NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. SIMON: Kate Nyx and Winslow in Philadelphia. Do you have anything to say? No comment, all right. NYX: Baby boy, we're getting interviewed for the radio. SIMON: We asked Winslow to comment, of course. SIMON: Winslow and Kate Nyx recently teamed up for a song called "Bean Gotta Scream." It's just been released on Spotify and YouTube. When I hear him play piano, it's just proof that I can bring light into the world, that I can bring joy and make beautiful stuff happen. NYX: It was one of the first times where I was able to realize that I could affect things outside of me positively. SIMON: Kate Nyx has gotten messages from other pet owners since posting the video asking how she puts up with Winslow's noise, which she says helps her cope with depression and anxiety. NYX: If it's time for bed and I've been working too late or if my husband and I are in different rooms in the house at a certain time of night, he will play to remind us that things should be a different way.
SIMON: And for Winslow to signal that he's irritated.
NYX: It just made sense to utilize something that he had already been interested in to transition him away from free feeding to getting specific meals at specific times. SIMON: But he only became a maestro when Kate Nyx made the piano Winslow's signal for food. He would hit the top of it and then look underneath. NYX: It was not hard to train him at all 'cause he was interested in how it worked. Kate Nyx and her now-husband introduced Winslow to the piano. And we ended up getting engaged because we were just so dedicated to him and each other that we realized that there was no point in pretending we were going to go through this with anyone else. And he gave, well, my then-boyfriend and I a terrible case of ringworm because he was all messed up from the streets.
NYX: He would get into things and topple things over. SIMON: Relations were a little rocky at first. And he's the first cat I've ever had that I could tell liked me back. I could tell from the second I looked at him that his name would be Winslow. NYX: He was originally from the streets of Camden, but I saw his little face, and I was like, this is the one. SIMON: Winslow's gotten write-ups in the Independent, the New York Post, People magazine, the real-life make-good story for a hard-scrabble tabby from Jersey who came into Nyx's life when a relative saw him scrapping with a dog.
I have made so much work on the Internet, and never have I ever reached anywhere close to this level of international acclaim. While getting ready for one of her own performances, she recorded a 26-second clip of Winslow at the piano in her kitchen and tweeted it out. He's very emotional, you know? Like, he just uses the piano as a way to communicate his creative spirit. If we're not paying attention enough, he'll do a lot of really aggressive playing, sometimes with his forehead. NYX: He likes to go up and down the keyboard depending on how little we're paying attention. SIMON: That's his owner - owner? That sounds cold - roommate, Kate Nyx. KATE NYX: He plays a dozen concerts a day. He's 7 years old, and he loves to cat-scratch the ivories. It's Winslow, a short-haired tabby in Philadelphia. Cats are perennially popular on the Internet - playing, leaping, napping.