Interview: Pachi

Pets, they’re your best friend and confidant. Big or small, fluffy or a bit scruffy, it doesn’t matter, we love them all. They’re there for you unconditionally and the feeling is mutual. Our interview series celebrates this special bond between animals and hoomans. Let the awws begin.

Hoomans: Nathan and Jacki

Cat: Pachi (8 months old)

Home: Vancouver, Canada

We adopted Pachi recently from Cat Therapy and Rescue in Vancouver. They rescued her in a batch of 14 cats from a chicken coop so we’re lucky that she’s not feral. She’s got a little wonky right eye, the shelter thinks it was damaged by some chicken wire.

We had a long list of possible names – Elizabeth Lemon, Meatball, Director Nick Fury – but we decided to go full weeb and name her Pachi after an eye-patched character from Bleach.

Pachi is a very chatty girl (always yelling!), super sweet and energetic. She’s incredibly friendly and doesn’t hide, and she’s got a huge personality. She’s good about being picked up, and she’s very gentle with her claws even when she’s trying to jump out of our arms. She’s also extremely food motivated so we’re trying to train her to stop stealing our food (see second photo where she’s eyeing Nathan’s noodles).

Pachi loves playing with the cat dancer toy (which is literally just rolled up cardboard on a long piece of wire) and we’ll play with her throughout the day to get all her energy out (see third photo). We also love watching her bat this little plush toy around the apartment, she’s great at self-entertaining and hyping herself up. She’ll also come running when she hears a plastic package being opened. 

We’re trying to train her to stay out of the bedroom now, so her mornings start with yowling outside and trying to get in under the door. We feed her at 8am and she’ll do more yelling and make appearances on my video calls. 

We’ve also started clicker training, so she gets plenty of dental treats in the afternoon. She gets a dry food snack in a puzzle ball while Nathan and I have our dinner (to distract her), and will either nap, look out the window, or just walk around yelling in the evening until around 10pm, when we have a more intense play session to wear her out and feed her the last meal around 11pm, after which she’ll get zoomies and sprint around the flat. Then the bedroom door closes and it’s bed time for everyone. 

Her jumping up on the counters has been a big worry, especially the stovetop when we’re trying to cook. Right now we’ve put double-sided tape on all the counters so it’s an unpleasant feeling when she jumps on it and she’s learning very quickly. We’ll remove the tape when her cat tree comes in, so she’s got a high-up spot where she can still see what we’re up to from a good vantage point.

She also likes to nibble at the dried flowers and houseplants, so we’re trying to get her away from those constantly. FYI, Jackson Galaxy videos are amazing for learning about cat behaviour. 

Since bringing Pachi home, our lives have become very regimented in terms of schedule. Having her around has forced us to stick to a stricter sleeping time as well, basically so we can get to sleep before she wakes up from her post-dinner nap. We’re really lucky to have such a sweet girl!

For more cute cat content, click here.