We all love those recreated photos people make of themselves and their friends or loved ones years or even decades after the original photo took place. Often it’s something silly like a dad holding his adult son in the same pose (or as close to it as possible) as he held his son as an infant or a toddler. Maybe it’s a pair of siblings acting out one of the iconic photos of their shared childhood. It could be a group of friends recalling their college days, beers in hands, at a reunion 30 years later.
But perhaps some of the best of these recreated photos are the ones that tug at our heartstrings a bit. The ones that show how many family members have been added to the family tree over the last several years, or the ones that highlight who’s missing from the family now. Some people have even used this art style to mourn the loss of their pets, or, like the photo below, to show how much their pets have grown.
Same boot, 3 years later
byu/fourNtwentyz inaww
A Reddit user who goes by TrevorIsTheGOAT recently posted two images of himself and his cat to the social media site. You might expect that this is just a touching recreation that shows how they’ve both grown and aged over the years, but this set of images offers and extra bittersweet twist; the second photo was taken on the day that the cat, Gandalf, was to be put to sleep due to his declining health.
Putting my childhood cat to sleep today, and did my best to recreate a 20 year old picture. I will always love you Gandalf.
byu/TrevorIsTheGOAT ininterestingasfuck
The cat’s owner, whose name we’ll assume is Trevor based on his handle, appears to be just a young boy in the first photo, maybe somewhere around eight or 10 years old. He must have spent the rest of his childhood and most of his twenties loving and caring for his beloved Gandalf and rarely thinking about the fact that someday he’d have to learn to live without the fluffy little fellow again.
These are the kinds of photos that really make you think about the important things in life. Which is, naturally, one of the most important reasons for photography to exist in the first place.
We hope Gandalf’s passing was a peaceful one and that Trevor has been able to find joy in his life even without his good buddy.
Rest in peace, Gandalf. We know your person will always remember you.
