This is the cat picture that can be found elsewhere in the site.
The jpg is 640*561 pixels, has a file size of 47KBytes and will produce the following SHA256 hash
The image is a picture of a cat sat in front of what appears to be a kerosine heater for warmth, presumably taken in Japan.
The site administrator has made a decision to track down the original image and the cat, with the end goal to be able to get a high quality image of the same cat.
Looking at the ELA render, the image seems to have not been modified, there was no doubt in the authenticity of the but it is always worth checking for hidden pixels or watermarks that may help identify the source of the image. Nothing out of the ordinary has been found.
The next step is to send the Image to TinEye for analysis, the end results are to be sorted by date. The earliest version was tracked down to Imgur as an album, with multiple images available. This was a good and bad thing, as Imgur strips any metadata from images, but this is already something to work with.
1. The image is taken in Japan, concluded by looking up the model of the kerosine heater (Toyotomi Rainbow) which is made and sold in japan.
2. The image was first uploaded to ClearNet in 2018
3. The image has went through a large number of re-uploads and has degraded as a result.
I have been sent this image via XMPP and I originally used it as a placeholder. I wanted to get a higher resolution version so I took the time and effort to track one down.