Thumbelina was a lovely cat from Ottawa, Canada, until this happened. Some said it was a quirk of Google Streetview; others identified her as a new species of “bipedal half-cat.” The Daily Mail has her in her non-shopped regularity here, and it's a relief to see.
But that moment of digital fame put her in reporter Tess Lynch's top 10 internet hoaxes of 2013. She discusses them all (including faked receipt messages and fake plane stories) here with NPR's Arun Rath. Lynch says:
“I think what it's really about is tempering that emotional response and adding a little bit of the rational response that we kind of have in our normal lives, where you take a person and you consider that person's motivations as being very layered.”
Yeah, might have to ponder on that part.