The @HumansNoContext X account posted a photo of a Scottish Fold cat sitting calmly among fish trays at a Haiphong market on Monday, drawing more than 2,300 likes within 24 hours and reviving a viral story from 2018 that briefly made the cat an international curiosity. The cat’s name is Chó, the Vietnamese word for “dog,” because the kitten panted in the heat the day his owner brought him home in a way that reminded him of a puppy.
The post, dated September 21, 2026, is the third time the Haiphong cat has circulated widely online since photos of him dressed in tiny outfits first surfaced in Vietnamese outlets in March 2018. The original Vietnamese press, led by Tuoi Tre’s March 7, 2018 report, described the cat as a regular at a market near his owner’s home in Haiphong, a port city in northern Vietnam. The cat’s owner, Lê Quốc Phong, runs a small pet-clothing and accessories business out of his home.
Phong dressed the cat in a variety of small outfits for the photos and let him sit on the ice beside vendors and customers. The cat appeared content to stay still for the camera, according to the original Vietnamese reporting. Hypefresh has not seen a wire quote from Phong on whether Chó still visits the market in 2026; the cat’s social-media pages from 2018 have not been active this month.
Tuoi Tre reported in 2018 that Phong paid about 4.5 million Vietnamese dong for the kitten several years earlier, the rough equivalent of around $200 USD at the time. Phong told the paper he named the cat Chó because, on the day he adopted him, the kitten panted in the heat in a way that reminded him of a dog. The Vietnamese outlet quoted him at the time saying he and the cat spent the proceeds from his pet-clothing business on travel together.
The Scottish Fold is a breed known for its folded ears and round face. The Cat Fanciers’ Association breed standard describes the Scottish Fold’s distinctive look, and the Wikipedia entry on Scottish Folds documents the breed’s history back to a 1961 cat named Susie in Scotland. The breed is also linked to a genetic condition called osteochondrodysplasia, a progressive bone and joint disorder that affects folded-ear cats to varying degrees; the CFA’s own guidance counsels breeders on minimizing the condition, and several countries have restricted the breeding or sale of folded-ear cats on welfare grounds.
Cats in costumes is a recurring viral genre. Hypefresh previously covered a cat who saved her owner from an RTX 4090 fire hazard and squirrels caught “smoking” e-cigarettes in a viral clip, among other animals-as-news stories. The Chó cat sits in the same niche: an ordinary pet whose calm demeanor in an unusual setting turned into a small international curiosity.
It is unclear whether Chó is still alive in 2026. Phong’s original Facebook page for the cat, which Tuoi Tre reported had attracted followers across Vietnam in 2018, has not posted recently. The @HumansNoContext post that brought the photos back into circulation on Monday drew more than 2,300 likes in its first day, with commenters reacting to the cat’s name and his market-side routine.
For a regional angle on fish-and-animal viral stories, Hypefresh has tracked similar moments abroad, including a 71-year-old Florida man who fought off an alligator with his fishing pole and a man in China forced to eat his prized arowana fish after a $42,000 aquarium explosion. The Chó cat’s rise fits the broader pattern of an ordinary animal doing something ordinary in an unexpected setting, then finding an audience on social media.
Read also Hypefresh’s earlier piece on Millie Bobby Brown’s unusual pet Lamby and the full @HumansNoContext X post that revived the story on September 21, 2026.
