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Then named Tardar Sauce, Grumpy Cat burst to fame in 2012.

Online celebrity Grumpy Cat dies aged 7

The cat made her owner Tabatha Bundesen of Arizona, a wealthy woman

SHE DIED JUST as she had lived, in a blizzard of memes, tweets and news reports celebrating her feline frown and distinctly unamused expression.

Today, the world learned that Grumpy Cat, the internet sensation whose scowl launched a thousand memes — earning her 1.5 million Twitter followers and 8.3 million Facebook fans — had died at the age of seven.

Grumpy Cat, whose pre-celebrity name was Tardar Sauce, burst to fame in 2012 when her owner’s brother posted a picture of her mirthless mug on social media. Within 48 hours, her image had been viewed more than a million times.

A real-life Garfield on social media obsessed with cat pics: a star had been born.

Six months later, as her fame spread around the world, Grumpy Cat appeared at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where thousands lined up to have their photo taken with the celebrated sourpuss.

She was invited to star-studded movie premieres, had a cameo role in Sesame Street, took part in the Hollywood Christmas parade and had her own animatronic wax likeness at Madame Tussaud’s — which of course she was invited to be photographed with as it was unveiled.

The Lifetime Channel made a movie featuring the miserable-looking moggie called Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, and a New York Times bestselling book was written about her. Friskies cat food became an official sponsor and she had her own “meme manager.”

Fans could buy Grumpy Cat socks, or an endless choice of tee-shirts emblazoned with ennui-filled slogans such as “Your face….I hate it” or “I don’t care what you think, I’m napping.”

Fat cat

The branded merchandising, which included pillows, pens, mugs and bags, as well as the sponsorship and media deals were estimated to have made her owner, Tabatha Bundesen of Arizona, a wealthy woman. It allowed her to quit her job as a waitress at Red Lobster within days of her cat’s internet debut, US media reported.

Bundesen denied reports that she had made as much as $100 million from the cat’s fame, but has declined to say how much her pet earned.

The cat’s image was hot property: last year, a California jury awarded Bundesen’s company, Grumpy Cat Limited, damages of $710,001 in a lawsuit against a beverage company that had created an unauthorized line of “Grumpy Cat Roasted Coffee” and which was selling Grumppuccino tee-shirts without sharing profits.

Financially, Grumpy was a fat cat. But she was not bad-tempered in real life, according to her owner who attributed her scowly expression to the fact that she had feline dwarfism and a marked underbite.

Her death at the age of seven was due to a urinary tract infection, her Twitter account said, with the announcement, “Some days are grumpier than others.”

Described by CNN as a “furry titan of the internet,” Grumpy’s obituary appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and even the Russian business magazine Kommersant.

And, of course, her demise was the top trending on Twitter, where fans posted thousands of messages of condolence and mourning.

© – AFP 2019

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    Mute Billy Big Baws
    Favourite Billy Big Baws
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    May 17th 2019, 9:02 PM

    RIP….thoughts are with the family and friends at this devastating time.

    258
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    Mute Terry McSweeney
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    May 17th 2019, 9:08 PM

    Can we have a moment’s paws

    275
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    Mute White Rabbit
    Favourite White Rabbit
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    May 17th 2019, 9:11 PM

    @Terry McSweeney: come on now, stop making pun of the poor auld cat!

    58
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    Mute Jims - TechBuzz Ireland
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    May 17th 2019, 9:18 PM

    This is news..

    85
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    Mute shergar
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    May 17th 2019, 9:33 PM

    @Jims – TechBuzz Ireland: mews

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    Mute Ronan McDermott
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    May 18th 2019, 3:41 AM

    @Jims – TechBuzz Ireland: technically it is. People want to know what’s going on. I remember when the dog from the dulux paint ads died he got his own segment on rte news

    35
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    Mute Jims - TechBuzz Ireland
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    May 18th 2019, 4:06 AM

    @Ronan McDermott: lol

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    May 18th 2019, 4:52 AM

    @Jims – TechBuzz Ireland: yep. If you made 100 mil out of your cat you would be news if you died… sorry… if your cat died .

    10
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    Mute White Rabbit
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    May 17th 2019, 9:09 PM

    That’s Cat! The purr family must be feline awful…..

    148
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    Mute pethelhug
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    May 17th 2019, 9:00 PM

    Ran out of lives!!

    59
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    Mute Nehppo McG
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    May 17th 2019, 9:17 PM

    GIP
    Grump in peace my love

    64
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    Mute HearMeNow33
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    May 17th 2019, 9:06 PM

    Cats Entertainment

    31
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    Mute Stephen East
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    May 17th 2019, 9:56 PM

    She is in heaven…..and she hates it

    61
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    Mute Faixa Roxa
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    May 18th 2019, 7:24 AM

    @Stephen East: hahahaha

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    Mute Michael Kavanagh
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    May 18th 2019, 7:38 AM

    @Stephen East:
    Nice One!

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    Mute Mark Hannan
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    May 17th 2019, 10:29 PM

    Kurt Cobain
    Amy Winehouse
    Jimi Hendrix
    Janis Joplin
    Jim Morrison
    Robert Johnson
    Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones)
    Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (The Grateful Dead)
    Chris Bell (Big Star)
    D. Boon (The Minutemen)
    Richey Edwards (Manic Street Preachers)
    Grumpy Cat (Grumpy Cat Memes)

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    Mute William Tallon
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    May 17th 2019, 10:54 PM

    Catastrophic…

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    Mute David Harold
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    May 17th 2019, 9:23 PM

    He won’t like that!

    21
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    Mute conex
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    May 17th 2019, 9:30 PM

    I heard he faked his own death to get out of paying off the revenue ….

    Owed them a fortune in taxes !!

    25
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    Mute Jazz Buckler
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    May 17th 2019, 11:01 PM

    @conex: you heard wrong then ‘cos it’s a she not a he

    19
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    Mute Brianán McBride
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    May 18th 2019, 6:15 AM

    An UTI shouldn’t kill a cat if treated.

    13
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    Mute Laura Crowe
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    May 19th 2019, 11:30 PM

    @Brianán McBride: You’d think that wouldn’t you…but cat medicine is just not that advanced. Vets can only treat 50% of infections cats pick up.

    The bladder area is a particularly tricky area to treat. Size of a pinhole ?

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    Mute Barry Teehan
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    May 17th 2019, 10:00 PM

    I hate myself for accidentally clicking on this link.

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    Mute Tony Donoghue
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    May 17th 2019, 10:18 PM

    @Barry Teehan: grumpy?

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    May 18th 2019, 2:01 PM

    7 isn’t old for a cat…

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    Mute Samuel
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    May 17th 2019, 9:16 PM

    He looked like wilford brimley

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    Mute Donwon999
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    May 18th 2019, 9:53 AM

    100 mil made from silly pictures of a deformed cat. Welcome to this generation

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    Mute Michael Kavanagh
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    May 18th 2019, 9:56 AM

    @Donwon999:
    Relax …… it isn’t too long ago that showmen were making money from deformed people!

    13
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