Ursula Trost & Panya
After taking care of a goldfish for several years, I decided that it was time for more responsibility and a deeper connection with a different and much furrier animal. It was time to adopt a cat. To be frank, this decision was also partially influenced by a cat-shaped water stain on the ceiling of my first NYC apartment that I fell asleep to every night.
I initially applied for a tiny Persian but when the adoption company replied, they said they had the perfect solo cat for me that was in urgent need of a new loving home. There was no information available online yet, but I could go and take a look the next day.
Panya (at this point temporarily named Galileo) was huge and fluffy, with an impressive black and white coat. He looked scared and squeezed himself into the corner of a cage. Apparently, he’d been through a lot. It seemed like his previous owner abandoned him in the apartment he moved out of and Panya landed in a kill shelter, where Zani’s Furry Friends saved him.
Even though Panya was much bigger, he was afraid of the other approximately 20 cats and small dogs playing so he had to be separated. He looked at me with his big green eyes and I knew we were meant to be (and yes, he looked just like the water stain).
I said “YES”, and it all went fairly quickly. They put him in a big cardboard box, and we got into a cab and drove off to Brooklyn—I was a first-time cat owner (or servant). Panya (I named him after my favorite Japanese bakery back then) started to meow like a little lion, the cab driver was a little freaked out, and so was I, but we knew with a good amount of love and patience it would be fine.
When I got home, my sweet, four-year-old Maine Coon-Mix friend, decided to hide his beauty for several days. I gave him his space. In the middle of the first night, I woke up and observed how this elegant creature jumped from cabinet to cabinet, took a stroll on my bed, and started to discover his new home. I was lying awake and stunned by how big he was. After three days of hiding under the bed during the day and strolling during the night, Panya decided to nap on my bed. It felt like a huge success when I woke up next to him.
From then on, Panya warmed up. Slowly he would let me pet him, he would finally start to eat and drink again and take care of other important cat business. Moving forward his wonderful character started to unfold and revealed itself.
He would love to impress me by jumping up the top of the kitchen cabinets and on all the doors, he would follow me around and would be incredibly chatty and playful. At first, I was confused by all his different vocabulary but then I found out about the amazing vocal range of Maine Coons.
Panya also started to introduce me to all his fun and interesting habits. He loved my previous French door fridge and the freezer, and he would always jump in there to hang out. Once we had a small accident because of Panya’s lounging habits. When the fridge started to meow, I found him relaxing next to the cheese, luckily it was all good and it still took some convincing to lure him out.
Panya has been my loveliest companion for four years and he’s greatly changed my life. I couldn’t imagine it without this fluffy sweetness that I choose to serve.
With his assistance (or probably direction) I found the love of my life, my now husband, and made huge changes to my career and path, like co-founding an architecture and design studio in Brooklyn.
After the three of us moved places quite a bit, we all found our beautiful home in Bedstuy. Panya loves the space, jumping and flying up the stairs and dragging his favorite toy through the house to get our attention. When we come home, he always greets us at the door and is excited to have us back. Panya sleeps by our side and is obsessed with my husband. He always needs to sit on his stuff and thinks his laptop is his lounge chair (Panya does code on it sometimes).
Even though Panya never turned into a lap cat, he always needs to be close to us and loves cuddles, head massages, and even the occasional belly rub. Needless to say, Panya is totally spoiled and basically allowed to do anything, but such a cute and sweet “tiny” creature deserves it all.
Ursula is a designer and architect, initially from Vienna, Austria. After living in Europe most of her life, with an intermission in Los Angeles, Ursula moved to NYC in 2016 and completely fell in love with the city, especially with Brooklyn and Bedford-Stuyvesant where she lives now.
Panya is the most amazing coworker in her exciting new endeavor STUDIO FOU, an architecture and design practice she founded with her husband. Even though Panya is mostly sleeping on drawing sets and material samples, he contributes with excellent aesthetic input and always provides invaluable feedback on architecture, interior, and product design.