Being famous on Instagram is pretty easy for Morris. He can sleep, eat and play when he wants. His fans adore him.
It’s easy because Morris is a Persian cat, owned by Brenda Hoffele and Chris Thedorff of Palmerston.
Morris has over 45,300 followers on Instagram (@morris_the_persian_cat). His photos garner thousands of likes and comments on the social media platform.
Hoffele received Morris, now six years old, as a Christmas present. She had been a “dog person” her whole life, but fell in love with Morris’ calm and friendly personality.
While posting photos of repurposed furniture on buy and sell websites Hoffele noticed Morris would always want to be in front of the camera.
“He always got in the picture; he always posed so people started saying, ‘gosh you should start an Instagram account, we’d so follow him,’” she said.
“People were more interested in the cat than what we were selling.”
Hoffele said she had no idea how to start an Instagram account, so her grandchildren helped set it up and it took off from there.
“Within one week he had 1,000 followers,” she said.
Hoffele has been posting photos of Morris every day for the last two years. Now he has over 45,000 followers, including some famous ones like Tom Budgen, a professional WWE wrestler that goes by the name of Aleister Black. Budgen frequently posts about cats on his Instagram page and owns a Persian cat himself.
Hoffele says Morris loves the limelight.
“He’s a poser, a ham for the camera. I can pretty much use any prop,” said Hoffele. “People just love him.”
Morris has a red wagon and signature hat that he wears in many photos. But Hoffele also does themed photos for holidays and likes to show off Morris’ whiskers for “whisker Wednesday” and his tail for “fluffy butt Friday.”
She has accumulated thousands of photos of her beloved cat.
“It’s been a lot of fun, I talk to people from all over the world,” she said.
Morris gets gifts from all over the world too. On Christmas, he receives hundreds of Christmas cards. He also receives gifts and food from followers and businesses that hope he will endorse their product.
“I knew I just loved my pet, but I just never realized how many millions of other people go crazy (over cats),” she said.
Morris isn’t the only cat Hoffele has owned. She rescued another Persian, Percy, who had multiple medical issues. At two and a half years old, Percy passed away. Then Edison, a six-month-old kitten came into their family.
After he was neutered, Edison fell ill. She took him to the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph in November. Test after test was completed, and the vet bill added up.
When she posted on Instagram about the condition he was in and the cost of the procedures, her followers stepped up.
“Someone reached out and said ‘you should start a GoFundMe’ and I said ‘I don’t know how to do that’ and someone actually private messaged me from Florida, said ‘give me your number I’m going to call you and help you set it up’ and they did,” explained Hoffele.
“They said … ‘you need to do this. We’re all here; we’re all going to help, we’re going to pay this bill.’”
She put her goal at $5,000, and she said the money was raised in a day. The goal was surpassed with $5,635 raised by 200 people who chipped in amounts from $5 to $250.
A few days later, Edison passed away, and Hoffele learned he had feline infectious peritonitis, a rare but fatal virus.
“I was so emotional and overwhelmed,” she said.
“So now, anytime someone has a sick cat or posts for vet bills I’m the first one to (donate)… I always pay it forward, because I know what it’s like to have outrageous medical bills.”
Morris’ followers then commissioned two art pieces of Percy and Edison, which were delivered in February. Hoffele said the experience has made her realize how kind people can be.
“People just love their pets, they love their pets, they adore them,” she said.
“I think most people that have a pet, it means the world to them, so they just want to share and hopefully everyone else will love their pet as much as you do.”
