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The picture without the accompanying story has been circulating at least since April 2000.
Digital image manipulation usually leaves some tell-tale traces in
the resulting image. Digitally clipped images usually have a sharp
border that may contrast sharply when pasted on top of another
image. The contrasting border can be obscured though by blurring. While this may disguise the pasted in border, it also loses the picture's detail in the blurred area.
As we noted, the picture has been circulating sinces April 2000. However, the picture being circulated with the story of Roger Degagne and Snowball has been reduced in size making it more difficult to spot the signs of manipulation.
Take a close look at the cat's tail:
Snowball's tail from April 2001
Cat's tail from larger image from April 2000
Cat's tail from larger image blown up 50%
The foliage outside the window is sharp and well-defined but in the immediate vicinity of the tail becomes blurred and indistinct.
There are other areas of the picture that are suspect as well. The cat's right front paw has a contrasting dark border that shows signs of blurring as well. The area under the man's hand shows no sign of a shadow from the cat. Either the man is holding the cat away from his body - not easy with a cat that supposedly weighs 87 pounds - or the image of the cat was pasted on top of the picture of the man.
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