Has Your Cat Been In Bread?

Precisely what causes a particular funny photo or video to spread like wildfire online is the million dollar question—even to an expert like Alex Reed, an interactive producer at Oakdale’s Go East.

That’s why it’s tough to say what it was about a lone photo of a cat’s head stuck through a piece of bread posted on websites Reddit and Tumblr last August that inspired thousands to create and post similar photos featuring their own felines, he said.

“For some reason cats specifically tend to work,” he said. “I don’t know exactly why that is.”

The stereotype, of course, is that heavy Internet users are the types to be holed up inside their homes, and therefore more likely to own and spend lots of time with their cats, he said.

“The joke is that people like that always own cats,” he said.

There’s been a long history of cat-related Internet memes, he said. This one’s reminiscent of Stuff on My Cat, he said, a website where people post photos of one or many items stacked on top of their cats.

On the scale of cruel things you could do to your cat, Oakdale veterinarian Houstoun Clinch of TLC Veterinary Hospital said breading probably ranks on the level of harmless fun.

Still, it’s probably going to frustrate and upset the cat somewhat, he said.
“You can see it in the pictures, they don’t look very happy,” he said.

It’s a form of teasing, he said, because it involves putting food near the cat that it’s not supposed to eat, he said.

Breading isn’t likely to harm the cat, he said, unless the bread is really stale and gets stuck around its head, or it eats some of the bread and has an allergic reaction.

Some cats can tolerate eating bread and some can’t, he said.

For those intent on adding their cat to the mix of “Inbread cats” online, breadedcat.com offers a tutorial.

Clinch noted that cats can be trained to sit with treats, but “it takes lots of persistence.”