The delicious, yet painful, vegetable is versatile and despite it causing us to weep, we humans can’t seem to resist it.
But it seems onions have the same effect on cats, as one woman discovered while dicing up ingredients for a meal.
A clip shared to @jakeyy_boy’s TikTok account, called Jake Mayers on his Instagram account, showed the gray moggy sitting on the kitchen counter.
As the chef chops the white onion, the cat, thought to be called Lola, looks intently at the action, before turning away, squinting her eyes.
It seems the cat hasn’t worked out the source of the discomfort as she keeps looking back at the onion.
The hilarious video captured the poor feline squirting and shutting her eyes, as tears well up. “Lola are you eyes okay?” a man, thought to be Mayers, asks in the background.
The video, shared in Wednesday, has amassed more than 10 million views, as Raven M joked: “Precious angel just wants to be involved at all cost.”
Milena Laurka commented: “This is me checking my wages on my account.”
FillZilla wrote: “I think the Cat is finding your knife skills so painful it believes it could do a better job.” Cylleste Jones (CJ) said: “Hahaha omgggg this is so cute.”
Jau5h quipped: “No, I’m good, really, just closing my eyes because I’m so chill.” Pink pointed out: “You’d think she’d get off the counter.”
While Esme added: “That’s what happens when you being nosy lol.”
Explaining why ours, and cats’, eyes stream whenever we’re around onions, Britannica compared it to a form of “botanical warfare.”
It said: “It turns out that onions are particularly good at absorbing sulfur, which they use in a number of amino acids. When you cut an onion, you break open cell after cell, releasing their liquidy contents.
“Previously separated enzymes meet the sulfur-rich amino acids and form unstable sulfenic acids, which then rearrange into a chemical known as syn-propanethial-S-oxide.
“This sneaky chemical is volatile, meaning it easily vaporizes, and causes a burning sensation when it floats up from the cutting board and comes in contact with your eyeballs.
“In an attempt to keep your precious eyes from being damaged, your brain quickly triggers a tear response to rinse the offending irritant away. You are left with red eyes and tear-stained cheeks in the middle of your kitchen, the obvious victim of some (awesome) botanical warfare.”
But onions can be harmful when ingested by cats, as website Pet MD revealed “all members of the onion family,” can cause problems in sufficient quantity. Small amounts shouldn’t result in any adverse effects.
“However, eating a clove of garlic or a green onion may cause digestive upset. Eating any type of onion on a regular basis could cause anemia,” the site warned.
Newsweek reached out to Mayers for comment.
