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So shocked I had to pawse for a sec

This meme uses an optical illusion to create a humorous shocking effect. It shows an orange tabby cat lying on a black-and-white geometric patterned rug in a typical living room. A light-colored, leg-shaped element of the rug's design is positioned directly next to the cat's real front paw, making it look at first glance like the cat's leg has been cut off. The overlaid text on the image reads "Nearly had a heart attack", describing the poster's initial frightened reaction before they realized the "severed leg" was just part of the rug. The original title includes a cat pun: "pawse" is a play on the word "pause", referencing the cat's paws and the split-second pause the poster took when they saw the illusion.
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Nearly had a heart attack

Overview

This meme uses an optical illusion to create a humorous shocking effect. It shows an orange tabby cat lying on a black-and-white geometric patterned rug in a typical living room. A light-colored, leg-shaped element of the rug's design is positioned directly next to the cat's real front paw, making it look at first glance like the cat's leg has been cut off. The overlaid text on the image reads "Nearly had a heart attack", describing the poster's initial frightened reaction before they realized the "severed leg" was just part of the rug. The original title includes a cat pun: "pawse" is a play on the word "pause", referencing the cat's paws and the split-second pause the poster took when they saw the illusion.

Origin notes

This is an original user-created meme shared on the Reddit r/Meme subreddit, as stated in the provided source information. The creator used a personal photo of their own cat and home rug, added a simple text overlay to highlight the funny optical illusion, and posted it with a punny title referencing the shock of seeing the illusion.

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