Original subtitles

Finn is a troublemaker.

Around midnight, Finn peed on us.

The amount of money I've spent trying to clean up the pee, I've tried

everything, and I just can't get the smell to go away.

She has the hardest time locking him up. She feels like it's almost a form of

abuse.

Yeah, no, that's... If David said today, it's me or the cat, I would tell him to

leave.

Molly's our problem child.

She's the biggest cat in the world.

She pretty much destroys everything.

She attacks the little kitten to the point where we have to take her stitches

thin. Molly actually bit my mother.

It's pretty bad.

When we get to the point where we have to terminate the cat, we will cross that

bridge when we get to it.

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

lean. And cat guardians have reached their emotional limit. Just get rid of

I'm their last hope.

Are you all right?

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

Just walk him up already.

I'm heading over to David and Laura's house with their cat, Finn, who,

to them, is so bad.

This is Sunday morning. We just woke up.

Woken up.

Not we woke up.

We're on midnight, Finn.

Feed on us.

Feed on you, too.

Feed on both of us.

Okay, now I'm looking at a cat's behavior that is kind of out there,

But the boyfriend in this relationship is about up to here. So before he's out

the door, I better get over there.

I'm Laura.

And I'm David. And we've been together three years, and we live here in this

home with our cat, Finn.

Finn is our domestic short -haired cat, and he's six years old.

So I went to the shelter to adopt a pet, and outside the shelter on the street,

this couple came up to me, and they literally had Finn in the palm of their

hand. And I told them, don't take him to the shelter. So I just took Finn

myself.

Finn is a troublemaker.

This is where Finn has peed a lot. You can see all the discoloration.

When he doesn't get what he wants, he will pee and scream.

And he's... He's basically a spoiled brat.

He also meows all night long because he wants to go outside.

4 a .m. to about 5 .30 a .m., that's like his hot spot. That's when he'll

up, and it's loud and constant.

So Finn can open all the doors in the house.

So you can't just lock him in a bedroom and shut the door because he'll open it.

So we have switched the locks on our guest bathroom door to create what we

cat jail.

You can lock it from the outside, but no longer from the inside.

It is mainly like that because at night he meows all night.

What's wrong with you?

She has the hardest time locking him up. She feels like it's almost a form of

abuse, where to me it's the absolute logical and right thing to do. I will

flat out refuse to lock them up sometimes, and then we'll get into a

have to find the middle ground, and I feel like right now I actually am trying

to find the middle ground, and I don't feel like it's... Coming as much from

you. Like, even when they're meowing at the door. Even, like, clapping at him.

Yeah, no, that's... It's like we're trying to raise a kid together, but

like the adoptive dad that came in later. There are boundaries that have to

happen.

If David said today, it's me or the cat, I would tell him to leave.

If this doesn't get fixed, yeah. I mean, I think it will probably end up...

Hello. Hi, welcome.

Laura. Laura, good to meet you. Thank you for coming.

Come on in.

Oh, I'm sure.

You've got a lot to tell me, huh?

Yeah. I mean, he's a really gorgeous cat. I didn't want to bother him out

but I'm sure that I'm not here because he's a gorgeous cat.

Well, we really need your help with Muffin's misbehavior. Ever since he was

kitten, he has peed outside of the litter box. He'll use the litter box.

peed in laundry hampers, mattresses, comforters.

I think that right when I moved in, I'd say within the first month, he had peed

on one of my pair of pants. He had peed on some shoes.

Now there's a corner in the office, and he has just peed repeatedly in that

corner for four years.

Yeah, the office is a source of a few things. Another thing that he does,

is cool sometimes, is that he can open any door. Even if the door is locked,

he'll sit there and continually try and open the door. And so it sounds like he

does it. Yeah.

I do let him outside.

He used to disappear for, like, hours at a time, but now something's shifted and

he's stopped wandering so far.

And we had to sort of create, like, a cat jail because we needed to be able

like, put him away if we needed to if someone came over that was highly

allergic. But now cat jail has become where David wants Finn to sleep because

another one of his big problems is he meows.

in the middle of the night and it can go till like at least sunrise and it's

just like this incessant crying i hardly have struggled with insomnia and so if

he's waking me up at like 4am majority of the time i don't fall back asleep and

then i'm just sitting there in bed and then if a trigger happens when she wakes

up i'm ready for that fight even though i don't even want to have it right from

what i've heard and from the little bit i've seen Finn is not this ferocious cat

lashing out at Lara and David.

He's just a little mischievous, and he's peeing on things.

That being said, his behavior is clearly enough to claw up this relationship.

Just so I know what my immediacy level has to be, how far down the end of your

rope are you?

I don't think I could handle this for more than a few more months.

David didn't even waste a second. He said, I'm done.

A couple months more, and I would go out of my mind.

He's at the end of his rope. He's going to open the door right now.

So this is the sound that you guys feel.

And then he meows, and then boom, he's done. There he goes.

And it's kind of awesome the first ten times you see it. I can watch that the

rest of my life. But then you live with it, and you're like, this is a party

trick that has gone awry. And now it's like killing the party.

That's a perfect opportunity for me to see what's going on. So let's head over

there. I felt like I got plenty of information about their relationship and

their personal relationship with the cat.

Now it was my turn to go around the territory and get the information that I

needed in order to find out more about him myself.

He goes up onto the bay window, and that's where he usually, like, sits and

cries in the night. This pillow's been peed on. That's why it kind of looks a

little gnarly from being washed.

He's peed on these curtains, too. I wanted to point this out right here.

He is trying to pull this screen out. Yeah, like all this stuff here is Finn

futzing. I think that it's torn because of him. Well, he's definitely been

hanging on it. That window is raising every red flag in Finn's body, saying, I

must defend this area. Now, I don't know what's going on out there, but

something is.

Where's the corner that you guys started piling stuff?

So I'm walking around in the office, trying to sort of see the world through

eyes a little bit. And the puzzle pieces are coming together again because we've

got the P corner. And the P corner is, again, by a big bay window, just like in

the bedroom.

It started off like really in this corner.

You know, this has been going on for four years. It kind of spread along this

whole wall here, which is why we decided to put this bookshelf down and these

frames here in this corner thinking if there was something on top of it. That's

why the frames are there too? Yeah. I haven't seen very many cases that had

quick fix written all over it like the office because they said, oh my God, I

don't want to deal with this at all. Let's put a bookcase on top of it. They

a bookcase on top of it and it's still pee everywhere.

At what point do you not get the hint that you've got to start looking at this

differently?

I have white, right? The pigment in the carpet is just gone. You know, that's

what happens under the blacklight. What I'm seeing is a cat that's screaming

from territorial stress.

Literally and figuratively. This.

Yeah, that's fresh.

He's screaming. The invaders are coming. And what he means by that is other

cats. And then what he does is he builds a moat around his castle with pee.

Oh, yeah.

Really? Oh, yeah.

that marks a wall between his people and this world.

I'm seeing a level of territorial marking that, I mean, I could write a

about it. This is him saying, I am so insecure that this is

my castle, and now I'm going to build a moat around the castle. That's why

you're seeing markings at the bay window, at that bay window, at this

That's it.

I guess I'm just a little bit skeptical.

I mean, it doesn't feel like there is another animal outside provoking him

nightly. So that's one of the first things I want to give you for homework.

I'd like you to get a specific kind of cleaner for the carpet just to see if we

can unlock a little bit more of that smell.

Next thing I want you to do in both of those big places is put litter boxes in

front. I want him to be able to pee in something that's actually you going,

okay, this is where you're supposed to pee, okay?

Kitty jail gone.

Kitty Jail, at the end of the day, is taking away his only job in the world.

what you're doing is just lighting the fuse on a bomb.

Kitty Jail is a bomb.

Also, I want you to be very careful about what you reward.

If you're rewarding the pacing and the yowling in the middle of the night, then

it's reinforcing bad behavior.

The last thing I have for you is the biggest thing.

Change your doorknobs. Why do you not have round doorknobs? I've asked about

that before. Why do you not have round doorknobs? I'm talking about the ones

that are sort of round and steel. He can't get a grip. As much as you think

might, he doesn't have thumbs.

So, please, get that done.

I feel like we're bending over backwards for Finn, and I feel like the homework

could add more stress to an already taxed situation.

This needs to get fixed faster, because otherwise the ramifications of being

drawn out are crippling.

I'm going in to spend some more time with Laura and David. Now, after the

time I was there, I left a cat who was peeing all over the house, opening up

doors at will, not letting Laura and David sleep at all, and being locked up

kitty jail.

Hello there.

So I watched David and Laura's video homework, and I did see some great

They actually cleaned up all the pee areas and put down litter boxes where

were supposed to go.

They took away the doorknobs and changed them to ones that Finn can't open.

This is D.

First, the many doors that were changing the doorknobs on.

On the other hand, I saw that Laura gave in a couple of times. She fed him in

the middle of the night, which again is reinforcing the behavior.

I'm also seeing that he's still acting out in many ways.

Hopefully, these two can see that there's light at the end of the tunnel,

possibly. Not sure about that, though.

So, how are things?

I feel like we've laid these building blocks, but nothing significantly

yet. Okay.

Kitty Jail? Kitty Jail is gone.

Give me some.

Give me some. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I know you're miserable.

No, I'm not entirely miserable, but it's with the fact that some of the behavior

hasn't changed since your first visit. Right.

the one band -aid, it's no longer an option. So what they see is unbelievable

frustration. We're still not sleeping.

We're not getting any rest. They just have to trust me. I mean, this is

something I see every day. I understand how cats work, and their life is about

to get better. The next part of this is what we did the first time. Let's get me

up, looking around his territory again.

So we went outside to the patio because it's not just about what Finn has done.

It's about what he's going to do, what I want him to do. Now, you're saying that

he comes out, but he doesn't go past the walkway up here?

Well, lately, he hasn't really gone too far past the walkway. But in the past, I

mean, he's ventured. He goes up on that wall.

He's, you know, will be gone for hours and hours at a time.

Yeah, in the past, when he would venture out, he'd be gone for half the day. We

don't really know where he was for at least half that time. We got to make it

safe for him.

Do you feel like I should go ahead and build the cat?

Absolutely. What is it called again? Catio. Catio. You build yourself a

It's not just important for David and Laura to build this catio. To give him a

secure place to own outside and safely fence him in, it's important to keep

other creatures away from his world.

All right, so you guys ready to get into homework?

First big piece is...

Absolute discipline.

Remember, we saw you feeding him at 5 o 'clock in the morning. Uh -uh.

Mealtime? One, two, three.

Because the other thing I'm going to want you to do is institute playtime

him. Before you guys go to bed every night, you've got to wear him down.

That means getting him in to hunt, catch, kill.

When that's done, then into the meal.

After the meal, he's going to naturally go into this thing of going, all right,

now I get to groom.

Then he's going to sleep. And he will sleep through the night.

Okay? Now, beyond that, I know that when they do perimeter marking this severe,

that it's not a perceived threat.

And I don't think that it's a held trauma.

I don't think.

I've got an idea. Will you give me one minute? I'll be right back, okay?

I excused myself for a second, came back in with a few things to let them know

that I had my homework, too. I am going to find the mysterious creatures that

you say don't exist around here that I'm telling you do, which is feral cats.

Or community cats. I came in with my infrared goggles and a humane trap.

Basically, I'm going out tonight to trap me some feral cats.

What I'd like you to also do is get an automatic sprinkler -mounted deterrent.

You attach your hose to it, and anytime someone comes within his perimeter, it

just gets them wet.

Basically, any animal that gets wet ten times over is not coming back eleven

times unless they're dumb.

I don't know if I've been this stressed out about homework since college.

So I feel like I can't even honestly, like, compute.

what that means in terms of our relationship, because I feel like I have

on my plate. My fear is that we're going to hit a breaking point, and I want to

avoid that at all costs.

And so the homework's overwhelming, but we're going to do it.

I'm outside of David and Laura's house right now. My plan involves TNR. TNR

stands for Trap, Neuter, and Return. That's how we manage feral colonies.

the most effective and the most humane way to do it. Bringing them to the

shelter and having them mass euthanized is not exactly humane. Plus, if I can

trap these cats and get them neutered without the hormones coursing through

their system anymore, they're not going to feel that need to hit this area over

and over and over again. It's very simple. If the cats stop marking outside

home, Why would Finn feel the necessity to mark Insa?

I'm up in the Hollywood Hills right now, a little bit outside of David and

Laura's house. I set my trap, just looking around for some feral cats right

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's been about five hours or so since I've

been out here.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

We're going in for my final visit with Laura, David, and the cat, Finn.

Hi. Hello. Come on in.

I took a look at Laura and David's video homework, and by and large, great

things on there. First of all, obviously stepped up their play.

David is really involved in playtime. That was amazing to see. And I think all

combined, we might have put Finn at some ease.

How's Mr. Finn?

Good. Good, good.

Yeah? I think playing with him has been fantastic.

We do toy time at 10 .30 or so, and then he's got three meals a day now, so he's

got a schedule, and it's working.

Which means you're sleeping. And you're sleeping.

You're sleeping specifically.

I'm seeing that I'm getting to like 8 .30 or something, and he's not howling

the window, which is fantastic.

Dave had a big smile on his face, and he said that he's getting a full night's

sleep. Laura's got to be happy, too, because she's not catching his grief

time he wakes up angry.

And, I mean, it's got to feel.

Pretty good for you.

Yeah. Especially with kitty jail not being around.

Yeah, I think it takes a lot of the resentment and judgment out of the

relationship because we were judging each other on the way that we were

the cat. Yeah, it's fantastic. I don't think that he's peed at all on the

carpet. He's only using the litter boxes.

Good. Which is great.

That is great. So is he doing the pacing back and forth?

No. No. Good. Good news. I don't think there's been any other cat activity on

the patio.

Woo. Yeah.

There you go.

My homework was, if you remember, to go on my trapped, neutered, and returned

stakeout. I was just out there for a few hours, and we got someone.

That's a major deal because, honestly, every bit of assurance that we give him

means nothing in the face of an actual threat to territory. So that's pretty

right on.

Now that we've done that, let's take a look around. Okay.

The final frontier.

Yeah. Now.

Wow. That is a beast.

I love the amount of space it takes up.

And you've got your scarecrow set up right here, which is wonderful.

Point it out in the right direction here, which is going to keep the feral

population out.

Basically, any animal that comes in here only has to get wet a few times. And

they're going to be like, there's no food.

I can't get at him. And they get wet.

Why would I be here? And they're going to be gone.

It's very quick.

So I'm really glad to see that that's here.

Good work, guys.

Bravo. All right.

Let's go back inside.

Okay. Sit down and let's wrap it up. I'll tell you what I've seen today.

Overall today, I got to see this rare glimpse at humans and cats completing a

transformation.

I'm glad that Finn seems to have a grounded world to live in right now.

good for you guys, too. Yeah, yeah. It's been a big improvement.

Huge.

Very, very, very happy with the change we've got now. Good. I'm glad to hear

Hello, Mr. On Cue. Speak of the not -so -devil anymore.

Speak of the not -so -devil.

We were having a hard time with Finn, and it was really affecting our

relationship, and Jackson came in and changed that.

It's really heartwarming for me to know that...

Not only are we happier, but Finn is happier.

I hated seeing him frustrated and upset, and knowing that, like, he's living a

happier lifestyle is such a relief for me. Thank you. Oh, you're totally

welcome.

Molly's our problem child.

She did my mom. We had to take her to have stitches, to destroy everything.

Well, we get to the point where we have to terminate the cat.

Molly's our problem child.

I'm looking at footage of a cat

that's really messing with this artist's home. I mean, she's got some really

nice pieces here. There's got to be a way for cat and art to live together.

I've got to find out. I'm going over right now.

I'm Nancy.

I'm Jim.

We've been together 11 years.

We have two cats, Mimi, and then there's Molly.

Molly's our problem child.

She's a big, very big cat.

She pretty much does everything wrong you could ever imagine.

Broke skin on that one.

Aye, aye, aye.

She, you know, scratches.

Most furniture is either plastic or covered in plastic.

Pooping is her thing every day. There's the litter box, and then one feet away

is where she goes.

She pretty much destroys everything.

She attacked us a little kitten to the point where the scratch had gone into

muscle. We had to take her to have stitches.

Then we started noticing this attack to other people.

My mom was petting her, and she bit her and latched on, and my mom could not get

her hand out of Molly's mouth.

People have a couple of times said, a cat like that, you should put down.

That weekend, we had a serious conversation.

I would not be able to do it, but if more episodes occur, we're going to have

reinvestigate that conversation.

Will we get to the point where we have to terminate the cat?

Cross that bridge when we get to it.

Hey. Hi.

How are you? Good. I'm Nancy.

Wow. Very cool place. When Jackson came through the door, I had a great feeling

about him, and I just instantly loved him.

Obviously, we've got a problem to deal with, right?

Yes. Tell me what's going on. Molly.

who is the oldest. She just has the worst behavior ever, and it's pretty

She attacked Mimi, who is only a year and three months, and ripped a big cut

her. It's never a nice interaction. It's always a very tense moment.

Then Molly actually bit my mother.

Oh, man. So that was a bit scary for my mom, and she scratches everything.

We pretty much have plastic.

Or we've covered it. Oh, this is covered because of her?

Oh, yeah.

Now I think in terms of, oh, yeah, you've got to buy something that's

You know, when you're redoing chairs that are vintage and they're done in

and then the vinyl's all scratched, it's like, you know, I accept it, but it

does bother me.

Jim, what about you? I mean, living on plastic?

You don't care?

Well, I see relevant because there's not a...

Piece of furniture's house that is comfortable for a guy.

This is what I'm saying. That's not the cat. That's my aesthetic.

That's your aesthetic?

Whatever she says goes.

I mean, at the end of the day, they're her cats.

I'm just here to service the three of them here.

She's really high -strung. Her tonal pitch matches the whine of the cat at

point. And since she pretty much is, why aren't you doing that? Why aren't you

helping me? It's like the scream of a banshee.

The stress of Molly's behavior affects our relationship because we sort of are

at each other to make sure we take over the responsibilities of watching her.

I know that we have a lot to look at in here. I'd like to explore the house and

the tour a little bit. Just lead me around. I got some really important

information really quickly about Molly. First of all, she's attacked Nancy's

mother who's in her 90s, and that's horrifying.

She also has attacked the kitten sending her to the hospital.

That's pretty awful as well.

And she poops outside the box only.

Wow. That's some heavy information.

So this is the famous Molly. You're a big girl.

She seems awfully relaxed.

She knew that Mimi was in here.

I want to see what happens if we can get her up here.

Mimi, come on.

Come on, sweetie.

Where are you?

Now I see it. So now we have ears back.

This is retreating inside.

Oh, right. It's as if she was saying, this is what it feels like to be

This is what it feels like to be relaxed.

And that's a good sign because it's her saying to us, I would much rather walk

away from the situation than to engage in fight.

The only way I know how to work is to find out what makes the bomb go off.

Do you know what I mean? This is about finding this cat's challenge line.

Where does she become reactive?

What do they do to make her pop?

Play with the hips, and this will get her going.

Oh, yeah, there we go.

Let's let her come after me. What I want is, I want to see where she's going to

get to.

Hey.

Oh, yeah, she's ready.

Oh, yeah.

It's about playing with the hips. It's about being below the neck. It's about

petting in a full -body way.

And the attacking happened very quickly.

Wait till you see what she's done to the cat. Let's go take a look.

Hi, monkey.

Yeah, there she goes.

Hi, I'm a monkey.

Mimi's an Abyssinian.

Abyssinians are spider monkeys.

They swing from the chandeliers while everyone else is eating dinner. They

to have directed activity, and they need to have that activity constantly.

In the meantime, you've got an older, crankier cat who's saying, just make it

stop. That's going to be a problem unless we figure out a creative way to

Mimi some activities so she just doesn't spend her day annoying Molly.

Wow, she doesn't even fool around. She's taking apart the wood.

Molly decimated this thing, and that's good news, but because they don't like

the looks of it, they've pushed it off into an insignificant place in the

and that's a big red flag for me.

Is this someone's pee down here? I can kind of smell pee.

Oh, now?

Yeah, right down here.

No, that smells like pee, you know?

I think it's wonderful. We should get new ones. You should get tons of these.

But here's, I just saw it. I saw it.

The aesthetic.

Yeah. Right?

You're like, hell no. Right. Hell no. We're not letting this all over my

You do that all day.

The idea is, no, I don't want you scratching on the couch.

Yes, I want you scratching on places. Did I say yes? I told Nancy I needed her

to replace that peace -soaked scratching post with...

pieces that actually fit her aesthetic so she could put them all over the

As you can see, this is the litter box here.

Nancy and Jim were almost excited to show me the litter box because Molly had

just left a treat there for me.

It's usually somewhere between here and then this area.

Not only does she never go in the litter box, but you see these four squares of

tile? That's where she goes. That gives me a very important place to start my

work. I don't want to use litter boxes in this hallway. I need three litter

boxes around the house.

It's about the fact that she now associates a round litter box with

We need to change the way that Molly views the litter box. And we're not just

talking about location. We're talking about shape and size.

So this is an area where you can see in this corner she got to, and then she

sometimes goes under the plastic.

Yeah, I mean, it seems like right here and this right here.

Is the same cat. A lot of scratching.

A lot of cat.

Yeah. Okay. So this is how they all get cord.

This is ridiculous.

Do you still plug this in? Yeah.

Okay, you shouldn't.

We took a look at one cord in this house that was chewed down to the wires.

That means that the next time she goes to that cord and it's plugged in, she's

toast.

Molly's a threat to a lot of people, to other animals.

Really hard to love a fat, angry cat that wants to cut you in the face.

We just don't want to get to the point where we have to make that decision

termination.

He said, well, we might not have had any choice but to terminate her.

And it kind of stunned me into silence because I've got to be honest with you,

I've never heard someone say terminate.

This is a life we're talking about.

Nancy and Jim kind of lulled me into this sense of false security. I really

thought that this wasn't such a bad problem, but all of a sudden they took a

hard left turn, and we were talking about this cat being put to sleep, a cat

they've had for 10 years.

That's serious.

Quite honestly, I mean, there's a lot of information. Let me tell you what I

saw. I did see a lot of areas environmentally that I think are

If I asked you, you would say, I have completely turned over this world to the

cats. But you haven't.

I don't think that there's a level of compromise that we need to see in here

order to make sure the peace between the cats is secured.

I want to take you guys through homework and what I want you to do over the next

couple of weeks before I see you again. The first thing I want you to start

taking a look at is the cords.

In order to effectively extinguish the behavior of the chewing, sure, we've got

to say no.

It's very simple.

There's a great little piece of hard plastic that's flexible.

You get it at any hardware store. You feed the cables through it. Chewing

Then we're going to start working on all of the surfaces that she's scratching

on. There's got to be something near that furniture that says yes.

And that's where we start looking at scratching surfaces that appeal to both

and the cat as well at the same time.

The last thing about her health also is I really want to get you guys to the

vet. I want to know, is she hyperreactive right now because she's

because she just gets overstimulated easily, or because she's in pain? We've

to rule out the pain part.

My feeling is that what we're seeing with the poop outside the litter box, it

just hurts to go in there.

So that's it for this time. You guys on board?

Yeah, sounds good. Okay, good. I see territorial behavior.

I see overstimulation problems.

I see possibly physical problems with Molly. I also see problems with the

humans. Nancy is an artist. Her furniture is art. Every time we find

the cats like, Nancy doesn't like it.

I don't think that I've gotten through to her. I think that I'm only beginning

to glimpse the attachment she has to this house. If I don't work this space,

cats suffer. If I do work it, Nancy suffers.

I feel a problem coming on.

I'm about to go in to see Nancy and Jim and their cat Molly for the second time.

Now, the last time I left here, there was a definite vibe in the air that

wasn't thrilled about all the changes that I was trying to implement.

But she didn't do the homework.

We're not getting anywhere.

One of the biggest pieces that we were dealing with last time, and the place

where I felt like I was getting any pushback at all from you, was the

of, all right, cats got to own.

And you were, like, looking at me like I was going to change your aesthetic

altogether. How many litter boxes did you get?

Only one.

Because I think I asked you to get, what, three or four.

Oh. Yeah.

I get what it's like to want your world to look a certain way, but this is for

the cast, and if you want things to resolve here, you're going to have to

by my rule.

Almost all the cords are covered. We have the rest of the material to finish

that. So that's good.

Good. I want to go over the video homework that I got for you guys. Okay.

my little player here.

Gather round. Okay.

On x -rays, I'm seeing some visible changes in her low back that tells me

there is arthritis there, and then her anal sacs are possibly infused.

For Molly having a degenerative hip problem and impacted anal glands, every

she goes to a litter box, it's like sticking her finger in an electric

Yes, so she's been taking her supplements for the degenerative joint

So that would probably be a glucosamine conjoined. Yes, and so I just put that

right in the food, and then she's also on the fish oil.

How did she respond to it? She did respond really well to the treatment.

were a little mellower, but there's still the little, you know, attacks on

but less.

Cool.

A lot of the answers that we need. My feeling is that she has to feel better

order to be approaching life better.

Right. Although Molly's feeling a lot better and her attacks on Mimi are

decreasing, things aren't going to get a lot better until Nancy surrenders her

environment more and makes it less about aesthetic and more about where can

Molly go to get away from this young Abyssinian spider monkey.

So the only way that I can get the full picture is to walk around the home again

and see all of the territory once again.

So we're still using this. Mm -hmm. Okay.

I asked you last time, you've got to replace this one with something new.

It's getting more and more frustrating.

One of the big lessons here, for you to be able to find furniture like this that

speaks to you first, because I want it not in this corner.

They have to be like, you guys sit in the living room, we sit in the living

too. And that's what leads us to being able to uncover the plastic in that

I gave Nancy a plan. You take this tower, you replicate it in other places

the house.

I need her to actually do that, though.

Our next stop was that dreaded litter box area.

And there we go. Yeah.

So it's still happening.

Yeah. We have this guy here, which is the exact same configuration that we had

last time. They didn't change the litter box, and they didn't move the boxes.

And sure enough, I walked over there, and there was a poop sitting in the

of the floor.

You're not making my job easy, folks.

I mean, the thing is, for her, she's not going to go in this litter box at all

until squatting and it feels different. And at the entrance, it has to feel

different. I really want to see a complete change.

Which is that I want this out of here.

I'm going to put it right here.

After everything I've seen today, after all the frustration that was building in

me, I was done.

Seriously, why did I bother saying all this stuff when I come back and you did

nothing? Nothing.

This is a nightmare over here for Kat.

This is a nightmare for you, I know. But we have to find a medium point

somewhere because they'll stop using it altogether.

I feel like the last time I was here, I spent a lot of time finding Molly's

challenge line.

This time, I felt like I found that line anew and pushed it and got pushed back.

Because you basically refused.

Now I need that line to be met, and we've got to power through it.

All right? I've got something for you.

Getting your house in line with your aesthetic can be a fun experience. It

really crucial for me to demonstrate to Nancy that we're entering a new era of

cat aesthetic coolness.

Now these, I thought, might be kind of in your wheelhouse.

A little bit stylistically.

If you can provide an option for the cats to scratch right next to the

-covered furniture, well, then they're going to start saying, well, why would I

work so hard to get under the plastic when there's a perfectly acceptable

alternative right here?

That's us saying, start here, and the next time I come here, let's have these

kind of pieces far and wide.

So for homework, I need three litter boxes that are new, that are around the

house. The final piece of this whole puzzle.

I need you to trust this process enough so that the next time I come back here,

I'd like you to take the plastic off of here.

Even though the treatment has seemed to help Molly, her attack on the other cat

and on people is not going to slow down until she feels a sense of ownership

over the territory.

That's not going to happen until Nancy surrenders her aesthetic.

And until that happens, this cat's life is still in danger.

I'm about to go in for my last visit with Jim and Nancy.

What's up, killer?

What's up, man?

Now, the last time I was here, I had to put the ball squarely in Nancy's court

and say, you haven't done anything that I've asked. If you don't want results,

it's up to you.

I hope that she really wanted those results.

So, a couple weeks.

How's it going?

All good news.

Really? They're doing good. Like, there's been, you know, big progress.

Mimi and Molly have not only been playing with us, but have found ways to

on their own.

Good girl. You jumped up. She used to jump up all the time, and, like, Mimi's

here with her.

This is really pretty great.

This cat was in pain the whole time. Now, no fights, nothing's happening.

much more peaceful place than it's been in the past.

You don't understand how huge that is.

I basically took, you know, all the litter boxes out and put it in the new

location. We actually had about five or six days of no pooping on the floor.

I know. Amazing.

Every time I come here before, I came here greeted by a poop on the floor.

wasn't one this time. That means that Molly is not just redefining her

territory, but feeling better. We have a new kitty condo that Molly isn't sure

about, but see, there's a part next to it that she goes on top of, and she's

gone in the bottom level of it. And Mimi, of course, is up and down it all

long and sleeping on top and scratching on it. So each one is taken to sort of

different surfaces.

Amazing.

That's great stuff.

I want to go see that piece. Okay. So let's head upstairs. Okay.

I couldn't be more excited to walk around the home because let me tell you

something. The last time I was here, Nancy had done nothing to this place,

am pretty sure that she did everything I asked this time.

Wow. Now, wait. Hold on a second here. Let me just take a second here. So we're

talking about a fairly...

Massive change.

I'm so glad to see this.

So the other thing, too, was when you brought me those really cool lounge

that look so great downstairs. They just fit in like they've always been there.

You know, it's encouraging to see that there are alternative things. This

plays to that whole artistic sentiment, I think, because it is pretty artistic.

I think it's gorgeous.

She actually has gone on this and scratched it. Good. Not inside.

Well, it's also a little tight for her. And Molly has gone twice. I've seen her

go in the bottom, not stay in it, but gone inside the bottom. Well, let's look

at this for a second, because this is one of the reasons why I'm in love with

this, is that for a cat like Molly, it acclimates to her weight loss as well.

Now, in the meantime, right now, she can maybe, you know, use this, you know?

She can maybe get up on one block. You can actually make these into stairs.

Okay. Now, what did you do? Did you do just a wholesale change? One day it was

out? Yeah.

You're so lucky.

You know what? I have to tell you one thing, though, because they did come

out on the same day. That was the day she pooped outside the box. There you

Of course. Right.

It's a lot. It's a lot to deal with, right?

There we go. Hey, baby doll.

And she's going to show you. I really think that this is brilliant.

You know that there's a whole world of this out there. I think moving forward,

it still doesn't serve a purpose here.

You know what I mean? For Mimi.

For anybody.

It's not territorially important back here. So inch by inch, it should be

something that you flaunt. You know what I mean? No, it's great. This belongs in

the world, man. This is amazing.

Looking at the power that Nancy had gotten for the cast, it was that

moment of going, ah, this is Nancy.

This is artistic. It's an artistic piece.

And that means that we can put them all over the house.

Last was the living room. It's been this hermetically sealed aesthetic tomb, and

Nancy had resisted me tooth and nail, changing anything in that room.

Oh, wow. This is really impressive. I love the fact that they have this little

ownership piece where you guys watch TV. So you own the couch, hopefully, and

they are lounging at some point. No, what?

Someone owns the couch, not me.

Now they love.

The horizontal loungers, and Nancy loves it too. Plus, the vertical scratching

post. I love that myself, and I thought it was really tasteful. And there's just

pieces all over the place that are now blending in with Nancy's aesthetic.

The moment had come. Take that plastic off this couch. It's been ten long

I am so proud of the moment.

And she did it effortlessly.

There's a certain letting go on my part, but there's also certain trust in the

groundwork and the process that we've all been through together as a cat

I got it. I got it. I got it.

You're doing amazingly right now. The thing about watching the plastic come

that couch.

This is the pinnacle of change. She had to do something different than she's

done for her entire life, and she actually did it. That's what taking

off of furniture means.

It means I can still, after 10 years, be different.

You know, I told you I'd do anything for them, and it's true.

Yeah, it is.

It kind of is about that. So it's like, yeah, I'm doing things that maybe make

me or have made me uncomfortable, but...

You get so much reward.

So, I mean, what's the worst that can happen? My cats will scratch the couch.

We've lived with plastic on these couches for 10 years, so I can barely

what it's like not to have it on.

But she did it.

Knuckle up, baby, you did it.

Knuckle up. You kicked some kitty ass on that one, boy.

It's been a total joy.

It was great to meet you guys.

It's so amazing that people were saying that you should consider putting her

down. That thought is so far from my mind because she's just a great kitty.

In many ways, this experience saved Molly's life.

You stay in here.