Lil BUB

Origin

BUB was found as a kitten in a rural Indiana toolshed, the runt of a feral litter, with a set of genetic mutations severe enough that she needed bottle feeding to survive. She was a polydactyl cat, meaning extra toes on every paw, with feline dwarfism, a jaw that never developed properly and therefore no teeth, which is why the tongue permanently hung out. Friends asked Mike Bridavsky, a recording studio owner in Bloomington, to take her, and he did. In late 2012 she was diagnosed with osteopetrosis, a rare bone disease that in her case was progressive. Bridavsky started posting photographs of her to Tumblr in November 2011, which was the correct platform at the correct moment, and the images were reposted onto Reddit where they hit the front page and detonated.

Spread

The mainstream cycle came fast. Good Morning America ran her in August 2012, The View and Today both in April 2013. A documentary, Lil Bub and Friendz, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 18 April 2013 and won the Tribeca Online Festival prize for best feature, with Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat and Grumpy Cat appearing alongside her, effectively a class photograph of the entire era of internet animal fame. A book, Lil Bub's Lil Book, and a Revision3 web series, Lil BUB's Big SHOW, both landed on 3 September 2013, the first guest being Whoopi Goldberg. Her Facebook page passed three million likes. In 2015 she released an album, Science and Magic, with liner notes by Andrew W.K., and appeared in the film Nine Lives in 2016. The strangest branch of the story is the scientific one: a crowdfunding campaign on Experiment.com to sequence her genome hit its goal on 25 May 2015, and researchers identified a mutation in the RANK gene, also written TNFRSF11A, that had been documented in only about fifteen humans and a single mouse.

Legacy

Most viral animals convert attention into merchandise and stop there. BUB converted it into grant money. Lil BUB's BIG Fund for the ASPCA, launched in 2014 and announced at a press conference at ASPCA headquarters, routes proceeds from her store, appearances and direct donations into grants for shelters taking on animals that are hard to place: physical deformities, birth defects, blindness, deafness, mobility impairment, chronic illness, old age. The ASPCA has reported it passing two hundred thousand dollars distributed and then four hundred thousand in grants administered, with total fundraising figures cited above half a million dollars. Bridavsky has called it the most important thing he has done with his life. She died in her sleep on 1 December 2019 from an aggressive bone infection. On chain, she is a posthumous meme, which is its own category of awkward. The earliest Lil BUB contract we can verify on Solana was deployed on 8 July 2024, almost five years after her death, and now trades under a community takeover account. A second wave landed on 26 July 2026 with several contracts using her name inside the same day, one of which took nearly all the volume. Neither wave shows any connection to Mike Bridavsky or to the ASPCA fund, and none of the tokens disclose a donation mechanism, so MemePedia does not treat any contract here as the original.

The Chain Trail

MemePedia tracks 2 Lil BUB memecoins across Solana.

Key facts

• Lil BUB was born on 21 June 2011 in Bloomington, Indiana, the runt of a feral litter found in a toolshed, and was adopted by Mike Bridavsky.
• She was a polydactyl cat with feline dwarfism and an undeveloped jaw that left her toothless, which is why her tongue always stuck out.
• Bridavsky first posted photographs of her to Tumblr in November 2011; the images went viral after reaching the front page of Reddit.
• She appeared on Good Morning America in August 2012 and on The View and Today in April 2013.
• The documentary Lil Bub and Friendz premiered at Tribeca on 18 April 2013 and won the Tribeca Online Festival best feature award.
• Lil Bub's Lil Book and the web series Lil BUB's Big SHOW both launched on 3 September 2013.
• A crowdfunded genome sequencing campaign hit its goal on 25 May 2015 and identified a mutation in the RANK / TNFRSF11A gene found in only about fifteen humans and one mouse.
• Lil BUB's BIG Fund for the ASPCA, created in 2014, has administered over four hundred thousand dollars in grants for special needs animals.
• She was diagnosed with osteopetrosis in late 2012 and died on 1 December 2019 from an aggressive bone infection, aged eight.
• Every Lil BUB token is posthumous: the earliest verifiable Solana contract dates to 8 July 2024, with a second wave of contracts on 26 July 2026.