As we get older, there are few things more exciting than buying a new piece of kit for the kitchen.
So when married couple Jessica and Nikki Gerson-Neeves bought themselves a new blender last month, they couldn't wait to take it out of the box and start making smoothies.
But after temporarily leaving the box on the floor of the kitchen, Jessica, from Vancouver Island in Canada, went to open it to find it had attracted an admirer - the couple's four-year-old cat, Max.
Max had decided to get comfortable on top of the box and settle in for a few hours. Thinking his fascination was cute, Jessica took a photo of Max on the box and uploaded it to a Facebook group for chunky cats.
As Max perched high up on the box and surveyed his territory, he attracted the attention of his kitty siblings, George and Lando Calrissian, both 13.
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Soon, the cats had knocked Max off his perch and each taken their turns sitting on top of the box - which became something of a vicious cycle.
And a month after they bought the blender, Nikki and Jessica still haven't been able to unpack it.
In what has now become a "turf war", the three cats spend their days knocking each other off the blender box to nab their turn - and according to the couple, it's never left unattended.
The pair now document the standoff - dubbed 'appliancegate' - on their Facebook page, which has amassed 40,000 followers since they first posted updates a month ago.
Included in the updates are videos of the cats fighting over the blender box to win their turn sitting on top of it.
Speaking to npr, Jessica said she and Nikki didn't realise their updates would win so many viewers around the world, but added they're both pleased to be bringing people some comic relief during dark times.
She said: "It is silly and ridiculous and very low stakes and not an actual problem and just something that people can laugh at.
Followers of the saga have commented on the Facebook page to share their amusement at the updates.
One person wrote: "I just found this story today and I’ve been laughing so much, so thank you! I will follow your cats forever."
Another loyal fan said: "I just boasted to my husband that I’ve been on this ride from Day One. He thinks I’m nuts, but my cat doesn’t judge."
While people as far away as Australia and Italy have been captivated by the stand-off, they're also offering Jessica and Nikki light-hearted solutions to end the stalemate.
The plans include digging a tunnel underneath the ground to extract the blender from below, and even buying three more blenders, so they can give each cat a perch and rescue the original utensil they are still yet to use.
The saga even attracted the attention of Vitamix, the company that produces the blender, which tried to offer a solution and sent an identical blender box to the household.
Although Jessica admitted she and Nikki could end appliancegate by lifting the cats off the box, fans have asked them to let the cats carry on purely for the entertainment factor.
She said: "Certainly we could relocate them. They don't weigh a ton. It would be very easy to pick whoever's on the box up and put them on the floor and open the box.
"But why would we end something that is bringing us so much laughter?"
