A Tail of Two Kitties....ok, it's actually six...

A Tail of Two Kitties

In 2011 I moved in with my boyfriend and his two cats, Cokie and Darla. I brought with me my two cats, Kismet and Kashmir. Cokie and Kismet were both older, and didn't pay much attention to each other, but Kashmir and Darla HATED each other. What ensued was a year of flying fur, marking of territory, romantic stress, and our cats becoming more famous than we are.

Along came My Cat from Hell, and a randomly seen casting notice. My fear was that Kashmir, who is large and aggressive, was going to end up killing small, timid Darla. Add to that her marking up of the apartment, her new aggression towards us (we were both getting attacked) and my hopes for a long-term relationship with this wonderful man I'd found were dwindling fast. I sent in a picture of us and a paragraph about what was happening. A brief phone call later, and we were in the running! 

Then we waited...

For months...

I figured we weren't controversial enough. Not pretty enough. Not Hollywood enough.  

One day, I got the call - how about filming in February and March? What?! Yes, please!

Just before filming began, I lost my beloved, sweet Kismet to pancreatitis. I was a wreck. Then, a month later, my family lost our beloved stepfather. I was more of a wreck, crying all the time, and filming was started. 

Jackson Galaxy was patient, knowledgeable, and funny. Along with his crew, intervention with the neighborhood strays from Fix Nation, and help from the immensely talented Kate Benjamin, we transformed our apartment, our ways of dealing with the cat crisis, and how Kashmir and Darla interacted with each other. We even belly danced. Yes, Jackson Galaxy belly danced on national TV.

We finished our shooting time with a new hope for peace in the kitty kingdom. And it worked!! There were still spats, but no more marking, no more bloody attacks, no more terrified Darla! 

About a year later, we decided to bring some more kittens into the family. I was worried for more aggression from Kashmir, but the exact opposite happened, and was the final piece of the puzzle. Kashmir is so enamored of the kittens (now adults), that she has forgotten to go after Darla. 

All is well. 

Tune in to Animal Planet's, "My Cat from Hell," and you may catch a re-airing of our episode from 2013, "Evil Kashmir."