This man’s videos go viral as ‘Catluminati’ brings worldwide attention to Tacoma’s kitties
Bella can’t resist Chris Watson. Neither can Naptime nor Sexy Simon nor Scratch-a-lot.
They’re all Tacoma cats that come running whenever the 32-year-man’s melodious “Here, kitty-kitty,” reaches their hiding places.
Watson is no random stroller. He is a cat whisperer, a Pied Piper of felines.
He is Catluminati.
In two short years, Watson has become a social media sensation who has racked up millions of views of videos showing his near-daily ritual.
It’s best left for him to explain.
“I just walk through Tacoma neighborhoods, and I find cats that are friendly, and then I kneel down to them to get them to come visit, and I pet them on camera,” Watson said.
If you’re looking for a deeper meaning or more complex story, you won’t find it here. Watson pets cats. For that, the Tacoma resident has become famous.
He has 1.6 million followers on TikTok and 118,000 follows on Instagram. One of his videos, of an unusually patterned cat who exchanges kisses with Watson, has been viewed 15.6 million times and has 21,000 comments.
Taking a catwalk
On a recent summer evening, a News Tribune reporter and photographer accompanied Watson and his partner, Bob Thomas, as they embarked on one of their catwalks. Evening is when the heat of the day has worn off and cats have woken from their midday slumber, they explain.
Watson practically purrs as he calls to unseen cats.
“Here, kitty-kit,” he says in a slight drawl indicative of his North Carolina upbringing.
Soon, cats pour from backyards, from under bushes and from secret hiding spaces.
Thomas mans the camera, filming Watson’s interactions with the felines.
Only the cats know why they find Watson irresistible, and they are keeping that to themselves this evening.
One cat, Bella, walks toward Watson then arches, stretches and rolls onto its back before continuing its languid approach.
An orange-and-white cat lounging underneath a Honda barely acknowledges Watson’s charms. But Watson is patient, and after a minute the cat suddenly rises and runs toward him.
One cool cat
Each catwalk lasts two to three hours and covers up to three miles. His record is meeting and greeting 22 cats on one catwalk.
Watson doesn’t enter yards or private property. He lets the the cats come to him for rubs, pets and the occasional kiss. He uses hand sanitizer after each cat he pets.
If an owner appears, Thomas and Watson quickly explain who they are and what they’re doing. Owners are always eager to share their felines and give short bios, Watson said.
On this evening, Tacoma resident Blair Eather appeared at her front door as Watson petted her cat, Belle. Eather wasn’t familiar with Catluminati but quickly went inside to get another cat named Batty for its bat-like ears.
Nearby, Watson met the owners of a cat which he previously featured in a TikTok video.
“Your cat is viral,” Watson told them, learning the cat’s name is Sexy Simon.
Neighbor Dan Maize was already a Catluminati fan, brought into the fold by his adult daughters who live on the East Coast.
The sisters began following Watson on TikTok but didn’t know at first that he was in Tacoma, Maize explained.
“But it became pretty apparent once they began to kind of look at various streets and then they recognized our neighborhood,” he said. Then they recognized Bella, a cat that lives next door to Maize, from a video.
Maize, who moved to the neighborhood in 2019, doesn’t have any cats. His wife, he explained, is not a cat person. But Bella has won her over.
“Bella just kind of warms everybody’s hearts,” Maize said. ”She just like came right in the house like she owned it and sat on the couch and wants to hang out with us all day. She’s just a really, really cool cat.”
And now a famous one, racking up thousands of views.
Viral kitties
Like so many recent ventures, Catluminati was born of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watson and Thomas would take evening walks in summer 2020 just to get out of the house.
“Being a cat lover, and we didn’t have a cat at that time, he started visiting the cats, and we’d find more and more every day,” Thomas explained. “And then he started videoing them.”
Watson posted that video to TikTok, and others soon followed.
“The third catwalk got like 100,000 views in two days, and I was like, oh my God, this is so viral,” Watson said.
A star was born. Media attention soon followed.
Now, two years later, Watson has been able to quit his job as an ad producer and shift to Catluminati as his full-time job.
He makes his money through sponsorships. His most lucrative is Tractive, which makes GPS trackers for cats (and dogs).
He also sells Catluminati merchandise including T-shirts and hoodies.
Watson wouldn’t say how much he makes but called it a comfortable income.
“It’s more than I’ve ever made in my life,” he said.
Success
Catluminati, the name, came from a theory that cats have their own secret societies and meetings where, obviously, Watson must be a subject of discussion.
“It’s as if cats talk to each other, ‘Oh, that’s the cat guy. We got to meet him,’” Watson said in jest.
“I do believe that cats can communicate in some ways that we don’t understand,” Watson said. “But, I have doubts they’re talking about me.”
Watson isn’t completely sure why he’s become a social media sensation.
“People believe I’m a cat whisperer,” he said.
“More than anything it’s just the variety of cats, and how organically it all happens,” Thomas offered. “It’s not staged.”
Instagram favors content that is produced by celebrities and so-called “influencers,” but TikTok users prefer organic, less slick videos, Thomas said.
The pair will sometimes revisit popular cats, but they discover new ones on every walk.
“Somebody actually went through our account and counted the cats,” Watson said of one fan. “They counted at least 120.”
The pair don’t disclose where they take their catwalks should anyone with malevolent intent target a particular cat.
Watson and Thomas recently adopted a cat, a tabby named Scamper. They have no plans to get more. Scamper doesn’t like other cats, and Thomas, as fate would have it, is allergic.
Watson has been able to turn his popularity into good works. He’s raised funds to help sick cats, alerted the public to missing cats and promotes nonprofits that aid, foster and provide felines for adoption.
He doesn’t know where Catluminati will take him next, but he vows he will never lose the spontaneity that has made him a success.
“If you’re enjoying yourself while you’re doing what you’re doing, other people are going to enjoy it too,” Watson said. “That’s one thing I’m never going to leave behind — the fun.”
On Saturday, Catluminati fans can meet Watson IRL (in real life) at Tacoma Public Library’s Moore Branch. He’ll show videos, talk cats and help attendees make their own cat toys.
Meet Chris Watson
When: 1-2 p.m., Sat. Sept. 10.
Where: Moore Branch, Tacoma Public Library, 215 S. 56th St., Tacoma
Admission: Free, no registration required.
Information: tacoma.bibliocommons.com/
This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 2:56 PM.
