Jackson Galaxy is America’s Cat Daddy. Does he think cats are assholes? Or is there more to those furry enigmas than meets the eye?
Jackson Galaxy is America’s Cat Daddy. He’s the host of Animal Planet’s hit show, My Cat From Hell, he’s amassed over 100 million views on his YouTube channel, and he has his own toy line—when it comes to cats, Jackson knows best.
So, Jackson…is it true? Are cats assholes? Or is there more to those furry enigmas than meets the eye?
A few curiosities you’ll uncover in this episode:
Did You Know?
There are an estimated 373 million pet cats around the globe.
Credits
Curious State is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast hosted and produced by Doug Fraser.
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Doug
A quick warning: this episode contains a bit of language listener discretion is advised. Picture this: three kittens playing in a field of daisies in slow motion. Miniature whiskers leading to little pink noses leading to itty bitty kitty smiles. That's so cute. But those whose ankles have been hunted and pounced upon to those whose glass has been nudged off the counter, and another good measure they might wonder, are cats assholes?
I am Jackson Galaxy and I am a cat behavior and wellness expert, and TV host and YouTube dude and author and anytime I can flap my lips. That's what I do.
Doug
Jackson Galaxy is America's Cat Daddy. He's the host of Animal Planet's hit show My Cat From Hell. He's amassed over 100 million views on his YouTube channel. And he even has his own toy line. So when it comes to cats, Jackson knows best. At this point, cats have been the center of his universe for over two decades.
Jackson
Almost three. Yeah. Wow. Crazy. But yeah, I started working in an animal shelter back in ‘93. And pretty soon after became the cat guy over there.
Doug
I imagine that at some point, you've had people come to you and probably mentioned the phrase: Yeah, cats are assholes. Oh, yeah, every day. So is it true? Are these furry enigmas wrapped in a salty mystery assholes? I'm Doug Fraser. And this is Curious State. Since I've recorded the interview with Jackson, my fiance moved in with me. And she brought along her two cats, Simon and Sushi. I'm not a cat person. I mean, I like him just fine. But I'm more of a dog guy and have been since I was a kid. So far, I don't understand them at all. One second, Simon is hanging out on my lap and purring, the next it's like I don't exist. Which is exactly how Sushi acts about me all the time. So what gives?
Jackson
Cats are Zen masters, they are so evolved when it comes to living in the moment. And in that moment as Cat, I may be like, I love you and I crawl on your chest and I nuzzle you and I give you head butts and you know I get so excited about it I drool. And then I walk away. I got something to do over here. I'll see you later. No attachment to the sort of emotional or romantic storyline that humans have with humans. And really, that dogs have with humans as well. It's not that they're aloof. It's not that they're antisocial. They're in the moment. And this next moment may have nothing to do with you. That's cool.
Doug
I would say in American culture, dogs tend to be the norm in terms of understanding behavior of a pet, and sort of expectations that are aligned. So we see this and I love the phrase you use: We see cats through dog colored glasses. How does that impact our view of them as seeing them as assholes
Jackson
As assholes! That's it. They're assholes because we get angry because we don't get them. Humans do not like being made to feel like they don't understand something. We're not great students all the way along and, and cats make us feel like idiots. So we call them assholes. You know? There it is. That's it. But, you know, with dogs, it's a whole lot easier because we have bred dogs over 1000s of years to do jobs for us to look a certain way to, act a certain way so that we'll understand it. We breed certain character traits. We think about this, but this is a crazy one. That dogs with eyebrows is something that, just, we did. The dogs don’t have eyebrows. No, we do it so that we get it, we or if, we if it's not exactly what we think it is, at least we think we know what it is. And all in all, I mean, we've, we've created an animal companion, who when we leave the house is just bereft and when we come back, they're like, ah, you know, it doesn't matter. If you just went and got the mail and came back. They’re like, I missed you! You know, and we don't get that from cats. So it's important to see them as what they are, which is two completely different species. We owe it to our cats, to learn about them in the same way that we would learn about dogs. And I would actually say, get deeper into it, because there's so many question marks and they're such an emotional and physical blank slate to us. That of course, then they become ripe for projection. You know, whether it's our, our fantasies or nightmares, we projected onto our cats, you know, really, dogs kind of represent our notion of dominion over animals. And, and but I don't think it's all about subservience. But part of it is, and looking to us for cues, looking for us on how to get through life and cats just don't need it. But that's again, that's the dog colored glasses. They just have a different journey through their timeline with humans than dogs do. And because we compare, they become less than dogs unless you are like a lot of people these days who just appreciate and live with and love the mystery that is cats and like diving into that mystery, like not knowing.
Doug
There are an estimated 373 million pet cats around the globe. In the US 1.6 million cats are adopted every year. And 42 point 7 million US households have at least one cat for a total of 76,430,000 feline friends, the most of any country in the world. I knew cats were popular here, but that's wild. And China comes in second with 53 point 1 million. And Germans, they really love their cats too. One estimate suggests that nearly one quarter of German households have a cat. Jackson may be America's Cat Daddy, but he's not just a cat person. He shares his home with quite a few other pets, including three dogs, a turtle, two chickens, at one point, a rooster and about seven cats. You have quite a few different types of animals living with you. What does your relationship with cats give you that relationships with the other animals don't?
Jackson
That's a great question. I mean, I'm 100% bipetual, I love the energy that cats give and dogs give and where it meets in the middle. They are so totally Yin/Yang and their energies are so complimentary. Now, when it comes to chickens, and, and, and a turtle, that's completely different. My wife would argue–my wife gets so much from our turtle, she just adores him. And, and, and will just do anything for him. I mean, she, built an enclosure for him outside that's like, bigger, almost, than the chickens. And and but but for me. I think that what cats give me that that no other animal does is that notion that when we do connect, it's meaningful on a much deeper level. And again, that goes back to that whole thing about them living in the moment. In this moment you choose me. And I'm honored by that. Also, I am that person who loves the mystery of cats and really revels in it.
Doug
When you first introduced your cats and your dogs together. What was that like?
Jackson
It depends on the cat and the dog. I mean, there's some of our dogs where it's just been total chaos. And that's because of either a high prey drive on the dogs part, or just, you know, a combination of that and never being introduced to cats before. We do it in slow motion. Here we have a way of introducing cats to cats and cats to dogs. That's pretty much the same thing, which is I'm going to meet you first through scent. Then I'll lay eyes on you every step along the way. There's great things that happen when I smell or see you. And then with dogs. The big thing then is we got to be able to cash that check. I might be able to put great smell and tuna treats in front of you every time you see a dog. If the dog chases you, it's all bets off. It's funny how we do this though. And again, this is based on 30 years of dealing with dog people, cat people and everything in between. We, for some reason, give dogs a pass. if I get called into a dog-cat thing. And they're like the cat is doing this, the cat is doing this. Is your dog able to do a down-stay? Can your dog sit still while a cat walks in the room? Most of the time the answer is no. But they haven't taken the dog to training classes, they haven't had one on one training, their dog is out of control, not their cat, you know, the cat is just like, I have to stay alive in this moment. And we forget again that cats are smack in the middle of the food chain. They are always being hunted, and they're always hunting. So their head has always got to be on a swivel, they got to be ready to go into fight or flight. And if in my case, a 70 pound dog is like, ruff, you're either going to fight or flee. But it's not going to be pretty no matter what you do. We're used to “I put a roof over your head, I give you food every day, I clean your litter box. I mean, for God's sake, I scoop your shit every day. you know, and I expect something in return.” You know, that's who we are as people who live with animals. And yet, getting us to that place where you can be vulnerable to another species is a massive leap, but one that I'm really happy to at least bring you to the water.
Doug
Dog people stereotypes tend to be playful. For example, dog people look like their dogs. I can attest to me looking like dogs I've had in the past. And the same goes for personality. Dogs, their people, they tend to act the same. Cat people stereotypes, on the other hand, are often negative.
Jackson
They're sitting in a basement, in a rocking chair, knitting a sweater out of their cat's fur, and they never leave. That it's the crazy cat lady. It's something that we have been fighting against pushing up against trying to break that notion for as long as I've been working with pets, I was actually just talking to a client yesterday. She has two cats. And one of them is like hyper energetic and the other ones are older. And is like just leave me alone. I don't want to play with you. I said, you know, you really should get a kitten. Honestly, you're cat’s only a year old. He's got energy. She goes, Oh, no, that would make me a crazy cat lady, as a woman. So you go from two to three, you're crazy cat lady? She was like you don't understand I'll never get a date again. And it's so galling to me to think that. And you've I don't know if you've seen this, but there was some I'm not gonna call it a study. But whatever analytics that showed that, if a man puts a picture of him and his cat, on any of the dating sites, they won't get a date, or the chances are much less as if as compared to if they had a picture by themselves or with a dog or whatever. So that's depressing.
Doug
Cats have been at the sides of humans for over 10,000 years, their traits have evolved along the way, some through selective breeding, but a piece of their genetic heritage remains alive. The raw cat.
Jackson
The Raw Cat is the ancestral cat, the one that's alive–very much alive–in your cat. It's my way of saying that the cat in your lap is not as domesticated as you think they are. The move to cat as pet really didn't flower until the mid 1800s. And it wasn't until the 1930s that cat litter was invented. And think about that all of a sudden, now I can have a cat in my house without having a box of ashes or dirt that gets tracked all over the house. So when you think about the timeline, 10,000 years, and you think about that little blip of the timeline that is domestication, now you start to understand who is living with you and the Raw Cat is definitely living with you.
Doug
So for the folks adamant that cats are assholes, how does Jackson respond?
Jackson
I mean, I have a bunch of little things in my pocket. But you know, I start with well, maybe you're an asshole. No. That's the undercurrent, but I mean, I always say, you know, cats are individuals just like humans, and they all have their quirks or you know, they can be a little unlikable or whatever, but try not to see all cats with the same asshole paintbrush. What I try to teach people is that this is this isn't about the ownership of a cat or I have a cat. You're in a relationship. It's a much deeper thing. I know what what cats with a capital C are all about, but I don't know you. And thank God I get years to learn who you are.
Doug
So it's been a few months now since my fiance moved in with her two cats, Simon and Sushi, Sushi is distance has closed as I've built trust with her and better understand how she communicates, especially with her tail. I think she has much more raw cat inside her than Simon, whose flopsiness and big old golden eyes are ever charming. They found a handful of favorite spots around the house and in the morning after their breakfast. I know I can find them pretty much without fail lying in the sun that's coming through our backdoors. Last week though, something felt different. I noticed the way their sides rise and fall with each breath just out of sync with each other Sushis velvet gray fur almost looks dusty in the bright light. I needed to go through the door they were laying in front of but I'd wake him up so instead I just stood there for a bit, admiring them. And that's when it happened. After decades of seeing the world through dog colored glasses. I'd fallen in love with a couple of cats and they hope they love me back in their own way.
Doug
To learn more about Jackson, visit Jacksongalaxy.com. If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future episodes, email me at curious@quickanddirtytips.com. If you prefer talking over typing, leave me a voicemail at 757-541-8471. For more information about the show and where you can find this across the internet, check out our show notes or visit quickanddirtytips.com Special thanks to the quick and dirty tips team. Adam Cecil, our audience development and podcast manager, Morgan Christiansen, podcast and advertising operations specialist, Holly Hutchings, our digital operations specialist, Davina Tomlin, marketing and publicity assistant and our trusty intern, Brendon Picha. Curious State is hosted and produced by me, Doug Fraser for the quick and dirty tips network, which is a division of Macmillan publishers in partnership with Mignon Fogarty, Inc. Until next time, stay curious.