Tater Tot the Kitten

Submission 19,620

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About

Tater Tot the Kitten, also known as Tater Tot the Cat, was a small orange kitten with splints or casts on its front legs that became a frequent subject of discussions, memes and redraws online. After photos of the disgruntled-looking tabby kitten were posted to the Facebook group This Cat Is Grompy in July 2023, the images were reposted to viral effect on Twitter and TikTok in the following weeks. Tater Tot also became the subject of Photoshop edits, Redraws and meme edits in the Facebook Group "This Cat Is Grompy" after his initial debut.

Origin

Tater Tot first made his debut on the "This Cat Is Grompy" Facebook group^[10] on June 29th, 2023, after his caretaker Ash Houghton posted a picture^[1] showcasing his disgruntled expression (seen below, left).^[1] On July 11th, Houghton posted a picture^[2] of Tater Tot showing off the splits he has to wear to fix his malformed front limbs. The post gathered over 6,400 reactions in 10 days (seen below, right).

On July 13th, Houghton posted another photo^[3] showing Tater Tot's new set of splints, gathering over 10,000 reactions in a week (seen below).

Spread

Tater Tot became the subject of "Photoshop Battles" and memes in the Facebook group This Cat Is Grompy, with Facebook user Alexandra Nessell posting a Tater Tot edit^[6] on July 16th, 2023, and gathering over 2,000 likes in four days (seen below, left). Also on July 14th, Facebook user Jair Nunez posted four Tater Tot edits^[7] with the caption, "Throwing my hat into the Tater Tot Photoshop battle!" and gathered over 4,000 likes in a week (seen below, right).

On July 16th, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @Hilary_W reposted two images of Tater Tot with the caption, "I'm in a Facebook group called This cat is G R O M P Y and it's recently been taken over by a rescue kitten called Tater Tot and I am living for it. I am a Tater Tot stan." The post gathered over 200,000 likes in four days (seen below, left). Tater Tot also became the subject of fan art on Twitter, with Twitter^[5] user @poorlycatdraw posting art that gathered over 30,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

On July 19th, 2023, Tater Tot's caretaker posted a video of him to the TikTok^[8] account @kittycrusaide, gathering over 1.5 million plays and 300,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). On July 20th, @kittycrusaide posted a video^[9] update showing Tater Tot's arm splints being taken off, gathering over 1.3 million plays and 300,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Death

On August 2nd, 2023, Tater Tot's caretaker Ash Houghton posted a message in his Facebook group in which she announced that the kitten has passed away earlier that day. The post said that the kitten died suddenly, possibly from a heart condition, after showing signs of pneumonia a few days earlier. The post (shown below) received over 22,000 reactions and 4,400 shares on Facebook^[11] in one day, with a Twitter^[12] repost gaining over 5,900 retweets and 35,000 likes in the same period.