diff --git a/confluent_server/confluent/httpapi.py b/confluent_server/confluent/httpapi.py
index 7a40a988..0378fe5b 100644
--- a/confluent_server/confluent/httpapi.py
+++ b/confluent_server/confluent/httpapi.py
@@ -445,6 +445,8 @@ def websockify_data(data):
             data = data.decode('utf8')
         except UnicodeDecodeError:
             data = data.decode('cp437')
+        except AttributeError:  # already str
+            pass
         data = u' ' + data
     return data