Exclusive Interview: The World Famous Magnificent 7 Cats (Part 4)

CvC: So Rocky, our site’s founder is from Philadelphia, the home of another famous Rocky, so we have to ask: Are you named after the Italian Stallion?

Rocky: You’re exactly right. My mom felt my strength immediately and knew that I had been sent to protect her and our family. I have been called many names; Rocky is just one. I don’t speak like Stallone though. Some people say I sound like Ray Winstone.

CvC: He was tough, but maybe not as tough as you. You were in a terrible accident when you were younger and had to drag yourself home. Can you tell us what happened? Did you ever think you weren’t going to make it?

Rocky: I was involved in a road accident; a car hit my back legs as I ran across the road. I wasn’t supposed to be out on the street but I’ve always felt at home outdoors. Officially it was an accident, but I know better.

I’m pretty sure a rival cat from a few blocks away (a ginger manx with one-and-half ears and fish breath – went by the name of Mr Pickles) tried to have me bumped-off after we had words about a box of KFC left on a park bench. Sure, I came close to death and it hurt like a witch but the thought of getting home to my Mom gave me the strength to crawl with my two good legs. Family is family.

The veterinarians were amazing and patched me up nicely; I now have a metal plate in my hip and pins in my leg. But Mr Pickles came off worse – let’s just say he now eats his KFC through a straw.

CvC: What’s it like living with a metal hip and pins in your leg? Do you ever pretend you’re the Six Million Dollar cat? (sorry if that one’s before your time Rocky.)

Rocky: I know the guy: Steve Austin, the Bionic Man. Rebuilt after a serious accident. Developed ultra-sensitive hearing, amazing vision, could leap several times his own height and could run at 30 miles an hour? Sounds to me like $6m worth of bionics just upgrade humans to what cats have for free!

My metal parts remind me that our physical bodies are fragile but it’s our spirit that makes us strong. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

CvC: We hear you like fighting, and that you have the missing eyebrows to prove it. What do you love about mixing it up with other animals?

Rocky: Here’s the thing: I hate violence. I am peace-loving and gentle by nature. Love is all. But great love requires great strength. If someone threatens me with violence, I will return the favour. It gives me no pleasure* but I’m good at it. If I see a weaker cat being picked on, I will jump in. If someone threatens someone I love – I will show them the error of their ways. If they want to fight, I will fight. And I don’t lose**. *well maybe a little, **except eyebrows

CvC: Do you ever get into wrestling matches with your siblings? Is it hard to share a house with 6 other cats?

Rocky: The thing you need to realise about my six siblings – and I use the term loosely – is that they tend to be too frivolous. I think some cats need to be more serious and it’s my job to keep them in line. I don’t need to wrestle them; one look is usually enough to stop them in their tracks. I do have a ‘thing’ with Prince. He’s a big guy and I like him but he needs to realise that there can only be one leader in the Mag 7 house – and I got there first.

CvC: Halloween is coming soon, a time when we always see black cats as part of decorations, or as a sign of bad luck. Do holidays like this help or hurt your street cred?

Rocky: Oh here we go again. This ‘black cats are bad luck’ thing started centuries ago. It was nonsense then and it’s nonsense now – we just can’t shake it off. But if humans want to get spooked when they see me strutting my stuff on the sidewalk then I guess it doesn’t do my street-cred any harm. Maybe I’ll find a broomstick to sit on this Hallowe’en, just to freak the neighbours.

CvC: Have you seen the video of pizza rat? Have you ever seen anything like that in the UK? You love to eat and hunt, does this make NYC a dream destination?

Rocky: Do you mean the video where the rat carries a pizza through a train station? To me, pizza + rat = ingredients for a half-decent sandwich. In the cat world we call that a ‘subway’ – geddit?!

I will say only one thing on the subject of food in NYC: it’s sauce, not gravy. Kapish?!