Louisiana - Pet owner Maddie got quite the surprise when she came home to check on her dog and cat, as a viral video reveals!

In a TikTok shared last month, Maddie is visibly shocked as she returns home to find her two pets in the same cage.

"I don't crate my cats ever," she explained in an interview with Newsweek.

"Usually, only Ivy, [my other cat], sneaks into them to nap when the cage is unlocked. But I've never seen Ash in there before."

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It seems that Ash, who has black fur, blended in inside the cage and went unnoticed by Maddie for three hours.

Fortunately, her dog, two-year-old boxer Willow, has already formed a close bond with Ash.

"They acted like nothing had happened when I let them out and went right back to playing," Maddie explained.

The mishap has been viewed over four million times on TikTok, earning nearly 2,000 comments in the process.

"Somehow the dog seems more traumatized than the cat," one user wrote.

"I just know the boxer was in the corner shaking in its boots the whole time," another said.

And while there were some negative comments about Maddie's decision to cage any of her pets in the first place, she fired back at the criticism in her Newsweek interview.

"Accidents happen, and people assume a lot based on a 15-second video," she said. "All I know is that I treat my pets like my own children and would do anything to keep them safe – and they know that. That's all that matters."