Celebrity Feline 'Grumpy Cat' Dead At 7

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Grumpy Cat — the angry-looking celebrity feline who launched countless internet memes — died on Tuesday.

The beloved Arizona-born cat leaves behind her owner Tabatha Bundesen, a small empire of books and merchandise bearing her unique face, movie and TV appearances, and millions of Google hits.

The cause of death was reportedly complications from a urinary tract infection.

On social media, Bundesen wrote "she passed away peacefully ... at home in the arms of her mommy."

Grumpy Cat, whose given name was Tardar Sauce, had feline dwarfism; she became Internet famous in September 2012, when her owner's brother posted images of her on Reddit. People on the platform immediately reacted by posting countless Photoshopped variations of the original. The photo's Imgur page reached 1,030,000 views in its first 48 hours, and a video of the cat posted on YouTube quickly snagged millions of views.

These days, searching Google for "Grumpy Cat" returns nearly 73 million results, many of which are photos. Grumpy Cat proliferated online, often as memes posted with big, blocky white text that say everything from "Come back ... I haven't finished insulting you yet" to simply "No." There are also countless pictures on the internet of Grumpy-Cat inspired merchandise: pillows, shirts, mugs, slippers and more.

Grumpy was also a hit on social media with more than 8 million friends on Facebook, 2 million followers on Instagram and more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter.

The cat was also a guest star on TV shows like "American Idol," "The Bachelorette" and "The MTV Movie Awards" as well as starring in the2014 TV movie "Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever."

The-CNN-Wire
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