Posted on 07/22/2013 6:44:48 AM PDT by Fawn
Cat owners need to become more literate ... about reading cats.
Cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy wraps up his fourth season of Animal Planet's My Cat From Hell on Saturday (8/7c) and boils down why people misunderstand their feline friends. "We really try to read them through dog-colored glasses and are trying to look for these very specific types of responses that are very much human-based," Galaxy tells TVGuide.com. "And if we don't see them, we assume that they don't care.
(Excerpt) Read more at tvguide.com ...
I think he looks great.... Please post a recent picture of yourself...so we can tear you apart too.
Way too many people here judging a book by its cover.
Jackson may look strange, according to what many consider “normal”, but, he’s actually a good act on TV with those cats and their owners.
It’s not an easy task to figure out why cats behave the way they do, and how the environment and the people around them add to the cats’ “bad behavior”, but at the end of the day (or month), the cat or cats have learned to get along with their owners and other cats and dogs around them. Even if they don’t learn to get along, they do learn to live and let live.
I say all of the above without a inkling of where he stands on the issues and what political ideology he favors, but, as long as he doesn’t get political, I can tolerate him and the cats and the people on the shows.
My girl cat loves this show - seriously. She sits on the coffee table and pays close attention to the screen. Don’t know if she is taking notes or feeling superior. I’ve noticed that the solution to most of his clients’ problems is BUY THE KITTY SOME FREAKING TOYS TO PLAY WITH! But then it is the LA area...the stupid runs extra deep there.
Chill, Fawn. There are pictures of me all over FR.
Oh! For crying out loud, get off the computer! Try to imagine a recovering addict (drugs & food) who has no patience for what he sees—entitled celebrity B.S. Who also looks much more trim after undergoing back surgery last month. :)
Nope-I was taught not to shoot anything I don’t intend to eat...
Not only Florida has this problem-I’m guessing that any rural area where snowbirds winter has abandoned pets wandering around with frayed collars, becoming fast food for predators and feral dogs. And putting down a pet you are tired of isn’t the act of a decent human being, any more than turning them out into the wild is-people like that should never have a pet, other than a rock.
It has been my observation that winter people/snowbirds treat the properties they rent for the season even worse than they treat the seasonal pets-mostly, the rent they paid for the season is barely enough to cover the damages incurred to said property.
Many ice houses and businesses with cabins and RV spaces have signs asking that people who do not want a pet any more bring it to one of the several no-kill animal rescue centers nearby, and lists their addresses and phone numbers. Two of my three cats are former RV/snowbird cats from a local shelter-both are happy, healthy pets now, but one of them was starving and injured when brought in, and neither would have survived much longer in the woods.
Thanks for posting this; I’m a Jackson Galaxy fan myself. He seems to be such a kind man. In one episode of MCFH, he helped an elderly woman with her cat....he was very gentle with the lady, and extremely respectful.
I imagine he uses the Galaxy name because he’s a part-time rock musician. I never heard anyone call Sting, Slash, or Axl Rose “douchebags” because they use stage names.
And hey, I had the “cat blink” perfected years ago, before I heard of Jackson! ;)
His tips have helped our household run much more smoothly with fewer cat fights due to him.
different strokes for different folks, I guess.
The only people who evoke that sort of feeling in me are Obozo, Soros, Holder, Van Jones, Piers Morgan, etc. etc.
” I never heard anyone call Sting, Slash, or Axl Rose “douchebags” because they use stage names.”
Can’t say I’ve heard the term applied to Slash, but I’ve heard Sting and Axl Rose described as such (and deservedly so). I doubt it has anything to do with them adopting stage names, however.
Now that IS true.
He seems like a genuinely nice guy, and her REALLY gets cats!
I've learned a number of things from his show, and I used some of those "tools" to help a friend bring a new cat into their existing cat home, and another friend, just from changing around their play, really made the cat a lot more affectionate.
Mark
JG is a HUGE supporter of RESPONSIBLE cat ownership, and you condemn him for irresponsible pet owners? This includes keeping cats indoors, unless on a leash.
That .22 and a boy thing you seem to like, do you also propose that all responsible gun owners be punished due to irresponsible owners and criminals?
Wake up.
Mark
I cannot comment on that particular episode and sometimes Jackson is devious in a funny way....but have to concur as it is presented here that it certainly can be pathetic and morally depraved to $6,000 on expensive treatments for your pet. What happens when your spouse gets sick? One of your kids? That’s $6,000 that you don’t have. You’re helping the animal and abusing yourselves. Of course it is easier for someone without children to contend that people should treat their animals like kids or that cats’ lives mean as much to them as mine means to me but I have never heard him recommend stuff that clients obviously can’t afford. And his soon to be wife does a lot of animal rescue work in underserved or deprived areas of Los Angeles, and the world, so hopefully some of that mentality will rub off on the master himself. :)
(From the posted interview:)
Are you still friends with any of the people who owned cats on the show?
Galaxy: Every single one of these people I still consider one of my clients. So if anything ever flies backwards, then we’re on the phone. I never want these guys to think that they’re just a subject of a TV show. I want them to know that this is what we would do in real life. I’m still there for them.
Jackson is into new age philosophy but he definitely understands cats and their behavior. If you discard the occasional talk about “energy” the rest of his advice is very practical...
Before you can adopt a cat from a shelter out here, you must sign a paper promising to keep the cat indoors or be fined if the now-microchipped kitty is picked up-the top predators out here are the resident mountain lions and feral hogs, then raccoons, coyotes...
One of the few good things about this awful economy that destroyed the tourist/snowbird industry here-the population of obviously abandoned pet cats and dogs has decreased drastically, according to our local shelters-we have a neuter and release program, but that takes in feral cats that are not put up for adoption, not the obviously abandoned pets-they end up placed in new homes.
I was posting because I was pointing out some of the many reasons I am not pleased with “CatPersons” who are responsibility deficient. Having been forced to shoot such cats, and not liking to so do (we raised Siamese cats when I was younger), was the reason for the rant.
As in all civilized discussions, present company is always excepted.
Having been forced by the irresponsible, to shoot such cats, and often a number of them, I have concluded the following:
1. When numerous cats show up suddenly, some cat group did the dumping.
2. Cats become paranoid FAST when dumped.
3. Attempts to capture such cats is too much risk.
4. Best method I know of is a can of sardines, then a carefully placed shotgun pattern.
#4 above will result in multiple shot entering the cranial vault and immediate loss of consciousness. IMHO, anything other than a brain shot inflicts avoidable suffering.
Even a cat deserves a last meal and a painless death. Why “even a cat”?
Ever watched a cat deliberately prolonging its killing of an animal it got a claw into?
I seldom watch “My Cat From Hell”, but I think Jackson makes the best of some situations I’d be tempted to change-if the owner and cat didn’t get along, I’d pack up the cat, tell the owner to go to a shelter and let a cat (or dog) pick them-not the other way around-and I’d find that cat a more compatible owner.
Every person every pet needs to be in sync-I’ve always gone to shelters for cats, and let the cat choose me, the only requirement being that the cat had to like dogs-never had a bad match...
These people couldn’t even TOUCH the cat. IF and IF they could get close enough to hold out an oven mitt with chicken on it, the cat would run past them. That apparently was a step up from having their arms and face clawed and bit.
And he acted astonished that they wouldn’t spend that kind of money on cancer surgery that wasn’t even a guarantee. He basically publicly badgered and humiliated them into agreeing to get the surgery. For an animal that they couldn’t even TOUCH. That is not a ‘pet’ and no one should feel obligated (not that I don’t love cats and animals and all animals deserve a chance, but just dang) to spend that kind of money when the vet suggests putting them down.
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