[Music] today's question comes from Janet about her two adorable cats Tiger and boshy let's take
a look hi Jackson Janet and this is Basha that's Tiger over there Tiger is my resident cat and BA
she's my newest cat and they're coexisting really well she has been trying to interact
with him and I can't tell she's trying to play or just trying to be dominant of him and he doesn't
like that at times and he will turn on spot her and I want to try to help Tiger understand
that she's not here to be the dominant one and she's just here as a new member of our family
like I said adorable and also you know a little troublemaking here so I'm glad Jenna that you
asked this question because it gives me a chance to show you guys what you're looking at now of
course I'm never gonna see everything and I'm gonna give you the disclaimer right off the
bat that by doing it the way we're doing it here I don't get to do my actual work which
has come to your house and meet your guys and hang out and interact and watch them interact
with each other there's there's subtleties there's energies there's all kinds of stuff
that I would do normally that I can't do here so to a certain degree it's an educated guess
but you know it's kind of educated anyhow let's let's take a look at what goes on here
okay stop there now let's go back and take a look at what happens here the two cats are trying to
interact they're trying to get to know each other and then I think Jana you make a little tiny
noise they get scared right there now that's an important thing to think about Jenna what you're
doing is you're leaving your cats to figure it out on their own there's no barrier between them
they don't really know each other very well they haven't learned to dialogue they don't know what
each other's body language really is all about it really does seem like they like each other
and they want to get along but by leaving them to their own devices I think you're asking for
it because all kinds of misinterpretations can happen when you don't know somebody well look
at it this way let's let's take a human example you just met someone you really like them you're
not sure about it but you really like them so you guys are texting all the time at one point
somebody puts an exclamation point at the end of their sentence they might not have even done it
on purpose and you're saying to yourself whoa why is it an exclamation point are they trying
to say something I mean look at that again you understand where I'm going you don't know somebody
well enough and if there's just a tiny mistake in there it can snowball and suddenly you're not even
texting to that person anymore I hope not but you get where I'm going with the cats the best
thing Janna that you can do is leave the action is bring out interactive toy and let them follow that
around even better if you had a friend who could come over play with one cat while you're playing
with the other therefore they can watch each other interact with a toy and get to know how
that other cat works their body and communicates with their body and how they react and certain non
stressful but fun environments that's the best way to get to know each other also what you can
do is get them together around feeding time you play a little bit now we're gonna feed now I get
to watch this other cat while good things are happening there's a technique that I call eat
play love and eat play love is the thing that I do when we're trying to introduce cats for the first
time and the gist of the game is that when they get together for the first time and there's no
door between them there's no barrier well then we're gonna have them do something we're gonna
leave the action we're not going to leave it up to them to decide what's going to happen next and
we're gonna do it with things like food and things like toys and things like praise and love because
we then create a positive association between the two of them if you allow it to get where it got
which is this moment where they're feeling each other out and then there's a freeze and there's
a staredown and now there's a 50/50 chance that that's staredown is gonna turn into a throwdown
and we don't want that at all by leading the action you can really make sure that that's not
going to happen another thing that I'm seeing here that I think is a good sign is if you take a look
at what happens when Tiger starts a going to town on that little scratcher and then sits there and
then Bo she's like oh I see something good here oh this is gonna be fun this right here that's play
and how do you know it's played when he does the jump right here now take a look at what he does
he looks he's saying hey tiger you gonna play but are we doing something here I got my baseball mitt
I'm gonna play and tigers like yeah not quite sure what she want here and then what does Bo
she do he walks away so that tells us that's just what she's saying I want to play I want to play I
want to play a tiger saying yeah I kind of do too but I don't know what you're doing and then walk
away I love that you sent me all this great great footage because I get to know who vocie and Tiger
are you get to know who they are better and now we know what we can do for them to really facilitate
a positive lifelong Association which I'm telling you I think that you're gonna have just really try
to facilitate that introduction try to be like hey Moshi this is Tiger Tiger this is boshi let's play
together like you just have to be the parent and the game leader and the cruise director all rolled
into one and I think your guys are really going to get along well so anyway thank you so much for
the question and free the rest to you guys let's see yours all you got to do is shoot a video of
yourself asking the question and that's making sure you do it horizontally then you shoot a
video of your cats also horizontally doing what they do and then you send it right here and then
maybe I'll answer it alright guys until next time all right now loved and all mojo to you [Music]
you [Music]