Feline phenom: Bento the Keyboard Cat dies at age 9

It’s nearly impossible to go online these days and not come across videos of cats swinging from ceiling fans or being scared by cucumbers. Cats litter Facebook and Snapchat and appear on social media accounts boasting hundreds of thousands of followers. The most successful Internet cat entrepreneurs can make tens of thousands of dollars each year from advertising and merchandising.

For those who watch these videos, however, it’s not about the money. For some, it’s about that warm fuzzy vibe that makes feel them “more positive” about life than they otherwise might, according to one academic study.

One of best-loved of these celebrity cats was Bento, an affable orange tabby more commonly known by his Internet moniker Keyboard Cat.

Bento lovers are now in mourning, however. He succumbed to liver cancer on March 8, his owner Charlie Schmidt told The Washington Post. Fans were alerted of his death when Schmidt, a Spokane, Washington-based artist, posted a touching tribute to YouTube Friday.

It’s important to note that Bento is the second Keyboard Cat and not the star of the original 2007 YouTube video, which went viral in 2009 and launched a synth-keyboard-playing feline into Internet stardom, the Spokesman-Review reported.

The first Keyboard Cat video — shot on VHS in 1984 then later digitized — features the musical talents of Schmidt’s other cat, Fatso, who passed away more than 20 years ago.

Adopted from a shelter in 2010, Schmidt said Bento, who bears a striking resemblance to his predecessor, shouldered the enormous responsibility of Internet fame without blinking an eye.

Three days after his adoption, Schmidt got out the keyboard and camera, and Bento became the star of “Keyboard Cat REINCARNATED!,” the first of many videos in which Bento was the leading cat.

Aside from YouTube, Bento has also appeared in a Wonderful Pistachios commercial and was featured in a campaign to encourage pet adoption from shelters. Schmidt also runs a merchandise store stocked with paraphernalia ranging from branded mugs to an animatronic stuffed toy.