COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The star of an Animal Planet television show who is known as the “cat daddy” visited Columbus Humane to educate staff members about feline behavior. 

Cat behaviorist and author Jackson Galaxy served as the host of the TV show “My Cat From Hell,” where he rehabilitated cats with behavioral issues such as extreme aggression. The show ran from 2011 to 2018, with 100 episodes over 11 seasons.

Galaxy has now teamed up with the global nonprofit Greater Good Charities, to run an initiative called Cat Pawsitive 360. The project aims to educate shelter workers on feline behavior to improve cats’ well-being and save lives. As a part of the initiative, he visited Columbus Humane on Wednesday and Thursday to host a two-day workshop. Staff members of shelters across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana gathered at Columbus Humane to learn from Galaxy. 

“It is the fulfilling of a mission that I’ve had for 30 years, which is to bring better cat education to the shelter and rescue world,” Galaxy said. “I think we’ve still got some work to do when it comes to understanding them better so we can market them better.”

Galaxy’s workshop covered topics such as feline body language and behavior challenges, environmental enrichment and marketing strategies. While he teaches his workshops, he said he continues to learn from the shelters, often adding to his curriculum after a visit.

“The hope is that Cat Pawsitive 360 will be a way of looking at cats that any shelter can plug in,” Galaxy said.

In Galaxy’s opinion, cats are not a fully domesticated species and still have “a little piece of wild.” The cat guru often focuses on that “wild ancestor” he says is present in every cat to understand and work with the animal. 

Surprisingly, Galaxy was not always a big “cat person” – his interest in felines began when he was a musician in need of a job in the early 1990s, and began working at a shelter. It quickly became apparent to other shelter workers that the cats took a liking to Galaxy, he said. 

“We were euthanizing a lot of cats back then and the only thing that I could do was take the fact that they liked me, learn as much as I possibly could about them and try to save them by bringing out the best in them and that became my job,” Galaxy said. “And out of that, the love for it just blossomed over the years. It went from just shelters to working in people’s homes and doing it on TV and all that, but it all started in animal sheltering which is why I never left.”

After a seven-year run of “My Cat from Hell,” Galaxy now spends his time visiting shelters, writing books, helping cat owners through consultations and creating content for YouTube. 

“Our audience is now twice the size it ever was, which is amazing and it’s so much more accessible to people and it’s really, really rewarding,” Galaxy said. 

Even though the Cat Pawsitive 360 workshop took place at Columbus Humane, Galaxy said to make a difference, those outside the walls of the shelter should also be an advocate for animals. One way they can do that is trapping, fixing and releasing feral cats to help keep that outdoor population down, he said.

“I think everybody knows that we have an issue with feral cats, the overpopulation is real. I think the message I would give to everybody who has a cat in their house, is to expand out the borders of your love for cats, express that love for the cat under your car,” Galaxy said. “It’s our job to protect these cats and just because it’s not in your home doesn’t make it any less of a cat or any less deserving of your affection or care.”

Galaxy’s Columbus visit is part of a series of 10 Cat Pawsitive 360 events across the U.S. in 2024, including visits to shelters in Nevada, Massachusetts, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maryland.