Original subtitles

There's a feud. It is cat versus dog. Her cat, Miley, tries to kill my dog.

If Miley killed my dogs, I don't think my relationship would ever be repaired.

First time I met Gracie, giving no warning at all. She just started hacking

But I warned you.

Gracie's behavior is so bad, we've had cat sitters quit.

I tell my friends, if you think she's going to attack you, she is. So be ready

for it. She's just a wild animal.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

I'm a musician by night and a cat behaviorist by day.

I've met cats with all kinds of problems.

But I've never met one I couldn't help.

Oh, hello. In my career, I've worked with thousands of cats one -on -one,

analyzing their behaviors and retraining them and their guardians.

When relationships are at an end, I don't have many more options than to

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

her. I'm their last hope.

Are you all right?

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

Only have one.

I'm going over to see mother and daughter Melissa and Mariah.

Mariah's got a cat named Miley who is just destroying Melissa's two dogs. And

it's getting worse and worse every day. So I'm going to go over, see if I can...

repair the mother -daughter relationship.

Hi, Melissa.

And I'm Mariah. We live together with our two dogs, Makita and Madeline, and

one cat, Miley.

Me and my mom are definitely best friends. We do almost everything

Miley is my cat.

Almost two years ago, we rescued her, and I love her to death.

The only problem is her cat, Miley, tries to kill my dog.

Miley just watches and waits for me to leave the room.

And then as soon as I leave the room, she attacks.

They're totally dependent on us, and then we bring this thing in that hurts

them. She's not just a thing. It's not like she's intentionally trying to kill

them. I don't know if Miley's not intentionally trying to kill Madeline.

I mean, it's not like it's her fault that she pounces.

I mean, she's a kitty. She's playing.

I'm sick of all the fighting and bickering and nonsense over her not

Miley. Because she hurts my dog.

Moving out would be my only option if things don't change between Miley and

dog.

To even have the thought of her leaving, you know, just breaks my heart. If

Miley killed my dog, I don't think my relationship would ever be repaired.

It's very important that Miley gets her behavior under control because I don't

want. our relationship to be strained, and it is. It is strained.

We need Jackson to definitely come in and help solve all these problems.

Hey. Hi.

How are you? Good.

This is Madeline, and this is Makita. Hi, guys. And that's Miley. And that's

Miley in her box. Okay, we're good. Let's sit down and catch up.

The first thing I noticed walking into the home was that we've got two dogs in

little sundresses with their nails painted pink.

Now, that's one of those button -pushing things for me. I don't like to see

animals dressed up. I don't like to see anything done that is remotely against

their nature.

So, we've got Miley attacking both dogs or really just one? Well, she attacks

both of them, but...

Like I say, Makita protects herself and, you know, bites back. Right. Every time

that these two are left unattended, she attacks.

Couldn't help but notice, walking in here, we've got diapers and baby bottles

and playpen.

So to add to all of this, is there a baby?

No.

No, there's not a baby. We have the playpen to keep them separated.

Huh. We have to feed them with a bottle. We have to feed them with a fork

because they won't eat because they're so scared of her.

So you're saying because of Miley, they don't eat, drink, or go to the bathroom

by themselves anymore?

Right. I've never heard of that before.

You know, like I say, I worry that she's going to kill him now. I just feel like

they could fend for themselves more, but maybe they're a little bit babied. Is

that part of the arguments that you guys have?

Sometimes, yeah, because I think it gets a little ridiculous.

After getting all the lowdown on not just the dysfunction between the cat and

the dog, but between mother and daughter, it was time to start looking

the home to see if there was anything that could be causing Miley's severe

aggression. Diaper -wise, what makes you choose to have it on them? Well, during

the day when I'm not taking them out, we put it on them just so they don't have

accidents in the house. And they're only because of Miley they never had.

No. No, they would go to the door and scratch to go out. Right now, that's the

big problem, is they're not going to the door and scratch. Yeah, they can't go

to the door because they're scared Miley's going to come and attack them.

And there's the stroller. I'm confused on this one, too. Look, put her in

When we put them in there and zip it up, they're safe from Miley.

So when you're out on the street, you have the stroller as opposed to leashes.

Why? Because I don't want them to get germs.

You mean like walking down the street? Sure.

Um, huh.

Now listen, I'm used to strange.

I'm a cat behaviorist, remember?

But this is normal cat behaviorist work.

And this is Melissa and Mariah's house up here. The bar has been set. Every

I take a step through this house, I'm in a new world of weird. I mean, watching

these two dogs.

sip off the baby bottle, get put in a stroller afterwards.

I want to run.

Those are just some of Miley's toys that we travel with. A lot of tons. She

likes toilet paper rolls.

Let's see what we got going on here.

She's got like a bag of flies and a checker. They're not really like cat

Really? This is what your cat likes to play with? I so doubt that.

So, tell me about what goes on.

Did she pee?

She peed on the car. Oh, my God.

Ew. See, and the thing is, that makes me want to yell at Madeline.

Because if Miley gets yelled at for things, I feel like I should be able to

at her.

It makes me very frustrated.

Okay, okay.

It's disgusting.

Yeah. And then I yell at her about this, and then she says, it's because you're

a cat.

And I'm just like, no.

Correct me. I mean, I'm not seeing the connection between what just happened

Miley. Miley's nowhere to be found. Yeah, this is true.

Well, now it's just become a habit.

Okay.

But you're seeing how that moment had nothing to do with Miley.

I did not agree with that because, you know, now they're not used to just

running to the door because they don't. It's habit now. Yeah, because they don't

run to the door. And that's why I'm frustrated.

And that's why they should have been yelled at today.

But it was my fault for not taking them out.

Hey, well, then you should have said you were sparring. So what happens when the

dogs are cornered? Does Makita fight back?

Yeah, Makita does. She'll turn around and start nipping back at her and

growling. And thus, nothing happens.

Right.

Madeline's confidence is gone.

Part of that is that every time she looks at you, you pick her up, you hold

like a baby.

It was time to go back in the living room and let's put the dogs on the

Maybe there's a way to find out if there's bad behavior if the dogs are

moving around like little targets.

Well, the thing was, every time we put the dogs on the floor, they were looking

to get back up again. So I had Melissa actually leave the room because I felt

like a lot of that clingy behavior was being caused by Melissa just hovering.

One of the things I'm sort of suspecting with her, you can go. It's okay.

is that she's not getting the kind of play that she needs to get. And that's

she's acting out on Madeline so much, because Madeline presents herself as a

pretty cool toy.

Come here, baby.

Now, what I'm trying to demonstrate here is every time I give her this choice,

she's like, what is this that I get to hunt?

So it has nothing to do with Madeline. Here, you play for a second. I'm going

get your mom.

Honey, did you miss me so much you didn't know what to do?

Oh, okay.

She's got tears in her eyes. You do. Did Miley get you?

Did Miley attack Madeline?

Nobody attacked anybody.

I'm not lying to you. Look at the way you're holding your dog. Come on.

Come on out. Okay.

Did you assume that something was going to happen?

Yeah. Okay, well, go ahead and put her down.

Here we go, man.

Here we go.

Is this how you normally handle her?

I just hold her, and then she does this. See?

Ow, ow. This.

Why are you still holding your cat?

Because she's having fun.

No, she's not.

That's not fun.

That's getting me off.

You're getting beat up because she just doesn't want to be held like that, like

a baby.

Well, if we can't hold her. Yeah.

then how are we going to love her?

I don't care whether it's dog or cat. In Melissa or Mariah's house, they don't

get animals. They don't get any of it. They are trying to put these animals in

little baby -shaped boxes, and it's not going to work.

Now, the first thing I got to tell you, from what I'm seeing, is you got a

pretty normal cat.

What I did see was a lot of sort of animal handling dysfunction, things like

that, that I think that will set up the problem.

All that being said, I want to get to your homework.

The first thing is we have to start challenging the dogs, and that means not

really treating them like babies anymore.

Also, we're going to put them on the ground and start challenging them with

cat. Now, I'm not a dog behaviorist, but I've got to tell you one thing.

Madeline has to be on the floor moving around, trying to find some self

-confidence, and that, standing up to Miley, will mean that she won't get beat

up.

What's going on?

Do you not like the idea of challenging?

No, I think it's a great idea. I just hope that they can actually do it.

These guys?

I think that it's less about them.

I mean, I think that your fear is pretty pervasive right now.

So the cat part of things, no more hand play at all. That's all encouraging her

to do damage to you. All that is, is play aggression.

Play aggression is...

play for a cat is prey they are born to kill stuff all we can do is give

them alternate outlets so the toy that i gave you is just a start all right guys

thank you you're welcome good to meet you guys my biggest fear i would say is

that it'll all fail and then i'll have to leave or something i'm really

on all this to work so

There's a lot of work that's got to be done here, and it's not just about cats

either. It's about dogs, and it's about humans too. And Melissa and Mariah have

got to know that they're part of the problem.

Did you miss me? It's clear I've got my work cut out for me.

I'm going in for my second visit with mother and daughter Melissa and Mariah,

whose two dogs have been terrorized by Mariah's cat, Miley.

Hey. Hello.

Now, what I'm hoping is there's been a little bit of understanding going on

Melissa's end because she was terrified before, overprotective of the dogs, and

I'm hoping for just a little bit of improvement.

So what's going on?

Well, as far as the homework goes, she very much enjoyed the toy.

Wow, nice going, little one.

I know that part of the homework last time was for you not to be carrying them

around. Right.

Is that happening?

Yeah. You're not carrying the dogs around? I'm trying not to carry them

You're trying not to. No, no, no. Tell me, are you carrying the dogs around?

I'm really not.

I feel like you're not being honest with me.

There's no way I can help you if you don't tell me what's really going on.

tell me the truth, and we'll make it work.

But you tell me right now, spoon feeding, bottle feeding isn't happening

I didn't bottle feed, but I have fed them with pork sometimes.

They don't want to go back over there and eat after Miley attacks them.

The bottom line here is in order.

To make you, and I'm looking squarely at you, the way to make you feel okay

about this is to trust that cat.

I don't trust her.

Okay, so that's what we're going to work on.

She is not here to hunt and kill these two.

When I see Miley jumping on Madeline, I see play. I see play behavior. I see

prey behavior. Remember, if you act like prey, you're going to get treated like

prey.

But the attacks really are bad when she does it. Like, they really are. Let's

take a look.

That is just unexpected.

And more importantly, what if I wasn't home? What if I wasn't home and Miley

that to Madeline?

Now, first of all, I'm seeing play.

That's play behavior.

It really upset me when Jackson referred to Miley attacking Madeline as play

aggression because it's not fun and games. It's Madeline's life we're

about. It's not fair for her to have to be scared in her own home.

I felt really bad looking over at Melissa and watching her tear up and say

these are attacks and this is terrible to see. But it occurred to me on another

level that not only do you not understand your cat, you don't even like

I have a chance to talk to a small dog expert.

So I'm actually going to bow out of here for just a second and go talk and see

if I can get any more information that will help us out here, okay? Okay. Give

me a few minutes.

Look, I'm the cat guy. I'm not a dog guy. So I decided to call a small dog

specialist who I've worked with before to help me get Madeline's self

-confidence up so that Molly won't see her as prey and beat her up. I need to

take them out real quick. I'll be right back.

Now, you work with small dogs, yeah?

I do. That's my specialty.

Come on, sis. Go inside now.

Come on, girl.

I'm just wondering, you know, a lot of the people who have small dogs tend to

just carry them around excessively.

Don't you think that that might actually reduce their confidence just a bit?

Yes, and it actually makes the dog overly protective towards the person.

So if they walk, just encourage them with lots of grace.

All right, Jackie. Thank you so much.

Glad to help you. Anytime.

All right. We'll talk to you soon.

What is going on here?

After my conversation with Jackie, the dog expert, I went back to the apartment

and was completely blown away to see Melissa washing her dog's paws in the

thing. Now, instead of them wearing diapers, we just take them out every 30

minutes. So every 30 minutes, you're going out, you're doing this, and

gets washed.

Oh, my God.

Melissa tells me the dogs aren't wearing diapers anymore. Why? Because she's

taking them out every 30 minutes to go pee. Now, that's just swapping.

One dysfunctional playing card for another one. That doesn't work.

There's something that I have to admit.

To make her calm.

Okay, I gotta see it. Go ahead.

There you go.

She's pissed.

She's not the only one.

You're saying that that makes her... Calm down.

That's not calm.

You hear that growl? That is the only time that I've heard that cat growl

I've been here.

Mariah puts this dress on Miley, and she clearly is miserable. She hates it.

She's growling. She's scratching and biting. You are the voice of your

They can't speak English. They can't say with language, I don't want to be

dressed up. So if they struggle the way Miley was clearly struggling, it's your

job as a guardian to listen.

Want to give you your homework?

The one thing that I asked you to do last time that you are just not doing is

not that, is letting her walk around the world. If Madeline doesn't find her

confidence, she will be picked on, she will be beat up, you're going to be

crazed and upset.

Beyond that, I want you to train her a couple of simple things. The sit, maybe

paw, reward her. The specialist told me that praise and treat works fantastic

with these guys.

Now, just to give you some more work. Okay.

Play with the cat.

I can't have you finish playing with her until she is literally on her side

panting. Otherwise, they're going to look for inappropriate victims.

Also, divvied up. The reason I wanted to give you playtime with the cat is

because I need you to start learning her language.

In order to solve problems that people have with their cats, I teach them to

appreciate and maybe to love them a lot more than they do right now. That's what

Cat Mojo is all about. That's my job with Melissa right now.

I come back here, these guys are walking the ground, challenges have been met,

and let's try to work through it.

I am slightly worried that my mom won't stop bathing the dogs because I know

it's going to be very, very hard for her.

But hopefully she'll be able to do it because she'll see that by letting go,

it's going to benefit us all.

But I think it'll be really hard, definitely.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

What do you call someone afraid of cats?

A. Ilerophobic, B.

Cataphobic, or C.

Gamaphobic? The answer, after the break.

What do you call someone afraid of cats?

And the answer is A.

The word Ilerophobic comes from the Greek words Ileros, cat, and Phobos,

I'm going in for my final visit with... mother and daughter, Melissa and Mariah,

their dog, Makita and Madeline, and the cat, Miley.

I was expecting and hoping to see two dogs greeting me at the door, acting

dogs, wagging their tails, hi, how you doing, the way dogs do.

Instead, I walked in and for the third time, Melissa was holding them, stood up

to greet me, couldn't shake my hand because she had an armful of dogs.

So tell me, how's life?

Great. I like that.

Madeline has gained self -confidence.

And not only did she growl several times at Miley, she tried to bite Miley.

That's amazing.

Amazing. I just decided, you know, to use your tips. We taught her tricks in

trying to build her self -confidence. We would practice many times a day, and

Mariah would help me, and, you know, just like a child would give Madeline

positive reinforcement.

Down. Down.

Down, Fred.

You have to say the same word every time.

Girlfriend.

And it did. It builds her self -esteem enough where now she can protect

And she's been playing with Miley. You've been playing with Miley. We've

bonding. We have been bonding.

Really,

I want to stop for a second and acknowledge you, Melissa, because these

challenges. And you're really taking the bull by the horns here. What happened

between the last time I was here and this time?

Because it's a huge change.

I didn't want Madeline to have to live out the rest of her life, you know, in

pain and in fear of Miley.

Melissa and Mariah were telling me about Madeline's spike in self -confidence,

so I asked her to put them down on the ground again and let's see them interact

with Miley so we can see how things actually are.

And at that moment, Madeline thought, wait a minute, this is okay.

And then Miley made that move towards the toy, and it was inches.

for Madeline's faith.

There we go.

Look at that.

Madeline didn't even blink.

Kind of a cool thing when you think about it, when you have that one moment

Miley gets to make the choice between dog and toy, and suddenly she chooses

There wasn't this payoff, which equaled, I go for the dog, and she squeals and

runs, and that's because Madeline's self -confidence has been raised, and...

Miley's getting proper playtime now, too. The dynamic has changed. Dog

equal toy anymore.

Madeline's not looking at you, Melissa.

She's not looking to be rescued by anybody right now. And look at Miley.

looking over here. She doesn't care.

This is why I came over here. The cherry on top, as far as I'm concerned, is

that you know that nobody's going to die right now. Right.

There's an equal chance that when I go to a case, I'm going to be working with

cats more or I'm going to be working with humans more. This case was

more on the human side. I was here really to help Melissa.

Now she can have a relationship with the dogs, relationship with the cat, and

relationship with her daughter. That, to me, was the biggest win that we've had.

I'm on my way.

Okay, thank you.

I'd like to tell Jackson thank you for saving my family. I was so worried that

Miley and Mariah were going to have to split, but now we can all live together

in harmony, and that's what I wanted.

All right, bye -bye. Bye.

First time I met Gracie, she gave me no warning at all. She just started

attacking me.

But I warned you.

I tell my friends, if you think she's going to attack you, she is.

She's just a wild animal.

What's up, Gracie?

Yeah, that feels good.

I'm heading over right now to Kristen and Lay's house to see Kristen's cat,

Gracie. Now, Gracie is so aggressive.

They can't go on vacations because testers quit.

They can't have friends and family come over because Gracie stalks and attacks

them. They're being held hostage.

I'm going to go over right now to see if maybe I can negotiate a hostage.

I'm Kristen.

I'm Lay.

And we've been together for a year and a half.

We met on a hike.

I had no gear. I had no water, no drinks, no snacks, no jacket.

I had the wine and the marshmallows, right? That's all that mattered. And the

vodka. And the vodka.

I have a cat, Gracie. She's a Burmese, and she's six years old.

One of the things I really liked about Lay when we first started dating is that

he didn't seem to be afraid of Gracie. Oh, very brave.

Until I met his sister for the first time, and one of the first things she

to me was, oh, I hear you have a totally crazy cat.

And I looked at him like, oh, do I?

First time I met Gracie, she was the very sweet to cute cat.

And then, giving no warning at all, she just started hacking me.

But I warned you.

Okay, come on.

Some of her favorite locations to attack are she hides underneath the table

where the television is.

Gracie's behavior is so bad, we've had cat sitters quit.

Basically, when they're here alone, they have called me begging me to

come home because they're trapped in the spare bedroom because Gracie is

stalking them.

Attacked through the sweater.

Some of my friends, we've had a falling out because of Gracie.

I tell my friends, if you think she's going to attack you, she is, and be

for it. But people aren't saying that he's dating the crazy cat lady.

My sister said that, and your friends say that.

I would also say that Gracie is crazy.

I'm sure Jackson is very, very good, but it just seems impossible for Gracie to

be trained at this point. She's just a wild animal.

Hi. Hi.

How are you guys?

I'm so glad you're here. I'm Chris.

I'm Leigh. Nice to meet you. Leigh. Good to meet you guys. Have a seat. Thank

you very much.

So tell me the story of Gracie. I met someone five years ago who had

at the shelter where I adopted her from, and she said they all knew that Gracie

was crazy and that two other people had already adopted her and returned her.

So basically what they did to this cat over and over was give her that sense of

security, ditch her back out on the street again, and basically all you're

is postponing killing this cat. I'm glad that she found a home with somebody

like Chris who said, no, I won't return this cat.

When she's being really aggressive, I've tried putting her in a timeout. When

Gracie's energetically puffed out, prowling, keeping you at bay, putting

the bathroom in a timeout's okay.

I've had five different cat sitters, and they've all quit. Are you kidding me?

Yeah, I just quit in the middle of our vacation.

Quit in the middle of my vacation.

A cat's supposed to be emotional support, upliftment. They're supposed to

company. They're not supposed to be...

guards that keep the rest of the world at bay. It's got to affect your

relationship somehow, right?

No, I'm not worried about that at all.

I wouldn't say I'm mad. You're great.

I like watching you think because I can see you ticking.

Shouldn't I be worried, dear?

You shouldn't be worried yet.

Initially, Chris thought that I was not affected by Gracie, but in fact, I'm

trying to put up that front, and if I can't deal with Gracie, we can't

Yeah, I guess you'd have to hit the road.

Yeah.

Getting rid of Gracie is not an option, so... Okay. My goal for you

guys is you'll be able to have people over here.

I want you to be able to entertain.

That's the most important thing for us, to be able to welcome people into our

home. This is no way to live with a cat.

This can't happen. You can't have a cat in your life who's going to kick

everyone else out. And I know that Lay will go to a place eventually where he

will say, I've had it, I'm gone.

Oh, look, she's here. She seems so peaceful right now.

The time had really come for me to spend time with Gracie and see if this cat is

really crazy or not.

Why? What I want to find out right away, is there a possession aggression

problem? Hi, baby.

I found out really quickly. The answer was yes.

Possession aggression is something that I call that energy of this is all mine.

And it leads to violence if somebody invades that space.

I want to see what it's like to have her in the room with me without you guys

here. So I'm going to be your guest.

Okay.

It was time for me to ask them to leave so that I could actually have some real

one -on -one time with Gracie.

All right, Gracie.

I know, girl.

What? Gracie takes up a spot right in the middle of the bed, and I join her. I

sit right next to her.

Hi.

What's going on?

Okay.

Okay, babe.

Okay, babe.

She beat up my arm pretty good.

She didn't let me put my arm next to her. She didn't let me put a hand out. I

had to sit like this, like a good boy.

I'm not going anywhere, man.

Gracie being a Burmese.

It's just like all the other oriental breeds. They're talkers. And so she was

actually telling me the whole time, if you put your hand down there right

I'm going to beat you up. You're making me mad. You're making, oh, I told you.

So it wasn't like it came out of the blue. She was letting me know the entire

time, if you do this, I'm going to do that. And I was dumb enough to do this.

And she was smart enough to do that.

Oh, my gosh, what's that?

Gracie 100 % startled me. And I don't get startled easily. So what did I do?

I broke out treats.

You smell it?

Ooh.

Oh, what is that?

Oh, I know.

If you...

Listen, I worked at a shelter for a long time.

I'm telling you, Gracie could have easily been put to sleep because of a

behavior problem.

But at that one moment, when Gracie took that treat out of my hand with a soft

mouth, I said, well, wait a minute. She's reacting like a normal cat.

And that was pretty amazing because that, in a nutshell, told me this is no

crazy cat.

You want to play with me?

Oh, yes, you do.

Good girl.

Gracie is possessive in part because of her past.

She has no sense of belonging anywhere.

So what we're going to use is play to redirect and soften that focus.

Let me tell you a few things. My gut is telling me that she's not.

Crazy. She's exhibiting to me a number of different types of aggression.

We have play aggression.

Play aggression is when your ankles get it. If a cat wants to do damage to you,

they will do what's called a kill bite. If they want to just play around, that's

the motion you're going to see. You are a toy.

Then we have possession aggression. The hostage taking that goes on here seems

to be all based around that.

So let's get down to your homework.

With the play aggression, we're going to block off the underside of that TV

stand. You can't get to it, whether that's changing the stand itself or

it off completely.

And then the other end of that equation is that.

Actual play has to happen. Right now, all of Gracie's energy is focused on

possession, and that's what's got to change. So part of Kristen and Leigh's

homework is to use play to get her to redirect that energy. Why?

Because as she hunts the toy, catches it, and kills it, she owns the whole

place. She doesn't have to guard one area because the whole area is hers. Let

show you what else you can do.

This is called...

Bully remedy.

It's just a holistic flower essence remedy.

It's something that you guys can give her. It just goes in her wet food, and

just helps keep her calm.

Okay, so this timeout is still okay. If she goes out of control, timeout is

totally okay.

Chris and Leia's homework involves touching on every part of the

want them to start to know Gracie's body a little bit better. When is she

getting aggressive?

Proactive, not reactive.

At the end of the day, I want you guys to be able to have guests here again.

That's our goal, right? One of the things that concern me the most is the

that besides Lay, there's nobody.

If he leaves, everyone's gone out of Chris's life because of Gracie. So I

to keep him in this house. It was great meeting you. Thank you so much. Thank

you so much. I will talk to you soon, right?

Thank you so much. Bye.

I am hopeful.

Skeptical still, but I'm here and I'm ready and willing to do this work

Gracie is my cat forever.

So I'm going to have to find a way to make this work.

I'm on my way to see Chris and Lay and their cat Gracie again.

Gracie is so aggressive. They can't go on vacation because cat sitters quit.

they can't have friends or family come over to their house.

Not acceptable.

So I want to see Gracie a little mellowed out, not waiting to hurt me.

would be a start.

Welcome back.

Thank you very much.

How are things?

They're better.

They're definitely a lot better. Good. We've definitely played with Gracie a

more. I think that definitely got to calm down a little bit. Just with

strangers, I think we haven't had many strangers over.

They're still acting in fear of Gracie, and it's still preventing them from

having friends over, and I don't like it, especially where we are today, the

halfway point. I'd like to see better progress.

Now, I've got some of the video homework that you guys made for me, and I want

to watch it with you.

Get it, Gracie, get it.

There you go.

Gracie, get off the table.

I just put Gracie in timeout.

She jumped up on the kitchen table, which is a no -no. The play that I'm

Leigh do on that homework, fantastic. What I didn't like was why Chris is

putting Gracie into timeout.

Let's redefine detention.

When you're throwing a temper tantrum... Mm -hmm.

I just want you to settle back in your skin. So when she gets on the kitchen

table ten times, you don't put her in detention?

No. The only thing that we can do is we do an exercise where we have sticky tape

that's put on the top of the table so every time she jumps up, it's like, oh,

what's this?

When I told them they could put her in timeout, that meant letting her

decompress, not punishing. It just showed me how far away Chris and Leigh

from understanding Gracie. So I got my work cut out for me. First time I was

here. We identified this as being her main little ambush zone.

What we've actually done is we've moved the boxes on the side way back so that

she can get back in there. So now she has a new spot, which is right here with

the ottoman in front of the chair. Yeah, so normally it's like this. And she

paws one of us or scratches.

She'll just run and just... Hide under there. The ottoman makes no sense to me.

Why would Gracie go under that chair to ambush people when it's in the center of

the room?

Okay, she'll tag you and run.

Yeah, sometimes I'm here petting her, and she'll run and get down here. Hiding

there after she's attacked.

Well, okay.

Which is a little bit better, I think. Important distinction.

Well, she hid. That's different from ambushing. That counts as her own self

-imposed timeout. Okay. Basically, all it is is hit.

Run. Get back in my skin. What she was actually trying to do was decompress,

I wanted them to know that's the difference between ambushing and

As long as she has proper outlets for her energy, you're going to see her

herself when she's getting worked up. As I was standing and talking to Kristen

Leigh in the living room, I basically just was looking at Kristen's face as

went, Hi, baby.

She's here with you with us. She's not hiding out. This position that she's in

right now, that is exactly what we're looking for. We're looking for her to be

part of this without looking to spring out and attack.

The first time I was here, Gracie exhibited a lot of possession

matter of fact, she wouldn't even let me sit on the same bed with her without

getting severely attacked.

Now, this time I was talking to Chris and Lay, and Gracie just jumped up on

back of the couch, completely ignored me. That's a major step in the right

direction. And I needed to point out to Chris and Lay, this is what you get for

following your homework.

Play therapy did pay off. All right, guys.

Let's talk about what I've seen today.

First of all, I've seen improvement.

So playtime is definitely the thing that's helping.

Right. I'm now sending over...

Another cat sitter. She's going to be able to give you great tips that are

to help you find the right cat sitter for Gracie in the future.

With all that being said, let's start giving you some homework, okay? Okay.

First thing, no detention.

For Chris and Leigh's homework, I really wanted them to recognize what's an

ambush zone and where does she just go to decompress because that's okay if she

wants that. And finally, it's time to get some friends over here. My goal for

you guys is you to be able to have people over here.

As long as when we have friends come over, they just don't feel threatened

because, hey, you've already played with her. You've already given her a meal.

We've normalized it before they come.

I'm a little afraid that Gracie hasn't changed enough.

I think it's her nature to be aggressive, and I'm still not confident

her with friends without fear that she will attack them.

I'm going to take my leave.

I've got to be completely honest with you about Gracie. I'm feeling very 50

The guests can't act with fear. They engage that game, and Gracie will

to that game. It's very simple, but it has to work from both sides, the cat

and the human side as well.

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

Gracie, who has been described as crazy by more than just a few people. But I

took a look at the video homework and I thought they do not employ detention the

way they used to. Timeouts are not punishment.

Also, they brought in my friend, the pet sitter, and she showed these guys the

importance of routine.

The best way for a pet sitter to bond with her with the least amount of stress

is to do everything the same as you do. Is she less aggressive than she was? I'm

about to go find out.

Tell me, how's Gracie doing?

Better. We put the placemats on the table with a sticky tape on the side.

And I haven't seen Gracie up there. Done. Good. Good, good, good. Okay,

we have people coming over here today?

We do. We have a couple friends coming over, and these are friends that have

personally been attacked by her.

And how do you feel about them coming here?

Still nervous.

The final piece, which hasn't happened quite yet, having friends come over, and

that's going to happen today.

Hi. I'm Jackson. Hi. What's your name? Jennifer. Jennifer.

Eliza. Eliza. Good to meet you guys. The two friends who had had the most

traumatic time with Gracie, those are the two people I've got to work with

today. First of all, I've heard that you guys have both had harsh experiences

with Gracie. Yeah, if I'm walking by, she'll like...

Do a little snag or... A lot of people mistake play aggression for actual I'm

going to kill you aggression.

Gracie was not trying to kill her, but actually playing into a game, which

included claws, but still it was a game. If it was more than that, then we would

have seen the all four paw wraparound happening because if a cat wants to do

damage to you, they will do damage to you.

Are you okay right now?

I don't feel comfortable.

Are you guys aware of where she is right now?

Always.

Don't even worry.

Don't even.

I couldn't believe how terrified the Christens friends were standing there

nervous while Gracie was on the other side of the room minding her own

Listen, you can't put that energy out. Gracie will feed off it and then we're

going to have trouble. The key is you just got to act normal.

She is easily overstimulated and all you do is leave her alone.

And what she does is what she's doing right now, which is she's part of the

room, but she's not.

A part of it. She's not going to come after you just because we're standing

here. I've learned that if we don't react to her, then maybe she won't

So I think that's a helpful tool for me, and it'll help me to feel more calm.

Guys, thanks so much for coming back in where I know you've had bad experiences.

This is a beginning, and hopefully you'll keep coming back here because I

things are going to keep getting better with Gracie. Thank you.

Thank you so much, you guys.

Gracie is just no longer that possessive, aggressive cat we met on day

mean, she proved it by walking into the room with Chris and Leigh and myself and

her friends and just ignoring us completely.

Just having friends come over here today shows what huge strides they've made. I

definitely saw today a beginning.

Yeah, I mean, previously she was definitely more aggressive, but playing

her there, I think that definitely helped. I haven't really...

It's been a time.

Leigh told me that he has a new dynamic with Gracie, and a lot of it comes from

playtime. And I just said, I want to see it, so show me. There you go. You got

her, man. You got her.

Good work, Leigh. Again, this is the Gracie that I love.

I'm sure you got to love this. Yeah, it's awesome.

She's so happy.

In the beginning, you know, I like Chris, so I had to pretend to tolerate

just... Put up with Gracie.

But now with all these things I've learned, I've really come to appreciate

love Gracie almost as much as I love Chris now.

So that's good. That's a great thing. I don't want you to love Gracie as much as

you love me. I think almost.

I just wanted to give you props for sticking with her. I mean, this is a cat

that other people would have given up on. And they did.

And they did. And we're not going to do that.

That's what I want to hear.

I really just want to thank Jackson. I just want to thank him because he's

really made a big difference in our lives and our relationship and the

relationship we have with Gracie, and it's definitely been a huge improvement.

Have a hellish cat?

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Go to AnimalPlanet .com forward slash MyCatFromHell.