Cat Looking 'Completely Unprepared for the Realities of Parenthood' Goes Viral

A cat who appeared deep in contemplation about her life choices while surrounded by a busy litter of kittens has gone viral on Twitter.

Cats are notoriously hard to read.

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: "A cat's body language can be subtle, meaning it's not always obvious to accurately read how they're feeling.

"To gain insight into your cat's psychology, take note of the eyes, the tail, the mouth and your pet's posture."

However, there's no mistaking the expression in this particular feline's face. It's a mix of fear, realization and utter exhaustion all rolled into one and entirely understandable given what surrounds her.

A total of seven adorable kittens can be seen either lying in front of, or crawling all over their exasperated mom, desperate for her attention.

Arguably the most striking of the grey and white bunch can be seen straddled sideways across his bedraggled's mother's head. Even with four of the litter seemingly blissfully asleep, the mom has no rest with the other three pawing at her for one reason or another.

Theproestdwarf posted the image to Twitter, commenting: "One of my favorite very specific image genres is cats that look completely unprepared for the realities of parenthood."

At the time of writing, the post has been retweeted over 51,000 times, racking up 355,000 likes in the process. It also prompted an outpouring of pictures of animals similarly "unprepared for the realities of parenthood."

Matthias_Code shared a cute snap of a golden retriever looking stoically into the middle distance as her puppies enjoy a feed.

Rrabagast, meanwhile, shared a picture of a rhino mom enjoying a play with her young offspring.

KatGeek introduced fans to Cecilie, a chicken with the blankest of blank expressions, who only recently became a mom.

There were even a few adoptions, including one from AJromeda showcasing one brave cat who appeared to be rearing an entire litter of tiny hedgedogs.

For the most part though, it was mainly cats, with BrightGirl sharing another adorable snap, this time of a stray she took in who ended up having eight kittens.

It has since emerged that the image of the cat and her kittens which featured in Theproestdwarf's original tweet comes from a video of the cats posted on Instagram by Lucky Catz and Meow Kindom in late October.

The video has been watched a combined total of 2.5 million times and offers a longer glimpse at the new cat mom and her mischievous litter.

Newsweek has contacted luckycatz and meow_kindom to try and identify the original poster of the video.

This adorable cat content comes hot on the heels of a video showcasing a kitten who thinks he's a bunny rabbit and a paraplegic cat who defied his disability by motoring across his owner's carpet at lightning speed.