Prim is an American Domestic Shorthair cat with a turtle coat, belonging to senior criminal justice major and RA of Brinser Hall’s second floor Nyvani Molina. Molina adopted Prim during last spring semester. Throughout April, Molina had been going through some tough times and was struggling with his mental health. “I just wasn’t feeling like myself; I feel like I’m usually a pretty happy person, but I realized things weren’t going too well for me,” Molina said, “So, I spoke to my doctor and my therapist, and they both told me that it would be a good idea to have something like an animal to bring here.”
The two first met on April 30, 2022, though they could not properly interact during that first visit to the PetSmart in Lancaster, Pa. On the second visit, however, all of the cat’s cages were opened so that Molina could interact with all of the cats to find one he was compatible with. Though it seemed that Prim had opinions she needed to make clear; she went straight to Molina and immediately began to rub her face over him, a common behavior in cats to indicate affection and sometimes to claim things. “I think she chose me more than anything,” Molina remarked.
Molina spoke of why he named his cat Prim, explaining that she just seemed so polite—so prim and proper. “I haven’t decided on a last name for her; it was originally ‘Prim Rose,’ but I feel that was too old-personed, you know?” Nyvani said.
Prim has a handful of toys she enjoys playing with, though her two favorite toys are a green mouse toy and a small Cats Vs Pickles plush that two of his residents last year had given him. Molina described how Prim will carry the bean shaped plush around in her mouth as though it were a kitten, even sometimes grooming it. This behavior presented a small issue early on into having the toy as she would climb into his bed with it while Molina was sleeping, and the coarse tag would rub against his leg waking him, though he simply cut off the tag, and it has presented little issue since.
Prim is a very unique cat, knowing how to play fetch, extremely talkative and quite opinionated. Molina tried to demonstrate Prim playing fetch with a hair tie, though Prim seemed a little too sleepy for that during our visit. Although Molina described how she will chase launched hair ties and retrieve them, adding that, “She loves anything that has that elasticity that allows her to slap it around.”
Molina continued to talk about Prim and her quirks, and Molina explained how he needed to get rid of his hair dryer because of Prim. “When I come back from the gym, from lifting, she seems to really, really want affection then, especially after showers,” he explained, “and she gets very sassy if my first go to is to dry off or to use a hair dryer. So, I had to get rid of it because whenever I used it she would come over and hiss at it!”
Prim is a very sociable cat who enjoys having people around, as Molina reiterated when asked if there’s anything else he’d like to say on the record: “She loves people. She really likes meeting new people. She likes getting spoiled, so if anyone wants to come by and meet her, they’re more than welcome to!”
