Cocaine Cat

About

Cocaine Cat refers to the wild African Serval cat that was captured in Ohio in early January 2023 and tested positive for cocaine. The cat's pictures of it in the tree, as well as at the emergency vet center, went viral and became the subject of various jokes and memes after the toxicology report confirmed it had ingested cocaine prior to its capture, with many comparing it to the film Cocaine Bear that released around the same time the story trended online in early March 2023.

Origin

On January 28th, 2023, reports of a large cat being found in a tree in Ohio turned out to be an African Serval, an exotic cat breed that is illegal to own in the state, prompting animal rescue to take the animal into custody. Photos from the event initially started to circulate locally, with people making note of its large size as it perched in the tree waiting to be captured (shown below).

Spread

The story remained relatively unknown until March 2023 when it began to go viral after the toxicology report came back and showed that the cat was high on cocaine at the time of its capture.^[3] This further raised questions as to the origin of the animal, how it got up in the tree, and what would happen next.

With the movie Cocaine Bear currently in the middle of its promotional theater tour at the same time the development caused the African wild cat story to go viral, the conversation online quickly shifted to be about Cocaine Bear vs. Cocaine Cat. For example, on March 9th, 2023, Twitter user @Pizza_Dad^[1] posted a meme referencing this and using the First Time format, receiving over 560 likes in just over a day (shown below).

With the recent Ohio Train Derailment in East Palestine still being a concern and trending story, some social media users were upset that the focus of attention for the state of Ohio had shifted to be more about the Cocaine Cat with people not caring about the ecological damage being done to the area.

On March 9th, this sentiment was noted in a Reaction Guys meme by Twitter user @bubblesbounces,^[2] receiving over 360 likes in two hours (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References