While trying to teach himself new computer software, Simon Toefield made a short video about his cat Hugh. Every morning, Hugh, who was a kitten at the time, would pounce on Simon’s head and chest trying to wake him up. “He wanted breakfast,” says Simon. “I thought a video of him waking me up would be fun. I had no idea that it would get posted on YouTube and go viral.”
Simon had to come up with a name for the videos. “Everyone knows my cats as ‘Simon’s Cats,’ so that is what I decided to call it,” he continued. The series now has tens of millions of views on YouTube.
All of the stories in Simon's videos and in his book come from real life. “The best stories often do,” he says.
His style of drawing is “quite sketchy. I like to keep it loose and spontaneous, and the animation is done before the sound. You are not hearing my cats in the videos. It's actually me meowing."
Simon spoke at an event organized by Purina called "Better with Pets." He told the crowd that two of his cats, Hugh and Teddy, who are the biggest inspirations for his videos, are actually black cats. “I made them white in the cartoons because they were easier to draw,” he explains. “A lot of people have misconceptions about black cats. To me, they are symbols of good luck.”