INTERVIEW: Jackson Galaxy on the mysteriousness of cats

Jackson Galaxy, star of Animal Planet’s My Cat From Hell, has been rescuing and saving cats for decades, and the dynamic TV personality shows no sign of stopping on the new season of the hit reality series. Galaxy may be several seasons into the show, but he’s not taking anything for granted.

“Believe me, that first season was by the hair of our chinny chin chin,” Galaxy sad in a recent phone interview. “I think that there was an underlying suspicion that cats wouldn’t make for good TV, but I think that we’ve proven otherwise. It’s a real wonderful feeling to know that the audience was there. They stayed with us. We’ve grown that audience, and the cats are the ones really at the end of all this that benefit because their stature has gone up over the past eight seasons. So that’s great, too.”

My Cat From Hell airs new episodes Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet. Longtime viewers of the program should notice a difference in how Galaxy approaches the cats and clients he works with across the United States.

“I think that I’m a lot more patient than I used to be,” he said. “Back in those first few seasons, people didn’t know me when I went into their house. They didn’t know of me, and they didn’t know my methods at all. So it was a lot of bomb dropping when I would get there. I don’t think that our clients knew that I would be turning the tables on them, [that] I would be asking them to drill down on their own family dynamics in order to help their cats. That was a big thing trying to break through those walls. … I think in general not only have I changed in terms of my worldview, because that’s inevitable, but I think the greatest part about all of this is that we’ve been able to bring in the other part of me that was always there, which was the shelter worker, the rescue guy. And now I’ve got much more of a green light to bring that into the show, and that’s the best thing about all of this.”

On the upcoming season, Galaxy has many adventures with his feline friends. None is more memorable than the episode that details Project Homeward Bound, which is now an extension of his personal foundation. The initiative saw 50 kittens rescued from euthanizing in Los Angeles and brought to the Humane Society of Boulder, Colorado, Galaxy’s old stomping ground.

These success stories drive Galaxy and consequently help raise awareness about forgotten cats. Awareness can lead to more rescues and less euthanizing.

“When I do public speaking, the concept of spay/neuter is just there,” he said. “Everybody knows about it. Everybody knows that when they adopt, they spay and neuter, but also people know about adoption where before it was more of the norm to buy their cats and dogs. There is an amazing degree of not just awareness but compassion that is bubbling to the top, and I’m honored to be there, after the length of this journey to know that I’m going to be here when we finally stop the killing. I know I will be, and that’s why I do this.”

He added: “That’s another part of my job is to shed a light on who cats are, and I think that the reason we respond on so much more of an emotional level to dogs than cats is because cats are mysterious to us. We don’t see that level of emotionality that we see in dogs, and there is a good reason for that. We bred dogs for thousands of years to perform behaviors that we recognize, facial features that we recognize and that we can resonate with, and cats were just along for the ride. They did a job. They did it well. They killed mice, and we said, ‘Go ahead; stick around.’ So it’s only been in the past 100-150 years that we have brought them into our house, made them part of our family, so they are to a certain degree the red-headed stepchild, but not for long. All you have to do is check out Instagram or YouTube or any of those things right now, and you’ll see how many tens of millions of people will just dial in time and time again just to watch cats do something. So the cat profile is rising. Empathy toward them is rising.”

At home, Galaxy and his wife have five indoor cats and four feral cats that live in his garage (dubbed the “catio”). There are also three dogs and a couple of box turtles. All in all, he has 14 mouths to feed.

“My wife is in control of the household,” he said. “We have a number of animals that are seniors, so their veterinary needs are much greater than the others. And, yeah, it’s a lot of mouths to feed. We both are still very active in the rescue world. It does get tougher and tougher, but we have others that help us along the way. … I don’t get to spend the kind of time that I’d want to with my family, but I think they get it. I think they understand that Dad is out there helping others in their tribe, and they forgive me. And so does my wife.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

My Cat From Hell airs new episodes Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet. Click here for more information.