Cats often take comfort in grooming their ears, but what happens if they have to have those adorable appendages removed for some reason? Poor little Yuki the kitty recently had to find this out for herself.

A TikTok video of a cat named Yuki has been going viral, and it's a hard watch to say the least.

"Poor Yuki had to have her ears removed today," wrote the cat's loving foster mom in the onscreen text.

"She keeps forgetting and reaching to clean them."

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Indeed, the footage shows the white cat reaching her paw to her head as if to clean her ears.

This is likely a muscle memory habit to self-soothe after disorienting medications and a surgery.

Tragically, the cat keeps remembering the truth – her ears are gone now.

But why did this sweet furball have to have her ears removed?

Yuki, who is living with a foster family while she waits for her forever home, is suffering from cancer.

Removing the cancer from her ears gave the animal a better chance at survival, and she is reportedly healing very well from the procedure!

Even sweeter, the veterinarian gave Yuki a special gift at her post-op appointment – a pink knitted headband of "cat ears" to help her feel more like her old self again.

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Another video update from the cat's foster mom reveals that the kitty seems fairly content, even without her ears.

She is "still just as cute bald," adds the TikToker.

Yuki is seen purring and getting lots of cuddles from her human friend in another video filmed after her ear removal surgery. "No ears, no worries," reads the overlay text.