The Real Pets Behind 10 Of The Most Iconic Memes

There's no denying that pets are popular online, and these ten in particular have gone viral and created a legacy that's impacted us online for decades. Some of them are still around, and some exist now only in our memory, but all of them were beloved by the online community and worshipped as gods of sorts. Memes about them got elaborate, out-of-hand and seriously overused, but the true legacy of each of these dogs and cats will never be disrespected or forgotten by anyone involved in the meme community.

The one thing that the online community can agree on is that animals are great, and you’ll probably agree that these are the best of them all. We may not be their real owners, but we’ve gotten to know these pets as if they’re our own over the years, seeing them everywhere without really knowing anything about them. A lot of our bad references and truly distasteful jokes would have gotten nowhere without these odd faces that became public figures, so here's a look back on some of the biggest meme pets out there and their true identities, which deserve some recognition as the inspirations behind our bad senses of humor.