Marty heavily influenced a lot of my comics and the creation of Nyan Cat twitter.com/PRguitarman/st…
— Chris Torres (@PRguitarman) November 2, 2012
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Marty, the real-life gray cat who inspired the rainbow trailing pop tart cat meme Nyan Cat, passed away from FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) on Thursday. The two year old cat was adopted as a kitten in December 2010 by Nyan Cat creator and cat lover Chris Torres along with another kitten named Buster. Buster died from FIP last year. FIP typically claims its victims after a brief and rapid decline. The disease itself is not infectious but the suspected root cause, Coronovirus, can be spread between cats at shelters and other places where they are congregated.
Torres tweeted, “Last week, Marty started behaving strange. We quickly took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with Feline Infectious Peritonitis, too,” and wrote “Even with the medical treatment he received he still deteriorated quickly. I’ve been force feeding him and keeping him warm for three days.”
Nyan cat first appeared as a GIF animation at Torres’ LOL-Comics site. The creator explained how it came about, in an interview, writing “I was doing a donation drive for the Red Cross and in-between drawings in my Livestream video chat, two different people mentioned I should draw a “Pop Tart” and a “cat”.” In April of 2011 YouTube user saraj00n married the GIF with the Momo Momo version of the song Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! in a video titled Nyan Cat, and a viral pop culture sensation was born.
A selection of Chris Torres’ tweets from recent days looks back at the beloved pet who inspired Nyan cat, along with his less famous sibling.
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I will really miss Marty. He was seriously just the coolest cat ever. I just couldn’t save him twitter.com/PRguitarman/st…
— Chris Torres (@PRguitarman) November 2, 2012
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In early December , 2010, I adopted two kittens from the local shelter. twitter.com/PRguitarman/st…
— Chris Torres (@PRguitarman) November 2, 2012
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Marty was named from Marty McFly from Back to the Future twitter.com/PRguitarman/st…
— Chris Torres (@PRguitarman) November 2, 2012
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Buster was named after Buster Bluth from Arrested Development twitter.com/PRguitarman/st…
— Chris Torres (@PRguitarman) November 2, 2012
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The two were inseparable twitter.com/PRguitarman/st…
— Chris Torres (@PRguitarman) November 2, 2012
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Buster passed away a year ago twitter.com/PRguitarman/st…
— Chris Torres (@PRguitarman) November 2, 2012
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The original Nyan Cat video that started it all. Many versions followed on a number of themes, as the meme became a popular culture phenomenon.
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Keyboard Cat gently plays him off.
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I am so sorry for the loss of both your beautiful babies. I grieve with you. Lost my baby earlier this year. May they both rest in peace. Run free Buster and Marty. You are together once again.
So sorry …. like Cindy said they are together again. I lost one mine Jarvis two aprils ago…it was like the life was sucked out of me. I felt that way for a while…even now when I see a brown tabby my heart sinks. *take care
A new star is now shining in the heavens. I’ll be looking for you. Fly on little man, fly by.
I’m so sorry. FIP is the most horrible disease . I lost my beautiful Ptolemy to FIP in 2011. I miss him desperately .