“I used ‘Twitter, Do Your Magic!’ to rescue an abused cat,” says 23-year-old Farah Dinah Rusiadi, who used the phrase last July to ask people to help a cat named “Pesek” (pug-nosed) that was being abused by its owner.

The phrase has been trending among Indonesian twitterers to ask for help via the social media app. Typically, a user tweets a post they deem particularly important and top it with the line “Twitter, Do Your Magic!” in an attempt to garner extra attention and suggest that something needs to be done.

Other users do pay attention, which frequently leads to tangible actions like crowdfunding or simple retweets that make the post go viral long enough to make a positive impact. It can indeed seem magical.

In Farah's case, she learned about the cat’s situation from an animal lovers’ group. She immediately jumped into her car and drove the 40 kilometers from Bekasi in West Java to Pademangan in North Jakarta to save the unfortunate feline.

At a veterinary clinic in Pademangan, Farah saw an emaciated 1-year-old cat that weighed only 1.3 kilograms. Pesek’s white fur had become discolored due to the poor treatment it had received. The owner stubbornly insisted that Pesek was in good hands.

“The medical bills reached Rp 4.5 million [US$310]. The owner could not afford it, said [he] would pay in installments,” recounts Farah.

Pesek’s owner later told Farah that she could take the cat home if she paid the bills. So Farah looked to some Twitter “magic”. Her post went viral and concerned users helped raise Rp 4 million.

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