If you’re spending a lot of your time on Zoom during the pandemic for work or school, you may have had a minor mishap, but probably nothing as bizarre as the experience Presidio County, Texas attorney Rod Ponton had on Tuesday during a remote hearing in 394th Judicial District Court. Ponton logged onto Zoom for the hearing only to find that his face had been replaced by a cat. Judge Roy Ferguson, who was overseeing the case, said, “Mr. Ponton, I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings.”
Ponton groaned and then asked, “Can you hear me, Judge?,” as the cat’s mouth and eyes moved on the screen. He added that he didn’t know how to turn off the filter and that his assistant was trying. Undaunted, Ponton said he was prepared to “go forward” with the hearing, adding, “I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”
As you probably guessed, video of the episode has gone viral.