Lawyer hilariously joins Zoom court hearing as a ‘kitten’ [Video]

• To his great surprise, Attorney Rod Ponton signed in a Zoom court hearing as an adorable kitten.
• He was talking with the judge with a cat filter, looking panicky on the screen.
• The Zoom video quickly went viral, bringing laughs out of viewers.

“I’m not a cat,” was what Attorney Rod Ponton could say when he could not figure out how to turn off the cat filter on his Zoom video during an online court hearing.

The incident made the 69-year-old Texas attorney viral for giving a hilarious start at the court hearing when he joined the Zoom meeting with a cat filter already on.

He obviously had no idea how he transformed into a kitten — as the morphed cat appeared tense during the call.

The Zoom video showed how Attorney Rod, hidden behind the cat filter, moved his eyes around the screen in panic — funny how the cat’s eyes and mouth moved as he looked around and talked!

Judge Roy Ferguson tweeted the video, which was published by the 394th Judicial District Court of Texas.

“Can you hear me, judge?” Attorney Rod, in the cat filter, was saying in the video.

“I can hear you,” the judge answered. “I think it’s a filter.”

As the attorney continued to struggle with the app, the cat’s eyes anxiously moved around the screen.

“I don’t know how to remove it,” he said. “I’ve got my assistant here and she’s trying to remove it, but uh, I’m prepared to go forward with it.” Rod continued and reassured the judge, “I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”

The 42-second video has quickly gotten nearly 1 million views. Although the viral lawyer still had no idea how that happened, he’s happy that people are getting a laugh out of it.

Attorney Rod, who has practiced law for nearly four decades, said in an interview with PEOPLE that he just opened up Zoom and he was immediately morphed into a 3D kitten. He said that it was the laptop of his secretary, who also had no clue how it happened.

“It was a status hearing on a routine forfeiture case and the district judge is handling all the cases by Zoom,” Attorney Rod said. “I used the computer in a remote office that I have in Presidio [using] my secretary’s computer. So I just logged into Zoom to have the hearing and instead of my face popping up, up pops the cat to my great surprise.”

He said he kept his cool during the mishap, trying to get the filter off. But he was also ready to continue the hearing — “whatever the judge wants.”

The attorney added that he was able to remove the filter afterwards and proceed with the hearing without further technical difficulties.

“It’s just one of those little snafus in life,” Attorney Rod said. “If someone can get a chuckle out of it, I’ll take it.”

Source: PEOPLE.com