Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat

... because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at.

Yeah, I'm a cat person. I love dogs, don't get me wrong. I almost adopted a little terrier-lab mix (and no, I don't know how that happened. God, please let the mother be the Labrador, because otherwise, owie.), but tickle my feet and make me declare, and I'm cat girl all the way.

I'm feeling the need to announce my cat allegiance because of My Cat From Hell and its host, Jackson Galaxy.

This would be Jackson Galaxy, and yes, real men DO love cats.

I have two cats myself, Maggie (Margaret May, for when she's in trouble) and Sammy (Samhain Murray, for when he's in trouble), and while they are not cats from Hell by any stretch of the imagination, the things that I've learned from Jackson Galaxy and My Cat From Hell have made me understand my kids a little bit better.



Things I've Learned From Jackson Galaxy

• The Slow Blink. I'm not sure what it is about Jackson's slow blink, but it can calm down and connect with almost any cat. I've noticed that when my cats get rowdy, or are doing something that I don't want them to do, I do the (c)Jackson Galaxy Slow Blink, and bam, I'm in like Flynn. The cat calms down, stops doing whatever it is doing, and it's a wonderful tool.


• All cats need to play. You'd think this is a no-brainer, but it wasn't. Boy Cat is Mr. Joe Cool, Laid Back, You-Don't-F*ck-With-Me-I-Don't-Acknowledge-You-Exist cat. Maggie is my ADD child with the attention span of a fruit fly. Shockingly, Boy Cat loves to play with strings. No toys on them, just strings that he can chase and pounce on, especially if you move it around under a blanket, sheet, or towel. We call the game "Tremors" and he loves playing it first thing in the morning. What I noticed? If we play Tremors in the morning, he stays off my computer and out of my way when I'm working on homework or blogging. He doesn't have to be the non-stop center of my attention because he GOT that attention during playtime.


• Jackpot Food. After my father died, Boy Cat got very antisocial for awhile, grieving like his people were. But after a month or two, he was still very standoffish, and so we tried feeding him a new brand of cat food (we found he likes Fancy Feast shredded and Gravy Lover's, no cheese or fish flavors). In like, two or three days, me and the Parental (she feeds him breakfast, I do dinner) both found out that he was coming around and warming back up to us again, because he was associating us with good things, like food.


• Bush Dwellers vs. Tree Dwellers. Boy Cat? Is a tree dweller. He is constantly sitting on tables and chair backs to look out windows. But, he likes a horizontal scratcher. He has never scratched our furniture because we've always had his http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giffavorite scratchers out, and by letting him on the chairs and on the table, we're giving him places to hang out where he can't be bothered by ADD GirlCat, and he can see what's going on. Maggie, on the other hand, is a serious Bush Dweller. She likes the rolling tinkly balls, she spends a lot of her time under tables, chairs, and beds, and her favorite trick is to jump out at you from under the bed and go HEY MOM, DID YOU SEE ME? Well, yes, child, given that your butt and your tail were sticking five feet out from under the bed, I saw you.


• Customized playtime. This sort-of relates to the playing thing and the bush vs tree dweller thing. But man, the one thing I've learned from Jackson is to find out what kind of cat you have, and customize their play. If your cat is a tree-dweller, get one of those feathery whatsis on a string, because (in Jackson's words) "it perfectly mimics air prey." In other words, it's a bird on a string. Flapping it around at the end of the stick gets your tree-dweller to jump up high and bat at it, fulfilling their need to hunt air prey. Bush dwellers need the little mice on the sticks, because that is ground prey--mice. I'm not saying I've gone out and bought these exact toys, but hit up your local dollar store or pet store, and you can find things that are remarkably similar and they won't bust your wallet.

Lastly? I'm gonna show off my babies.


The black one is my boy cat, Samhain Murray. The striped one is my ADD Girl Cat, Margaret May. Both have been spayed/neutered, so you do the same now, y'hear?