"I am pleased to report that (...) my cat successfully grew out of a Pon de Ring."

Such was the caption on a photo posted by Twitter user Nekoland (@NEKOLAND13). Inspired by poi mochi balls invented in Hawaii in the early 1990s, Mister Donut in Japan created the Pon de Ring in 2003, a chewy donut made with tapioca flour formed from eight balls. Due to their wild success in Japan, these donuts found their way to Hawaii, picking up the name "mochi donut" along the way, and then on to the United States.

So what could this caption possibly mean? How can a cat grow out of a donut?

One look at Nekoland's photo and you'll soon understand why:

Reproduced with permission from Nekoland (@NEKOLAND13)

The cat, with its body sinking into a cushion in the shape of a Pon de Ring either looks like he's resting on eight fluffy orange balls, if you're unfamiliar with the donut, or turning into a Pon de Ring / cat hybrid creature!

With the cat's face peeking out from the cushion like that, you can understand why Nekoland captioned the photo the way he did.

The Tweet went viral, garnering over 173,000 likes at the time of writing, and eliciting comments such as:

  • "I'd like to have this Pon de Ring to go, please!"
  • "Where can I buy it?"
  • "How cute!
  • "I did a double-take!"

According to Nekoland, when it comes to this creature's growth, first come the whiskers, then the ears, and finally the cat's body.

Who knows, maybe there's an idea for a new mascot character!


By - grape Japan editorial staff.