Original subtitles

Michael is the one that should be running after the cat.

Because I think it's a man's job.

Here we go again.

Oh, oh, oh.

And there goes your cat.

Does that happen a lot?

Ow. Man.

Addie's got the nickname known as the devil.

She usually rips my hand apart.

Addie's caused a few arguments.

He thinks he likes playing rough.

I don't agree with the way he plays with her.

I know she wants to play rough.

I'm going to disagree with that.

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.

Whoa!

I'm going over right now to see Michael and Chris and their cat, Kitty.

Ow! Oh, man.

Now, Kitty hates Michael and loves Chris, but it's no wonder.

Michael is a disciplinarian. Get down!

He chases after Kitty when he escapes, which is all the time.

And does all the dirty work.

Chris just gets some love on the cat, and that's the way she thinks it ought

be. So I'm going over there right now to see if I can referee this battle of the

sexes.

I'm Chris.

I'm Michael, and we've been together for a year.

Our relationship is bad.

Calm. Like, we don't fight that much.

We get along.

But the one thing that we do fight about... Is the cat. Is the cat.

Kitty's my cat, really. But I'm the guy that has to clean everything and do

everything for it.

Kitty also likes to pee and poop on my clothes.

I guess Michael gets the worst of it. He tears up all of our toilet paper rolls.

We go through, like, 36 toilet paper rolls.

In two months, which is kind of a lot, he will run outside.

I was all the way up this tree out here, like 15 feet up. I could definitely

fall and break a leg trying to get this cat.

I think Michael is the one that should be running after the cat because I think

it's a man's job.

Do you really want me to be the one chasing the cat or cleaning up his poop?

have to look pretty.

You're a cat, right?

The kitty is going to go up for adoption without Jack's help.

Hey, man. Hello.

How are you? How's it going?

Oh, hey. Oh, oh, oh.

And there goes your cat. Wow.

I think that was Kitty that just ran by me, but all I saw was a great furball.

Does that happen a lot?

Yeah, it sure does.

Every day.

Oh, there he goes.

And your job is what?

My job is just looking.

This is, like, every day. I was kind of, like, afraid that we weren't going to

find him today.

Is Jackson going to be able to even meet Kitty?

Oh, my God.

Kitty?

Get on that side.

Kitty? Kitty, Kitty, Kitty.

You idiot.

The cat is everywhere.

Funny thing was, the entire time, Chris is like, oh, Michael, oh, Michael.

God.

Seriously.

Oh, he's got him. You heard that hiss?

He went to go leap over the fence. I grabbed him by the tail.

Of course, I completely appreciate the fact that Michael's chasing Kitty all

over the neighborhood trying to save him. But at the same time, I really wish

wouldn't save him by grabbing him by the tail. There's between 14 and 28

vertebrae in a cat's tail alone.

And not only does that throw off their entire physiology, but it hurts.

Now, if they do this every week, man, they need my help worse than I thought

they did.

Kitty.

Glad you could meet him.

What's up, Kitty?

I'm glad that Jackson got to see the cat run out and, like, exactly what he does

when he does it.

And what I have to do when he does it.

Well, that's one of the things. Nice to meet you. Yeah.

That qualifies as a fine how do you do right there. Yeah.

Is this?

Kind of the kiddie MO. This is something you deal with all the time. This is

what this guy does.

Escapes any way it can.

Yeah, well.

Out the window, any door that's open.

Oh, yeah. Mark had it. It'll just monitor our day and just wait.

Might as well just launch right into it. I mean, why am I here?

Well. The worst problem for me is that he pees on clothes, especially, like,

right now. He's mad now because Mike went and got him. So, like, I'm pretty

he's going to go and pee somewhere when we're not looking.

I'm in school full -time, so I'm always doing homework, and whenever, like, the

cat's being mischievous or anything, I'm like, Michael, take care of it.

And he doesn't like that. That, like, caused a problem with us because then we

started, like, bickering.

More like Michael cleaning up.

This, clean up that, go check this, go feed him, change the litter box. Okay,

now we know that there's a bit of a problem there. Michael and Chris are

displaying that classic good cop, bad cop behavior, where Chris is the one who

pets the cat and loves the cat, where Michael is making sure that this cat

doesn't die.

He's actually the guardian.

What Chris is, I have no idea.

What have you tried to keep him in?

I try to overfeed him.

Overfeed him. So he's too full to move?

Yeah. The cat likes potato chips and Snickers. That wasn't a good idea.

Seriously, you are not being your... They will lay together and watch TV and

they're both eating chips.

So you're hoping that that's going to keep him from running out of the house.

I'm going to die.

Cats are what we call obligate carnivores. That means that they're only

to eat meat. They're not chocovores, and they're not chipivores. As a matter of

fact, there are certain types of chocolate in certain quantities that can

your cats. This is our bedroom.

Okay. So now in here, I kind of smell pee.

It's probably that.

He goes, hides in the corner, and pisses on all our clothes in the drawers.

Is it somebody's clothes that gets hit more than others?

Mine usually always.

It is absolutely ridiculously annoying that Kitty just pees on my things.

Has he peed on your bed? He does pee on his bed. Yeah, he's peed on my bed.

As Michael and Chris were pointing out all the spots that Kitty had peed, well,

you can't see them, but you can sure smell them, and you can smell it

in their room.

I'm just going to go around here and look for pee.

So it was time for me to get my black light out and go around the room. I

to find a spot that they didn't even know about.

So it's this side of the bed that he tends to go on, right? That's yours.

So there you have something there. He definitely peed this up quite a bit,

actually. In order to wash away cat urine, and not just the stain, but the

as well, I found that using the CO2 -based cleaner has worked really well,

well as some other enzymatic cleaners.

Oh, hello.

There is a bunch of pee dripping down. Oh, my God.

All the way down to the floor, kind of.

Again, it is very much your side of things.

Well, I got all the information that I needed from the space itself, from the

territory. Hi!

But now it's kind of my favorite time. I get to spend some one -on -one time

with Kitty.

What is that?

What is that?

Oh.

Oh, my God, you're the biggest play hound ever.

Watching Kitty play with that toy. Come on.

Hot laps.

I knew that he had never been played with like this before. He had never had

interactive toy.

You know how to hunt.

It was jackpot beyond anything he had ever known before.

And it was great to bring that to his life. I felt like Santa Claus.

Hey, guys. Hey, how'd it go?

Well, it was fun.

What happened?

He's a lot of fun. I mean, first of all.

He's just a normal teenage boy.

So I'm going to give you really concrete homework.

The first thing is, tomorrow we've got to get this guy set up and get Kitty

neutered.

What's that?

I feel bad for him. He's an unneutered tom at a year old.

This is his only job in the whole world, is to make more little kitties and mark

his territory. If he remains intact and he's not allowed outside, he's going to

become destructive in the house by making a mess and peeing all over the

Now, here's the second part. It's going to be fun for one of you guys anyway.

We're going to switch roles.

Good cop, bad cop, bad cop, good cop. That means no more discipline from you,

more cleaning, no more scooping. Your only job is to learn what makes him move

around the house. I'm going to leave you with one of the toys that I work with.

You go crazy with it, you play with it, and get him tired. That's the kind of

energy that you want to expend so he's not going out there looking for fun,

right? And there he gets that full range of experience that all comes from you.

None of it.

From you. Okay?

Just for the next couple weeks. This is great.

Now, that also means if you've got to chase him up a tree, if you've got to

him out from under a car, you're going to be the one chasing him outside.

You're going to be the one scooping the litter boxes.

You're going to be the one cleaning up pee and poop.

And you start giving him his food.

I honestly don't think that she will chase the cats.

I will try my best. But we will see.

You know, get down to business here, too. It's not good for your relationship

you're the only one doing everything and all the resentment that comes from

that, and then you guys start fighting about the weather. All right. It was

really great meeting you. Great meeting you, too. All right. If Kitty continues

to misbehave, I will talk to you guys really soon. If Jackson can't help me

Kath, then I just really need to give him away.

So I'm heading up to Michael and Chris's place to see Kitty for our second

visit. The last time I was here, I asked for Michael to be good cop and Chris to

be bad cop. Why?

Because I want Michael to have positive interactions with Kitty. And I want

Chris to learn what it is to be a responsible pet guardian. When I saw the

homework, I got to see Michael go and take Kitty to get neutered. And I'm

Chris was, I don't know, parking the car?

Whoa.

We good?

We're good this time.

Life's doing a lot better.

Life is doing a lot better? Yes.

I like that.

Look it. We don't have to sprint out the door this time. I was going to say,

hello.

What's up?

That's awfully nice.

When Jackson showed up, it was not like the first time at all.

Oh, oh.

This time he's just like, what's up, Jackson?

Tell me what's happened before I come up here.

He'd won time deliberately.

Oh, really? But he hasn't had that fighting, like, desire.

Like, I got to get out of here. Get out of this house, like you were saying.

If there's not that biological imperative to go out there and populate,

he going to do? Come home. Come home and eat. Yeah, exactly. So Michael seems

relaxed. Everything seems fine. Now, Chris, something is definitely not

right with her. There's just a weird vibe coming off of her.

So do you resent the fact that you're scooping litter boxes?

When we first met, you kept talking about how it was the man's job. Yeah, I

still think it's the man's job.

You don't see women, like, digging holes with shovels. You know what I mean?

Well, yeah, you do.

Well, sure you do. But, I mean, maybe not you.

Maybe not as much.

Here's the thing that I fear. I fear that, like, I'm going to walk out of

and as soon as I walk out of here, you're going to be like, I'm done.

I mean, if you guys don't come to some kind of sustainable agreement.

about what jobs get done, then Kitty will be responsible for you guys going

on each other. I think Chris can keep up doing the work for a week.

What do you think, Chris?

Can you do it for a week more?

I don't know.

Tell me about the trip to the vet. I didn't get to go.

You didn't get to go?

No, I had to work.

Okay. I took the cat to the vet. How does that work? You were supposed to be

vet cop.

You're supposed to do that.

I find that completely wrong.

Unacceptable to put it in Michael's lap. This is a big thing in her cat's life.

You want to be a guardian?

You want to be an advocate?

Act like it. I took Kitty and then the only thing I had a problem with was they

wanted to put a chip in Kitty. I wouldn't want to chip in myself, so why

in my animal?

It doesn't put out anything like a GPS.

It's inert. It's not a frequency.

No, it's nothing, like a barcode, basically.

Under 2 % of all cats that get brought to the shelter find their way home

With a chip in them...

It goes up to about 53%. A routine part of getting your cat spayed or neutered

is also getting them microchipped. It's accepted practice now. It's a way to get

cats home if they get lost.

Well, I wasn't sure what she was going to think either about the chip. Well,

which would have been solved if you were there.

You seem very calm about this, but this was the position that you were in from

the day I met you, which was that you were on the hook for things.

While Chris gets off the hook. I'm the bad guy. You are the bad guy. I'm sorry

to say this because you weren't there. You could have made the appointment with

both of you. You could have been there. Your specific directions for me was for

you to be the person to go. I would be fine if he didn't go.

I'm not fine that you didn't go.

So the problem is that Michael gets to be the one who.

He gets to get resentful because he's sitting there getting lectured by the

to make these decisions without talking to Chris.

Don't put more fuel in the fire.

When Jackson was giving her a little taste of medicine that I have to deal

I was like... Enjoying it. Go, Jackson.

Come on.

Someone's got to stick up for me. Kind of vengeful.

No, not vengeful.

Okay.

Last time we were here, we had some major issues.

Oh, hello.

There is a bunch of pee dripping down.

Oh, my God.

Since the neutering one time. Right. Now, on a bigger note, the fact is it's

only happened one time. One time. It happened right after he got neutered,

means it's more biological than it is a choice. Kitty's not peeing in the house

anymore because Kitty got neutered. And without his testosterone running his

life, he doesn't feel that need to territorially mark every piece of the

anymore. Now, who cleaned up that pee?

Me. You did?

Yeah. She did.

I think I was going to touch that.

Congratulations.

No, seriously.

You cleaned up pee, you're scooping, and you're feeding.

It definitely felt good that Jackson recognized the good job I've been doing

cleaning up, especially after the hard time he gave me about the vet.

Ah, it's good to see you, buddy.

Now, tell me what's been going on with playtime with him. Oh, he's great. Watch

this.

Watch this.

He's just a... Oh, hello. He just loves it.

Hey, I'm going to get out of the way. Yeah. I want to see you play with him.

And now you're doing this with him every day?

Yeah. He's just so happy. Yeah. That's great, dude. That's a good thing. Yeah.

Definitely. Good boy.

Not only has Michael been playing with Kitty...

But there's this element of investment.

There's this element of fascination. And when people get fascinated with their

cats, I know I got them. How is your feeding schedule right now?

I just give it to him whenever he doesn't have any and he meows.

For your homework this time, I really want you guys to now get together.

So what I want you to do, you continue your play with him, exhaust him, then

food. The only time he gets food is when this is happening. When this is done

and he's exhausted, then we go for food.

Cool? All right. Let's go.

If Chris wants to try being a responsible pet guardian, she can start

just feeding Kitty the right foods, but feeding him at least two to three times

a day. Try doing it after playtime in the morning and right before bedtime as

well. By the time I get back here next time, I want you to come up with a

sustainable model.

how, going forward, you guys are predictably going to take care of

way we're getting rid of the resentment that you're doing everything in the

world and you're not doing anything, or that you feel like you shouldn't be

doing so much scooping and Michael should be doing more.

Now the two of you can be doing the fun things together.

Now, Chris, you have an extra little piece of homework this week. Okay.

I want you to get him microchipped.

Okay. Okay, good.

So, it's been great.

Thank you so much. Hey, you're totally welcome.

We'll see you guys in a few weeks, all right? See you. Take care. See you.

Bye, guys.

If they want success with Kitty, they had better both step it up, both invest

the workforce. It might as well be the end of Kitty.

I'm going in for my final visit with Michael, Chris, and their cat, Kitty.

Hey. Look at him.

Here. You missed her?

Now, here's the thing I'm a little worried about. The last time I was here,

Chris actually missed Kitty's neutering appointment, which I thought was a big

deal. Tell me about the trip to the vet.

I didn't get to go.

She wasn't taking responsibility after I asked her to be bad cop and really do a

lot of the work. So all I'm asking for this time, she get the microchip put in

Kitty, and I hope that she at least did that.

So, Chris, did you go to the vet?

You got nothing to tell me.

He's going to find out, Chris. I think I was a little late.

You were what?

I think I was a little late. What's a little late?

I don't know, like ten minutes?

An hour?

But, you know, she made it there.

Oh, listen to you, man.

Oh, playing Prince Charming all of a sudden. I got to come here and be the

guy. That's great. That's fine because I get to leave. That's all well and good.

You did get the microchip done. I did.

Now, also, Chris, the first time I met you, you were all about anything that

any element of work to it was a man's job.

That's my favorite part. We're doing 50 -50.

What's your favorite part? That she's doing half the responsibility.

You're actually doing 50 -50. Yeah, we are. We're 50 -50.

I don't have to ask. Chris doesn't have to ask me lately. It's not as much

bickering back and forth.

That's impressive.

I don't mind doing it like 50 -50 because I feel bad now.

He has to do it all by himself.

That was a pretty adult thing for her to say and not something that I expected.

She empathized with Michael. She understood that it was a lot of work for

and it was time for her to take it on as well.

So, Chris, you being the 50 % part of this equation, I'd like to see you play

with him just a little bit. See if I can...

See how you're doing and maybe give you a little pointer as you go, okay?

Kitty.

Good. Let's get him moving around the room.

Good, Chris. Move with him a little bit.

Let's see you go a little more towards the center of the room.

Great. I wanted to see Chris play with Kitty.

Basically, I wanted to see if she got the routine down, if she understood how

play with him. Use it like the flyer. I mean, she's not perfect yet, by any

means.

She's doing better. Chris, your turnaround in terms of how you approach

and how you approach your relationship with Kitty is...

Really amazing.

You now are a cat guardian. You're not just somebody who says, I like cats and

just want to pet them. You got the badge now.

You got your guardian badge, exactly.

All right, guys, it's been a pleasure.

I am a lot happier. She's not yelling.

I'm not having to run outside.

Kitty doesn't feel like Kitty's trapped in a box. I need to get out and ruin

things. It makes all of our lives better now that Kitty feels better. Bye, guys.

Bye, Kitty. Bye.

Eddie can be sweet and then turn on you and attack.

She usually rips my hand apart.

I don't agree with the way he plays with her.

We desperately need Jack's help.

Eddie is ruling our life right now.

I'm on my way over now to see Don and Joy and their cat, Addie.

Addie is a really aggressive cat.

Oh, wow.

Joy blames it squarely on the fact that Don plays roughly with the cat.

I'm looking at a cat right now that is tearing this couple apart literally and

figuratively.

I'm Joy. I'm Don.

We met in college.

She didn't really like me, actually.

Then we became friends, and then took off from there.

We've been together for about 14 years now.

Been married for three.

We have a cat, Addie. She's about eight years old. I rescued her, even though he

said he didn't want a cat.

I'm a dog person.

I grew up with dogs. I never had a cat.

Addie can be sweet, and then next thing you know, just turn on you and attack.

She will scratch, like, rip clothes.

She usually rips my hand apart.

She's got the nickname known as the devil.

There are times where she's sitting there, and it's like her eyes are

you like, I want to mess you up.

Eddie's caused a few arguments. There's definitely bickering.

I don't agree with the way he plays with her.

He thinks you like playing with her.

I think just the guy instinct is to play rough with the cat.

And he does things on purpose to, like, squeeze her tail.

I don't squeeze her tail. I touch her tail.

He touches her tail. But why do you touch it? Because you know she doesn't

it. I don't think one thing has to do with the other.

Like, she jumps on the cat stand.

I know she wants to play rough.

I'm going to disagree with that.

I'm going to say she jumps on the cat stand maybe to play, but I don't think

she's like, come on, Don, play rough.

Yes, she does.

We desperately need Jack's help.

Eddie's ruling our life right now. We're out of options. We just don't know what

to do anymore.

Hey.

Hi. How are you?

Joy. Hey, Joy. Don. Hi, Don. I'm Jack. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

So.

Tell me, what brings me today?

Addie.

Addie. We just don't trust her because she will time.

She has split personality.

I think why she gets rough sometimes is because he plays rough with her.

But I also know when to stop and then I can go and pet her and she's fine.

Which I think is just like telling her, oh, good job.

What's the worst injury that's happened?

Here with somebody.

Bring that over here.

Damn, man.

People see my hand and they're like, oh, did you get in a fight? And I'm like,

no, I have a cat.

There's plenty of clothes that are thrown away because there's holes in

from her trying to pick her up. And then she just latches and shreds.

Oh, hello.

Now, I'll tell you right off the bat, that makes me a little nervous.

When I'm sitting here and she's sitting over at the top of my head.

We've had people over, and you have to walk by her.

And as you do that?

Yeah.

One step in the door, and she's on them.

Oh, wow, really? Yeah.

She'll swipe at them and hit.

Oh. So now we just don't ever entertain.

Yeah. Nobody can come over the house.

Where are you at with her at this point? She couldn't get rid of Addie, and I

would. Oh, really?

I've told him the fine print on her marriage license was...

Addie stays?

Yeah. Oh, good. Okay, at least I know those things.

What I'd like to see now is I want to see how you play with her, okay? And

switch places.

All right.

Wow.

That is fairly different, huh?

I guess playing rough with Addie is my way of...

Make it up for not having a dog.

So, Joy, when you see this, what?

Tell me what you're thinking right now.

No, I'm just, it's not like she's playing. She just told him clearly,

don't want to mess with you.

Now she's removing.

Dogs and cats, quite simply, are really different when it comes to play. I mean,

dogs, you've seen dogs. They love to wrestle around with you. Cats don't do

that. Cats play equals pray.

It's all about hunting. So if your hand gets into the mix, what's your hand?

Your hand is a target, it's prey, it'll get bit, and you'll be very unhappy.

Now, what I like to do is spend a little bit of time with her myself.

Okay, good luck.

I love when they say that.

Addie, baby.

How we doing?

Hi.

Can I come pet you?

No? Okay, it's okay.

You don't like that, huh?

The amazing thing about you, baby, no blood.

You could do so much more damage on me, baby, and you're not doing it.

What if I really get you going?

All right, all right. It was really clear to me that Addie was just trying

communicate with me. She was telling me that I was frightening her, and when I

pushed her even further, she had no choice but to attack me. Now, that

is good news. What that's telling me is that she's rational, she's making good

choices,

Unpredictable. It's just when I pushed the limit that I got what was coming to

me. All right, babe.

Let's play a little bit.

After I got Addie all riled up, I tried to calm her down.

Addie, girl.

So I broke out different toys.

You don't like this one very much, do you? All right, baby. I'm going to try

something different.

Nothing.

Nothing? Nothing.

As a stranger, she just wouldn't forgive me. She just associated me with being

kind of a mean president.

What about this?

Oh, I know.

What's this?

There you go, baby.

Finally, I broke out a treat that she likes to have, and she just gobbled it

right up. Can you come out and say hi?

Good girl.

The great thing about Addie is that she's such a forgiving cat, and that

me hope not just for her, but for her relationship with Don.

Good girl.

Wow. That was, uh... How was she? She was interesting.

Bad news first is that I, you know, I did get beat up pretty good by her. The

good news is that this level of beating up took me continually putting my hands

in her face. She inhibits her bites to say, warning.

And then probably if you kept coming at her, if you kept doing this stroke even

after she warned you, which no rational human being would do, I

mean, then you would get bit.

So I was acting as a very irrational human being to prove a point with her.

social development as a kitten was complete.

I have found out that when she's on the floor, she doesn't feel threatened

remotely. She gets up on the top of that cat tree, we got problems.

So we know what to avoid.

I think that you guys are also setting it up in a number of different ways.

There's a lot of, like, people malfunctions going on here. Okay.

All right?

Don't think you really get it in the back of your head yet what cat mojo is,

that's what I'm here to teach you guys. So the homework is going to be part

about her, part about you guys.

Okay. All right? You ready?

Yes. All right, let's lay it on.

First, of course, Don.

I hate to tell you this, but the way you play with her is done. You can't do it

anymore. Okay. Period.

Look at how vindicated Joy feels right now. She's like, that's right.

No, but I mean, honestly, I want you to find different ways with different toys

to get her killing something that doesn't involve flesh.

You guys are talking about all the shirts that have been ripped up.

she likes that kind of fabric. She likes going into it. So pick your T -shirts.

You rip them up. You make a long toy out of it. You don't have to spend all this

money. The other thing is she loves being in the window, right? She loves

able to look out the window, but we don't want her by the door that as soon

somebody walks in, we have trouble. So where does this go? Over here. Out of

way, no problems.

Start thinking cat.

That's really important, okay?

What happens that says to you guys, oh, trouble ahead.

So let's get going on this, and it's been great meeting you. Thank you very

much. Hey, you're totally welcome. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

We'll talk to you soon. Okay.

Bye, baby.

I'll give you the minute you go up to her right away.

Oh, yeah, you just said not to do that. We just got homework not to do that, and

you touch her.

So the last time I was here, Don and Joy couldn't have friends or

family over because of their aggressive cat, Addie. And Don... A die -hard dog

guy was adding fuel to the fire because he was playing with the cat rough like a

dog. Don is playing nice with Addie. You can see the cat stand is no longer by

the door.

So this is Joy playing with Addie, tail by her tail. She's getting excited.

I've seen their video homework.

I'm really encouraged by what I'm seeing. All I can hope for is that the

mellowed out just a little bit and the attacks have stopped.

Hello!

I definitely was not expecting that when he walked in with that cat suit.

I have a shirt just like that.

You're going to have more than that.

Today is about thinking cat.

This is for you.

This would be your cat.

When I was putting on that cat suit, I really thought, oh, gosh, Don is going

kill me.

For you, sir.

Let's get these suckers on.

This is going to be more fun for me.

There is a reason for doing this.

Don just does not get cats. I mean, he is a diehard dog guy.

Great. I'm going to wear a onesie in forever.

Oh, look, I even got a little flapping pooch like Eddie.

To get Eddie on the right track, it was time to take Don and Joy on a walk down

Kitty Lane.

So, you're a cat. You walk into a room.

The first thing that's important to you is ownership.

The way cats own things is they mark them. Talk to me about what you think.

Cat marking is. She rubs up against it.

Okay, where?

Her back.

She does her side.

Yeah. All right, so let's do it. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Thank you very much.

That's very good.

Joy, you'll be my first cat subject. Own the couch.

Own that couch.

Great. What you just did was you used your side, right? Yeah. Stent glands all

down the side, right? Where else? Oh, and then brushing the cheek.

All right, do it.

Exactly, and you did it in the perfect place.

You're laughing, man. I wanted Joy and Don to understand what's natural. You

walk into a room, and you start to rub up against things. Where are your scent

glands in the cat? Down your side, top of your head, your cheeks, your paws,

of those places. That's how you mark things in a healthy way. So I had them

it. I had them mark places that they would think was important if they were a

cat. Don, you're next. Where else would you... How would you mark? I don't know.

I'd, like, scratch it. There you go. Come down here.

I'm going to be your person. Okay. All right? So I'm sitting here. You're my

cat. Dude.

And you scratch, right?

Think about this. What purpose is that serving right now?

Nothing, really.

Just get her... No, big cat. She wants to own the couch.

Own the couch. Now let's talk about that. How did you just own the couch?

is she doing it because you're right there?

I am part of the territory.

When she walks into the room, she says, I have to own the room. What's the most

important part of the room? Me.

That's her way of saying, yeah, we belong together.

So she's going to scratch here.

That's a visual and scent marker because between every paw is more scent glands.

So she's leaving visual and scent. And that way, you, my cat, own me and the

couch as well, right?

Why the couch? Because we sit there. Our scent is strong there, so of course the

cat wants to compliment that scent.

Now they got that as well.

Now the second set was, what about play?

Don, take the toy.

How would you normally play with Addie right about now? Throw it on the ground

and just kind of... Joy?

I would look at it.

Why? Tell me exactly why.

It just gets my attention. If that didn't work, then I'd...

Like, put it on her head so she sees it. And you want to know what I do then?

Get that away from me.

But now she knows it's there.

What? What is that?

Joy had said that Tom was a pretty bad player when it came to Addie. So it was

my chance to teach him what it's like to be a healthy hunter.

So the thing I'm missing from you as the guy doing the playing right now, be the

bird. So, Joy, you start working it. And until you feel like if you were a cat,

you would go for it, just...

Ignore it. You know what I mean? Which cats are very good at doing. It's just

completely ignoring stuff.

Oh, good.

Good, good, good, good, good. When Don dove after that toy and just was

instinctively trying to kill that thing, I knew he was in.

Now I'm a lot more hopeful than I was.

Now, last step to this whole thing.

Let's go outside.

Things outside are so important to cats, and everything that we bring inside in

terms of environmental enrichment and play enrichment all stems from what's

here. Let's say Addie was indoor -outdoor. What would she do marking

here?

Go for it.

Let me see it, man. Let me see it.

Beautiful. Are you seeing what Addie does?

No. Addie sticks her butt out.

I'm going to come over and do it with you. All right, here we go. Ready? All

three of us. As you're pulling down, A, you're leaving Mark.

B, you're exercising this area right here. And C, you're trimming claws.

There's so many things involved in that one motion. The piece that you guys have

in there that she tends to lie on, show me how far you can scratch with that

thing.

There you go.

Should we attach the scratcher to the wall?

Now you're thinking. That's exactly right. Now you're doing the mojo. These

were the most amazing sports.

I mean, really. Joy came up with the concept of a wall -mounted scratcher.

right, guys, let's go back inside. Come on.

After the exercises, I'm starting to appreciate Addie now, knowing, you know,

little bit of their behavior and understanding it more.

Have a seat, guys.

Let's find out what I missed the last couple of weeks while you've been

with Addie. Tell me about it. We went out of town for a few days, and we had

girl that usually watches our cats come over. The last day, she went to feed

Addie, and she went and lunged at her and bit her.

Yeah.

One leg. On the leg? Yeah.

I still think it's kind of a positive thing because usually it was every day.

One attack is still one too many. That means they can't have a cat sitter come

in. They can't have friends come in. They can't leave the house. So until we

take care of this, we've still got a lot of work to do.

Now, why don't you guys get out of those cat suits when you get back. We'll talk

about your homework.

Hey, I felt fantastic about Joey and Don's progress today. First of all, the

willingness. To put on those cat suits and to run around this neighborhood and

have fun pretending to be cats, that's huge because I feel the investment from

these two. They care about their cat, and that means that I can feel more

positive about the outcome.

Well, good, guys.

Thanks for doing that. It's going to pay off, I think. Let me start giving you

this week's homework.

I'd like you to go to a shelter, and I'd like you to just spend one day per

week giving some dogs some attention.

You just have them act like dogs and bond with people, which, of course, they

need to do. So it's a great way of getting your dog fixed and also getting

dogs adopted.

On the heels of getting your dog mojo fixed, get into the love of the cat.

Donathan died in the wool dog person. He has been his whole life.

I want him to enjoy and to love Addie for what she is, a cat. I'd like you to

start journaling.

Just by looking at Addie, what is it that you love?

I want you to love Addie for being a cat, not for being not a dog. You know

I mean? I want you to love her for what she is.

Finally, I'd like for you to have a friend over and see how Addie does. When

people come over, it's about reframing, saying, you know, hey, we're doing a

little training with Addie, so ignore her.

That's what we'll do moving forward because I want to see your family come

here and not think of this one as the devil.

Yeah. Okay.

I'm going to pet out. All right. Thank you. Good to see you.

I'm just a little hesitant to have our friends back over.

We'll see you soon.

Who knows? The person might go to pet her and then just turn on you and

I'm heading in for my last visit with Joy and Don and their cat, Addie. Joy

Don told me they had really invested in the homework, and they did.

So today we came to the Humane Society down the street from us. Don is getting

his dog fixation.

I mean, these guys are really starting to think like cats, and I wasn't

expecting that, especially out of Don.

But at the end of the day, she's an overstimulatable cat who is prone to

aggression, and I'm not sure what to expect.

Hello. Hey, Joy. How are you? How are you doing? Good.

How's life with Addie?

Well, she's been a lot more relaxed. She's been very affectionate. Really?

It's been great.

It's amazing. Quick turnaround.

After you guys have some friends over, tell me about that.

We had people over for a couple hours to watch a basketball game.

Yeah.

And she never went up to them once? Yeah.

Amazing. This is great.

She just laid there.

That, and I actually had a friend come over.

It's never been over before. I turn around, and he's just petting her with

hands. Are you kidding me? I was like, whoa.

And he's like, what? And I was like, nothing.

Nothing. Oh, nothing.

Very nice. Yeah, I was excited.

Now, that's progress, right?

Since Jackson's helped, I feel like we got our life back. We can start planning

to go out of town. We can have friends over. Not only do we not have to worry

about going out of town and worry about who's watching or we don't.

I don't have to worry about bickering about her. There's nothing to worry

anymore. That's pretty stupendous, right?

Also, as part of your homework, I'd ask you to sort of make a list that you like

about cats on both sides.

All right, let's hear it.

Love it when she plays hide -and -seek. She, like, meows when I sneeze.

It's hilarious, yeah. Three times in a row, she'll do it every time.

When she just comes up to me like that. There's no talking about me.

Oh.

Wow.

And usually she just stays on my lap, but, like, recently she started walking

his lap. I'm totally seeing that. Wow.

Huh.

Yeah. Isn't it weird when I'm surprised?

Well, it's just amazing because.

Is she? Yeah.

Watching her right now and how comfortable she is, she's loving every

what both of you guys are doing, which is not what I saw the first time I came

over here.

Addie is not just calmer. Addie is grounded. She's present because Don and

get the cat mojo now, and they cater to the way that Addie thinks.

So instead of egging her on and getting her more and more amped up every day,

instead they're always draining that energy out and keeping her grounded.

They've done an amazing job.

really props to you in terms of your sensitivity to what cats need.

At first, I was thinking that there was no way this was going to work.

There wasn't so much her having to work on things. It was us that we had to work

on. Do you still wish that Addie was a dog?

No, I would say I don't wish she was a dog. I appreciate her now for who she

being a cat.

No, he's a dog and cat lover.

Cool.

There was a moment today.

Where I was watching Don draw Addie out, he had cat mojo.

And I knew right then I could leave. All right, guys.

It's been wonderful.

Thank you, sir. You're welcome. Thank you. All right.

Bye, Addie.