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Featured era: 2008
Ninja Cat
“It only moves when you are not looking.”
- Featured era
- 2008
- Peak era
- 2008-2012
- Company
- A cat owner in Japan known as Kei
- Category
- Viral Videos
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On Video
The original "Stalking Cat"
Plays from YouTube when you press play. Views, length and date from YouTube, October 2026.
About This Video
- From:
- モアクリ
- Added:
- September 7, 2008
- Length:
- 1:13
More Videos4 videos
What Was It?
Ninja Cat, also known as Stalking Cat, is a short Japanese home video of a cat that starts out by a door. Each time the camera looks away and back, the cat has crept a little closer, yet it never seems to move while it is being watched. By the end it is very close to the camera.
The clip was posted on YouTube in September 2008 by the cat's owner, who also chronicled the cat's life on a blog. The Japanese site Gigazine compared it to the children's game "Daruma-san ga koronda", which the video's Japanese title echoes, and to a silent ghost in a horror film.
It spread around the world under English names like Stalking Cat and Ninja Cat, and in 2012 ABC News included it in its list of the 10 most viral cat videos on the internet.
Things You Probably Forgot
- Glancing away and back, just to check
- The cat frozen mid-creep every time the camera turned
- Watching it again to try to catch it moving
- Sharing it as "Ninja Cat" or "Stalking Cat"
The Story
- 2008 The cat's owner posted the video on YouTube in September.
- 2008 Japanese site Gigazine featured the creeping cat on September 16.
- 2012 ABC News named Stalking Cat one of the 10 most viral cat videos.
Its Legacy
The original upload is still on YouTube. It remains one of the classic cat videos of the late 2000s, a small masterpiece of suspense in just over a minute.
Memories
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