Washington-state resident Cordell Hauglie owned a fat family cat named Jumper. As a joke, he created a picture of himself (top) holding a digitally enlarged version of Jumper. He emailed the photo to his daughter, and thought nothing more of it. What he didn't realize is that the image then began spreading around the internet, becoming an online sensation.

As it circulated, an unknown prankster added a caption to the image, claiming that it showed "Snowball," a monster cat owned by one Rodger Degagne of Ottawa, Canada. Mr. Degagne had supposedly adopted Snowball’s mother (a normal-sized cat) after finding her abandoned near a Canadian nuclear lab. She later gave birth to Snowball, who proceeded to grow into the oversized, 87-pound cat which ‘Mr. Degagne’ was shown holding.

The image was eventually featured in many newspapers, magazines, and TV shows (including NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and ABC’s Good Morning America). To his amusement, Hauglie has become famous in the cat world, and is often invited to attend cat shows as a celebrity guest.

The bottom image shows Cordell Hauglie holding the actual-sized Jumper.