The U.S. embassy in Australia apologized after a “training error” distributed a fake meeting invitation that included as its main image a photo of a cat dressed in Cookie Monster pajamas.
The email, with the subject “meeting” and an RSVP option, featured a tabby cat wearing the Sesame Street character’s full-body blue outfit and holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies beneath the title “cat pajama-jam.”
The email was sent out by the U.S. Department of State and it’s unclear how widely it was distributed, the Australian Associated Press reported Sunday.
Gavin Sundwall, the public affairs counselor to the U.S. mission to Australia, joked in his apology that he was “sorry to disappoint” prospective attended to the event.
“Sorry to disappoint those of you who were hoping to attend this ‘cat pajama-jam’ party, but such an event falls well outside our area of expertise,” Sundwall wrote in a subsequent email. “It was a training error made by one of our new staff testing out our email newsletter platform.”
On Twitter, the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand joined in on the fun, saying in a post: “We are actually LOLing here in NZ.”
We are actually LOLing here in NZ @USAembassyinOZ 🤣🤣🤣https://t.co/WziJ8TTiUh pic.twitter.com/26qWgMo5ll
— US Embassy NZ 🇺🇸🇳🇿 (@usembassynz) October 15, 2018
The post included a GIF of a cat frantically typing on a keyboard.
The U.S. Consulate in Sydney also got in on the fun with its own cat GIF
— US Consulate Sydney (@USConGenSydney) October 15, 2018
According to Mashable, the tabby cat belongs to Jennifer Stewart, an Australian woman who regularly dressed up her pets in onesies.
She responded to the embassy’s apology on Instagram saying her tabby cat is “upset that the cat pajama-jam won’t be happening.”
