Keyboard Cat, an internet sensation and local celebrity, dies
March 16, 2018 Updated Sat., March 17, 2018 at 9:59 a.m.
A local megastar has passed away.
Spokane’s Keyboard Cat, an internet sensation whose visage graced everything from T-shirts to pistachio commercials, died on March 8. Charlie Schmidt, his owner, posted a video tribute to the celebrated feline Friday.
Keyboard Cat fever struck in 2009, when Schmidt’s YouTube video of his kitty pawing away at a portable piano went viral. Yet, the video had been made over a dozen years before, and the original Keyboard Cat, named Fatso, had already passed into kitty heaven.
Schmidt scoured animal shelters for a suitable replacement. He found a new cat, named him Bento, and together they assumed the mantle of internet legend, attending conferences and churning out merchandise, in addition to making regular appearances around Spokane.
Bento was 9 years old.
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