The West Texas lawyer who accidentally used a kitten filter during his viral moment in court.

The cat had attorney Rod Ponton’s tongue today in a virtual court – after a cat filter briefly smacked his face. Ponton, who works as an attorney for Presidio County in Texas, appeared at a Zoom hearing on Tuesday, ready to discuss a civil forfeiture action, but in the plaza where he used to see his own face looking at him, he was surprised. to find an oversized sad-eyed kitten sitting there instead. Additionally, the animal mimicked his facial expressions, shifting his eyes out of sync with his and moving his mouth when he spoke. “Sir. Pontoon, I believe you have a filter activated,” the courtroom judge said. “I don’t know how to remove it,” the kitten replied with Ponton’s voice. my assistant here, she’s trying to do it. ” Still, he was unfazed: “I’m ready to move on. I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”

It was all captured in a clip that has since gone viral as a now-familiar sort of uplifting remote work tale, in which a kitten’s desperate eyes speak to the soul of a weary nation. But the judge and lawyer involved insisted it was not as bad as all of this; they were able to remove the filter just seconds after the clip ended. “Obviously it was fun, but if you look closely you’ll see that everyone was extremely professional,” District Judge Roy Ferguson said at an impromptu press conference on Zoom this afternoon, stating the incident “just another day in Zoom’s virtual court.” When contacted by phone, Ponton – who, again, isn’t a cat – took a few minutes to tell his not-so-heartbreaking side of the story to Slate. Our conversation has been condensed and edited.

Slate: So what happened?

Rod Ponton: The district court held all of its hearings through Zoom for several months, you know, to be safe with the COVID outbreak. This computer was also my office computer, but it is mainly used by one of my secretaries who has young children. And for some reason she had a cat filter. Instead of my video, the cat appeared.

Your secretary must be feeling bad.

Oh yes, she was embarrassed. She didn’t know how to get rid of it. The judge told us how to proceed.

It’s lucky the judge knows how to do it. I don’t think I would have known.

He’s a very computer literate person. The judge told me what to click, to get rid of the filter, and my less cute face finally appeared, and we continued our audition.

Did you panic when your face was a big eyed cat?

Well, I was just embarrassed. You’re trying to present your best face to the district judge, instead of the image of a cat.

He was at least a very cute cat.

Things are happening.

Did you even know that Zoom has the ability to turn you into a cat?

I did not do it. It was a surprise to me.

Are you worried that it might not make you look professional?

No, no, it’s just one of those little computer traps that happen in this day and age where we try to zoom everything in. It’s now apparently gone viral, so it’s kind of funny.

Yeah, I think a lot of people were pretty amused.

We have a good sense of humor here in West Texas. If I can make everyone smile for a moment, I’m happy to do so today, even at my own expense.

Did your secretary find out which of her children used the computer last and what exactly they were doing?

I couldn’t tell you. I do not know. We got rid of the cat image and continued and finished our hearing. And that was the end of it.

If you had to choose an animal that you would like to use as a filter in court, would it be a cat or would you go with a different animal?

Uh… for today, I’m going to stay with a cat.

Do you have pets at home?

A small dog.

So you wouldn’t want to be a dog in court?

I do not know. I don’t usually try to present myself as an animal. It’s all new to me.