Original subtitles

Pink is very aggressive.

She kind of comes after me like... We just recently

got engaged.

But we can't live together because of Pink.

And it's either Pink or Amy if something doesn't change.

I'm afraid to be, like, in the home alone with Zoe.

Three days before our wedding, he just turned around and, like, attacked my

The scratches were very visible.

I filed four reports with animal services.

I want the severity of it, like, known and just documented.

It was hard for me to accept that fact because I know that he's not going to

kill her. You know, like, I've never seen that side of him. He's never been

vicious to me.

This is the last straw for me. So if Zoe's problems can't be fixed, then

have no choice but to give him away.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

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

I've met cats with all kinds of problems.

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

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

analyzing their behaviors and retraining them and their guardians.

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

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

her. I'm their last hope.

Are you all right?

Sorry, I don't know.

Cats have nine lives, but humans only have one.

Whoa!

Hey, Pinky.

I'm on my way over to see Katie and Amy right now. These guys are completely in

love. They're ready to move in together. The problem is that Katie's cat, Pink,

is a holy terror.

This is not good.

Now I'm going to make sure that this love story has a happy end.

I'm Katie.

And I'm Amy, and we've been together about five months now, and we just

got engaged.

We're so excited to be spending the rest of our lives together, and the one

thing that's standing in our way is my cat, Pink.

I adopted Pink eight years ago. At first, things were pretty good, but

started to get really bad after the first year and a half of her life.

Where are you guys?

He's hiding.

It's okay, Pink.

She's very, very aggressive.

She's coming after me, swiping, hissing.

She kind of comes after me like...

He and I spend most of our

time at my house because of Pink.

In terms of moving in with Amy, I'm not only concerned about Amy's safety, I'm

also concerned about the safety of her cat, Twiggles.

If something doesn't change, I could have to rehome Pink.

Pink, can you be nice to my girlfriend, please?

We are at a standstill right now, and this is not going to work for me, so

it's a little stressful.

How are you? I'm good. Thank you so much for being here. Of course.

All right, guys.

So, how goes it?

So, Pink is my cat.

Okay. She attacks me. She attacks Amy. She attacks anyone who comes to the

house. And as you're saying that, I'm looking down, and I'm seeing... Is that

today? Yeah, today.

Oh, my God. The claw actually got caught in it.

So there was a claw piece stuck in there.

Man, that's pretty scary.

Now, those are not little baby scratches.

Pink put some serious intent behind the damage she did to Amy, and that's

unacceptable. You're staying over at her place all the time. Yeah. How old is

Pink? She's eight. And how long have you had her? I've had her since she was

like six months old.

Here's the thing. By the age of nine weeks.

Cats learn pretty much socially everything they need. So whatever

that age could have been traumatic. How old was she the first time you were

like, oh, what's going on here?

It was probably pretty early on, like maybe a year.

You've been dealing with this for seven years?

Mm -hmm.

I work for Found Animals Foundation, and I know that taking on an animal, you

have to be responsible for them for the lifetime.

I, you know, want to be that person for Pink.

I love Katie's commitment to Pink, but at the same time, I can't imagine what

it's doing to her and Amy's relationship.

It's one thing to subject yourself to a violent cat, but it's a whole other

ballgame when you factor in a loved one. We want to move in together, and we

don't know how to do that.

I have a cat, Twiggle. He's a year old.

And because of Pink, we don't know how that's going to happen.

Literally, the only thing that keeps you from doing that is Pink. Yeah.

Okay.

I want to meet Pink. Okay. All right, guys? Let's do it. Let's go do it.

Okay. Hi, Pink.

There she is. Yeah, Pink's not psyched.

Hi, baby.

Hi, baby.

Pinky.

I know.

I want you to try presenting your hand in a way that might not be threatening

her. Okay.

It's no

fun for you.

Okay.

You're moving with some serious fear right now. I know. Okay.

Because?

I have been attacked by her many times.

But the only way that you're going to get where you want to get with her is to

release the trauma that you're in. She is clearly terrified of her own cat, and

that worries me a lot.

Let's let me spend some time alone with her. Okay.

I'm going to go out there, get my guitar case, and come back in. All right.

Sounds good.

Dealing with violent cats is part of my job.

What I do. Is it the part of my job that I cherish the most? No. I don't want to

go in there and have my butt handed to me.

But it's how I get information.

I want to know what's predictable, what's behavioral that I can work with,

what's beyond my capabilities.

Now, what if I put my hand in here? What's going to happen?

Hi, busy little one.

Hi.

It's okay, babe.

Five inches.

Four inches.

Three inches.

Can I touch you?

I'm right here.

There were... More than a few things that concern me. First of all, blinking

me, which is a good sign. But her tail is going while she's licking her lips,

which are a bad sign.

Sending totally mixed signals all over the place. Man, that was a good one.

Now, let's start. See if I can get a response out of you.

It's not death.

Oh, it's that.

Don't be hissing at the food.

Go ahead and hiss at it.

I want you to have some food.

Now.

Can you have some food?

Oh, good girl.

Good girl, Pink.

Good girl. You want some more?

And your food.

There you go.

Now I'm going to touch the spoon while you're eating.

Being able to feed Pink so soon after she decimated me, that's... Big,

big news to me. Why?

Because it shows you that she can learn to trust. She can be a, quote, normal

cat. And this is one of those places we can start.

Pink, I'm going to leave you now.

You forgive me, I'll forgive you.

How'd it go in there?

It was interesting.

When I saw what Pink did today, I was, you know, concerned for him, but...

What really popped up was twiggles because if pink is like this, I'm sorry,

it's not going to work.

Let's start with your homework. The first big thing is changing your energy

around her. No more of the old nervous and scared reactions that you had.

The vibe of fear that Katie puts out about herself and her relationship with

Pink actually instigates aggression with a cat like Pink. I also need you guys

to spend more time here. Yeah.

It's crucial.

The less social she is, the more she's going to be totally overstimulated by

your presence, so she's going to bite you. Got it. The other thing that I want

you to do is start playing with this cat. So let's break out this toy right

here. We've got to get her energy out of her, but in a safe way. So I presented

them with one of my wand toys. It's interactive, but it keeps you safe at

same time. Her body and her mind have to be grounded.

And all the things I gave you today are ways to get this started.

I'm just really hoping that this works.

You know, this is really our last hope.

I'm going in for my second visit right now with Katie and Amy and Katie's cat,

Pink. Now, Katie and Amy want to move in together. They simply can't because of

Pink's violence.

And the last time I was here, she beat me senseless.

She's a scary cat. I don't know what to expect today.

Jackson! Jamie!

Hey! Come on in!

How you doing? So good to see you.

How you been? Great.

I'm so glad that you're here.

Well, thanks.

You're kind of smiley. Yeah. What are you smiling about?

It's so great, Jackson. I mean, Pink can be hissing, and then I'll just whip out

the toy, and she's playing.

What? Yeah, it's pretty great.

Amazing.

80 % of the time, she is a happy, content cat now.

80%. 80%. Yeah. We've really been spending a lot more time here.

And Amy has really been encouraging me to take your recommendation around not

being so anxious around her. And it really makes a difference.

That's huge.

Yeah. 80 % better in a couple of weeks. I mean, I can show you the scars that

prove that this is one of the meanest cats I'd ever met.

Amazing.

Um, I'm sure there's more information that you guys gave me on my homework

video. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'd love to watch it.

Whoa, look at that. Did you see him do a back flip? Yeah.

So we basically have Pink playing around the living room. That's beautiful.

But then, at the end of this, Katie just puts her hand out to Pink's paw, and

Pink just does this.

I mean, come on.

Oh, my God, that's so sweet.

She just tagged me.

One thing I did not like on video homework was that I still saw Pink

out. So, great footage. I mean, good and bad. We've got 80 % great,

but we've got 20 % of work to do at this point. So we really should get to it.

Now, obviously, you brought Twiggles over.

You did.

Okay, so how long has this been going on?

Oh, just today. He doesn't care about nothing. Look at how relaxed he is.

We could not ask for a better cat to meet Pink because he's so chill.

Twinkles is Amy's cat, and I love his calm demeanor.

We're going to need that if we have any hope of Amy and Katie moving in

together. We have to start introducing these two cats, and that is my main goal

for today.

So what we're going to be doing today is we're going to start the introduction

process between the two of them. I am nervous about Pink attacking my little

boy.

Let's do this.

I want to push it, and of course that's what I always want to do. We're going to

use feeding on opposite sides of the door. So we're going to have Katie with

Pink on one side of the door. We're going to have Amy with her cat Twiggles

the other side. And we're going to see how far we can push that challenge line

to the door, having these cats eat but not hiss or growl.

Katie, start inching that food close to the door. We're going to start feeding

Twiggles on this side, okay?

Okay, cool.

Hey, buddy, come here.

You want food, son?

Hey.

I'm trying to make a positive association.

Right. Every time they smell food, they smell each other. So basically they're

saying you equal food equal good.

She knows that Twiggles is there.

Okay, so we got a hit. Yeah.

Does it freak you out?

Well, it just makes me, I don't want him to hit, I don't want to, I don't like

seeing him scared. I've never seen him get.

This is saying hello in no uncertain terms. It's just not a friendly hello.

When Pink hit.

Twiggles took off, and Amy just came unglued.

So now the good part about this is we've just established their respective

challenge line. So what I'm going to do is bring his food back a little bit.

This is how far back you go. He comes up, he starts eating. No problem.

She's got to be able to do the same thing on the other side.

Pinky, come back.

All right, Katie, we good in there?

She realized that Twiggles was there, and she growled and backed away.

Pink. Then pull the plate back a little bit. We found that line. Pull it back.

She's eating.

We got both cats to eat on opposite side. We found where each one of their

challenge line was, so we can step that up over the next couple of weeks, but

got to do it slowly.

So let me give you guys some homework.

We're going to really ritualize this feeding exercise.

It has to happen every day and it has to happen without fail.

Because, like I said before, I smell you, I smell food. You equal good, you

know? The second step is we're going to deal with the concept of sight swapping.

When I say site swap, that means nobody lives in here, nobody lives in there. So

the way you swap is on different days, Twiggles goes in there, Ping comes out

here, or, you know, the other way around. We're going to do site swapping

that nobody owns too much piece of land at one given time.

Cats can't see each other, they can smell each other. This is how cats

communicate, with scent, not by talking.

One other thing, if we're going to do...

Mealtime, sight swapping, that means the Twiggles live here.

What's your reservation about it?

That Twiggles will start having bad behavior

because of pink.

This couldn't be more of a crucial time.

Before, we were just trying to keep the ship from sinking.

Now we want it to sail.

I'm really sort of waiting with bated breath to see if, you know, we can make

this work.

All right. Bye, guys. Have a good night. Yeah, you too.

We've made a lot of progress with Pink, but I know what Pink is capable of. I've

seen her aggression firsthand, and my biggest fear is that Twiggles is going

get hurt.

And I don't want that to happen to my little angel.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Cats walk with their weight on the soles of their feet.

True or false?

Find out after the break.

True or false?

Cats walk with their weight on the soles of their feet. And the answer is false.

Cats are digitigrade mammals, which means that they walk on their toes,

humans, who place the bulk of their weight on the bottom of their foot.

I'm here for my final visit with Katie and Amy and Katie's cat, Pink. The last

time I was here, Pink had gotten a whole lot better. When I say a whole lot

better, I didn't bleed.

But we still had the hardest part ahead of us, which was introducing Pink to

Amy's cat, Twiggles. Now hopefully the feeding exercises are going really well

because I really want these guys to finally move in together.

Jackson! What's up, Katie?

Good to see you. Good to see you.

So, moving.

Yeah.

Very cool. We're going forward.

Ten days. Ten days.

Ten days, which means everything's going great here.

Things are going great. We are very excited. We're very confident.

Wow.

How do you feel?

Your energy is now with Pink. Great.

She's not exhibiting aggressive behaviors almost ever.

We know how to calm her down when she gets upset.

That's amazing, guys.

I think that the change in Pink has really been due to the homework

that Jackson gave us.

Sight swapping has definitely made a difference, and also playing with her

being here more. She's a whole new cat.

All right, well, it sounds like fantastic stuff has been going on. Of

want to see what you guys have been up to, so let's watch your video homework.

Sight swapping is going really well. We've got twiggles on one side of the

we've got pink on the other side of the door, and they're getting to know each

other's smell without the threat of visual contact.

Oh,

that sounds cute.

That's amazing.

Now, there's this moment where Amy picks up Pink and holds her to her chest.

Now, this is a cat who a few weeks ago wanted to beat up Katie, Amy, and me.

That's an amazing turnaround.

Very, very nice. Right?

And, of course, I got to see this wonderful piece, which was the two cats

on either side of the door, and I mean close.

Isn't that great?

That is great. Yeah. We haven't opened the door yet, so Twiggles and Pink.

Still haven't met one.

All right, so my goal today is that we take your progress and build on it.

We're going to open that door.

That's the big first step that we have to get through. Okay?

Okay. This is really make or break time because we're moving and we really need

them to be able to get along.

Katie, go on in with Pink.

Amy, stay out here with Twiggles and me.

I'm just hoping that Pink doesn't kill Twiggles.

Katie, how's it going in there? I'm trying to get her over to the door to

Okay.

The great thing is the Twiggles is just about the food right now.

Thanks for eating.

We start the feeding on either side of the door. It looked like it was going

great, so it's time to open that door.

There you go.

Yes. Good job.

Do you want?

Yeah.

Really pretty cool.

Yeah. It made me feel really great watching them eat. It made me feel like

can make this work.

Okay, now we do want to end this on a high note. Let's go ahead and shut the

door. That's it.

Okay.

These guys are ready.

Yeah, yeah. They can be around one another.

Thank you so, so, so much, because there's no way that we would be able to

our family without your help.

Any time. A few weeks ago, we were not sure if we could all move in together,

and now we really believe that Pink can be integrated into our lives and

Twiggle's lives.

I mean, it is literally like we have a new cat living with us.

This is such a happy ending for us. We just can't think.

Jack Smith.

Thank you, Jackson.

Okay, you're welcome. Bye, you're a rock star.

I'm about to meet John and Michelle about their cat Zoe, who over the past

has become so unpredictably and aggressively violent that he almost

wedding day. That's bad.

I'm going to make sure that these guys have some more anniversaries to

celebrate.

I'm Michelle.

And I'm John.

We just got married. We've been together for about 10 years now.

Zoe's a boy, even though his name is a girl's name. We adopted him when he was

five months or so. Zoe was actually our first cat.

I don't really know that much about cats.

Last year, like when I started planning the wedding, is when the vicious attack

started.

Ever since he was a kitten, he's been a little bit more agitated around me,

specifically.

It's pretty terrifying.

The worst incident with Zoe was three days before our wedding.

I was just doing my work, and he just turned around and, like, attacked my

He sunk his teeth in and his nails and, like, scratched down.

She had a sleeveless dress, too, so the scratches were very visible. Even the

photographers had to do some photo adjustments.

He ruined our wedding, and that's when I was really broken down, and I was

suggesting that we find another home for him. I've never seen that side of him.

He's never been vicious to me.

It's definitely hard for me to picture him being like that, you know?

It's kind of frustrating because it's only happened to me before, and no one

else has seen it.

I don't know when he's going to attack next.

I can't live with that kind of uncertainty and that kind of anxiety

around in my own house. I think Zoe's shown a lot of love, and it's very hard

get rid of something that you've had for so long, someone that's been a good

companion over the years.

This is the last straw for me. So if Zoe's problems can't be fixed, then

have no choice but to give him away.

I'm going in right now for my first visit with John and Michelle about their

cat, Zoe.

Michelle is getting attacked by Zoe.

Hey, how's it going? John? Yeah, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

Hi. They're newlyweds and they're fighting about this. I want to see if I

broker some peace about the situation.

Thanks for having me over today. Yeah, thanks for coming.

Of course, of course.

So tell me about Zoe a little bit.

So Zoe is about six and a half years old.

We got married eight months ago.

Okay. And it was around that time, like, where he started viciously attacking

me. All of a sudden, he'll, like, lunge at me and, you know, sink his teeth into

my skin.

He'll bite. Yeah, and his claws, too. And then, like, kind of hang on there.

I have to, like, whip him off of me. Wow.

My absolute worst has been, like, three days before our wedding when he attacked

me. And I had, like, gashes, you know, up and down my arm that were visible in

the wedding pictures. And it, like, tore me up, like, emotionally, too.

Michelle tells me that one of the worst attacks she's ever gotten from Zoe

happened three days before her wedding. And she's not over it emotionally. She's

not over it in terms of the resentment that she feels for her cat. And she

bears the scars.

How often does that happen?

It's happened about, like, four times, like, documented. Like, I've documented

it with animal services.

You filed a report for the animal services?

I was dumbfounded. I mean, what makes you go to that extreme?

I would never call animal control on my own animal.

Why would you do that?

It's always happened when I'm alone and John's not here.

And it's a little bit frustrating because I think that some people don't

me. I've never really seen Zoe attack Michelle with those really vicious

attacks. These are like, you know, full -on attack, attack.

Michelle has called animal services four separate times because of the attacks

on her. Zoe has been placed on home -based quarantine because of the bites.

there's only so many times that can happen. At some point, animal services

take Zoe away if they think he presents a danger.

If you're going to go to the forest to call animal control, you've had it.

Yeah, it's like the last straw.

For both of you.

More so for her, like, I mean, I don't want to give him away. He's never

viciously attacked me before. Ever?

No, not ever. You've never gotten what she's gotten ever?

No. Wow.

Unfortunately for Michelle, she works from home, which means she's going to

the brunt of most of these attacks. But at the same time, she's got to have

something going on with this cat to make Zoe act this way. You know the reality.

You've talked to each other about it. So you're faced with a fix or... Get rid

of him.

Okay. Lots of information, lots of stuff to digest, so let's start taking a walk

around, okay? Basically, she's over it. If she gets attacked one more time,

Kat's gone. In fact, she'd be happier if Zoe was already gone. If we don't have

Michelle's buy -in, I'll never be able to solve this case.

Okay, right here, we've got the toy basket, okay?

As we start looking around the home, I notice a basket full of very sad

toys. I'm just going to jump to Dad here for a second.

He doesn't play with all of them. I'm going to start holding toys, and you

me.

This? No.

This? No.

What is that?

It broke off of this one.

So I would say no to this just in principle there. Does he play with any

them? His favorites are like this one.

He must know what mine are.

These are his two favorite ones.

Out of this entire box, we have got two kind of sad -looking toys.

That spells boredom to me.

I can give you homework right now.

Get some toys.

Get some toys to wear him out with. Wear him down.

Okay. You've got to get that energy level out of him, the same energy that

given you. Here's what I want. John, can you grab Zoe for me? I want to see how

he is in this environment, in this area.

Hello, mister.

Wow, he's a big boy.

This is Zoe.

Okay, so Michelle, tell me something.

How would you normally handle Zoe at this point? I usually get my ski gloves

You get ski gloves?

Go ahead and get them. Okay.

As soon as somebody starts putting on ski gloves to handle their cat, I know

that we got a big problem.

Every time you handle him, you do this?

The times I don't want to get bitten, then I put it on him. Okay, well, let me

see how you would do what you do. I wanted to know, at what point does he

where he's going to snap? And I hate to do it to Michelle, but I really wanted

to see her fear level and Zoe's response.

Okay. Okay?

Ooh.

Oh, yeah, he kind of means business. Yeah.

This is not good.

Michelle got incredibly tense. You transmit that energy to a cat, and then

that'll make them strike even more.

Come on.

What that tells me is we're not dealing with Jekyll and Hyde here. We're dealing

with a cat who's responding to stimuli.

She picked him up, and he was all over the place, and he looked uncomfortable,

and that's when he's going to lash out the most.

And it also highlights how much of your body he takes up.

Do you know? I mean, he really swallows you.

Yeah, I'm scared.

It's terrifying going up against him because I get all, you know, bit up and

scratched. Yeah, I mean, I get a little scared for her when she's handling him.

That's the validation you've been looking for.

John was totally horrified. He's never seen it before. He's never been around

any of these attacks. Today, John got it. He got the fact that this 4 '11

was being hit hard by a cat that was almost bigger than her entire torso.

Believe me, he got it. As always, I think it's really important for me to

some alone time with the cat, and I wanted to spend that time with Zoe.

I asked John where he was, and Zoe was in their bedroom, so that's where I

I've got to see if the behaviors that he's exhibiting, for the most part, are

predictable. Hi.

Want to hang out?

Not like you're not communicating.

You're doing that pretty loud and clear.

And that, pretty loud and clear.

Thank you for the warning.

Now, what if I approach you the way your mom does?

What if I'm jumpy, like your mom is?

What? What?

Okay.

There it is.

There it is.

Ow!

I get you, dude. I get you.

Message received.

What I'm finding is that he needs to be pushed and pushed pretty hard before he

says, you know what, I've had it. I warned you enough times. Take that.

Now, obviously, Michelle's missing some of those clues.

All right.

The way I'm going to break down the homework, I've got work for you, I've

work for you, and of course I've got work for Zoe as well. The first thing, I

want you to find what motivates him. Let me pull something out of here for a

second.

This toy here, my little caterpillar guy.

I want you to find toys like this. When I say like this, I mean interactive.

You're on one side, he's on the other. And then basically what you're doing is

you're dictating the level of aerobic activity that he gets.

I want John and Michelle to have a very structured play regimen. Because Zoe's a

very overweight cat, I want John to play him like crazy, take the cat and wear

him down every day.

Now, for Michelle, I want to see you start leading him around the house.

In fact...

setting up something like an exercise course for him. Because when he starts

follow you, respect you as the leader of this territory, I think things will

start looking a little differently.

Michelle's homework's a little more difficult because the big theme here is

repairing and rebonding with Zoe. And after all this time, that might be kind

tough. So she's got to re -engage.

Last thing that I want you guys to do.

is I'd like you to take the concept of that catchery. What I'd like you to do

not get another catchery. I want you to build one.

I think it's not only a way to help let go of the resentments, but it's also an

activity that you two can bond over and also create a new bond with Zoe, okay?

You guys all, all three of you, deserve this shot. And let's make this happen,

okay? Thank you very much.

The hardest challenge would be the letting go of resentment that I have for

I don't want to get rid of Zoe. But the reality is that Zoe could be euthanized

if this behavior continues.

I'm going in right now for my second visit with John and Michelle about their

cat, Zoe.

Now, the first time I was here, I met a cat who was really aggressive, but only

towards one person, Michelle.

Michelle wants to get rid of Zoe. John, on the other hand, loves

Zoe and doesn't want to see him go.

So I'm hoping that this time around that Michelle is letting go of her

resentments because if she forms the bond, the energy will be a lot more calm

and there will be less attack.

So, guys.

How's things going?

Pretty good. What's pretty good?

Let's do an arm check.

Yeah, no new ones, no new scars. You guys are both clean, man.

Seriously, that's huge.

Yeah. The last time I was here, I gave you specific instructions that were

different for each one of you.

For Michelle, your task was structured leadership, and for you, John, it was

about structured exhaustion.

Are you guys adhering to those roles?

When I tried to...

you know, get something and have him follow me. He doesn't really follow

I'm having trouble with that. What about the exhaustion part?

Sometimes it's pretty hard to get him to follow you for a long period of time.

And then, you know, he'd just get, he'll walk away and just get disinterested.

Okay. So we really, we haven't found in the toy world, we haven't found the

thing that goes jackpot to him, right? You got to find that. That's really

important for him. Yeah.

Now, what I really want to do is go over your video homework with you.

What we got to see was Zoe playing with both Michelle and John.

Not that it was great play, because it really wasn't. I mean, you're not going

to get anywhere with this. I mean, what cat is going to respond to this?

Yeah,

good job.

No wonder Zoe wasn't invested.

I also got to see that new cat condo that I assigned them to build. It was

something that they had to do together. They both had to think about what Zoe

wanted. I just got some great ideas just from watching your videos. That means

you recorded some great stuff for me. Now, let's take a look around and see

you guys have done, okay? All right.

Now, let's start here because, first of all, I noticed this when I walked in.

Let's move this, and when I move it, you'll start seeing the method to the

measures.

So this is where I want it to be, okay?

Take a look.

You understand where I'm going?

I think it's a place where he can jump down safely instead of jumping all the

way to the floor if he doesn't have a TV.

For a cat of his size with no real firm landing area, it scared me. I didn't

like it one little bit.

It is really important to fill that empty space with something sturdy.

This is why we were working on leading him around. This is where it comes in.

For you, Michelle, this is going to become our leadership course, right? Cat

course. Exactly.

I mean, I worry for Michelle because we don't know when he'll next attack. It's

going to take a lot of work, but this is what we came here to do. Now, I want

one of you guys to go grab the wet food that he's totally into these days, okay?

Okay. In the meantime, this is a feeding rod.

I love it because basically you can feed him just like a regular spoon here. You

can also stretch it out. The retractable feeding rod is pretty simple. It gives

you distance between you and a potentially aggressive cat. That's great

you're presenting something really nice to them in a safe way. And this is the

food that you've been feeding, right? Yep. So here's how we're going to work

this. I want you to get him to start moving, okay?

The leadership course is going to be me leading Zoe around so that he respects

me. Start moving towards that spoon.

With this?

With food?

The key to success with the retractable feeding rod is that you've got to find

that jackpot food. If he's not into the toys, he'll be into the food.

Just inch it as he's eating.

Like he doesn't even notice it.

I want to paw up there.

I need you to be completely relaxed as you're doing this. With food?

Oh, you got him. You got him.

So it made me feel like a sense of accomplishment that I was able to lead

So basically, I want to see you the next time I get back here, to the point

where you're just comfortable enough just feeding him from a spoon, leading

around. Jackson's goal is for me to get it down to the size of a spoon.

Inching in a little bit more and a little bit more is scary, but I'm sure

if we do it, like, gradually, not all at once, that it could work. Every cat

I've ever met has a jackpot trigger, right? We've got to find what that is in

him and make sure we get him to follow us, all right?

The leadership course is something that I came up with to help Michelle become a

leader. I want her to have confidence while performing these leadership

All right, guys.

I would say a good majority of the big issues seem to be starting to resolve.

As we walked through today, I saw other challenges.

So let's start talking about some of the homework.

The first thing is I need you to go shopping.

We don't have his attention where we need it to be, and I'm telling you,

cat has that button, and that's what you have to find. We're missing that

jackpot, both in toy and food. If we have that, then Zoe has a reason to

things around the room, and he has a reason to get exhausted in the first

The energy will be a lot more calm, and there will be less attack.

John, we go for the exhaustion with you. Now, that's the toys. That's also the

physical investment from you.

For you, Michelle, it's more about getting him moving around the course

And that's done with the food jackpot. Because again, what I'd really like to

see by the next time I come back here is that boy going around.

No pausing, no nothing. We're around the homestretch right now.

There is a lot of work to be done, but that's what I'm here for. All right,

guys, cool. I think we have a lot of work cut out for us before the next

I'm still a little bit scared of him, and if Zoe doesn't get fixed by this

process, then, like, he's gone.

I'm here for my final visit with John and Michelle and their cat Zoe.

Now, Zoe was such an aggressive cat that Michelle had called animal services on

her own cat numerous times. Since then, the homework has revolved around getting

Michelle to a certain leadership, getting John to be in charge of

Zoe. On their video homework, the first thing I got to see was that they brought

in... Treats. We were looking for that jackpot treat that Zoe would just go

around the room for. I got to see Michelle using the retractable food rod

the way out with the wet food. It worked perfectly. It was a really important

thing for us to get this cat moving through the house and also to get

taking charge of that whole exercise.

River and chicken.

I'm hoping today that I'm going to go in and see a cat that's grounded and calm

and a little exhausted, and that way we have a cat who's going to have a forever

home.

So, how's life with Kat?

No calls to animal services.

Amen.

Amen. We win.

Wonderful, guys. Tell me about it. So, first of all, like, I've been doing the

leadership course with Zoe every day.

Right. And I started out with a retractable spoon at the longest length,

then now I'm just down to a regular spoon.

No more ski gloves.

Yeah, no.

I feel, you know, confident and safe around him. High -five moment.

Such a high -five moment. That's beautiful.

I'm just proud of Michelle for growing as a person, and it's huge.

Yeah, John's been a big help, too. Like I said, before I felt like I was on my

own, like just me battling him and Zoe, you know, but now it feels like he's on

my side. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Well, I'd love to see what you guys have been doing with your

homework, so get up and take a look.

As far as I'm concerned, one of the last things I really need to see is Michelle

leading Zoe around the leadership course, and that's because I want to see

she is still grounded and exerting just a calm authority with him. So I asked

John to get Zoe, and then I sent Michelle off to the kitchen to grab some

for Zoe, and I had her start the leadership course.

Zoe.

Deidre, come here.

Good, just give it to him right there.

Let's get that motor going. No, no, no, just let him eat.

Good, that's fine.

Very nice.

So far, so good. We have got Zoe playing follow the leader with Michelle.

Okay, you know what to do next.

Come right here.

Now, of course, Zoe does what he's done all the way along, which is he jumps on

the floor first and then up to John's desk.

Well, that was a quick one.

Okay, so he went floor, up on the desk.

This is getting exciting.

Oh, and tree.

He loves the tree. This is easy.

Up on the dresser.

He's totally ready now, the big moment.

If we could, please.

Yes. Good. Leave him up. Just keep working with him.

Oh, yeah.

There we go. Keep him going.

Come on, buddy. All four paws.

All four paws.

All four paws.

There we go.

Very, very nice.

Good boy. So yummy.

This jump means we get everything that we want. I'm watching this catch's move

with just such grace towards that doorway. Michelle's leading him

Good boy, Joy.

And I'm starting to think that that's as far as we're going to get.

Right here.

We can get this jump. We got it done.

Right here.

Right here.

And there he... Bang!

Yay! I was just blown away.

This isn't just about a cat jumping from a dresser to an entertainment center.

This is a demonstration of leadership.

That was really important because Michelle's leadership diminishes the

of attack from Zoe. Beautiful job.

Thank you.

Good work.

I'm definitely proud of Michelle and just so happy to see Michelle so

comfortable being, you know, face -to -face with Zoe when she had to wear ski

gloves to handle him just a little while ago.

Honestly, that jump in my presence, beautiful.

I started to tell her how amazing that was. And before I could, she picked him

up and put him on the dresser. And she started petting the cat. And then she

kissed him.

Are you kidding me? She just totally changed. She's become stronger. I can't

I'm out of words right now. Right?

No, me too.

I'm done. I'm going home.

This is good. Are you aware of the fact that, like, you couldn't even touch him

a couple weeks ago?

I couldn't have done all this without you. They're all your tips and pointers.

You're absolutely welcome. To see people be able to lose fear the way that you

have is so inspirational. It really is.

Definitely a happy ending for all of us. We've set out what we've accomplished

to do, you know, no more attacks.

Zoe gets to stay in our home forever.

I'm happy that the relationship is not just like John and Zoe anymore, but now

it's like John, Zoe, and me.