Total Cat Mojo: The Ultimate Guide to Life with Your Cat

by Jackson Galaxy

First, I want you to pretend you’re a bird. If you’re the bird, you’re going to do that subtle, moth-on-the-ceiling movement for a minute, simply hovering, and then you do that thing that gets you caught: you swoop down and suddenly hit the ground. And now your cat is going to pounce. But what makes this a game? Just yanking the toy away and having the bird fly away again? No, you’re going to play dead, and make it so your cat will then bat at the bird to test if you are really dead. Next, he will likely walk away to try to trick you into moving again. From there, you might slowly begin to inch along, playing not-quite-dead, as you take faint little steps away and try to get to refuge around the side of the couch. You’re heading in the right direction when you see wide-eyed, rapt attention, tensing muscles, and maybe a twitch at the end of the tail. And then the dilated pupils, the “head bob” as he sizes up the exact dimensions of the kill, and the famous “butt wiggle” right before he pounces tell you that your cat has stepped into that alternate universe. This is when your cat will run at you . . . but then you take off again! Now it’s time for you to decide: do you want him to catch you, or is it not time to be caught yet? And off you go again, repeating this sequence—moth-on-the-ceiling movement, wiggle butt, pounce . . . all the while thinking, What are your best methods to elicit that confidence, a.k.a. Mojo, from your cat? Personally, one of the things that makes me ...