As fans prepare for the finale of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” Season nine this week, queens made history all season long by using the platform to donate their winnings to charity. One of this season’s top contenders is Miss Vanjie, who is competing on behalf of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Georgia Voice sat down with icon Miss Vanjie to discuss her love of animals and why she chose ASPCA.

Hey Vanjie! How are you enjoying watching yourself this season?

I’m enjoying the season; it’s kind of like watching the Super Bowl of the gays. All the girls are doing so good. I’m enjoying watching myself and how much I’ve grown since season 11 and season 10. Of course, getting the money for charity is exciting. I like the season, and these runways and the challenges have been so good.

They have been, especially the runways this season; everybody has been killing it. As far as charity, I’m wondering what it was that stuck out to you about the ASPCA?

When they told me we got to pick a charity I knew I wanted to do something with animals. I’ve always been passionate about animals. If I didn’t do drag, I’d probably do something within that type of field. I knew I wanted to give back to the pets … so I asked if I could pick the ASPCA and they told me yes. I had no other charity in mind.

In an interview with People magazine, you discussed how pets always give us unconditional love. Did you grow up with any pets?

I’ve always had cats and dogs; I had a Yorkie growing up. When I was little, I used to perform in my room to the pets and be my outrageous self and hide in the room and not tell no one. That’s why I always felt like pets were such good little buddies for me when I was growing up in Florida, not knowing what was going on and why I was so crazy and hyper and liked to perform and do music videos. I feel like that’s something I’ve always connected my childhood with.

Do you have any favorite memories of growing up with your pets?

I think I was in middle school or going into high school. When we were growing up, we lived in an apartment that didn’t allow dogs, so we had a cat. But then we moved into a nice little house and my mom let me pick out my first dog, so that always sticks out as a core memory of mine. She took me to go pick up the dog, and I picked up this little Yorkie that I ended up growing and getting older with. His name was Meeko, like Meeko from Pocahontas.

Do you have any pets now?

Yeah, now I have two cats of my own. They’re little Himalayan Persians. One of them is Thackery Binx and his brother is Saint Augustine. They got first and last names.

I’ve always loved cats and I noticed that you have a cat tattoo. Is it a cat you know?

No, everyone always asks that. It was one of my first tattoos. I told the artist the inspo and he drew it up and then that was it. I guess that’s how passionate I am, cause I said ‘I want some kind of kitty, some pussy on my chest.’

[laughs] I love it! There are some online accounts of cats and dogs doing drag inspired by Drag Race. Have you ever seen them?

Yeah, I know the accounts. They dress them up in the little getups and recreate the outfits. I’m like, ‘How can y’all make the outfit and I’m over here struggling with the glue gun? ’ It’s super cute.

Would you ever put your cats in drag?

I try, but they don’t even like to wear their collar. I’m always chasing them around. And their hair gets like big and fluffy. He would probably wear it for like two seconds and then I would find it somewhere on the floor.

I was wondering how you get a cat to wear all that!

I want to see what kind of training or what kind of cat whispering they got going on.

You have DragCon coming up — what else is next for you?

I’m gonna be on an All-Stars season nine tour that we’re gonna be doing all over the U.S. It’s the whole cast of All-Stars 9; we’re basically recreating the whole season on stage. And then I do Werq the World, which goes all over Europe and Asia and Australia. Hopefully, I get to do some kind of animal work or like — put me in a zoo, let me do a little zookeeping. I think I need a little web series, kind of like “Simple Life” when they brought them to do animal stuff. Clean up giraffe shit, ride horses you know, on a budgey or something.

The web series is a really cute idea.

That’s kind of the fun part of filming All-Stars: it opens up more opportunities.