# Meowl Meowl, also called Cat Owl or Owl Cat, started as a 2013 Photoshop hybrid on Weibo pairing the face of viral Chinese cat Melonpi with a stock barn owl's body on a branch[1]. Western audiences found the image via a Reddit crosspost in 2013 and a 2016 9GAG repost captioned 'MEOWLS,' then rediscovered it a decade later. By 2025, TikTok creators had turned the hybrid into a lip-sync music video format with millions of likes. ## Origin Weibo user zhumaokele posted the original cat-owl hybrids on April 28, 2013, gathering over 1,700 shares across the following twelve years[1]. One image placed the face of Melonpi, a Chinese cat profiled by Sankaku Complex in 2012 as a candidate for China's cutest cat, onto a stock barn owl standing on a branch[2]. The owl body came from a photo once hosted on SuperStock[5]. - **Platform:** Weibo (source creation) / TikTok (viral spread) - **Creator:** zhumaokele - **Date:** 2013 ## Overview Meowl posts use the same base composition, an owl's fluffy body on a branch with a cat's face Photoshopped onto the head[1]. The body comes from a stock barn owl photo formerly hosted on SuperStock, and editors swap the cat face, add Impact captions, or animate the mouth for audio edits[5]. Humor leans into the creature's unblinking stare, which reads as adorable or cursed depending on the caption. Captions often cover confessional dating lines, bird-versus-cat identity gags, or deadpan appreciation of Meowls as a fictional species[8]. Popular 2025 edits layer sped-up music over an animated mouth, turning the still into a short music video format. ## How to Use Creators typically overlay Impact font captions or fade-in text on the Meowl image. Common conventions include confessional dating captions, puns on being half-bird and half-cat, or deadpan appreciation posts about adopting a Meowl. More recent edits animate the mouth and layer sped-up songs over the still image[11]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Meowl? Meowl is a Photoshop hybrid of a cat's head attached to a barn owl's body standing on a branch, first posted on Weibo in April 2013[1]. ### Where did Meowl come from? Weibo user zhumaokele uploaded the original hybrids in 2013, pairing the face of Chinese internet-famous cat Melonpi with a stock barn owl photo[2]. ### What does Meowl mean? The name is a portmanteau of 'meow' and 'owl,' popularized when 9GAG attached the Impact caption 'MEOWLS' to a collage of the hybrid in March 2016[4]. ### How do you use Meowl? Creators typically overlay Impact text captions on the hybrid, often confessional dating lines or bird-versus-cat identity gags, as in @clo_rad1's 2024 slideshow[10]. ### Is Meowl still popular? Yes, the image resurged on TikTok, with @nullz.22's August 2025 lip-sync edit earning over 1.2 million likes in a month[11]. ## References 1. [https://weibo.com/1505044005/zuePUyE2D]() 2. [https://news.sankakucomplex.com/2012/08/08/behold-chinas-cutest-cat/]() 3. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1fa7el/found_on_facebook_owls_with_cat_heads_are_just_a/]() 4. [https://9gag.com/gag/a6796yq]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/meowl]() 6. [https://cheezburger.com/921861/meowls-are-a-gorgeous-catowl-hybrid-that-the-mad-scientists-of-the-internet-have-created]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AhIdFW7Qwc]() 8. [https://www.tiktok.com/@maheadfullofzig/video/7339998920879131936]() 9. [https://www.tiktok.com/@itrappingit/video/7408172928317017349]() 10. [https://www.tiktok.com/@clo_rad1/photo/7441703542957591851]() 11. [https://www.tiktok.com/@nullz.22/video/7539432646888279351]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/meowl Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library