‘He has paws’: Cat gets summoned for jury duty after a county data error, owner spends 6 weeks proving he’s a cat before bringing him to court

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Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
Jul 12, 2026 7:00 PM EDT

How many ways can you prove that your cat is actually a cat?

Our feline friends just have the darnedest ways of getting themselves into sticky situations, and then leaving it up to us hoomans to get them out of it. And believe you me, I've seen a lot of absolutely absurd cat stories in my time writing for I Can Has Cheezburger, like when this wife found out her husband was role-playing as a cat for years online. This story, from Reddit's r/cats community (and X), might just take the cake for "most ridiculous cat story of all time". 

Felix Martinez got a summons to show up for court duty. The problem is, Felix Martinez is a cat. Somehow, there was a clerical error in the county's data and the summons got sent to Felix, and not his pawrent. The pawrent then spent 6 weeks trying to convince the court that Felix could not attend jury duty, all for very real reasons:

Felix has paws.
Felix does not understand human language.
Felix cannot comprehend legal proceedings.
Felix has no means of transportation, except for his hooman.

All of these reasons were rejected, including a medical note from Felix's vet proving his exemption. So, what was this pawrent left to do except show up on the court day with Felix in a carrier?

This goes a bit farther than your average "cat got stuck behind the wall" story, but it's hilarious all the same. It does, also, purrfectly point out just a few of the faults in our legal system, because if you can't prove your cat can't show up for jury duty because he's a cat, then how are you supposed to prove anything else?

Just another average day on the internet, if you ask me. What a purrfectly great day to be alive!

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  • 01
    'Summons is mandatory. Failure to appear will result in contempt of court'
    via Nils Jacobi

    Black cat on white background / lawyer addressing jurors

    All subjects are models and not representative of the story

  • 02
    Bennie @Bennieeexyz Jury duty letter came addressed to my cat. Follow Not a mistake. "Felix Martinez" – that's his full name according to his vet records. My last name. His first name. Somehow he's a registered voter now. Called the county clerk. Me: My cat got summoned for jury duty. Clerk: Is the name correct on the summons? Me: Yes, but he's a cat. Clerk: Is Felix Martinez a legal resident of this county? Me: He's a legal cat. Clerk: Sir, if the name matches our records, he needs to appear or
    via @Bennieeexyz
  • 03
    Clerk: (pause) Check "unable to serve due to medical reasons." Me: What's the medical reason? Clerk: He's a cat. Me: That's not a medical condition. Clerk: It is if it prevents him from serving. Sent in the form. Got rejected two weeks later. "Insufficient documentation. Please provide medical professional's statement." Took the letter to my vet. Me: I need you to write that my cat can't do jury duty. Vet: Why is your cat summoned for jury duty? Me: Excellent question. No good answer. Vet: This
    via @Bennieeexyz
  • 04
    Cheezburger Image 10646861056
    via @Bennieeexyz
  • 05
    Me: I filed three. All rejected. Showed her the letters. She read through them, expression shifting from confusion to disbelief. Clerk: Someone rejected the veterinary documentation? Me: Twice. Clerk: (called her supervisor over) You need to see this. Supervisor read everything. Looked at Felix. Looked at me. Supervisor: How did a cat get registered to vote? Me: You tell me. Supervisor: This is a data error. Me: Took you six weeks to figure that out. They dismissed Felix immediately. Apologized
    via @Bennieeexyz
  • 06
    Cheezburger Image 10646861312
    via @Bennieeexyz
  • 07
    AKASquared A few months later, a guy named Felix Martinez finds that he's been removed from the voter rolls on the grounds that he is a cat. His argument to the contrary is disregarded, because cats aren't allowed to dispute their registration status.
    via AKASquared
  • 08
    Ok_Compote_8826 ain't no rule that says a cat can't do jury duty!
    via Ok_Compote_8826
  • 09
    Cheezburger Image 10646873088
    via DAPA Images

    Prosecutor with jury in court

    Model representation of story

  • 10
    TelFaradiddle Coming next Spring, the legal drama that has the whole animal kingdom talking: Purry Duty. Rated PG-13.
    via TelFaradiddle
  • 11
    whatsherface2024 I am dong laughing because my cat had to have medication that I picked up from Walgreens... it said "the cat" after his name. It had the warning that he shouldn't drive or operate heavy machinery.... Sadly, it dashed his aspirations of being a forklift operator.
    via whatsherface2024
  • 12
    mintandie "I AM NOT A CAT"
    via mintandie

  • If you get this reference, we're giving you a round of appaws from across the internet. If you don't, please allow us to enlighten you: it's from a video that went viral a few years ago of a lawyer showing up for online court with a filter on that made him look like a cat, and he couldn't figure out how to turn it off. You should watch it, it's worth 48 seconds of your time.

  • 13
    CrackheadHunters Okay this was very entertaining and got a laugh out of me. Also going to start using 'Excellent question. No good answer' going forward. This could save me so much time.
    via CrackheadHunters
  • 14
    Legal_MajorMajor My husband took our cat to the vet and they questioned why the cat had a different last name than him. He said "Because he's not my biological son."
    via Legal_MajorMajor
  • 15
    Cheezburger Image 10646873600
    via annastills

    Owner carrying cat in pet carrier 

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 16
    commonly-cloudy My cat is 19 so I always joke that he's eligible to vote now. I wonder how old Felix is!
    via commonly-cloudy
  • 17
    Due-Reflection-1835 Should have let him serve the jury duty, he probably would be elected as foreperson. Or forecat. Maybe in the future, juries will be made up entirely of cats
    via Due-Reflection-1835
  • 18
    -rwsr-xr-x FWIW, back in 2009, my cat ended up being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and required insulin, an insulin meter and syringes. I called my work health insurance and asked if that was even something they could support. They said yes.
    via -rwsr-xr-x
  • 19
    For the remaining 3 years of his life, he was listed as a dependent on my work health insurance, and received full coverage for his diabetes medical supplies, tests and other needs from the local veterinarian. I picked up his insulin and strips from CVS, along with my own prescriptions. Literally nobody questioned it.
    via -rwsr-xr-x
  • 20
    Historical_Gur_3054 Reminds me of the story from the guy that got a bill for $0.00 He ignored it, thinking it was a computer error.
    via Historical_Gur_3054
  • 21
    Then he gets another bill, then a late notice, then a late late notice and threats to go to collections. Every time the amount was $0.00 Called the place sending him the bill, they didn't know why he got it because he didn't have a balance with them.
    via Historical_Gur_3054
  • 22
    His best guess was that the billing program was written with more than 2 fields for the cents but either rounded or clipped anything beyond 2 decimal places.
    via Historical_Gur_3054
  • 23
    So he decided to fix it by sending them a check for $0.00. It worked, the letters stopped Then his bank called, wondering why he wrote a check for $0.00.
    via Historical_Gur_3054
  • 24
    He told them what happened and gave them the number o the company that was sending the zero dollar bill in the mail and told the bank to sort it out with them.
    via Historical_Gur_3054

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