“A friend of mine found him crying at his apartment door and called me for help,” Tori Roman, Chico’s mom, told The Dodo. “I took him in since I just moved into my own apartment. He’s a street cat turned spoiled indoor cat.”
He’s now very used to getting what he wants — and his favorite thing to ask for is his velvet clothes hanger.

One day when his parents were doing laundry, Chico discovered the one velvet clothes hanger the couple owned and decided he was obsessed with it. From that moment on, every time the couple did laundry, they’d give Chico the hanger to play with. Pretty soon, he started searching their closet for it. It became his singular obsession.

“Our closet door is always open and we typically have to pull him away from sorting through the hangers … or give in and take off the article of clothing the velvet hanger has so Chico can play with it,” Roman said. “It’s his world!”

One day, tragedy struck. Chico’s pittie brother, Murphy, wanted to see what it was like playing with the velvet hanger — and accidentally destroyed it. Chico sat on the closet floor, staring up at the hangers, trying to find his beloved velvet one. When Chico’s aunt asked what he wanted for Christmas, Roman sent her a video of Chico sitting under the hangers and let her know his one request.
This year, Christmas came early — and Chico was reunited with his velvet hanger again.
“Merry Christmas to Chico,” Roman said in a video on TikTok.

The velvet hanger has actually been destroyed by Murphy a couple of times, but it’ll always get replaced. Roman’s husband actually hates the velvet hangers, but the couple keeps buying them anyway. After all, Chico would be lost without it.