That Grumpy Cat

Grumpy Cat (aka. Tardar Sauce) was born on April 4, 2012 in Phoenix Arizona. She is a domestic shorthair breed of feline. According to her owner Tabatha Bundesen, her mother was a regular Domestic Shorthair Calico and her dad was a grey-striped housecat.

grumpy cat

Tardar Sauce aka. Grumpy Cat
Photograph: GrumpyCats.com

Tardar is undersized and has hind legs that “are a bit different”. She has endearing panda patches around her sky blue eyes, offset by a permanently down at the mouth expression on her jowls. It is said by Mrs Bundesen that this grumpy-looking face is due to feline dwarfism and an under bite. Undoubtedly these unique features have been the reason for Tardars popularity…

…and what a rise to fame it has been, Tardar has a bestselling book, several movies and has already made it on to the cover of The Wall Street Journal and the New York magazine. Grumpy Cat merchandising is big business …. Today the “Grumpy Cat Inc. Corporation of Ohio has an estimated value of well over a Million Dollars…

Tardar has a brother called Pokey who keeps her company around the house. Ironically, Tardar Sauce is calm and “actually really nice” whereas Pokey is the one with a grumpy personality.

Pokey “the grumpy one” with Grumpy Cat
Photograph: GrumpyCats.com

According to the Bundesens, Tardar Sauce is a normal cat “Ninety-nine percent of the time”… “Photo sessions are only once a week, and handling by strangers is limited”….” She’s very well taken care of, and we love her.”

Thats nice to know!

~~~~ a few facts about grumpy cat are listed below ~~~~

Grumpy Cat merchandising is now in full flow with: Movies, Calendars, T-Shirts, Plush and Fluffy toys, A coffee beverage ‘Grumppuccino’, Mugs, Mats, T-shirts, the endorsement of Friskies Cat food, 1.3 million Likes on facebook and Photo and Weather Apps for the iPhone…. Grumpy says … “all this success ain’t changed me at all… it’s others that treat me differently, thats all :(”

  • Grumpy Cat’s popularity originated from a picture posted to the social news website Reddit by Bundesen’s brother Bryan on September 22, 2012.
  • The Official Grumpy Cat” on Facebook has over 1.3 million Likes.
  • [May 30, 2013]
    Grumpy Cat was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.
  • [October 7, 2013]
    Grumpy Cat was featured on the cover of New York Magazine.
  • MSNBC named Grumpy Cat 2012’s most influential cat.
  • Grumpy Cat won first prize at the second annual Internet Cat Video Film Festival.
  • [July 23, 2013] The official Grumpy Cat book was published by Chronicle Books..and made 7th place on the New York Times Best Seller List
  • Grumpy Cat has appeared on Today, Good Morning America,CBS Evening News, Anderson Live,
    VH1’s Big Morning Buzz Live and The Soup.
  • Grumpy Cat appeared on the world famous “Garage Logic” radio broadcast the day of the MN State Fair live Internet Cat Film Festival.
  • Grumpy Cat promoted Grumpy Cat ~ A Grumpy Book at BookExpo America. She attended her book’s launch at Kitson and The Grove’s Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles.
  • [March 2013] Grumpy Cat attended SXSW Interactive, hosted at the Mashable House.Friskies paid travel expenses to Austin in order to film You-Tube show “Will Kitty Play With It?”
  • [April 18, 2013] Grumpy Cat appears in Lil Bub & Friendz, a documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on and won the Tribeca Online Festival Best Feature Film.
  • [May 2013] Grumpy Cat is all set to be cast into a “Garfield-like feature film” adaptation. The prospective producer Todd Garner said “We think we can build a big family comedy around this character.
  • [August 2013] Grumpy Cat met Lil Bub at the second annual Internet Cat Video Film Festival at the Minnesota State Fair.
  • … to be continued …
  • Link to a news report about Tardar Sause

Information from Wikipedia, The Times(UK) and other sources

Miss Kitty steals the show

Well reader, holiday time’s almost over for another year! Norman and I hope you had a good one, whether you were sunning yourselves in a back yard staycation or lounging in the heat on some golden sandy beach with the waves lapping at your toes (or paws).

As for us, we saw a whole host of creatures and critters on our trip around the National Parks of the USA, including (stuffed) Mountain Lions, a bobcat, a herd of buffalo, a wild Osprey and three bears in Yellowstone Park (with not a Goldilocks in sight)….. But a certain feline called Miss Kitty stole the show for us (well, for cat lovers who else was going to get the prize)!

miss kitty cat

Miss Kitty struts the boards
Photograph: Ed at Moggyblog.com

Well, to get to the point of the story… coming home we stopped off at Universal Studios, Hollywood in California. There was a show on called ‘Animal Actors’ and who should turn up as a perfomer but one of our own.

I caught the name ‘Miss kitty’ as she was introduced but that might just have been her stage name. Out walks a cat of poise and distinction who stole the show from the dogs, birds and babboon also in the show.

Here are a series of snapshots of her performance.

cat performance

Miss Kittys performance in pictures
Photograph: Ed at Moggyblog

So, right on cue, Kitty proceeded to walk the length of the stage, jump on to the alligators snout, up on to the bamboo bridge, across the bridge and up the rope to the hidey hole at the top. All, without so much much of a nod from the animal trainers on hand.
[Now, did you ever try to get a cat to do anything!! (except coming to get food of course)].

The animal trainers did though point out that all the animals in the show (including Kitty) had been rescued from animal shelters or had been found homeless on the streets. They had all been looked after lovingly and trained to perform in many of the Hollywood films we knew so well.

At the end of the show the trainers encouraged us to to donate whatever we could to support animal shelters (in our own regions).

I’ve posted some more creature snaps below…. We hope you like em

A Mountain Lion in Virginia City
Photograph: Ed at Moggyblog

A bear family in Yellowstone Park
Photograph: Ed at Moggyblog

A Mountain Lion and a Bobcat. ‘Utah’s little Hollywood shop’, Kanab, Utah USA
Photograph: Ed at Moggyblog