Once a show cat reject, local feline enjoys online limelight


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SALT LAKE CITY — Albert is a fixture at one local publishing business. He’s the first one in and the last to leave since he literally lives there.

Albert — once rejected as a show cat — has found himself a home at this Salt Lake business and, much like many cats across the world, a home online.

Known to the social media world as “Pompous Albert,” the nine-year-old Selkirk Rex has more than 120,000 followers on Instagram alone. That in itself has led to dozens of stories featured across the world from websites such as Buzzfeed, The Daily Mail, MTV and the Huffington Post.

Just last week, an international media outlet dropped by to do a story on him.

He is the office celebrity, indeed.

Albert has been an internet sensation for about the past three years, as people enjoyed his constant devilish-looking resting face and his careless curly fur.

“He’s quite unique; he’s quite different,” said Susan Singleton, the business’s co-owner. “His narrative is kind of fun, humorous, snarky. He has something to say that we think he’d be thinking if he could say it to you.”

(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)
(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)

The beginning

While Albert has enjoyed his stardom, it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for adoption.

Albert first joined the company after an employee’s sister, who was a cat breeder, asked if the company wanted him. Albert had missed the cut in being a show cat.

The company had already rescued one cat, affectionately named Lucky, from a dumpster and adopted another. The cats lived in the office and played with employees throughout their workday.

What is it like having cats in the office?

“When you come into work, it just kind of sets the tone for the day,” Singleton said. “Everyone here is animal lovers.”

(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)
(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)

Employees make sure the cats, including Albert, are well-fed and come in on the weekend to ensure all three cats are doing well.

Tessa Reinemer and Ashley Hutchins, employees of the business, have one unfortunate condition working for a company with cats. They’re allergic to them. However, each have found an appreciation working alongside the cats since the office is stacked with allergy pills.

“When I first worked here, they just put them upstairs because I was just a mess — sneezing,” Reinemer said. “As time’s gone on, I’ve adjusted more and actually learned to enjoy the cats.”

“Most people take coffee breaks or water cooler breaks. Here, we can just take a break and play with the cats,” Hutchins adds. “It’s a good stress-reliever.

But among the cats, Albert sticks out

Employees have learned to hide tape if they can. He loves tape. He also enjoys playing on phones and watching videos, as well as getting into food and knocking over trash cans.

They’ve grown used to his antics.

(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)
(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)

“We’ll just be sitting out there working — all of a sudden, Albert is up to something,” said employee Deana Peat. “He’s very demanding of attention — all the attention. But, he’s very sweet and has a great purr. And he does like to just lay on my desk and fall asleep. I don’t disturb him, I just find a way to work around him.”

He may have been a rejected show cat, but he definitely creates a show wherever he is.

“He’s the purr-fect entertainer,” Hutchins jokes.

Deana Peat, left, and Ashley Hutchins, right, laugh when describing what it's like working with Albert (Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)
Deana Peat, left, and Ashley Hutchins, right, laugh when describing what it's like working with Albert (Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)

While he may look vicious (he did, for example, land on an internet list of cats who “will definitely murder you in your sleep”), he’s actually quite vivacious and playful — and great with children.

“He loves kids,” said Pansy Winterburn, another employee that sometimes needs to bring her son into work. “He looks like he’s just evil with his lovely face of yellow eyes, but he loves kids. He’ll follow them everywhere. He sits with my son — just sits on his lap and everything. He doesn’t do that all the time with us, but with kids, no matter the kid, he walks right up to them and follows them everywhere.”

(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)
(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)

Albert’s fame, though, began as office visitors fell in love with the cat. Various courier delivery employees noticed Albert and immediately wanted to take photos with him. He became a star in the office before becoming an online sensation.

“Anybody that came in would say ‘Oh my gosh, is that cat real?’ And they’d stop and take a picture,” Singleton said.

With that curiosity and clammer over the cat from those who met Albert in person, Singleton took Albert online – setting up two Instagram accounts for the tomcat. While the cat had moderate success online, Singleton said it wasn’t until Reddit that Albert exploded onto the internet cat scene.

Almost anyone who has wasted time online knows who Grumpy Cat is. She became an internet sensation that wound up having a Christmas movie starring her, with Aubrey Plaza voicing the cat.

(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)
(Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)

Albert seems to be on a similar upward rise with an office full of products featuring his face, a list full of appearances in print and on television, as well as almost every post drawing thousands of likes on Instagram.

While Albert continues to rise online, Singleton looks back to her company’s idea to adopt pets and how that began Albert’s online journey.

She said she hopes others will consider bringing cats or dogs to their businesses, if applicable.

“Think outside the box for adoption,” she said. “Whereas your pet is probably home alone and then you go home at night, our animals have someone with them all day. … It’s a fun way to get other animals out of the shelters and have people adopt them.”

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