Venus the Amazing Chimera Cat Gets Contract to Make Stuffed Animals in Her Likeness

In 2009, a South Florida woman named Christina saw that her friend in North Carolina had shared pictures pictures of a very unique-looking kitten on her Facebook page. A feral mama cat had given birth to a litter on a neighboring farm. This one particular kitten's face was exactly half black and half orange, divided by a straight line down the middle, like a black-and-white cookie. One eye was green, one blue. 

"I thought 'Oh my God, that cat is so cute,'" Christina remembers now. "At the time I had an orange cat and a black cat -- this looked like a combination of both or our cats." The friend asked the farmer if Christina could have the cat. Her husband flew up to get it. On a friend's suggestion, they named it Venus for "beauty and love.". 

Then, one of the fans pointed her to the page of Boo, the World's Cutest Pomeranian Dog. "They said, you ought to look at Boo's page -- they made a stuffed animal of Boo." 

Looking into the matter, they found that Boo did indeed have a deal for stuffed animals to be made in his likeness with the stuffed animal company Gund. Venus's team reached out, and by October, Venus had a deal, too.

Christina says she's not at liberty to discuss details. "There's going to be stuffed animals made. From what I heard, at least two different ones.  We'll get licensing royalties." She doesn't know how many will be produced nor where they will be sold. "We could get $5,000 or  $100,000, I really don't know."  Christina added that "for each Venus item sold, there will be a donation made to animals in need."

Donna Balancia, who negotiated the deal, said that the contract is for two years and confirmed that it's not yet known how many units will be produced, but that Christina will get a portion of the proceeds from each unit. Balancia believes that interest in LOLcats on the internet won't go away any time soon --  looking at them is "a release from all the burdens people are carrying -- high unemployment, the stuff we suffered with schools" -- but it's yet to be seen to what degree internet popularity will translate to actual sales. She noted that Venus had 88,000 "likes" on Facebook. How many might express interest in a Venus toy? Ten percent? And how many of those would actually buy one? "Can you do the math off that Facebook page?," she asks. "I don't know."

The cat, now three years old and five and a half pounds, doesn't have a movie agent yet and "she's rather shy, she doesn't do tricks." 

Christina is a little wary of the fame. She doesn't give out her last name or city, and "I don't want to exploit [Venus] where she can't be just a house cat. Once in a while I'll put a little collar on her. She's very mellow but there are some people who are very judgmental.  If I do put collar on her or butterfly wings for Halloween, some people got very upset. But she's very cool - I can put anything on her and she's fine." 

But the kids "are absolutely tickled to death their cat is famous." 

Balancia says that since working Venus's deal, other people tell her, "This is an inspiration. I want to get my cats famous. How can I do that?" It's new territory in the business world. "I promote people, places, make deals for human beings, generally speaking. Getting the paw print on the contract was the most important thing."

Check Venus's page every Friday (sometimes more frequently) for a new image of her.