Tardar Sauce (born April 4, 2012), commonly known as Grumpy Cat, is an American internet celebrity cat. She is known for her permanently “grumpy” facial appearance, which is caused by an underbite and feline dwarfism. She came to prominence when a photograph of her was posted on September 22, 2012 on social news website Reddit by Bryan Bundesen, the brother of her owner Tabatha Bundesen. Lolcats and parodies created from the photograph by Reddit users went viral. She is the subject of a popular internet meme in which negative, cynical images are made from photographs of her.
Tardar Sauce was one of a litter of four kittens born to a calico mother and a father of an unknown breed at the home of her owner, Tabatha Bundesen. The Bundesens say that Tardar Sauce’s face appears grumpy because the feline has a form of dwarfism. Though the mother and father are described as “normal sized domestic short hair cats”, Tardar Sauce is undersized and has hind legs that are “a bit different”. Both she and her brother, Pokey, were born with “a flat face, bubble eyes, and a short tail”. Although she has a “grumpy” appearance and is called “Grumpy Cat”, according to the Bundesens, “Ninety-nine percent of the time she is just a regular cat.”
Meme Manager, Ben Lashes, represents Grumpy Cat, in addition to Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat. In 2013, Tabatha Bundesen took a leave of absence from her day job at Red Lobster to manage Grumpy Cat’s schedule while Bryan Bundesen manages the Grumpy Cat website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts.
