About

Meowl, also known as Cat Owl or Owl Cat, refers to a Photoshop edit of a cat and owl hybrid creature with an owl's body and a cat's head, seen standing on a branch. The original image was created in 2013 by Chinese Weibo user zhumaokele. Similar photoshops spread on the internet throughout the 2010s and 2020s. The Meowl image received increased attention in 2024 and 2025, when Meowl memes spread on TikTok and Twitter / X, among other platforms.

Origin

On April 28th, 2013, Weibo^[1] user zhumaokele shared a post that attached a series of cat-owl hybrid Photoshop edits, gaining over 1,700 shares in 12 years. One of the images showed a cat-owl on a branch, bearing the face of the viral Chinese cat Melonpi.^[2] The owl's body was sourced from a stock photo of a barn owl that was formerly hosted on the website SuperStock.^[3]

Spread

On May 29th, 2013, Redditor electrical_outlet shared a collage of four of the cat-owl hybrids to the /r/funny^[4] subreddit, gaining over 2,000 upvotes in 12 years.

On March 3rd, 2016, the same collage but with an Impact font caption reading, "MEOWLS," was shared to 9GAG ^[5] by the 9GAGGER account, gaining over 25,000 upvotes in nine years.

The @9GAG X^[6] account reposted the meme on March 6th, gaining over 2,000 likes over the same timeframe.

Also in 2016, Cheezburger ^[6] shared a listicle that compiled several Meowl photoshops.

The Meowl meme resurfaced en masse in the mid-2020s. For instance, on February 26th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @maheadfullofzig shared a slow fade-in video that used an image caption meme, reading, "When she say she's going to touch u but you low key want that," gaining over 770,000 likes in a year.

On August 28th, TikToker^[8] @itrappingit posted a video edit meme using the image, which added a mock conversation about someone defending their adoration of Meowls. Over one year, the video received roughly 328,800 likes.

On October 22nd, 2024, YouTuber^[10] AZALI shared a short video with a Meowl image, called "cat owl," which had eerie music playing in the background. It received over 95,100 views in 11 months.

On November 26th, TikToker^[9] @clo_rad1 shared a photo slideshow that included an image caption meme with a Meowl photoshop, reading, "When you can't decide to be a bird or a cat so you just wing it." Over 10 months, the post gained roughly 156,400 likes.

Meowl memes continued heading into 2025. For instance, on August 17th, 2025, TikToker^[11] @nullz.22 shared a video that animated a Meowl's mouth to show it singing a sped-up version of the song "New Soul" by David Donatien and Yael Naim,^[12] gaining over 1.2 million likes in a month.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References