Purr-Fectly Adorable Tales of Chonkie Fun and Mischief
Meet Chonkie – the internet sensation, who’ll win your heart with his cuteness and funny antics.
– by Sanjana Basnet
Chonkie and his homecoming
Chonkie came to me as my birthday present. He was almost 4 months old when he came to me. Timid and tiny! He’s a year old now and was the last kitten of the litter, probably waiting for me to welcome him into my arms.
There’s a twist though. There were two kittens left. One was male while the other was female. Someone came before me and took a kitten so there was only one left. The person from whom we got Chonkie told us he was the male kitten and someone took the female one before me and we didn’t have any issue with that. But to our surprise, it turned out that the person messed up and accidentally sent away the male kitten in place of the female one and the female kitten came to us. I didn’t know that until I checked it with the vet who confirmed that Chonkie was a female!
Cats choose us, we don’t choose them
Chonkie was introduced as Mr. Chonkie, a male kitty, to the world and there was no way I could take that title away from him. As you can see, I still use the pronouns he/him/his for Chonkie because he came to me as my baby boy and it’s hard to switch now.
Chonkie is calm, yet crazy sometimes. He’s just too funny. He would be sitting still and yet somehow end up making you laugh. There are a ton of nicknames that he has – Chonks, Chonkers, Ponkie, Punku, Chonko, Chonka-rrito, etc! And funnily enough, he happily reacts to all of these.
Stealing hearts one reel at a time!
I started Chonkie’s Instagram account a few days after he came to me. It was mid-August when I started actively posting his reels and surprisingly his reels got a lot of engagement and love from people around the world. It was overwhelming and sort of confusing for me, I never expected his account to blow up like that. There were tons of likes, comments, and followers increasing every second!
Chonkie is known for his goofy faces, memes, and funny personality. One of the most viewed reels of Chonkie is an edit that got more than 70 million views. There are tons of people who still comment on our reels and shower their love!
Chonkie and his Ideal Day
Chonkie’s day starts with head scratches and kisses. He then starts weaving between my legs demanding his daily morning treats. All you have to say is ‘Chalo treat khayenge’ and he knows it’s the time. He runs to his treat spot as soon as he hears it and waits there till I bring him his favourite treats.
He Isn’t the type of cat who would cling with you or cuddle with you. He would rather come sit next to me maintaining distance while I’m sleeping. He would lick my fingers and rub his head on me to show affection.
Chonkie loves playtime. He is always ready to try out new toys though he gets bored of them in a day or two but feather toys are his favourite! He loves running all around the house, climbing windows, jumping over stuff, and what not.
Love is a two-way street
Orange or ginger cats are often playfully stereotyped as mischievous troublemakers, with memes portraying them as the “crazy” and adventurous characters of the feline world. Chonkie is no different. His fans love how goofy and cute he is. They also love how his name is Mr. Chonkie though sometimes they bicker saying fat cats are called Chonkie and he isn’t fat but it doesn’t matter, the name suits him and his personality well.
Chonkie loves napping. You can see many of his reels and posts on Instagram where he’s being a sleepy cat. He also loves to play! We use teaser sticks with feathers to play with him. He also adores catnip and toys that have catnip and is a super fan of laser toys!
Vouching for ‘Responsible Pet Parenting’
As a cat parent who takes her cat outdoors, people tell me that I shouldn’t take Chonkie out as he can get stressed, uncomfortable, etc. For your cat to be comfortable with traveling, you need to take them out and introduce them to new places and atmospheres. If Chonkie was an old cat who had been inside the house all of his life then it would be hard for him to adapt to travelling but if you train your pets since they are little eventually, they get used to it.
It’s the same with Chonkie, he is used to travel each day to my office in his carrier bag as I couldn’t leave him alone at home so I chose to tag him along. Though he no longer goes to my office he’s habitual now and does not have any issue with travelling. I always make an effort to provide a stimulating environment for Chonkie with various textures, scents, and sounds to enhance his sensory experiences, and taking him out helps a lot.
Chonkie and his funny antics
One of his cute antics is while he’s grooming himself by licking his body, he sometimes forgets to put his tongue back into his mouth making him look goofy with his tiny tongue hanging halfway out of his mouth.
When he gets zoomies, he would spontaneously do full backflips, climb windows and sometimes even kick me. He becomes unstoppable. Laying down in a ball to back-flipping is just ridiculous. Chonkie is a cute goofball and the apple of our eyes!