Owner nearly abandons vacation after seeing heartbreaking footage on his pet cam

A cat owner has told how their cat's pitiful meowing almost made them turn around and cancel their holiday.

Cats are a lot more independent than dogs, but that doesn't mean that they can't still miss their humans when they go off on vacation.

And for one cat owner, seeing how their feline friend looked while they were off on holiday was more than enough to tug at their heartstrings.

Introducing Pawl the Cat, the star of a TikTok account called @acatnamedpawl following his many exploits for viewers on social media.

Pawl's owners went away on vacation and left him largely alone in the house, though they made sure that people were dropping in every day to check on him.

They also installed pet cams in the house so they could keep an eye on what he was up to while they were away.

And one clip of Pawl holding a fish toy and meowing forlornly ended up racking up some 12.1 million views.

Pawl tugged at the heartstrings of viewers. (TikTok/@catnamedpawl)

Owner Jonah told Newsweek: "I found Pawl about four years ago. I had been living in an apartment on the ground floor for about a week and then a kitten showed up and started scratching at my window. We've been best friends ever since.

"When we go on vacation we have babysitters to watch Pawl, but also always set up cameras to make sure he's doing okay.

"Typically it's a lot of him just laying around, or looking out the window looking at birds. This time when we checked the cameras it was Pawl roaming around the apartment with his fish making the saddest meows we've ever heard."

Jonah added: "We're going to start practicing going in the car with Pawl to see how he handles road trips. He does already go for stroller rides and walks.

Pawl carried a fish toy in his mouth while meowing. (TikTok/@catnamedpawl)

"Most mornings I actually wake up the fish in front of my bedroom door because Pawls brings it to me every night. I like to think it's his way of showing he's thinking about me."

Viewers were left devastated by just how cute and adorable Pawl was, and took to the comments to share their views.

One wrote: "My cat does the same thing carrying out his stuffed fish! We call it his emotional support fish."

Another said that they should get a friend for Pawl, writing: "See this is why I got my cat and friend and she had the nerve to hate him."

And a third simply wrote: "I literally would’ve turned around."