How much did Grumpy Cat earn throughout her 7-year life?

There was a lot of talk all over the internet and on news media about Grumpy cat earning around $100 million in her life or part of her life (April 4, 2012 – May 14, 2019).

 

You'll see this number repeated all the time but since her premature death on May 14th, 2019 at the age of 7, there has a correction by Tabatha Bundesen, Grumpy Cat's owner. She denies that the $100 million figure is accurate. She does not tell us the true figure. 

Bundesen and Tardar Sauce, the cat she exploited to make millions. Image in the public domain (believed).

It is hard to envisage her earnings being higher than $100 million, therefore they were lower. 

In fact, the language that she used in her denial hints at the more likely true figure. She described the report as "completely false" to the Huffington Post.

'Completely false' indicates that $100m was very wide off the mark and in my view a greatly overestimated number. For example, if Bundesen had said that the $100m was 'slightly false' we'd know that it was fairly close and a little high.

'Completely' indicates that the $100m is probably about 3 times too high on a guess. If I am correct Bundesen made around $30m from all the endorsements and appearances over her life.

Bundesen successfully sued one business for $700,000 for example. That gives us a clue as to the type of numbers involved.

Wikipedia plays very safe and says that she earned between $1m and $100m! Not very precise!

Tardar Sauce (her real name) was very big at the time. He earnings must have been in the many millions. We just don't know how many millions.

Bundesen was a waiter before her cat became the world's biggest ever cat celebrity. I'd expect her to be set up for life financially. She won't have to work again.

The sad part is that Grump Cat owed her considerable fame to her deformed anatomy. Her short legs and diminutive body and importantly her downturned mouth giving the grumpy appearance were all due to dwarfism. This was a distorted anatomy and her health was poor as she died well before her time.

She was exploited really. Harsh to say that but it has to be true. If we did the same thing with a human the person involved would have been successful prosecuted for criminal behavior! It is a funny old world.

Lil Bub and Grumpy Cat both died of bacterial infections at a young age

Both Lil Bub and Grumpy Cat both died of bacterial infections at the age of 8 and 7 respectively. Both were dwarf cats. Lil Bub's infection was in her bones while Grumpy Cat's infection was in her bladder i.e. it was a urinary tract infection.

Lil Bub and Mike Bridavsky, her human guardian during most of her shortened life. Photo in public domain.

There were both chronic infections that could not be cured in the usual way with antibiotics. I don't want to say anything untoward or nasty because both these cats entertained millions of people. They made a lot of people happy and they made them smile. They therefore performed a service to humanity but they died very young with lifespans at least half of normal.

It is very unusual for a cat to die a bacterial infection at the age of 8, as happened for Lil Bub. It is impossible not to be drawn to the conclusion that the inherited genetic mutations which made them both money spinning celebrities through their unusual appearance, also killed them. 

I would speculate quite confidently that if they had not suffered from dwarfism in the case of Grumpy Cat and Dwarfism in conjunction with osteopetrosis in the case of Lil Bub, they would not have died for these reasons. 

Osteopetrosis is a bone disease which causes dense bone which fills the centre of the bone where there should be bone marrow. There are other effects too cats with this inherited condition which cause cats to be prone to chronic bacterial bone infections.

Grumpy Cat and Rafi Fine at the 2014 VidCon at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Photo: Gage Skidmore on Wikipedia.

Dwarfism in felines can have associated conditions which I discuss on another page. If people are interested in why these celebrity cats died at such a young age we have to speculate because their owners have been reticent in disclosing in any detail regarding the cause of death. 

In respect of Lil Bub, it seems clear to me that the inherited medical conditions due to genetic mutations ultimately caused her premature death. In respect of Grumpy Cat, the same conclusion, I feel, needs to be drawn. It is likely that she became resistant to antibiotic treatment for a chronic bladder infection and so the infection killed her.

If I'm anywhere near right on this then it does call into question whether people should put on a pedestal and monetise domestic cats who are sadly born with inherited genetic conditions which make them look cute but also which makes them vulnerable disease and a shortened lifespan.

I discuss in a bit more detail the cause of death for both these cats which you can access by clicking here for Lil Bub and here for Grumpy Cat.

"Pompous Albert" Is a Purebred Haughty Version of Grumpy Cat

I think that Pompous Albert is the first purebred celebrity cat as far as I'm aware. Not only that, he is quite a rare purebred cat because he is a Selkirk Rex. Not many people look after a Selkirk Rex. They look a bit like sheep! They have this thick wavy coat and their appearance underneath the coat is somewhat like a British or American shorthair.



Talking about appearance, Pompous Albert, certainly has his own distinctive look which as his name indicates is pompous with a certain amount of grumpiness combined with a haughtiness resulting in a unique un-catlike appearance.

When some visitors see him they ask whether he is actually a domestic cat such is his arresting appearance. He lives with Susan and Michael Singleton of Salt Lake City. He is seven years old. His appearance has remained unchanged since the day he was born.

He spends his days in the offices of the Singletons' fine art publishing business with two cat companions. Cats are great in the workplace. He is named after Albert Einstein apparently so we will have to assume that Albert Einstein was quite pompous.

He has the grumpy cat glare, while the haughtiness comes from the upward turning eyes, I would say. The Is
eyes are marked out very nicely with heavy black eyeliner. It's more a glare actually, a glare which says he does not suffer fools gladly.

He is a typical cat with one or two small exceptions. For example he likes to be vacuumed! Most cats run away from vacuum cleaners but apparently he likes to be vacuum cleaned. Rarely cats like this because it feels good but normally the noise terrifies cats. He attacks paper shredders and photocopiers and printers. He likes kids (that's an excellent quality).

He has 30,000 followers on Instagram which is fantastic but it's a long way short of the fame of the all conquering Grumpy Cat. Grumpy Cat has earned an estimated hundred million dollars for her owner, Tabatha. We don't know the exact amount but that's a guesstimate. No cat is going to beat that ever.