About
Sir Stuffington is a one-eyed cat living in Oregon who rose to fame after his foster parent Blazer Schaffer created a Facebook fan page[1] for him in September 2013.
Origin
On September 12th, 2013, a resident of Troutdale, Oregon snapped a photograph (shown below, left) of a homeless, feral cat missing its right eye. In hoping to find a new home for the injured animal, the photographer then shared the picture with friends on Facebook. On the following day, the one-eyed cat and his two siblings were brought into the Multnomah County Animal Shelter, all suffering from upper respiratory infections and calicivirus, a highly infectious feline disease.[2] In addition, the one-eyed cat was also diagnosed with a broken jaw, flea anemia and a heart murmur. On September 14th, local resident Blazer Schaffer volunteered to foster the trio until they were healthy enough to be adopted. That same day, she submitted a photo of the newly-dubbed “Sir Stuffington” (shown below, right) on photo sharing site Imgur[3], where it gained more than 284,000 views and 360 comments in nine days.
Spread
On September 16th, Schaffer launched a Facebook fan page for the cat, which gained more than 28,000 likes within a week. On September 18th, she uploaded a photo album of Sir Stuffington dressed as a pirate, wearing a tiny eyepatch and red bandana, which was picked up by The Featured Creature[9] on the following day in observance of the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. In the following days, photographs of Sir Stuffington were highlighted by major U.S. news outlets and popular internet culture blogs, including Headline News,[8] Daily Mail[10], MotherJones[11], CNN[12], Animal Planet[6], Buzzfeed[4], Death and Taxes[5], Gawker[7], Paw Nation[13], the Huffington Post[14] and MSN Now[18], as well as Portland’s local news outlets Oregon Live[15], Fox 12 Oregon[16] and KGW Portland.[17]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
[Not Currently Available]
External References
[1]Facebook – Sir Stuffington
[2]MultCoPets.org – Sir Stuffington’s Story
[3]Imgur – Sir Stuffington. My newest foster kitten and raccoon attack survivor. Just cute as a button!!
[4]Buzzfeed – Meet Sir Stuffington, The Cutest Pirate In The World
[5]Death and Taxes – Sir Stuffington is the cutest pirate kitten ever
[6]Animal Planet – The Importance of Foster Homes: Sir Stuffington’s Story
[7]Gawker – Say Hello to Sir Stuffington, Your New Favorite Cat Pirate
[8]Headline News – We’ve found the next Grumpy Cat, and he is the best
[9]The Featured Creature – Arrgh! Meet Sir Stuffington: the Cutest Pirate Kitty of All Time
[10]Daily Mail – Meet Sir Stuffington the one-eyed ‘pirate cat’ taking the internet by storm: Adorable stray has found fame after being taken in by new owner
[11]MotherJones – The Story of Sir Stuffington, The Internet’s Favorite One-Eyed Pirate Cat
[12]CNN– Kitty becomes an Internet star
[13]Paw Nation – Meet Sir Stuffington, The One-Eyed Pirate Kitten With A Heart Of Gold
[14]Huffington Post – Sir Stuffington The One-Eyed Pirate Cat Recovering After Vicious Raccoon Attack
[15]Oregon Live – Multnomah County shelter hopes Sir Stuffington’s story will inspire more foster volunteers
[16]Fox 12 Oregon – One-eyed kitten Sir Stuffington is internet’s most popular pirate
[17]KGW– MultCo. shelter’s ‘Sir Stuffington’ pirate cat goes viral
[18]MSN Now – Sir Stuffington the one-eyed kitten is probably the cutest pirate ever