The Cat Found Phenomenon
A friend of mine found this poster on a toilet door, inside a bar on Chapel St, Melbourne. The hilarity of someone finding a possum and thinking it was a cat, kept us laughing all day, even if we knew it was only a joke. The speech bubble that says “Help me find my owners”, “Small and Shy” and the emphasised “Not House-Trained” with a sad face, are just gold.
I haven’t called Don yet to tell him he’s found my cat. I have searched the internet to see if anyone else has seen the poster and found a few more different variations of the poster around the internet. My investigation into the cat found phenomenon has uncovered a trail of posters that have appeared in both Australia and the US. The American version has a picture of a very aggressive looking opossum. Here’s what I found…
Posted on Flickr 1st February 2008, by 20after4. Kearney St, in Springfield, Missouri. “Not very friendly, I think he might be scared.” and “Not Housebroken Either”.
A slight variation was posted on a blog called Addicted to Medblogs, on 6th January 2008, located in Franklin Ave, New York.
Posted in a blog called SnootyPaws on 18th February 2008. Also posted here, and here. Sydney Rd is in Brunswick, Melbourne. The phone number is an alternative number of the Talking Clock.
This was also posted on GiggleSugar on 3 June 2008 with the caption, “Dude, that’s not a cat”. User jess131288 comments: “it’s a baby brushtail possum for those who don’t know (australian animal). this poster was put up in my suburb, saw it in the local paper:P and there is no owner, because they’re natives Laughing out loud it’s definitely a joke because the first google image for brushtail possum is the one on the poster so they obviously knew it wasn’t a cat 
”
Posted on the Livejournal 4chan community on 5th April 2008. Cat found at Sunset Blvd, Los Angelas. This is very similar to the Kearney St one.
This one was also posted on Flickr, on 11th April 2008, by LadyDoodleBug who says: “A friend of mine sent this to me. I do not know where it was taken or who took it. I am assuming that it was taken somewhere in California only because the poster says the ‘cat’ was found on Sunset BLVD. Not sure if this is real or a joke. Either way its too funny to not post on Flickr. ”
Yes, there is a video! Posted on Youtube on 6th April 2008, by wendysity1 who says: “I’m not sure who the guy in L.A. was who posted the fake ‘Cat Found’ poster but I made one of my own and posted it around Chicago, then filmed peoples’ reactions. Please help me find the owner of this cat!!!”
The most recent post on Flickr, on 15th November 2008, by DiscoWeasel.
