in the closet to get to the plumbing,” the TikToker recalled. “They didn’t get the job done again on time so they left for the night. They obviously didn’t cover the hole, left the bathroom door open, and the bedroom door open. So I guess the cat got in the hole at some point. When they came back the next day, they patched up the hole and texted me that they would come back to paint when I got home.”
However, when she returned home three days later, Ashlin said she couldn’t find her cat. She posted a later video showing her searching for her cat after she got home. Hearing his meows, she realized he was trapped in the wall.
“I freak out and go to the neighbor’s house for a drywall saw,” she says. “Try to cut it out but the cat was whining so bad that I just punched the wall in.”
Ashlin said she called the contractor about the incident, and they apologized and offered to repair the drywall.
