Meet Sam Steingard, an 18-year-old from Germantown, Maryland, who decided that he would like to take his cat Ruby as his date when he attended his senior prom last year. But because non-service animals are typically not allowed in establishments that serve food and drink, Steingard was sadly not able to actually take Ruby with him to prom. So instead he did the next best thing by posing for prom photos with Ruby, dressed in her fanciest pink gown and looking up at her date adoringly.
Ruby and her date went viral just this week, however, when Steingard’s sister shared one of the photos to imgur, writing that her brother took the cat to prom “because he couldn’t find a date.” While we have a hard time believing that the dapper young gentleman in this photo couldn’t find someone to go to prom with him, that’s now besides the point because the internet is making up for it by having some fun with the now infamous photo.
Here are just a few of the creative inspirations people have come up with, starting with this fine example…
…that got taken a step too far.
Then there were the inevitable face (and body part) swaps:
Someone even got in on the action with a (mild) Game of Thrones spoiler:
As well as other various pop culture references:
https://imgur.com/7scdiRL
Well, for what it’s worth, we hope that Sam had a nice time at prom because, either way, the pictures will now live on forever.