Law Firm’s Office Cat Really Clicks on Internet

VENTURA —  Ever since a downtown Ventura law office created a home page on the Internet for its cat named Thumper, the 13-pound black and white tabby has been gaining recognition nationwide as one very cool cybercat.

The 8-year-old feline has received e-mail from across the country. And he was recently selected as one of 2,000 entries in the Who’s Cool in America directory created by an online service.

The lawyers at the Chestnut Street Law Center--who share a World Wide Web site with the popular cat--have been baffled by the response.

“Almost everybody who goes to the page looks at that cat,” said attorney Lisa Danny-Roberts, who comes to work half an hour early each day to help Thumper with his e-mail.

“There is more and more every day,” she said.

Take this missive from a beguiling sex kitten in Greensboro, N.C.: “My name is Scarlet and I saw your master’s message on the WWW. I am a sexy calico cat with aspirations of stardom. . . . You should have your master e-mail my master.”

Says Danny-Roberts: “We wonder if she purrs with a Southern accent.” Thumper shares offices with four lawyers at the center, a Victorian home-turned-office-building in downtown Ventura.

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The lawyers decided to go online last summer to advertise the small office and listed the cat as a senior partner on the home page. The idea was to humanize, well, kittyize, their practices by putting a Cheshire image of the smiling cat next to their head shots.

The actual job of creating a Web site for Thumper fell to Robin Roberts, a part-time law clerk at the office and the husband of Lisa Danny-Roberts.

“How do you say, ‘We all work in a Victorian house and the damn cat sits on our desks and puts fur on our files?’ Well, we put the cat on the Web page,” he explained.

“For a long time,” he added, “he was getting more activity than any single attorney.”

Internet browsers have clicked on the cat’s home page, titled Thumper’s Law Offices and Flea Market, nearly 400 times. And while the number of hits has increased for the lawyers, they are only outpacing the cat by about 200.

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While Thumper is not by any means the only cat mousing the Internet (Socks, the nation’s first cat, has his own home page), he has become a centerpiece in the downtown community.

“I was one of the first ones on the Internet down here,” says John Anthony Miller, owner of Phantom Bookshop on Main Street and one of Thumper’s correspondents.

“I figured anybody that had a cat on the Internet was all right in my book,” Miller said. “It’s just kind of a cool thing.”

The cat’s fame actually began years before he went online.

He is a fixture to clients and other lawyers who frequent the law center, said attorney Edward T. Buckle, who found the stray six years ago sitting at the doorstep of his Ventura home.

“The minute we let him in,” Buckle said, “he sort of took over.”

Strong-willed and always seeking attention, the green-eyed feline has been known to strut into a roomful of clients at the Chestnut Street office, roll on his back and show off his plump tummy.

“He’s good for our mental health,” Buckle said. “This is a very stressful business.” For his part, Thumper is taking his fame in stride.

He may be one of the nation’s preeminent cybercats, but Thumper shares time between electronic mice and the furry toy kind. Oblivious to any notoriety, he is most content sunning himself on Buckle’s windowsill.

Said Roberts: “He seems to have the same reaction that he has to everything else: ‘That’s real nice. Now give me some salmon.’ ”