Original subtitles

The boss is attacking me every single night.

Justin thinks it's funny.

Because it is funny. That's hilarious.

That's actual paint.

You're like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

We have two cats, Pepper and Olive.

Olive is like all murder all the time.

It just makes me really sad.

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.

Oh, hello. 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 don't have many more options than to

leave. ...and pet guardians have reached their emotional limit... Just get rid

of her. ...I'm their last hope.

Are you all right?

Sorry, I don't know. Cats have nine lives, but humans only have one.

I get calls from cat guardians all over the country looking for help. This time,

I'm on the East Coast to help out some desperate couples who've run out of

options with their cats.

I'm going over right now to see Justin, Suzanne, and their Bengal cat, Mufasa.

Mufasa loves Justin, hates Suzanne.

No!

I've got to restore some balance to this house, that's why I'm going over right

now.

I'm Justin. I'm Suzanne.

We've been dating for three years now. We just moved in together, and we live

here in New York.

We have a Bengal cat named Mufasa. He's two years old. He was an anniversary

gift for Suzanne.

Because I am an awesome boyfriend.

It was great. You know, she loved him. We loved him.

You started attacking me.

Every night, his tail gets...

Really puffy. He crouches down, and then I know I'm in for it.

Mind you, he doesn't do it to me.

Hey, buddy.

Just hanging out.

He thinks it's funny. Because it is funny. That's hilarious.

It's rude, but he just laughs at it.

It's a shame because if it wasn't for...

The arguments over Mufasa, I feel like we'd be a lot happier.

Our situation's pretty bad. I

mean, you know, he's attacking her, he's peeing on the floor.

He attacks other animals, and we'd be arguing a whole lot less if it wasn't

Mufasa. Any animal, this is the jack.

I feel like sometimes we can't focus on our relationship and just having fun

with each other because we're worrying about what the cat's going to do. So I'm

hoping Jackson can fix this situation because I don't want to get rid of

and I don't want it to escalate to the point where we feel like we have to.

Hey. Oh.

Jackson. What's going on, Justin?

Yeah, Justin. Hey, Justin. Hi.

Hey. How you doing? Please take a seat. Okay, I will.

Bufasa, you've met your match.

Hopefully. All right, so tell me, why am I here?

Well, basically, around 8 o 'clock every night, he literally circles me like a

shark. Then he attacks me, and it's only me. It's like, almost like clockwork.

Have the attacks been bad?

Yeah, and it really hurts.

And Justin thinks it's funny, but if it happened to him, it wouldn't be funny

anymore. So, it happens to you, you get attacked, you're like, ow, ow, ow, and

you're laughing?

I can't believe that Justin would laugh while Suzanne's getting all ripped up. I

don't even know where to take that. It's frustrating because there are days

where he's not at work and all I ask him to do is play with Mufasa. So that way

when I come home, he won't attack me. But when I do come home... I can

tell whether or not Justin played with him.

I do play with him, but she doesn't like the way I play with him. You know,

like, I'll get on the ground like I'm a cat, and we'll just be, like, kind of

wrestling around a little bit. And he likes it. He enjoys it.

Mufasa's a Bengal, which means he has a lot more energy than other cats.

So, playing rough with your hands the way Justin does not only overstimulates

this Bengal, but teaches him that it's okay to attack.

That's why it's important to use interactive cat toys instead.

Now... My problem with Mufasa is he's got a pee problem, and he's doing it

by the dining room table. And it's just, it's really, it's a huge annoyance. So

now it starts affecting you a little bit. Yeah. Good.

No, and I always say that because now we've got equal investment.

Anything else I need to know before we get started?

Well, Mufasa attacks other cats or dogs.

He attacks dogs. A lot of my neighbors have dogs. He actually attacked a... A

Rottweiler. You are so lucky that that cat's alive because that's a second, and

that cat is in that dog's mouth. That's incredible.

We're dealing with an extremely aggressive cat, so it's actually a

thing that I came here because I don't know how long he would have survived if

he didn't get some help. So the next thing we do is start walking me around

fossil territory so we can put a picture together, okay?

All right. Now let's do it.

This is actually his pee spot. He pees right here, right here, and that wire.

Okay. Now, over here, he would just hang out, right? This is a prime hangout

spot. Not as much as this one. And speak of the devil. Yeah. So he just sits

there and he hangs out and watches the world go by. Ooh, what's that about?

Did you see that? Yeah. It looked like he got scared of something. Of

We got to know what's going on in your neighborhood, and I think it's a really

important component. After seeing Mufasa's urine pattern and seeing him

at the window, I think it's safe to say this is a territorial problem. This is

Mufasa saying to something outside, hey, this is my space here. So, bedroom.

Justin, let's see what you do with him.

Oh, I kind of tussle with him? Yeah. I'm usually on the floor.

Let's see.

Come on.

I mean, how could you not feel bad for Suzanne? I mean, there's Justin just

riling this cat up, and he's just got this disconnect. He doesn't get it. And

Suzanne is sitting there in fear, waiting to get all beat up. And you feel

for her because, you know, she's right. I want to see you play the way you

normally do. And you just come out just like you do in your normal play.

Nice.

He loves, loves, loves this.

He'll chase it anywhere.

Whoa, nice one. At some point, put the toy away.

Let's see what happens if you just take it away while he's in mid -crazy.

Okay.

He's ready to attack me. Oh, he's ready.

Oh, my God.

Oh, no, he's coming.

I'm really scared, though.

It really hurts when he does it.

You're a little... Are you all right? Sorry, I don't know.

As Suzanne was being attacked, I could see for the first time all day that

Justin maybe had a little sympathy for her. She's genuinely scared, and maybe

he's finally understanding that this isn't a joke.

Okay, saw a lot of stuff today.

Now, territorially, he's highly threatened, and that's what we're seeing

here in this wall. The pee...

Clearly. Not only are we seeing territorial aggression, we're also

Bengal play energy.

I think that the attacks can be prevented, but he is the work that

to do with him has to happen every day.

Every day. All right? So you guys ready for homework?

Yeah. All right. For your part of play, no more hands. I know you love it, but

you're teaching Mufasa to attack.

So I would like you to start exploring how to train a cat. The way I want you

start exploring it is, I want you to take that window seat over there, and I

want you to get him on that window seat.

Get him up there. Treat.

Great. Get him down again.

Up and then down.

Okay? Repeat.

Okay. The next part is every day he goes for a walk outside.

Every single day.

The last part of this is you adopted a hybrid cat. He is conditioned to do one

thing. He wakes up, and he goes hunt, catch, kill, eat.

So you get home. Toy comes out. Play, play, play.

When he's done, that goes away, and I want you to find something to feed him

then. It's the only chance that you have to be in control of the situation.

So there's a lot of stuff to do. This is the hard work right now, okay?

Jackson gave us some tools to help Mufasa, but I'm just worried that it's

to be temporary.

I'll be back soon, and we'll pick it up again, okay?

All right, great. I don't feel great leaving this couple.

I mean, this is a cat with a lot of issues, and based on the tension I'm

between the two of them, I just don't see them being able to fix this problem.

mean, I hope I'm wrong.

Be good.

I'm going in for my second visit with Justin, Suzanne, and their silver Bengal

Mufasa. The last time I was here, Suzanne was... running around the room

screaming because Mufasa was trying to attack her. Even if we have just a

bit of progress on that front, we have something to work with. But I have no

idea what to expect.

What's going on, dude?

Oh, not much. How you doing?

Hi, how are you?

Now, you've got to remember, Mufasa's a Bengal.

If you thought it was hard enough to get just a normal domestic cat to do what

you wanted them to do, try doing it with a Bengal. I came back here for good

news. Give me something. How have things been? Things have been really good.

Mufasa, we've seen some good stuff.

Some other stuff has to change. Some other stuff?

Let's just start with the good stuff. I mean, what are you noticing?

He doesn't attack me as often. How many attacks have you had?

I would say two or three. So it's gotten, like, significantly better.

nice. I like that. And a lot of it is that Justin, I feel like, has been doing

his part.

Oh, that's fantastic.

Yeah. The last time I was here, Justin was kind of laughing this all off. So I

was actually pretty surprised that Justin came around the way he did. What

heard is fantastic.

What I want to go over with you guys is your video homework.

Okay. Let's watch.

There it is. Nice little puddle he left for me to clean up this morning.

Repeat. He definitely repeats.

For the second time today, not good enough.

The imposter's been working the up -downs and, you know, a little treat. I

that's a turkey.

Up.

Now sit.

Sit.

Sit. There we go. There we go. Get down. Sit.

There we go, buddy. He's responded very well.

Good. Amazing.

I took him fast outside for his walk, just enjoying a taste of the great

outdoors.

Okay, I was really impressed with what I saw there. I definitely see you guys

taking appropriate control of the situation.

Justin's fantastic. You're working with him so that he's not going to turn

around. and chomp her so that's that's fantastic i love seeing that now the

thing's not so great on there obviously we still got pee on the floor so we'll

focus in on that today as glad as i am that suzanne's not getting attacked

anymore it was a little disheartening to know that he was still peeing by the

wall there's got to be a reason and i'm here to find out what that reason is

what i want to do is uh i want to go for a walk you guys been on a walk ready

today no all right I want to see it. I wanted to take a walk with Mufasa

I believe that his peeing problem is territorial.

So I wanted to get out there with him, see firsthand what's causing it, and

solve it. Let's follow. Let's see where he's going.

You see how he goes right under the window?

Yeah. Right?

This is beginning to make that connection.

The thing is, the more he gets out here, he gets out here every day, this world

belongs to him. And he's going to own this just as assuredly as he owns your

home. This is about territory.

This is about ownership. If he feels like he doesn't own the home range,

just go back to his room and write his name all over the room. That's what we

don't want.

Here we go.

Wow. Look at the size of you.

Let's keep moving with him. Let him go where he wants to go. We're going to

cool for a second. We timed this.

We took this walk. We went down towards the corner down there, and this enormous

cat was just sitting there just like Fatty the Doorman.

And I think that these cats are the reason why Mufasa is insecure.

So now he's coming up to see what's the rub over here. Let's do a quick check

-in here.

How are you feeling?

I don't know what to do at this point. I see him sneaking around, and it makes

me nervous that he's going to...

I don't know. Try something.

This is when I try to, like, pull him away, but... We're going to stay cool

a second.

Suzanne is either expecting Mufasa to instigate an attack or the other two

to instigate an attack on him.

She's seen aggressive behavior before, but Mufasa needs to be challenged just a

little bit.

Let's just keep coming.

I mean, I just want to do what he wants. Oh, there.

Oh, there we go.

Right? I want to see him watch that.

Because this is what I want him to do.

Urine marking between cats is communication in the absence of a verbal

Because Mufasa is strictly an indoor cat, he's not getting a lot of time with

outdoor cats. So he's missing crucial cat social skills. That's why Justin and

Suzanne have to get him out here marking these bushes just like the other cats.

Then he won't feel the need to mark inside the house.

Let's bring it back to what's going on in your house. There's a gap in his cat

speak where this boy over here knows.

You know, if I feel like I've got to own something because you guys just walked

up to my front door, I'm just going to give it a little squirt, and now I know.

The more he watches it happen, he'll do it. This is learning language.

Jackson pointed out that this was a great first step.

Once he starts peeing outside on the bushes as opposed to our floor, then

off the hook.

So, I want to get to the homework that you guys have. The first part is going

be the practical part.

That walk happens every single day. It is so important that he goes out there,

watches those two boys, and learns that missing piece of his vocabulary, right?

So the walk has to happen every day. The playing, you continue. Just keep it up.

Now, wondering what this is?

Very much so. Basically, I started you working on something last week.

Well,

we're going to start working on today.

is I'm going to have you guys construct a cat agility course.

Bengals are so well suited for this because, remember, their energy level is

high, and you get to just get that into a funnel and get him doing things. So

let's grab our cones.

Let me show you. Come on over here.

Bengals are built for cat agility courses because their prey drive is

high, and that means they have a lot of energy to expend. So they'll keep doing

it over and over and over again, trying to learn the lesson. So we're going to

go around here.

Figure eight.

And then the next thing, we're going to lead him here. Up here, he follows me.

Oh, hello.

And then he's going to follow me over here. The reason I was called here, all

the way from Los Angeles, was because Mufasa was really putting a licking on

poor Suzanne.

So basically, the whole point of teaching this cat agility course is to

to exhaust this cat. Now, I want you guys to include hoops, tunnels, and

But the whole thing is going to be homemade.

I really want you guys to do this without spending any money on stuff, all

right? The only way Mufasa is going to get any better is if both Justin and

Suzanne do their homework.

Hey, if not, this cat's going to go back to the way he was, peeing all over the

house and attacking Suzanne, and that is no way to live. I will see you in just

a few weeks.

I expect to see this done, man. I want to see Mufasa complete this agility

course in under three minutes.

That's your challenge.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

The Bengal is a hybrid breed of cat formed by the cross of a domestic feline

which wild cat?

A, a lynx, B, an Asian leopard cat, or C, an ocelot?

Find out after the break.

Bengal is a hybrid breed of cat formed by the cross of a domestic feline and

which wild cat?

The answer is B, an Asian leopard cat.

Asian leopard cats are about the size of a domestic cat, but more slender, with

longer legs and well -defined webs between the toes to facilitate swimming

negotiating slippery riverbanks.

I'm on my way to go see Justin, Suzanne, and Mufasa for our last visit. Now, the

first time I met Mufasa, he was more than just a handful. He was attacking

Suzanne on a regular basis. He was peeing all over their house and

their relationship.

Jetson. Hey there.

What's going on, dude?

I just want to see a resolution to the point where Mufasa's energy is more

contained, more focused, and he's owning the world outside so that he doesn't

have to pee in that house anymore. So I fly all the way from California. You

better have good news for me.

Oh, well, we do have good news for you. Good, good, good. Tell me all about it.

Well, for one, he's not peeing. He's not peeing at all?

No. Yeah, he's out of the box and swim.

I think the last time you were here.

That's it?

Pretty much.

Wow. All right, then. Yeah, I take him outside. Now he's peeing on the grass.

Look, he's peeing outside.

Take the steps in the right direction.

That is so amazing.

Okay. You know, he's good with that. He's, you know, playing nice with the

cats outside.

He's lovable and he's just hanging out. He seems like just chilled out, which is

just awesome. Very nice, man.

Has he attacked you? He does not attack me at all anymore.

I didn't think that would ever happen.

Now that is amazing because it's only been a few weeks.

So cool.

The first time I met Justin and Suzanne, Suzanne was getting attacked

constantly. She's not anymore. She hasn't in quite a while. Why is that?

because Mufasa's natural energy is being drained off in a very coherent, laser

-like way, and that means he's not taking it out on Suzanne.

So, finally, you got the cat agility course.

I want to see you guys do it. I want to see all the things that you put together

and how Mufasa gets through it, okay? Okay. Come on, let's do it.

We're nervous to show Jackson the cat agility course because it's not as easy

we thought it would be. And we don't want Jackson to be disappointed because

did so well the first time around. And I just don't know if the final product is

what he expects.

We'll see.

Now, I have a timer. You've got to come in under the three -minute mark.

Okay. So you tell me when to start.

Okay. Sit and go.

And we're off. Come on.

Good kitty.

Nice jump. Good kitty. Nice jump.

See how he's got the head up? Beautiful, beautiful.

Good animal. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Good kitty.

Oh, my God. You're doing so good.

Nice, nice, nice.

Let's see the jump.

Yeah.

Through the tunnel. Through the tunnel. And stop.

You guys broke a minute on that one.

We came in at 47 seconds, which is amazing. And now we do our idle dance

I'm really scared to go. There we go. That was amazing, man. That was actually

an amazing course. I love the setup. That was an amazing little piece of work

there. Congratulations.

I was very proud of Mufasa and us for being able to do that. First of all.

You guys are not the same two people that I met. I want to give you every

of props because, you know, you made my trip worthwhile. I'm so glad.

And for you, Justin, I mean, I am incredibly impressed with your taking

and saying, what can I do, not just for this cat that I brought in that I love,

but for the woman that I love. So that's pretty amazing.

Well, I mean, you ignited the fire back in us to really, you know, get to where

we needed to be.

Mufasa is the extension of our relationship.

And, you know, he's strong, we're strong.

Right on. The couple who was at each other's throats about their cat, who was

unconfident that he paced back and forth peeing on things, attacking his people.

not part of the picture anymore because these guys loved him enough that they

said, we're putting everything else on hold and every single day we're going to

work with you because we love and appreciate you. I love and appreciate

guys because of what they've done. Take care of each other.

Take care of the boy, okay?

We adopted Pepper and Olive.

We haven't been able to leave them together for more than about 10 minutes.

Olive does not want Pepper in her home.

She is, like, all murder all the time.

Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God.

Well, it's still in New York, so I'm heading over to see Mike and Emily here

right off Times Square. They've got a cat named Olive who's trying to kill

other cat, Pepper.

So I got to get over there right now.

I'm Mike. I'm Emily.

We live together in New York City. We've been together for three years. Mike and

I met through mutual friends.

Everything's been pretty easy for us so far, minus the cat stuff.

And we are about to get married.

About a year and a half ago, we adopted two cats, Pepper and Olive.

They're both incredibly sweet and loving to us, but we haven't really been able

to leave them in the same room together for more than about 10 minutes.

Olive is the instigator.

She very clearly does not want Pepper in her home.

Every time she sees her, she tries to attack her and kill her.

Once she has her eyes set on her, she is like all murder all the time.

We have absolutely no idea what else to do. I'm worried that this is a problem

that nobody can fix, but if there's anybody who can fix it, it's Jackson

I'm on my way to see Mike and Emily, and they've got two cats at war in a tiny

New York apartment. My job here is not just to help the cats, but to help their

people as well.

Hey! I made it!

Thanks for coming all the way.

I'm really excited.

It gave me an excuse to get out of L .A. for a little bit. We are huge fans of

the show. We've seen Jackson Galaxy on the show a dozen times or however many

episodes there have been. We've been looking forward to meeting him in

Well, let's start with it then. Tell me something.

We moved in together here about a year and a half ago. We had Olive, who is the

reason you're here.

And we thought we should get her a friend, and we got Pepper, and Olive

with her.

They're never in the same room at the same time. Only when we are.

Closely monitoring them, you know, trying to get them to eat together, but

that lasts for maybe 10 minutes.

As soon as the food was done, she would turn around, stare at Pepper, and just

slowly stalk her.

They can't be together at night either, so Olive gets all upset that we're home

and not with her, so then she cries.

You know, pretty much every night, one of us ends up on the couch and sleeps

there. So we're sleeping separate.

We're getting married in a few months, and we sleep separate for the rest of

night.

Sometimes we just get really sick of having to be in separate rooms all the

time.

My sad, empty bed, as Mike is on the couch right now.

We actually enjoy spending time together.

Olive can't figure out where she wants to be. You know, she'll want to be in

bedroom, then she'll want to be out here, and she'll scratch the door and

the door and throw herself against the door. How many times a night?

Up to five or seven.

What? You're insane.

This is supposed to be the honeymoon phase of things. You're sleeping in

separate beds.

Let's go and take a walk around. All right. Let's do it. Let's go.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

This is horrible.

Right here is this vortex of ugly. New York apartments are built in this way to

sort of maximize living space. When you have two warring cats, it is a death

sentence. If one wants the other dead, then there's no escape route.

Bad juju right here as well, right?

We've got this really thin hallway. We never even thought twice about it. It

just poses a huge trouble spot when Pepper gets cornered down there.

So this is Pepper, our sweet little girl.

She is sweet little girl. Hello, sweet little tortie.

Hello, my sweet little tortie. Oh.

This is kind of her stuff?

Yeah, Pepper loves jumping from here up here.

She's a jumper.

Does Olive do the jumping onto the dressers? No, she's not as much of a

at all as Pepper. We have to play into the fact that there are things that

doesn't like that Pepper likes. She just loves to be high up, and Olive doesn't

like it.

There's a tool.

Put it in the belt.

Fights in here that have happened? There used to be fights in here. We don't let

it happen anymore because we don't like them getting under the bed where we

can't break them up.

We feel bad for Pepper because she's locked in this bedroom in the dark by

herself all day. She doesn't have a cat to play with, and it's really

depressing. I feel really bad for her that she's always got to worry about,

know, getting her behind kicked and not having a friend.

Okay, guys, so now what I need is I want to see the whole feeding ritual that

you go through, okay?

So I'm just going to stand back.

You do what you do. Okay.

Mike and Emily had told me that these two cats can actually be together during

feeding time, right near each other. This is something that I can use to help

figure out what's going on between these two cats.

So they usually ignore each other until Olive finishes her plate, and that's

when the fun starts.

Yeah, we got a little regard here, a little regard there.

She just saw Olive. Oh, God.

You see she just froze in her tracks there.

So she goes in the kitchen.

Olive is basically cutting off...

all angle right so there's no way that this one can come

out of the kitchen let's just see what we got here hey baby the worst place for

her to be yep the inevitable only happens when we have uh environmental

ends when we just run out of highway and we have run out of highway and look at

that angle she's taking oh man look at her all right so now

We got eye contact being made.

Mike and Emily have told me that the only time Olive and Pepper are in the

room together is when they're eating. Now, I know there's a chance that Olive

going to go after Pepper, but I need to see these cats do what they do during

the feeding ritual to see how these attacks begin.

This is the standoff.

But, of course, all standoffs have to end.

Someone's got to make a move. Someone's got to play chicken at some point.

Even though I couldn't really see what was going on, I could hear what was

on, and I've seen it happen so many times. That moment right before she

her is the worst, because I know it's coming.

This is a standoff, but of course all standoffs have to end.

Someone's got to make a move. Someone's got to play chicken at some point.

Even though I couldn't really see what was going on, I could hear what was

on, and I've seen it happen so many times. That moment right before she

her is the worst, because I know it's coming.

Hey,

hey, hey, hey.

Get out of here.

Get, get, get. Come here, come here.

Here, push her to me. Come here, come here.

Hi, baby.

Look at Pepper back here.

So, you all right?

I feel like they're a mom, like they're a protector.

And so when I don't get to protect them, it really, I get sad.

I adopted them. I could give them a good life.

It just makes me really sad whenever I have to see them get in that kind of

altercation.

It's hard to watch Pepper put herself in that position.

Let me just tell you what I saw today.

I saw a pretty dysfunctional environment.

We're going to figure out a way to work this, okay? Let me give you homework.

Now, the first thing is this.

I want this concept absolutely gone. What I want you to find is a better tool

than the broom.

And it's something that when the cats are about to get together, you break

sight lines.

And then you have that moment to guide them into a different reality.

This is the definition of what we don't want. Because you have to be empowered

with proactive technique.

The next thing in the bedroom, we identified that Pepper likes height.

Olive could care less about the vertical world. If that's true, we need to

really start thinking about the vertical world, right?

And finally...

Please start sleeping together again.

I love being able to say that.

But the thing is, when Oliver's out here, she's going to make noise, and you

not going to respond to the temper tantrum. Let it pass. It will pass,

Don't feel guilty because you've got a lot of work ahead of you.

You've got a wedding to plan, and I want you to know that when you leave here,

those guys will be okay without you, okay?

Okay. All right. Sounds good. Good. Thank you so much.

You're totally welcome.

Not only is a cat's life at stake, But these guys want to take a honeymoon. Our

goal is to make sure that this couple can kick off the rest of their life

just having a good time together, knowing that their cats are not going to

don't know, dead when they get back.

This is my second visit now. The first time I was here, we literally had one

that just wanted to kill another.

Olive pretty much wanted Pepper out of the picture, and she was going to do

anything to prove it.

So I don't know what to expect.

Hey. Hey. Good to see you again.

Hey. Good to see you again.

Hey, Ben.

Hey, Ben. Hey.

Guys, I want you to meet my compadre here. This is Kate.

Nice to meet you.

She is our catification person.

Kate is just a specialist in all things related to cat furniture. We need to

live in small spaces creatively.

She's here to make this crazy New York hallway work for us and keep Pepper

I was super excited to meet her. We feel so privileged to be able to have an

expert come in and tell us all the right things to do. Like, it doesn't get

better than that.

Will you be here tomorrow?

Yeah, I will be back, and we are going to get you all set up in the kitchen and

the hallway. Kate, thank you so much. Yep, I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.

right. Bye. Bye.

So, tell me what's going on.

All right, well, we did pretty much everything that you asked of us. I know

recommended to ignore Olive crying. It's just at night when it goes on for 20,

30 minutes and it's 3 o 'clock in the morning.

It's much, much harder to ignore that.

Still haven't made it through the night together yet.

I want to take a look at your video homework.

I'm sure there's more information in there, okay?

Yep. All right, this is day one.

I'm using a blanket to break their sight line whenever Olive gets crazy.

And, oh, oh.

Food experiment over. Olive is back.

We also ordered these sunny seats where you put them on the windows.

She just hopped right up here on her own.

2 .31 a .m.

Olive, I am so tired.

I've been up for over an hour while the cats meow and scratch the

door at each other.

First of all, even though you've dropped the broom, you guys were hovering

around the process.

If we don't allow it to breathe, then I don't know where these guys are.

Environmentally, the work that you started to do was just fantastic. You

sunny seats up, which is great. We successfully got Pepper up off the

Now, give me a second. I got something to get to help us with our progress on

the feeding, okay?

These guys are scared.

They can't let the process happen because they're just hovering. So this

brought some extra tools with me. Surprise!

So this, obviously, is a simple piece of cardboard.

It costs absolutely nothing. This becomes your sightline breaker.

Now the thing that I want you to work on is breaking sightlines only when you've

hit the point of no return. One of the things that I noticed the last time we

were working is that we had peace in the kingdom as long as Olive was eating.

So this bowl, what you're going to do is you're going to take the food and

you're going to dish it around this circle, okay? So as Olive's eating,

got to go around to finish her food. By the time she finishes, Pepper is going

to be done and exploring the room by herself.

So, one of you guys want to start preparing food for me? Absolutely. Okay,

for it. My favorite thing probably the whole day is Jackson brings out this

that looks like a Bundt cake. Jackson wanted to see us feed the cats together

again. So when we do put them in the same room, it's always a stocking

You know, we were hoping that it would go a little better, but I wasn't really

honestly all that optimistic about it.

Now remember, your placement is escape oriented, right?

That's perfect, right in the middle.

Good, good, good, good, good.

Put it down.

We're good.

During the feeding thing, I was just like a little still worried that this

never going to get better.

All right, so Pepper's walking away now. She's done eating.

Now here's where I feel like I don't know what to do. Okay, wait.

Where's she going? Follow her. She's going into the bedroom. I can see her.

Okay, you know what I want you to do now?

Please close the door.

There's nothing like the feeling of organic completion, right?

Give me some of that, please.

I like that very much.

Very good. That's never happened before.

So I got all of this big, slow -feeding bulb.

The longer it takes Olive to finish her food, the longer Pepper has to finish

her meal, walk away, and escape to a place where Olive won't go after her.

never had a situation where I haven't had to pick one of them up. Right. When

Olive sort of made the choice to turn around and walk into the bedroom and go

take a nap instead of trying to attack Pepper.

It was really the first time that we saw a huge breakthrough happen. I am so

glad that Jackson brought us a food bowl. My heart is happy right now. That

a big deal.

We just started. We have so much more to go. We could actually get to a point

where we have a normal situation, which I never, ever thought would happen. So

I'm definitely feeling good right now.

The greatest part of today, I mean, I'm really happy the cats had a good moment,

but I love when humans have a good moment as well.

Ah, it's good. It's a good way to end things, right? Yeah. So you ready for

homework? We're ready.

Let's do it. Now.

The first thing is, I'd like you to cut down a little bit of the food that

you're giving Pepper. And she'll walk away sooner and start exploring the

while Olive is still eating.

And second, you guys have Kate coming in here tomorrow to work with you, and

we're not going to have to worry anymore about Pepper being trapped.

Finally, the only way.

that you're going to be able to sleep together for the rest of your life is if

you ignore Olive completely.

So when she's scratching on the door, you let it happen. You have to break

habit. All right. I think the payoff is going to be huge for you. All right,

guys. Awesome. Great to see you again. Thank you so much for everything.

Bye -bye. The next time I come back here, I really hope to be able to show

and Emily that these two cats can just hang out together with no violence

because these two cats have shown they can get violent when they're around each

other.

It's been about three weeks since the last time I saw Mike and Emily, Pepper,

and Olive. The first time I ever met these guys, Olive and Pepper were always

the verge of killing one another.

I want to see these two cats able to be in the same room for an extended period

of time with no violence.

So, the first time I came to visit you guys, you weren't sleeping in the same

bed for the most part.

We had General Olive absolutely stalking Pepper mercilessly.

What's changed since then?

Well, a whole lot has changed. We are sleeping in the same bed just about

night, which is great. I was waiting for that one.

You know, we ignored Olive's crying, like you suggested, which really helped.

The crying in the bedroom has almost stopped completely.

Now, we had a lot of environmental enrichment done in the house.

Kate came over and kind of catified the house, right?

We've been feeding them together, which has gone pretty well. We don't have

anything, really. I'm not holding a broom or even the cardboard dividers we

made. They're available.

But for the most part, we feed them, and then it ends peacefully.

Can we take a walk around?

Do it. Let's go. Do it. Come on.

First place. I'm psyched here.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

So she comes running in here, and she can go zippity -doo -dah up here, and

she has two exits.

She can come out this way.

She can come out that way.

There's no way for Olive to trap her anymore.

Oh, my God.

That's incredible.

This is cat heaven here. Now she can run in here up and out again. New York

apartments in general, huge challenge. This place with the Z -shaped hallways

and everything, it was a nightmare from the beginning. The cats can get in and

out. No dead end.

Awesome job, buddy.

So. That leaves us with our major test of the day.

Deep breath.

Why not take it a step further? I want to see these two cats play together in

the same space and raise their energy level up together a little bit more.

Are you breathing? I'm breathing. Promise.

This is firmly outside everyone's comfort zone.

There were a few moments.

when Olive and Pepper were out together that I got really concerned because I

thought they were going to get in a fight. And you just have a moment of,

come so far, please don't let this ruin it all.

Oh, hello.

Everything is normal.

Your turn.

Good girl.

When I first met Pepper, she found herself getting cornered by Olive and

in constant fear. Now she has a lot more confidence because she lives in a world

full of escape routes instead of death traps. And because Pepper's not acting

like prey anymore, Olive's not treating her like prey.

So, we got what?

48 minutes of the cats being with each other. It's definitely probably twice as

long. At least, if not more. At least that we've ever left them out together.

And the longest it's ever gone where it didn't go sour, you know? So we're

happy.

It was amazing seeing them together in the same room, not hurting each other.

Good girl.

It makes my heart feel so much better that I'm...

Able to give them a life that I know they deserve because they're really

cats and they deserve to be happy now from here on We've established a new

of dialogue between them which you guys have been doing the entire time by the

way Every day that you do these exercises you're teaching them.

This is how you speak to one another I don't even think we could put into words

how much we appreciate everything that you've done. You've, like, turned us

normal people living completely normal lives. And I feel like, you know, our

wedding, our honeymoon, all the stuff that we were so nervous about now, all

that stuff just feels happy. And seriously, it's because of you. So thank

so, so, so, so much.

It was great to meet you. Jackson, thank you so much. You're totally welcome.

Seriously, thank you. You're welcome.

You guys were amazing.

Have a happy wedding. Thank you. An amazing honeymoon. Thank you. Bye,

I love my job because I get to work with people like Mike and Emily. These guys

were a united team. Even though their life was so full of grief, they were

to the possibility that it could be full of nothing but love. And that's what

they got today.

Man, I am so psyched that I could have been here for that.