Even Catluminati doesn’t know the secret behind his incredible super power

Catluminati has racked up over 154K subscribers on YouTube and 2 million followers on TikTok for one specific and totally adorable reason — interacting with stray cats in his neighborhood. We got the chance to speak with him about his special superpower in an exclusive interview as part of our new ‘Rising Stars’ series.

Christopher Watson, best known by his online moniker ‘Catluminati,’ has the kind of mysterious connection with cats that his handle implies. Watching his videos, one would think he’s some kind of Disney princess, as nearly every feline in his local area simply can’t get enough of him.

Watson has gone viral several times over the course of his career as an animal-focused influencer, known for giving out pets and doing ‘pick-up tests’ on the kitties in his neighborhood.

Over the years, viewers have gotten familiar with the cats he sees on his regular ‘cat walks’ through town, utterly baffled by how friendly and chill they seem around him. It’s something that confounds him, too, but he figures it must have something to do with his voice.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out too,” he laughed. “I’m going to be honest with you: When I watch my videos back sometimes I’m like, ‘Dude, what the heck?’ Especially if we meet a new cat. I’m like, ‘What? This cat didn’t know me.’

“What I’m starting to learn is that I think it’s something with my voice, because people will watch the ‘cat walks’ at their house, and their cat gets really curious and wants to come sit in their lap. And it’s just like, something goes off.

“I have a special cat voice where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you’re so beautiful.’ And then they just like, I don’t know — I can kind of tell in their body language that it makes them excited or something, you know? I think it’s my voice.”

Watson’s ‘cat walk’ videos all started thanks to his husband, Bob, who encouraged him to get out of the house while he was stuck in a deep depression. Little did he know that these anti-depression walks would soon lead to a profitable career and a platform to spread awareness for animal welfare.

“My then partner, now husband, Bob, used to try to pull me out of the house and be like, ‘Chris, you need to go for a walk. You need to get some exercise.’ Because he knew I was extremely depressed back then. I’m just going to be completely honest about it, because I know other people are going through this,” he explained.

“I was at the point where I didn’t want to get out of bed. I was just not happy about life. I didn’t really think life was going to go anywhere for me at this point in life. So he would just be like, ‘Come on outside, you know, go for a walk. Let’s go see the cats in the neighborhood.’ That would get me to go outside to get exercise, because we didn’t have a cat back then.

“So I was just walking through the neighborhood and TikTok came out and I was like, ‘I should post these cats on TikTok.’ And the rest is history.”

Watson’s internet fame was preceded by drug addiction and struggles with mental health. After getting sober and staying sober for eight years, he says his newfound career feels like the universe is “rewarding” him for his hard work in overcoming these obstacles, allowing him to take care of his mother and speak out on important social topics.

“I’ve been sober now for seven or eight years now, and my life is just completely different,” he admitted. “I can take care of myself, I can help my mom. I take care of her. I used to live in North Carolina where the health care isn’t that great, so we moved her out here to Washington, a place that has better health outcomes. I can afford to help her here because of my career.”

Thanks to his online presence, ‘Catluminati’ has built up a community of cat-lovers both on social media and in his home of Tacoma, Washington — a group of folks he wants to be with “forever.”

“When we go almost anywhere in Tacoma, people know who I am, say, ‘Hello,’ they’re telling me about their cats and it’s only positivity. And I’m outside all the time in my community.

We’ve built a community online, but what’s extremely special is that the community is built into my life. [My husband and I] actually went to this bar, and we invited all of our friends. And while we were at the bar, there were 23 people there. And I was like, ‘Bob, do you realize like 20 of these people we met through their cats in the neighborhood?’

“Do I want to live forever? Not really. There’s a lot of suffering, but I’m telling you, this is a community that I cherish and want to be with forever. It’s that kind of a feeling.”

Watson says Tacoma is an extremely friendly place with equally friendly cats… but in August 2024, he found himself getting into a bit of drama with a fellow cat owner in town who left their blind kitty wandering outside. While he didn’t want to speak on the topic too much, this conflict marks one of the only times he’s had a negative experience with other cat owners in his area, and indeed, even online.

Watson couldn’t pinpoint the exact video that ‘cat’apulted him to internet stardom, but says his ‘pick-up test’ videos are always popular. (This writer can attest that they’re always being recommended to me.) These ‘pick-up tests’ show Christopher attempting to pick up the cats in his neighborhood to see if they’ll tolerate it — and a surprising amount don’t mind.

For him, the ‘cat walk’ videos are a favorite. He goes into filming with “no expectations,” saying “anything could happen” that turns a simple clip into a viral moment.

“Sometimes when I first start the walk, I’m kind of like, ‘Okay, here we go to work.’ But then when I get into it, I’m like, ‘Heck yes, this is what I want.’ Like cats jumping over fences, neighbors coming out with their cats. Like just random stuff happening that would make people look at the videos.”

Watson is using his status as a TikTok star to point viewers toward causes he’s passionate about, which, of course, include efforts to fundraise for cat owners’ vet expenses and animal welfare groups. For him, this wasn’t something he ever imagined he’d be able to do — but he’s using his fame for a good cause, bringing smiles to animal lovers all around the globe.

“I did not realize that me walking around petting cats in my neighborhood would turn into this,” he says on a GoFundMe page, “but I am proud of the advocacy we have been able to do, from animals to humans.”