Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE that cat and her amazing memes that circulate the internet on a regular basis.  I find her angry face absolutely adorable, and really, who doesn’t?  No, my problem is not with Ms. Tardar Sauce herself or her adorable memes, since those are perfectly harmless to the cat.  My problem is that her owners even brought her to South by Southwest to exploit her and essentially put her through cat hell.

See, the vast majority of cats are not fans of change.  In fact, they hate it.  When you adopt a cat from a shelter, the counselor will go over with you all the steps necessary to acclimate your new cat to your home, which can take weeks to work.  And if you have moved with a cat, you can also attest that most do not handle that experience well and become extremely stressed out. 

So bringing Tardar to a national conference, located in a giant expo hall packed with thousands of people, with literally thousands of those people taking photos of her/with her each day, and with dozens of celebrities handling her for photos, I can guarantee you this poor cat is stressing out.  And you know she is not doing well or being well cared for due to the report that she urinated on a “celebrity” holding her.  That fact alone tells me she does not have adequate access to a litter box at her “photo booth” each day and probably does not have ample water or food available during her photo times either.

So while I love Grumpy Cat in all her inbred glory, I do not love that her owners sold out to bring her to South by Southwest and put this poor cat through hell.  Shame on them.