Angry Hurricane Harvey Cat

Submission 37,312

Part of a series on 2017 Hurricane Harvey. [View Related Entries]

About

Angry Hurricane Harvey Cat refers to a viral photograph a snarling, orange cat swimming through the flood waters caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Origin

On August 30th, 2017, Getty Images^[4] published a photograph by photographer Scott Olson of an orange cat with an angry look on its face swimming through the flood waters left by Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

Spread

On August 31st, Redditor ^[6] JoeSicbo posted the photo of the cat in the /r/pics subreddit. The picture received more than 7,000 points (94% upvoted) and 200 comments in five days.

The next day, on September 1st, Facebook ^[5] user Laura Mullane posted the photo. The post (shown below, left) received more than 90,000 reactions, 123 comments and 67,700 shares. They captioned the post:

"While I love both dogs and cats, we all know, when the chips are down, I'm a dog person. But that may change with this photo. All the photos I've seen of dogs and horses escaping the flooding, they look terrified. This cat just looks pissed--like he's going to write a sternly worded letter to his city councilor when he gets home…right after he smokes a few cigarette butts out of the gutter, does a shot of Jack Daniels, and starts #bitchplease trending on Twitter of pictures of dogs in boats. This cat had one fuck to give, and that fuck is gone.

[Since people are asking: Not my photo. Saw it on the Washington Post. Photo credit: Scott Olson / Getty]"

On September 2nd, 2017, the official Twitter ^[1] account of the LA Times posted the photo with the captioned "A cat swims for dry ground after an apartment was inundated with water following Hurricane Harvey." The post (shown below, right) received more than 5,000 retweets and 16,000 likes in three days.

Shortly after, Twitter user @yamphoto^[2] posted the photo with the caption "THIS IMAGE. Photographer Scott Olson found one angry cat swimming in floodwater. #Harvey." The post (shown below) received more than 4,500 retweets and 12,200 likes in three days.

On September 3rd, Twitter user @LaurieTheScott^[3] posted the picture with the caption "'Climate change is a hoax.'" The post (shown below, left) received more than 3,800 retweets and 9,600 likes within two days.

Throughout the next few days, people on Twitter used the cat to express frustrations about the opinion that climate change is a hoax. Several users posted the picture under captions that are some variation of "when you hear someone say climate change is a hoax." The cat then expresses frustration with such a comment (examples below, right).

Several media outlets covered the popularity of the picture, including People,^[7] Mashable,^[8] NY Mag^[9] and more.