The character was born during a Red Cross charity drawing event on a livestream when two different viewers suggested Torres draw a "Pop-Tart" and a "cat". He merged the ideas into a single doodle and later animated it into the iconic GIF.
: While Torres originally called it "Pop Tart Cat," it became universally known as "Nyan Cat" because of the song's lyrics— nyan being the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow. Nyan Cat [original]
: The character was based on Torres’ own Russian Blue cat, Marty , who sadly passed away in November 2012. The character was born during a Red Cross