As I scrolled through my Facebook posts yesterday I saw that one of the animal rescue groups that I follow had posted a Zoom screenshot with two guys and a cat. It looked interesting so I clicked on it to see why the kitten had taken a meeting. 

I figured that someone’s cat took over the seat in a meeting while their owner took a bathroom break. It could certainly happen in my house if I ever used Zoom.

The true story of the “kitten’s” appearances was even funnier than having a real cat show up in a Zoom meeting.

The kitten’s appearance happened at a virtual District Court Zoom meeting for a civil forfeiture hearing in in front of the 394th Judicial Court Judge, Roy Ferguson in Presidio County, Texas. 

It appears that Texas attorney Rod Ponton had a cat filter set on his Zoom settings and couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. So the kitten showed up as a stand-in for Ponton.

The Zoom meeting is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time and you should definitely check it out. What I thought was a funny post by one of my animal rescue groups turned out to have gone viral everywhere. You can see the video here:

As the meeting progressed, the kitten’s mouth moved along with what Ponton as saying and the kitten eyes darted back and forth. 

The judge told Ponton, “I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings.” 

After not being able to turn the filter off, Ponton said, “I’m prepared to go forward with it. I’m here live. I’m not a cat” to which the judge replied, “I can see that.”

It took about 30 minutes for Ponton to remove the filer with the help of the judge. 

The judge later Tweeted out, “If a child used your computer, before you join a virtual hearing check the Zoom Video Options to be sure filters are off. This kitten just made a formal announcement on a case in the 394th.”

Ponton, who is now an internet star, told NBC News, “If I could make everyone laugh at my expense I’m happy to do that.”

The video of the Kitten’s Zoom meeting was a welcome respite from the partisanship, pandemic and impeachment stories flooding the news. The entire country (except the cat haters) were all on the same page, laughing about and relating to the same thing.

If anyone wants to purposely put a filter on their Zoom appearance, it looks like you can do so with the use of Snap Camera, a desktop app. The lenses can be added to live streaming of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. You can be a cat, puppy or scary sci-fi monster, add new eyebrows or a mustache or beard or change the color of your lips. You can learn more about it here.

Unfortunately, I haven’t heard that there are any Trump filters available like adding a flag, a MAGA hat, the Constitution or orange hair.

It looks like there won’t be any presidents or politicians or celebrities or Jeep companies uniting the nation. It’ll be cats and dogs and natural disasters and that’s about it these days.