People Pets

And, Cat-tion! When Commercial Kings Met Cats

By Kiran Hefa

06/24/2011 at 05:00 PM EDT

How do you talk to someone who says they speak cat?

Working with animals can be a tricky thing, but sometimes, working with their owners can be even stranger. Filmmakers Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal discovered just that when shooting the first episode of their new IFC show, Commercial Kings, in which the pair travel the country creating and shooting commercials for local businesses.

Lending their talents to the L.A.-based Holiday Hotel for Cats, the duo worked with owner Margaret Hughes to create a commercial that speaks to cats directly, with Hughes often adding her own sound effects.

"I speak cat," she says on the show, later demonstrating her version of an exaggerated meow. "They have a vocabulary."

It got even weirder. After consulting with a pet psychic, McLaughlin and Neal cast their commercial with a few of the 51 felines that vacation at the Holiday Hotel, and incorporated shots of Hughes reciting what the psychic had told them the cats were thinking.

The completed commercial, which began with the sounds of bubble wrap being twisted to capture a cat's attention, proved successful when tested by Hughes's purring posse.

"We show a commercial on a laptop for cats and a cat sits on the laptop," McLaughlin says. "It doesn't get any better than that."

To see more from the Commercial Kings, check out the show's series premiere tonight, June 24, at 10 p.m. on IFC.

Can't get enough pet news? See more on PEOPLE Pets

• Jordin Sparks Shows Off Her Bikini Body – and Her Dogs

• Boston Terrier Meets the Tickle Monster!