If you've been exploring the fine town of Auckland, New Zealand on Google Maps lately, you might've spotted a strange shape just north of the Parnell Cricket Club. It's a cat. (Or at least, it was cat.) Google's not exactly sure how it got there.


"We were aware that cats were trying to take over YouTube, but we didn't realize it was extending to Google Maps," Google told Mirror. "We're looking into this." And it looks like the company did look into it. The feline-shaped twist of paths is now gone from Google Maps, and the road directly south of where the drawing was just a few hours ago now reads, sadly, "RIP Google Cat."

There's probably a simple explanation for this brilliant little Easter Egg. Either, Google put it there (which seems unlikely) or a user did. It's not possible for users to draw roads or highways in Google Maps, but Google does let you draw trails. Indeed, one Reddit user claims that his friend drew the cat over time, adding a trail for the tail, a trail for the collar, and so forth. Then, the friend—who apparently refers to all as cats "geese"—bragged about it on Facebook. Here's a screenshot:


So what does it all mean? That we should all go draw cats all over the world—one by the Taj Mahal, one under the Eiffel Tower, one in the California desert, one on Mount Kilimanjaro, one in...

Just kidding don't do that. The people at Google Maps have better things to do than kill adorable digital cats made out of hiking trails. It was fun while it lasted, though. [Mirror via @wmaxeddy]