Grumpy Cat, one of the internet’s most influential animals, has died.
Grumpy Cat, possibly the foremost of all felines in the history of the internet, has died today, her human family announced on Friday, May 17, 2019.
Though we are a website focused on dogs, we love cats as well, and this is very saddening news. We have a staff cat named Rags who often helps us select which content to cover; sometimes thinks she’s a dog.
Grumpy’s distinctive appearance came from having both feline dwarfism and an underbite, and her brother Pokey also had the same conditions, though not as severely.
The memes surrounding her were perfect for a sarcastic and dry-witted outlook on life, which fit well as many Milennials hit adulthood’s rocky patches during her lifetime.
Grumpy, whose real name was Tartar Sauce, was born in Morristown, Arizona on April 4, 2012, and she first gained prominence when her owner Tabatha Bundesen’s brother Bryan posted her picture on Reddit.
The memes took off like wildfire after that, as she quickly started appearing on calendars, coffee mugs, T-shirts, and just about everything else imaginable. She even had her own Webkinz, and one of her coffee mugs appeared as a scripted prop in an episode of Agents of SHIELD.
Grumpy Cat had endorsement deals with Friskies cat food (made by Purina) and Honey Nut Cheerios cereal.
Cable network Lifetime made a TV film i 2014 starring Grumpy, titled Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, starring Grumpy and, in a brilliant casting choice, Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Legion, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) as the voice of Grumpy.
She also made appearances on TV shows such as American Idol, Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark, The Bachelorette, Good Morning America, Today and WWE Monday Night Raw.
Chronicle Books, the maker of WeRateDogs: The Card Game, and publisher of many pet-themed books about dogs and cats, published Grumpy Cat: The Grumpy Book.
Some days are grumpier than others... pic.twitter.com/ws209VWl97
— Grumpy Cat (@RealGrumpyCat) May 17, 2019
According to a message posted by Tabatha, Bryan and Tabatha’s daughter Chrystal on her official Twitter page, Tartar Sauce passed away from complications from a urinary tract infection.
She was seven years old, which is on the short end for cats. (We aren’t sure what that would translate to in cat years, but in dog years she would have been around 49.)
On her Twitter she amassed 1.52 million followers, 2.5 million followers on Instagram and 8.5 million fans on Facebook.
This has been a rough month for celebrity deaths – Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew passed away about two weeks ago, then actress and animal advocate Doris Day and actor Tim Conway both passed away this week.
Thanks for making the internet a better place, Grumpy. You will be greatly missed.