Pooja Viswanathan
For this issue, Natural Selections interviews Fifi, the young cat who lives with first year graduate students here at The Rockefeller University, Sarah Cai, Lindsey Lopes, and Kathryn Eckartt. Fifi is extremely sweet and playful and I enjoyed our meeting. Please contact me if you have sweet, little nonhumans living with you. I’d love to meet them.
Pooja Viswanathan: How old are you? In human years?
Fifi: I turn one on June 14th! That makes me a teenager in human years, which my moms say makes sense because of my sometimes naughty behavior.
PV: Is there a story behind your name?
F: The shelter that I was adopted from named me Fifi and the name stuck!
PV: What is your first memory?
F: I don’t remember a lot from when I was a baby, but the people at the shelter said that I was found as a stray in NYC when I was six weeks old, and some nice person brought me to the shelter.
PV: Who are your moms? When did you first meet them?
F: My moms are Sarah Cai, Lindsey Lopes, and Kathryn Eckartt. They adopted me last October. I met them while I was hanging out with a bunch of my kitten friends at the shelter, and it was love at first sight.
PV: How do they belong to the Tri-I community?
F: They are all first year graduate students at The Rockefeller University. Sarah just joined Titia de Lange’s lab, Kathryn is in Jeremy Rock’s lab, and Lindsey is still rotating.
PV: Where do you live?
F: I live in Faculty House. I don’t really know what that means, but I like to look out the window at all the cars on the FDR and York Avenue.
PV: If you could live anywhere else in the world, where would you live?
F: Hmm, I’m a city cat, but I definitely wish that I could go outside! Maybe somewhere with a big yard and lots of birds to look at.
PV: What are your favorite foods?
F: I love snacks. Some of my favorites are cat treats, chicken, and black beans…but I’ll definitely try anything if you leave your plate unattended! Except veggies. I don’t like veggies.
PV: What is your favorite weekend activity?
F: What are weekends? Is that when the humans are home more? I like to hang out in my moms’ rooms and knock over things on their desks, dressers, or any flat surface. I also like to nap in the sun.
PV: Besides your moms, who is your favorite human in the Tri-I community?
F: I like pretty much everyone that I meet, especially if they give me snacks!
PV: Do you have a funny story to share with us?
F: Sometimes Lindsey dog-sits and one time I decided that I wanted to try out some dog food, so I jumped onto the bookshelf where the dog’s food was and knocked over the whole bag. I made a hole in the bag with my teeth so I could eat the food…dog food is yummy!
PV: Is there some way we can see more pictures of you on the interwebs?
F: Yes! Check out my Instagram @fifi_the_kitten.jpg
PV: If you could have any human ability, what would it be?
F: I would love it if I had opposable thumbs because then I could get into all the treat jars! My moms had to stop leaving treats out in plastic bags because I would chew through the plastic to get more treats when they weren’t looking.