Original subtitles

These two sphinx cats hate each other.

Five or six times a day, they're fighting.

I sleep, on average, four hours a night.

If I had to get rid of one of the cats, that's my biggest fear.

Violence is definitely getting worse.

Something has to change.

Polly is our cat.

We were just calmly sitting on the couch, and all of a sudden...

She had dug in with her claws.

If it's a choice between keeping Polly or the safety of my son, I will always

choose my son.

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. The end 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.

Now, here's one you don't see every day.

Sphinx are known to be pretty playful, happy -go -lucky. They get along with

everybody, especially one another.

I've got two Sphinx that want to kill each other. I've seen the video Stephen

Deirdre sent it in to me, and these guys really are at each other's throats.

Sphinx fight.

Gotcha.

This poor couple.

I have no idea what to do. I'm so glad I get to try to help these guys, and I'm

going to go over there right now.

I'm Steve.

I'm Deirdre.

We've been dating for over 14 years now. We're working on our 15th year. And we

finally got engaged.

We get along really well.

I mean, Gary, I mean, we're together like 24 -7, and we really enjoy each

other's company.

Deirdre and I have taken great pains to make our home the sanctuary, and it was.

Until we brought these cats home.

Deirdre wanted a cat. And she says, come, come look what I found.

And I see this picture of this little tiny cat.

It looked like a pink fruit bat with these huge ears and these eyes.

When we first got Matilda, she was just affectionate and just a sweet cat.

One day we decided, let's get Matilda a friend. She would probably like a

friend. So then we met Black Rose.

That's where it all started.

These two Sphinx cats hate each other.

It's chaos in the house.

Five or six times a day, they're fighting.

And you hear the... That's the worst at night.

Picture blood -curdling screams and hissing at the top of a cat's lungs, and

it's all happening at the foot of your bed.

And I just don't get the sleep I need.

The violence is definitely getting worse.

Something definitely has to change between the two of them.

If somebody told me that I had to get rid of one of the cats because it would

healthier for them, I don't know how I could choose between these two amazing

cats.

I really don't want to have to do that, and that's my biggest fear.

I've never heard that you can take two cats that hate each other and make them

at least stop hating each other.

I'm hoping Jackson can help us with that.

God, I hope.

Jackson Galaxy.

My God, it's so good to meet you. Come on in. My God, Jackson Galaxy. It's so

cool to meet you. Thank you so much for coming.

And I imagine I'm here because unpleasant circumstances.

We've got Matilda.

We had her for several years before we brought Black Rose home.

Matilda is the one that picks all the fights.

Rose, she has a set of lungs on her. It's amazing. She'll flip around. She

her ears back, screams at the top of her lungs.

There is nothing like the sound of a cat fight. Everyone's heard one in their

lifetime. You hear it in the alley.

Rose's scream is primal. It is blood -curdling. It's one of the most insane

cat screams I've heard.

Now, this is one thing to happen during the day.

When it's 3 a .m. at the foot of your bed and you're asleep.

And the screaming. Oh, my God.

I always need to hear the 1 to 10.

It's a 10 for us.

It's daily.

I sleep, on average, four hours a night. Have you guys had any kind of

discussion about rehoming?

That would be, like, the worst -case scenario.

Because there would be no way to... I mean, how do you choose between these

completely different but wonderful cats?

That's the conversation I'm afraid that I'm going to have to have after one of

those nights when he doesn't get any sleep.

That's the concern that we have after.

working with you. We need sanity, but we just love them so much. Thank you for

being as open with me, because I need to know what those stakes are. I really

want to see the place, see how these guys interact with it, so if you don't

giving me a tour around the house, that'd be great. Sure.

I decided next to head into the bedroom because the bedroom is the seat of the

territory, and it's also the seat of all the bad behavior. Oh, there they are.

There's Matilda, and there's Rose.

Look at these two.

They're so friendly to people.

Hi.

Oh, they love Jackson.

As soon as he walked into the room, they were there. He knows these animals so

well, and he lets things happen on their own time. He doesn't force anything,

and that allows the cats to open up, and they just naturally gravitate.

toward him.

The aggression generally happens on their own. They do whatever they do.

just staring, looking at her. I saw a very quick flash of what Steve and

must have to work with every day.

There was Rose hunkered down waiting for the worst.

In that one second there was just a spark and I know that spark turns into a

fire every 20 minutes in their home.

And this is how it all starts when we come to bed.

Rose, immediately when we're in bed, she has to be here. Tilda comes running in.

She jumps up and then... All right, let's see if we can get these guys to

us back in there. Sounds good. All right. Come on, guys.

When we went back out to the living room, I asked Deirdre and Steve to break

their toys.

They have one.

And it's this sad little wire.

These cats were just going right after that little wire. So I brought out my

toys because I wanted to show them we can have a variety of toys and keep them

consistently entertained by something other than each other. It didn't take me

long. To get into the mind of both cats, on the one hand, you've got Rose, who's

got no self -esteem whatsoever.

On the other hand, you've got Matilda, who is completely territorially

She's constantly got one eye peeled on who's doing what over there while she's

trying to play with a toy, because she doesn't trust that the world is a safe

place and that the world belongs to her.

My view of these two cats is that the two of them do not speak the same cat

language, and we just have to work with them.

To get them speaking the same language.

So for your homework this week, I want to start simply. Your play is not nearly

as structured as it needs to be.

Play time needs to be tied into meal time.

So if you're going to do a 10 o 'clock feeding, that means at about 9 or so,

you're going to start playing.

The reason why you are being kept awake is that after you feed, you've still got

energy up here, right? You want to give them time to go boop.

over that top of that hill, and once you see them starting to groom, you know

they're getting into sleeping phase.

But exhaust them.

Listen, it is so important to exhaust these things.

If you don't tire them out before you go to bed every night, you're not getting

any sleep. I really want you guys to concentrate hard on using the camera

I'm giving you, journal documenting everything that you're doing.

In addition, you need to buy some cat beds for your bedroom and encourage

Matilda and Rose to stop sleeping in the bed with you.

I'm sure you're going to have questions.

Just let me know what they are.

And I will see you guys in about a week, okay?

It was wonderful meeting you guys. Thank you so much, Jackson. Take care. Bye

-bye. It is our biggest fear, having to rehome one of the cats.

Hopefully it's not something that we're going to have to look at.

It would be too heartbreaking.

The last time I was here, these two cats were just damn near killing each other.

Deirdre was very emotional about it. Steve was not getting any sleep

I'm hoping I'm walking into something where the temperature has cooled a

bit, but I have no idea.

Well, look who's here.

Look who's here.

How are you, man? Good to see you.

Hi, it's so good to see you. Thank you for coming back.

That's my job, guys.

So, I see that you got stuff, and I want to go over some video footage with you

guys.

Tell.

We got a new toy for her.

Neither of them are tired at all. Living up to the true Sphinx craziness.

Oh, my God.

All right, so the video footage, some not -so -great stuff, but I'm seeing

commitment to play, and that's fantastic.

Now, what I need is better results. You guys still need to get some rest.

The biggest problem that Steve and Deirdre are having concerning their cats

they're just not getting any sleep. So I just want to go into the bedroom with

them and see how they're handling things with Rose and Matilda.

Okay, so we have beds.

One right there.

We have one right here.

When you guys go to bed, you're going to start encouraging these guys not to

sleep with you anymore.

Since the fighting happens when they're in the bed together, we need to get both

cats sleeping away from you guys and each other. Is it going to be easy?

No, because these guys have known nothing else but burrowing into bed with

I was feeling a little frustrated that we weren't making as much progress as I

was hoping.

But I don't know how high my expectations were. I think they were

high.

Oh my God.

Matilda jumps up on the bed and I'm just kind of waiting for things to go south.

And sure enough, Rose just sniffs her, sniffs her backside, follows her a

bit, keeps sniffing her. And Matilda just keeps walking. Now, there's two

things that happened there. The first thing that happened is that Black Rose

showed self -esteem by smelling her that way. Those are great moments. You hang

your hat on these moments. Oh, my God.

Breathe, Deidre, breathe.

No, seriously, let's take a minute here. I don't even want to make light of it.

Breathing around this is huge. When I'm talking out, totally calm energy.

I think my energy gets really tense when the cats come together because I'm

expecting them to start fighting. And maybe if I can just breathe into it, you

know, maybe I won't feed into their bad habits with my bad habits.

In general, though.

The communication skills between these two are already better than they were

last time. That's a big step forward. Even though Matilda and Rose still fight

occasionally, the fact that Rose is allowing Matilda to share her space at

means that the homework is working and communication skills are improving.

And I love the way you guys are thinking.

Where the beds are.

I want to bed on this side of your bed.

And again, I want to balance the human and the feline in here. Sounds good.

It seems like real progress is being made in the bedroom, so we've got to get

back out into the living room and get Matilda's play under control. The

is she's still treating Rose like prey, so we have to refocus that energy and

get new, more exciting toys into the mix.

Here's a little present for you. Oh, look at that. This thing right here is a

new type of scratcher. The activity level at night, in the middle of the

is directly related to the fact that she's not siphoning off her energy in a

creative way during the day.

We don't get activity.

We don't solve the problems. It's that simple.

It's amazing how short her attention span is.

I tried the mouse. I tried the squirrely toy. I tried the bumblebee. I tried the

bird. I tried, what didn't I try? I tried everything. I tried a piece of

could not get this cat to engage with me for more than a couple of seconds. And

the key with her is to get her body moving, her body and her mind together

moving like any other normal cat.

So this toy, this is what I would qualify as a remote toy.

Oh, my gosh.

That is hilarious.

It's just trying to crank the motor. That's all we're trying to do. These

are one -trick ponies. You put them down, they go around in a circle, the

bats at it for a while, and that's it. It's done.

Fifteen solid minutes, this cat was getting more and more excited. I saw her

motor start to turn over. She needs an electronic toy that has more predictable

movement. And just like that, she was in.

I've never seen her like that.

It's exciting to see her happy and feeling like she's motivated to do

other than attack Rose.

Here we go with homework, guys.

Play is the key.

We got this ADD cat completely interested in a motorized toy, but

enough. We got to take off the training wheels. We got to get her running around

the house with an actual interactive toy that will tire her out enough so that

Steven Bearder can actually get some sleep.

The key to Matilda not attacking Rose is get her moving. We're talking about 10

to 15 minutes a day. She will stop torturing Rose.

Second thing is territorial identifiers like the beds. Those things have to be

placed strategically.

If Steve and Deirdre put cat beds on either side of their own bed, the cats

then share the space, establish a scent near Steve and Deirdre, but not

physically be anywhere near each other. This way, we'll drastically cut down on

territorial competition and the aggression at night that we're seeing.

Continue the video journaling is essential.

And the last thing, which is the energetic component we talked about

You're going to breathe through these things. You're going to take a more

meditative approach to what's going on with these guys.

And there it goes.

Jackson gave us a fair amount of homework.

But if we want peace in the house, if I want sleep, if I want to be less

stressed out, we will do whatever we need to do with these cats.

All right, guys. Cheers. Take care. We'll see you soon.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Are Sphinx cats completely hairless?

Yes or no?

Find out after the break.

Are Sphinx cats completely hairless? Yes or no?

The answer is no.

Although Sphinx are referred to as hairless, their skin is covered in a

down -like coat.

I'm going in for my final visit with Steve and Deirdre. I'm looking for three

things out of this visit. Number one, I want to see no more catfights. Number

two, I want to see that Steve is getting a full night's sleep for once. And

third, I want to see that Matilda is playing, really getting exhausted

play. Those are the big three things I need to see. Miss. Hi.

Good to see you, sir. How are you doing? Come in. Good to see you.

How have you been? I've been good.

Good. The first thing that I notice when I walk in, sit down with Steve and

Deirdre, is that Steve actually looks like he slept.

He looks rested. They both look rested. That was a great thing to see. All

right. I'm pretty excited to take a last tour around the place and see

everything that you guys have done.

Let's start in the bedroom, huh?

Let's do it.

The last time I was here, the fights were less frequent than they were the

time I came, but they were still pretty brutal when they were happening.

Now. Both cats were sitting on their respective cat beds, and then, as soon

Steve and Deirdre sat into bed, the two cats joined them.

If you look back at the first visit, when Black Rose was burrowing into her

foxhole and waiting for the worst to happen, this time, there was Matilda

sort of looking around the room, and nothing.

It was very relaxed, and that was one of those milestones we want to see.

Talk to me about sleep.

Sleep is happening, thanks to your recommendation on bed.

I get to sleep now, and there's less fighting on the bed. There's virtually

fighting on the bed now. We're trying to encourage them to sleep more. How do

you encourage them to sleep better? Well, there's a little heated pad in the

bottom, and there's a little thing on top, and you just kind of go, look at

this, it's so nice.

Having to wake up in the middle of the night and break up bites, just as it's

becoming a thing of the past now.

Black Rose and Matilda are sharing the same space now, and it just goes to show

you something, because there's no hissing, there's no growling, there's no

screaming, and that's a huge thing, too.

They're speaking a language together now that doesn't involve hysteria, and

that's what their relationship was all about before. The next thing I want to

get into, now that I've seen the whole place, is the play.

Look at that.

That's freaking phenomenal.

After watching the video footage, I can see that Steve and Deirdre have made

great strides in getting Matilda away from that motorized toy and engaging her

with other toys.

I'm so proud of you guys, and I'm talking about the four -legged guys,

Getting to this point where we can play with them with one toy, it's quite

remarkable. The connection between play and their feeding times was important

for me to learn because now Rose is no longer the prey.

And that removes a lot of that tension and that energy from between the two of

them. That's amazing.

The payoff in terms of finding that sweet spot with play that Steve has

with Matilda is twofold. First of all, Black Rose is not going to get beat up

all the time because she's not as attractive a target as the toy is. The

thing is that Matilda is going to sleep better. We're now regulating her body.

Steve is going to get a good night's sleep.

One of the best things I'm seeing from you this entire time that we've been

sitting here is that you haven't held your breath once.

One of the biggest things I had to work with Deirdre on was that she was always

holding her breath and then jumping in before the situation could resolve

itself.

These cats had to learn how to work things out for themselves to a certain

degree. And this time around, she was letting it happen.

In what, one month's time, we've stopped the screaming.

We've stopped that behavior.

Well, I don't know how to thank you for your help, Jack.

Certainly helped change the climate in our lives. Good. I'm glad. Thank you.

she thanks you. And Rose. Thank you. I don't have to run and scream anymore.

Rose and Matilda are two amazing cat creatures. And to be able to know that

are going to be able to live with us and we don't have to worry about, you know,

sending one off to someplace else, that's a huge relief.

I'm here for you. Call me if you need me.

It was great to meet you. Will do. You as well, Jackson. I just want to thank

Jackson for taking the time to show us some of the things that he knows and

giving us the confidence to help them.

Polly is our cat.

Her behavior is extremely violent. She attacks me unexpectedly.

We're afraid that she's going to really lash out at Rex.

She is a loose cannon and he is a toddler.

It's absolutely inevitable that at some point Polly will flip out.

Polly is unpredictable.

I'm going over to Dorothy and Travis' house. They sent me a video of their

toddler and their cat, and they're convinced there's going to be bloodshed,

if there is, the cat's out.

Her behavior is very unpredictable.

Oh,

that is just bad news right there.

At times, it's extremely violent.

Whoa.

She is a loose cannon, and he is a toddler.

If it's between keeping Polly or the safety of my son, I will always choose

son.

I'm Dorothy.

And I'm Travis.

And we've been married for seven very happy years.

Yeah. We have a beautiful son.

We have almost three.

Rex. Rex.

And then there's Polly.

Polly is our cat.

Her behavior is very unpredictable and at times it's very sweet, but at times

it's extremely violent.

Polly attacks Travis and not me. She attacks me unexpectedly.

One of the worst examples of Polly's rage is when we were just calmly sitting

on the couch and all of a sudden...

We have to figure out a way to curb

her behavior.

We're afraid that she's going to really lash out at Rhett.

She is a loose cannon,

and he is a toddler.

If it's between keeping Polly or the safety of my son, I will always choose

son.

Rex, stop.

I've had her since she was a kitten. It's sad to think about. I don't want to

have to give her up.

Polly.

We don't fix it now. It's absolutely inevitable that at some point Rex will

able to get to Polly and Polly will flip out.

Are Dorothy and Travis's fears justified that their cat can attack their child?

Yeah, I've seen that footage. It's justified.

Hi. Hey. Jackson, I'm Dorothy.

Hey, Dorothy. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. This is my husband, Travis.

Hey, Travis.

Good to meet you. I'm Jackson. This guy walks in, I mean, he looks like an

outlaw biker.

My son, Rex, is getting faster.

He likes to sometimes grab tails and ears and things like that, and if he...

If he does that to Polly, she might really, really hurt him. Rex is just

to that age where he's moving, going around, dominating the space.

And cats, toddlers, they don't speak the same language. And as we've seen

throughout history, if you don't speak the same language, it can result in a

war. Give me a little hint of the damage she's done to you. A lot of hand

scratching, but then sometimes she'll just latch onto my hand and then get the

legs and it's really...

And then run away.

Be all forepaw. Right, yeah.

And how long have you had her?

I've had her for 10 years. A friend of mine found her, and she was feral, and

her eyes were matted shut.

And I got a wet washcloth and rubbed her eyes, and we had this bonding

moment as she was a kitten. She wasn't going to make it out, you know.

Also, she has some anger issues.

She will, in anger, vomit.

In anger or vomit.

One of her favorite places is on our bed.

So now we have shower curtains on our bed all the time. We've got it on our

couch, and we'll come home and there'll be little trickles as well.

Has she been to the vet recently?

Not recently.

No.

There's no such thing as revenge puke or angry puke. I don't like you, so I'm

going to throw up on your stuff. That doesn't happen in the human world, not

that I know of, or the animal world.

She's probably throwing up because she's got something going on. I need to gauge

between 1 and 10 where we're at.

1 being it would be nice, but, and 10 being she's on her way out the door.

at a 9 .9.

If she attacked Rex, she only gets one strike.

If it happens, it's over. Yeah.

Okay, that's 9 .9.

All right, it's time for me to go meet Polly. She is in our room. It's the door

on the right.

Hey.

You know what, honey?

I'm going to bring your daddy in here. Hey, Travis?

Yeah? Come on in.

Okay. I needed Travis to come in the room because I needed to see the guy who

gets beat up all the time handle the cat.

All right, buddy. Here you go.

All right, so you pick her up and you hold her to you? Yeah, and she's so...

Right now she's so scared.

That's okay. I picked her up and we're both scared.

Really latched on.

Oh, she's got you. Yeah.

Is she dug into you right now?

And in my skin all the way up.

He picked her up expecting something bad to happen. When you expect something

bad to happen, something bad usually happens. She latched onto him and he

and tried to pull her away.

And again, something dangerous is going to happen when she doesn't feel

supported. And sure enough, she clawed his chest.

Bring her that side towards you a little bit.

You got to try to support her butt a little bit.

Okay.

Okay.

And now I'm backing away.

Jackson had me support her body underneath and hold her close.

And I felt like I was bonding with Polly in a way I hadn't in a very long time.

And she felt really good. And she's actually calmer than she was before. So

great. I think I would have learned all this when I had a baby.

Yeah.

All right, then.

Now, here's the important part. The important part is I need to see Rex

interacting with Polly somehow. So, Rex.

Rex is in the drawing room. He's in the drawing room. He's drawing some circles.

Hey, Rex.

Rex does love Polly.

And really wants to get closer to her. So that's going to be a big test for me

to see if Jackson can mediate between feline and toddler

together.

You show Polly which picture is Polly?

He seems...

completely nonplussed by her. Is there a time where he's completely driven to be

with her or anything?

I don't think so, because she doesn't seem all that forwardly friendly to him.

Now, how do you feel she's doing right now?

She's doing okay.

She's starting to calm down.

There she goes.

Yeah, there was a moment when Rex finally just... threw something in the

shouted something, and Polly struggled to get out of the room, and she did that

cartoon running in place, but then she ran out. That's a very important

distinction. She didn't come at him. She ran away from him. That gives me hope.

So, the thing that I've noticed with her from the start is that any aggression

that comes out of her is somewhat defensive.

She's not looking for a fight.

She's looking to get away.

Good. Okay. Now, what about the vomit?

There is a very definite connection between illness in cats and stress

So the more stressed out she is, the more she's going to throw up.

Every time I leave here, I'm going to give you guys a whole bunch of homework

do while I'm gone. So the first thing I'm going to have you do is a vet visit.

We've got to get her to the vet. Polly's a 10 -year -old cat at a certain age at

about 8.

Cats have to go into the vet every year for a checkup, for a general blood test,

just to make sure things are okay.

She's throwing up all over the house, and they can't remember the last time

was at the vet. The time is now.

Homework for Rex.

Yes, Rex is not immune from homework.

I want to have him have activities with her.

Mealtimes, Rex should be involved in. He needs to associate him with great

things happening and only great things happening. Now, the second thing that he

can do with her...

that I've seen kids do so much better than adults is play with her.

The fact that we can have him play with her and have a great distance between

them at the same time is kind of killer, right?

So I hope you feel a little bit of hope because I feel a little bit of hope as

well. We do.

Yeah, I think we definitely do. I will see you guys really soon.

Although I saw a lot of really positive signs watching Rex and Polly interact, I

offered no guarantees a two -and -a -half -year -old toddler and a ten -year

-old cat kind of oil and water. And every cat has a fight -or -flight

just depends on how soft or hard you have to hit it. So it's really important

that we follow my plan through the letter. There can still be some serious

interactions, and I don't even think I've seen them on their worst behavior.

I'm about to go in for my second visit with Dorothy and Travis.

The last time I was here, Travis was having a really hard time handling

Dorothy was upset because the cat was throwing up all over the bed, so much so

that she covered it with a shower curtain.

But the biggest problem is that they're both really afraid that the cat is going

to hurt their son, Rex.

What's been going on?

Well, I took Polly to the vet.

Hi, sweetie.

And her blood work has come back.

There's nothing to be alarmed about.

We were happy to hear about that.

Polly got a clean bill of health, which comes back to what I thought, which was

that her throwing up had a lot to do with stress.

Let's take a look at some video footage, okay? I have your video journaling

here.

Going over the video journaling with Dorothy and Travis, I got to say, most

it was great stuff.

There was some downtime with Travis and there was feeding time with Rex, which I

thought was an amazing accomplishment.

Try it more towards her. Can you swing it towards her?

There you go. There you go.

The worst thing that I saw in video journaling was Rex.

trying to play with Polly.

Basically, using it as a weapon because he didn't know any better. And her

response to that was one step away from attacking him. I saw imminent danger. I

saw a scratch or a bite to his face.

And I saw Polly having to get rehomed.

What were the instructions that you guys were giving him?

Basically, I gave him the thing and said, here, you know, can you shake it

show Polly the mouth?

Try it more towards her. Can you swing it towards her?

And he shook it. Oh, yeah. Right.

And she was scared. So that's why I'm thinking if we're doing the mouse, for

instance, we just go down on the floor and, you know, have him be a snake. The

idea here is the more they know about how to play with Polly, the more they're

going to be able to teach Rex.

There you go. Now you're flying.

Dorothy took to it like a natural. I mean, she was a pro.

I love that you're getting that sound out of it. Land on the couch.

You just shaved him.

When I first met Dorothy and Travis, they told me they had to keep a shower

curtain on their bed because Polly was always throwing up all over it. Now, I'm

really hoping that the regular feeding and play have helped ease Polly's stress

a lot. Plus, I just want to check in on Polly and see how she's doing.

Notice anything is missing. I noticed no shower curtain. No shower curtain.

Amazing. Dr.

Mahaney basically said, blood work normal, so it was stress. This speaks...

volumes, first of all, because obviously she's not throwing up everywhere.

Stress is down.

The fact that you guys are starting to really embrace the rituals and have Rex

involved in the rituals, this is your payoff.

Yeah. Yay!

I might go crazy and go to the linen store at this point.

Now, where's she at?

She is right back there.

Hi, sweetie.

Look at me.

I don't like where she is.

The good news is that Polly is no longer throwing up on the bed. Now,

unfortunately, she's still hiding in fear in her comfort zone. It's really

important that we get Polly to feel like she can roam around this house, be part

of the family, feel safe with them.

So what I want to try to do is encourage her to get out of that spot.

Okay. Is there one of you guys that she seems to be a little bit more receptive

to if we were just talking, the voice?

Would you talk to me a little more, I guess?

Good. Well, I'm just going to ask you to leave.

No problem.

Come here.

Hey, Polly.

Come here, sweetheart.

Oh.

Okay, you're okay, sweetheart.

You can see the nerves on her, right, when you start reaching for her? Yeah.

Kind of go for right under the chin a little bit.

Polly.

Try to get her head moving forward.

That's it.

Exactly.

There you go.

Good girl.

I love the fact that she's getting reactive to your touch.

She's actually overcoming that posture she was in before.

Really, to my shock, he reaches out to pet her because last time he loaded his

arm with fear. He was so scared that she was going to bite him with good cause.

This time around, there was actual trust between the two, and she paid back his

trust by extending her face to him. That's a relationship changer.

Good girl, Polly.

Bring her to you.

There you go.

Grabbed her by the scruff, and she didn't bite or kick or scratch at me.

me pull her up into my arms and comfort her.

And it was pretty amazing.

Good girl, Polly.

There you go.

Hey, Dorothy.

Come on in. Okay.

Hi. To where we were.

To see Polly accept someone coming into her space and picking her up, that, I

think, was really turning a corner for us.

What I witnessed was Travis reconnecting with his cat. He and Dorothy are

showing a lot less fear with her. I'm really hoping they can just pass on that

confident energy to their son, Rex, so that he can develop his own bond with

her.

Oh, she's purring.

Yeah.

I really wanted to introduce another activity for Rex and Polly to do

so I brought in the cat garden.

I know. Look at all this cool stuff. That belongs to you.

We've got the sage. We've got the parsley. We have all kinds of great

for Polly to be chewing on. He's going to feed it to her as a treat. It can

become an activity for her and for Rex to bond even more. The thing is that

good for cats.

Cats can actually eat it, and it helps them pass hairballs.

Do you want to put this one in here?

I thought Rex took to the garden like a pro. He was all into the dirt, and he

was into putting the plants in. And I think...

Soon he'll make that connection between the plant and the cat, and I think that

that's a great connection to make. Let's head inside. I'm going to give you some

homework. Okay.

Here we go. You guys did an amazing job today. Start passing that down to Rex.

So whether it's the focus of play.

whether it's the focus of something like the gardening that I gave you or

continuing with that feeding ritual, which I'm just adoring. So that's the

piece. I'm loving the progress I'm seeing from Polly right now, but let's

it, we're just halfway there. We've got a lot more work to do. Doable?

Doable. Good. All right.

Bye, Jack.

Bye. The next time I come back here, I want to see Rex and Polly form their own

special bond.

The first time that I met Dorothy and Travis, Travis was being attacked by

cat Polly so severely, they were afraid to have her anywhere near their son Rex.

All I'm hoping for is to see Polly out in the house.

I'm hoping to get her together with Rex. I might be hoping for a little bit too

much, but I'm an optimist. After my second visit, I was really concerned

the way that Rex was playing with Polly.

How's that going?

It's much more calm.

The groundwork is there.

He knows that part of the day, even if it's a couple of minutes, is based

doing good things for Polly. So that's...

Pretty cool.

I couldn't wait to take a look around Dorothy and Travis's home. So the first

place we went to was in the kitchen where they've totally set up that indoor

garden. When we were planting this trough and we talked about it being kind

Polly's salad.

And so he goes, Polly, eat your salad.

Oh, really? Does he do that? Oh, that's amazing.

They've totally set up that indoor garden. Rex even refers to Polly's

Polly's salad. It's really important for Rex as he grows older to know that.

He is part of raising a cat. He's not just a witness. He's a guardian also.

Daddy!

Hey, man!

And who's that over there?

Daddy! I remember back the first day when I met Dorothy and Travis, and they

said, we just want to be a family. We just want everyone to be together.

Let's just see what naturally happens.

She's not really looking for escape or anything. She's not breathing heavily.

Plus the fact that Rex is completely ignoring her at the moment, which is

totally cool, actually.

She seemed to be comfortable where she was, and he was comfortable where he

So I took Rex. We moved over to the couch.

You know, we want to see them.

We just want to not worry about them at all.

Hey, Rexy, look, it's Pop.

Very good, Rex.

Yay.

You're amazing.

Very soft.

Very good, Rex.

The most amazing thing today was watching Rex pet Polly. He had no fear

her. She had no fear getting pet.

Polly's better now because she's part of the family. She's rebuilt her trust

with Travis and Rex, so she no longer feels the need to hurt Travis.

or strike out at Rex. And this newly formed bond has reduced her stress level

the point where she doesn't throw up on the couple's bed or hide underneath it.

It's a picture -perfect family. I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

And she's still totally cool.

Mm -hmm.

I was so relieved and overjoyed to see this moment that I thought would never

happen. Never.

Never in 90 million years. Yeah.

Bye! Yeah!

I do this every day.

I'm awesome.

Before Jackson got here the first time, we were at like a 9 .9 on the stress

scale. I think now, Holly coming out and fitting with us and Rex, I'm at

zero. Good work, buddy.

Can you give Jackson a high five?

Give Jackson a high five, Rex.

Nice. Yeah.

Very nice.

This experience of Jackson coming in and helping us has changed my life.

because I'm not stressed about my weird cat anymore.

This is the Polly I remember, you know, when she was a kitten. I feel like, in a

way, I dab my family back.

You know, Dorothy, Rex, Travis, and Polly are a family.