Pinky the Cat is a video that aired on several American reality television programs in the 1990s before it achieved additional fame on the internet as a viral video in the 2000s. The video clip shows a cat attacking an animal control officer during a promotional message for pet adoption for an animal shelter in Placer County, California.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 An episode of World's Most Amazing Videos features the video clip |
The video footage was taped by Placer County Animal Control sometime in the early 1990s. The recording was intended as a promotional video for the county's "Pet of the Week" pet adoption program. Sometime before 1992, then-police chief Willie Weatherford distributed copies of the tape—which he named "Pinky the Cat"—to the media and his friends. [1]
Video clips from the full version of Pinky the Cat aired throughout the 1990s on television in the United States. The American television network ABC showed clips from the video on TV's Funniest Commercials (1993) [2] and on Real Funny (1996) hosted by comedian Craig Shoemaker, where the clip was introduced as a public service announcement. [3] CBS aired clips on The World's Most Dangerous Animals III (1996). In that program, a voice-over cautions that "sometimes the animals we should fear the most are those we expect the least" and then shows a "house cat named Pinky going berserk and sinking his teeth deep into a man's thigh." [4] Pinky the Cat is also featured on World's Most Amazing Videos , [5] [6] World's Wildest Police Videos [7] and Maximum Exposure . [8]
Animal control officer Carl Pritchard kneels on the ground while petting a cat on a leash in a recording of a pet adoption video for an animal shelter. Pritchard introduces the cat as "Pinky" and describes him as a domestic shorthair who is a "very loving cat". Pinky becomes agitated and leaps out of the hands of Pritchard and onto the ground, running and jumping around in all directions as he tries to break free from the leash. Still holding the leash but not wanting to pick up the "wildcat", Pritchard asks someone to retrieve a catchpole. In the confusion, Colleen Maguire, the director of animal control, arrives to help Pritchard capture Pinky and tries to corral him into a cardboard pet carrier; the attempt fails as Pinky avoids capture because the cardboard was too flimsy.
Pinky continues to dart around frantically, tangling the leash around Pritchard's leg in the process. Finally, Pinky decides to pounce, launching himself towards Pritchard's right leg and rapidly twisting his body around Pritchard's upper thigh. Pinky grabs onto Pritchard's leg with all four of its clawed paws and bites into the flesh near the groin. Pritchard screams once, and Pinky digs in again, this time with his tail twitching, making Pritchard scream a second time. With renewed effort, Pinky is removed from Pritchard's leg and the cat runs away. "Son of a bitch", Pritchard whispers, followed by a polite "excuse my language", as he doubles over in pain clutching his leg.
NBC reporter George Lewis ran a story featuring Pinky the Cat on June 28, 2006. The story highlighted the popularity of YouTube and several different internet memes. Lewis described the video as "an animal shelter adopt-a-pet video gone wrong as Pinky flips out and fails to show that loving side". Two days later, producer Gena Fitzgerald followed-up with a column in The Daily Nightly, the official blog of NBC Nightly News . Fitzgerald wondered about Pinky's fate and if the cat was ever adopted. [9]
Pinky the Cat appeared on CNN during "The Shot" segment on Anderson Cooper 360° for March 16, 2007. The segment began as Anderson Cooper ran a related video of a cat that attacked WJW's Kathleen Cochrane during a live report. In response to Cochrane's video, correspondent Erica Hill upped the ante: "That's bad. But you know what? I'd like to see your cat and raise you Pinky the cat. Take a look." After the video rolled, Hill added, "Pinky's a loving cat all right!" [10]
Keith Olbermann was inspired by the YouTube Awards to start an "annual best of stuff we found on the Internets awards". On March 30, 2007, Olbermann appeared on the MSNBC news commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann , and bestowed a "Keithie" award on the Pinky the Cat video; The video won the award in the category of "great animal of all the Internets". Commenting on the award, Olbermann said, "Ahh, Pinky, we‘re sure you were finally adopted by a loving family. Unfortunately, the officer now can't have a family." [11]
In a 2007 article in Film Comment , American cartoonist Matt Groening revealed that one of his favorite YouTube videos is "the immortal Pinky the Cat." [12]
Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and radio stations in the 1980s, winning the Best Sportscaster award from the California Associated Press three times. He co-hosted ESPN's SportsCenter from 1992 to 1997. From 1998 to 2001, he was a producer and anchor for Fox Sports Net and a host for Fox Sports' coverage of Major League Baseball.
A leash is a rope or similar material used to control an animal by attaching it to a collar, harness, or halter. In British English, a leash is generally for a larger animal, with lead being more commonly used when walking a dog.
A black cat is a domestic cat with black fur. They may be a specific breed, or a common domestic cat of no particular or mixed breed. Most black cats have golden irises due to their high melanin pigment content. Black cats are the subject of myth, legend, and superstition. They are often associated with witches and good or bad luck in European folklore.
Morris the Cat is the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials since the 1970s.
An animal rescue group or animal rescue organization is a group dedicated to pet adoption. These groups take abandoned, abused, or stray pets and attempt to find suitable homes for them. Many rescue groups are created by and run by volunteers, who take animals into their homes and care for them—including training, playing, handling medical issues, and solving behavior problems—until a suitable permanent home can be found.
Little Superstar is a video uploaded on YouTube, which is a clip from the 1990 Tamil film Adhisaya Piravi, starring Rajinikanth. The clip features the Tamil actor King Kong breakdancing to MC Miker G & DJ Sven's "Holiday Rap". Various mashups have also appeared on the Internet using tracks from Cypress Hill, Michael Jackson and others, including Ted's Fear Factory video. The first site to feature Little Superstar and give the clip its name was Dorks.com.
Nevins Farm and Equine Center, also known as MSPCA at Nevins Farm and the Methuen Animal Care and Adoption Center at Nevins Farm, is an animal shelter and veterinary hospital in Methuen, Massachusetts operated by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Part of the 55-acre (22 ha) property is devoted to Hillside Acre Animal Cemetery, a 4-acre (1.6 ha) animal cemetery.
Black dog syndrome or big black dog syndrome is a phenomenon in which black dogs are passed over for adoption in favor of lighter-colored animals. Black cats are similarly reported to be subject to the same phenomenon.
Tabby's Place is a cat sanctuary situated in Ringoes, New Jersey, United States. Opened in 2003, it can house approximately 130 cats, which come primarily from high-volume public animal shelters where they have been scheduled to be killed.
Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh (HARP), formerly known as the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania, known commonly as Animal Rescue League Shelter & Wildlife Center (ARL), is an animal welfare organization founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1909. The ARL is a non-profit organization that offers various services to support both animals and pet owners alike. It is the only animal shelter in the Pittsburgh area that accepts both domestic animals and wildlife. The agency's shelter and clinic are located in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood, while its wildlife rehabilitation center and boarding kennels are a few miles away in Verona, Pennsylvania. The organization maintains a contract with the city of Pittsburgh and accepts all stray pets that are apprehended by the Animal Control unit.
Meow, also known as Meow the obese cat, was a male domestic cat who attracted international attention when an animal shelter publicized efforts to slim him down, in an attempt to have him adopted. However, Meow died of lung failure two weeks after entering the animal shelter, on May 5, 2012. He was the world's heaviest cat at his time of death, weighing 39.7 pounds.
Gwen Cooper is a New York City-based American novelist and author of the 2009 New York Times bestselling memoir Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, a memoir about her life with an abandoned, eyeless cat that she rescued when he was three weeks old and subsequently named Homer.
Mieshelle Nagelschneider is an American cat behaviorist, author of the eponymously titled book The Cat Whisperer and founder of The Cat Behavior Clinic in Portland, Oregon.
The Southampton Animal Shelter is operated by the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization no-kill pet rescue and adoption center, that cares for homeless animals in the Southampton, New York, community of 22 towns, and places them in permanent homes. It is located at 102 Old Riverhead Road West, Hampton Bays, New York. The facility is also home to a low-cost veterinary wellness center that offers affordable spay and neuter surgeries, vaccinations, pet dental, microchipping and more.
Zatara, is a female tabby cat living in California, United States, who rescued her human family's child from being attacked by a neighbor dog named Scrappy. The moment was recorded on household surveillance. The footage uploaded on YouTube received over 16.8 million views in the first 48 hours.
Images and videos of domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the World Wide Web. ThoughtCatalog has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet".
Shankar Ezhumalai, popularly credited by his moniker King Kong, is an Indian actor and comedian who has appeared in Tamil language films in supporting roles. A clip from the film Adhisaya Piravi (1990), which features King Kong dancing, has become a viral internet video titled Little Superstar.
PAWS Chicago is a non-profit animal shelter organization based in Chicago, Illinois. The organization was co-founded in 1997 by Paula Fasseas and her daughter Alexis Fasseas. The duo aspired to create an organization that focused on discovering solutions to end the euthanasia of homeless pets.