For as much time as most of us spend online, the internet can sometimes feel like this totally separate realm.

You've got pictures and videos and people that seem like they might only exist within the confines of a little glowing box in your hand, or maybe a slightly larger glowing box that sits on your desk.

But every once in a while, things happen that remind us

that the internet is very much a part of the real world.

Sometimes it's a phrase that changes the way we talk, like girl dinner,

or calling things very demure and very mindful.

Other times it's a viral post that draws overwhelming crowds

to a rat-shaped hole in a Chicago sidewalk,

or the zoo in Thailand where, if you're lucky,

you might catch a fleeting glimpse of Mudang, the baby pygmy hippo.

I'm Michelle Cassidy, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible, and wondrous places. Today, Places editor Diana Hubble and I are going to take

you to two places that have been shaped by the internet in very different ways. We'll hear the real-life story behind one of the internet's most iconic pets, and learn how a

literal hole in the wall became a top-rated tourist attraction.

Those stories after this.

Music Who do you think is the most famous pet on the internet?

This is a question that I recently put to some friends and coworkers, and the overwhelming consensus

was that the title belonged to Grumpy Cat, the tiny cat with a permanent frown, who inspired

countless memes, books, toys, and even a made-for-TV movie in 2014. Other responses included

Doug the Pug, who has 3.6 million Instagram followers, and Maru, a Japanese cat who has accumulated over 500 million YouTube views, mostly by jumping into boxes.

There's this huge pet industrial complex online. Small-scale pet celebrities rake in endorsement deals for

bandanas and kibble and pet shampoos. But the biggest names are getting invited on to

...