3 Vancouver Island cats hold owners’ blender hostage — for a month

3 Vancouver Island cats hold owners’ blender hostage — for a month

In a standoff that has lasted nearly a month, three cats based in Langford, B.C. on southern Vancouver Island have tried to claim ownership of a blender box — a saga that has fascinated social media users worldwide.

? ? ?

It all started on Dec. 16, according to Nikii Gerson-Neeves, one of the trio’s owners, when she brought in a new Vitamix blender and left the still-unopened, knee-high box on the kitchen floor.

Her four-year-old tuxedo cat, Max, immediately jumped on the box, bemusing Nikii’s wife Jessica, who took a picture and uploaded it to a facebook group that celebrates chunky cats.

And.

“When we started the page we have for the cats on Facebook … it had around 50 followers, something like that,” Nikii said. “[Now] over 19,000 people follow the page.”

If it is harmless fun.

By morning the situation had escalated: Max’s two 13-year-old siblings, George (Destroyer of Worlds) and Lando Calrissian, had taken an interest in the Vitamix box, too. From there, Nikii says, things spiralled out of control.

But who else got involved?

After days of being deprived of their expensive blender, the couple hatched a plan to get the cats off their new throne. They reached out to Vitamix to ask the company for some dummy boxes.

“We thought that they might get a kick out of how much the cats had fallen in love with this,” Jessica said. “If they decided to … send along three empty boxes, great, it’ll be a terrific laugh for everybody involved.”

That’s exactly what the company did, sending the B.C. couple three empty Vitamix boxes.

It is nice a company, seeing how much “attention” their product is getting, decided to get in on the fun.

The battle over the Vitamix box has been a much-needed distraction amid the cycle of grim news in the province, according to the couple.

“Of course, we’re not actually being held hostage, we can move the cats anytime we wanted,” Jessica said. “This is about having something sweet and fun and whimsical and silly.”

One has to wonder what the cats think on the boxes?