Original subtitles

City the kitty scares me because I know that if he can get close enough to me,

he will attack me.

When he attacks Missy, we're really afraid he's going to kill her.

Get down!

Fat kitty!

Fat kitty!

Mad Max, he's the neighborhood bully.

Max goes around to the neighbor's houses and beats up their cats.

And we're expecting our first baby right now. I'm definitely terrified.

Max scratches our baby.

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 guardians.

When relationships are at an end... I feel like I have to choose between my

friends. ...and cat guardians have reached their emotional limit... It's

of the line. ...I'm their last hope.

I think your fear feeds the dynamic between the two of you. Cats have nine

lives, but humans only have one.

right now to laurie and shauna they sent me in a video and i'm telling you this

is like walking into the lion's den whoa this guy is completely ferocious

oh oh oh i'm

shauna i'm laurie and we've been dating for two and a half years we met online

and just clicked really well

City the kitty is a very interesting cat. We think he's Bengal -Mank's mix,

he showed up just out in front of the house just over two years ago. We

going to keep him because we already had another cat, Missy.

We tried to give him away. We tried to find where he came from, and we had no

luck. And eventually we fell in love with him and started taking pictures of

every day. He started posing and doing amazing things.

Yeah, we thought, well, he's meant to be in this house.

Siddy the kitty scares me because I know that if he can get close enough to me,

he will attack me.

And it's happened numerous times.

He jumps with, like, his claws and his teeth spared. Like, he wants to cause

damage. He attacks Missy.

When he attacks Missy, we're really afraid he's going to kill her.

City the Kitty is a source of argument for us. I'm the one that's always trying

to take care of the fights.

With City the Kitty and Missy...

Shawna never asked me how she can help deal with City the Kitty and his

behavioral problems. Never? No.

You never ask?

That's not true. That I'm getting in trouble. I play with him and stuff.

Well, you play with him, but you don't give me ideas on how to make him a

cat.

I believe that the cats should be able to work it out themselves.

Because, you know, animal kingdom and stuff. So basically you don't know what

do, but you're yelling at me.

To try to tell me that at least I'm trying to do something, but that it's

working. But it's raising my blood pressure, what you do, so.

Well, maybe if you got up and helped me, it wouldn't raise your blood pressure.

The safety of Missy and myself is at stake right now. I can't look at my

pet and think, he wants to kill me.

Even though it may hurt you, and even though he scares you, he...

has come into our lives for a reason. I think eventually someday he's going to

be there to be able to change the world in different ways for the better.

So I think truly it's because we feel there's a whole reason in this.

Hey.

Hey, how's it going?

I'm Jackson. Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Shauna. Hey, Shauna. Money. Thanks.

Hi, Jackson. I'm Lori.

Hey, Lori. Good to meet you.

My first impression of Jackson, I really like his energy that he brings.

I can relax.

Somebody's going to take care of us now.

We have a cat that kind of attacks our other cat. As soon as he came in, he

started to sort of establish something with Missy. They growled a lot and

at each other and attacked.

Has she been injured by him?

Nothing serious. You haven't seen blood? No. What about your story with him?

Yeah, he likes to attack me. But not you? But not her. No, I've established

I think he knows that I'm kind of more putting him in his place. The

other thing that I do is I'll go, I'll get some butter, and I'll rub

it on his back.

Still licking the butter off.

There was a couple at the event, they were like, if you need to go to bed and

leave the cats out, we just rub our cat down with butter.

Is that where we got it? Yeah, that's where we got it. It actually works? Yes,

but it only buys time.

Plus, there's this one other thing where he actually might see getting buttered

as... I love just saying that.

Getting buttered as reward.

In all my years of working with cats, I've never seen anybody butter their

I mean, it sends the wrong message. It means he can get away with anything he

wants to do. It's crazy.

I mean, it's like if you covered me in whipped cream, right?

I mean, I would spend the next half hour going, oh, the whipped cream, what did

I do right? I haven't actually seen him up close and personal, but breed -wise,

he's kind of crazy looking. Yeah, the Bengal mank -mank.

You're not even sure?

Yeah, with the short tail and polydactyl, too. He has extra thumbs.

And the Bengal part? And he looks like a leopard kind of.

Well, I mean, he's part wild animal like the Bengal. Well, he is. He doesn't

hiss, but he breathes weird. When there's animals outside the door, he

Huffing like a big cat?

What's he doing to you guys?

I think the main thing is that if I hear the fight, then I go run and try to...

intercept it, try to change it. When she yells, it... I don't like that. It

makes me feel tense and icky. I don't know exactly why City the Kitty is

attacking Shauna, but he also launches himself at her throat when she's

standing. That's something I haven't dealt with before. Shauna, come on in

me for a second.

All right.

I'm a little confused.

Yeah.

I want to see you and him together.

Okay. I just want to see that you...

Well, you're already a little... Just tell me, show me what you guys are like

together.

He's like that.

What I want to see is you try to manipulate him a little bit. So he's on

bed. He's not supposed to be on the bed.

Show me what he does.

Ready?

Okay,

one more time.

So the idea is I got to get you off the bed.

Ow. Yes, it is.

I hear he got you.

Ow.

Ow. Ow.

Ow.

Ow.

Damn it.

So now you're a little freaked out by the... Yeah, a little bit.

I think your fear...

feeds whatever this thing is.

So we're going to find constructive ways to release this circle between the two

of you guys.

Here's the thing about Bengals and people who are attracted to Bengals is

they're attracted to that wild side. They want to see Wildcat, and then they

don't know what to do with it. And I can tell you that that's how City the Kitty

wound up on the street in the first place. But I need to see City the Kitty

Missy together, and that'll help me to understand the whole picture.

Big red flag area right here. And I'll tell you why. Right now she's trapped

herself.

There's no getting out of there.

He's got all the power in the world.

So that's why she's hissing. She's only hissing because she's trying to send a

message that, you know, she's back up. You know what I mean? But she has no

She's stuck there. What we're going to be working on with him is structuring

play to the point where he's exhausted every night.

And if he's not exhausted every night and he starts doing the things that he's

doing with you guys, it's on you at that point because I'm telling you, he could

kill her.

I'm hopeful yet skeptical that Jackson will be able to fix the situation

City the Kitty and Missy because... Because he's not like a normal cat. No,

not. I guess he's not. I mean, I guess he's not a normal cat.

I've been around enough. I guess, you know, that bangle thing in him is kind

crazy and wild and...

I want to see constructive ways that we can use this energy.

One thing we do is we actually take City for a walk.

On a harness and just down the street?

Yeah, he loves it. He goes out there on a leash and walks pretty well. One of

the things I love is when I think to myself, these guys should really take a

for a walk, and I ask them and they already do it. They know what they need

certain degree.

He walks wonderfully on the leash.

Yeah, it took a while. First, he would not walk at all. Come on, buddy.

Come on.

Lori doesn't want him to go more than four houses down.

That's not really functional.

What I'd like to do is I want to expand, actually, how far you go with him. You

know, his natural range would be about six of these square blocks.

Six of these blocks would belong to him, and he would spend the entire day.

following the sun around your neighborhood.

That's so far and dangerous, though.

But that's his nature. Yeah. So the fact that you can even halfway replicate

that will give him confidence and drain his energy in a positive way.

I feel like if he tries to get off the leash and he's super far away, you know,

he may run away forever. So I try to keep him in his little safe area.

it's probably my safe area.

That's my idea. Yeah.

Okay.

This usually does the trick, at least inside.

So I brought out my feathered bird toy, which mimics air prey perfectly, just

like a bird. And it plays into a Bengal's need to expend energy and jump.

Oh, hello.

Oh, hello.

There we have it.

Give me some more, Bubba.

With a cat like him, you're going to see the second wind. You're going to see

the third wind. You've got to follow these winds until he can't do it. So

going to happen?

is that with every win that he has, you're going to have diminishing

So first we had about a five -minute crazy play session.

This time you might get two minutes out of him. Then he's going to relax again.

Then you're going to get 30 seconds out of him. Then he's done.

The level of energy in a Bengal may be hard to understand for a lot of people.

They have a constant need to move, to hunt, to scope, to jump. They need to

jump. They need to scout from high up. They have this incredible jungle energy

built into their genetics. And if you're not working with that energy, you're

working against that energy.

So let me give you guys some homework for the week. I want you to be working

his energy. I want you to be dealing with not only draining the energy out of

him, but doing it creatively.

Walking. Lori, that seems like it's kind of your arena, so I'd like you to keep

doing that. But also, take him further. You know, really, go as far as he wants

to go. I wanted to make sure that I gave you his special toy. All right. Oh,

thank you.

Wow.

That's something that I want him playing with every single day.

I'd like you to be in charge of playtime with the toy.

And the reason is I want the activity to happen outside your body. He sees your

body as being that release point, and I want the release point to be a good five

feet away. Okay. The last thing I need you guys to do is video journal and do a

lot of it and send it in to me, okay? Well, I'm hoping that with the

that Jackson gives us, she'll be doing more of the taking control of it since

the bad behavior is directed at her.

So now, it's all in her hands.

Jackson to the last resort.

I'm heading in for my second visit with Lori and Shauna right now, and I want to

see if they've made any progress, because really, I'm still pretty

about the attacks that I've seen on Shauna and... Yeah!

Hi,

good to see you.

I'm really excited for Jackson to see what we've been doing. I'm confident

we're doing well, but I would like his expert opinion.

What I want to do is I've got the footage that you guys shot from your

journal and I want to go over it with you.

He loves that new toy. He killed it officially last night. Good.

That's what we like.

Destruction on things that should be destroyed as opposed to you. When I gave

Lori and Shauna homework about playing with City the Kitty, they took that to

the bank, which is what I really like to see.

Okay. Bye, guys.

This time, Shauna's taking an active role.

She's the one stepping up. She's doing a lot of activity.

She gets it now.

But Lori has more work to do on the walking with City.

And he hasn't really bit me.

Pretty damn impressive.

Let's go over it a little bit. Let's start with the good.

Obviously, his level of play is off the charts.

We found that the more we play with him, it seems like he's got more energy.

Yeah, well, no, this is who he is. I loved what I saw between him and Missy.

You're not seeing that look that...

where he's getting wound up watching her be in action, and he wants a piece of

her. I mean, we're still in the discovery phase of the city.

Obviously, with the walking, one thought that struck me... I'm just totally

reading your face right now. I know, really.

Tell me what's going on.

It just seems so far like there's all this danger out there, like dogs and...

Well, he does get spooked sometimes.

But he's on the leash.

Well, he flew through the air. One time he got spooked and he literally jumped

like four feet in the air. Luckily, I was holding on pretty tight. He went

flying. But I feel like even if we did accidentally let go, it would be easy to

get him again.

Yeah. That's what I feel. Because, I mean, the leash is pretty long and I

feel like he would get too far.

Get it done. Because I'd love to see by the time I come back here next time.

that you guys are doing circles, that you're doing blocks, because it is that

important that you acclimate and that he acclimates to a longer walk. It's that

important. Sean seemed really committed to the homework while Lori didn't really

follow through with the walking. Now I really want to see Sean in action with

City. Let's go see him. All right, cool. Let's do it.

How is it with you getting him on and off the bed? I've actually had some

success there. I grabbed him and, like you did, I grabbed him by the scruff of

the neck and then grabbed him underneath and just calmly put him down outside.

Didn't hold him for too long when I did that. I just grabbed him, put him down.

Get him off the bed.

All right.

I just want to watch to see how you do it.

Good boy.

I'm really proud of Shauna. She's putting her fear aside and bringing more

confidence to her interactions with him. I still think there's adjustments I

need to make with her, but really a fantastic improvement. When you walked

me, you went like this, and then you did one pet, and then you started going for

the grab, and there it is. Right. Right? I'm going to say hi to him, just eyes

and mouth, right?

City the kitty.

What are you doing, city the kitty?

Come on.

You're down.

So let's talk a little bit about your fear level now. I feel like I have more

tools at my disposal to diffuse the situation and not let him jump at me. So

feel a lot more in control and a lot better for my, you know, not being

Your sanity? Yeah.

Well, listen, I mean, there's still something there.

So I got a surprise.

Let's go ahead and take a look. Okay.

Okay.

This is what I got you guys. It is your city wheel.

We're going to get him in there.

And it's actually, it was invented because Bengals tend to run people into

ground. So this is sort of a Bengal wheel. I say, let's get him on this

Right now, all we're doing is getting him sitting there.

Good, good.

There you go.

Look at him go.

Go, buddy.

He's got to get used to this a little more.

Come on, sweetie.

You see how he's still kind of gripping on? All right.

That was great. Remember, the wheel is a great tool, but it's just one more tool

in your toolbox that we've been building, okay? The cat wheel is a great

have in your toolbox with a bangle, but it's not enough. It just gets that basic

exercise in.

Now, I don't usually do this.

But I want to do homework with you guys today.

We're all going to take City for a walk together.

We need to.

This is not about what she wants.

This is about what he needs. He needs to get out into that neighborhood. He

needs to walk around. And she's letting her fear dictate what he gets to do. And

if she doesn't walk him farther, they're going to continue to have the same

problems they've had.

And now it's time for a kiddie bit.

A cat's heart beats how many times per minute? A, 60, B, 140, or C, 220?

Find out after the break.

A cat's heart beats how many times per minute?

The answer is B, 140, and that's twice as fast as a human's.

Come to me.

This is our magic spot.

I decided to go on the walk with them and start homework with them today

because, to be completely honest, I didn't trust Lori to do it. She didn't

last time. Why would she do it this time? So I just wanted to make sure that

was there to push her past that initial point of comfort today.

Now, well, tell me, what is your normal turn back point? We just turn around

right here at this greenhouse.

The greenhouse? The greenhouse. You ready? That's it. We're going past the

greenhouse. Let's go. We're going way past the greenhouse.

There are certain breeds that need to go for walks.

Bengals need to go for walks. And Bengals possess so much energy, and this

great way for them to vent that energy in a constructive way.

We are now passing the greenhouse. Yes, we are.

I'm here. For reals, we're going further this time. I know. He looked up like,

are you sure?

I think Jackson wanted to hold my hand a little bit.

He wanted me to see that nothing's going to happen to City and that it's going

to be a positive experience.

I'm about to go in for my third visit with Shawna, Lori, City, the Kitty, and

Missy.

Yeah, come on in.

Come in. And I'm really hoping to find that they've...

attacked every part of the homework. Hey. Hey, Jackson. How are you guys?

Good, how are you?

I'm great.

Now, this would be the scene of the first time I was here. That's right.

things were kind of ugly.

Let's have you pick him up. Just put him on the bed. I just want to see you take

him away from that area.

Yeah, that's right.

He talked to you.

The way I approach City is much different now, too.

pick him up and put him down like I'm not afraid of him anymore. The

of all the things that Jackson's having us do has really given me the confidence

to know how to deal with City. I'm just loving what I'm seeing. I mean, she just

looks completely relaxed.

How freaking cool is this?

Okay, so you just saw how close they got, where in the past, he would have

redirected that aggression onto her, or she would have run and provoked.

Look at that. Wow. I want to make sure you guys get how insane that is after

amount of weeks that you've been working. It's comforting to see that

terrorized and she's not upset. And she actually, I think she kind of likes him

now. Today, I'm seeing so much better Kat. And it's all because his energy is

being channeled in a proper way.

Overall, you guys have done amazing work, and I think he's the better for

And, of course, Missy is ten times the better for it as well.

Jackson has been a wonderful

help. He's been a great presence, and it's been a pleasure working with him.

Thank you, Jackson.

You pick it out, buddy.

That's funny.

City the kitty.

Thank you.

We're expecting our first baby right now. I'm definitely terrified if Max

scratches our baby.

The one thing Kelly and I fight about seems to be Max.

If I have to make the choice between Mad Max or my baby, I'm going to have to go

with the baby.

I'm going over to Ned and Kelly's house right now.

They said they're expecting their first child.

Max, you got to come out.

And they need help. This cat is vicious.

Hi, I'm Ned. And I'm Kelly. We've been married for almost three years, and

actually expecting our first baby right now.

Mad Max is my special little cat.

I got him pre -Ned.

He was just this teeny little thing, and I could tell that he'd been abused.

I picked him up, and it was love at first sight, and brought him home, and

that's when all hell broke loose.

Max, you got to come out from under there.

He's trashed our house when we were out of town. He's been peeing in our sinks.

He's the neighborhood bully.

Max goes around to the neighbor's houses and beats up their cats.

He'll claw open our screen door.

climb up the trellis like a ladder, claw the neighbor's screen door open.

And then our neighbors terrify him.

My biggest concern is the baby getting suffocated by Max.

I'm definitely terrified if Max scratches our baby or smothers our baby.

Kelly and I never fight about anything, but the one thing we fight about seems

to be Max. If I have to make the choice between Mad Max or my baby, I'm going to

have to go with the baby.

I just really hope it's a choice we don't have to make.

This is literally the biggest thing we've ever fought about, and we have to

figure this out.

We have a couple months to go until the baby's here.

We don't have a lot of time. We now have a deadline.

When a family goes through changes in their life, everyone, including their

needs to learn how to adjust.

Good to meet you. Come on in. Hey. Hi, I'm Kelly.

Hey, Kelly.

Yeah, sure.

Mad Max, that's his actual name? He started as Max, and over time as he's

crazier, we've named him Mad Max.

A lot of the bad behavior is trying to escape to the neighbor's house and get

over into their patios. They literally pull their screen door open, go into

their house, and then attack their cats or their kids. The kids, too? Yeah, and

my wife is four months along, and there's concern there of getting

Yeah, he sleeps on my chest a lot. I'm worried about him being jealous. I'm

spending a lot of time with the baby that he'll lash out at the baby.

Wow, okay.

And because he goes into the neighbor's houses and bites their kids, we've kept

him inside, which has made him worse.

So this tends to thwart Max. He'll claw at the screen. How did you even discover

that? What is that thing?

I think the noise. The noise is what works. And that's what we have to do if

he's trying to get out the screen door and stuff.

Oh. So when you shoot at him, he stays away? No, he'll run away, and 30 seconds

later, he's back clawing at the screens. And we'd like to let him go on this

back patio, but again, he's hopping over into the neighbors.

So you guys built something out there?

This is our fifth or sixth version of, we call it the Max Penitentiary. I'm

really curious to see what it looks like, though. Come on, let's go take a

What is this thing? It is half home and garden, half Alcatraz.

This is a cat, not a criminal. How in the hell is he getting over that?

Oh, climb up.

Oh, I see. You can see his outline right there.

It's really interesting that you guys describe it as Max Penitentiary because

the whole vibe of the approach to Max is based around restraint.

It's almost the energy of control as opposed to what I would love to try to

explore with you guys, which is an opening.

What can we do to open the world to him?

I would actually just like him to be a cat and just do his thing.

The problem is our neighbors.

What happens if the problems continue?

First, we get fined, and if it's not resolved and Mad Max continues to harass

our neighbor, they'll complain, and then we'll be told we have to get rid of

him. And if we don't get rid of him because I'm not getting rid of my cat,

get evicted.

You know, a 45 -degree angle is going to stop any cat. It's actually true. So a

45 -degree angle basically ensures that when a cat goes to jump over something,

they're going to see it coming directly over their head. So he's going to stop,

he's going to go to make that jump, he's going to see that it comes out over his

head, and he's just not going to go for it. It's over. That's just invigorating

to me, to know I won't have to deal with this trellis anymore.

But that being said, I still want to spend some time with him. Yeah. Good.

Well, let's go meet him. All right, let's do that. All right.

Oh, you're not happy with me, are you?

Kelly,

do you tend to... Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Let's talk about that moment.

You see the way he's sitting right now, the way that tail is going?

He's controlling that area.

So if I walk here and I try to control this area, all of the signs that he's

giving me right now, if I went for a touch right now, I would get... See it?

See it?

I know. I'm sorry, buddy.

I'm sorry.

What I want to show you is that that's predictable.

He's just misdirected. He needs to have a funnel for his energy.

And I'm going to give that to him.

You've got to be a little hungry.

Hi. So I go in the room to have some time alone with Max, and as soon as I

in there, I touched something I shouldn't have touched. Good morning.

said, hey, hey, don't touch that.

I said, fine.

Good boy.

Good boy, Mad Max.

I don't think I like calling you Mad Max.

How about just Mac?

Max, when he goes to swipe at you, he doesn't bare his teeth, really. This is

warning. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I don't like this.

And you need to respect that. And if you don't respect it, the next time there's

going to be claws. The next time there might be teeth.

But that's down the road.

Let's start with this.

Max.

Good boy.

Good boy.

Look at that. We're playing a little bit, and I look down, and I realize

no normal collar he's got on.

He's got a shock collar on? They were just taking a shortcut.

It's not going to work. In any more fashion than shooting that weird gun at

it's desperation.

And I have to show them that these are not desperate times, and they don't call

for desperate measures.

I want to check out your...

Habits. All right, Max.

I hear your bad areas to paint, so let's go check that out, shall we?

And there it is.

Wow. That is one nasty litter box.

If the litter box is right here, there's a sink right here, and the cat is

choosing to pee in the sink, that's because the litter box is not a very

attractive place.

You've got to tell your people a thing or two.

Ned and Kelly have settled into this routine of projectiles and pigeon

I mean, they've got this cat completely in jail.

I saw a few things that were kind of concerning to me, so let me hit those

things with you. Tell me about that shock collar.

I call it the final resort.

We don't know what else to do. Well, he doesn't have it on anymore.

Let me try anything else, because as you guys are going to find out with me,

whether it's... The shock collar, whether it's that weird little gun,

it's the squirt bottles, those things are going to just wind up getting him

and more compressed energetically until when he blows, he's going to blow big.

The second thing, in order to get Max to stop peeing in the sink, you've got to

clean his litter box.

As for your baby, that is something that we have to prepare for. Yeah.

Everything that's new. Ah.

is going to set his bells and whistles off, your parental instinct may be to

separate him. That's not what you want to do at all. You want inclusion. If you

include him safely, then it won't be something that overstimulates him, and

make sure of that.

So what we have to do is make sure that the air gets taken out of this energetic

balloon every day. Once the baby comes...

I think a lot of this is going to fall on you in terms of the upkeep in terms

play. Are you cool with that? I'm fine. Good.

Homework is we're going to make that barrier that we were talking about with

45 -degree angle.

Second thing is draining the energy out through productive things like playtime

with them. But we're not done.

Yeah, okay. We still have baby preparations to do. Yeah. Okay? And

important because I can kind of sense a little bit of nervousness about that.

That covers...

A lot of ground.

We have a lot to do.

We do have a lot to do.

Ned and Kelly are in a really serious position here, a really fragile place.

about to take a walk on over to Ned and Kelly's neighbor Clarice's house because

I hear she's being really harassed by Max, and I just want to hear the story

right out of her mouth.

How are you? Good, thanks. My name is Jackson. I'm a cat behaviorist. Hi. I'm

working with Ned and Kelly next door. You know the cat. I do know the cat,

I was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk to me, just because I'm trying

to solve the problem here, and I thought you'd be a unique perspective.

The neighbors are not happy. I'm not the only one. You know, there's just been

several occasions where Max has tormented the other neighbors. And I've

had him stalk me out in front of the house. We've kind of made eye contact,

he's actually chased me down the stairs. He scares me.

Kind of at my wit's end.

We can't have that. Let's make no mistake about this. This is a really

situation. Clarice is the only neighbor here who's willing to work this out with

Max. The other neighbors have already thrown in a towel, and they've already

notified the homeowners association.

It's been two weeks since I last saw Ned and Kelly, and I can't wait to check in

with them and see how their progress is going with Max and the fence.

Hi, Jackson.

Hi, Kelly. How are you? I'm great. How are you doing? Come on in.

Hey, nice to see you again. Nice to see you too.

Tell me about the cats. What's going on? It's getting a lot better.

I've definitely noticed that he's calmer. So we're optimistic that we're

right track.

Tell him about the fence. Yeah, I feel like a very big man now for spending the

day getting a fence up out there.

You know what? Let's go take a look. All right.

I'm excited.

And there it is.

Nice work. Yeah. Look at that. I feel like a man. You hit that 45 -degree

perfectly. And so he's basically just coming up to this, and he's like, I

do this. Yeah, he'll just come up and just sort of stare at it. I got to tell

you, man, I'm really impressed that the feeling of Max Penitentiary is gone.

Now, we have to move to the next phase.

Okay. Okay?

I need for him to have a world worth living here so that we're not waiting

months for him to strategize his jailbreak. What we need to see out here

more places to hang out. I want to see flats of grass. I want to see catnip

growing out here, things that he can chomp on and roll around in like it was

front lawn. Now, Ned, here's what I want from you right now. Last time we were

having a little bit of an issue with the holding part of this.

If you can actually grab him right now, I just want to see you petting him in

the way that we were talking about last time. Come here, Max.

Come here, buddy.

Can I pick you up?

Just pick him up. No, he doesn't want me to. Well, here, he's just going to get

agitated.

Here, let me show you.

Huh.

That's not going to work. No.

I'm still seeing Ned go to a place of frustration way too easily. I mean, when

he went down there and Max is suddenly flipping out, the tail is going, the

teeth are going. I mean, it's like chicken and the egg. Whose switch got

first? I saw some things on the video that you guys took, and if you don't

I actually want to go over it with you.

I'm going to change the kitty litter, which I've been doing every week now, as

opposed to every other week.

Why'd you shoot him?

No, seriously, be honest with me. What led to that one? You know, I was just

trying to get him away from the door. I mean, that's usually when I shoot him.

Okay. If he can put all of that energy into trying to get out of here, that

means that something's not happening in the structured playtime that we're

trying to set for him. So that's something that I still want to see some

done on. I feel like we've gotten a big gorilla off our back right now. We don't

have to worry about eviction. That's huge. We don't have to worry about

neighbors. That's huge.

Now, you guys are going to have a baby.

And I know that you had concerns. Yeah.

And I've got some solutions to your concerns. So if you just give me a

I'm going to go get them and I'll be back. Cool.

Oh,

boy.

This is why I'm here, guys. When Jackson walked in with the baby, it was a flood

of emotion.

I pretty much just froze.

It's all very real right now. Yeah, well, it is.

Introducing a cat to a baby is not like introducing a cat to another cat.

Cats need to get used to a baby on every level. That includes scent and sound.

So I have a friend who just had a baby. So the fake baby that I'm bringing in

today has a little onesie that has all kinds of scents all over it. So we can

get a head start and see how the cat can get desensitized from the first day.

Look at what we have here.

What is that?

That swipe was inches away from the baby's head. We got a big problem here.

I'm about to go in for my last visit with Ned and Kelly.

The last time I was here, I set Ned and Kelly up with a fake baby in a crib, and

at one point we put Max in the crib to see how he'd be with the baby.

He got so worked up the last time, he took a swipe at Ned an inch from the

baby's face.

It was really not the kind of result I wanted to see at all.

So I've set Ned and Kelly up with all kinds of exercises based on acclimating

Max to that baby. The video footage that they sent in to me looks really

promising.

Max is eating his food right in front of the baby.

And I'm really excited but a little nervous to see the end result. Come on

I'm really hoping they work things out.

All right, moment of truth. You guys ready?

Let's take a look.

It's usually only in the bowl.

In this one? Well, this one or that one. He's done it in both. Well, that one's

clear. Good.

You're good. You got nothing. You got nothing.

And this was happening on how regular basis? Once a week.

So your cat is not peeing in the sink anymore because you're cleaning your

litter boxes. It really helped a lot. Yeah. Because basically he was giving

a very clear sign that that is not acceptable to me.

Good work, guys. Okay.

Good.

I've seen positive results with Ned and Kelly, but they're not the only ones

being affected by Max's bad behavior. So I really wanted our neighbor Clarice to

come over to Ned and Kelly's house. Hey, Clarice.

Not as a complainer anymore, not as somebody who is afraid of Max. I really

wanted her to come into contact with Max on a positive basis.

When Jackson showed up with Clarice, she hugged me right away, and it seems like

we're in a much better place.

My end of the balcony has been very pleasant.

Okay. I want to actually go out to the balcony. Great. Go ahead.

Oh, yeah.

This side rocks, too.

They made the patio finally into a catio. He's got catnip growing on one

There's grass for him to graze on. It is now Max's world.

Isn't it nice to see him? He looks very peaceful. Just for my peace of mind,

although I think it'll help you too, if you could just give him a high. I will.

She likes getting pet on the head. Good boy.

This is certainly a first.

Yeah. It was important for Clarice to reset her relationship.

She had a negative relationship with him before. Now she could start from

scratch, and it was great.

Thank you for resolving the problem.

Good work. Thank you. Right now I just feel a big sense of relief knowing I'm

not going to have to go out there next weekend and try and deter Max some other

way. So let's start talking about what else we have here.

What I want to do is bring the crib back over here and get Mr. Max and let's see

what happens.

I just want to see how accustomed he is to it.

All right. Let's do it. So now this was a huge moment. I wanted to put Max in

the crib with the baby and see how he responded.

There he is.

What do you think, buddy?

Love it.

It's great.

This is one of those big moments that I hope you're appreciating because this is

what I just saw.

I just saw a very territorial cat get into a confined space with, as far as

concerned, a baby and actually give the space over.

To the baby. This time around, because of the work that they've done, because

the dedication they put into these exercises, it was absolutely amazing.

body language was completely relaxed.

He could have sat there all day. It was the kind of result that I live for. He

just formed a language with the baby in that amount of time.

This, for me, is a humongous relief.

Just to be able to see it and how it's actually playing out gives me a lot of

peace of mind.

There you go. That's the important thing. Well, it was great. It was great

working with you. I think you guys are wonderful.

It's definitely a weight off my shoulders.

With Jackson's help, we've found a new way to live.