Pusheen

2010animated characterclassic

Published September 24, 2026

Pusheen is a chubby gray tabby cat character created by artists Clare Belton and Andrew Duff for their 2010 webcomic Everyday Cute. She got her own dedicated blog of animated GIFs in February 2011, and her signature bopping walk and snack-obsessed antics made her a viral Tumblr cat character before spawning a merchandise line and a 2013 book deal.

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Overview

Pusheen is drawn as a short, roundish gray tabby with pale stripes, black-dot eyes, tiny arms and a small pink mouth. Her comics and animated GIFs tend to feature simple everyday gags: eating cookies, dressing up in costumes, sitting on warm computers, playing with yarn and generally being a lazy indoor cat1. The animation style is deliberately basic, a few frames of bouncing or wiggling that gave her the signature 'bop' walk fans copy in stickers and emoji.

The format works because the humor is quiet and character-driven rather than punchline-heavy. Instead of a captioned image macro, most posts are short animated loops or two-to-four-panel comics on a plain background2. Urban Dictionary entries sum her up as 'the fattest and laziest cat you'll see,' which captures the affectionate tone of the whole property4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Everyday Cute webcomic / Tumblr (viral spread)
Creator
Clare Belton and Andrew Duff
Date
2010

Pusheen was created by artists Clare Belton and Andrew Duff as a character in their webcomic Everyday Cute, which launched in May 20103. Belton based her on a chubby gray tabby cat from her own childhood and gave her a name derived from the Irish word 'puisín,' meaning 'kitten,' which she had used for her real family cat after adopting it from a shelter1. Early Everyday Cute strips followed cartoon versions of Belton, Duff, their yellow dog Carmen and Pusheen herself.

On February 26th, 2011, the pair announced a dedicated Pusheen blog at pusheen.com, opening with three animations and a static webcomic about the games Pusheen liked to play2. Those first posts each picked up more than 1,500 Tumblr notes, and one bouncing animated GIF passed 7,200 notes by August 20123.

How It Spread

Pusheen's audience grew fastest on Tumblr, where reblog culture suited her short animated loops. Tumblr Storyboard ran a lighthearted 'Pusheen the Cat tells all' interview in mid-2012 that reached 16,400 notes and described her as one of Tumblr's furry sensations with hundreds of thousands of fans1. Coverage spread to cat-focused and viral-media outlets including Catster, LaughingSquid, Archie McPhee's Geyser of Awesome and I Can Has Cheezburger.

By August 2013 the official Facebook page, launched in February 2012, passed one million likes, while the Twitter account cleared 60,000 followers3. In the same 2012 Storyboard interview cycle, Belton mentioned working on a Pusheen book, and the title 'I Am Pusheen the Cat,' collecting older strips with 25 percent new material, followed on October 29th, 20131.

After the initial Tumblr wave, Pusheen kept operating as a licensed brand of plushes, comics and sticker packs rather than a short-lived viral image, keeping her closer to a classic internet cat character like Maru or Grumpy Cat.

How to Use This Meme

People share Pusheen most often as reblogged animated GIFs, Facebook Messenger stickers and small reaction images. Common conventions include using a snack-eating loop to react to food posts, a bouncing walk GIF to signal excitement, and a sleeping or loafing pose to signal laziness. Fan-made 'Pusheen day of the week' outfit comics and dress-up variations are typical of how the format is extended without changing the character.

Frequently Asked Questions