Original subtitles

Having anger is not like having a normal cat.

Oh!

Quinces are very inquisitive by nature.

They're steady.

Oh!

She'll just come up out of nowhere and just, you know, lash out.

Scratch, bite, attack.

Literally attack.

Can you handle her?

I want to be comfortable in my own home.

I want her out.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

I'm a musician by night and a cat behaviorist by day.

I've met cats with all kinds of problems.

But I've never met one I couldn't help.

In my career, I've worked with thousands of cats, one on one.

Analyzing their behaviors and retraining them and their guardian.

When relationships are at an end. Getting to the point where I feel

And cat guardians have reached their emotional limit. I want her out.

I'm their last hope.

You got scratched.

It's because you've got him in a pretty helpless position.

Cats have nine lives, but humans only have one. I can't believe this is the

cat.

I'm Sean Roach. And I'm Lindsay Roach.

We've been together for actually about 10 years, but it wasn't until about two

weeks ago that we became officially Mr. and Mrs. Roach. After our previous cat,

Sundari, passed away, I decided to make a secret purchase, and I bought Avery. I

had such a connection to my last cat, Sundari, that when she passed, I was

totally heartbroken.

And when Avery came in, I think that there was some resentment that I had

towards her.

I've worked with wildlife for 10 years and, you know, am referred to as a

wildlife expert.

All in all, I have about 20 different exotic...

Mainly arthropods, so things that creep and crawl. All of these animals are in

what we affectionately call the animal room. The animal room is also my office.

So I spend a lot of time in there working on the computer.

And my old cat used to just sit on the computer on my lap.

No problem.

She was interested in things, but she wasn't going to take it to the level

Avery does.

She wants to get on top of the cages.

That can be an issue because cages can buckle. You have a screen top and the

snake can get out. And, you know, clearly I don't want snakes and

scorpions out of their cages.

Avery is like a toddler that you give in a bowl full of sugar and five cups of

coffee pretty much all the time.

No, no, no, no.

Avery! No, get back.

I'm lucky and I get to leave the house and go to work.

The rest of the day, I get to watch the cat, chase the cat, tell the cat no.

Sometimes I see Avery and my anxiety level just automatically rises.

Throughout our house, we have a lot of art.

We have a lot of valuables. She risks destroying them.

we'll almost start fighting over avery come on no you know i'll say like you

don't have to get so mad she's just a cat and then she's not just a cat and

you know she's not just a cat she's uh she's something else as

newlyweds we really don't need the extra tension or the stress that avery can

sometimes bring i'm kind of hoping that magic is real and that Jackson holds the

key to some sort of ability to, you know, wave a magic wand or cast some

spell. Other than that, it's tough for me to believe that he's going to be able

to come in here and make the changes that we want, but we're hopeful.

Sometimes I find the problem I'm dealing with is much more human than feline.

But my job remains the same regardless, to get human and cat on the same page.

Hey there. Hey, how's it going?

Great, man. Hey, Jackson.

I'm Sean. Sean. Hi, I'm Lindsay. This is Avery.

Avery. What's up?

When I first saw Jackson, I was excited because he wasn't like an old cat guy

like I was afraid of. Have a seat, my friend.

Okay.

How are you guys?

Great that you're here, man. We've been very...

anxiously waiting for your arrival. See what you can do here. We got Avery about

two years ago, and when we first got her, you know, she was that kitten ball

energy that you expect.

She has not grown out of it. She's just into everything.

Avery is so true to the Sphinx breed that I had barely sat down, and she was

already climbing the walls.

This is one of the things that she does. Yeah, I mean, as a result of her being

everywhere,

Uh, she destroys things. These figurines over here, they're all limited edition.

These aren't regular toys that you see.

Um, she chewed them up and it's a shame because I wanted to display some of the

art that we have around the house.

Also, she runs out the door whenever anybody opens it. My job here is to get

on the same page as Avery. I need you to understand the world the way Avery sees

it. And once you do that, I think things will be...

Really workable. All right, guys, the next thing I want to do is just take a

tour of the territory. So if you can take me around the house, that'd be

Absolutely, yeah. Come on. Let's do it.

I'm particularly eager to see the animal room because not only is it Sean's

workspace, but it's a room that Avery is drawn to like a magnet.

What do we got here?

Oh, boy, we've got a lot.

Starting here, we've got an African ball python. If Avery was in here, she'll be

trying to get into the cage. She does try to get in. Yeah.

If she could, she would.

Yeah.

So that's the thing. I'm always on guard.

This is Avery's buddy.

Look, girl, it's your friend.

Now, Avery.

Get down, see how curious she is.

Which is cool. I mean, I would be too. But if I was a little cat, snake came

down towards me, I'm not going to, you know, try and.

jump in the cage with them. I gotta tell you, see, it's amazing because I know

what you love to do. I know the snakes are your thing. Yeah. And watching her

zip into these guys and zoom in on them as prey, it gives us a really

heavy clue as to what makes her tick and what's going to make her happy.

Sphinxes are very inquisitive by nature. They're constantly on the move,

constantly looking for stimulation.

Her fascination with the animals in Sean's room is inherent to who she is.

This is just a great example of Avery just... She's into everything.

Everything's hers, you know? We're in her house, not the other way around.

here, girl. Her curiosity definitely pushes her to a level to where I get

uncomfortable when I turn around and I see her on top of something.

You know, the potential of knocking something over. And the concern, more

anything, is just her...

getting into something to where that animal escaped.

I just wish that she knew her boundaries.

Sean makes it a point of saying that those animals are off limits to Avery,

he's sort of teasing her with a no without giving her a yes right behind

that's just not working.

Gotta show you a truly amazing arachnid. Honey, will you kind of keep an eye on

that little rascal there?

This is...

Called a cave spider.

I have these little huts here that I built. You know, that's kind of

the caves and the nooks and crannies that they'd be, you know, squeezing into

their natural environment. Oh, great idea, yeah.

I seriously can't believe that Sean knows how to meet the needs of an exotic

spider, yet he has no idea how to meet the needs of his exotic cat.

There's Avery on top of a cage.

Turn our back and what happens?

Avery jumps up.

Oh! That's just embarrassing.

Avery!

Jackson got the perfect visual of how she is, generally speaking. I don't

Avery knows what it means to be on good behavior.

So let me tell you what I'm seeing.

There's obviously a problem.

It's not Avery's problem.

It's what you guys have and don't have in here that's causing the problem.

Avery doesn't have a natural habitat.

The typical Sphinx is incredibly active.

So actually, Avery's pretty normal for a Sphinx.

They're high -energy cats, and they need outlets that satisfy the breed.

One of the things that I'm not seeing here is any place for her to perch, any

place for her to get some vertical distance from the floor and do it

comfortably. She's not just climbing blinds to climb blinds.

She's trying to see the world outside.

I want to start seeing ways for her to get up on sills and things like that.

know, one of the things I want you to take a critical eye to is that you have

one piece of cat furniture in the whole house.

Again, comparing and contrasting old cat to new cat might sound crazy, but this

setup is pretty much how it's been more or less for the past six years of living

here. Four of those years were with our old cat, and she seemed to be fine.

The Sphinx needs spaces to climb and explore.

Sean's old cat was not a Sphinx. Avery is.

He needs to stop drawing comparisons between these two cats in terms of their

behaviors and concentrate on the cat he's got right now.

The next thing we're going to do is more fun. Good.

This is the fun part. Yay!

The toy that I think I'd like to play with is this very toy right here. This

replicates, obviously, Ground Prey. This is a mouse.

Okay. Okay, and with a little tail and all that.

Okay, so, obviously,

she's dying for something like this, right?

And you see that in your animal room, too, right? Sure, yeah.

So this is the kind of activity that I am really going to want to draw out of

her.

Toys are a great way to stimulate the prey drive of any sphinx. In the

it's a sneaky way to lead them towards the places you want them to be and away

from the places you don't want them to be. And if you make this world sort of a

playground, again, the need to escape will be less.

Toy, which is our laser pointer.

See how she's responding to that?

That is the toy that you use when she's starting to do something you don't want

her to do. Anyone can use a laser pointer to guide a cat where they want

go. It can be used to guide Avery away from the door, which will make Lindsay

and Sean's comings and goings a whole lot easier.

Where are you?

Can you see this?

There we go.

What is that? There we go.

What is that?

Yeah, she would have bolted out by now.

This is now yours.

Yay! So, again, coming in the door, and that is all she needs. I think that

Jackson is telling us things that we wouldn't have thought of by ourselves.

For Sean and Lindsay's homework, I'm having them work with the laser pointer

the front door, put up shelving units and a cat tower in the living room, and

keep the animal room off limits. Because if Avery gets in there unsupervised...

All hell could break loose again.

Last week, I left Sean and Lindsay with a list of homework and a video camera so

they could document their progress for me and I could see what was going on

I wasn't there.

They emailed me the videos, and I'm eager to talk to them about what I saw.

Hey, how you doing?

Hey, pumpkin pie.

How have things been?

Oh, they've been eventful as always. Yeah, they've been good. The first thing

want to talk to you guys about is the exercise that you were doing at the door

with her. What it comes down to really is the concept of commitment to your

actions. I need Lindsay to see how she's exiting and entering the room the wrong

way and how Sean's actually doing it the right way.

So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to do Lindsay walking in the

door. How embarrassing.

Yep. Okay. You got it, yeah. That's Lindsay walking in the door. Now I'm

to do Sean walking in the door.

Okay.

You see the difference? Yeah. Okay, now the difference is he was aware, but he

was committing to the action.

You're moving from fear, he's moving from confidence. That's the only

difference. All right, this wonderful cat tree that you guys bought.

I commend you on it. Thank you. Yeah, we're pretty happy with it. She's pretty

happy with it, which is more important.

You know, Sean, I saw in home video, you showed her how to use it, and boom,

boom, boom, she was up.

It's a lot of fun just, you know, when she first jumped up on, we were both

like, yeah.

So here's the thing. I mean, we're creating this world of vertical space

also to play into the fact that she's a sphinx. I really want her to jump from

here to the balance.

confidently. We can move this back eventually, but I think what I'd really

to do is reposition this.

Now, she can go hoppity hop here, here. It's almost like walking. I mean, look,

she's naturally so curious.

Ta -da!

Good girl. You see how she's got that look on her face like, cool, where's the

pot of gold at the end of this rainbow here, you know?

Giving us things like Avery.

room to vertically explore is key because her breed dictates that she has

way to release energy.

Now that leads me to my next point. I did want you to put toys up here,

something like that. Yeah. So right now she jumps up. She's like, now what?

Right. We're going to come down here again. I don't have a piece of flea size

something like that. Okay. Destination. The last piece of the puzzle right here.

Yeah. I asked you to put a shelf here. I really do want to still see it so that

she can go jump, boink, here she is. Cool. If she's up at a level, I don't

she's going to scoot out the door.

That's a real necessary addition.

Okay, cool. Yeah, a couple zips on the table saw and cut it out and boom, boom,

done. One of the great things about seeing a sphinx like Avery fully engaged

you get to see what their nature is as a cat, any cat.

very especially the thing they work like this i wake up i want to kill

something i want to hunt it down i want to mangle it then i want to eat

something and then i i'll sleep for a little while what we're going to do is

give her that kill time okay this bird look at that as tired as she was She's

again. Yeah, that's a cool toy. Check that out. Now, first what we're going to

do is we're going to establish that we are in the air. Now, if you guys listen,

that flapping wing sound will get her

into it. Sometimes she loses it, and then you have to present it.

Play for cats is not all about the action.

It's about the preparation.

When they're focused in on something,

That's just equal. This part right here. Yeah.

The subtle tease.

That's just as big a part as this. Yeah. The running.

The jumping. The way Avery should look after a proper play session is what we

saw on her side.

I really want to keep playing, but my body won't let me. And that's where we

want her. That is going to allow us to reset her body clock and regulate her

energy.

So getting Avery to go.

onto places and get into things isn't too much of an issue. Keeping her off of

things, that is a problem. And then I have this area here that's been pretty

consistently a problem.

This is my suggestion for you. You value these toys a lot. I know that.

So we have to repurpose this cabinet so that you have things, like maybe you

have a loose side front to this, put some hinges on it, something where you

display them the way you want to display them. You want them to be out. At the

same time, you want them protected. Now that I've shown Sean and Lindsay the

possibilities of what can be done in the living room in terms of vertical space,

play with vertical space, territorial confidence.

Now I feel like I can bring that into the animal room and show them that they

can do sort of the same thing and have Sean be confident with that.

Now we're going to take this room and she's like, I'm in.

Somebody make sure to keep an eye on her at all times. I want you to relax. I

want you to be okay with her being around.

Sean has to see the beauty in allowing Avery into the animal room. He needs to

know that providing her with cat TV is an amazing way to drain off that natural

Sphinx energy.

I want to give her appropriate perches. So here we have an inappropriate perch

because this inappropriate perch lead to up there. Yeah. So what I would like to

do is perhaps have something that is further out. I mean, I've worked many

with things called cat windowsills.

So it comes off the fill, but it's dirty and it's far enough away and it'll hang

lower than the fill that there's no way she could jump. I really do have a lot

of respect and admiration for what Sean does as a profession.

And the care that he shows for the animals in his care, the environmental

enrichment, I just want to see that light come on in his eyes where he shows

that same consideration to Avery's environment.

Because if not, Avery will not get better.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

How fast can a domestic cat run?

15 miles per hour, 30 miles per hour, or 45 miles per hour? Find out after the

break.

How fast can a domestic cat run?

They can run up to 30 miles per hour. The fastest human sprinter can only run

miles per hour.

Sean and Lindsay are beginning to see that Avery's not a bad cat.

She's just a sphinx who wasn't provided with a proper environment.

Their home is becoming a place where she can thrive.

And with Sean letting her into the animal room, he's finally embracing

letting go of the past.

The room is symbolic in a way. Do you know what I mean? And by bringing her in

there. and saying, be with me here.

It's a huge thing.

Let's have fun. Huge step.

I love that, and I miss that, you know, with Sundari. You coming here has really

given us the opportunity to talk about that, talk about Sundari and that loss,

which will honestly forever, until the day that I die, I will love and I will

miss that cat. Of course.

You know, she's a part of my heart.

So emotional. I mean, still, two years.

And that cat, that's part of having a pet. You lose them, it's tough.

It's part of the deal, right. But we've been able to talk about that, how that

was hard.

And how those resentments were there.

Right. This is really an important revelation for Sean.

He needs to experience this grief, to move through it, so that he can finally

have a relationship with the cat that's right in front of him.

I'm a little sensitive when it comes to my animals and my pets, you know.

Today I get to find out whether Sean has actually embraced everything that Avery

is, which is a young, active thing.

Hey.

Hey, guys. How's it going? Good. How are you doing? Good. Good, good.

Today I'm walking into a veritable sphinx paradise.

There are all kinds of places for her to climb and explore and survey her

domain. Come here, girl. Oh, wow, I didn't even notice that shelf over

Come here.

Let's show Jackson what we've been up to.

Come on.

Oh, come here. One more.

Oh, righteous. One more. Oh, righteous.

Very close. Oh, righteous.

Oh, she wants to kill me. Yeah.

There's a lot of, uh...

A lot of new stuff going on, huh? Here's her new favorite little spot.

The addition of the door shelf is a way to keep Avery up and still looking out

the door without being on the ground, which actually encourages her to run

out. Now I walk out the door.

Now I walk out the door, and you look at the neighborhood.

Yeah, what are you going to do?

Absolutely nothing. It is really gratifying to see how successful Sean

Lindsay have been in transforming their home into a Sphinx -friendly

environment. I had this blanket, the most comfortable, wonderful blanket in

world. I would wrap myself up in it every winter.

My God, did you donate the blanket to the cause? Yeah. I cut up the blanket.

I realized it was like meant to be. The size was perfect, and it

actually had two pieces.

So when I cut it... This is rocking.

When I cut the blanket, it was like a pocket. So I tucked it all back behind

here. And then I used those and put this. I don't know if you remember.

Oh, yeah. This was just wood. So now this is really soft.

She's familiar with it, the smell, the feel. Does she hang here? She totally.

This is her, like, she's all about it up here. I covered it up. Everyone can see

his toys. Yep. You guys have done an absolutely amazing job. You've embraced

this. So well.

Now, speaking of the embracing part, I want to see the animal room. Yeah, let's

check it out.

Oh, and here she comes.

Yep, she lets you know wherever she is. Cool.

Move some things around.

Let's go into her new favorite spot.

And she'll just kind of sit there.

One thing I really miss, not to harp on my old kitty too much again, but was the

time that I got to spend with her while I was doing my work, having my buddy

around. There you go.

Now I've got Avery around.

What's funny is before when I was distracted by Avery because I was afraid

her getting into something or causing some sort of problem. Now I'm distracted

by her because she's so much fun to watch. The interactions.

And you can see all of her expressions, you know. The ears go back, her face.

pushes up, her eyes get big, and she is so engaged.

With the issues addressed and the behavior under control, Sean is in that

position of just being able to watch Avery and enjoy her being a sphinx. I

like, you know, things have gotten a lot better.

There's not the tension in the air when I get home.

Sean's in a good mood, which makes me in a good mood. Avery seems really happy.

And so now, instead of driving us crazy, she's actually entertaining us. She's

fun to watch.

She'll just come up out of nowhere and just attack.

Literally attack.

The concept is fairy dust doesn't exist. There's work involved.

I want her out.

She's about to go nuts.

Crazy, Fifi.

You're crazy.

I'm Dave.

And I'm Leslie.

And we've been dating for about nine months. Nine months, yeah.

I just moved from San Francisco. I uprooted my life that I love to come to

and live with Dave and take our relationship further.

It was quite a surprise to know that Fifi was going to be living with us.

Fifi actually was my old roommate Alvina's cat, and we lived in this condo

the ninth floor.

Fifi liked to sit out on the balcony on the railing, and twice she

fell off the balcony.

Alvina was at her wit's end. She had to get rid of Fifi, and I was moving in

with Leslie, so I decided I would take Fifi.

It's been a complete nightmare, just in terms of my allergies.

I'm constantly taking allergy medication and it makes me sleepy. It's just

total. I'm not like in my right head.

And I'll be just sitting at my desk, minding my own business. And she'll just

come up out of nowhere and just, you know, lash out, scratch, bite, jump in

lap, attack, literally attack.

I have.

I have cat scratches all over me. It's been a huge hassle for me.

I do feel betrayed by Fifi because I saved her life. I took her in.

And instead of behaving and showing appreciation, she attacks me. She stalks

Leslie.

She doesn't just swat at you. She goes in for the kill. And that's when you're

trying to pet her and be nice to her.

I think that despite Leslie's allergies, that if Fifi was a nice cat, Leslie

could live with her, and it's just the fact that it's the behavior that's

bothering Leslie.

I want to be comfortable in my own home.

I want her out.

With each new case, I always remind myself that part of my job is to help

guardians recognize where their own actions feed into feline bad behaviors.

Jackson. Hi. Hi, I'm Leslie.

Hey, Leslie. Nice to meet you.

Good to meet you.

Hey there.

So tell me about Fifi. Fifi attacks everybody.

Attacks everybody. She will attack. She scratches people.

She'll do this thing where she'll come up to you and sort of nuzzle against

leg like she's going to be nice, and then she'll bite you. Can you handle

Can you pick her up? I know how to pick her up, like, to keep her from

scratching me. You pick her up like this. You're saying, yeah, she's like,

no, no. No, no, no, he can't. You can't handle her. I just know you pick her up

like it's an explosive device and you kind of hold it out here.

Because if I get her anywhere around here, she, like, digs her back claws

me. I turn her.

I mean, she has a reach and she'll scratch. So it goes without saying that

you've never clipped her claws.

Oh, no.

I've tried to do that. That's impossible.

Okay, so claws not clipped. Well, then, of course, you're going to wind up

getting mangled.

For me, I've always been allergic to cats. Having a cat around,

I'm already kind of guarded because I'm like, oh, I'm going to get allergic.

Let's talk about the allergies.

Throat closing or sneezing eyes.

Throat closing, eyes, sneezing, itchy nose, runny nose.

A few people come up, and she'll kind of rub up against my ankle.

And my original reaction for her not to be here, because I work from home a lot,

and it's getting to me.

I'm going to work on an assumption here, which might be dangerous, but if we

work with your approach to her, you'll see that completely mellow out. The

concept is the fairy dust doesn't exist.

There's work involved.

What I want to try to do as I'm working with the cat is also work with you

because I think expectations have to be adjusted.

I want to be sensitive to the fact that you can't breathe.

You know, I mean, that's the aggression is something completely different. We

can work with that. The breathing is something that we can try to address.

want you to know I know how not fun it is.

But I'd also like Leslie to be able to see what.

is special about Fifi. What I see that's special.

I'm relieved to hear that at least Dave is invested in Fifi. Now, once we get

past Leslie's allergies, I'm hoping she'll be as committed as he is.

First thing I want to see, though, is the two of them interact with Fifi so I

can see exactly what they're doing wrong.

Okay, let's go out here.

Fifi, don't attack.

Normally... I have to be honest, I grab Fifi and I just love her so much, I just

squeeze her and I play with her head like that.

And then she turns around and gets a little bit irritated at me. I thought

of the funniest things was watching Dave show me how he plays with Fifi, which

really came down to you're a black lab, not a cat.

My scent is pretty heavy on the glasses, so I usually try to present it to them.

You see what she's doing right now? I'm presenting neutrality.

I'm not attempting anything.

Look, I'm no different from anybody else. When I first meet a cat, I want to

them. But what I really have to do is let the cat come and pet me.

She needs to show me what feels good, and then we can establish a relationship

from there. Good girl.

Good girl, pumpkin.

Yes.

I know, you dig that.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly right. That is love.

That's how she expresses love to you.

All the rest of it is going to get you hurt.

It was amazing to see Jackson's energy sort of redirect Fifi and sort of keep

her rage from exploding like it normally does.

Here's what I really want to do with you. I want to work on how you perceive

her, okay?

I'm really glad that you're...

A yoga instructor, because we can approach this from your place.

So I'd like to do that. I'm a complete yoga novice.

Okay. And I'm coming into your class for the first time.

How do I start?

You know, just let it go.

Let it all go.

When you say let it go, what are you talking about? Let what go? What am I

letting go?

Everything. Just all your thoughts.

Blowing it down.

Slow down as much as you can.

Anything that you're holding on to that is making you clench your body, tighten

your body.

Can I just say what I just noticed?

What did you notice?

She was here, and you were oblivious. The tools

that you bring from yoga are the tools that you're going to bring to Fifi.

I think it kind of works.

in a very interesting place because your desire and your ability to accept

physical affection from her right now are pretty limited because of the

allergies and the fear that you bring a little bit. Leslie really needs to

understand and also internalize that she has to approach the cat the way she

approaches her practice of yoga in a centered, relaxed, grounded way.

You know, one thing that we haven't spoken about at all is the fact that she

loved being out on that balcony. Oh, she loves it. Yeah.

Cats are either tree dwellers, meaning they like to be up on things, surveying

the domain, or they're bush dwellers. They like to be down low with all four

feet touching the ground at all times. Hearing that Fifi used to like to perch

on the very edge of Dave's balcony tells me straight up that she is a tree

dweller. I want Dave and Leslie to construct an enclosed patio area, a

that Fifi has a safe...

place to get up on things, be the tree dweller that she is, live the life she's

supposed to live.

Okay, I mean, we don't have a lot of space out to work with, so really it's

about a little bit of shelving, a little bit of ways that she can hop up.

Sea over. We got birds in the trees. We got some squirrels on the ground.

You know, that kind of thing. Sure.

We're going to give her some places to graze out there.

And really, it would be an amazing place not only for her to hang out, but for

you to be able to breathe a little bit better. I totally see where Jackson is

coming from. I definitely want to apply what he said and see what happens. So

that's kind of where I'm at right now. My action plan for Dave and Leslie is,

first, build that catio.

Give Fifi a safe and elevated place to own.

Secondly, address Leslie's allergies.

Bathe and brush Fifi regularly and get an air filter.

Lastly, Dave and Leslie have to start taking a long, hard look at their own

energy that they bring to this cat.

Dave's got to stop roughhousing with her.

Leslie has got to drop all the stress and tension that she brings to this cat

every time she sees her.

Last week, I left Dave and Leslie with a list of homework, as well as a video

camera, so they could document their progress for me. They emailed me some

footage, and I saw some good things, and I saw some not so good things, but I'm

really eager to talk to them about everything.

Hey, Jack. How are you? Good seeing you. Good. How are you? Good. Come on in.

So, how are you guys?

Great. Yeah? Yeah.

Good. We're better.

We're definitely better.

Optimistic? Cautiously optimistic.

That's fine.

That's fine. I feel better around her. Great. And I think she's feeling a

better around me.

I just want to note what just happened. She walked by here a second ago, and as

compared to the last time I was here, you didn't do the leg twitch.

I think Fifi...

has seen that Leslie's put a lot of effort into things this week. We took

together jointly to get her nails clipped. I think since we've gotten her

clipped that I feel a little bit less scared. Right. Just being around her

okay, it's not going to hurt as bad. So when she has scratched me, it hasn't

been nearly what it was. Yeah, exactly.

What about at the groomer, were you able to bathe her too?

We bathed her ourselves. We actually attempted it ourselves.

We are about to attempt to give Bebe the bath.

As you can see, we lit some candles and incense.

We tried to set the mood for last Bebe, so hopefully it'll

work out. It's actually not that bad.

Yeah, she looks like she's getting into it.

I love it. No, seriously, I do love it. I mean, that's fantastic.

So the next thing I want to get to is the handling. What you wind up doing is

you start going from play to roughhousing to

food. It's like trying to eat breakfast and brush your teeth at the same time.

If you're going to commit to play, you commit to play. If you're going to

to rest.

You commit to rest.

You know, I really need to see Dave play with Fifi again because I really need

to point out exactly what he's doing wrong.

Like, just grab her and play with her and just kind of throw her around.

And then she'll, like, try to bite me back. And I go, no, you can't bite me.

You can't bite me.

Yeah, you like that?

You like that?

And then...

I know my cat, and I swear she likes that. What Dave is doing wrong by

roughhousing with Fifi, he's showing her that arms and feet are appropriate

toys, so of course she's going to play with them at every chance she gets.

The catio is another important outlet for Fifi, but right now it's just a

screened -in porch.

I need to show Dave and Leslie how exactly to make a catio out of this.

would like to do, I want to try something different. I want to take this

and I'd like to put it out on the catio.

Any patio can be a catio, but without enough places to perch and explore, it's

just a big cage.

Uh -oh. We have chair.

We have semi -lift -off.

Most people think that cats sleep all day, which is just a fallacy. What they

all day is what she's doing right now.

Now this is where she's going to hang.

She's grooving right now. She is. Look, she's up. She's poppy up there.

This is where she's going to find her peace.

We are so lucky. You guys are so lucky. As soon as levels were present for her,

the scratcher in that chair, she was up. She was looking outside.

The world was open and inviting, and it became Cat TV immediately.

I'm seeing these little small steps with...

Fifi with Leslie and Fifi that are really giving me hope to kind of make

want to keep Fifi and that she's going to be a part of our lives forever.

Look, I'm not saying that I'm completely willing to just let Fifi, you know,

into our lives. But I will say this, that her behavior has kind of changed my

perspective on things.

And, you know, we'll see what happens.

What I'm really hoping to find today is a better behaved Fifi, obviously, but

also Leslie having embraced Fifi's behavior and her personality, and Dave

able to relax that he's not going to have to choose between his girlfriend

his cat.

Come on in. Great.

Hey, Dave. Hey, Jackson. How are you? Great to see you, man. Great to see you.

Come on in.

I have something to show you over here. Amazing.

This is amazing.

Fifi Fantasy Forest. This is outstanding.

This is amazing.

And look, it even has a little bird. It has a little bird there for Fifi's

predatory instincts.

I put Dave out there sometimes.

It's absolutely amazing. I love what you've done having some cat grass down

there for her to graze on.

I'm really happy. I mean, you guys followed through. You listened.

And Fifi loves it. She spends a lot of time out there, which is nice.

For you.

Yeah, no, it's great.

Fifi's out there. And it's a little bit more airy. You know, we keep the door

open and she comes in and out when she pleases. And look at this.

Fifi has been giving Leslie love.

In that moment where Fifi walked up and she pet Leslie, that shows confidence,

it shows comfort, it shows ownership of territory, which Leslie's a part of. And

Leslie went along with it. It was really nice to watch.

We got her these little, well, I bought her these little mice so she can stalk

the mice.

You bought her toys. I bought her toys. I bought her treats.

Things are so much easier here now with her.

Allergies are, I would say, at least like 85 % better.

The air filter has helped immensely as well. I think just for Dave and I, I

mean, the way we're kind of interacting now and addressing some difficult

situations that... Before, we'd kind of brush under the rug because we didn't

want to stir the pot.

And now we're kind of like, okay, we have a problem.

Let's talk about it. Let's compromise, which I think that's been the biggest

thing is compromise.

And, you know, the thing is that really most of the time there's a relational

problem underlying the furry problem.

All right, guys, I'm absolutely loving what I'm hearing from you right now.

I'd love to see a little bit more interaction.

Aw. Good girl.

What used to happen was when we were sitting on the couch, Fifi would kind of

climb up under the couch and swat at Leslie's ankles, scratch us just out of

nowhere, come up behind us on the back and scratch us in the head. And that

doesn't happen anymore. Here, jump up here.

A little treat for you.

Look at how natural she is up there. Mm -hmm.

Come on.

Does she spend much time just sort of looking at the world right now? Yeah,

loves to get out there and look around at the world and see what's out there,

and then I kind of lead her down through here.

See, see. Hey, look.

I love the way that you've learned, the way that you lead her to things. The

knowledge of your cat right now is really kind of, it makes me proud.

Well, you really taught that I need to respect her and her wishes and not force

her to do things. Right.

Fifi's a really independent cat, so she's going to do what she wants to do,

I've noticed that her anxiety levels come way down. And she can relax when

in the room, which we didn't see before.

I'm really grateful to Jackson because, one, he helped solve an issue we were

having that was causing a lot of tension.

And also, Fifi's much happier.

And just to see her on her cat perch looking down, it's almost like she's a

of the household and she's there protecting us.

rather than she's the predator.

When I first met Fifi, she was scratching and biting Dave and Leslie,

terrorizing them in their own home.

Now she has this great new relationship with Leslie. She doesn't lash out

unpredictably anymore, and she seems to have found her place in the world.

Instead of swiping at your ankles, she is up in her catio looking at the world.

It's so amazing to see.