In nearly a decade on the bench, Judge Roy Ferguson has done a lot presiding over the 394th District in Texas. But just as 2020 held plenty of surprises for us all, so did 2021. In February, Judge Ferguson was presiding over a hearing via the teleconferencing platform Zoom, and was waiting for attorney Rod Ponton to connect. Suddenly, an image popped up in Ponton’s video quadrant. But it wasn’t Ponton’s face; rather, it was the moving image of a grey tabby cat.

The incident was immortalized on YouTube, where it’s been viewed over ten million times. Judge Ferguson says, “Mr. Ponton … I believe you have a filter turned on.” Obviously flustered, Ponton tries to persuade the court of his legitimacy and his awareness of the problem. “Ahh … we’re trying to … can you hear me, Judge? … I don’t know how to remove it, I’ve got my assistant here, she’s trying to, but …” And then Ponton utters words that will live on in infamy: “I’m here live … I’m not a cat.”

Eventually the cat filter was removed, and the hearing continued normally. And after receiving worldwide attention for the blunder, Mr. Ponton remained in good spirits: "If I can make the country chuckle for a moment in these difficult times they're going through, I'm happy to let them do it at my expense."

Possible Preaching Angle:

In a society where it's easy to manipulate images, we must be diligent not to just accept superficial evidence but to look deeper for the real truth of the situation.