'Master of Disguise'—Cat's Hilarious Attempt at Hiding Delights Internet

A cat doing its level best to hide from his owner behind a handily positioned roll of paper towels has gone viral on Twitter.

Dustin Growick, a science instructor at the New York Hall of Science and presenter of the YouTube series The Dinosaur Show with Dustin Growick, took to social media to show fans his feline friend's unusual attempt at blending in with their surroundings.

Cats have always loved hiding places. But they aren't always necessarily hiding from their owners. According to Jessica Charo, a cat behavior consultant at FelineEngineering, for many felines it's just something that is built into their DNA.

"While they are predators, a cat's small size means it can also be prey to larger animals," she told Best Life. "This gives cats an innate need to have a hiding place that is enclosed on the sides."

In the case of Growick's cat, this particular hiding place was not entirely fit for purpose. For one thing, as the picture shows, the feline's two front paws and tail are all very much visible despite the paper towel covering his face and torso.

While that setup doesn't make for an especially convincing hiding place, it does equate to a rather hilarious one— as the reaction to Growick's tweet demonstrates.

At the time of writing, the post had racked up 20,000 retweets and over 237,000 likes. "Master of disguise over here," Growick quipped alongside the image, and he wasn't alone in enjoying the hilarity of it all.

One Twitter user, posting as blue_sapphire79, played along with the gag, asking "Who is? I only see paper towels." Rachel Groves, meanwhile, couldn't resist a pun, quipping: "Because that's how I roll" in response to the cat's choice of disguise.

Mrutherford1106 also joked: "Bro really just took a picture of a roll of paper towels and got 180k likes. Twitter users will like anything these days smh." MxJayFord, meanwhile, thought it was "so cute" with Sasha70098993 declaring: "a kitty pretending to be a roll of paper towels, is gonna be my Halloween costume next year."

For the most part, however, the Twitter replies were dominated by pictures of pets making similarly terrible attempts at hiding in the home.

There was this cat blending in with some bubble wrap:

And another feline finding a hiding spot behind a bag of pasta:

This dog did a commendable job of hiding himself on a rug:

However, this cat's rug effort definitely needs a bit of work:

This cat, called Ninja, struggled to justify his moniker:

Last but not least, there was this cat's effort, which was almost perfect.

Well, almost:

Newsweek has contacted Growick for comment.