Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/missing-poster-cat-photo/

Some internet mysteries are quickly solved, while others persist in our collective imagination and uncertainty for years after the fact. Unsurprisingly, one of the most subtly strange internet tales involves a black cat and conspiracy theories of teleportation, time loops, twins, and more!

It all started with a photo posted to Reddit on May 4th, 2014 by user kodibramble. It shows a black-and-white cat sitting next to what appears to be his own missing poster! Users were quick to laugh at the cat’s obviously mischievous nature. But this story is not quite what it seems at first glance.

Some started asking how exactly the cat was able to trick his owners into believing he’d disappeared, while others were confident that it was a simple case of a pet owner forgetting to take down the poster after recovering the cat.

The plot thickened, however, when a similar photo from less than a year earlier was found to have been posted on the same sub-forum! A black-and-white cat sits in a window, next to a “lost cat” sign that clearly describes him to a T. Must be the same one, making a habit of faking his owners out, right? Strangely, though, users were quick to point out some inconsistencies between the two photos, such as the appearance of the windowsill and the differences between the posters (one was labeled “Missing,” and the other “Lost Cat”).

Now, it seemed, there were TWO ‘lost and found’ cats! How deep did this rabbit hole go? Users began to theorize that perhaps the cats were twins, who had swapped places and tricked passersby but not their owners. Another tongue-in-cheek theory, that it was simply one very busy cat who had multiple homes, also spread. Intriguingly, the reflection in the window of the “Missing” cat’s photo seems to show a building across the street that strongly resembles the bay windows of the home in the “Lost Cat” photo. Could they have been neighbors?

A Metro article even criticized the cat’s owner, guessing that they hadn’t checked their home thoroughly enough before printing posters. Still, after this publicity, no one came forward to explain either photo. Perhaps, most simply, this was a classic internet prank. If so, it was quite a puzzling one that wouldn’t seem to be quite worth the effort. Unfortunately, here is where the trail goes cold. Information on this cat (or pair of cats?) dries up, and he vanishes from the internet as mysteriously as he appeared. Whatever the case may be behind these photos, the cat(s) seems to be safe and sound, and that’s what’s most important!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog