Original subtitles

Mia attacks everyone in the family, especially our youngest daughter,

It's sad because I just want to pet her.

We had a house fire almost a year ago. Mia was left in the house during the

fire. She was very traumatized by the experience.

Jackson, please come and help Mia because the only thing that's kept the

here is Greg knowing that you're coming.

I try and protect my daughter, so I'm done with the cat.

Not again.

Disgusting. Pressure. She's peeing on everything. I've been peed on. Since I

started dating him, actually.

I don't want to live in that type of environment.

It's either the cat or me.

That kills me even thinking about that.

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!

I'm on my way to go see Greg and Dina about their cat Mia.

Ow! Whoa!

Now, her behavior was always pretty bad, but then it got a lot worse when she

survived a house fire. And now, their daughter McKenna is Mia's target.

If she attacks McKenna one more time, Greg says that cat is out like a fire.

I'm going to go over there right now and see if I can stop that from happening.

My name is Greg.

I'm Dina.

I'm Nicole. I'm 19.

I'm McKenna. I'm 14.

I'm Carissa. I'm 16.

And our cat is Mia.

Mia attacks everyone in the family, especially our youngest daughter,

And it's sad because I just want to pet her.

We had a house fire almost a year ago.

Mia was left in the house during the fire, and firefighters tried to find

They were unsuccessful.

The girls found her. She had been under the bed probably an hour and a half to

two hours.

She was safe from the fire, but very traumatized by the experience.

That was very traumatic for our family, including Mia.

After the fire...

The cat's attitude toward McKenna definitely got a lot worse.

I'm done with the cat.

If I had to take the animal control without Dina knowing, then that's what I

would do.

I don't want to be one of the families who just gives up a cat and doesn't

really care for her.

I can't see getting rid of Mia.

This is the end of the road for me.

Hey, how are you? I'm Jackson. Good, I'm McKenna.

Hi, pleasure to meet you. I'm Dina. Hey, Dina, I'm Jackson.

Hi. Oh, hey, guys.

Jackson, this is Carissa, my husband, Greg, and our oldest daughter, Nicole.

That's great.

So we got a cat problem, huh? We do.

Talk to me about it. Well, Mia is our three -year -old tortoiseshell. Okay.

And she is rather aggressive.

She has been known to attack, of course, all of us, but her primary target.

It's McKenna. Okay.

Mia may be responding to McKenna's 14 -year -old energy rather than anything

she's actually doing. Kids are just noisier and more active than adults, and

that's definitely something a skittish cat's going to respond to.

She scratches me, she'll bite me, she'll, like, try whatever she can.

And does she break the skin and everything? Yeah. Okay, that's not good.

Right away, I'm hearing things that I don't want to hear. Cat scratches and

bites are really susceptible to infection, and that's really dangerous

Mia's primary target is a 14 -year -old girl.

When you still attack me, I'll just have to, like, run into, like, a different

room. Does she chase you?

Where do you wind up?

The closet.

You just hit a closet?

And then when would you come out?

Um, I would wait till Crystal would come and get me. Oh, my God. Get out of

here. Yeah.

Carissa, are you afraid of her?

No. I'm Mia's closest friend in the house.

Wow. When did it start getting real bad with her? When she was a kid? Yeah, we

had a house fire about a year ago.

Oh, wow.

We moved back in about six months ago, so it was kind of like her turning

because I just think that she was so freaked out by that. You hear about a

fire, and it makes your blood run cold. You see pictures of that fire, it just

makes your skin crawl.

That's hard enough for the human members of this family. For an animal member

who defines their world by the sanctity of their territory, man, everything is

upside down. The only thing that's kept the cat here is Greg knowing that you're

coming.

And this is her last chance.

I don't want to be the type of family who just doesn't really care for a cat

just gives it up.

Right on.

And I feel as being her father and McKenna's protector, it's my job to look

for. mechanic. When I hear from this family that Mia is pretty much out of

if I can't make it right, believe me, that's pressure.

So I'm looking around in here.

It seems like there's not anything in here that says cat.

But what about you guys? I mean, you just moved back in here. I mean, what

you guys do to make it feel like home again?

Well, I think a lot of it was.

Getting the furniture that we needed in here to feel comfortable. Putting the

pieces back in.

I guess we need to bring her furniture back in, too. Exactly right. It really

helped us to pick out the furniture and make the house feel like a home. And it

never had occurred to me before that we needed to do the same things for her

that we've done for ourselves.

Now, of course, I need to meet Mia. So where's she at?

She's in the back bedroom.

Okay. So.

I haven't met Mia yet, and I'm apprehensive based on what I've heard so

mean, when I walk into the bedroom, all I see is a kitty bump under the covers.

And usually, when a cat feels the need to burrow and hide like that, it's not a

good sign.

All right, then.

I know this is your safe place, my love.

But I want to say hi to you, if that's okay.

No, no.

From everything that I've heard, I was thoroughly expecting to pull that

back and get absolutely attacked.

Can I have you come out?

Hi.

And that is not what happened.

Wow, you are all kinds of fluffed up.

It's okay, baby.

Mia has herself totally cornered, and she's making these heartbreaking,

sounds to try to keep me away.

Her fur is puffed out, which is how a cat makes herself look bigger when she

thinks she's under threat.

Hi there.

Now, I know I'm at risk of getting hurt like McKenna, but I need to see how

she's going to react to a stranger, because I've got to see if she's going

normalize or if she's going to stay trapped in this state of fear.

All right.

You're shaking.

Can I pick you up?

Come here.

Come here, my love.

Wow.

Wow, I can feel you just absolutely shaking.

You are 100 % fear.

I was expecting Mia to attack, but instead, I think the presence of a

has been enough to push her beyond fight or flight. Now, I've worked with enough

post -traumatic stress -stricken cats in the shelters to know the signs. Mia is

shaking. She keeps cornering herself. Her eyes are dilated. She is locked in

memory of that house fire.

So, what I'm seeing is that pure post -traumatic stress just absolutely

itself. This is sad to see.

It's heartbreaking for me to see for her.

So, Greg, I need to know, are you totally in this with us?

We're all willing to work with all the homework that we need to with her to

her feel more at home.

Good. I need that. I need your buy -in in a big way.

So let's go to the living room, and I'll give you guys some homework, okay?

Sounds great.

Seeing Mia so shut down, it made me feel sorry for her and what she's gone

through. Hey, guys.

Hey. So, let's sit and talk some homework, shall we?

First, for you, the one who gets beat up all the time, I want you to reestablish

this relationship. I'm going to put you in charge of feeding her.

Try to get her out and playing, and then after that, you can give her her food,

okay? Now, I suspect that as the youngest child in the house, McKenna has

of energy, and that's what's setting Mia off.

Because a cat with PTSD is going to be extra sensitive to noise and action. So

want McKenna to channel that energy into play and then follow that play with

food so that Mia starts to form a positive association with her.

Second, I want you to start adding other pieces of furniture, things that

represent home to her, so that we can then catify the house. Okay.

Finally, I have homework too.

My job... is to figure out exactly what this looks like through her eyes. I've

dealt with PTSD in cats, but never one who's been through the trauma of a fire.

My job is to figure out exactly what this looks like through her eyes. If you

guys need anything in the next couple weeks, you call me.

Otherwise, I will see you very soon, okay?

All right. Thank you for coming. All right. Absolutely.

This is the end of the road for Mia.

So? If the homework doesn't work, then we need to have a serious family talk.

I'm outside of Greg and Dina's house for my second visit with them and their

cat, Mia.

Now, Mia's suffering from post -traumatic stress disorder, but it

very aggressive tendencies.

It's often directed at their 14 -year -old daughter, McKenna, and Greg was

to send Mia to the animal shelter. If there's one more bad attack, she's gone.

Now, I watched their video homework, and I see that not only are they adding cat

-friendly furniture to the home, but... then McKenna is also becoming a crucial

role in Mia's life by playing with her and feeding her, which is a great way

Mia to form a positive association with McKenna. And, of course, I had my

homework. I'm Jackson, Captain Frank Eberro. To better understand what Mia

through, I visited the Santa Monica Fire Department training facility to talk to

a simulated fire.

Because this is one cat whose head I can't totally get into until I get a

glimpse of what she suffered.

All right, this bad boy's about to get lit up.

And I'm walking in there. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared right now, but

here we go.

When we go in there, we're going to stay along the wall. We always know where we

are because we can't see.

All right.

I'll maintain command.

Try to tell where you're going.

Stay right behind me. It's going to be pretty intense.

You can't see your hand in front of your face in here. It's really

claustrophobic. Jackson, we need to get to the second floor.

Grab the rail here. Got it. Use your feet to guide you.

This fire is unbelievable.

You can't see anything, and it's very disorienting.

Wow. Mia must have been scared to death and gasping for air by the time she

reached the safe place.

Oh, wow, man.

I feel so deeply for her right now. As rough as that was, there was absolutely

no other way that I'd be able to understand how trapped Mia must have

All I wanted when I was in there was to find a safe place to hide.

Now today, I just want to see Mia taking steps towards acting like a normal cat,

even though I understand now more than ever how hard it is to let go of fear.

Amen. We've been well, thank you. Good, good, good.

And the important thing is, how is Mia?

Mia is doing good.

Baby steps.

Okay, good. Hey, baby steps with Mia is better than no steps, believe me. She's

spent more time out in the living room. She loves her new furniture.

McKenna's feeding her every day, and she is really embracing playing with Mia

more. Now that's really important.

We've only seen Mia swat a little bit at McKenna just a couple of times, but

nothing with claws. Claws in or claws?

No claws? No claws.

Good. Now, when Dina says Mia is swatting but without claws, that means

is starting to moderate her physical response to McKenna. Now, obviously, we

want to see no attacks whatsoever, but in the meantime, it's good to know that

things are improving and, of course, there's no more blood.

So, at this point, Greg, what happens if we don't get Mia to a place that's

satisfactory in terms of her behavior?

If this doesn't work, despite all of the homework and all the rehabilitation,

then we might need to take her to the pound eventually.

The stakes are still really high.

Greg's not going to put up with any more violence, and really, I can't blame

him.

Well, this is the thing that I was hoping for. So did this start in your

office? It did. This started in the office and put it in front of her

window.

And close to the other perch so that she could kind of roam from one to the

other. And he took to it.

When I brought it in, I was putting some treats on it. And she would climb up

and then kind of investigate.

How long did it take her before she was like, you know what, I like this?

Probably a couple days. I mean, she would explore it. She got a little

by the hole because she would lay. She's not used to falling through.

So she was a little kind of uneasy.

wasn't too comfortable going up the stairs, she would jump from the ground

straight to the top. Oh, I saw that in the video homework. Yeah, yeah.

But now she runs up, she comes in, down, she hangs over the side.

She likes to play with the little toy that we attached to it. Oh, good, good.

And this is where she hangs out. Now, this is a toy that I gave you guys, and

this is the one that she loves. She loves it, yeah. I mean, I love toys like

this because it does sort of move exactly the way we want it to move, you

what I mean? Yeah, and the little legs. Of course, yeah.

Yeah, she'll hang out behind the couch and then pounce on it. Just a little

doody wiggle.

Well, I mean, this is the thing that I was hoping Nicole was going to find out,

that, you know, we now know that Mia loves ground prey, right? That possibly

something's up there, maybe not so much, but down here, she's totally into it.

So that is something I'll talk to Nicole about. And definitely even more so

than, you know, the ones that have, like, the felt ribbon on them. Yeah. You

know, she plays with those, but the fact that that has, like, Something for her

to catch is really what has kind of taken her over the edge of it. And

the information. That's the kind of stuff that really allows us to break

to Mia. So I'm really glad we have that. Now here's the thing that I'm

interested in about this is its location. You have this chance to make

socially significant but keep her out of lanes of traffic, right? Okay. So

either in this window here or that one over there, still she can be a part of

the room without even trying. Okay.

Greg and Dina gave me great news, and that is basically creating a home for

because she hasn't had one since the fire.

That's working great. The tree that is now in the living room is functioning as

her home base with the family, but she's also spreading that out. That became

her home base in the living room, and now the couch, the chairs, and the

windowsills even have become home for Mia. So now we've got progress.

Hey. How are you?

Good to see you guys. You guys want to go hang with Mia? Yeah. Come on, let's

go.

What I want to see, McKenna, let's see if we can get her interested in

What I wanted McKenna to do was get Mia really interested in food. When a cat's

scared, they don't activate their nose, their eyes. I needed to see if McKenna

could help Mia calm down.

The first thing you're going to do is see if she's into the smell of it.

Mia. What is it, babe?

You see how right now she's not smelling. She's busy looking.

So, Carissa, you keep going with the pet to try to get her calm, and you can

bring that right up to her face to see if she'll even smell it.

Wow, this is hard for her, right?

Mm -hmm.

It's okay.

Poor little scaredy thing.

There we go.

Good girl.

Good girl.

It meant a lot to me to watch Mia activate and take the tuna out of

hands. Just weeks ago, she was chasing McKenna around, making her bleed, and

was suffering from house fire flashbacks brought on by her post -traumatic

stress disorder.

But now, she's trusting her enough to take food out of her hand. All right,

guys, come on, let's go.

That signifies a massive jump forward.

Hey, guys.

Hey. So, you guys ready for some homework?

Yes, we are.

So, I'm really encouraged about what I thought today.

I actually went to a fire training facility, and I walked through a

fire. Oh, my God. Basically, all I wanted was I wanted to figure out what

went through, how she feel, and how to help her get out of that, right? Wow. So

now I've got it figured out, and I'm going to pass it on to all you guys,

Excellent. I definitely think Jackson went above and beyond the call of duty

with that one. That's crazy.

So. For your homework this time around, what I want to do is say no more kitty

bump on the bed. If she wants to be a kitty bump, it's going to be in a

significant area right there. So I want you guys to find a series of caves out

here. She can then be a part of the action without being too exposed.

A cat like Mia who suffers from PTSD is going to want to hide. And after going

through that fire myself, I can completely understand that. But I want

guys to give Mia safe places that will still let her be part of this family.

Now, the second thing is your job is to uncave the cat.

And, McKenna, you're going to be the one doing it. You tempt her forward. It's

about you, Carissa, teaching McKenna to be the one that she comes to. Since it

wasn't that long ago that McKenna was Mia's biggest target, I wanted McKenna

team up with Carissa to take charge of helping this PTSD -stricken cat feel

safer in the house. And then...

I want her to use the windows in the living room at Cat TV.

So I want you to make something so that out there in your yard is something for

her to really get entertained by, okay?

Right on, guys. All right, I'm going to take off. If you've got any questions,

you give me a shout, all right?

We'll do that. All right. Take care, guys. Thanks, Jackson.

Things were encouraging today with Jackson's visit, but at the end of the

it still comes down to McKenna's safety.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Which of the following are not signs of fear in cats?

Is it A, trembling, B, fur standing on end, or C, thrashing tail?

Find out after the break.

Which of the following are not signs of fear in cats?

And the answer is C.

When a cat starts thrashing its tail, that means she's angry, not afraid.

I'm here for my final visit with Dina and Greg, their kids McKenna, Carissa,

Nicole, and their cat Mia. Now, Mia suffers from post -traumatic stress

because of the house fire that these guys had.

Mia has historically pointed a lot of her aggression at McKenna.

Now, we have gotten very far with Mia, but I still need to see this

between McKenna and Mia solidified, and so does Greg. Because if he doesn't see

it, then Mia still might wind up out here on the street.

Hi, Jim. How are you? Good to see you. Hey, girls, Jackson's here.

Hey, guys.

Hello. So, let's get to it. Tell me, how are things going with Mia?

Good stuff?

Yeah.

Good stuff. Little Mia is more social.

She's involved with the family.

And the most important thing is she doesn't attack McKenna.

That's the most important thing.

That's what that smile's about.

Last time I was talking baby steps.

Now I'm talking huge steps. You are talking huge steps, man. Are you kidding

No attack. This cat was terrorizing McKenna just a few weeks ago. This is

As always, let's go over this video homework.

Hi, Jackson. Today we're making cat TV.

I got to see the entire family coming together to bring Mia out of her shell.

saw them making cat TV in the form of this amazing interactive cat toy. Oh, my

God. How sweet is that?

And they gave her some cave -like cat houses so she could feel safe. And

huge. Good girl.

Also, I get to see Mia in action. I got to see that handoff between Carissa and

McKenna.

For real?

Here we have Mia taking a look at her visitor, sitting and watching,

not hiding in her little kitty bump.

You have no idea how huge that is.

Mia overcame her PTSD from the family's house fire, and she finally let go of

her fear. And now, that's a different cat.

That's incredible.

We never thought in a million years she would do that. No, no, I'm like, did I

just see that?

Yeah. Now what I want to do is get in the house. All right. All right, come

let's go.

Everything this family is saying and the video homework is so exciting. I

couldn't wait to go see Mia.

Well,

it's the kitty bump.

We walk into the bedroom, and of course, there's Mia in kitty bump. Now we know

that for a PTSD -stricken cat like Mia, she's going to resort to being kitty

bump whenever she's feeling shy, but that's fine as long as she's not being

violent.

McKenna, I got to see you petting her.

Greg, I would imagine that's what you need to see as well. That's right. I try

and protect my daughter's soul.

To totally trust Mia in the house, I really need to see McKenna and Mia

positively today in front of Jackson.

Hi, pretty kitty.

Right to your left. Right to your left.

So, McKenna, let's wait for me to get settled.

Then I want you to reach in.

Okay, McKenna. Go ahead. Reach in.

Good girl. There you go.

When I met this cat, she had just finished chasing McKenna into a closet.

Now, not only is there no aggression, but you can tell McKenna is a soothing

presence in this cat's life.

That's a home run right there.

McKenna, you seem really relaxed.

I feel confident, and if I'm confident, then I feel like she could be safe and

not afraid.

That's fantastic.

Let's go in. Join your mom and your sister.

I'm not afraid of Mia because I can read her now and I understand her.

I do feel like Mia and I are friends.

So I have to ask you, is there any chance whatsoever of Mia living in this

house?

She's here forever.

She's the sixth member of this family.

Nice. Words cannot express how grateful I am to Jackson.

McKenna, how are you feeling right now?

Happy that she can stay and I know that she is safe here.

Rocking. Before I leave, on three, Team Mia. All right. One, two, three.

Team Mia.

All right, guys. Take care.

Before Jackson came, Mia was two paws out the front door.

And after this journey with Jackson, we know that she's here today. I will be

grateful for the rest of my life, for the rest of Mia's life.

Precious. Oh, that's disgusting.

Precious.

So I'm on my way to meet Chris and Tenille for the first time. Now, Tenille

a cat named Precious who pees all over the house.

Tenille's talking about stepping up this new relationship with Chris. Chris is

talking about getting out of this relationship.

I'm going to go over there right now and see if I can make cooler heads prevail.

I'm Tenille. I'm Chris.

We've been together for a year and a month now.

We don't live together yet due to a certain situation.

My cat from hell, Precious.

She's not so precious. She's my baby girl. She's 12 years old, and she's a

point Siamese.

Over the past year, really, especially since I started dating him, actually, it

has gone to hell. She's peeing on everything.

She's peed on my rug, on my couch, on my chair.

Precious has cost me thousands upon thousands of dollars from her pain.

$3 ,000 worth of bikinis down the drain.

I also have two dogs.

Barstow and Dominic. When it comes to the dogs, she really hisses a lot.

If we don't find a way to get them together, I feel that someone's going to

hurt.

She's completely antisocial and has decided to set up shop on top of the

refrigerator. And there's hair and who knows what from her feet on all the

kitchen surfaces. The last thing I want to do is go into the kitchen and prepare

food.

That's gross.

That's one of those things where I'm just like, I don't want to come over

tonight. I just don't want to deal with that.

And, you know, that's causing a little bit of stress.

It's one of those things where you're like, okay, moving forward, let's live

together, let's make that next step.

But with Precious behaving like she is, I don't want to live in that type of

environment.

I feel like I have to give her away.

And, like, that just, like, breaks my heart. And I don't know what to do.

She's there to capture me.

I'm Jackson. I'm Chris. Chris, good to meet you, man.

Hey. Hey, it's Anil. Anil, I'm Jackson. Good to meet you. Good to meet you.

Thanks for coming. Here's some coffee.

Thank you so much. So, tell me, what's going on?

My cat, Precious, pees on a lot of stuff.

I leave and go over to Chris's. I'll come back, and there'll be something

on. It's awful.

She just lives in existence on the fridge of pure isolation.

You can kind of check her out from here.

When did the dogs come into the picture?

I've had Barstow and Dominic for a year now.

So in over a year since we've been dating, I've never seen her come off the

fridge. So the only time she comes down off the fridge is to pee on things.

When did she start peeing like this? She just started the peeing thing actually

when I started dating Chris.

Blame it on me, right? I'm the one.

Has your stuff been peed on at all? I've been peed on, actually.

Whoa. For the first time.

Yeah, this is just in the last couple weeks. I grabbed her off of the fridge,

and she just let loose on me. She peed on Chris when Chris picked her up off

fridge. She peed out of fear. He basically scared the pee out of her.

So where are you in the mix of this whole thing? To me, it's just a cat that

just sits on the fridge and gets fur all over the countertops.

I want to make some food and I got to spend 10, 15 minutes cleaning up the

to prepare the food.

So if we were to live together, it just doesn't sound very appetizing.

It's clear that Chris doesn't have a whole lot of patience for Precious,

makes me have no patience for Chris. I mean, if he's not going to buy into this

process, what am I even doing here?

I don't, I don't really, I don't know what to do.

The thought entered my mind one day out of the blue where I was like, maybe I

need to find her another home.

That kills me even thinking about that.

We have got a lot to do, but I'm seeing Precious up there.

I want to head in there first, okay?

Perfect. Come on, let's go.

The stakes here are really high. We've got Tennille who's torn between Precious

and Chris, and then we have Chris who's getting peed on. That is not a good life

to live.

Well, hello, Precious.

Can I say hi to you?

Hi. Oh, hello.

This is the sweetest cat.

I know.

This cat's entire life is right there.

Two by two square.

I'm used to seeing that in animal shelters, but not in someone's

Okay, that's okay. She'll dig it in. It's okay, sweetheart.

My heart's breaking for this cat, but immediately I look down, and there's

Chihuahua number one, Chihuahua number two, just looking up. And I know at that

moment that we've got bigger trouble than anyone thought.

Okay, you want to go back out? It's okay, Cassius.

Go ahead, my love. It's okay, sweetheart.

Wow. I am going to want to see her in more of a controlled environment with

dogs and see what the reactions are like. Okay. All right, let's get going.

I need to see how Precious interacts with them safely under my watch so I can

see for myself whether Precious is really the problem or if it's the dog.

Okay, so here's what I want to do. Chris, if you want to just put Precious

pretty much.

in the middle of the floor, and I'd like you to just hold her for a second.

I'm going to give you a little bit of a countdown, and then just let her go,

okay? You can just place her in the middle of the floor. If you want to sit

her, that's fine.

Oh, wow.

Dominic!

Bad.

Bad doggie.

So Precious hits the ground, and it's like the greyhound races where they let

the rabbit loose on the track, and boom!

Out go the greyhounds. And poor Precious was chased back up on the stove, up on

top of the fridge, gone.

It's clear to me what the problem is at hand here, and it's not Chris.

It's these dogs.

That's why she's peeing anywhere but her litter boxes that are on the floor.

Pretty awful.

And that was pure chaos.

Tennille, Chris is not the problem.

You've got a problem with your dogs.

Look what you're doing. I know. Look at her little face.

Oh, my God. What am I going to do with you?

I'm talking about your dogs doing evil things, and you're making kissy faces at

them, and that's a problem. I know.

It's a little bit worrisome for me to see how he immediately latches on to the

dogs. It's the dogs' fault.

Because I love the dogs, it's really hard because I feel like I want to make

everybody happy, and I don't know how.

You guys ready for some homework here? Yeah. Okay, good. So the first thing

you're going to do, fortunately, is you're going to dog obedience class.

These dogs have to do a sit -stay. That means that no matter what the cat does,

they will sit through it. And that way Precious can feel secure in her

so she won't be peeing in an inappropriate place.

The second part is I want you to build what I'll call the catification

concourse. Find out a way, shelving -wise, to go from that fridge around

and into here. Okay?

Tennille can basically teach Precious how to be in the living room, but in a

safe way where the dogs can't get to her. And she gets to see she can have a

socially significant spot in this house along with everybody else. In addition

to building the shelves, I'd like you to elevate the litter boxes, okay?

I want the litter boxes up high enough so the cats can get to them, but dogs

can't. So that they get Precious a safe place to pee that's out of the dog's

reach. If you have any questions in the next couple weeks, just give me a shout.

And I will see you two very soon. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jackson. Bye

-bye. See you soon.

I'm actually looking forward to the homework, and I just hope that she can

through it because at this point I just don't know if she's too far gone. And if

I don't get this fixed, I might lose Chris.

All right, I'm here for my second visit with Tennille, Chris, and her cat,

Precious, who's anything but.

Precious has been peeing so much around Tennille's house that Chris refuses to

move in. If I can't fix Precious, Tennille will be forced to choose

Chris or her beloved cat. But it's not entirely Precious's fault.

She's being terrorized by Camille's two dogs, who scare her so badly that she's

resorted to living on top of the fridge.

Now, I watched their video homework, and I saw Chris putting up the shelves,

creating the catification concourse I assigned for them last time. This should

do it.

Okay. I just hope that she's no longer trapped in fear on top of that

refrigerator. Also, I asked these guys to elevate the litter boxes. They've got

to give Precious a safe place to pee that's out of the dog's reach. And I

saw Chris and Camille taking Barstow and Dominic to dog obedience class.

By the looks of things, they still have a lot of work to do. Walking in, I hope

there's some progress because Christian's relationship depends on it.

So, guys, tell me the news.

How's Precious doing?

Well, when we put up the elevated cat box, I don't know what happened, but

was pee all over the floor.

Probably Precious not understanding her litter box.

I just came out and I was just like, really? We're actually going backwards?

It makes you wonder, you know, is it ever going to be resolved?

At this point, it's like, are we ever going to move in together? And at this

point, it's like, no.

I mean, I don't want to be around this.

I don't, I don't really, I don't know what to do.

There's still a lot on the line here. Every time there's a setback, Chris gets

one foot farther out the door.

I do want to spend some time with Precious. Let's get up and walk around.

on.

Ah.

Seeing Precious still perched on top of the refrigerator told me that it was

time to redefine what she considers home.

This means we still have to bring her out of her hiding spot and into the

room. Now, Tennille, just step in where I am because she's going to trust you

completely. Hey, baby girl.

I needed Tennille to step in and with her bond with this cat, get her moving

even further. This is challenge life.

Come on, girl.

Come on, girl. And yes.

Good. There we go.

The catification concourse has succeeded.

Give me some.

Very nice. A little high five.

So I was blown away.

It makes me really hopeful.

I'm a little hesitant to get all excited about whether or not this is a true

change or not. I'm still not convinced, so I'm putting my clothes away where she

can't get to them, just in case.

Now, even though this is fantastic, it is time to push that challenge line.

That's why I'm here. So what I want you to do is bring the dogs back in here.

If there's any chance of stopping her from peeing, she needs to be confident

on her shelves when the dogs are in that room.

If I don't see that, we're in trouble.

Barstow, watch me.

Watch me. Watch me.

Tenille, flex your muscles right now.

Okay, sit. Hurry, hurry.

Watch me.

John, come here.

It's okay, Precious.

Cat gained all this confidence. Boom, these guys come in. She becomes fridge

again.

Precious is gaining confidence, but she's still got a long way to go. And

and Dominic have a long way to go as well.

They're not only still fixated on her, but their energy is off the charts.

Next time I'm here, I expect to see them more grounded.

You guys ready for some homework here? Yeah. First thing I want to follow up on

is these litter boxes because they are just not high enough. So elevate them

more. Take the lid off so Precious doesn't feel like she's trapped because

Precious gets trapped in the corner, bad things could happen.

The second thing you're going to do, block off the fridge. I don't want it to

home anymore. All right. So we have to say this property is condemned. You

come back here anymore. Find another home. Yeah. It's about making sure that

Precious isn't comfortable until she rejoins the world. Next thing.

The dogs have to be still. They're still running the show, okay?

I still want you to keep taking the dogs to obedience training, but in addition

to that, hold on one sec, okay?

Okay, guys.

Oh, my gosh. So this is the makings of an agility course, okay?

So I brought in some agility course components. That way the dogs will get

exhausted so that when we do have them in front of the cat, they can fit.

Stay and be still. You're going to take all the lessons that you're learning in

obedience class and just ramp it up. By the time I get here next time, we can

get the cat on the floor and we can have the dogs be still.

If any of these pieces fall apart, it won't be able to work, okay?

I will be back in a few weeks. You do have a lot of work, so get to it, all

right? All right.

I'll talk to you soon.

Thank you. All right. Keep your heads up.

Precious. She's not going to learn anything. Cats don't.

They're not trainable like dogs.

And now Jackson wants Precious down on the ground with the dogs, and that's not

going to happen. No way.

All right, I'm here for my final visit with Tenille and Chris. I got a chance

check out their video homework, and I saw Tenille working with her dogs on the

agility course I gave her. Good boy!

I had to see that their focus was squarely on Tenille, because if their

isn't on Tenille, where's it going to be?

It's going to be on the cat, and then the cat will be hunted.

I also saw that they elevated the litter boxes and they took the lids off so the

Precious doesn't feel like she's trapped in there. And finally, I saw that they

blocked off the refrigerator so the Precious can no longer be the fridge

she was when I first arrived. And she gets to see she can have a socially

significant spot in this house along with everybody else.

Jackson.

Hopefully when I walk in here, I can see these animals and these humans all

coexisting together in peace. So tell me, I'm really excited. Tell me how

are going with Precious.

Lots of good stuff.

Yeah? What? Tell me. She's actually making her way in on this cat concourse

on her own. She goes and hangs out on this little perch by the window.

She chooses to. She chooses to. Well, I wasn't going to jinx it yet, but hello.

Right? Look at her. And as we call her name, her ears don't go back. Yeah. She

doesn't have any fear about where she is.

Whoa. Yeah, that's huge.

Whoa. Looking at Precious sitting on that windowsill displaying confidence is

absolutely astounding.

especially taking into consideration that just a few weeks ago, that cat was

living on top of a fridge.

So tell me, what homework has helped? A lot of training has gone into the dogs

with the whole agility course. I've really been able to focus the dogs more

not being so obsessed with her. The training for the dogs is so great

also helps Precious out as well. You know, she is in the focal point of

everything, which I think she really senses that now and is feeling a little

more at ease.

Now, big question.

The last time I was here, big Pete mess that had happened outside that litter

box. Yeah, no.

Nothing. Nothing. Everything's been great with the litter boxes, and we

had anything.

Nothing. Yeah.

Fantastic.

There was a lot of progress made by both Chris and Tennille, and I'm confident

that in time, Precious will feel comfortable enough that they'll be able

those litter boxes back on the ground. But now it's time to see what I had come

here for. Let's head over here. Okay.

What I want to see is Precious in the living room, owning that space, but as

importantly, I want to see the dogs.

not driven by the presence of Precious. If I can see everybody on that floor

together without mayhem breaking loose like I did the first time I was here, I

know that everyone has done their job.

I'm going to give you these treats. I want you to go as close as you feel

comfortable to Precious and make sure they're focused on you the entire time.

Let's see how close we can get.

I need to get to Neil and get these dogs to behave because all it takes is one

false move and we could lose all of our progress and Precious will revert back

to her old habits of living on top of the fridge and peeing all over the

apartment. Okay, you guys ready? Walk to mom. Come.

Come.

Watch me.

Watch me.

Put him in a chair. Watch me. Sit.

Sit. Good. We got eye contact.

Keep control.

I want to see it down. Lay down.

Lay it down.

Good.

Okay, last step to this. Release Precious.

Just allow her to do what she wants to do.

See how she's looking around. She's saying, what do I have available to me

now?

She's not going anywhere.

Oh, my God.

Precious. She just sat there.

She decided, you know what? I could go up there. She looked up to her shelf

again. Okay, I have that escape route, but I think I'll stay here because I

safe on the floor. This is the moment where Precious finds her mojo, and she

knows she's part of this family.

Just so I make sure that I'm covering all the bases here, Chris, when I first

met you, Precious just represented bad things to you. Do you feel like you

actually live with Precious?

Yes. Yes, I could now. As a matter of fact, we're moving in together next

Oh, wow. I am so psyched. Thank you. Congratulations.

Everything's working in our favor for not only us, but for Precious. So we're

we're ecstatic. All right. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Great spending time with you. Great work.

Congratulations, you guys. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye bye.

From the first day, we were really worried because Chris and I never really

to bond over Precious. It was more of an obstacle that pushed him away. And now

we've really come together as a team and we're making it happen. And Precious is

just a little bundle of joy again.