Reality TV

If you have cable TV you can watch My Cat From Hell on the Animal Planet channel.  As a veteran of a recent spate of unacceptable behavior from our cat Dickie, I overcame my understandable reluctance to watch a reality format show and took a peek the other night at My Cat From Hell.  It was only going to be a short peek but we were rivetted to the couch for several hours, watching a tattooed gentleman who, I think, has chosen the name Jackson Galaxy (unless his parents celebrated his birth with blotter acid).  What could have induced me to endure rivets in my nether region for a couple of hours?

Galaxy understands cats.  He understands them a great deal better than I and he advocates for the cats to the folks who we would call their owners but whom he calls their guardians. He understands why and when a cat is motivated to urinate in places I consider inappropriate.  He understands what moves a cat to violence.  He understands the meaning of cat behaviors - hunting, playing, marking territory - from the cat's point of view.  And he demonstrates his understanding by consistently altering the "unacceptable" behavior of his cat clients.  Blessed are the peacemakers.