She was more than a meme.

Today, the cat cat community suffured a catastrophic loss when Grumpy Cat crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. Grumpy Cat (aka Tardar Sauce) litter-ally changed the landscape of the Internet when her photo, posted to Reddit, went viral. She was the furst, most pawpular, most successful Internet cat ever.

Without Grumpy Cat, there would be no Cat Reporter.

The furst time I met Grumpy was at the purrmiere Internet Cat Video Film Festival. I arrived expecting to find a handful of old ladies in ugly cat sweatshirts, but instead found an impawsibly long line of men and women wearing cat shirts, a purrson wearing a Grumpy Cat fursuit and hipsters with kitty ears. It was at this moment I knew I had found my people.

I started to seek out other cat events and was furtunate to run into Nala Cat and Jackson Galaxy at a Kitten Rescue pawty. That’s when a furiend said, “You should be writing about these cats you meet.” And the rest is hisstory. Over the years, I’ve reviewed Grumpy’s books, movie and comic books.

She was the furst Internet pumpkin I ever painted.

And one of the highlights of my cat reporting career was meeting and interviewing the famous sourpuss earlier this year.

Today, my heart is breaking, especially fur her family.

We will miss you, Sweet Sourpuss. You will never be furgotten.

(2012-2019)