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Josh Rivera, 31, pauses from riding his Onewheel board with his cat, Mika, on Sunday. Rivera got Mika in 2017 to help with his depression.

Josh Rivera skates on his Onewheel board near the intersection of Browning Ave. and Claflin Road on Sunday with his cat, Mika, balanced on his shoulder. Rivera has had both Mika and the Onewheel for several years; he said Mika is the only one of his cats that will jump onto his shoulder for a ride.

Josh Rivera, 31, pauses from riding his Onewheel board with his cat, Mika, on Sunday. Rivera got Mika in 2017 to help with his depression.

Josh Rivera skates on his Onewheel board near the intersection of Browning Ave. and Claflin Road on Sunday with his cat, Mika, balanced on his shoulder. Rivera has had both Mika and the Onewheel for several years; he said Mika is the only one of his cats that will jump onto his shoulder for a ride.

Josh Rivera’s cat, Mika, likes to go with him on trips around Manhattan via his one-wheeled skateboard.

“I guess just circumstances got her to the point of riding comfortably,” Rivera said.

Rivera, 31, said he enjoys riding his one-wheeled skateboard, called a Onewheel Pint, around town to save money and improve his mental health.

“When I lost my job at Dillons (as a cook in the Chinese kitchen), I bought a Onewheel, and I wanted to make that my thing,” Rivera said. “I learned to ride, and instantly wanted to incorporate my cats.”

Mika is an older tabby cat, Rivera said, that likes clinging to the shoulder of his jacket during rides. He has two other cats, the older Kiko with two different-colored eyes, and younger but larger WALL-E, named for the Pixar animated character.

“WALL-E is my bigger cat,” Rivera said. “I don’t know if I could get him on my shoulder. Kiko kind of gets it but lots of talking is required. She won’t get on now that I’ve taught Mika to ride.”

Rivera said Kiko was “weirdly easy” to train, almost akin to training a dog through repetition. He said cats can be trained, but it takes more time and patience. With Mika, he said the evolution to her riding on his shoulder took several months.

“It was like a slow evolution,” Rivera said, “it certainly didn’t start with her just jumping on.”

Rivera, a native of Colwich in rural Sedgwick County, graduated from Maize High School in 2008. He first attended Washburn University in Topeka but transferred to Kansas State University in 2010. He ended up dropping out after a couple of years but stayed in Manhattan because of a relationship. He has a part-time job with Sodexo, the foodservice company used by K-State, preparing food at Bill Snyder Family Stadium during sporting events, but he said the hours and pay are sparse.

Rivera said he actually grew up with dogs as pets instead of cats. During a depressive state in 2016, he acquired Kiko, then Mika in 2017 and WALL-E in 2018. He said he had a rat terrier named Sundae as a teenager, but the dog died during a bitter cold snap several years ago. Growing up on a farm with animals, Rivera said his family used to view some critters as “kind of disposable.”

“For cats, we just didn’t view them the same as dogs,” Rivera said. “My dad has hunting dogs, they live outside, they serve a purpose. They’re not treated like pets as much.”

Rivera has nine siblings. He’s the youngest of his mother’s four biological children, and his parents adopted six more children over time. His mother works as a family practitioner, and his father is a registered nurse and chaplain. He said he’s experienced some strange things growing up with such a blended family.

“I think I have some situations no other person could probably say they’ve had,” Rivera said. “We probably look like a church group when we go out as a family.”

These days, Rivera said he spends more time with his cats than humans. His Onewheel Pint, made by the company Future Motion, was purchased for about $1,000 a few years ago, and Rivera said he rides it more often than he drives his Ford pickup truck. He said he first discovered the interesting single-wheeled machine at the Burning Man festival in the deserts of Nevada in 2015.

“I’ve been to Burning Man four times,” Rivera said. “When a dude let me try his, it was like snowboarding in nice weather. I went ahead and bought one for another Burning Man later on, but now I ride it all the time.”

Rivera’s roommate, Dorian Robertson, has lived with Rivera for about eight years. He said the Onewheel is “not really my style” because of balance issues, but he enjoys traveling with Rivera.

“Just this spring break we went to Copenhagen and Amsterdam,” Robertson said.

Robertson, 29, said he and Rivera “mesh pretty well” as roommates. He said he was “definitely a dog person” before Rivera acquired his cats.

“Now I know cats are pretty cool,” Robertson said. “I definitely wouldn’t mind a cat of my own in the future.”

Videos of Rivera riding his Onewheel with his cats can be found on his TikTok account, @churchofriveraism.

Rivera said he’s fallen once in the street with Mika on his shoulder, but thankfully both human and feline were fine. He said he does have a helmet with turn signals incorporated into it to help with visibility, and it’s not too difficult to learn how to ride the Onewheel.

“If I can ride it, any idiot can,” Rivera said. “It kicks depression. It’s just so nice to get out of the house every day, it feels like you’re doing something.”

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