The Internet is overrun with animal videos, so it takes something special for one to break out of the litter.
Mike P. Nelson of Make Visuals, a Minneapolis animated-design company, hit on just the right mix of humor and sweetness with a public-service announcement he co-produced to make it go viral.
"You can't go wrong with a cute kitten, but it's even cuter when they talk," he said of the 30-second pro bono spot for the Animal Humane Society, which has racked up more than 600,000 hits on YouTube. (Watch it at www.startribune.com/a405.)
The society takes in twice as many abandoned cats as it does dogs -- 20,000 in the past year -- so the adoption need is greater. Nelson and Danny Robashkin recorded several kittens and adult cats at the Golden Valley shelter, then manipulated their mouths in sync to "I want" declarations, including "I want to be a contender" and "I want a warm belly to sleep on."
To send the adorable factor over the top, the kittens were voiced by toddlers who attend Nelson's mom's preschool classes in Maple Grove, Nancy's Little Learners, including an excited Eleanor Grossman (pictured here).
Nelson and several co-workers have adopted cats in the past year, so the Humane Society was a natural fit.
"We really wanted to make it positive," he said. "Those sad, sappy shelter ads don't work for me. We wanted to show that they aren't all terrible places, that these cats aren't shaking in a corner of a cage. They're healthy and ready to be adopted."
