About

Cat Grandpa is a nickname to describe Terry Lauerman, an animal shelter volunteer known for frequently falling asleep with the cats.

Origin

On September 18th, 2018, the Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary posted three pictures of volunteer Terry Lauerman asleep witht he cats. They captioned the photographs, "We are so lucky to have a human like Terry. Terry just came along one day and introduced himself. He said he'd like to brush cats. Eventually it became everyday. He brushes all of the cats, and can tell you about all of their likes and dislikes. He also accidentally falls asleep most days. We don't mind – Cats need this! Terry is a wonderful volunteer. 😻❤️🐾 #nappingencouraged #grateful." The post received more than 71,000 reactions, 5,000 comments and 19,000 shares in three days.^[1]

Spread

The following day, as popularity of the photographs grew, the shelter launched a fundraising campaign for people who wanted to donate in honor of Lauerman. The campaign received more than $5,300 of its $1,000 goal in two days.^[3]

On September 20th, a thread about the picture was posted in the /r/Eyebleach subreddit. The post received more than 9,500 points (97% upvoted) and 230 comments.^[2]

That day, people began posting various appreciations for Lauerman on Twitter and tagging discussions #catgrandpa (examples below).

Several media outlets covered the story, including The Daily Dot, ^[4] Upworthy, ^[5] BuzzFeed ^[6] and more.

Search Interest

External References