A quick search for “cat videos” on YouTube produces 1,830,000 results of fluffy, angry and just bizarre cats. Here are a few highlights of the rise of social media savvy felines.
Snowball the cat: Last year, Rep. Curt Oda, R — Clearfield, presented HB210 in the Utah legislature, a controversial bill that would make it legal to shoot and kill feral cats. Within a few days, Snowball made his appearance on Twitter (@UTferalcat) claiming the bill made feral cats “worried” and “scared.” Some of the tweets: “Killing of feral cats will break up families. Isn’t Utah about family?” “HB210 has everyone in my community to be scared. Where is the Utah Compact for our community?” and “If HB210 passes, who will eat all the mice and voles? Utah needs feral cats.”
Cat Breading: A recent trend where cat-owners tear a hole in a slice of bread and the proceed to place it on their cat’s face. Facebook likes for the trend have risen from 9,000 likes in January to more than 22,000 likes. Colbert even jumped on the bandwagon, offering to invest the rest of his Super PAC money in cat breading. The jury is still out on how the cats feel about the escapade, but judging from the picture, bread-ers may want to wear gloves when breading.
Maru the cat: Maru, the Scottish Fold from Japan, has a habit of running, diving and jumping into boxes of all shapes and sizes. Whether he’s amused or not, viewer certainly are with over 200,000 subscribers and 140 million views on his channel, mugumogu.
Simon the cat: A series of cartoons and comics about a mischievous cat always vying for his owner’s attention — and some food. The creator, Simon Tofield, a British artist and animator, actually owns four cats himself, named Jess, Maisy, Hugh and Teddy.
LOLcats meme: With the growing popularity of memes, it was only a matter of time before cats made their appearance. LOLcats is devoted to making humorously captioned photos of cats or photos describing people thinking about cats.
Random facts about cats:
Cats can run up to 30 mph. Usain Bolt, the world record holder for the 100 meter dash, tops out at 27 mph.
A group of cats is known as a “clowder.”
A female cat is called a “queen” or “molly.” A male cat is a “tom.”
President Abraham Lincoln owned four cats while living in the White House.
Cats cannot taste sugar or sweetness, unlike most other mammals.
Legend has it that Issac Newton invented the first cat flap.
There are approximately 73 million owned cats in the United States compared to 68 million owned dogs.
