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  • Team Cat Mojo-- it's in the air.

  • Love is in the air.

  • It's Valentine's Day.

  • That's right.

  • It is a perfect time to learn about the cat I love you.

  • Are you guys ready to get catified?

  • Oh yeah.

  • Let's go.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • All right, y'all.

  • It is time to learn about the cat I love you.

  • What is the cat I love you, you ask yourself, or you ask me.

  • If you've watched "My Cat from Hell," even that all,

  • you've probably seen me walking around talking

  • to cats by blinking at them, the slow blink, right.

  • Believe me, I know a whole lot of people

  • know about this now because you walk up to me in the street

  • and you blink at me.

  • Which is weird, but totally cool.

  • Because the concept is everyone's

  • getting to know the language of cats.

  • Way back in the '90s, early '90s,

  • I was learning how to be a cat boy.

  • I was working at an animal shelter.

  • And I learned that cats liked me.

  • I was so obsessed with these guys

  • and obsessed with learning about their world.

  • So I started reading.

  • And one of the books that jumped out at me in the beginning,

  • made me feel like, hey, there might be a community of people

  • who think like me, or who are obsessed

  • the way I am, and this woman right here led the way.

  • Her name is Anitra Frazier.

  • This is actually my copy of the book

  • that I got back the early '90s.

  • Go figure.

  • In this book I was reading about the cat I love you.

  • And basically she was talking about how she learned this

  • by walking down the streets in the Upper West Side of New York

  • and just looking in the windows of the brownstones

  • and seeing cats in there and noticing

  • that they were blinking.

  • What is that, she wondered.

  • So she would blink back at them.

  • And suddenly there was a language

  • between Anitra and these cats.

  • And that became the cat I love you.

  • They're letting you know that they are vulnerable to you.

  • These are prey animals, animals that

  • sleep with one eye open, almost literally, cat napping.

  • Because they don't want to be preyed upon in the wild.

  • So the concept of closing their eyes to you in a slow way--

  • not something that they would do very willingly unless they're

  • trying to tell you something.

  • In the spirit of Valentine's Day now

  • I'm going to teach you how to do the cat I love you.

  • If you stare at people they tend not to trust you very much,

  • you know?

  • So if you're doing-- we're going to lose our glasses now.

  • When you do this, stare.

  • Now I'm even-- let's remove my facial expressions.

  • Not very inviting.

  • So the secret is to relax, relax your face.

  • So do this with me-- a little scrunch up,

  • a little Gilbert Gottfried here.

  • And then release it.

  • Now you got it.

  • Now we're softening our eyes.

  • This is the way that we want to approach a cat, with soft eyes.

  • We're not staring at them.

  • So let's take it to the next step.

  • When you look you soften, and then behind your vocal box--

  • don't use your words, just think them.

  • I'm not speaking right now.

  • I'm thinking.

  • You're hearing my inside voice right now.

  • I love you.

  • One more time.

  • Take your time with that.

  • That's kind of key.

  • When your cat does that to you, remember--

  • they are showing vulnerability, in which case

  • we're not just going I love you-- oh, what?

  • I love you-- oh, are you still there?

  • You know what I'm saying?

  • That shows lack of trust.

  • Trust is really closing your eyes to the world.

  • Practice that with your cat.

  • What about the cat I love you how ya doin'?

  • When you walk into a room and your cat sees you,

  • tell me your cat doesn't do yeah, yeah, how ya doin'?

  • I just did it.

  • So let's incorporate the cat I love you with the how ya

  • doin', which is the cat I love you how ya doin', originally

  • enough.

  • So you go--

  • Try it!

  • I'm telling you, you feel stupid doing it.

  • But try it, all right?

  • Now let's try the bow.

  • And the bow is you're literally just bowing to your cat.

  • But you don't necessarily have to go all the way down.

  • And in the same way, you don't have to do the all the way

  • blink.

  • The I love you bow is like this.

  • It's almost as if in the back of your head you're saying, yeah,

  • I love you.

  • Yeah.

  • Let me teach you about the 3-step handshake.

  • The 3-step handshake is using the cat

  • I love you in succession with some other things.

  • People are always wondering why they can't pet a cat.

  • Because you didn't ask permission.

  • That's why.

  • This is how you ask permission, the three-step handshake.

  • First we're going to try the blink.

  • Yeah, throw in a how ya doin', throw in the bow, OK.

  • Next thing you do is you present something with your scent on it

  • for them to explore.

  • Often I will use these bad boys.

  • Step three finally of the handshake,

  • the real how ya doin', is offering your hand to your cat.

  • Now the thing that I will always do

  • is extend my hand in a very relaxed way.

  • I'll treat this finger like a nose,

  • because cats often will nose to nose.

  • There's my nose.

  • I'll present to them.

  • And often what they will do once they

  • trust you is allow them to pet you.

  • They will then push their nose up, towards the third eye

  • here, and down.

  • These are universal signs that your cat

  • has fed you over and over again.

  • And if you just use them up a little bit, don't feel silly.

  • I mean literally, we're behind closed doors here, just you

  • and me in the cat cave.

  • Try it.

  • And try it with your cat.

  • Of course that's homework.

  • Go and try the cat I love you with your cat.

  • A true expression of your love for a cat is saying,

  • I will communicate on your terms.

  • The cat I love you, the 3-step handshake,

  • the how ya doin', the bow, the finger nose--

  • all those things are going to their side of the fence.

  • And let me know about it.

  • Write some comments right down here.

  • Subscribe to this channel, by the way.

  • Write to me on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.

  • Show me some videos, man.

  • Show me some videos, and pictures,

  • of you doing the cat I love you, or your cat doing it back

  • to you, or doing the how ya doin' or the finger nose.

  • I would love to see all those things.

  • I mean, honestly, if you want to do a great Valentine's Day

  • thing for the Cat Daddy, show me some

  • of that stuff with you and your cats.

  • Videos man, I love that stuff.

  • Some pictures on Instagram-- I love that stuff.

  • Please bring it on.

  • I want to tell you one more thing.

  • I want you to look at this right here.

  • Cats are cool.

  • People we all knew that, right?

  • Go to catsrcool.org and you can find out

  • some more about this very interesting program.

  • Speaking of Cats R Cool, Cats R Cool

  • sponsors me and my tour, the Cats Uncaged tour.

  • And it's coming to some places near you,

  • not so far off in the future.

  • If you want to find out more about it, go to my website.

  • Sign up for the newsletter.

  • Check it out right here on the Animalist Network,

  • and on YouTube.

  • And you will find out when I will

  • be traveling with Cats Uncaged at a shelter near you,

  • in a town near you, under the Cats R Cool banner.

  • So folks, happy Valentine's Day to you.

  • Go and spread that love.

  • Go blink a little bit.

  • Go do the how ya doin'.

  • Let me see it from you and your cat.

  • In the meantime, I have no way of expressing

  • how big my heart is for team Cat Mojo.

  • You people have been coming out in force,

  • letting me know how you feel about Cat Mojo.

  • And I'm pretty psyched about it.

  • Until next time, all light, all love, all mojo.

  • [KISSES]

  • Love you.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

Team Cat Mojo-- it's in the air.

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