I’ve just had the same problem.

You only get the text twice in your result if you include a match group (in brackets) and the ‘g’ (global) modifier.
The first item always is the first result, normally OK when using match(reg) on a short string, however when using a construct like:

while ((result = reg.exec(string)) !== null){
    console.log(result);
}

the results are a little different.

Try the following code:

var regEx = new RegExp('([0-9]+ (cat|fish))','g'), sampleString="1 cat and 2 fish";
var result = sample_string.match(regEx);
console.log(JSON.stringify(result));
// ["1 cat","2 fish"]

var reg = new RegExp('[0-9]+ (cat|fish)','g'), sampleString="1 cat and 2 fish";
while ((result = reg.exec(sampleString)) !== null) {
    console.dir(JSON.stringify(result))
};
// '["1 cat","cat"]'
// '["2 fish","fish"]'

var reg = new RegExp('([0-9]+ (cat|fish))','g'), sampleString="1 cat and 2 fish";
while ((result = reg.exec(sampleString)) !== null){
    console.dir(JSON.stringify(result))
};
// '["1 cat","1 cat","cat"]'
// '["2 fish","2 fish","fish"]'

(tested on recent V8 – Chrome, Node.js)

The best answer is currently a comment which I can’t upvote, so credit to @Mic.