Original subtitles

I've been friends with Ingrid for 14 years. However, I no longer come and

out with Ingrid because Milo terrorizes everyone.

Milo stalks. He'll sort of stand in the entryway, and then when people go by,

right when they're close enough, he hits his wife.

She wants to keep seeing her friends. We need to have the Milo situation

resolved. She's going to become Crazy Cat Lady.

Gus scratches me so bad that people at work have asked me if I'm a cutter.

Shirin is my daughter, but her cat Gus is my problem child.

The biggest complaint is his late -night howling.

Gus has got to change a habit or Shirin and Gus are both going to be out.

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 on my way over to see Ingrid and her cat Milo.

Milo is so mean that even her best friends refuse to come over to her house

anymore. They have clearly stated that it's either them or the cat, and they've

asked me to perform an intervention.

This is a first for me, but I'm going to go over and see if I can help out.

My name is Ingrid. My cat is Milo, and he is an orange and white tabby.

I'm Nikki, and I've been friends with Ingrid for 14 years.

I'm Annika.

I've been neighbors with Ingrid for 13 years.

and I can't stand her cat Milo.

Milo terrorizes everyone.

Monica and I got to the point with Milo that we decided we had to stage an

intervention because it's at the point where it's really affecting Ingrid's

social life.

He's the nicest, sweetest cat in the world with me. I don't understand why

not like that with everybody.

Milo stalks, pounces.

Scratches, hisses, makes life not fun.

Milo just rules the roost. He'll sort of stand in the entryway, and then when

people go by, right when they're close enough, he hisses and swipes.

He's sneezing. I'm just trying to play with you.

Ingrid can't have people over to the house because it's too stressful.

I just don't want to be here when he is.

This can't go on.

You feel like you're taking your life in your hands and waiting for Milo to

pounce. I don't want to leave him by himself.

I'll start to get wiggy. I'm not going to give Milo up. He was a rescue. He's

like my little buddy.

Milo is the cat from hell. I think Ingrid needs an intervention. She wants

keep seeing her friends.

Milo shouldn't win.

Hi.

Hello.

Nice to meet you.

Yeah. Thank you very much for coming. Of course.

So, tell me, now, I'm here for your cat? Yes, my cat Milo is the best cat in the

world to me.

He doesn't like strangers coming into his house. We're not strangers.

I know, but he doesn't like anyone who doesn't live here. He doesn't like

who's not angry. I hate the stress that's involved with my every single

And I hate when she goes out of town and she asks me to come up and take care of

Milo. But you won't. I don't want to. And it's not because I don't love her.

It's because I don't want to put myself in physical harm's way.

We now do what's called the prisoner exchange.

I take his tray of dishes, leave them by the door.

She opens up the door. She slides the empty tray out. Get out of here.

It is literally like solitary confinement. Open the little door.

as she'll come in.

I can't leave for more than a couple days. You're basically a prisoner in

right? Yes. You sound hostage.

Like, I cannot stand that I can't go on vacation.

And it sucks.

Let me cut to whatever chase I know, which is...

I'm here for an intervention.

These guys contacted me beforehand.

I haven't seen either one of them in ages.

Really?

When was the last time the three of you hung out here? Oh, God.

Over a year. Are you kidding me? Tell me where you're at right now.

We're just not coming over. We're not going to dance around it anymore.

I mean, obviously, we're going to work on Milo. That's the important thing. But

equally important.

is your guys buy -in meaning you don't get to run away from this because your

energy contributes i know are you guys okay you're in we're in this is why i

love my friends wonderful all right so what i want to do get up walk around

at the danger area so if you could just take me from one place to another that

would be great okay i wanted to go to the places that ingrid identified as

the most territorially problematic and the first place she took me was upstairs

to the loft area so this The loft area is essentially Milo's room, is the way

that I look at it. It was a guest room.

No one can sleep on this mattress anymore because it's now covered in pee.

And it was all over the pillows and down on the bed. Oh, I mean, he went to

town, huh? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

There's a little bit of something coming off that mattress. Yeah, a little bit?

I was trying to be nice. I just came in here.

You can definitely smell pee coming off that mattress. Did it happen?

Over and over and over and over again?

Yeah, when people were sleeping up here. So anytime someone sleeps up here, it

gets hit. This is now, what they said, is Milo's space, because he peed on that

mattress. He owns it now in a very insecure way. Why Ingrid has it up there

anymore is beyond me, but the entire vibe upstairs is sad. It's like a ghost

town. There's a weird dichotomy in here, which is the bare mattress and all the

lava lamps and all of the... Yeah. This was party room? Yeah, it was definitely

a party room.

And now it's just the stinky room. Not the ghost town. Yeah. I would really

to turn this back into a guest room. Right.

Now I know how bad it gets.

All right. Let's keep going, guys.

Okay.

I wanted to go and hang out with Milo. Ingrid said that he was in her bedroom.

Now, normally what I would probably do is take Ingrid in there with me, but we

know that Milo has absolutely no problem with Ingrid whatsoever. So what I

wanted to do was bring Annika and Nikki in there with me because their fear, I

think, helps trigger him just a little bit. Plus, I want to see how far they'll

go with him.

Oh, hey, buddy. I hear the growls already.

Hey, buddy. You guys come on in here.

There he goes.

So I'm going to ask you guys to sit down with me. Oh, God. Come on.

Come here and have a seat with me.

We've got Milo right here.

Obviously, this won't be the most pleasant part of our day, but it's

for me. I've got to know how close you can get to him. I'm going to have you go

down first.

Must we?

Yes, we must.

All right, so.

I don't want to do that. Come on all the way down.

Now, can you untuck your hands for me? Do I have to? This is me... I feel safer

like this. ...assessing where your challenge line is, okay?

I wouldn't be here if you weren't here. I avoid Milo. The fact that he... Oh,

God!

He made a bigger sound.

Okay.

No, no, no, none of that.

She's got her face down here. You can come down, too. Come on. Seriously?

I am not... I heard him getting more... I'm right here, and I heard him, too.

That one moment where he growled and he also hissed as well. And in that moment,

not only did she jump back, Nikki jumped back as well. At least I know where she

stands right now. And she stands pretty far away. Now, of course, the more you

pull this energy here, Annika, you actually will get attacked. Cleansing

breaths. Cleansing breaths. I'm trying.

You know, a lot went down in that bedroom. I saw the fear level on Annika

Nikki's bodies. We bring the energy of fear to him. He will lash out. We can't

do that to him.

Hey, hey, hey.

As always, I want to see at what point that he says, you know what, I mean

business, and I got to come after you. I got to find out. How's it going, buddy?

Hey, hey, hey.

Come on, buddy.

Hi.

Want me to touch you? You want me to touch you?

Let me in.

Come on.

That's a good bite.

That last time, he opened me up with his claws and then he bit me. That bite

meant business. He left marks in my hand. These are fangs right here.

Let's go on inside and give you guys some homework, all right? Okay. Come on,

let's go.

Oh. He may not be good, man.

I'm so sorry.

Here's homework for you two. I wanted Annika and Nikki to vest themselves into

Milo's life. If these guys commit, I think we can get what I'm looking for.

What I need is for humans to be able to come into this house and be a positive

thing for Milo.

So what I'm going to ask, one of the meals during the day, you take off.

And I want one of you guys to come in and do the feeding.

My heart starts to pound. I can feel the tension.

And I hate that I feel that way. He's a little bitty cat, and he beats me down.

The other thing I'd like you to do, besides just putting food down, I'd also

like you to bring him something fun.

I'd like you to bring him what I would call self -propelled toys.

This is an example of actually a store -bought puzzle toy. You put something in

here so that he's going for it. And then as it rolls across the floor, it

becomes something that's working his mind in a new way.

And also, yeah, get rid of the mattress, okay? It's time. Let's get rid of the

mattress. It reminds him that it's this place to go to that I own in this really

negative way. I want you to reclaim that party zone.

I want that mattress gone.

I want that pee mattress out of here. It symbolizes too much bad things, and I

want these guys to reclaim the positivity that this house once had. I

girls to be able to come in there and have an activity.

Food, toy, and that way they're not focused on the fear. They're not going

stare at him, lock eyes, and invite an attack.

I got one more thing for you, okay?

You have got knowledge of Milo that obviously nobody else has.

I want you to write that up for these two guys. I want Nikki and I want Anika

be armed with the Milo manual.

She brings something to his life in a positive way, and she's got to share

knowledge with Nikki and with Anika, because that way they will gain empathy

him, they'll get to know him, and they'll get to approach him in a way of,

can I work with him as opposed to get him away from me? I'm not going to lie

you. there's not just a lot of work to do for Milo. There's a lot of work to do

on you guys because you have been traumatized by this cat, and I'm not

belittling that.

But the only way this is going to work is for the fear to be replaced by

something else. Okay. Right on.

All right, guys. Great meeting you. Thank you. Bye.

This is not what I thought I'd be doing. I didn't realize I'd be a part of the

whole fix -up process.

Ingrid is in danger of losing some of her friendship.

I know.

This is the do -or -die moment for me. Like, I don't know how else to fix Milo.

I don't want to be a prisoner in my own house anymore.

I'm here for my second visit with Ingrid and her cat Milo. Now, Milo's

aggression is so off the charts that her best friends, Annika and Nikki, haven't

come over to her place in over a year. So the homework I gave her last time was

to help bring Milo's aggression down, but also to start including her best

friends in Milo's everyday rituals.

Hello. Come in.

So hopefully I'm walking in to done homework and a less aggressive Milo.

So, did Milo at some point eat Nikki? Is that what's going on?

Nikki is actually on vacation right now someplace that I would love to be and

hope to be. Soon enough. We'll give her green for next time I'm here. For sure,

for sure. All right, good. What else? Tell me what else is going on. Feeding.

Have been going well. I did everything you said. I tried to keep the right

attitude and do my cleansing breath and not bring any of that, you know, fraidy

cat energy in with me. After I'd done it for a few minutes, he hissed. He turned

around while he was eating, like, why are you here? Leave me alone. Hiss. And

was like, okay, I get it, Milo. I'm going to let you be.

You keep eating. I'll see you next time. And I left.

Okay. Okay. You know, as eager as I am for him to be thick, I know that's not

going to happen overnight.

Ingrid is still pretty tentative about having people come over here, share the

space with Milo. When I come back here for my last visit, I want people here.

this is a hurdle we're going to have to get over. Annika, we do know that you've

still got to develop a little bit more comfort about coming over. In the

meantime, we also got to get people over here, and we still got to work on your

comfort level with that as well.

So I want to go over your video homework with you, okay?

Okay. Let's do it.

Grab it, grab it, grab it.

You got it?

On a really good note, I got to see Ingrid finally get rid of the pee

that thing that was upstairs that he had peed on countless times. It stunk up

there. She got rid of it, which is the first step towards reclaiming it as a

party room.

Last time I was here as part of Ingrid's homework, I asked her to make the Milo

manual. The idea is you have all this information about Milo. He really loves

you because you've cultivated that relationship.

Now pay it forward by giving everybody a manual about how to deal with him. She

rocked that assignment.

I asked her to make a homemade puzzle toy for him, and she did. She did a

job. She brought the toy in. He responded to it. He played with it. And

that also did was it helped Annika change her energy towards him.

Okay, don't be strapped, dude. Yeah, just be happy, happy, joy, joy. It's

I know it's hard to be. I had Annika and Nikki coming over and feeding Milo.

Annika seemed to be doing great. On the bad side, Nikki is still really fearful,

and Nikki is causing a lot of upset. It's something I've got to work on with

them. Lots of information in there for me. Now what I want to do, get up and

move around a little bit. Let's do it.

We headed into the kitchen because it was a great opportunity for me to tell

Anika what she and Nikki were missing when they came into the room to feed

You remember the last time I was here, they were using what they call the

prisoner exchange program so that Milo can eat and everyone else can be safe. I

do want you to do something. You're going to feed him, and then I'd like you

sit. I don't want you to look at him. I don't want you to do anything.

I just want you to be in the room with him on his level.

I really wanted to take Annika deeper into the process of feeding Milo, to

past her fear and really get to bond with him a little bit more. So what I

her do was getting the food out, opening the cans. In the meantime, I had Ingrid

go get Milo and bring him to the kitchen.

Here we go.

I'm just going to sit here.

I felt really vulnerable. I'm in a corner. I'm closed off. I can't really

away if he lunges for me. And it was touch and go for me for a little while.

you breathing?

Breathe better. Breathe better. And look at me. Look over at me. He's not going

to hurt you. I promise you he's not going to hurt you. I wouldn't let that

happen. She was petrified. This was a rerun of the other time I was here when

was asking her to put her hand down under the bed. She was just as fearful,

it gave me an accurate place to judge where she is right now.

I do feel like he's going to come after me. He's not hissing, but he's doing

that. You've got to breathe, and you're staring at him.

Look at me. Look at me. Let's have a conversation. If I don't stare at him, I

just can't tell if he's coming at me. He's not going to. Okay. Trust me. Every

part of me is praying that this works because I want people to see the good

that I have and not be scared of him and to feel comfortable in my house.

Breathe.

He's going to walk right by you right now. Is he? I hope so.

Don't. Hey, breathe. Yeah, I am. Breathe with me. Listen, I'm cool, right? Yeah,

I know. He's not going to come at you.

He's fine. He's walking by us right now. You're breathing. You're doing

fantastic. You're right in his face right now, and nothing's happening.

And there he goes.

That was wonderful. That was wonderful. You just did so beautifully. I made it!

You did make it. That was so good.

I'm thinking about how far you've come in the last two weeks. Oh, I know. I

know. As Milo walks by Annika and myself and out towards the terrace, The sense

of relief on her face, it just filled the room.

She knows Milo and her are not enemies. They never were in the first place. She

just brought fear to him. That is such a big move from Milo and such a big step

for Annika. This is the thing about Milo. As I get to know him, I'm seeing a

that is feeling hunted than anything else. You show vulnerability.

You don't do a hard stare. You don't hover. You don't do any of that stuff.

He's like, okay, I'm going to go on my way here.

That's exactly what we wanted to get.

I want to give you guys some homework, so come on, let's get off the floor and

sit down, huh?

Today, we showed him trust, and he showed it right back to us, and fear

the window.

Honestly, you've got to be pretty happy. You look pretty happy at the moment.

Yeah, I am, I am. Yeah, I mean, you measure your progress in things that you

see, and what we just saw was pretty outstanding.

So in order to get us to the next place with him, the first thing that we just

did, let's bulk it out now.

As he's eating, you sit down, do exactly what you did, make yourself kind of

small, read a magazine, do whatever.

Not only are you going to pass it to Nikki, but then the job is for the three

you to pass it to other people who are coming here as well. One thing that's

important for Anika, fake it till you make it. You've got to act as if you're

calm, cool, and collected, and you've got to act like you trust this cat.

Remember, you bring trusting energy to him, he'll bring it right back to you.

that brings us to another thing, which is, hold on a second.

Should we look?

Can we look? Can we look?

Not yet. When can we look? Not yet. I'm so excited. Now you can.

Oh, my gosh.

This here is one of my favorite cat trees on the planet.

Here's the assignment that I have for you with that one. You need to pick the

spot. It's got to be in a social space where he can look at everybody, yet not

be in the center of attention.

And again, from that point, it's all up to you.

Now, next time I come back here.

We're having a party.

We're going to have people over here.

Have Milo walk around the room, own the room. We've got to get this boy out and

around, feeling secure in his environment, secure with other people. I

with this homework that we've got in place, we can make sure that happens.

Okay, we'll do it. All right, guys. Absolutely.

Thanks so much, Jackson.

Take care. I'll see you in a few weeks.

I'm a little nervous about having people over for our little party.

Bringing people into the mix who haven't been present for the Jackson stuff,

that makes me a little bit more nervous.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Approximately what percent of your cat's waking hours are spent on grooming?

Is it A, 10%, B, 30%, or C, 56 %?

The answer?

After this break.

Approximately what percent of your cat's waking hours are spent on grooming?

The answer is B, 30%. Your cat grooms themselves to keep themselves scent

but also licking is thought to produce a calming effect as well.

I'm here for my final visit with Ingrid and her cat Milo. Now Milo was so

vicious when I met him that her friends were trying to stage a cat intervention.

What I'm hoping to see today is a bunch of friends hanging out in this party

space and to see Milo sharing that space.

On the video homework, I did get to see Annika teaching Nikki how to do the

feeding. how to move past her fear.

Switch it up how we view it. Exactly.

I also got to see both Annika and Nikki sitting down while Milo ate, reading the

magazine. Those are huge moves in terms of trust, both on the cat side and the

human side.

He's just going to go around.

He's just going to go around.

Finally, in the video homework, I also got to see Milo starting to use that new

catchery that we brought in last time. That provides us a place of ownership, a

place where he can be a lot more confident and feel like he doesn't have

defend himself. All the way around, fantastic work.

Look who's here, guys.

Hey. How are you?

Hi, good.

Good to see you again.

It's good to see you, too. So, how are things, guys?

There have been no attacks.

Really? Yeah.

Talk to me about it. And I walked her through what we discussed.

Like, don't assume that when he's reacting to us that he's necessarily

for the kill.

Yay. You know, I do better if I think somebody's the underdog or the victim.

So I think just sort of having an empathic look at him definitely helped.

He's getting used to the fact that people equal good things happening in

life. We've got to let everybody know.

Be empathetic towards him, and he will pick up that lead.

Here he is. Hey, fuzzy face.

Hi. You coming out to say hi?

Look at him. Come here.

Look at you.

This is a cat that would have no part of social behavior at all. As a matter of

fact, if you looked at him funny, he would attack you.

That level of change in a cat after a couple weeks like this is absolutely

unheard of.

He's just going to play while we watch him. I am so blown away right now.

You smile like I haven't seen him in a long time.

I can't believe what I'm seeing. No, I know.

I'm actually really shocked. It's surreal.

It really is.

That, to me, is the biggest indicator of it's not us against him anymore.

It's us with him. To see him be relaxed and just like, ah, okay.

At that moment, she had her friends back.

She had her cat back.

The moment was absolutely priceless.

So, look, let's get up. You've got to get ready for people coming over here.

Come on, let's get up. Let's do it.

The biggest part of the homework since the day I showed up here was having a

party. So Ingrid and I go upstairs with the party platters and everything, and

she's got guests already up there.

And hopefully we're going to have Milo join us for just a little bit upstairs,

but that's a big hopefully.

Hey, Justin!

Everyday thing.

Yeah.

Cocktails. All right. Grab those. Thank you. Stop, Jenny.

We've got lava lamp action.

Creep.

Thank you.

Everybody, we have another person at the party. I'm just saying.

If Milo goes up to his food and he starts to eat, that to me is mission

accomplished.

Cool.

Yeah. That's fantastic.

Milo. There you go.

Look at him.

He's just eating. He's settling in. That's a really huge sign of trust on

part. Milo's not being over -territorial the way he used to. He's eating. For a

cat, the biggest thing they're going to be territorial about is their food

supply. Literally everything I've seen today has been huge for this cat. But

talk about a nice cherry on top.

That's the cute little kitty that I know and love.

Again, you look over to Ingrid, and man, that woman's smile was so huge because

she trusts her cat to be around people. She trusts us to be around him. We have

a huge measure of success.

To Milo.

To the intervention, to success, to your hard work.

Yes, and to you, Jackson.

Thank you so very much. I would definitely say that this journey has

success. I mean, I'm really happy to see my friends be more comfortable here.

The biggest thing Jackson's done is given us our friend back, and the ladies

go back to the way things were, and Milo can be a part of it.

We're all a lot happier.

I'm going to let myself out of here. Enjoy yourself.

Bye. Bye.

Thank you so much. I feel a bigger sense of freedom that I can go off and go on

vacation and everybody can coexist in harmony and good times.

I'm on my way to see father and daughter Fareed and Shereen. Shereen moved back

with her dad after law school, and she brought her bangle, Gus, with her. And

Gus is being a terror. He is keeping these guys up all night long. He's

disrupting her dad's work. And Fareed is fed up with it.

This is not a good situation.

I'm going to go over to right now to see if I can help control Gus.

I'm Shireen.

I'm Farid, and Shireen is my daughter.

About two years ago, I finished law school and moved back in with my parents

save some money, and I brought my cat, Gus, with me.

Gus is a Bengal, and he's four years old.

Shireen is my daughter, but her cat, Gus, is my problem child.

The biggest complaint with Gus is his late -night meowing, and it's not just

meowing, it's howling.

It wakes me up.

He wants food.

He just scratches me so bad that people at work have asked me if I'm a cutter.

I work from home, and when Shireen goes to work, I'm the only one in the house.

God comes over and starts meowing and looking at me, and he demands treats.

I'm working. Please.

Do you mind?

I lock him up, but then that doesn't work either because he starts scratching

and meowing from behind the door.

I have a lot of work to do, and I don't want to be a babysitter all day.

You know, Sharon, this is getting too much for me. You've got to find out an

alternative.

I'm in a tough spot because I'm not going to get rid of Gus.

I'm not ready to move out yet, and I don't know what to do.

But we can't continue this way.

Hi. How are you? Good.

I'm Jackson. Shireen.

Shireen, good to meet you. You too. Thanks for coming.

Oh, absolutely.

So, guys, tell me about God.

I guess it just has some behavioral issues. Okay. At night, he keeps us up.

comes out about 2, 3 in the morning, does some howling, caterwauling,

If you've never had a Bengal before, from the kind of meowing that you're

hearing to that level of activity, that's who they are.

A Bengal is a cross between a domestic feline and an Asian leopard cat, so of

course those wild behaviors like caterwauling are still built into this

Catterwalling is a moan, and it can get very, very loud. So if he has no

creative output during the day, that's why the caterwalling, I think, is coming

out as loud as it is.

He gets pretty aggressive, and I have the scars to prove it. She's covered

in scratches and bite marks. This cat is tearing her up, and that really worries

me. And while Shirin is not at home, I am the one who is babysitting, and he is

demanding. How much of your day is spent dealing with Gus?

Probably around three and a half to four hours.

What?

Get out of here. Yep. Four hours is pretty excessive. I can't even believe

Fareed has put up with Gus for this long. Do you feel that your dad's

is running out?

Yes. Are you in the boat where you got to get out of here?

Yeah.

Really? Yeah.

And it's really not ideal for me to leave at this.

point. Anything I could afford is much smaller than this house, so I'm

that Gus is just not going to have enough room.

I think that your concerns are really valid.

What's our window of opportunity in terms of Sweeney having to move out?

Well, Jackson, I'll tell you, the maximum that I could probably send is

two months.

Wow. Okay. All right. Hey, listen, at least I know what I'm working with. The

tension between Fareed and Shereen has reached a boiling point. So if I can't

drastically change Gus's behavior soon, Gus and Shereen better pack their bags.

Now we're going to go start looking around, all right? Sure. All right,

go.

So we head into the office, and this is where Fareed says that he's the most fed

up. I usually come and sit here, and he jumps up here.

Okay. And starts meowing and demanding food.

He'll walk on the keyboard.

God demands treats. He comes and jumps on my desk and throws the papers down.

What do you do to get him away from you?

Snacks. If you notice, I've got snacks everywhere here.

I've got snacks on that drawer.

Could you please, let's go around and collect the treat.

I asked him, where are all the treats in this room? And it was like an Easter

egg hunt. I mean, he's pulling them out of everywhere.

Four bags in this bedroom alone.

In order for it to get him down here, I put a couple of treats here. Then he

goes out.

Let's keep moving. Come on. All right.

So then we head outside, and then I notice that Shereen has actually built a

catio for Gus.

The only thing I didn't like about the catio is that it was full of stuff.

was nowhere for Gus to actually navigate if he wanted to.

Hi.

Oh, hi, little man.

Is he normally really not happy with strangers? He does not like strangers.

His eyes are fully dilated right now, and he's even got the quivering ears.

Gus was really scared.

Now, I hate to make generalizations, but the Bengals that I know are usually

much more outgoing.

Now, I've got to get him out of this cubby to see what I'm dealing with.

If I can't do that, we got bigger problems.

Hi.

Can you come up?

What is that?

Hey.

Come on, Guggy.

Where are you going?

Good boy.

He's not being aggressive.

And then...

The most amazing thing happened.

Gus came out of hiding. I had Gus letting me pet him and closing his eyes.

boy.

I was really surprised and impressed with Jackson's ability to connect with

All right, guys. So, obviously, walking around today, we have a Bengal.

He has energy to spirit, so we have to get him going in a positive way. First

thing I've got, this.

is Bengal Boot Camp.

Okay. And hats for you as well. I want you to design a course for him. All

right? It's a boot camp course.

You don't want him just moving around, but up and down and have a goal in mind.

Also, I want him to have two workouts per day.

One you're going to take care of during the daytime and one when you get home at

night. Bengal Boot Camp is a way of taking that energy and constructively

it. I mean, you can't help the fact that you got a Bengal. Remember to hold

those treats back.

He shouldn't get treats any other time of the day than when he's working for

guys. I want Fareed to remember that if you're going to dish out treats, the

only time you're going to do it is when he's actually earning his keep. The next

thing, the catio itself, it's wonderful.

Thank you. It's also packed.

So what I'd like you to do, I'd like to get that cat tree out of there. Okay.

And I'd like to replace the cat tree with shelves. Basically, you're allowing

exercise. I want these guys to put some shelves in that catio, and that'll

encourage Gus to move around a little bit. I want to see Gus having his energy

drained out in an appropriate way. I want to see him moving through the catio

itself. I will be back in a few weeks. Any questions, you call me, all right?

Dealing with this situation with Gus is already past its time. I am really

frustrated and very doubtful if Gus is going to come through. He may end up

getting the boots rather than the boot camp.

I'm here for my second visit with father and daughter Fareed and Shereen and

Shereen's cat Gus.

The last time I was here I met a Bengal who was completely out of control.

Running around the house keeping Fareed from doing his work. I'm working,

please. Fareed had said, you know what, this cat's halfway out the door and so

was his daughter.

So I watched their video homework and I saw Fareed and Shereen working together

building Bengal boot camp. Good stuff.

Also, I saw them running Gus through Bengal Boot Camp, and that's really

to help. One thing I didn't like was seeing Gus attack Shireen. Let me tell

that's not cool.

Going in today, I'm not sure what to expect.

Hi, Justin. How are you? Good. Come on in.

How are you doing?

Good. Good.

So, tell me how things are going here.

How's Gus doing?

Gus is doing much better. The cutting the treats out made an immediate

difference. So, you're giving him treats.

Only when he's working for it now. It has given him more positive energy.

What does that mean for you and your work? I mean, he's seeing a little bit

relief? Oh, it's not 100%, but from, you know, three and a half hours, it's down

to about an hour a day.

Hey, hey, hey.

Very nice, right?

My relationship with Gus has got so much better since boot camp exercises,

cutting back on the treats. Also, I think remodeling the catio has helped

have a place to use his energy, and he has more space out there now, so I think

it's helped.

He does still do the meow, caterwauling in the middle of the night.

He wakes me up, and next day I kind of feel like I didn't get a good night's

sleep. That's not good.

I think Bengal boot camp is a great success. His energy level is being

controlled a lot better. But one of the things they were complaining about was

that every night, Gus would be caterwauling at 2 o 'clock in the

still got a lot of work left to do on that.

Still, he is quite interruptive. Hopefully, he'll make some major

Fareed is still really unhappy with Gus and Shereen. As far as I'm concerned,

one slip up, she's still out the door.

Let's get up and walk around a little bit. Okay. Come on.

it was time to practice bengal boot camp last time i was here i introduced

bengal boot camp because it's really important that gus gets exercise the

needs that in a big way and even though we had made amazing strides i didn't

want to push him too much so i gave shireen a harness and a leash so she

guide him through the course all right guys so the first thing that i want to

see is Cube to tube to cube out and back around. I want to see him go through

it. And a little bit of the up -down on the ramp. So let's let him go and get

him moving through this thing. Okay.

Come on, Gusby. Oh, look. Just through the tube.

Cube to the tube to the cube.

Wonderful. Now let's take Gus up and over the ramp, please.

Go, Gus.

Go, Gus.

Now, obviously, he's not that crazy about the ramp. Gus hid behind the

and I was afraid that I had lost him completely. So it was really important

me to show Fareed that Bengal Boot Camp was something that Gus could totally

excel at.

Let's keep tempting him forward. Tempt him. Come on, Gus. Come on, buddy.

Yeah. Come on, Gus.

Over the top. All right.

Come on. Yeah.

Good boy.

Right, Mama?

There you go. Good boy.

Very nice.

I love it. Great job.

That's what I wanted. I wanted this cat to show confidence, but we're still sort

of halfway there. I mean, you've got to remember, you're dealing with a Bengal.

These guys have high energetic needs, and you've got to be working with them,

they're going to be working against you.

So, let's get to your homework.

Now, first thing, we have the 2 o 'clock in the morning.

Catterwalling. Even though it's come down a lot, and I think it's because of

activities you've given him, we've got to step it up. So we're going to have,

Fareed, you're going to be doing the catter size.

That's the Bengal boot camp. So I want your catter size to be really focused on

the catio. I want you to lead him up the shelves and really just get him moving.

And then, done.

You guys go to sleep.

Now, if he doesn't sleep through the night after that, I have another idea.

like for you to get an automatic feeder. That, I think, is going to really help

you a lot. Okay.

If the next time I come back, Fareed and Shereen have committed to a structured

life, that things happen at the same time every day, and he's getting fed on

regular basis with the automated feeder, I really think that we can ring Gus

into a balanced life. That's what I'm aiming for.

Now, the last thing, Fareed.

Gus still needs that place to sit on in your office. So here is your Bengal

balcony. This Bengal balcony goes in the window. So after Bengal Boot Camp,

he'll come in to share the space with you. That's my hope, anyway. So that's

you. If you have any questions, you let me know. Give me a call. Okay. A couple

weeks. I'll see you guys, all right? Thank you. All right, you're welcome.

Gus has got to turn around and change his habits, or

Shireen and Gus are both going to be out.

I'm not ready to move out yet, so hopefully this is going to work.

I'm here for my final visit with Fareed, Shereen, and her cat, Gus.

So I watched their video homework, and I got to see Fareed keeping up with

Bengal boot camp, and I got to see Gus chilling out on his Bengal balcony

instead of terrorizing Fareed. And I saw Shereen setting up the automatic

feeder, so hopefully Gus isn't driving everybody crazy for food in the middle

the night.

I'm going in there today hoping that Gus is a lot calmer and that both Gus and

Shereen have a place to live. Hi, Jackson. Hey, Shereen. Hello, Jackson.

you? I'm great. Good to see you.

So, how are things, guys?

Excellent. Excellent. Couldn't be better.

Couldn't be better. Now, that's what I want to hear.

What's going on here?

Gus is a lot mellower.

In general, calmer. He doesn't have that hyper -anxious energy anymore.

That's incredible.

I think a major thing was adding the exercise between the boot camp and the

cardio, and that, with cutting out the snacks, immediately calmed him down.

That's a huge deal.

So, Fred, the first time I met you, Gus was ruling your life. We were talking

about three, four hours a day.

I'm working, please.

Where is it now?

Well, I've got to tell you, it's probably down to 10, 15 minutes.

10 to 15 minutes?

Amazing. Perfect.

Yes. Perfect. The vibe of the house has really changed. It's not tense now. With

the automatic feeder in place, are you getting a little more rest? No problems.

It worked great. No scratches. No scratches.

That's what I like to see.

Fantastic.

No longer is Gus driving everyone insane during the day, but the best thing is

at night now, no cat are walling, Fareed's not getting woken up in the

the night, and Shereen is not getting bit and scratched by her cat who wants

food. So what I really want to do is see Gus in his catio, moving around a

little bit, see if that's working, okay? Okay. So let's go take care of that.

All right. Now, in order for me to leave here today and feel good about Gus, I

really need to see him work in this catio for all he's worth, getting his

exercise out. I needed to see it.

Come on, Goofy.

Come on.

Come on, look over here.

All right, Goof, come on.

Come on, Goofy.

Come on.

Oh, nice.

That's a good cat.

All right, Shereen.

No way you're going to have all the fun in there.

It's my turn. I'm going to let you out. All right. I'm going to jump in.

Bye, Goosey.

I want to get into the catio myself and get him up to that last shelf myself

just to see him moving around in that catio with confidence. This is one of

huge keys, I think, to calming Gus down and getting that Bengal energy out.

Come on.

Come on, Gus.

Come on.

Come on, Gus.

Come on, Gus.

Hey, good boy.

Good boy.

Good job.

He is using these shelves like a champ. Good work.

When I first met Gus, Gus was skittish and hiding from everybody and being

antisocial. Watching Gus succeed today in doing his catersize in the catio, I

know that he's not going to be keeping Shireen up at night, and I know Fareed

going to get his work done, and I could call it a day.

So now the question is, Fareed, can Shireen stay? Can Gus stay? Are they

welcome here?

Yes, they are.

They're very welcome. They can stay as long as they wish. Nice.

There we go. Thank you so much. Thank you. Because now I can leave here with a

little bit of peace.

Gus was a source of annoyance, and now he's a nice person. He calms me down,

I enjoy having him. It's really nice to have a stress -free relationship with my

dad, and Gus is happier now, too. So Jackson helped us all so much.

Thank you, Jackson.