Shares of the heavily shorted online retailer Chewy, Inc. soared as much as 34%, reaching levels not seen since July 2023. The eruption in the stock triggered at least one trading volatility halt. 

The explosive move appears to have come from 'meme' stock trader Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty. Gill ignited the frenzy on social media after posting a cartoon image of a dog on X at 1300 ET. 

At the same time, Chewy shares erupted, halted, and then erupted some more, surging as high as 34% to the $39 handle. And, by the way, have since dumped. 

Gill's reason for targeting Chewy remains unknown and deviates from his GameStop stock pumping over the years. 

However, the thesis could be similar to GameStop's, which targets bearish hedge funds. Let's not forget that GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen founded Chewy some years ago. 

Here's what X users are saying:

And there's this. 

One day ago. 

The latest data from Bloomberg shows Chewy has 19.9 million shares short, or about 17.72% of the float. The number of shares short has bounced from 25 million in early 2022 to about 20 million this week. 

The possible squeeze by Gill and his army of 'meme' traders appears to come a little more than two weeks after a failed GameStop squeeze that ultimately ended with CEO Cohen dumping tens of millions of shares onto retail. 

Let's hope the same ending doesn't happen here.