Meeting Henry, the cat behind Henri Le Chat Noir (Google+ hangout)

Cat video aficionados know him as Henri Le Chat Noir, an existentialist cat who muses about the meaninglessness of life in a popular series of YouTube videos.

But don’t be fooled by the vacant stares and the bored looks of disgust. Strip away the undulating piano music and the melancholy French voice-over and what you get is a cat named Henry staring blankly at the camera, usually because filmmaker William Braden is trying every trick in the book to get his attention.

A few weeks ago, I flew up to Seattle to meet Braden, a former wedding videographer turned professional cat video maker, and his feline muse. You can read the entire story here.

LIVE VIDEO DISCUSSION: Join us at 2 p.m. today

In person, Henry is a handsome cat with incredibly soft fur, and noticeably long whiskers. He made himself comfortable on the small kitchen table and stared at me, blinking...very...slowly. He gave off a regal, but friendly vibe. We got along great.

Then he positioned himself on my notebook, almost as if he wanted to help me write the story and I liked him even more.

At 2 p.m. PDT today, Braden will join me and my colleague Michelle Maltais to talk about making the Henri videos, tricks for filming cats, and how Henri’s next film, debuting at the end of October, will differ from the other three.

We invite you to join in on the conversation by posting comments below.

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