popular

Meet the talented Em Paquin, an animation student who desperately wanted a cat. We came across some of her lovely re-created digital paintings of popular cat images online and reached out to ask her to explain the meaning behind this project and the goal of painting 100 cats. 

Em explains that the project was originally titled, "Day __ of drawing cats until my parents let me adopt one." Em continues to reveal her longing for a cat of her own, "I wanted so desperately to adopt a cat, and being home for quarantine was the perfect time to introduce a new furball to the family. The only thing in my way was my parents who I've been living with, now that my college courses are online."

"These daily illustrations were a subtle way of voicing my wish to adopt a cat."

On day 21 of the project, Em brought home a new kitten named Beanie. However, Em realized how much she enjoyed drawing cats and wanted to push herself but taking it further, thus setting the goal of drawing 100 cats!

So, what will Em do the moment that goal is reached? Seeing as how she's already on Day 68, the 100th drawing isn't too far away. 

"After that goal is reached, they will probably continue, maybe for a year, or maybe I won't ever stop." 

Well, we're glad to hear that because we love them! Keep up the beautiful drawings, Em! Follow Em on Instagram for daily cat drawings!

Animal twitter is huge. Navigating it is a challenge. One must know where to look to find the most talked about animals, and keeping up with everything is nearly impossible. That is why - every week - we do the job for you, finding the most liked, retweeted, and popular animals on twitter. 

Every week, there are new surprises. If last week we had cat gods, this week we have the oldest tortoise in the world (188 years old!) and crab scandals. Yes, crab scandals that'll definitely give you something to talk about this week with your friends. Really, huge animal tweets are generally a good conversation starter, and they are definitely the best start to your week. So, enjoy this look into the animal twitter hivemind, and hopefully, next year, we'll be celebrating Jonathan the tortoise's 189th year together!