Thousands of cat owners share photos of their wet cats online.
(Courtesy Stuff On My Cat)
You haven't seen angry until you've seen a cat with his head under a faucet.
If there's anything the stereotypically haughty house pets despise it's being wet.
"I think it's the closest you can see in the animal world to someone giving you the finger," said veterinarian Marty Becker, co-author of "Why Do Cats Always Land on Their Feet?" "That look is unique in the animal world of total disgust. ... It's just a classic."
And yet that look is taking the Internet by storm. As feline photo blogs continue to draw millions of visitors each month, the wet cat sub-genre is taking on a life of its own.
"They make such great drama, it's like watching daytime soap in a bucket," said Ben Huh, CEO of ICanHasCheezburger.com, one of the most popular cat photo blogs on the Internet. Each month, he said, about 3.6 million unique visitors check out his site for a daily dose of the feline funnies.
Of the millions of photos featured on his site, he said tens of thousands are of wet cats.
So, what's the draw?
"I think it's a little bit of payback," Huh suggested. If the cat sits on your favorite black sweater and leaves fur all over it, a bath is a way to retaliate, he quipped.
He's also observed water endow cats with super species skills.
"There's a famous picture of a cat grabbing a faucet and trying to stay out of the water," Huh told ABCNews.com. "I didn't know they could do that."
Wet cat pictures are also featured on the photo-sharing site Flickr and WetCatClub.com, which sells postcards, magnets, greeting cards and decals of the drenched animals.
Mario Garza, the blogger behind StuffOnMyCat.com, received so many pictures of wet cats, in October 2008 he published a book devoted to them.
Culled from the hundreds upon hundreds that were sent to him, "Stuff on My Cat Presents: Wet Cats" features dozens of cats, with their fur sticking to their ribs, glaring at the camera.
Launched in 2005, Garza's blog has amassed about 24,000 cat photos and receives roughly 115,000 unique visitors each month.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
