A photo of a tabby cat holding a dried leaf in his mouth, in an alleged exchange for a fish from a local fish store, went viral last week on Twitter with followers amazed at the cat’s ingenuity. The account @UnionRebelMs posted a photo of the adorable kitty heading towards the shop, staring int the store’s door and carrying a dried leaf in his mouth.
And this is how the viral story began, and we all know how amazing social media can share a news bite – real or imagined. Anyway, supposedly this hungry brown feline had been watching customers go in and out of the store and exchanging money for a fish. The clever kitty didn’t really grasp the idea of “money” but saw the trade-off and figured if he could trade something, maybe the store keeper would give him a fish too?
When the cat approached the store owner, the merchant thought it was pretty adorable and gave the cat a small fish. And from that photo and some good folklore, it became a highly publicized “feel good” myth about the cat coming everyday with a leaf in his mouth in exchange for a fish.
Lots of people actually thought this was a true story.
No doubt the story was a hit on Twitter, and before long lots of people began sharing their pet stories of similar experiences.
And of course, the Twitter sleuths soon began researching, and it turned out that a woman who owns the cat named Mr. Bill of the account @tyfridges called out the story of the cat and the fish as being fake and used as “click bait.” Photos of the same cat had resurfaced years after her photo had gone viral on Reddit with the cat looking in through the patio doors from outside.
Mr. Bill has a condition called pica – the photo which showed the kitty chewing on a dried leaf wanting to come back into the house.
And so the other account has since apologized and denied using the photo for “click bait” but rather to entertain and make people smile.
What are your thoughts?
Follow the National Pet Rescue on Facebook for the latest animal related news.