Original subtitles

Oscar bites and claws at me.

Something is not right in his head. He started howling. It sounds like a baby

distress.

I can't keep living like this. I'll probably have to go to a shelter where

they'll put him down.

We own a cat. Her name is Riley.

We don't know if she's bipolar or just angry.

I'm a veterinary technician, but...

She's kind of a hard case to crack.

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 cat 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'm on my way over to see Travis and Diane.

These guys have joint custody of a sphinx cat named Oscar, and he is

all hours of the day and night.

He's peeing all over the house. He's driving his guardians insane with his

behavior.

And they told me that if I can't do anything, Oscar's on his way to the

A cat like Oscar goes into the shelter. He doesn't come out again.

His life is on the line. I got to get over there.

I'm Diane.

And I'm Travis.

And we've been best friends for four years.

We are co -parents to a beautiful six -year -old Sphinx cat named Oscar.

I had Oscar for the first four years of his life.

Then Diane went on a work trip and asked me to babysit Oscar for a while.

But when I got him home, he started howling.

It sounds like a baby in distress.

I work from home a lot, and I spend a lot of time on the phone.

And Oscar bellows and yells and screams.

Oscar makes it very difficult to work from home, and that ends up costing me

money.

I've had Oscar and these problems now for two years. I feel like Diane tricked

me, and I didn't hear many of the negatives.

It was just about what a great caddy he was. I just said to him, Diane, I can't

keep living like this, so you should take him back, and at that point it was.

I can't because he's too difficult to handle.

Now I keep him, but then when I travel for work, I leave him here with Diane.

He's a really endearing cat, but I don't feel like I can ever leave because he

makes Diane's life miserable.

Something is not right in his head. He has bad, negative feelings towards me.

Oscar bites and claws at me.

Blood will actually come through my clothes.

The problem is Oscar despises me because I'm the one who maintains his

cleanliness.

He looks at me like I'm going to be the one picking at him.

If we can't get him to stop doing all this crazy stuff, then I can't work. I

can't travel.

Diane doesn't want to take him. He'll probably have to go to a shelter where

they'll put him down.

Jackson, hello.

How are you? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Hi. Hi. I'm Diane.

Nice to meet you, Diane. Nice to meet you. And it's Oscar.

Hi, baby boy.

Hi.

I think Jackson just has a sixth sense with Oscar. Right away, Oscar was drawn

to Jackson.

I'm really excited to see what he's going to have to say about Oscar.

Let's get down to it.

Why is Oscar ruining your life?

So he's totally cool with you? Yeah.

Because I think he really uses his voice. He uses the screaming to leave

alone. So you can't give him a bath. You can't cut his toenails. You can't

because he knows the screaming.

Everybody will stop and let him go.

He'll scream, but you'll still give him a bath.

Spinks needs baths every week. I don't believe he needs a bath every week. I

probably have a different opinion on how to raise animals because I grew up on a

farm. I think it irritates his skin to give him a bath all the time.

Sphinx are nearly hairless. They secrete a lot of oil out of their skin, and

they need to be bathed at least once a week. This feels like classic sort of

joint custody.

Also, Oscar is a spiteful urinator.

Okay.

So, the spiteful urinator thing. I mean, you know the cats don't operate the way

we do, right?

For certain, cats don't spitefully urinate.

No, I think he does. You really think that he's trying to get to you? Yeah.

You will go in front of the litter box.

You will not go in the litter box.

As long as you believe it, my job is to change your mind.

Okay. Even beyond the urine, I run most of my work from home, and so late at

night, I'm doing a lot of calls.

He howls and screams.

Very loud fellow.

A neighbor called in. You got a noise complaint from Oscar? From Oscar, yeah,

and it was like he didn't sound like a cat either. He sounded like a little

baby.

One unique thing about the Sphinx is that they are very much a look at me,

at me, I want to be the center of attention type of breed. And part of

the set of lungs these guys have on them. They can be really deceptively

The big issue is Diane needs to be able to watch him. I travel for work, and if

he can't be watched by Diane, then I don't know where I can put him.

I spent the last... 17 years in shelters, if he's peeing, if he's

don't care where you bring him. He's not coming out of that place. If he dies,

we just got to fix this.

Yeah.

I read humans about as well as I read cats. And I'm telling you, there's a big

level of resentment that I think Travis has towards Diane. Hey, listen, you

dumped this cat on me. And now you come back here and you say, I want to be a

part of this. And why isn't he being nice to me?

I think it's justified resentment.

I want to see you guys hold him, okay? Let me see what happens with you. Oh, I

know.

Hey. He's also talky.

How are you doing, buddy?

You put this cat in Travis's arms, and it's rockabye sweet prince.

Look at that belly, too. That's fun, this little.

And you give him over to Diane.

And this is every time.

Yeah, every time.

Poor Diane doesn't know what else to do but keep going.

Please respond to me while the whole time he's saying, just let me go, I

stand this.

What a crazy day.

I know.

I have felt that Diane has smothered Oscar previously and it was nice that

Jackson,

Oh, okay.

I know. I'm so sorry.

You look so sad.

I'm used to Oscar treating me terribly.

I love Oscar, and I really want to work this situation out.

It's very sad for me, too, because I mean, I know how much Diane loves Oscar.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The one thing that you notice from Diane spending any time

with her is how sad she is. There's this insult.

that every time he tries to touch him, love him, and say, remember me? Remember

what I used to be for you?

He says, we're not that anymore.

Of course, he said. I get it.

Yeah, I'll show you the upstairs.

This is nice.

You work here.

Mm -hmm.

There's his little, pay attention to me, Purge. Yes. So he sits over there, and

he's like, hey!

That's right. This is where I'm finding the biggest issue. He'll come up here

and he'll look at me and then he'll start howling. It's definitely, you

it's very pertinent to the whole idea of I have to be able to work.

I think a really interesting thing that Travis was showing to us was like, you

know, I've given this cat this great space to run around. And every night he

runs back and forth and then he bothers me. Well, you have to be a part of

getting that energy out of him. And then he's not going to scream at you. Does

he have his claws?

Not in the front. Oh, he's declawed.

Is he sensitive about his paws when you touch them?

He is with me.

He is with you. Well,

that's another whole ball of wax we've got to deal with in terms of the peeing.

All right, where's the litter box?

Oh, in the bathroom. All right.

So, is that him?

Yes. Let's first take a look at the litter box.

I can pretty well tell you I think I know what's going on.

Over the 15 years that I've been doing this, I've seen more and more declawed

cats see outside the box. What the cat does is they go into the litter box

the declaw, they step into the litter, and they go, ow!

Their paws hurt.

Do what you would normally do with him. I wanted to see Diane interact with

Oscar without Travis around.

Do the pet that you would normally do.

Hey, bud.

Bing.

As soon as you bring in that over -touch, he says, it's overstimulation.

all it is. Diane clearly smothers and overstimulates Oscar even when he's

screaming for her to stop.

So, Travis, you've got to do some of the stuff that's causing him to really

dislike her.

You've got to be the tough parent. So your homework that I want you to do is

bathe him.

And, Diane, I want you to release.

some of the stuff that you have to do.

Diane's homework is infinitely more difficult than my homework.

My homework is to do nothing and let Oscar come to me.

I have to throw him in a bucket of water and, like, clean his toes.

We have to even out this classically negative association with you. We're

rebuilding right now.

Co -parenting a cat is a unique situation, but it can work.

But Travis and Diane have to be on the same page about how to parent Oscar. I'm

going to...

I recommend a litter for you guys to use, just smaller pieces.

And I'm going to have you add another litter box.

Unfortunately, we see it with declaws all the time. What happens is we say, I

don't want him scratching the furniture. We declaw him, then they pee on the

floor. You think it's because he has a declawed? Yeah, totally.

I think there's discomfort in his paws. I found that to be very interesting

because we've both battled with this for years. And I've never, from reading and

following up and trying the different things, I've never heard that.

Now, about the owling.

If you can just get him worn out, you're not going to get the, hey, because he

can't just entertain himself. You've got to be part of the equation.

That's it for your homework.

So I'm going to take off, all right?

I thought Jackson was great, but if this doesn't work, then, yeah, we'll have to

consider taking him to a shelter where they'll probably put him down.

Two weeks ago, co -parents Diane and Travis really had their hands full.

was getting attacked by Oscar because she was the only one bathing him.

And Travis' job was basically on the line because of Oscar's yowling.

So I gave them homework, which included changing Oscar's litter box, having

Travis do the playing and the bathing, and I had to have Diane step away for a

couple of weeks and not smother Oscar so much. Let's see how they worked out.

Hi, Jackson. Hey there. How's it going?

It's going good.

I see tremendous progress with Oscar, and I think, Jackson, I'll be pretty

pleased. What I want to do now is I want to take a look at your homework that we

did last time. You sent me some great footage.

Let's just watch.

It's like fishing.

Very curious.

What is that thing that I play with every day?

That was really good. Now tell me what you're noticing.

When I start to work, if he seems like he's starting to get fidgety, I'll play

with him a little bit, even while I'm on a conference call.

By and large, you're not getting the back and forth, back and forth thing?

Right, like he has not once ran around.

It's amazing. Travis was very specific that Oscar hasn't screamed at all. Now

that's some progress.

I've been sitting back and letting Oscar come to me.

You know, my homework was to not, you know, pet him and not bug him. And he

already trusts me more just in these last two weeks from the last time that

were here. That's clear. As we're sitting talking about their progress,

jumps up and he actually solicits attention from Diane two weeks ago.

And now he's coming up there and saying, hey, you're all right.

That's an amazing turn of events.

I think you put too much. I put too much.

You brought in the new litter box.

Wonderful. Show me.

Sounds great. Let's do it.

So this is brand new litter, right? Yep.

This is the one I recommended to you, which is much finer than the other

that he uses.

Being a declaw, he's got sensitive paws, and going into that box affected him.

There's proof positive. Last time I was here, we talked about, Diane, your

notion of spiteful peeing.

Yes. And what are we seeing now?

He hasn't gone at all. At all? No, not one. Which tells you.

He doesn't spitefully urinate.

He doesn't spitefully urinate. Exactly right.

Travis and Diane added a different type of litter to the litter boxes.

In two weeks, he hasn't peed outside the box just by changing litter.

Case done.

There's always stuff that you're not seeing. So I want to grab my blacklight.

Travis and Diane are telling me that Oscar hasn't peed anywhere outside the

in two solid weeks.

They had to bring out my blacklight. I wanted to explore the litter box.

He was doing a lot of it out here.

All right, so he would go here in this area.

About the toilet, nothing.

Anything right by your feet?

Good.

And even right next to the box, zero.

You're not lying.

Sure enough, there was nothing.

This, what he's doing here, is something that I want to work on because this box

is only so big. And there's so much litter in here. This just looks like

getting on his paws maybe.

Maybe something you don't want around the rest of your house. You're certainly

right.

Overall, though, amazing news.

Congratulations. You want to shake my hand on it? Maybe later. Maybe later.

He really knows the litter box now. And I wanted to show them by showing them

what he had gifted.

I gave Travis the sole homework of being the bather.

Good.

Oh, I know.

All right, guys, some great stuff in there, and some stuff that needs some

So let me break it down for you. The great stuff I saw from you was your

was full of reassurances.

Now, on the other hand, what I didn't see from you was the full Monty. I mean,

you've got to give him a bath.

And on that note, sit there for a second.

I got something I want to show you guys, okay?

So I left the room for a minute to come back with my present for these guys I

was kind of excited about.

All right.

Wow. Obviously you can tell what this is all about.

Jackson came in with this big tub.

It's great to break the association with the kind of cold metal thing. I think

it'll be really cool.

Let's take a little trip.

Diane's methods in terms of bathing Oscar are obviously wrong.

Travis, although he's trying, is not doing it correctly either. So I'm going

take them to a professional groomer today to show them how to properly bathe

sphinx.

Hello there.

Hi. This is Travis and this is Diane. Nice to meet you. Hi. And this is Oscar.

Sphinx need to be bathed once a week. Because they have oilier skin, sphinx

more prone to feline acne. Therefore, proper skin maintenance is a must.

And we have Oscar.

Okay. We got to teach the guy that once a week or so, his face has to get

washed. Okay, I agree. So let's go ahead and place him here on the table. It's

so crucial for Diane, first of all, to see the way that she handles him right

now is completely wrong. And she now needs to redefine her physical

with him.

Simple hypoallergenic shampoo.

Something that doesn't have a scent.

Diane and I have always had differences.

on how to bathe or groom Oscar.

The big part, though, was also how to do it.

Any

time

that he goes to the sink for a bath...

I've seen the cat go.

Slowly put him in.

Insane.

On a sphinx, you've got to imagine that without the hair.

He made a little bit of noise. That's how he knows how to get out of things,

she wouldn't let him out. Did you see how I placed him in?

Yep. Okay.

That's the only way to do it. Slowly put him in. Let his head touch. Kind of

work from behind to front with a cool washcloth. Kind of going from the neck

down.

Okay. Just to get the water all over the body.

I know.

They're going to scream. They're going to try to squiggle. They're going to

wiggle and try to move out. They are going to do that. After a while, he'll

that this behavior is not good.

This is a pretty huge moment because he's getting this back. He does his

every now and again. It's really just a lot of noise and nothing else.

Yeah, he's perfectly fine. He's fine.

Now, with a cup.

You can go ahead and rinse them off. I think Jackson's idea of going to the

groomers was really great because one of the big issues that we've had going

forth is what kind of maintenance he needs and how it should be done.

And so we got a lot of the questions resolved today.

I thought we had a great time today.

Shonda was fantastic.

I'd like you to take the lessons that you learned from her and apply it here

because we really do have to undo the trauma.

And I will talk to you guys in a couple weeks.

The next time I come back here, I expect to see Travis and Diane complete the

picture that I have in my mind of co -parenting, which is they both bathe

Not only do they bathe him, they use the things that I brought in today to just

create a new experience for Oscar. Within a few weeks, he's just going to

have the repetition of trauma.

I'm about ready to go in for my last visit with Travis, Diane, and their

cat, Oscar. I really feel like if they just stayed the course.

that we're going to see complete success.

But I don't know. I'm about to find out.

Hello. How's it going?

Look who's back.

How are you?

The last time I was with Travis and Diane and their cat, Oscar, we were at

groomers. He did pretty well, but that cat has a set of lungs on him.

So I want to see you bathe him one more time. I want to be a witness to it.

Now, I asked Travis and Diane to bathe him again.

Is he going to get through the bath again? Is he going to scream his head

don't know.

Here, let's... Excited?

All right.

Wait, wait, wait. Let him get comfortable real quick.

There we go.

All right.

Isn't that fun?

That's amazing.

It really is.

He's not disturbing the neighbors.

He's not disturbing me, that's for sure. Yeah.

During the whole time, you know, he had a little bit of moaning and a little bit

of, oh, I don't want to be here.

But there was not the Oscar scream.

He just knew this was something I have to get through. But because they were

building a new association for him, he also knew that it was going to end. In

terms of what I saw the last time, what I heard.

The first couple times, this is a night and day difference.

It's a huge difference.

Yeah. Let me scratch my nose.

Thank you.

Now that's teamwork.

That's right.

Travis and Diane, just a few weeks ago, in terms of co -parenting, they couldn't

have been on any further plane.

But it seems completely different now, and they got the job done.

So now you both did the bathing together. That was good.

We're getting along quite nicely. And my relationship with Oscar has really

changed. He comes, sits on my lap now.

It's pretty amazing, actually.

You like this, Oscar?

I've just never seen him so relaxed with me before.

I know.

It's completely different.

Right now, you've got a cat that's half asleep while Diane pets him. No hissing.

No biting.

No peeing. Is that him? No yowling.

No nothing.

I mean, these guys can't take for granted the magnitude of this change.

How many times has he hissed?

After secured.

We never thought that we could be in such a good place.

Again, you guys have done an amazing job with him. It was great to meet you.

When we first started this process, he was miserable when I was around.

Now he trusts me.

Now it's a really pleasant experience to have him around. He's fun.

He's honestly like a new cat.

Oh, baby, what?

I'm on my way over to see Vincent and Esther. They've got this cat named Riley

that's suddenly turned violent.

Now, Esther is a veterinary technician.

She can't even figure out what's going on. So I'm on my way over to see if I

just help them put together these puzzle pieces.

Hi, I'm Vincent. And I'm Esther.

And we've been together three years now.

Married for a year and a half.

And we own a cat. Her name is Riley.

I got her from the veterinary hospital.

I'm not a cat guy. I'm a dog lover. And when I saw Riley, I fell in love with

cats. She was cuddly. She was cute. You could hold her in the palm of your

hands. And then one day, I just all did a 180.

Baby, be good.

Ow. We don't know if she's bipolar or just angry.

Be good.

Ow.

She bathed. Yeah, she got me.

I'm a musician.

And I'm a veterinary technician.

Which means that I should know more about cats and their behavior.

So I definitely feel like I'm failing our cat.

Sometimes when I get home, Riley and I get into it right away.

I'm in a terrible mood.

Esther comes home. There's friction right there, which is the only source of

friction. Riley the cat.

What happened?

She's just too bad.

There have been times that I've just told her, just get rid of her. Just give

her to somebody that will deal with this properly.

It would be very hard for me to let Riley go to another family. It would

like I was the biggest failure because she's so loving.

When you have an animal under the same roof as you and you can't get along with

it, it's taxing on a marriage.

It would be nice if Jackson could help us get that harmony that just is not

right now.

I'm about to go in and visit Vincent and Esther and their cat Riley for the

first time. Now, I've heard that Riley is a handful. She's incredibly

aggressive. I've got a feeling I've got my work cut out for me.

Hey. Hi.

I'm Esther.

Hey, Esther. I'm Jackson. I'm Vincent. Hey, Vincent. Nice to meet you. We

definitely were very hopeful of Jackson being able to come in here and help.

It's always the big question mark of, like, Oh, gosh, are we going to have

weird cat that can't be helped?

Oh, I'm glad I could get here because I heard things were not lovely here.

Yeah, it's been a little rough.

Tell me about her.

Well, we got her as a kitten. She was great until she passed teenagerhood into

being a big cat, and then she turned into a wild schizophrenic.

She's part loving and part...

Just on a dime, man. She's just impossible to handle or read.

What?

You have faith in the fact that the way you handle her is proper and everything?

I mean, I'll see you do it later, but... Yeah.

No way. Not me.

There's been times where I'll put her in a towel, and I'll just restrain her

like that forever, you know, hoping that she'll see I'm her caregiver.

You know what I mean? It's inappropriate, I know. And I am an

it's driving me nuts that I'm at this point. That she pushes your butt. Yeah,

course. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

He's saying he's sorry. Well, sorry doesn't really cash the check because

the thing, you keep doing it. There's another issue entirely is the potty

training thing.

Oh, you potty trained your cat?

Dude, it worked.

Cats are not meant to go in the toilet. They're meant to go all over the place

and mark the entire territory. To me, it's one step away from training your

to ride a unicycle and juggle chainsaws at the same time. It's an insult.

After plays with her. Then she flips over and, like, kicks and bites.

Do you ever get bit at work, scratched at work?

I've rarely been bitten at work.

So you come home and you get beat up.

It's got to be frustrating.

Well, sometimes coworkers will be like, oh, what cat got you? And I'll be like,

my own.

I wanted to take a tour of the home, and I just wanted to see.

All the places that Riley has lashed out before.

This is kind of a haven for her amongst those dads and whatnot.

But this has also been a traumatic area, too. Tell me what.

When her and I have been tussling or whatever, having a disagreement.

A disagreement. Yeah, she'll,

you know, make this her little nook.

But this down here becomes a problem area for you. Yeah, and... Something

in fear of is me reaching at her, you know, to pull her out. Why do you pull

out again? Just, you know, it's my shortcomings as a pet owner.

It's ridiculous. I've never felt like this before about anything.

He will not let her be when she's under there. When she's stressed out, he feels

like he must pull her out. Come through our hallway.

Okay. Where we have the bathroom here.

Okay. And... Infamous toilet. Allow me.

She's pooping outside?

No, she's in. No, no, she's now finally in. She's now finally in. We had to go

revert back to the level previous to this one to get her to start

doing it before we moved. You had a lot of work in there. We did. A lot of, you

know, my missteps were while, and I was simultaneously imploring Esther, can we

just, can we just nix this?

When the cat, I would walk in and all of a sudden it's on the floor.

I didn't handle that well.

You know what I mean? I would immediately pick the cat up, like you

you know what I mean? Like their nose in it? No, not their nose in it, but you

know what I mean? You would pick up the cat and go, what'd you do? You know what

I mean? Like a dog. This did not work. This resulted in flailing.

Probably more anxiety around the toilet. Like I said, you know, I'm hip to it

all now. I get it. I understand my missteps, but I'm still, you know, I'm

good with this. Okay.

This is the bedroom.

Okay.

She loves to go under the bed and climb into the lining, almost like a hammock.

So there have been points where I've taken that bed and pulled it up and

the cat out and put her in a different room. You know what's really interesting

to me is that I can't imagine you getting to this place where you pull

bed up and pull her out of here.

Vincent's not picking up on the fact that every time he gets worked up, Riley

gets more worked up. By the way, I just can't help but looking at this. If I was

to go up to her right now, she may...

Freak out.

Well, you know you just invited them, so please.

What I do in approaching cats, first of all, let them introduce themselves to

me, and then I'll follow their lead. That's the important thing.

All right.

This is my look. The hand that feeds you.

There you go. Do it again.

Now.

Now she got you. Yeah, yeah, she's definitely done a job on you before,

It's very clear to me that there's something in the dynamic of Vincent and

Riley's relationship that is to blame here. Can you switch for a second?

Ralph!

What's up, girl?

Hi. Oh, I know.

She'll probably want to play. There we go.

So this is how you two play. This is how she plays.

Okay. Now that I've seen the response that Vincent elicits and I've seen the

response that Esther elicits, it's time for me to get in there and see what I

can do.

What I'm going to do immediately is cut off escape, which I would never do to

you ordinarily, baby.

And I'm going to present hands kind of the way that I thought you'd do it. In

experience, when I approach with hands, it's limp, palm down, and not grabbing

at something. You grab at them, they're going to grab back.

So, it's all in the hand.

What's that look that you're seeing right now?

She's definitely questioning what you're going to do with your hand. I think

she's mad at your hand.

Did you see what happened there? Yeah. The minute you have a fist, her eyes

dilate. So we're going to mellow out again.

You see what happened? Did you see that?

So as soon as my hand went down, I can breathe again, right?

Where do I got to push you to the point where you lash out? When I went from

flat hand to fist, she did this to me.

Thank you for hurting me. That's cool.

Now I want to see, it's okay, baby. Lip licking, eyes looking for escape, ears

flat. Lip licking is a sign of nervousness. Ears back, a defensive

which means she can attack at any time.

Now, her natural instinct at this point.

It should not just be fight. It should be flight.

All right.

From that position, now you have escape.

You see?

She's so fixed on that that she's not seeing escape.

She doesn't know better than to not corner herself.

This is one of our biggest problems right now because now...

I try not to ignite any friction between me and Riley, so I don't see that side

of her very often. I don't see her in a corner with her ears back. I don't see

her striking like that.

I don't try to ignite the friction either, just to clear up the record.

If you don't mind, let's get out of here.

Okay, so let me tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So, first of all, the fact that you get pushed to a point... where you flip that

bed up.

We saw in there that really concerning thing that I'd put a flat hand out, no

problem. I'd fist up.

And it was a huge problem.

Yeah. This is threatening to a human. If I'm like this to you, you know.

This to a cat doesn't seem like it should.

No. I'm telling you, this hand thing is learned.

Something's happening here that is threatening the hell out of her.

So your homework this week is pretty simple. I want you to start journaling.

she's going through her space and say, Zach threatened, put masking tape on the

floor in an X. So when I come over here next time, I see where those X's are, do

it. On the other side, I can't stand toilet training cats.

This to me serves no use except for you.

Get rid of it this week. Yeah. Now.

Vincent, I got to say this up front. I need to know when she pushes you, and I

need to know exactly what you were thinking when you get to that place. Oh,

got it, man. I'm going to document every thought, every moment. In the same

time, put an end to hand play altogether.

Yeah. No more playing with hands, no more pulling out with hands. So what

means is you find those interactive toys that...

you can both be involved in. Because next time around, we're going to start

getting rid of all the things that threaten her.

Good? Yeah. You down?

All right. Thank you very much.

You're very welcome. Great to meet you. Good to meet you. Great to meet you.

Today I saw a cat that has obviously been conditioned towards fear.

Now I got to get to the bottom of this. I have to find out how far Vincent has

taken this, but it's not going to be fun to find out.

So it's been a few weeks since the last time I saw Vincent and Esther and Riley.

Hey there, Vincent.

Nice to see you again. Yeah, you too.

Hi. Now, the last time I was here, I left completely bloodied up. That cat

whipping on me, so I didn't really know what to expect walking back in again.

So, tell me a story. What's going on?

Well, we've been following the plan.

We've been handling Riley 90 % less.

Are you... Playing less with hands.

We've seen massive results right from the beginning.

Riley has developed the best word for it. It's trust.

Tons of trust. And I've watched it bloom into this beautiful play interaction

between the two of them. Nice. It's crazy.

Nice.

Let's do a quick hand check here. I always love to do this at the beginning.

are you guys doing? Oh, yeah. I have no new fresh cards at all. No, no. None of

us do.

The first bit of big news was that there hasn't been any attacks.

I thought that in itself was amazing in the time that we've been gone, only

three weeks. I'm really excited to get to the video homework because you guys

did a lot in here, too. So let's take a look.

This is going all day long.

I really love the fact that Vincent and Esther were playing with Riley plenty in

this video homework.

The cat was just running with wild abandon, no hands involved, which is

Remember, she's still scared of hands, but she still likes to fetch.

All that was great to see.

Good stuff.

All right.

So, with all the detail that we saw in the video, I'm absolutely excited to

start walking around here, starting with these exes.

Last time I was here, I asked Vincent and Esther to start marking places on

floor, what I called hot spots, with X's where bad interactions were happening

with Riley.

Girlfriend.

So, tell me something. The last time we were here, we had a lot of moments in

here that I found kind of... I pull out a hand.

Honey.

So as soon as I started gesticulating, just a little bit, I'd set her off.

So we know exactly right now how halfway we are.

That's information I needed to see as I put my hand in my back pocket. Look at

this. I looked over at Vincent and Esther. They were concerned.

I had to let them know this is only the 50 % mark of this process. We're going

to see retreats like this. So let's go back to this crazy.

cat algebra on the floor that we got going on. The best way to do this is to

come out here, and I'll show you what this was.

This door, this door was right here.

See, she's doing it right now. She's trapping herself.

See that? Yeah. Hey, baby, I'm going to put this there.

That was just about there.

Sorry.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait one sec.

Look what's happened. Yeah, right?

Yeah, it was a hand.

It was a hand.

And then she came out. Right.

Last time something like that happened, the cat froze in the corner and started

lashing out like a trapped animal, which she was.

This time, she chose escape.

That in itself is a game changer. You went down there with a hand in the

picture. She was like, oh, I want out. That's amazing. Give me some.

Riley seems to be on the right track, but she's still scared of hands.

I had to talk to Vincent.

He has been prone to fits of rage around this cat. I had to know if he followed

that rage all the way to the end and struck her.

So, you know, you went flipping the bed and all that stuff. So when you did the

bed, how did that end? What did that look like at the end?

At the end, it wound up me, you know, fishing her out by the back of the neck,

you know. And I'm sure, no doubt, it was traumatizing.

It doesn't make sense.

I mean, because honestly, I got to know at some point if you hit her.

No. You've never hit her? No, I've never hit her. I've whipped her up. I've

picked her up by that back of the neck quite a few times, you know.

You would scruff?

Hold that one more time, because me and you are both doing it right now. She's

feeling that, right? The aura of a fist right on her person.

Thank you. I mean, the thing is, you know it's wrong when you're doing it.

know it's counter -effective, but it's like... Well, first of all, thank you so

much for your honesty on this one. Of course. Thank you, man. No, but...

I didn't put myself out there. You did.

So let's go rejoin Esther in the living room. Go over some homework. Cool.

Of course I can feel for Vincent.

He's not an animal abuser. He's never struck the cat, but he has traumatized

her, and now we just have to move forward from there.

All right. Let's talk some homework now. Okay. I feel pretty strongly right now

because of the information you gave me. Thank you again.

Of course.

And now we get to counter -condition that.

Now we're going to start desensitizing and counter -conditioning the experience

with hands.

And that includes the fifth, but you're praising at the same time. So with all

that, that's all your homework.

I'm off, and I will see you very soon.

All right. Sounds great. Take care.

I'm going in for my last visit with Esther, Vincent, and Riley, and all I'm

hoping for this time is a little bit of peace. I just want to make sure that

Riley is grounded.

Is not attacking. And also, at this point, I'm hoping that hands are not the

thing to send her over the edge.

Oh, baby, what?

The bedroom.

The bedroom. Now, this has been the scene of many a tragic circumstance.

Have you had any incidents with her in the corner? How has she reacted? She

really hasn't backed herself in any corners.

So big, it's so important.

What I really needed to see was Vincent using his hands with Riley, because if

you go back to day one, all of the trauma was based around his fist

her.

Come here, baby.

Come here, Ralph.

Come here.

Hi, baby. Good girl. Hi.

Good girl.

Hands are no longer a problem for Riley.

Closed fists, open hands, wiggle the fingers, no problem whatsoever.

I want to see this cool trick that you've done, fist treat.

Vincent told me something very interesting, that what he's been doing

my exercises one step further and presenting a prize in the fist. I never

thought of that. Look at that, baby.

What's in there? What do you think's in there?

Oh, my God.

That was amazing, man.

Riley and I, we're buddies.

I handle her a lot less, and then when I do handle her, it's always positive.

And now she's with you, and then I do my little sitting dance. Right, right,

right. We do a little sitting dance on that one.

Vincent and Esther have done everything I've asked to help out their cat, Riley.

They've reconditioned her so she's not afraid of hands anymore.

Vincent has changed his behavior completely around her, and therefore she

doesn't corner herself and lash out in fear anymore.

Thanks so much, dude. We couldn't have done this without you. It was amazing. I

mean, I have so much gratitude for this. You know what? Me too, because I

learned a lot through your process.

Thank you, because I want to take it to the next group.

It's always great to see a cat change.

It's almost more amazing to see a human change.

Even though I've worked with a lot of cats in the veterinary hospital.

I do not feel like a failure like I did before.

The tools that we've been given and the insight we've been given helps us to see

results.

I feel the exact opposite that I did three months ago when I wanted to get

of Riley. I was absolutely fine with her being gone, and today she's a fixture

of our home, and I love her. She's a good cat.