Money note! Cat's tunes turn Spokane man into fat cat
Today, Charlie Schmidt is striking it rich thanks to his dearly departed cat, Fatso, who known to the rest of the world as "the Keyboard Cat."
In the past few months, videos featuring the Keyboard Cat have been view more than 10 million times around the world.
"It's just nuts, just nuts," Schmidt said.
Fatso was around in the 1980s, when his owner had the foresight to roll the tape on his pet cat. Schmidt didn't expect much out of the videos until earlier this year when video of Fatso playing the keyboard went viral online.
And the rest is Internet history.
Schmidt's videos of Fatso turned Schmidt himself into a fat cat. Not only are people watching videos of Fatso but Schmidt is also making money off those videos -- some $20,000, and counting.
The money comes from the ads that run with Fatso's videos online. And there's more -- the Keyboard Cat has his own iPhone application, as well as his own clothing line. Yes, you read that right. Fatso has his own clothing line.
"You'll see all these shirts with the cat...skateboards, mouse pads, and aprons and posters," Schmidt said.
The long-departed Fatso now has an empire of merchandise in his memory. And Schmidt is more than willing to share with others his captured memories of his beloved cat.
"I think that's the coolest. People from Spain are buying posters of my cat," said Schmidt.
While Fatso only had nine lives, his spirit also lives on through his personal Web site, KeyboardCatChurch.com -- a whole church dedicated to the musical feline, who made miracles come true for his owner.
"That doesn't happen to me every week. That's the cat, the power of the cat," said Schmidt. "You can't do that crap on purpose, you just have to do what you like, full blast, and maybe something will happen."
KXLY-TV in Spokane contributed to this report.