Drama, suspense, toilet paper. This musician's cat video has it all
Wade Tarling used sound effects to punctuate Remy the cat's 15 minutes of fame
There they were, all the makings of a quality cat video: Remy the four-year-old rescue cat, treats, a piano, iPad, and toilet paper.
So musician Wade Tarling did what any sensible adult would do once presented with a video of a dog doing something whilst quarantining at home in St. John's during a pandemic.
"Dana, my wife, was showing me a bulldog doing it, and they set it up and of course the bulldog went right through the fence. And I thought, 'You know what, I betcha cats can do it better,' so that's what I did," he told Weekend AM.
Tarling made a video that could probably make even the most cat-loathing human chuckle.
"It's my cat Remy, and I set up some toilet paper rolls in a doorway and I just got him to jump over it. I stacked 'em up to see how many he could jump."
Watch Remy leap over the toilet paper walls:
And jump he did, over one layer at a time, up to a height of seven rolls. Until he made a choice: "he jumped right through it," Tarling said.
Behind the scenes
Tarling said he made the video, which is getting plenty of views and shares online, with a careful step-by-step process, keeping an iPad set up to get each shot, and is careful to point something out about his props.
"Now, bit of a disclaimer, I only used 28 rolls of toilet paper, in case anybody was thinking I was hoarding it," he said.
"I had a bag of treats, and I put him in the kitchen, and I shook the bag of treats and he would think about it, and he would think about it, and he would finally do it."
Each take took about a minute, as Remy was eager to reach the treats Tarling shook to lure him over Toilet Paper Mountain. He pieced it together with sound effects and piano.
"I played the Alleycats song as the theme song for Remy's theatrics," said the musician, who was due to be on tour with the Ennis Sisters right now.
"We actually rescued another cat, Rocco, who's not in the video because he's a little bit overweight, shall we say, and he's not a really, really good jumper," said Tarling.
To Remy's benefit, apparently.
With files from Weekend AM