Over the weekend, Indonesian netizens were praying for the safe return of Pororo, an orange-and-white cat who’s online famous for his adorable fancy costumes, after he went missing on Saturday.
Thankfully, he was found the next day and has since returned to his owner-slash-employer.
Pororo’s human, Cici Chania, tearfully announced the news that Pororo was missing via TikTok, which was reposted to her other social media accounts.
@cicichania96 Yuk bantu yuk mantemen, makasih #inipororo #kucingkusayang ♬ suara asli – Cici Chania
“Hello guys, I’d like to announce a sad news: Pororo is missing. Friends who are in Bandung please help me find him. If you find Pororo, please contact me immediately,” Cici said in the video, adding that he was last seen around the districts of Margahayu and Rancabolang.
A day later, Cici announced that Pororo was found in a factory, sitting on an iron trellis. With the help of the factory employees and residents of Margahayu, Pororo eventually came home with Cici.
@cicichania96 Alhamdulillah ya allah #inipororo #viral #kucingkusayang ♬ suara asli – Cici Chania
In case you’ve been missing out on what’s hot on Indonesian internet, Cici, Pororo, and her other cat Poby shot to online fame earlier this year after she used her cats to model her feline fashion business on her TikTok page, @cicichania96.
The three-year-old Pororo, who’s a British Shorthair and Persian mix, is known for his calm demeanor, and he would often stare at the camera while Cici dresses him with feline clothes and accessories such as sunglasses on her TikTok live streams. Pororo would doze off during Cici’s live broadcasts too, which added immensely towards his cuteness factor.
The Pororo saga was widely talked about online, especially on Twitter, where his name catapulted to the top of the country’s trending topics over the weekend and even today. Many Pororo fans are cat owners themselves, and they sympathized with Cici because they knew how worrying it is to lose your furry friends.
Naturally, the topic attracted some undesirable comments. Some netizens brought up the topic of species bias, as the term “Pororo” was talked about more on Twitter than Eril, the eldest son of West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil who’s still missing after he went swimming in the Aare river in Bern, Switzerland on the afternoon of May 26.
“You know people got priority when a missing social media cat (Pororo) trends more than the missing PERSON son of the governor (Eril) [sic],” one tweet reads.
In addition, some netizens accused Cici of animal exploitation for making Pororo wear clothes, while cats are not suited for clothing by nature. Those who regularly watch Cici’s TikToks came to her defense, saying that she usually lets Pororo and Poby eat, sleep, and play around more than she makes them “work.”
Whichever stance the netizens take on the whole Pororo debacle, it seems that the discourse is not going to stop soon as the cat’s name is still among the top trending topics in Indonesia as of today. We’re just glad he’s home.
