A livestream of a virtual court proceeding in Texas took an "appawling" turn when a lawyer appeared as a cat on screen.
Judge Roy B. Ferguson of the 394th Judicial District Court in Texas kindly addressed the cat in the virtual room, suggesting that attorney Rod Ponton adjust his Zoom settings. The mishap on Tuesday was posted by the court's YouTube channel.
"Mr. Ponton, I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings," the judge said.
The small, white kitten looked sad with its concerned eyes darting back and forth. The kitten opened its mouth to speak.
"Can you hear me judge?" Ponton said, appearing in the cat filter.
"I'm here, live, I'm not a cat," he said a few seconds later.
Ferguson confirmed the Zoom mishap happened on Tuesday.
"It did actually happen. There was no joke involved," Ferguson told CNN via phone.
The Zoom filter was removed within seconds of that moment, Ferguson said. He added that he walked the lawyer through how to turn it off.
"When a child had been using the computer, (the child) turned on a filter," he said. "Of course, the lawyer would have no reason to even know that feature exists."