China mourns the death of its internet celebrity cat Lou Lou

In a heartbreaking incident, a famous cat in China, Lou Lou, reportedly passed away on 14 October.

According to China Daily, Lou Lou died due to a heart attack. The cat was an online celebrity with over 680,000 fans on Sina Weibo, which is China's major social media outlet.

Lou Lou rose to fame last year after a short video recording went viral and received millions of views.
The feline's facial expressions were even adapted as emojis and were widely used on the internet.

"You may not know the cat's name, but you must have seen its emojis," Lou Banniang, the cat's owner said, China Daily reported. Lou Lou's images had even appeared on pillows, cups, clothes and cartoons.

"I cannot accept the fact that Lou Lou has gone forever, and my favorite emojis cannot update any more," a Weibo user said.

"One of the necessities in my life is watching each and every move of Lou Lou. It looks like an angel to me, and it has now gone back to paradise," another person said.

"Cat culture seems to have exploded over the past few years, from millions of funny cat videos being shared all over social media, to cats becoming internet famous and celebrities in their own right. It would be a strange week indeed if I wasn't sent multiple links by friends to cat-related articles," Abi Purser, director of Longcroft Luxury Cat Hotel Group said, Asia One news website reported.

According to Asia One news website report, China's largest question and answer community Zhihu, has around 18,000 topics related to cats, while dog-oriented topics are around 90,000.