Grumpy Cat, Marnie and Boo are full-blown pet-influencers – but how do owners cope when their Instagram-famous pet, like Lil Bub, dies?
Pets have become celebrities through content posted on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube – so what do owners do with these accounts after their beloved pets have passed away?
Cyber Monday is one of the biggest days each year for online retailers, including for the brand based on a four-pound cat named Lil Bub.
The reason I started posting is because she was changing people’s lives on a daily basis
Instead of spending the weekend before the online shopping holiday recovering from Thanksgiving dinner, Lil Bub’s owner Mike Bridavsky was busy making sure his website was ready for the onslaught of traffic expected on the Monday. He prepared for thousands to flock to the Lil Bub online store to snatch up T-shirts, socks, and pillows bearing the cat’s recognisable appearance: her small stature due to feline dwarfism, her lack of teeth, and her tongue permanently hanging out of her mouth. But he couldn’t have anticipated what else his weekend had in store.
Lil Bub died that Sunday, just over three months ago, leaving behind a slew of adoring fans to grieve. In her eight years, Lil Bub accrued millions of social media followers, served as the face for numerous animal welfare causes, and became a widely recognisable and beloved face across the internet.
“Bub had a complete lack of self awareness, this ability to overcome all the obstacles she’s felt,” Bridavsky said. “She wasn’t just a famous Instagram cat … She engineered herself to look this way so she could catch people’s attention and they could learn about her.”
Lil Bub turned into an established social media influencer in much less time than it takes many of her human counterparts. Pets like Grumpy Cat, Marnie and Boo have become not just household names, but full-blown celebrities. These pets have shown that influencers don’t have to be human to get fans to line up for hours for meet-and-greets, or earn thousands of dollars a year from ads and sponsorships.
However, the pets’ significantly shorter lifespans raise questions about what follows their death. After internet pets die, their owners remain. Not only are they left with a slew of social media accounts bearing the name of their pets, but also with a loyal following that, in my cases, have turned to these animals as a bright spot during the darkest of days.