I will always long for it. I took one look at the world, and it was love at first sight. There are so many smells. So many strange things! A cloud goes over and the grass becomes dark! A rustle in the trees -is it a mouse or a cat-hunting bear? In Mouse House, I sit at the window and watch a baby woodchuck play with yellow flowers. First, he holds them tightly in his paws and then he sniffs them and falls down in the grass still holding on to them. He is a very happy animal-at least in the summer. He can come and go as he pleases. But I am also a very happy animal. In the winter I am warm and well-fed. I have my people and I have Grace the Cat. Once I had Sam the Dog. You can love all the world but you cannot have all of it. As my mother used to say, Eat the meat on your chicken bone and don't complain because you don't have the whole chicken or you will end up with nothing. As usual, she was right. She lived in the great outdoors, but the great outdoors froze her to death. 

You were orphaned in kittenhood. Would you say your memoir is a tribute to your mother? 

My entire life is a tribute to her. If my mother had not had the foresight to hide me in a warm basement, I would not have lived past my early days. She died hunting for food to feed me, but in the basement I was warm. Still, if two kind people had not rescued me when I began coughing and sneezing in that basement, I would certainly have died then. However, I told the story of my life for the benefit of the little cat who came to live with Grace the Cat. When I was a small kitten, my mother gave me very good advice. When Grace the Cat arrived, I thought it was my duty to try and protect her as my mother protected me. 

From what? 

From the entire dangerous world! From the dangerous world inside and outside! 

What, particularly, is so dangerous about the world? 

Do you run up to perfect strangers like some foolish dogs who leap upon unknown people in the street, expecting to be petted? Grace the Cat behaves as if the entire world were coated in catnip. If she lived outside, she would be eaten in a day! In an hour! 

What was the turning point in your relationship with Grace the Cat? 

Turning point? As soon as I saw her, I knew she was my cat. It is true that she is very much younger than I am. But cats and dogs don't think very much about age. We think, that is a very jumpy and runny cat. That is a very slow and cranky cat. Grace was the jumpiest, runniest cat in the world. She was a tail-grabbing cat, a rolling-over-on-her-back and showing-her-stomach kind of cat. 

Was it love at first sight? 

All love is love at first sight. Some people take 
longer than others before they know what they've seen. 

Where did you get the name Foudini? 

From my people. Foudini was the name of a very 
wise wizard on a television program Warm used to 
watch when she was a child. "Fou" also means crazy, 
and they said I was quite crazy when I was a kitten. Foudini also sounds like food, and as you can see, I am quite fond of food. 

How did your people get the names Warm and Pest? 

My dog, Sam, told me I must name my people. He said all dogs had secret names for people, and I must have names for my people, too. He said I was not to tell anyone what those names were. Warm is called Warm because she pulls the covers up over me at night when I sleep with her in her bed. Pest is called Pest because he doesn't believe I should sleep in a bed at all. He pushes me over to Warm's side of the bed. He doesn't like it if I sleep with my head on his pillow. He can be very unreasonable. 

You've mentioned a dog-you actually had one? 

Yes. A very big dog named Sam.  I didn't own him, of course.  But he was mv dog all the same.  People have strange ideas about who owns an animal. 

For a cat, you seem to have a fatal attraction to water. It's well known that cats hate water, yet your most terrifying brushes with death involved a raging river and a washing machine.  How do you get yourself into these tough spots, and would you say you're trying to conquer your fears? 

Cats hate water?  No one told me that.  Grace the Cat likes to sit beneath a dripping faucet and let the water splash onto her head.  When I was a kitten, I tried to climb into the shower many times, but Warm always shut the glass door.  It is the same with water as with dogs.  A cat must get used to both of them.  But we can swim, you know--if we have to. 
I must be fatally attracted to water.  I try to stay away from wet things. But wet things with fish in them -- those are very tempting. So is a bathtub full of water, who knows why?  You must be careful.  I tell the same thing to Grace the Cat, but she doesn't listen.  Probably right now she is sitting in the bathtub under the faucet hoping the water will come on. 

When Grace left a bloody headless mouse on Warm's pillow, you were blamed.  Grace seemed to do no wrong.  How did she manage that? 

Beauty is as beauty does.  Grace the Cat is an extremely beautiful cat.  Grace the Cat can manage anything.  All she has to do is open wide those big round yellow eyes. 

Do you think Grace the Cat will write her autobiography? 

Grace the Cat?  That thoughtless creature?  She is too young to have much to write about.  Still, lately she always seems busy with something. 

Does it bother you when humans, particularly Warm and Pest, try to speak cat language? 

Pest doesn’t really try, but Warm is incorrigible.  I don't mind her trying.  I mind her succeeding.  She speaks Cattish so badly that she says the most horrendous things.  She doesn't know what she's saying!  Goosefleas!  Fog cream!  Moon beans!  Just today, Grace the Cat rubbed up against her because she was hungry. Rat toes! said Warm.  Grace was very insulted. 

What would Warm say if you told her about this interview? 

Probably radish nuts.  That’s one of her favorites. 

Your owner insisted on staying in the room during most of this interview.  You're not really frightened of me? 

A cat can't be too careful. 

Where is Grace the Cat?  I haven't met her. 

She's locked in the room upstairs. 

Why is that? 

A cat knows he must concentrate. A cat should never do more than one thing at a time. I can't keep my eye on Grace and answer questions all at the same time. She would never agree to stay under a chair. She would climb right up into your lap. She would not worry about that large bag you brought with you. She would not think, that bag could hold four or five cats, and I could be one of them. She is not a prudent cat. 

Do you mind being interviewed? 

Not if I can stay underneath this chair.