In these uncertain times, everyone needs a side hustle. Now, even Deadmau5's cat Meowingtons is pulling his weight.
The black-and-white snuggle buddy is the newest member of content subscription service OnlyFans. He's also the first animal to join the platform. The channel launch promises "a closer look into the personal life of his famous owner and promises a highly-interactive experience with exclusive tracks, behind the scenes footage of deadmau5 in his studio, around his house," along with "ongoing engagement with Meowingtons, who plans to regularly DM and will create exclusive content for fans upon request."
Meowingtons is already famous in the Deadmau5 universe, appearing on the cover of the dance superstar's 2012 LP >album title goes here< and serving as the namesake for the 2011 Meowingtons Hax tour.
Formerly, Meowingtons content was largely available through the cat's @Meowingtons Instagram account, which has 26,000 followers. That account has not been active since August 2019. Meowingtons has the same username over on OnlyFans, where "Professor Meowingtons, Ph.D." has a bio that reads "Just a cat living his best life on onlyfans" and 18 posts behind the paywall.
Adopted from the Toronto Humane Society in 2009, Meowingtons has a litigious history. In 2017, Deadmau5 (born Joel Zimmerman) filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeking to cancel a Florida woman's "Meowingtons" trademark after his own application was rejected. This woman, Emma Basiri, was running an online cat-centric retail story called meowingtons.com, which Zimmerman stated in the petition that he suspected was capitalizing off the popularity of his own Meowingtons content.
Basiri then sued Zimmerman in a trademark fight over "Meowingtons" and "Prof. Meowingtons." Zimmerman countersued for trademark infringement, cybersquatting and unfair competition over her site's name. Billboard has reached out to Deadmau5's team regarding the resolution of these suits. Meanwhile, the meowingtons.com website remains active.