Original subtitles

I thought I knew cats until I met Penny.

She can go from being cuddly and sweet to an attack cat.

We have a cat named Tony.

He pees all over the house.

I've had to sand and re -varnish the floor. He has this little stuffed animal

cat. He likes to mount.

Making our life hell.

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 in San Francisco, and I'm on my way to go see Will and Liz, and they've got

this cat. She is vicious.

She's putting such a daily beating on their older cat that they're afraid for

his life, and you know what?

So am I. I'm going over there right now. Let's see what I can do about it.

I'm Will.

I'm Liz. And we've been married 32 years.

Puck is a 17 -year -old cat that we've got.

17 years. 17 years ago.

Penny. Belongs to our daughter, Rosalyn.

Rosie. Got.

Penny, about two years ago. When Rosie went to grad school in Boston,

unfortunately, one of her roommates was allergic to cat.

She was told she couldn't bring the cat with her. I said I would take the cat.

It seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

I thought I knew cats until I met Penny.

The noise is terrifying.

After an attack, we find pee, blood, hair.

It's a really terrible situation.

Puck doesn't deserve this. Puck was living here very happily, and we bring

the cat from hell.

Jackson, we need your help, because Puck's life is in danger from the psycho

cat, Penny.

Hi, I'm Liz. Hi, Liz. Good to see you. Come in and I'll lead you up. When I

into Will and Liz's house, there's this vibe of darkness that's just hanging

over everything to go into the kitchen. And I look down.

What's this?

There is leftover carnage.

There is urine. There is hair.

And, yeah, there's blood, too. Something horrible just happened here.

Penny attacked Puck, and that's Puck's fur.

Oh, my God.

It was really frightening.

Yeah. Does this happen a lot?

Yes, every time. Every time. This is unacceptable.

It's just so unfair to Puck.

She's been our cat. She's lived here for 17 years. We've had her since she was

about six weeks old.

Every time it happens, I feel I'm betraying her.

Yeah. I'm always trying to play down things when I first walk into a home.

time, I didn't know how to candy coat it. If you weren't here, someone would

dead. That's right. Yeah.

Is there a place we can go sit? You can download me on everything? Yes, let's

come on in here.

Are you good?

Yes. You're okay? We're okay now.

Penny is your daughter's cat? Penny belongs to our daughter, Rosalind. Okay.

thought we could easily take care of her cat for her. The problem is, of course.

that Rosie's cat keeps trying to kill our old cat.

Have you guys checked in on the cat since the fight? We need to do that. If

okay with you guys, I'd like to check in with them. Sure.

Usually when I go into people's homes, I check on the cat with a behavioral

problem, but we have a 17 -year -old cat who got beat up pretty badly, and I got

to check on her first.

Hi, baby.

Hi, Puck.

Puck was terrified when I took her out to inspect her. I mean, zero confidence.

Well, hello, Puck.

Come here, girl. I thought Puck was a really sweet cat.

She's a product of an amazing home.

Let me check you.

Oh, okay. So that's the wound.

Uh -oh.

There it is. Oh, yeah. So at least we know where it came from.

Typically, if a wound is bad enough that it's going to require a visit to the

vet, I'd be the first one to tell you to do it. But in this case, I did my own

body check, and I could tell that this tough old cat would be all right. I

want to keep her in this position any more than we have to. Let's keep moving,

okay? Okay. All right, baby.

I asked to go back out in the hallway, and we looked down this long San

Francisco rail car hallway, and at the end of it was where the fight ended

today.

To me, this is horrifying, if you're Puck, because it's just this long

with no escape. This house is just one huge dead end, if your name happens to

Puck. Okay, guys.

Penny, you said that she decompressed after fights like this? Where would that

be? She's back here. Let's see if she'll...

Come out.

Penny's an aggressive cat, so I'm pretty trepidatious about meeting her.

Well, hello.

There's this wobbly little cute cat that comes on out. This tortie is the one

that's almost killing another cat. It's really hard to believe.

She's very friendly.

Does she usually recover pretty quickly after the fight?

Yes. Sometimes within seconds.

I followed her in here, and she was eating from her food dish.

She goes from doing that to eating? To eating at her food dish, yeah.

I am pretty concerned about Penny's Jekyll and Hyde behavior.

You can go from this to this in 60 seconds?

Something off about that.

How do you do the cordoning in the house? I mean, normally, is she the one

out all the time? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's a lot.

Cats are territorial by nature, so if you want to have peace in this house,

have to co -own the entire place.

So I want to sit with Will and Liz and really figure out where to go from here.

Okay, well, when I came here, I was kind of, you saw, I was kind of mortified

and kind of breathless.

Penny is driven to kill another cat.

When it comes to Penny's aggression, there's no rough play involved. She sees

Puck, zero to 60, it's over. I think it could be any other cat. I think it

doesn't have anything to do with Puck. It's going to be a challenge no matter

what. We just don't want death.

That's it.

So I want to start giving you guys some homework.

I really want to work on Puck's self -esteem. We raise her self -esteem

sight swapping, right?

Sight swapping is a way for cats to own different areas of the house.

Separately, but equally. Because we can't have them in the same area alone.

These guys have to learn how to share things, even if they're not sharing it

the same time of the day.

Home has got to be home for everybody.

I never want to see a cat trapped in a certain area for more than 12 to 16

a day. It's just not fair.

That brings us to the next thing. I want you guys to do...

An introduction, a reintroduction. We're going to make sure that we have a great

gate so that Penny can't and won't try to get over it. And then we're going to

move them from this long hallway. We're going to reintroduce them through food.

I want to use this long -distance gating technique here. I've done a lot of

reintroductions with food before, but never one with a long hallway. My goal

can we get them this far apart, eating, walking away?

This is not posturing. This is not play.

This is the desire to make another animal dead.

Have a great night, guys. If these guys flunk this test, I'm going to tell them

we need to rehome Penny.

I'm going in for my second visit right now with the help out Liz and Will.

daughter Rosie's cat, Penny, has been beating up their older cat, Puck.

Stop!

Get off!

But first, I needed to video chat with Rosie so I could fill her in on exactly

how bad it was at home. Plus, I wanted to give her some early homework.

Hi. Hey, Rosie. It's great to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

It's a strange way to meet, but hey, we'll take what we can get, right?

Exactly. Tell me, first of all, does your mom tell you what's going on with

Penny and Puck?

I mean, she does a little, but I don't think she tells me everything.

It's a bad situation.

It's just strange because I've never seen her be that violent.

I mean, I do think it has something to do with the fact that Penny was your

And when you left her, she'd lost her guide that she had had her whole life.

Penny was basically overcompensating by acting out aggressively.

Right. I really need to bring you into the homework right now. So the way we're

going to do that is if you could start gathering up things over the next week

that are used by you.

I want Rosie to send in something from Boston with her scent on it. A pillow, a

blanket, something that will soothe Penny and hopefully curb her aggression

towards Puck. Something that you can do for me?

Yeah, definitely.

All right. I'll meet you in San Francisco in a few weeks.

Okay. Bye -bye.

Bye.

Now that I've video chatted with Rosie, I'm going to go back over to Will and

Liz's house and check on Penny and Puck's progress. All I'm hoping for is

there's less blood than the last time I was here, but I have no idea.

Okay, well.

Talk to Rosie, and I think she gets it now.

So, give me good news, please.

The cats are not best of friends, nor are they in the same room together.

So, they can't eat facing each other. Is that what you're saying?

Yes.

We don't trust them together yet.

That would be a mistake.

If Will and Liz are too afraid to get these two cats face -to -face with one

another now, this whole plan's going to fall apart.

All right, so what else?

Thigh -swapping.

Thigh -swapping. Great for Puck, particularly.

She's got the house again. I absolutely love that.

Sight swapping is great for Pug because sight swapping allows cats to have

ownership of the entire house, not just one area.

Success looks differently, you know, and I don't think that we're looking at two

cats who are going to sit and have tea together anytime soon. Right.

I have your video homework, so let's take a look at what you guys did.

Will has put up gate number one.

We're secure.

Here's your food.

Oh, God!

She bit my hand.

Stop videoing me! I don't...

Yeah, boy, guys.

Okay, so after the bite, you didn't have to go to the hospital or anything like

that? No, I didn't. I didn't. When we put the gates up, Penny was sitting

and... Penny kind of rolled over and gave a soft little meow, and I thought

was wanting to be petted, and I reached down, and then she was on.

And did she know that Puck was nearby?

Yes. Yes, she did. Oh, okay. So basically, we're talking about Penny was

midst of communication with Puck. Yes.

Penny rolling over on her back doesn't mean, as in dog language, please pet my

stomach. It means I'm vulnerable here. I'm trying to have a conversation with

that cat, and you just interrupted it. She was just scared, and she bit in

response. Good stuff on there, though. But I do want to see them eat before I

leave today.

Get up and take a look around.

Okay. The last time I was here, it was really important that we do a full body

check on Puck because she got beat up so badly.

Hello. Is she healing up now? Is she all right? Yeah.

Much better, baby.

She's not only healing externally, she's healing internally. It's a great thing

to see. Her ability to be able to see Penny and eat around Penny is our real

huge marker that we've got to get to. So what I'd like to do is I'm going to get

the whole feeding ritual set up. I want to see these guys eat, okay?

Let's do it. Come on. To measure the progress, I really needed to see the

feeding ritual, to see where we are, because the next time I come back here,

going to expect more.

She could jump the gate, but she's made no attempt to do that. And they're two

sets. But Penny, of course, she wants to get to where Puck is, and I have no

doubt that she would become aggressive and soon attack.

Now go ahead and put your mat down.

Will, you go ahead and put your food down.

Come on.

Okay. Getting cats to eat very close to one another while having visual access

is very important because food source is probably the most important thing in a

cat's life.

Now you see, it's definitely what Puck's seeing down the hallway that's making

her very unhappy.

Will, how's it going back there? She's devouring her food and keeping an eye on

you and Puck as best she can. Okay.

That's it.

Oh, God!

Puck became more and more tense.

I put her there a couple of times. I even pushed her head in the bowl because

knew she was hungry. She wouldn't eat. She ran off.

She's not remotely comfortable with Penny in view.

So this is what we're going to have to do. Here, I'm going to come to your side

if you don't mind. I'm going to show you.

I'm tucked. I can eat right here.

And even if I look around, I can't see her.

That's where we start.

We go around the corner where Puck just can't see Penny. All we're asking you to

do is eat at the same time. That's our first step. And then over the next

of days, move her into the sight lines. You've got to do it slowly.

First of all, our goal is to get down to one gate.

The first step, however, is getting Puck eating from around the corner and start

getting her closer to the gate. As long as these cats can eat in the sight line

of the other one, by the time I get back here, I don't care how far or how close

they are, that's success.

Oh, I was hoping you'd play that.

Yeah.

Here is a cat hair collar.

There you go.

We've got to kick up the scent swapping in this home, so I brought in these cat

hair collars. Basically, you put them on the cat, soaks up their scent, and then

you put it in a socially significant spot in the other space.

It's marking with scent. This is communication in the world of cat. I

the next time I come back, Rosie's going to be here on break.

She will. Well, I'm going to put her to work.

Because I totally think it's unfair that you guys get all the homework. We like

that idea.

All right. The problem began when Rosie offloaded Penny with her parents so that

she can go finish school in Boston. But now Rosie's going to become part of the

solution. Thank you. Thank you. I'll see you in a few weeks. All right.

Now it's time for a kitty bit.

Tortoiseshell cats are predominantly female.

True or false?

True. The combination of colors found in most tortoise coats.

can only occur when there are two X chromosomes.

I'm here for my final visit with Will and Liz, and their daughter Rosalyn is

here from school, which is great. The first time I came to this house, there

just been a horrible fight.

Hopefully with the homework done, we have the confidence up enough to have

eating at that gate.

Well, hey there.

Hi. How are you? Good. It feels great to be home from grad school, obviously, to

see my parents and the cat.

Some people wouldn't just take in another animal, which they have, and I

appreciate.

Well, good to see an entire family sitting here.

Well, tell me what's been going on. It's been a couple of weeks. Have you gotten

the cats to where they can see each other and eat?

Well.

Yeah, we have.

Wow. I know.

We were so excited that day. I couldn't believe it.

It was awesome for me to finally meet Jackson and to see the two cats so close

to each other was more than I expected coming into this from what I'd heard.

That's big, big news. And that means to me that we are really rounding the

homestretch with these guys. I want to take a look at your video homework.

Sensual swapping in general has been a major success in this household.

One of the things that's working well is the cat hair color that I left them

last time. I put it on fuck.

Puck wears it really well. They then take it off of Puck and present it to

Penny. Penny can smell it and go, all right, that's Puck, without really

redirecting her aggression onto Liz or Will. From Rosie.

Penny, look what's here.

Rosie did what was asked of her. She sent a blanket with her scent on it to

soothe Penny before she came home to visit.

You like that, right?

The video homework couldn't be any better, so I want to push the boundaries

little bit. Today, I wanted to take away that second gate.

Beautiful. There we go. Very nice. Very nice.

Right now, I want to see the feeding itself with just one gate.

Now, here's what I want to do. I'd like you to go get Puck.

And at the same time, Rosie, you're going to get Penny. All right. All

let's do it.

Let's get one thing clear. Sometimes you're going to have two cats who will

never get along.

And you're going to have guardians who will never get them up. So if I can just

get Penny and Puck to regard one another on either side of this gate without

Penny going for blood.

I will simply consider this one of the biggest victories of my career.

Good girl.

Liz, if you can just bring Puck over.

Just sit there. Yeah, there you go.

I was stressed. I was really worried that this was not going to work at all.

There was a little bit of activity going on that I wasn't so happy about.

Take the food.

I want it on that side of your body. That's all I want. There you go.

Penny got really worked up, and she locked eyes with Puck. Now, in the past,

that has been bad news and a precursor of a fight. This time around, I asked

Rosie, just get her distracted, bring her back to you.

I want one step moving towards you, and we have success here.

That's it.

Now, the fact that she did that is so huge because at that moment, she was a

who was thinking, and she was thinking about where the payoff was. The payoff

was with the person, not with the cat.

This is the closest these two cats have been.

Yes, it is.

What I like seeing right now is that you guys can sit there.

She's totally calm.

We have one gate.

This is a good thing.

What a good girl you are.

I definitely think I can go back to grad school with a little better sense that

my parents aren't just stressed and unhappy.

Just a couple weeks ago, there's not a chance this could have happened. We have

this moment now. We have two cats on either side of this gate. They're closer

than they've ever been before, and they're absolutely calm.

I was really, really impressed with Penny today.

She was a ball of torty fluff just barreling down the hallway.

And today, we saw the cats about as close together as they've been.

You just keep doing what you've been doing. Keep challenging these cats

they've responded incredibly well. We could not have possibly done what we've

done up until now without the ideas from Jackson. The fact that this happened

today, this soon.

No, I never would have predicted it. I'm really excited to eventually be able to

reclaim Penny and then have Puck have the run of the house again.

I cannot wait for you to graduate.

Take care of yourselves, okay? No action on either side of the gate means that

there's no payoff to have a fight. And that means peace can prevail here. Bye,

guys. We have a cat named Tony.

He pees all over the house. And he has this little stuffed animal cat.

He starts mating with it. He's making our life hell.

Tony, what are you doing?

I'm here in San Francisco, and I'm going to go see Betty and Cliff. Betty and

Cliff have a cat named Tony.

Tony's exhibiting bizarre behavior.

I know you're upset.

I don't know what it's all about.

He's also peeing all over the house. I'm going to go over there right now and

see if there's some sense to be talked into this cat.

I'm Cliff.

And I'm Betty.

We met on an airplane 25 years ago.

Betty's an artist, and I'm an accountant, a CPA, and...

We have a cat named Tony, a domestic short hair. We got Tony as a kitten. He

a stray cat that was rescued, and he was separated from his mother too soon and

developed emotional issues.

We try to accommodate him as best we can. He's like our kid. We don't have

kids, so he's like our little child.

He has this little stuffed animal cat that we call Dempsey.

And he likes to mount Dempsey.

When he's finished, it's almost like he needs to light up a cigarette or

something. Tony does it pretty regularly, just about every morning.

He pees all over the house. I mean, in every corner, you can imagine he's

peeing. This is what Tony left us this morning.

I don't know what to do. I'm kind of at my wit's end.

The cat pee smell alone is just, it'll permeate the house.

He has a habit of spraying outlets.

This power strip started out on the floor, but Tony actually sprayed on the

and right into my power strip.

I've had to sand and re -varnish the floor. I've also had to repaint areas of

the wall and the trim.

At one point, it got so bad that my brother even said, it's Kitty Kevorkian

for him.

It would be really hard for us to get rid of him. That would be an absolute

resort. So we're willing to try just about anything.

He's making our life hell.

Hey. Hi, Jackson. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, man.

I'm excited that Jackson's going to be here because if he can't fix him, I

think anybody can.

So, I'm sure I'm here for a good reason. Tell me what's going on.

We have this cat, Tony.

Tony the cat? Yeah, he's 12 years old and for the last nine years he's been...

Rain all over our house.

For nine of the 12 years?

I mean, after doing this for nine years, I don't want to think that it can't be

fixed. It's got to be fixed.

We don't trust him to have full reign of roaming the house.

So I installed a green door in the middle of our house, right where our

door is.

We called it Kitty Jail.

Betty and Cliff have a screen door in the middle of their house, and that was

little strange.

Tony's developed a strange relationship with a small stuffed animal called

Dempsey. He starts mating with it.

Okay. Yeah. He is neutered, yeah?

Yeah, he's neutered. How often does that happen?

Almost daily. Are you kidding?

Their neutered cat, Tony, that's right, I said neutered cat, Tony, is getting

intimate with a stuffed animal on a daily basis. Now that one is a big, I

no idea.

What I need to do, obviously, is see all these spots that Tony's been marking.

I want to see the spots where he takes Dempsey on those dates.

This entire conversation is just one bizarre thing topping another bizarre

thing. It's time to get up. It's time to walk around, let the space do the

talking. This is one of the areas where Tony has actually sprayed in the outlet.

You know, you can smell it. You smell it.

Baking pee. Yeah, pretty much. He pees on outlet. He aims for these things.

That one I've never seen before.

The next one is my office.

Okay.

Pretty much you're looking like in the carpet here. This is where Tony does his

little dance.

Dance with his little Dempsey toy.

There's so much about Tony that doesn't add up at all at this point.

Show me Kitty Jail. Okay.

Okay, so this would be from the screen.

I like how you guys have a sense of humor.

Now, does he spray in here, too? No, I think it's because it's like a sanctuary

for him.

So what he's saying is, I am, I'm safe here.

I'm not safe anyplace else.

We have that habit going on.

That's Dempsey, isn't it? That's Dempsey. That's Dempsey. So, if you

If you want to pick him up, I know where that... Dempsey's been.

And it's not pleasant.

Just from a scientific standpoint, you know, to see this level of wear, where

this is how they do it. Now, where is Tony at?

Tony's in the bathroom.

Now, I feel like I've met Tony already because I've met his urine all over the

house. I've met his mark all over the house. And I've met his victim, Dempsey,

up close and personal, too. But it was time to go and spend some time with

Hey, Tony.

Hi. Hi, Tony.

I hated seeing Tony in that litter box.

It means he's more confident in his own filth than he is with strangers.

Hi, Tony.

Hey,

buddy.

I know you're scared.

Usually when I get down on the floor with a cat, I'm trying to push that

challenge line, to push aggressive cats to see at what point they snap on me.

But with a cat like Tony, I'm pushing that challenge line to see at what point

confidence either wanes or comes forward.

Ooh, like that.

Come here.

Do you want a bit?

I had to experience Tony's full response to me in that bathroom because his body

language, his mannerisms, his reaction to stimulus, to food, to environment.

These are things that you can only get in closed situations like this, and it's

invaluable to me.

So let me start talking about the things that I think we have to start looking

at. My thought is it's possible that he's producing testosterone because

the way he marks, the pungency of his pee,

He goes at it with Dempsey.

I think that maybe he's got an undescended testicle.

I think Tony may potentially be cryptorchid. One of his testicles didn't

when he was a kitten. And when they neutered him, they just thought he

have another one. Listen, I'm not a vet.

I'd like you to take Tony to the vet. But I have other things for you guys as

well. All right. I want you to put a litter box right over there. Okay? Right

that outlet.

Now, Betty, I want a Dempsey replacement.

Right. You know, ultimately, what we have to do is we have to retire Dempsey.

He's that vice that has to go away.

Now, Tony's obsession with Dempsey in itself is not that big a deal, but it is

symptomatic of a much larger issue, and that is his territorial insecurity.

It does go hand in hand with him spraying all over the house.

Now, let's talk about Kitty Jo.

It is his only zone of safety.

He's never marked in there.

Everything feels right to him. So I want to start taking the really significant

parts of home and start bringing them out to the rest of the house.

Very slowly, but our prime directive is to take him to the vet.

We're going to hit this hard, okay?

Jackson wants you to find a replacement for Dempsey.

It's not going to work. I mean, how do you replace this?

toy that the cat uses for physiological urges as an intact male cat.

How do you replace that?

I'm here for my second visit with Cliff and Betty and their cat, Tony.

Now, Tony has a bit of a problem with his little stuffed friend Dempsey, but

he's also spraying, but only into like electrical sockets. And not to mention,

these guys still have a screen door in the middle of their house because Tony

will, if given the chance, urinate in any room that they leave the door open.

And I sent him back to the vet because I thought that his hormone levels might

be off the chart because he wasn't fully neutered.

That would explain the spraying all over the house and his behavior with

Dempsey. I'm hoping I go in there and we find out everything's been taken care

of.

Hi, Daddy. Hey, Daddy. How are you?

Nice to have you back.

I still got some work to do, huh?

We've had a few issues, but, you know, we're working on it. All right, well,

let's talk about it. We have got a cat that I sent to the vet.

Because my hopeful theory was that we had some testosterone spiking going on.

And what did we get out of that?

Turns out he doesn't have testosterone spiking.

So Tony doesn't have high testosterone levels at all?

Not according to the vet.

You tested the blood?

Tested the blood, and they were not present.

Wow. This is all a game changer.

We are starting from square one all the way around.

Everything we thought we knew about Tony, we don't. So it's time to take a

breath and start taking a look at the evidence. The first thing is the video

homework. Let's take a look.

What's going on in here?

I'm working on my Ninja Tony kickstick for him and just putting a few touches

it and I'll sew it up.

Great. He has been playing with it and he likes the catnip that's inside the

little ninja star. So this has been a little bit of a help.

I moved the kitty litter box to the dining room, and Tony's checking it out

right now.

Jackson told us that we should move Tony's old cat tree out of the master

bedroom little by little, but I think we probably moved it a little too quickly

and peed on the cat tree and on the wall.

The fun never ends around here.

Well... Maybe he's not this collection of strange behaviors after all. So let's

take a look around the house and maybe I'll see some of it.

So we have two litter boxes over here. Right. The minute he discovered it was

here, boom. He used that predominantly.

We haven't had as much spraying in this area as we've had before.

The thing that's kind of obvious, now anyway, is that when it comes to Tony

peeing around the house, it means he's got to dominate something in this space

in order to feel better. And now, that litter box, not only is it new, but it

has to be marked in order to say, this is mine. It was never about the outlet.

What's driving him is what drives any territorially insecure cat.

It's him creating this boundary around his castle.

Because he's so insecure about those boundaries.

So, you know, at the end of the day, you have succeeded in that exercise of

bringing kitty tail forward.

Because really, he's saying, not only is it secure for me, but it relieves a

little bit of anxiety.

Even if he approaches it kind of with a little caution? He does.

A little bit. If there's anybody in the vicinity, like even myself, he kind of

like is hesitant, but then he'll use it. But.

What have you been doing for the past eight years every time he walks into

corner?

I sneak and check and see what he's doing.

Tony's got to discover his cat mojo. He's got to walk around this house, and

he's got to own it. Betty can't do this hovering behavior. We have got to let

him own this space.

She's got to learn to step away.

I can't hover anymore. Is that what you're telling me? No more hovering? Oh,

thought that was a given.

I was actually really embarrassed.

One more. Nom, nom, nom, nom. I don't think I really realized that I was, you

know, mothering Tony too much.

Okay, on to Kitty Jail or Kitty Lump.

It was time for me to uncover the kitty bump in the middle of the bed. Now the

last time I came here, I was in the bathroom with him and he was sitting in

litter box.

One of the most fearful places for a cat to be. Because a cat who will choose to

hide in their own filth is so insecure that they'd rather be in their own

box surrounded by their own scent.

Look at Betty.

The hover.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I looked over to Betty as I was pulling the covers back, and she was

literally looming over the top of the bed. It's all one big, very insecure,

codependent, enabled package.

Hello, Mr. Boy.

Hi.

Look, I bring your little friend with me.

I bring my little friend.

I don't think I really realized how much I was mothering Tony and making him

even more insecure.

It was definitely an eye -opener for me.

The last time, he was a petrified cat.

This time, at least, he's up on the bed. He's beginning to make brave choices.

But he's only going to make as brave a choice as his people let him make. And

that's where our work starts.

We've got a lot more homework to do.

The first thing is no more Dempsey.

Listen, keep him up out of the way.

I've got something else here for you. You're used to a paintbrush, I'm sure. I

would just like you to paint a portrait of Tony. I want her to make a portrait

of Tony as who he should be, who she wants him to be, full of confidence. But

Betty can't change her own behavior, then this whole process is sunk.

In order to get Tony taking this world and being the cat that I think he can

I want you to keep Kitty Jail open from now on.

Next time I come back here, I want to see him out and about, and I think that

that's very possible.

It's important for both Betty and Cliff to just take the training wheels off

this cat behaviorally and allow him to be who I think he's been waiting to be

for 12 years.

Have a great couple of weeks, and I'll see you soon.

Tony needs a lot of attention, so I don't know if I'll necessarily be able

kind of back off a little bit from Tony, but I'll give it my best shot.

He doesn't want to let go.

Tony. I'm sorry, baby.

Going in for my final visit with Betty and Cliff and the cat Tony. This cat

really had me jumping through a hoop.

I thought that Tony was clearly a cat that had hormonal issues. I was wrong.

I thought it had to be something to do with something coming out of electrical

sockets, and it turned out to be a very simple cry for help. Tell me, guys, how

are you?

Um... Um, I think we've made some good progress with Tony.

Really? Yeah. Whoa!

We've been diligent with our homework.

Now we leave the screen door open all the time, and we started to see him come

out, tail up, walk around confidently with his head up.

Tony. Yeah.

Tony's been doing this.

That's fantastic.

The fact that he's been so confident, you know, makes me feel a lot better

the situation, that I can kind of kick back and not be, you know, such a mama

hand to him and smothering him like I was before.

Did you even see yourself as doing that before?

No, I didn't until you pointed it out.

Oh! Oh!

She's just stepping back and letting him be Tony. And because of that, he

doesn't feel that need to protect her anymore. So with a simple addition of

litter boxes and the subtraction of Betty's over mothering, this house is

free. I really want to take a look at your last week's homework.

Working on my painting right now.

Tony has snagged.

Dempsey and brought him into my office.

Uh -oh. There it is.

I'm going to take Dempsey away right now.

Let go, Tony.

I know you're upset.

Great. Good work. You said no?

No more Dempsey.

Here's Ninja Tony instead.

Really, really great work. Thank you.

Now we have Ninja Tony who has what? The smell of catnip around him. It's a

totally different association, and Ninja Tony is built completely differently.

And that way, the activity is not going to continue the way it did with Dempsey.

All right, now let's take a look around the house, shall we? Sure. Come on.

And let's start right here.

Oh, that's so cool.

Betty, the look on his face here, no one's just so present.

He's been released. Yeah.

There is a centered presence that she painted in this cat's face that didn't

exist the first time I had met him. And it was what she had hoped for for him,

confidence. I mean, was that the vibe you were going for? Yeah, the grip that,

you know, the whole insecurity had on him. Now he's kind of been released.

He has been. I mean, honestly, to me, this is, yeah, if he was walking around,

he'd be tail up, right?

Yep. That is absolutely, it's really, it's stunning.

And just as art, not just as a symbol, you know. And this one here, let's talk

about this for a second.

Yeah, this would be some cat mojo right here, man.

Because that right there, that's our hunter.

That's, yeah, he's like chilling, you know. Yeah, but he's also, he's got that

look of like, I'm Tony. Oh, yeah. Hear me roar. I think that's a confident

Exactly. Yes. See the difference here? We have neutral, relief, and then he's

able to.

Come into himself.

This is gorgeous.

By the way, that one's for you.

Oh, get out of here. I'm not getting out of here. Oh, are you serious?

Yeah. Oh, my God. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

That's so amazing.

Oh, my God.

Hey, you helped Tony get his mojo.

Oh, God. He's got his mojo, man.

And now I got it. Thank you again so much.

The double view of him here, the release and then the assumption of Mojo, it's

just, that's worth the price of admission right there. It really is.

Great work. Great work, Betty. Thank you.

Behind here, we still have plastic wrap. I feel like we can just say goodbye to

this stuff. So you guys ready for that? I'm ready. Take it off. Drum roll,

please.

It's a big moment. Yes.

This cat's not peeing on us anymore.

Let's take it off and move forward.

Let's move on.

Our last stop was Kitty Jail. Now that's what we want to see. Good Tony.

I'm going to step in just to say hi.

Hello, my little boy.

Hello.

He's so good.

Just to see Tony accepting pets, purring, relaxing into my hand, closing

eyes. This is a cat who has changed.

Yeah.

Actually, very different.

I'm amazed that he let you hold him.

It was a big step forward because if you remember the first day that I met Tony,

I couldn't even get him anywhere near me. And today, he was self -assured

that I picked him up, I put him in my arms. He was a normal cat.

I'm really proud of him. You should be, too. Yeah. I'm amazed that he let you

hold him. No, absolutely.

Because usually he would just totally freak out. We have Tony coming up and

hanging out in the world. Big deal.

We have got the plastic wrap off the outlets.

We've got Tony using a litter box.

What more can we ask for? We've got one more thing. There is no way that I'm

leaving this house today without that screen door coming down. Go ahead.

Cliff, my pleasure.

It's over.

They don't need it anymore.

Tony doesn't need it anymore.

All right.

Let's do it.

Here we go, man.

Oh, this. Yay!

This is excitement right here. You guys have gone from kitty jail to

kitty home. This was a symbol of trust. Here, we don't need this door anymore.

We trust you.

Tony's just a cat now. He's a cat. He's not a scaredy cat. He's not running from

shadows anymore. He's not peeing around the house. And he's not doing

inappropriate things to stuffed animals anymore. He's just a cat.

Thank you so much, Jackson. Absolutely.

I'm not a bad cat.

I'm just misunderstood.