Boston, Massachusetts - Shaggy the rescue cat has a more refined culinary palate than the average human, but it turns out that there's a pretty interesting reason behind the seemingly silly practice.

This kitty refuses to eat his cat food without a side salad, and a video of the peculiar scene has gone viral on TikTok at 7.4 million views and counting!

Shaggy was adopted as a kitten by Dina Moeller in May 2021 from the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, and she could tell right away that he had an unusual relationship with food!

"I noticed right away that he was really into whatever I was eating," Moeller told Newsweek in an interview published Tuesday.

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"I had eaten a chicken parmigiana sandwich while he was sleeping. When he woke up, I guess he could still smell it and angrily screamed at me for 20 minutes!"

Shaggy has also reportedly shown interest in (i.e., tried to steal) bagels, hamburgers, edamame, meatballs, cheese, baked goods, potato chips, and more.

Early on in the adoption, Shaggy was diagnosed with worms and required a six-week course of medication to get rid of them.

"During that time, I had to feed him plain chicken and rice, and that really boosted his demands for human food," Moeller explained.

Even after the worms were gone, the kitty's digestive system was still sensitive to normal cat food. Around that same time, Moeller noticed that Shaggy had started stealing her salad ingredients as she prepped for dinner.

"I was forever asking Siri to Google if a cat can eat things like lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, kale, avocados, etc., and started putting some of it in his dish," Moeller said.

While cats can safely have a small amount of human table food like dairy and cooked vegetables, other human foods can be dangerous to cats – and not just because cucumbers freak them out!

Maybe the lettuce fixation comes from cats' love of herbs like catnip, leaves, and grass! After all, plants act as a natural digestive aid in cats.

Moeller thinks that Shaggy's desire for human food could have something to do with his life pre-rescue, however.

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"His paperwork said he came from a shelter in Mississippi. I suspect he came from a feral colony and possibly lost his mom," she said.

"Maybe that's why he is attracted to atypical foods; perhaps it's all he had to eat."

Regardless, Shaggy's human is careful to give him cat-safe leaves, fruit, and veggies per her vet's instructions.

Apparently, the cat also has phases where he will sometimes eat straight cat food without the salad to entice him, although the leaves come back into play when he tires of certain brands and goes "on a little food strike" until he gets some greens to sweeten the deal.

"As long as I make sure he's not eating anything like chocolate, raisins, grapes, or anything from the allium family, it's OK in moderation," Moeller said.

"He's happy and healthy, so I just go with it. It's very hard to change a cat!"