Culture

Seven Extremely Important Moments In Cats That Graced The Internet In 2015

They're not dogs, but they did their best.

by Samantha Allemann  17 December 2015

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According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2015 was the Year of the Sheep. Clearly this is in accurate, as every year is Year of the Dog. Junkee has a proud, unapologetic pro-dog bias, and anyone who doesn’t like it can go pat a cactus.

That said, these so-called “cats” we’ve been hearing about managed to pull off some pretty impressive stunts this year. They’re not dogs, obviously, but they’re something. To ease you into 2016, here are some of the best.

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Lockdown Cats

When you’ve been asked by the authorities not to share details of your city’s top secret police operations on social media, what are curious citizens left to do? Flood the internet with more cat pictures, that’s what.

With the Belgian capital of Brussels on high alert after the recent Paris attacks, the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown was being used with gusto, not to spread security information, but to share hilarious cat pics instead.

For fans of cat memes it was like Christmas had come early, with feline mermaids, gym junkies, hover transportation and superheroes. With Belgian police thanking the cats for their help, the feline Twitter takeover was a welcome distraction for many and proof that cat photos are an appropriate response to any situation.

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G20 Storming Of The Stage

The recent G20 summit had world leaders converging on Antalya, Turkey to discuss global economic and financial cooperation. The agenda’s main objectives were focused around “strengthening the global recovery and lifting potential, enhancing resilience and buttressing sustainability.” What wasn’t on the agenda was an off-Broadway impromptu performance of Cats. Far from busting their musical chops like Grizabella and co, these less-vocal stray cats simply scurried around, taking time to smell the roses before they traipsed off stage.

Rumours that the three were covert Illuminati members (with the All-Seeing-Eye’s membership drive for cats being public knowledge) remains unaddressed by the government heads, who were allegedly busy making important decisions on non-feline matters.

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Flying Away On A Wing And A Prayer

Footage of a cat taking flight, quite literally on the wings of a light aircraft, was uploaded to Youtube in June. Sagely titled “Remove cat before flight”, this hair-raising thriller has since racked up close to 18 million views. At a flight school in French Guiana, South America, a soon to be windswept black and white moggie had been hanging around the aircraft unbeknown to the pilot. As the pilot and his passenger took to the skies, so did the cat, hanging onto the wing. At the video’s 1 minute mark, the pilot notices his stowaway passenger and calmly begins the plane’s descent.

Like Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the cat grips the wing like a bad arse and safely makes it back to the school, where it’s appointed official mascot status.

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Robo Cat

Money can’t buy happiness, but according to toy making giant Hasbro, US$99.99 can buy comfort, companionship and joy. One of the biggest toy companies in the world, Hasbro last month unveiled their ‘Joy For All Companion Pets’. Apparently developed in response to market research revealing that stuffed toys were popular with the elderly and not to herald a robot cat army to destroy us all, these catbots purr and meow, responding to touch and motion. Guidelines on how to pet your robo cat are also given, although they don’t state if rubbing your cat’s belly will result in shredded hands just like in real life.

Having volunteered both in nursing homes and at animal shelters where owners had to surrender their pets before going into care, it’s hard for me to be as cynical about these creepy toys as I’d like to be. Pets make people happy. And a cat without the need for a litter tray is a joyful thing indeed.

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#Uberkittens

While some lucky workplaces have a Take Your Dog to Work Day, most offices are tragically devoid of kittens. So when Uber decided to distract from its numerous controversies with the cute PR stunt of delivering kittens to offices in Australia’s major cities, employees predictably lost their shit.

Uber busted out these adorable creatures from local animal shelters, delivering them to customers for a $40 15-minute play time, with the money and kittens then returning to the shelters. The kittens were also available for adoption, and according to Uber, 22 were adopted on the day.

The kittens delivery option was only valid for four hours for one day in February, and the high demand had many customers missing out.  Uber said that although 100 kitten visits happened nationally, they “would have needed over 86,000 kittens to fulfil every request received”.

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LOLcats

In 2015 our TV screens continued to be saturated with reality shows about house renovations or cooking food (and in a stroke of lazy genius, cooking food when on a break from renovating). With Channel 7’s Restaurant Revolution underperforming on a ratings battle with channel 9’s The Hotplate, 7 decided to cut back on the cooking and give the people of Australia what we really wanted (and which the internet figured out long ago): cats to make us laugh out loud.

On its August debut, the British created Cats Make You Laugh Out Loud was the most watched program in Australia, enthralling 1.56 million viewers. The success of such Youtube content as ‘Cat Wearing A Shark Costume Cleans The Kitchen On A Roomba’ and ‘Cat vs Windshield Wipers’ made the show a ratings winner, paving the way for Dogs Make You Laugh Out Loud. A show where cats cook in a renovated house is rumoured to be involved in a bidding war amongst the networks, so stay tuned.

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Cool As

Another year, another inexplicable trend that will also make no sense in the future. In 2015 it became a popular past-time to scare your cat with a cucumber. The origin of this startling viral trend appears to be a Youtube clip uploaded in May by Doki Doki of, you guessed it, a cat being scared of a cucumber.

With a CucumbersScaringCats subreddit created, this feline vs gourd phenomenon kept animal and produce fans captivated… until media spoil sports ruined all the fun. Interviewing animal behaviorists who pointed out that terrifying animals is cruel and potentially traumatic, it looked like the cucumbers were headed back into the fridge, and cats’ heart rates back to normal. Only time will tell if cats and cucumbers can happily co-exist, and harmony will be restored once more.

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Samantha Allemann is a Melbourne based writer, educational content developer, sometime radio announcer and occasional Tweeter.

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Feature image via Grumpy Cat/Twitter.