Piano-playing rescue cat from Wicklow a whisker away from stardom after landing major TV role

Darragh Mc Donagh

A piano-playing rescue cat from Wicklow appears destined for stardom after landing a major role in a new TV series.

The feline Liberace was a whisker away from a premature demise when he was abandoned by his mother at just one day old, but he was taken in and hand-reared by Laura Murphy, who quickly realised that he was no ordinary moggy.

He began learning tricks within five weeks and discovered a most unusual talent when he was placed behind a tiny piano, earning him the nickname Meowzart.

Now two years old and named Kit, the precocious cat regularly performs concerts for Laura and her dogs at their home in Wicklow, and he’s set to take his many talents onto an even bigger stage.

Kit – who has already starred in the RTÉ dark comedy, Obituary, as well as the BBC drama, Dead and Buried – has just finished filming on a new project in which he’ll play a more prominent role.

His impressive repertoire of tricks and talents has been carefully nurtured by Laura, who is a dog trainer by profession but found that many of the same principles can be used with cats.

“I love all animals but my whole life was set up around dogs and dog training,” she recalled. “I wasn’t really sure where a cat was going to fit in, but he did.”

Kit was one of three kittens born in a farm building before their mother was disturbed and fled. She later returned for two of them, but Kit was left behind and his prospects were poor until Laura intervened.

“Kittens are deaf and blind when they’re born, so Kit has never seen or heard another cat,” explained Laura. “All he really knows is me and the dogs. I don’t know if he thinks he’s a dog – he thinks he’s better than all of the dogs.”

By five weeks old, he could ring a bell, he could go to a mark on command, and he could jump into Laura’s arms when prompted.

“Now, he can do a few cool things,” she said. “He can do spins, fist bumps, and a cute one that I call a scrape, where he scrapes the air. He also jumps onto my shoulders. And then, of course, he can play his little piano as well.”

Kit’s acting career kicked off with a macabre role in Obituary, in which he was seen gnawing on a dead body before vomiting up a human nose in front of a jogger. He subsequently landed a part in season two of the BBC series, Dead and Buried.

He’s landed a bigger role in his latest TV project and filming has just finished; however, neither Kit nor Laura is allowed to talk about it at this stage. It’s expected to hit our screens later this year.

With stardom just a whisker away, is there no end to Kit’s talents? Well, Laura said they ran into problems when she tried to train him to use a human toilet.

“I inadvertently taught him to go to the toilet in the bath,” she recalled. “So, I was like, just go back to the litter box.”

In any case, having reflected on the idea, Laura could foresee even bigger problems had the toilet training gone to plan.

“He travels with me so much. It made me think, is he going to have to use a public toilet? Am I going to look like the biggest weirdo, bringing my cat into a public toilet?” she asked.

He’ll be sticking to the piano for now, but practice makes purr-fect.