Description: Viral image
Circulating since: Jan. 2011
Status: Fake (see details below)
Text example:
Email contributed by Kathie J., Feb. 2, 2011:
FW: Did you lose a cat?
This is probably the most amazing picture of 2011!
Analysis: You guessed it: the picture was Photoshopped. Versions of the image have been circulating online since 2007 or thereabouts — sometimes with cat, sometimes not, sometimes with a fire extinguisher, sometimes not.
The earliest instance I've found is dated Nov. 24, 2007 and features the raccoon only, standing in a doorway. No cat, no fire extinguisher. A version posted in July 2009 boasts the addition of the fire extinguisher (I don't know why). The cat (or is it a kitten?) appears to have been added in January 2011 (because, apparently, a picture of a raccoon begging in a doorway isn't cute enough).
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Last updated 06/09/11
