About

Understanding Cat, also known as Cat With Kind and Reassuring Face or Полосатый кот улыбается (Tabby Cat Smiling/ Kind-Hearted Cat), is of a photograph of a cat that appears to be smiling. It was initially posted on the Russian Social media site Pikabu in January 2015 before spreading to the English web.

Origin

On December 31st 2014, Pikabu user Babuskofob asked other users in St. Petersberg to join them for a New Year's Party. Photos of this party were subsequently uploaded on January 2nd. ^[1][2]

Spread

On January 18th 2014, two of the images of the cat were uploaded to the Image sharing site Imgur by user maramon with the title "Gentle understanding cat"^[3] which is seen as its introduction to the English speaking web ^[2]. Later that same year on September 21st, Imgur user 4minutesleftx uploaded thew same two images with the title "If no one else told you today, this cat is proud of you today."^[4] This image was Later Posted to Pinterest ^[5].

On August 27th, 2017 a post by Tumblr user Busket asking "where is that cat with the kind and reassuring face", with tumblr user bennettflynt responding with subsequent images. This interaction gained over 360,000 notes on Tumblr ^[6][7]. In addition, this interaction was frequently screencapped and reposted to other sites, such as Reddit. ^[8]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References