Sad mews: Grumpy Cat is dead
After frowning feline helped owner rake in up to £80m...
‘A super cute and cuddly kitty’
GRUMPY Cat – the ‘ multimillionaire’ pet who became a global internet sensation – has scowled her last, aged seven.
In her short but phenomenally lucrative career, she – or rather her owner, Tabatha Bundesen from Arizona – was said to have earned £80million from merchandise and commercial deals.
Grumpy, whose real name was Tardar Sauce, had a genetic pre- disposition to looking permanently fed-up, which Miss Bundesen attributed to a combination of feline dwarfism and an underbite.
Her frown proved her fortune after Miss Bundesen’s brother posted a picture on social media site Reddit. Tardar rapidly became an internet hit and took on all the trappings of super- celebrity: best- selling books, a film deal, an entourage and her own ranges of pet food.
But yesterday Miss Bundesen, 33, broke the tragic news of her death to Grumpy’s 2.4million Instagram and 1.5million Twitter followers. ‘She passed away peacefully on the morning of Tuesday, May 14, at home in the arms of her beloved mummy, Tabatha,’ she wrote. ‘We are unimaginably heartbroken to announce the loss of our beloved Grumpy Cat.
‘Despite care with top professionals, as well as from her very loving family, Tardar encountered problems from a urinary tract infection that unfortunately became too tough for her to overcome.’
Like a true professional, the moggy had been working right to the end. In recent weeks she had been dressed up as Star Wars’ Princess Leia, perched on the Iron Throne from TV’s Game Of Thrones and sat in a wicker basket full of Easter eggs.
She had also recently y been plugging a range of Grumpy Cat-themed shoes, and her latest book, Unhappy Birthday Grumpy Cat, had just been released.
Indeed, Grumpy Cat thrived in the spotlight. While fans weren’t allowed to touch her, having to pose for selfies instead, celebrities such as singer Jennifer Lopez and model Georgia May Jagger were e permitted to hold her as s she stared indifferently y at the camera.
The feline, whose contemptuous expression was compounded by the e frown-like dark patches es around each eye, was only ly five months old when Miss ss Bundesen’s brother Bryan an visited her in 2012 and posted the fateful picture. ‘I thought it would get some laughs,’ he said. An online admirer nicknamed her ‘Grumpy Cat’ and the moggiker stuck. Within 36 hours, more than 1,500,000 had viewed the photo.
Thanks to her cat’s success, Miss Bundesen was able to give up her job as a waitress, and the cat soon had a professional manager. Stardom had arrived.
In less than a year, more than 100,000 T- shirts and 35,000 Christmas cards were sold while in 2013 US shops ordered 100,000 soft toys for Christmas. An official shop sold nearly 900 items, with the cat’s face on everything from mugs to perfume and cat odour sprays.
The cat starred in a TV movie, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, playing a lonely and deeply sarcastic cat. But Miss Bundesen risked commercial suicide by admitting on the cat’s website that Grumpy Cat wasn’t grumpy at all. ‘She is a super cute and cuddly kitty, and loves to be held and rubbed,’ she purred.