Original subtitles

What is he going to eat? What's he going to swallow?

Our place is ruined, so now we have everything child -proofed. It is Gus's

house, and we're just living in it. We would like to have kids at some point.

The bottom line is that we really can't because of Gus.

There's something wrong with him.

Stella can be very destructive.

She's a master destructor, actually.

I don't even know what the neighbors think because I've screamed so many

out of the pain of being attacked.

And it's very upsetting. This cat could kill me.

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?

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

Whoa!

Gus, give me the quinoa.

I'm heading over to Mark and Angela's house. We've got a cat named Gus who is

basically eating anything that's not nailed down.

And that is beyond what I've seen before. One wrong bite, and that could

death sentence for this cat. So I'm going over right now to see if there's

anything I can do to help him.

I'm Angela.

I'm Mark.

We've been married for three years, and we live here with our cat, Gup.

When we got Gus, he was about two months old, and now he's a little over two

years old. We weren't really in the market for a cat. We were just actually

walking back from eating breakfast and passed by the window where Gus was and

just fell in love with him.

They did warn us at the store, oh, really, you want him? He's trouble. We

have believed them, but it was kind of good kitten trouble, you know, just kind

of rambunctious.

But the behaviors became more destructive when he got older.

Gussie. Guss, give me the quinoa.

Things he chews on are, you know, cords, paper towels, hand soap, corners of our

chairs. Kitchen cabinet. Here, we're renting, so there are concerns about

he's damaging.

Our place is pretty barren. We've made it that way so that there's not much

he can get into.

We have to move the coffee maker to the bedroom every day.

We would like to have kids at some point. We're not worried about Gus

anyone because he's so sweet, but if you have a baby in your arms, you can't

drop the baby to stop Gus from hurting himself. If we have to make a choice,

it's going to be a human being, not a cat.

I can't think about rehoming Gus at all. I just can't see getting rid of him. He

certainly does add stress to our relationship.

Jackson, we would appreciate your help. We can't think of anything else to do,

and we love this guy so much.

So please help us.

Hello. How are you? Good, man. How are you doing? Good. I'm Mark. Hey, Mark.

Good to meet you. Good to meet you. Hi, Angela.

Hey, Angela. Nice to meet you. When Jackson walked through our door today, I

felt like maybe this was the light at the end of our tunnel.

All right, guys.

So tell me, what am I doing here?

Our cat Gus is, he's into everything.

The biggest thing is the chewing and...

potentially eating and swallowing anything that he can get his mouth on,

paper towels to more dangerous things.

We've childproofed everything, but he still will try to break into cabinets.

he just kind of has this energy about him. He's always looking for the next

thing to get into.

I mean, you probably noticed that we don't have anything on any of our

I actually did notice that. I was like, this is a very clean place.

Really,

you hide stuff?

Yeah, we can't keep anything out.

Now, I know I walk into a lot of places and there's no cat stuff. There's no

human stuff. There's no stuff.

It's empty. It's amazing to see what lengths they've gone to. Your normal

days, how long have you guys gone for?

Just like 10 hours.

Oh, okay. What I'm trying to rule out here is separation anxiety.

You leave, you don't come back to a completely thrashed house.

No, as far as we can tell, anytime we come in, he's sleeping. He seems to not

getting into things when we're not here.

This is what we're talking about. There's a natural spike in cats'

see it happen a lot when their guardians are gone for long periods of time. Then

they get home and boom, now that energy needs to be expelled in a proper way.

And that could be a starting point as to why Gus is chewing up everything in the

home. Has he ever shown any aggression towards any other human being? Has he

been around young kids, like toddlers and everything? No. No, he's very, very

sweet. Not so much as a swat or a nothing.

We don't have to worry about that.

Well, it's a concern for the future. We start trying to think about having kids,

which we do want to have.

Like, how can we with Gus?

Have you guys gone there in terms of the conversation about him versus?

I must say that we, it's a really...

Difficult conversation.

I know what it takes to have an infant in the house, and there's just no way

that the two could coexist.

I mean, ten times a night, I'll drop what I'm doing to stop him from doing

something, but you can't drop a baby to stop Gus from, you know, whatever he's

chewing on or getting into.

I cannot imagine and do not want to get rid of Gus.

It's just like saying get rid of your kid.

Angela wants a baby, and she's not going to hold off on having a baby for the

sake of Gus, even though, clearly, she loves him just as much, and I could see

it in Mark's eyes. Maybe that was a discussion they really hadn't taken to

level before. I get it. The stakes are high, obviously.

Let's see what we can do for him.

I need to see every place that he goes to to chew, because I want to see the

whole nine yards. More than almost any place I've ever been to, I've got to get

a lay of the land, because this cat's eating it. Most of the corners kind of

look like this.

That's it, Dan.

See, here's the thing for me. There's that sort of language chewing, that ar

-ar kind of chewing that I'm sure he does sometimes, right? But this says,

do something. That's high stress. So that concerns me, too, because what is

that's causing it? Yeah. I think we're dealing with pica.

Pica is a disease that's an obsessive -compulsive disorder that animals will

just chew.

science and behavior we can't decide what causes it could be weaned too early

could be food deficiency it could be genetic we don't have answers we were in

the living room we heard this and came in here and it's him trying to open it

hasn't though not on that

Taking Jackson through our home definitely brought more to the forefront

mind, at least, how crazy the situation is. So as I'm going through each thing

and watching his face, I'm like, yeah, our life is really turned upside down

from this cat.

This is like completely chewed up.

Wow.

Wow, man.

Honestly, the confusion on my face had to be palpable because I would look at

one piece of plastic, which, let's say, the sprayer for the dishes, and it

completely chomped on. And now you have the toaster oven with the handle that's

untouched, pristine. It doesn't add up because Gus is discriminating. I think

there's real importance in this. What it is, I don't know yet, but I will find

out.

So. We've made attempts.

to let him be in this room, which is why it's kind of half God -proofed and half

not. The goal would be for him to sleep in the bed calmly with us. He plays with

the blinds, you know, goes under the bed, he gets in the, you know, behind

bed and everything, and we can't sleep, so.

Yeah, I totally get it. See, what I look for is connection points. He goes like

this, choo -choo -choo, blind -blind -blind, I'm up, I'm up, as opposed to

kind of thing that I was seeing on the chair, that kind of frustrated choo. I

feel like this is something I can work with.

As we were walking out into the hall, there was Gus. He was just sitting there

in the hallway.

So I decided to spend a little bit of alone time with him.

Hi, Gussie.

Hi.

Good boy.

Like, my big first step with him is, like, look at the toy and not at

else. Now, he was a little suspect of me.

He was a little hangbackish.

And the one thing I wanted to give him was space. I didn't want him to think

that I was a bad presence because I know we're going to have plenty more time

together. I think you've got a pica cat.

You know, pica is an obsessive compulsive disorder.

There are no cures as we know it for pica.

Pika is an incredibly frustrating thing because there is no cure. But at the

same time, it can be managed to a certain degree with certain medications.

But I didn't want to just dick Gus on medication right now because I'm seeing

much discrepancy in the behavior. So I'd like to just be able to have a chance

to work with him. Any cat that's a true pika cat, when they're exposed to their

preferred target, will go for it, you know. The fact that he picks places.

That says something different to me.

I mean, I do want to approach it like a pica case.

So let me start talking about the homework that I have for you. First

first, let's get him to the doctor. Let's get a blood test done so that we

the table. If we have to get him on meds, we do. But we also want to see,

there vitamin deficiencies? Is there a reason why he's going for things like

metals, which doesn't make any sense at all? Now it's the exercise part. I want

you to commit to about 15 minutes of exercise with him until he's at a point.

where he is like panting, that's when you know that you have just gotten what

you needed out of him, right? Have it.

ritualize around his food. What I want them to do is connect play to food, but

also push it as far as they can towards the end of the night. He'll be just

ready to come down and sleep when you sleep.

Let's start going through some toys really quickly. This one I like because

can't chew this. Let me feel it. This is indestructo. As you're on your way out

to work, you drop it down, and it keeps him moving even after you're gone. And

then by the time you come home at night, that spike isn't going to be as

desperate, you know?

And that's it. Cool, guys.

All right. Thank you so much for coming over and helping us. Normally I'd be

giving a lot more homework, but in this case we're dealing with a disorder that

has no known cure.

So all we can hope to do is possibly manage it. One way I think we can do

with Gus is by expending a lot of that excess energy that he's got. I think

may help curb the chewing.

See you guys soon, all right? Okay. Sounds good. All right, bye -bye.

I think it's going to be a lot of work. I think we're going to have a lot of

sleepless nights.

You know, my hope is that... We'll see a significant change, but my fear is that

we won't. If we could get things resolved with him, that would make us

better about the possibility of starting a family.

I'm about to go in for my second visit with Mark and Angela and their cat Gus,

who choose everything in sight.

I'm pretty nervous. I've never dealt with a case this severe with a cat

destroying everything in the house.

I have no idea. If they committed to the steps that I told them to take, maybe.

Otherwise, all bets off.

Hey, Jackson. How are you? I'm good. How you been?

Good, good. Thank you. Good, good, good. Hi.

We're really excited to see Jackson today and hear his thoughts on some of

things that we have implemented.

And what other advice that he has so that we can get closer to the goal of

having Gus be able to not endanger himself.

So?

Something feels a little like it's not going well or it is going well. Tell me

what's going on.

Things are getting a little bit better. We've been working him out and using all

the toys, and we find that he's kind of tuckered out at night and really not too

much chewing going on at night.

That's incredible.

Between mealtime and us going to bed is where we've seen the biggest

improvement, where we're barely getting up to stop him from chewing on the

chair. They're chewing on the knob.

This is all great news.

Play therapy worked because there's not much happening in terms of chewing. That

proved without a shadow of a doubt in my book that we weren't dealing with just

a garden variety pika case. He makes choices and it's based on his energy

and his need to self -soothe and bring him down to a grounded state.

We went to the vet and got the blood results and all of that.

Yeah, and she did a urinalysis also.

Urinalysis, everything came out cool. Yeah.

Now, did you commit completely to the play thing? Tell me about playing with

him. We committed to it, but one of our concerns and one of the things that we

want to talk to you about, when he's jumping for the flight toys, after only

few minutes of especially when he's jumping, he's so winded that his tongue

hanging out and he's panting.

But we're watching his breathing and it's just going so fast.

For like...

Two hours afterwards that it's like that. Two hours afterwards?

Yeah. I actually encourage people to get their cats panting by the time they're

done playing.

That's the cat's way of saying, that's right, I'm finished, I'm done. But it

should only go on for about 10 to 15 seconds.

If it's going on as long as Mark and Angela are telling me, that's just

I have got to see this for myself.

I've got to play with Gus because if that is happening, I've got to know

he's just a little out of shape or whether we've got to send him to the vet

because there's a cardiac problem or a respiratory problem.

I know.

Gus more from the marks on his chair than I know from being anything.

I really would love to see him play I want to see the behavior that you guys

talking about and I just don't think it's gonna happen I think that really

problem here is

The last time I was here, Gus was really standoffish about anything that had

anything to do with making a TV show. And that was lights, the cameras, the

people. And in order for me to see that panting behavior that Mark and Angela

are talking about, I'm just going to have to send everybody else away.

It is to see if I pull out a toy, if that helps at all. If I get a little

action.

What is that? As soon as that feather toy came into action.

Oh, good boy.

Good boy.

I saw the cat that I haven't gotten to see this entire time.

This insanely, amazingly invested hunter.

Oh, this is who you are.

Come on. I don't want to get too winded, though. I don't really want to get Gus

that elevated where he is panting. It's highly concerning to me.

He's starting to pant, I think.

I want one good job.

Good boy.

And it'll last so long, I don't want to work him.

It's okay. All right. He shouldn't get to that heightened point that quickly.

And it's, you know, like a dad seeing his kid suffer.

I, you know, I'm really scared about that. So you see his breathing.

I do know when I'm taking a cat through two strenuous an exercise and I didn't

see it with Gus. I just don't like that. You know?

He's panting really badly.

We've got a problem.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Cats have 30 teeth. True or false?

The answer when we come back.

True or false?

Cats have 30 teeth.

And the answer is true.

Cats have 30 teeth. Compare that with dogs who have 42 teeth and humans who

32.

My second visit with Mark and Angela and their cat Gus, who choose everything in

sight while I was playing with Gus. Mark was incredibly stressed out by Gus's

panting. Usually you'll see about 15 to 20 seconds of Max.

With Gus, it did go on quite a long time. There's something that's a little

about the way his body responds to being energized.

Gus's chewing has gone down dramatically.

On the bad side, he's panting excessively. Now, I happen to think that

because he's so into the hunt that he just starts panting a lot, but I'm no

and I really want to make sure they go to the vet and rule out any serious

health concerns.

I want you to get that checked out so that you can just feel better about the

work you're doing.

Now, let's start adjusting our play routine with him. Get him going around

not jumping around.

Until we hear back from the vet about the panting problem, I'm going to have

Mark and Angela adjust the exercise so it's not as intense.

It is crucial, though, that they keep draining off the energy in some way so

that we don't lose all the progress we've made with Gus.

So what I'd like to see you do is take double -sided tape.

Basically, he's going to put his face to it, it's going to stick to it, and he's

going to be like, that's not a good choice.

I think that if you're paying attention to draining the energy out, that you can

start giving him enough rope again. All I want is for Mark and Angela to start

putting things out again and let Gus redefine himself.

That was really important.

I think that we can beat this.

I really do. So let's get cracking on it. All right. Good.

I don't know what we're going to do at the end of all this if things don't get

better because I really do want to start a family, but the two can't coexist, so

we've got to figure something out, but we just don't know what that is.

We're not going to get rid of him.

I'm on my way for my last visit with Mark and Angela and their cat Gus.

The last time I was here, I got Gus really out and playing. He was flying

through the air.

Unfortunately, afterwards, he exhibited a really heavy ant behavior that went on

for quite a while, and it completely freaked out Mark and Angela.

So I wanted them to take Gus back to the vet to make sure he was fine, he wasn't

compromised, we could keep working. And hopefully, when I go back in today, I

see that we've got the all clear.

So the last time I was here, I asked you guys to go to the vet. Went to the vet.

and when they x -ray his lungs and they see a slight, what they call a slight

bronchial pattern, is that what it is?

Could be because he's a little bit overweight, possibly.

Gus's panting may have to do with him being a little out of shape, and that's

why the hunting is a bit much for him. Hey, listen, if I went to the gym

tomorrow after not going for a month and a half and I got on the treadmill,

believe me, I'd be huffing and puffing pretty bad.

For now, they've said that we've got to kind of chill out on the exercise tube.

Just not doing it to the point where he's, you know, really breathing hard

keeping him more on the ground.

And it is definitely helping. Like, as soon as we started doing that, he is

getting into less stuff at night.

So that's amazing news, considering where we were. As long as that plan is

place, he's not reverting back to being Uber 2 Gus, right?

You know, that's like a touchdown moment, I think. Yeah.

We knew from the beginning that pica is a condition that can be managed but not

cured. But through extensive play, we found that Gus's chewing has diminished

greatly. You could have just diagnosed it right off the bat, given medication,

then given an action plan and hoped for the best. We went the alternate route.

And now the payoff is there. Now let's walk around and find out what I've been

missing, okay?

Okay, let's go.

I wanted to start with the kitchen because the kitchen, when I first got

was a hot spot. I wanted to gold plate that little dish sprayer thing because

that place was getting chewed up. Any more massive hot spots in here?

No, not too much. We're keeping the coffee maker out.

No coffee eaten?

No coffee eaten. The good news was there were no new spots. He's not going after

the coffee grounds.

In the coffee maker, he's not going after anything.

I thought that was fantastic.

It seems like this is proof positive that we're on the right track with him,

that's great.

Now, let's head to the dining room because that's one of our worst areas

which is the chairs. In the video homework, Angela took the sticky tape,

on the chairs. That was fantastic.

In a couple of weeks, you'll never need sticky tape again. This should pretty

much extinguish the problem with the chairs.

Mark and Angela really stepped up. They were willing to go to any length.

For their cat Gus. And we had success.

I know that you guys are going to be fine with him. I love the fact that you

have things out here.

You have things that look like you live here.

And that was our main goal.

When I first met Mark and Angela, they were ruled by fear. Fear of what Gus was

going to eat. Fear of coming home to a dead animal that led them to living in a

cave. Now they're confident. Now they know exactly what Gus needs to make him

happy and to make themselves happy. And I think that they have a fulfilling life

ahead of them. Yeah, we're feeling positive about the direction of things.

mean, he's doing so much better.

Before Jackson came here, we really had no direction. We didn't know what to do.

We had removed everything from our home, and we feel like we have so much more

direction now. Gus has made such great improvement in a short amount of time.

All right.

I'm out. All right.

Not only did Jackson provide that comfort level for Gus, but for us as

Thank you so much. You know, after the process that we've gone through with

of the tools that we now have, we do feel a bit more hopeful about, you know,

the future, a baby and Gus being able to coexist.

And that's really one of the things that we're most thankful for.

Bye, Gussie.

Stella can be very destructive.

She's a master destructor, actually. When I adopted Stella, I was in a

relationship and we split up.

I'm not sure how a potential mate would deal with Stella.

You want to get down or do you want to hurt me? What?

I'm on my way right now to go see Melissa, and Melissa's a cancer

she's had a rough year of multiple surgeries, lost her cat of 18 years, and

she got a new cat and a new boyfriend.

The new cat, Stella, soon chased away the new boyfriend with her aggression,

biting, and her scratching.

I'm going to go over there and see if I can help.

My name's Melissa, and I live here with my cat, Stella. She's about a year and a

half.

Right off, I felt like Stella and I had a connection, except she was extremely

reactive if you tried to touch her.

She would bite me and scratch me and sometimes go into full -on attack.

It was extremely quick and pretty vicious.

It hurt like crazy.

Stella can be pretty demanding. It's been a conflict for me because I'm self

-employed and I work at home. And the biggest problem is when I'm working at

desk, she jumps up and gets in my face and starts nipping at me. Her approach

she'll rub and then she'll lick and then she'll nibble and then she'll bite.

Yeah, it's a common occurrence.

Two years ago, I had a horrible shock. I went for my yearly checkup, and they

said that I had breast cancer.

After having more surgical biopsies and doing a lot of research, I realized the

best thing that I could do was to have the surgery they were recommending,

is a double mastectomy.

I had the operation two years ago, and then throughout that year, I had six

surgeries.

It meant really shutting down my business and spending all my life

having to spend a lot of time resting and in bed.

Now I'm coming back to the world, and yet I have this cat thing that keeps

pulling me back.

I hope Jackson can help me figure it out so that I can really move on and

embrace life more fully.

Hey, Jackson, come in. How are you?

Good to see you. Good to see you, Melissa.

Finally, help arrived at my door. I just felt like this was my lucky day.

Hi, Stella.

Hi, baby.

This is our troubled child?

Yep. Well, I'm going to completely ignore her for the moment. Tell me what

doing here. Hopefully, you're here to help resolve some issues that Stella and

have. Okay.

What's going on with her?

She... has possibly been abused by her previous owners, and so she tends to

out. What's the worst that it's gotten with her?

Her drawing blood every day. Every day? Yeah, and interfering with my work.

Okay. Because most of this takes place at my desk. You seem to be kind of

mindless, the fact that she's sitting behind you. Are you always on guard with

her? No, because there are specific situations where she's going to attack.

You do know when it's going to happen. I know when the sucker punch is going to

happen. Why do you think that you're getting sucker punched by your cat?

After we've had some kind of interaction, and it turns out that she

with that, and I start walking away, she'll come after me and attack.

Oh, really?

Yes. Any upheavals in the home, anything that she's responded negatively

towards, anything?

I had a boyfriend when I adopted her, and we parted, we stopped our

relationship. And part of it was, I think, the aggravation that came up

us over the cat.

So the end of the relationship in part was because of her? She wasn't a good

idea to begin with, and that I should just give her back because it was too

for me to handle. Because I am in recovery from breast cancer.

Oh. And I had to have a double mastectomy. That's what they do.

Oh, my God. It was about a year of six.

big surgeries and a lot of strong drugs.

And so it was really a test.

My last kitty died at the age of 18 last September, and it was traumatic, you

know, losing her as it always is. I had to put my whole life on hold to deal

with these things. Having gone through this much sickness and health.

You know, having the relationships begin and end.

All of that.

You're laughing.

I mean, I just admire what's coming off you right now, but I'm stumped. All I

cared about at that moment was how the stress between her and Stella could be

sacrificing her health. Stress can take you down physically and energetically.

I've got to make sure that doesn't happen.

All right, so I want to go to the places that are most significant in terms of

where you've been sucker punched the most.

So, obviously, the first one is probably the desk, yeah? Yeah.

Now, here's my office.

Okay. This is the main place where I work. This is Stella's handiwork.

There's paper all over this desk that's been chewed up to no end. How long is it

before you're sitting here that she's on you? Pretty fast. She knows when I sit

down here that she wants to be with me. And then on cue. Okay.

This is really important.

I have to see the behavior. In order to work with it, I have to see it.

So then as she's doing that and you're typing, this is normally what you have

do, I guess.

How do you get work done?

I get really pissed off.

It's hard to keep order with Pat inhabiting the corner of the desk.

Do you worry? See? Yeah.

I mean, I knew that the attack was coming. She was being provoked.

I'm not going to go there with you.

The only thing was that Melissa didn't know she was provoking it. It was

completely unconscious.

She was actually presenting herself as a fun toy. Of course, Stella got

activated, and she bit. Your desk is absolutely catified.

That's for sure something that we would have to work on. All right, let's keep

moving around. We went into the bedroom. I just wanted to see if there were any

hot spots in there, anything that happens in there that's throwing Melissa

loop. This is the only space that she really inhabits on the bed.

So she doesn't come up to you, she doesn't... Huh?

I know. You seem sad. You seem sad about that. I like to cuddle with kitties.

Stella sleeps at the foot of the bed, but never comes up there and sleeps on

Melissa's chest the way her old cat used to do. And I believe that Melissa is in

a really silent way holding it against Stella.

She doesn't mind when you carry her.

I can pick her out. You want me to show? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. In a normal kind of

swoop, the way that you would normally do it.

And when you hold her, it's usually over the shoulder like that. Yeah.

And you are, and you are, what?

What is it? What a worry. You just keep holding her. That's fine. See, she's

totally on guard at the moment.

Yeah. After Melissa got really surprised that Stella tagged me a few times while

hanging out on her shoulder, she put her down. I asked her to pick her back up

again. I need to see this behavior.

I need to see what Stella's body language is telling us.

But you see her tail is swishing around. Oh, sure.

For sure.

Good girl.

Oh.

See? She was mad because I was holding her too long.

How long?

Oh, I mean... Ow!

Oh!

Let's start moving out to the living room a little bit. I just want to see if

can get her to transfer this energy over to other things.

Okay.

Now, we've still got tail going.

We've still got ears pretty much up and down.

Do you present boxes to her in that way, where you're just like, please, go to

this?

Yeah, yeah, because it's how she gets her aggression out. Like, after she'll

a little hit and run with me, she has to immediately come and start ripping

stuff up. Okay. She's bit in the corners here.

Oh!

And you were saying that she doesn't keep coming after you, but... See, she

doesn't want me to grab her toys.

If she was, like, guarding things like her scratchers, her toys, um, yeah. See,

right now, I don't think it's like she wants, she doesn't...

See, if I try to get that toy, she doesn't want me to have it.

I think she's pulling it away. Try one more thing, okay? So there's the toy for

sure. But if you just want to pet her at this point, that's not the toy.

No.

And like I said, I'm sorry to keep throwing you into the lion's den right

So Melissa and Stella and I came out into the living room.

Stella attacks her all the time, especially while she's trying to work.

saying when she sucker punches, she sucker punches and runs.

That's not sucker punching and running. But see, she just tried to sucker punch

me. She tried to. But she's holding her ground.

I have to see the behavior.

In order to work with it, I have to see it. You know I don't want to see Melissa

get beat up. She's already been beat up.

Way too many times.

She's had to go through cancer recovery.

She's had her boyfriend leave. She's had her cat die. She's brought another cat

in who's beating her up. This should not happen to you at any time.

My take on Stella is that she goes for play in a way that I guess Melissa's not

used to. But there's another thing that's going on here, and that is when

Melissa just keeps trying to maybe come at her with healing energy.

Now, Stella's saying, I don't want it. I need to go away somewhere.

And she can only go away so many times before she starts coming at Melissa.

I think that you were actually referencing that she wasn't as loving as

other cat.

But what I was seeing was...

love the way she follows you from room to room not the worst thing in the world

it's just the way she expresses it that leads to something else which is you

know echoes of uh what was i'm sorry what was your other cat's name uh mina

i think there are echoes of mina being sort of hoisted upon stella i have her

ashes sitting right by my desk because i'm gonna take them and put them out in

nature you're gonna i bet you you're gonna notice instant transformation in

terms of your relationship with her because she is trying to heal you that's

way that you push through this yeah i'm just going to give you a list of your

homework i think that there's a lot of inappropriate play going on you're

sending her mixed messages when you're sitting at the desk you're saying go

ahead and play with this paper but don't play with this paper so i want you to

start breaking that game down for instance you have crinkle balls in your

not on but in so that

When you see her walking around, this comes out and boom, you throw it in the

opposite direction.

And I'd like to see you get a kitty seal that you can put right in the window

there. So that she has her place.

When you're working, you reward her for being in that place. Oh, good. Be

proactive in terms of her energy. The way we do that is through play therapy.

And that means that every morning and every evening, you take control of the

play. I'm going to leave you with a whole bunch of different toys. Because

like you to get her moving around all over the place until she is hooked.

And once she is, end it in her meal so that she knows hunt, catch, kill, eat,

groom, and sleep. That's what she does. Okay? Yeah. It could come down to this.

She's a year and a half old. She needs to kill stuff.

Yeah. And she's just coming after you to kill. This is an appropriate victim.

This is an inappropriate victim. Exactly. This is an appropriate one.

Hey, you're totally welcome. I really enjoyed it. I will see you really soon,

okay? Yeah.

Going in for my second visit with Melissa and Stella.

The last time I was here, there was a lot of violence. It wasn't a good

situation at all.

From watching the video homework, I got to see Melissa play with Stella.

Great that she was playing.

However, a little bit of this.

It's not going to exhaust a cat like Stella, so we've got to work on that. I

also got to see Melissa trying to redirect Stella away from the desk.

No, no, no, no, no, not on my desk. Come back here. We've got to work on that

one as well. It's a little too soft and friendly.

I take the toy, you know, especially she likes the one with the feathers on it.

And so I play with that with her. It's good. It's really a big improvement.

She's a lot happier.

So the last time I was here, she got you good.

I mean, I remember there were a couple of different places and she got you. We

ended up.

up in that upper bicep area.

And right now, what do you see?

She's swiped at me and she's bitten, but she hasn't drawn any blood, which is, I

know, for a week or so, it's amazing.

And I don't think I've ever had a week in no blood. I think it's great news.

Stella is just not biting and scratching remotely as much as she was before. And

the bad news is she's still scratching and biting. I have to find out what

incidences are and clear them up.

I'm seeing a nice little windowsill there. That's wonderful.

Yeah. I really like that. Now, you've also got your crinkle balls.

And where do you keep those things?

Usually just in the windowsill. Oh, I see.

Is that okay?

No, I want to change that.

What I want is that I want your crinkle ball to be hidden somewhere, and the

second that you see her start to stir, crinkle, crinkle, throw someplace else.

Redirection means she's coming this way, and you're going, nope, this way.

You know, we didn't get to see this the last time I was here. Where's your cat's

ashes? Are they still here, or have you scattered them? I'll show them. I took

them from my office area into a cabinet in the living room.

Okay. Yeah. So that could be part of the reason why she's a little less.

Insane about getting up there. Yeah. The last time I was here, Stella was

reacting in this very unpredictable, strange way around the desk. Now, here's

the crazy part. Her old cat, Mina's ashes, were sitting on that desk. And I

sure that Stella was actually speaking to this situation and telling Melissa to

move forward.

Toys. Which one of these is she the craziest about?

She likes this one with the feathers on it.

Good.

Okay, now, we've got her kind of activated.

Let's come down to her level for a second.

Do you see where she's at right now? I feel like we're not getting real true

movement from her to the point where she's going to be exhausted. I'm not

seeing her breathe in a shallow way right now.

See? Active.

Just that one movement. And we have to start getting that energy taken care of.

Because if you leave her alone at this moment, there it is, that look.

This is going to get you bit. This is going to be problematic. By the time

done, done, she should be on her side.

Good girl.

She's amazing at this, actually.

And again.

And another one. Oh, my God.

There you go.

It was a wonderful moment when I was playing with Stella, demonstrating to

Melissa how Stella could just be totally engaged and present with a toy. And I

look over at Melissa, and she was actually laughing. And that symbolized

something.

Hi. What color do you like better?

The blue. I like.

Well, then you get the blue. Thank you.

These are walking sticks.

We're going for a walk. Oh, cool.

You still have ashes in this home? Yes, I do. And I would like to be with you if

it's okay.

Yes, I would really enjoy that if you could join in that. I'd feel good about

that. Have you thought of what you would do?

I want to take them to a special place that I've been going to for years out in

nature. Until I let go and say goodbye to Mina, I don't feel like I'm

prepared to wholly embrace the next phase of my life, if not now, when.

Today, I'm going on a hike with Melissa to scatter the ashes of her cat Mina who

died a few months ago.

Now, Melissa has survived cancer.

She has gone through relationship breakups and the death of cats, but it's

death of that cat that was almost too much for her to bear. It's time for her

release Mina, to move forward.

When I put Mina's ashes into the water, it was sad because I remembered what a

special little friend she was to me for all those years, and yet I was glad to

release her.

It was something I'd wanted to do when she died last September, but I just

wasn't ready yet.

Being a part of being able to say goodbye to Mina was a huge thing for me.

fact that Melissa had made offerings to make her journey to the next world

peaceful, these are things that we need in order to be brave and walk through

the kind of grief that we only know.

when losing an animal pain is included but still is great watching melissa go

through it in such a beautiful way was inspiring to me and i hope to be able to

bring just a touch of that to people that i work with in the future thank you

much for letting me come thank you made it all the more special

i'm about to go in for my final visit

with melissa and her cat stella We've made a lot of progress in the weeks that

I've known her, and hopefully that progress has taken, but you never know.

I have some video homework showing us what you've done since the last time I

you. Let's take a look at it. Okay.

I can't wait.

First thing, of course, that I saw.

was the fact that she's playing with Stella and playing in a much more

way. When I first met Melissa, she was very much about just waving things

around, hoping that Stella bit, which, of course, she didn't. She learned a lot

from me and a lot about how to be the prey, and now we have successful daily

play, which means a complete reduction in Stella's aggression.

She's relaxing in her beautiful new window perch.

Stella, look.

Melissa gets the concept of redirection, and she's using it really effectively.

And off we go.

Good girl.

And a jump. And wow!

You are a little acrobat. During the play time, I looked over at Melissa and

saw a level of relief from her that I don't see all that often. And you got to

think about Melissa surviving cancer, getting Stella after the death of Mina,

losing her boyfriend over Stella, and finally to be able to walk.

through the rest of her life with this cat. And to see the relief come over her

makes my job not just worth it, it gives me a sense of purpose for tomorrow

because there's people like Melissa out there today.

And you see how she's doing the shallow breathing? Yeah. She's got that

happening. From going through this period of my life with all these trials

tribulations and trauma, it's amazing how things work out. Reaching out to

Jackson and Jackson coming into our lives has turned that around.

Finally, I can get back on my feet and start reclaiming my life, which unless

you've been through this, you have no idea what it's like.

I'm feeling great. There have been no attacks at the desk. And now I have more

work. I'm really busy right now.

So I'm deeply grateful to Jackson.

And see you later.

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