Vancouver Island couple’s cats captivate in viral Vitamix saga
Posted January 10, 2022 9:58 pm.
Last Updated January 11, 2022 8:09 am.
Editor’s Note: Some of the social media posts embedded in this story contain language some readers may find offensive.
Three cats on Vancouver Island have heated beds, a state-of-the-art cat tree, and innumerable toys. But the Vitamix that arrived in their kitchen in mid-December is the only thing they’re interested in — and their human’s description of their blender being held hostage has gone viral.
Jessica Gerson-Neeves and her wife Nikii have three cats. A single post in a Facebook group started a weeks-long saga that has captivated tens of thousands of followers, been covered in news outlets like the Washington Post and the Miami Herald, and caught the attention of the company whose product the cats are seemingly so obsessed with.
And although still shocked by how many people became enamored with her posts, Jesscia kind of understands why.
“Everyone is deeply pandemic fatigued. It has been two very, very long years and everything is as bad as it has ever been. The news about Omicron is terrifying. There has been natural disaster after natural disaster in B.C. this year. I think people — ourselves included — are just desperate for something not just fun, but lowstakes,” she tells CityNews.
“It is silly and it is whimsical and it is completely ridiculous.”
Jessica and Nikii share their home with Max, a four-and-a-half-year-old tuxedo, and his two 13-year-old brothers. Lando Calrissian is a black cat Jessica says is “all fluff, no brains.” The ginger cat is George, destroyer of worlds (that is his proper name, Jesscia notes it’s the one on inscribed on his collar.) Max’s nickname is “the sentient soccer ball,” Lando is the “questionably sentient dust bunny,” and George is the “sentient potato.”
The battle over the blender started on Dec. 16, when a Vitamix purchased during Black Friday sales, arrived in the couple’s Langford apartment.
“We brought it inside and I set it down on the floor. Theoretically just for a minute, and that was my first mistake. Max hopped right up on the box and setteled down very daintily, and it was so cute that I had to snap a picture,” Jessica says, adding the post had garnered 10,000 comments by the next day.
“This was definitely a very, very big reaction.”
The next day, when she walked by she noticed Lando was perched atop the box, with the other two gazing up at him. That prompted another post with another captoin about the blender
“People just went nuts over it,” Jessica says.
Three weeks and five days after that first picture was snapped, with the kitties still enthralled by the the box, the social media posts continue.
“They are cats, they generally have really short attention spans. They have favourite toys and stuff that they’ll come back to again and again. Something that they fixate on and stick with for an extended period of time, it’s definitely a new experience for us,” says Jessica.
“As much as it started to go viral immediately, it also evolved really organically. Like wow, you guys are really into this.”
The cats’ enthusiasm for the box didn’t seem to wane when Jessica and Nikii went away for a few days to see family for Christmas. However, they came home from that trip with another kitchen appliance, in another box.
“My wife had gotten a very lovely, fancy new ice cream maker. I happened to be carrying it and set it down on the kitchen floor,” Jessica says.
“Sure enough, it took about 15 seconds for a cat to jump off on it, and we both kind of looked at each other. I went ‘Please don’t divorce me.'”
But the cats grew tired of the new box within a day or two, and they haven’t been fooled by an empty “decoy” VitaMix box.
Additional @Vitamix boxes arrived. One is out.
The decoy initially attracted attention, but only temporarily…we’ll see what they make of the other two. pic.twitter.com/6MANVykKXJ
— Jessica Gerson-Neeves (@JessStarlite) January 9, 2022
Sometimes the cats seem like they are patiently waiting to take their turns, other times that’s not exactly the case.
“At least half the time, if one cat’s been on it for a while and isn’t paying close attention then another cat jumps up and punts them off,” Jessica explains.
“It is absolutely the most popular thing in our house which is saying something because they’re spoiled rotten.”
The sentient soccer ball is very cute and charming. An intellectual giant, however, he is not. Here, have 29 seconds of him trying to kill his own tail on Decoy Box 1. His brother Lando was manning the One True Box at the time. pic.twitter.com/stV5t7PgAz
— Jessica Gerson-Neeves (@JessStarlite) January 10, 2022
The couple know they could bring an end to the standoff by just lifting whichever cat is sitting sentry off of the box. But why would they?
“This has grown into something that is so much bigger than us, and so much bigger than just a blender. It’s grown into something that is fun and silly and whimsical and ridiculous at a time when that’s something that everybody needs. When this runs its course, the blender will still be there.”
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