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Mikel Delgado’s cat, Clarabelle, likes to roam around her backyard with supervision. The 16-year-old feline is outgoing and curious — and very attached to her human, who happens to be an expert on cat behavior. As a postdoctoral researcher at the �������ϲ����Ͽ� Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Delgado studies cat behavior and welfare, as well as human-animal interactions. She’s currently looking at how feeding behavior differs in one-cat households versus those with two cats. She also leads projects related to orphan neonatal kittens. “I’ve been obsessed with cats as long as I can remember,” said Delgado, who begged for a cat as a kid, finally getting one when she was a teenager. “But I didn’t have any fantasies about being a vet. Feline researcher wasn’t a career I conceived of when I was growing up.” Fast forward to 2000, when she started volunteering at the San Francisco SPCA. At the time, the organization had a special wing for cats with behavior challenges. “That was really transformative,” she said. “I had a lot of empathy for cats having difficulty in that environment.” She went back to school, earning her Ph.D. from �������ϲ����Ͽ� Berkeley. She said she aims to bring research on cat behavior and welfare to the forefront. “There’s a lot we still don’t know about cats,” she said. “I hope to continue this path of making their lives better.”