You can get your claws on a kitten filter

Mishap turns into catnip and you can join the fun

It’s probably not the purr- fect way to start an important meeting: firing up your video chat software only to discover you resemble a talking cat.

Lawyer Rod Ponton learned this the hard way during a virtual hearing, when he showed up to the livestream with a cat filter enabled.

“I’m here live, I’m not a cat,” said Ponton in a clip Texas’ 394th District Court shared on YouTube called “Kitten Zoom Filter Mishap.”

It’s not exactly clear what program Ponton used that generated the cat filter. The BBC reports the specific cat filter in the video originated from pre- installed software for Dell laptops called Live Cam Avatar. USA TODAY has reached out to Dell for confirmation.

It’s not the first time a filter mishap in our age of Zoom meetings has gone viral. In April, as Buzzfeed reported, People for the American Way political director Lizet Ocampo made headlines after she attended a meeting with a filter that made her look like a potato.

But what if you actually want to do this on purpose? Maybe you want to liven up your own Zoom meeting by transforming yourself into a potato, or a cat, or even a banana. Here’s how:

h Download Snap Camera. The app from the company behind Snapchat pulls all those wild augmented reality filters from its smartphone app on to your desktop. It’s available for both Windows and Mac. It will work with most video services including Skype, Zoom, Twitch and Google Hangouts.

h Head over to your settings. Go to Settings within your preferred app ( or Preferences if you’re on a Mac). Under video, you should see the option to choose your camera. Pick the Snap Camera. For the filters from Snap Camera to work, you may need to keep it running along with your video chat software.

h Apply your filters. When you open Snap Camera, you’ll see the variety of filters available, which range from cool backgrounds to, yes, giving yourself a cat head. You just click on the filter you want, then click it again to turn it off.

Don’t forget that last step if your next meeting is a legal hearing.

SCREENSHOT OF ZOOM VIDEO FROM YOUTUBE A Texas attorney showed up to a virtual hearing on Zoom with a cat filter on.