After eight years of warming the internet’s cold dead heart, veteran cat-about-the-web Lil Bub has passed away. Fighting off a serious bone infection, Bub’s death was unexpected but, thankfully, it was also peaceful as she reportedly went to sleep on the bed beside her humans and simply never woke up. She died on Dec. 1, and her death was announced on the cat’s social media accounts on Monday.
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Born the runt of an otherwise healthy feral litter, Lil Bub was a cat with a difference right from the start. Suffering from two rare genetic disorders, Bub stopped growing at seven months, leaving her permanently kitten-sized. Her lower jaw was deformed and entirely toothless, meaning she needed to be bottle-fed and couldn’t keep her tongue inside her mouth. She also suffered from severe osteoporosis that at one point left her unable to walk, and which vets said would be permanent—though Bub proved them wrong and was able to walk again with therapy and a lot of help.
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With all of her health needs, Bub’s chances at adoption didn’t seem good, but her owner Mike Bridavsky thought she was “the most adorable thing” he’d ever seen and attached to her the very moment they met. Going through a very bad time personally and financially himself, Bridavsky credited Bub with saving him, and spent the next eight years of her life utterly devoted to her, often working eighty-hour weeks maintaining all of her fan pages so everyone would see her “the way she deserved to be seen”.
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Together, Bub and Bridavsky have raised over $700,000 for rescue animals, as well as touring together so she could meet her many fans, star in a movie, and publishing a book. Bringing daily joy to netizens around the world, Bub achieved more in her short life than many humans and made the world a brighter place for it. Rest in peace Lil Bub, you were a good kitty.
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