- Google the most beautiful cat in the world and the first
and most frequent photo you'll see is
of this white-haired, blue-eyed cat.
I'm Rebecca. (dramatic classical music)
- And I'm John.
- And this is Coby.
(dramatic classical music)
This all started in 2015. (light, whimsical music)
We had only been dating a few months
and I really wanted a cat.
Started looking online and fell in love
with the British Shorthair breed.
They're just so cute, almost cartoonish looking,
they're so round and expressive.
And was sort of doing some research
and found a Shorthair breeder in the area
and immediately fell in love
with a little cross-eyed, adorable Coby online.
He wasn't named Coby yet, at the time.
- We drove up, it was in Delaware.
One of his brothers actually caught my eye and I was like,
"Oh look, have a look at this cat, he's cute,"
and Rebecca's like, "No." - No way.
No way, absolutely not. (laughs)
I knew Coby was the one.
He came right over to us, actually fell asleep in my arms,
which just my heart melted. (chuckles)
And I was like, "I need this cat."
We always thought that Coby was so cute
when we first met him, as a kitten,
but as he's gotten older, pretty early on,
he started developing this, we call it guy-liner.
He has these very distinct outlines around his nose
and his eyes, and it just gives him this intense,
beautiful appearance. (playful, whimsical music)
His eyes themselves have this almost anime look to them.
He looks like a cartoon, I always joke.
He looks fake, he looks like a stuffed animal.
(soft, acoustic music) More importantly, maybe,
to us from the start, was how great he is, loyal and sweet.
And in a lot of ways, doglike.
He sleeps in my arms every night.
He is just the biggest sweetheart.
- There's also the sassy side.
He wears his emotions on his face.
He's very vain, loves to look at himself in the mirror.
- [Rebecca] We suspect that he might actually know
how beautiful he is. (chuckles)
- Yeah, the world revolves around Coby.
So when Rebecca started posting pictures of Coby,
me in my head, I was like, "Rebecca, why are you doing that?
"You're just being another crazy pet owner
"who's posting pictures." (simple, tentative music)
We all have that friend or two or 10.
And she told me, she was like, "No no, no no no.
"Just don't worry about this."
She's like, "Trust me, this is gonna be good.
"This isn't that."
And I was like, "Okay,
"it's not that." (chuckles)
- It was kinda that. (laughs) - Yeah, at the time,
I thought it was.
I think you maybe had some more foresight into things.
- But never expected that it was going
to take off like it did. (excited classical music)
People started responding to his pictures the same way
that I was when I first met him.
And I was like, "Okay, we're onto something here."
It's not just us thinking our cat is the cutest thing ever.
Other people are agreeing. (laughs)
After I posted a few pictures of him,
Cats of Instagram, 9cats, some of those bigger,
featuring accounts started reposting
and sharing pictures of Coby.
The next thing we know, he's on the front page of Reddit.
Then, we saw that he got this feature on Bored Panda,
but all of a sudden, we started seeing all these headlines
of, "Is this the most beautiful cat in the world," and--
- [John] "His eyeliner is better than mine."
- Yeah, there were all these memes going up online.
We were seeing him across the internet.
- [Both] In "People."
- He was in "People" magazine and I was like,
"This is crazy."
- The fan art started coming in, as well.
Photoshop edits of Coby.
There were nail designs, graffiti.
- Tattoos that people had gotten.
Permanent tattoos on their body of Coby.
Makeup inspired by him to try
to recreate his iconic eyeliner.
Incredible portraits and paintings,
and anime style cartoons, stuffed doll versions.
(excited classical music) Everything you can imagine.
- People put a lot of time into these things,
which, to us, was even more special.
- This was always just a side hobby for us,
but we started hearing from brands.
- Purina, 9Lives, Petco.
Started with cat brands and then,
other types of brands started reaching out.
- Spotify with their pet playlist.
KVD Vegan Beauty 'cause of his inspiring eyeliner.
Seeing Coby on TV talking about blood donation,
like a voiceover, was the coolest moment.
- Not enough people are giving blood.
And giving save 12,000 lives a day.
- And that was just such a awesome way
to use his account for good.
We've made more from Coby than we ever expected
to make in our wildest dreams.
(cash register dings)
- We're very unique and fortunate.
- We just think it's important that he is always benefiting.
We definitely try to give him the best life possible
and the best food, toys, and beds and--
- Cat mansions. - Yeah, a tree.
You can imagine he is one spoiled cat.
(reverberant hip hop music)
Not force him to do anything he doesn't wanna do.
We really plan our shoots around him
and his schedule and his moods.
He has it pretty good.
- Obviously, making money and working
with brands is a wonderful part,
but the better part, to us, is the joy
that he spreads and how he cheers people up.
As far as what's next for Coby, who knows?
If he's gonna be featured in a James Bond movie,
we don't know, maybe. (chuckles)
(both laughing) - We hope.
That would be pretty cool.
Call us. (laughs) - Yeah. (laughs)
(mysterious, funky music)