A photo of Marvin the cat has left people confused, appearing as if a hand is passing through him. However, the illusion is simply due to angles and his fluffy body. His owner, Francesco De Filippo, confirmed no Photoshop was involved—just a perfectly positioned, cuddly, and chonky cat!
It’s often said that cats are both a solid and a liquid — splooting, sprawling and occasionally pouring themselves into some pretty tight places.
This cat named Marvin, however, has taken things to a whole other level.
Recently, Francesco De Filippo shared a photo to Reddit showing Marvin about to get booped in the belly while being cradled in the arms of his sister. But something’s a little off — it appears that her hand is passing right through him.
The pic has plenty of people scratching their heads.
“Please explain this, my brain is broken,” one Reddit user wrote.
“What the f-,” another added.
Surely, there must be some Photoshop trickery going on here. Right?
“The picture is genuine,” De Filippo told The Dodo. “There were rumors and comments saying that I used Photoshop, but nothing could be more false than this.”
What’s going on here then?
Turns out, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for the hand-through-Marvin photo. It all boils down to angles — and his perfectly floofy, bendy cat body.
“Basically, her hand passes under his right armpit, and due to his chonkiness and fur (a lot of fur), her wrist got covered up,” De Filippo said.
Someone drew up this helpful sketch to explain Marvin’s positioning:
So, there’s really no hole through the middle of Marvin after all.
De Filippo sent The Dodo some more photos of him to prove it.
“He likes to be held on our arms,” De Filippo said. “He is a cute, chonky boy. He loves to cuddle.”
He’s also pretty bendy.
Marvin, of course, has no idea about all the buzz around the optical illusion in his picture. But De Filippo knows his cat would love it.
“He would be very happy at all the attention he’s getting,” De Filippo said. “Because all the attention in the world would not be enough for this cute little boy.”
