You need use regex from here:
df['count'] = df.temp.str.count(r'(?<!\S)Male-Cat(?!\S)')
print (df)
temp count
0 Male-Cat Female-Cat Male-Cat-Female Male-Cat 2
1 Male-Cat-Female 0
2 Male-Cat 1
3 Male-Cat Male-Cat Male-Cat-Female 2
4 Male-Cat Male-Cat Male-Cat 3