Original subtitles

I have a cat named Puma. He's 10 years old. He lifts his butt into the air, so

he is coming out like a fountain.

He pees on my clothes. He pees on my pants. I am nine weeks pregnant, and now

can't change the litter box.

He's gone. If Jackson can't fix it.

Riley has FIV.

FIV would mean that his immune system is low.

If Riley does bite Mia, Mia could be contaminated with FIV.

He starts seeing a lot of tension between us. He starts to yell and he

agitated. We're probably going to end up giving up Mia. I want you to help us.

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?

Harry, I don't know. Cats have nine lives, but humans only have one.

I'm on my way to go see John and Samantha about their cat, Puma.

We got Puma hacking John's beloved dog, Daisy.

But we also have peeing issues. I mean, not just where he pees, but how he pees.

And John is sick of it.

He's ready to get rid of Puma permanently, and I can't let that

hoping I'm not too late.

I'm Samantha.

I'm John. We've been married for two years. I bought a home right after we

started dating, and then Samantha moved in with me. I have a cat named Puma.

He's 10 years old.

Here is Mr.

Puma Cat.

I love Puma. He cuddles and he gives kisses and... He pees everywhere.

nothing normal about the way Puma pees.

As the pee comes out, he lifts his butt into the air. His butt is completely

vertical. It's spraying all over his walls.

It's getting into the baseboards. It's getting into the drywall.

It's in our kitchen.

It's in our bathroom.

He pees on my clothes.

He pees on my pants. He pees in my underwear drawer.

$600 worth of soup thrown by Puma. I was in a meeting, and I'm trying to impress

these people, and I reeked of urine.

He is definitely doing it.

As the pee comes out, he lifts his butt into the air, so pee is coming out like

a fountain.

I have created a litter box.

Fortress. Fortress, really?

Don't bring it over, I'll gag.

Okay, yeah.

Johnny has a sort of gag reflex.

He can't do this.

We have two litter boxes, so if you want to clean the whole area, it takes two

hours to clean both of them. We just found out that I am nine weeks pregnant,

and now I can't change the litter box, so it is now Johnny's job.

Every time I clean that litter box, I gag.

Thanks. I'm borderline throwing up. It is that disgusting.

The last few years, I've tolerated Puma. But now that we found out that we're

going to have a baby, it's either Puma gets corrected or we get rid of him.

I have Daisy, who's a six -year -old chihuahua mix.

Daisy's my baby. Puma definitely terrorizes Daisy.

Daisy's scared to walk over and eat her own food.

We left the animals together alone.

And Puma had attacked Daisy and slit her ear open.

She's got like a little tear in her ear.

I don't want to be in this house that smells like urine. My stuff's getting

destroyed. If Jackson can't make Puma stop peeing all over the house, stop

attacking Daisy, then he's got to go.

That cat means so much to me. It would really break my heart. It really would.

Hey. Hi, Jackson. I'm Samantha.

Samantha, good to meet you. Good to meet you. You too. Come on in. Okay.

Jackson, this is John. Hey, John. How are you? Good. Tell me.

What's going on with your cat?

You're here for Puma.

He sprays over the edge of his litter box when he's peeing. Okay. He also pees

in various places around the house.

I think he personally comes after my stuff.

It's my clothes that he pees on more often than not. My bath mat. My rug has

been peed on again. Thanks a lot.

Do you think that Puma's got it out for you? I do. Now, obviously, I haven't met

Puma yet, but normally cats don't pee on your stuff because they don't like you.

They do it because they're territorially insecure.

I also am seeing this little one.

Daisy's my dog. She goes to work with me every day. So how does Daisy and Puma

get along?

There has been some aggressive behavior with Puma. I mean, she's terrified of

him. It's coming to the point where we need something to be done.

We're actually expecting now.

Oh, congratulations.

Thank you. Now that we have a baby coming, this cat might urinate on him or

urinate on his clothes or make him sick. Okay, what's your solution right now?

If we can't get this situation worked out by the time the baby comes, then

have no choice but to get rid of the cat.

Wow. Never going to happen.

I just don't see any other option.

They have a baby coming into this world, and when this baby is born, cat is

gone. They need to get up, walk around, get some answers about what's going on

with Puma. So this is Puma's litter box right here. Okay. You can see that I've

covered the entire area with puppy pads to try to catch the pee.

That's a lot of pee.

Obviously, you're changing puppy pads pretty often, right? Right. Now I have

do it since Samantha's expecting, so I'm the one changing the litter box. Wow.

It's disgusting. I gag every time I do it. What?

Yeah.

Your cat has elevator butt.

Elevator butt spraying like robo -spray all over the house. The cats would do

this. Usually these are orphans from when they were little kittens and they

never learned how to squat.

So look, this is something that Puma can't control.

But the good news is that there are definitely ways to make it more

So I need to go wash my hands, then let's keep moving.

I've talked to a behaviorist. I've talked to two veterinarians, and

says, I've never heard of a cat that's done that before.

And Jackson walks in, and he goes, oh, yeah, elevator butt.

This way into the bathroom. Okay.

Now, between the scooping and then the tape job that you're doing here, this is

not a small job.

It takes me, if I want to clean the whole area, at least an hour.

Every day? Every day. Wow, man, that's heavy.

I mean, this goes high up here. I mean, there are times when I'll take a bath,

and he has to break into the bath.

Yeah. Not while you're sitting there. Yeah, while I'm in there. Oh!

While I'm in there. Oh, that's terrible. Yeah, it's disgusting.

Into the tub while I'm there, yeah.

You feel for this guy. It's like, I want to like the cat. I want to like the

cat. He peed on me.

It makes it kind of tough.

So this is our front door.

Where Puma's been peeing as well.

Right, of course. Now, he's marking there, litter box number one, litter box

number two. Correct. All right, so I've got about all the information I'm going

to get. What I still don't know about is Daisy and Puma's relationship today,

and I just want to see them interact, okay? Okay. All right, let's grab those

guys. Come on. If emotions run hot, that's when we have trouble. So I wanted

see those two animals doing just that, crossing one another in the hallway.

So here's what I'm going to do.

is when I say go, we're just going to let Puma and Daisy get on the ground,

I just want to see what happens when they cross paths, okay?

When Jackson said that he wanted to see Daisy and Puma cross paths, I was upset.

I didn't like it because I figured I knew what would happen.

So, Daisy, are you looking over here, baby? Go ahead and just let them go. Go

for it.

Look at it immediately.

Look at that. That's not ignoring. That is fear.

She's purposely not looking at him. She knows he's there. The most unbelievably

submissive move I've ever seen a dog perform toward a cat. And I mean ever.

And then away goes Puma. And look at that. She wouldn't even look at him.

I'm still filled with question marks, and as a matter of fact, so are Samantha

and John. I wish I had answers for them. What I do have is homework. I think

it's time for Puma and Daisy to call a truth, okay? So I want to do an exercise

called the Pet Path. I want you to hold Daisy, okay? John, you will have Puma.

Okay. And then call Daisy to you. You're going to just help support Daisy while

she's sitting there.

What I'm hoping for is that Daisy's going to want to be with Dad so badly

be drawn towards Puma and make that happen over and over again until we've

erased whatever's happened to them in the past.

Let's move on to territorial problems, okay?

He is clearly marking, but he's doing it in a very ineffective, strange way. I'm

going to help you out a lot, John. Okay, thank you. Between the gag reflex and

an hour's worth of work doing this every day.

I'm going to provide you guys with litter boxes that are capable of

the spray from Elevator Bud.

Cats get in them through the top. They also cut down on the smell of urine, so

it may even help your gag reflex.

If he gets in that box, which I'm hoping he does, there's no way that the pee

comes out anywhere but where he's peeing. And I want you to put them in

important territorial areas where you catch Puma spraying.

Okay. One here, one in the bathroom, one at the front door itself.

Okay. Finally, Cat Common Sense 101.

Pick up your clothes, close the closet door. Okay. See if that helps.

I just need to gauge, is it a relational thing between you and him? And then

we'll take it from there.

If not, it's just about litter boxes. I got answers for that.

Okay. You know, I'll try these little things. If that doesn't work, then we

that Puma doesn't like me, and that's the problem.

Thank you. All right. Take care. Thank you. Bye -bye. At this point, I think

I've bought Puma as much time as Johnny's going to give him. Jackson is

hope. Puma's out of here.

All right, I'm outside Samantha and John's house for my second visit with

and their cat Puma.

And the last time I was here, man, what a mess. I mean, Puma was peeing all over

the place and having a pretty antagonistic relationship with John's

There's the dog wanting her food.

Puma, go wait.

So all I'm hoping for this time around is that John is building a relationship

with Puma and that Puma's not peeing all over this house. If I got that, man,

I'm good.

Hey, John, how are you, man? Hey, welcome back. Thank you very much.

Hey, how are you?

Good. How are you?

I'm fantastic. Good to see you again. Good to see you, too.

So, give me some good news.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's great news, but it's new. Oh, okay. Tell me.

Puma is using the new litter boxes.

Okay. Which is good. That is? Wait a minute. That's fantastic.

What's the bad part?

It's still pretty nasty to clean the area, to clean the lid, to take the lid

off. It still smells like urine in the area.

That's a tough one.

There's no problems anymore with the pee, but John's still repulsed by the

that he has to clean pee from the inside of a litter box.

John has a sensitive gag reflex and a really short temper. And what am I

supposed to do with that? It's a cat.

I think I might be hitting a dead end here. I asked you guys to video journal.

everything that was going on. So let's take a look at Puma, shall we? So we

fixed the bathroom.

Here's our new litter box.

Puma is using it. Covered litter boxes are great for cats with elevator butt. I

mean, Puma can spray wherever he wants to, but the pee is staying in the box.

Good boy.

Also, I saw the pet pass.

And he plays dead.

Now, we know that animals absorb the energy around them. So if we want

to get along, we're going to have to change the energy between John and Puma.

here is our bedroom closet. This is where we hide all of our clothes that we

don't want Puma to pee on.

I see they're following their cat common sense homework.

If you don't want your cat to pee on your clothes, pick them up. It's that

simple. John, now that you're shutting closets and putting stuff up, has Puma

peed on any of your stuff?

No. So him not liking me?

It's not the problem.

Okay, well, good. So that, you know, I want to talk to you about what you

I still don't feel that it's where it should be for us to keep him, really.

Now that I'm the one in charge of cleaning all these litter boxes, the

level is hard to take, especially when I know that we're expecting.

Oh, that's important.

Yeah. Now, obviously, we still got work to do. Let's get to it. Ready? Ready.

Okay. All right, come on, guys.

As I'm talking to Samantha and John, I realize that my work really is with

I needed John to get his head around the fact that Puma peeing while standing up

will not go away. And if I want to keep this cat in this home, I've got to get

John to like Puma.

Let's talk about the litter boxes here. We've got the Buddha dome sitting here.

But we've got puppy pads still here.

Yes. I'm going to ask you to trust me. Okay. Trust Puma.

And John, would you please take these puppy pads off this wall?

Gross.

Good. It's pink down here.

Good.

Done. I am going to do the honors of putting this back here.

Bang. Beautiful.

It's normal. It's a normal litter box.

You're making your wife awfully happy because you're just like glowing right

now. I am.

Never having to put puppy pads up again is amazing.

Okay. I'll try it.

If it does happen outside the litter box, Jackson can put the damn pads back

Listen, I want to do the pet pass again, but I want to reverse it up.

Hello there, Puma.

So here's what we're going to do, guys. I know you guys have been practicing it.

I want to see what it's like, John, when Daisy has to come towards you. I just

want to see you calming Puma while this whole exercise is going on.

Let's get this going. I wanted to get John to form a bond with Puma, but at

same time, I'm worried that if Puma lashes out at Daisy, I'll lose John

I just want to give you, like, a little more Cat 101 because it helps.

One of the things that just calms cats like crazy, these kind of touches. Yeah.

You know, cheek, under chin, big time. I've never had a cat before. I don't

how they're supposed to be held or how they're supposed to be talked to or

with.

They don't do stuff like dogs do. Dogs are normal.

Cats aren't.

Here you go. Here's one Puma for you.

Okay, the object is, I want to see if these guys have a little bit of a

connection, okay?

So you're calling Daisy.

Come here, dude.

Daisy. Come on, girl.

Daisy, come here. There we go. Now let go with Puma.

Jackson kept pushing the limits, and I was nervous Puma would take a swipe.

Look, they're looking at each other.

That is the pet path.

So proud of you.

Good girl, dude.

That wouldn't have happened the first day. No way. It just wouldn't have

happened. John is making Puma feel safe, and that's building Puma's confidence.

And a confident cat has no reason to attack when there's no threat present.

believe me, Daisy's no threat. If they keep practicing this pet path, Daisy and

Puma will be able to live and play in the same space without incident. I just

know it.

All right, so guys, for your homework, first thing is you continue what you

doing with the Pet Pass. Obviously, it's working really well.

Also, John, your second assignment is to practice holding Puma until you feel

him relax in your arms. I think it's really important that you stay in

of Puma. Okay. The key here is in getting John to enjoy Puma. If he can

how to make Puma feel calm and secure while he's holding him, then we can make

this relationship mutually beneficial.

All right, the next part of your homework, John, I'm going to do

never done before, which is I'm going to leave you my entire page.

Who carries around that many cat toys with them?

Everything that's in here, every last toy, it is yours. I want you to spend

time with this cat than you have ever spent before.

Even though Puma's using the litter boxes, his future in this house is

uncertain. The problem is, John has no patience when it comes to Puma. With all

the homework I'm giving him right now, I'm going to make him learn to love

When I come back here, I want to hear John say that Puma is his family. Then

I'll know Puma's safe.

All right, I will talk to you in just a few weeks. Thank you. All right, bye

-bye.

Wow.

That is a lot of toys.

Puma is still not 100 % trustworthy to me.

He's already gotten her once, and I think she'll always be afraid of him

of that one incident.

If I can't trust Puma, we won't be able to keep him when the baby comes.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Which country was the first to put a cat in outer space?

Was it A, Russia, B, France, or C, the United States?

Find out the answer after this break.

Which country was the first to put a cat in outer space?

The answer is B, France.

In 1963, French scientists launched a capsule containing a cat named Felicette

so they could measure her neurological responses during her journey.

All right, I'm outside John and Samantha's house for my final visit with

and their cat, Puma. Now, the last time I was here, not only was I working on a

relationship between John and Puma.

But I was also working on containing Puma's elevator butt, which is a

that arises in cats who never learn the correct way to pee.

Hopefully today, John is focusing on the relationship with his cat instead of

cleaning up after his cat.

Who is that?

Hey, Jackson. Hey, Samantha.

Hey, John. How are you, man? Good.

It's good to see you again. How have you been? Very good.

Good, good. Well, more importantly, how are things going with Puma?

They're better. They're better. Really? Good. When I first met you, you were

dealing with an hour of changing puppy pads and changing litter. Where are you

at right now? How long is it taking you to clean litter boxes every day? It was

one hour of misery, and now it's down to about ten minutes. Ten minutes? Ten

minutes. You realize that that's normal, right? You realize that that's a normal

life. I timed him. It was just over ten minutes one day.

I think I've come to realize maybe this is something that's not going to go

away, and we're just trying to see what works.

So you can live with Elevator, but as long as it's contained inside the litter

box and he's not peeing on your stuff?

Is that what you're saying?

Yeah. Yeah. Good.

You feel a little relieved?

I do. I feel so relieved.

Woo! All right. Now we can move forward.

Before Jackson got here, I just assumed that when Puma was spraying in the

litter box, it was because he didn't like me or he was just an aggro cat.

But since then, I've learned that there are reasons for him doing what he does.

All right, guys, as always, I had your video document, everything that you were

doing when I was gone, and I do want to go over that. So let's take a look here.

I think you found his favorite toy.

First thing is John playing with Puma, forging that relationship.

Nice. That's what I like to see.

Oh, baby.

Good girl.

Wow, that was awesome.

Very nice. That was a good one.

Also, I got to see the Pet Pass continue, and Daisy continued to get

confidence walking past Puma. Oh, so sweet.

That's love.

And that's what I like.

Puma loves licking my face. It's a little annoying, but it's okay. Yeah,

it's sweet.

There's really good stuff in there.

I'm hearing great things about your new relationship with Puma, John. I would

actually like to see that in action. So if you guys don't mind, let's go find

Puma. Sure. I can tell from the video homework that John is forming a bond

Puma. He's playing and petting and slowly realizing that he has two pets.

For this case to have any kind of success, I need to hear John say that

not in danger of being kicked to the curb. John, do you mind getting Puma

here? Because I really do want to see if he'll be confident enough to play while

Daisy's sitting right here. That's a big one. Sure.

Oh.

Hi, baby.

Good boy.

Puma, what do we got here? A man and his cat.

We're bonding.

I can tell from the video homework that John is starting to form a bond with

Puma, although I know he still has his doubts about Puma's relationship with

Daisy. So I need to prove to him that these two can coexist peacefully. You

break out that laser pointer and see if he'll play while Daisy's sitting right

here. That's a big one.

Take out that laser.

Great. Nice going.

There we have a cat.

And in comes Daisy.

Fantastic stuff.

Wow.

Hang on, guys. Don't feel like you need to break this up.

Yeah, this would have never happened the first time we were here.

Very nice. They've gotten pretty close before, but... He would have never just

walked right through the middle of us.

That's the proof.

All right, now I've got to put the question to you, John.

Are you going to get rid of him?

No, I don't think so.

I feel that he's more our cat now instead of just Sam's cat. That's a huge

deal, man. As far as I'm concerned, it's a huge deal.

Puma has been living in this house with us for five years, and Johnny has never

once referred to him as our cat.

So to hear him say that felt really good.

All right, I hope you guys and Puma have a wonderful life together with your

baby. Thank you so much. And please let me know if I can help you out. It was

great to meet you. Will do, will do. Take care, guys.

Jackson, I just really want to thank you for coming here and helping us with

Puma. All the tools that you've given us have made us better partners. I think

it's going to make us better parents. I know that if I have to clean the litter

boxes at least for the next couple of months, I'll do it.

So I'm on my way over to go see Jimmy and Maggie about their cats, Riley and

I've already seen the footage.

The violence is really bad between these two cats. And Riley has FIV, a

potentially deadly disease, which is spread through deep wounds, usually from

bites. I don't know how I'm going to handle this one, but I've got to handle

I'm Maggie.

I'm Jimmy. And we've been married for 45 years.

Right? Yes.

So this is Riley.

We have two cats, Riley and Mia.

Hi. Riley is a snowshoe cat, very friendly and very sweet.

Until Mia could show up.

No, no, no. We've had Mia for about eight months now.

Riley went after her right away.

Scared me. Mia. We put Riley in a harness every time she's out because he

aggressive. No, no, no, not over there. We got to do something.

The cat fighting, it's causing a lot of tension between us. I get really

nervous. I get very protective.

And then he starts to yell and he gets agitated.

We want to retire peacefully, but because of the Mia and the Riley

we're unable to do so.

I'd rather spend my retirement playing golf rather than breaking up cat fights.

If Jackson doesn't fix the cat, we're probably going to end up giving up Mia.

I don't know if I can do it.

We don't have any children.

Riley and Mia are definitely our babies. I can't see our lives without her.

But Mia's life is at stake.

Hi, Jackson.

I'm Maggie. Maggie, good to meet you.

Hey there.

Hi, Jackson. I'm Jimmy. Good to meet you.

So, guys, tell me, what's going on?

We got two cats, Riley and Mia.

And the two of them are fighting.

And Riley's got FIB.

The stakes couldn't be any higher for these cats.

Now, in the past, FIV was referred to as feline AIDS, and all that did was cause

a lot of hysteria. We don't want that because cats can live relatively normal

lives with FIV, and they can't transmit it to humans, just other cats.

That said, FIV is still a deadly immune deficiency disease, and with one bite,

he can easily transmit it to Mia. So this is literally a matter of life or

for the cats, and I am not sure that this is a safe home for Mia.

Right now, I fall squarely on the side of rehoming Mia.

Ugh, you're killing me right now. I'm sorry.

Talk to me.

What's going on?

I want a solution.

I want you to help us.

Me too.

Of course that's what I want. I just have a primary... I just believe in you

much. So I need your help.

Just looking at Maggie, I was going to cry myself.

I want to be able to try.

Please.

I will give you everything I got.

Everything I got.

I understand.

Okay, come on, let's go.

It is so rare that I'm going to walk into a home and within minutes start

talking about rehoming cats. But I've seen the footage of these two cats. I

what's at stake here.

It's a serious thing.

All right, well, there's Riley.

Come on up here. Maybe.

Come here, mister.

Hi, Riley.

So he's really, really sweet.

So he's got those ears that look like he was out there, huh?

Mm -hmm. Now, how old is he?

He's about seven.

Seven, okay. They think when we got him he was five. So he's clearly been on the

street. He's clearly had to defend himself or, you know, scare others away

his territory.

And that makes things harder to begin with, you know, in terms of integrating

him with Mia because he's used to defending his turf, right? He's used to

to say, hey, hey, this is mine, right? Because back out on the street, he would

have to fend for food.

Now, although Riley's demeanor is very calm, very cool and collected, he does

have the markings of a tomcat, of a cat who's been on the prowl for years and

years. His body tells you what he's been through. It's been a tough life. I

mean, he's got scars on his ears. He's got those jowls of a tomcat.

And also, we know that he's gotten FIV probably the same way that we're afraid

he's going to give it to Mia. It's a pretty sure bet that Riley got FIV in

first place.

in a fight out here. I mean, FIV among the stray cats is rampant. That's how

they transmit it, by fighting with one another. Maggie, on the other hand,

you're kind of... You're a little nervous. Yes, I am. But I don't even

doing it. Every time I mention it, she gets mad. What's your theory? That's how

we fight, because she's overprotective of him.

What Maggie doesn't realize is that she can actually be putting so much nervous

energy into Riley that when she lets him go in front of Mia, bang, there's a

fight.

And on that note, let's go meet Mia. All right. Come on, let's go.

Mia!

Oh, hello, little black cat.

So we head down to what they call the den.

What are you kidding me? It's like a 10 by 10 room crowded with exercise

equipment and barbells and golfing stuff and one little cat tree. That's no life

for any cat.

It's very heartbreaking having Mia in the den.

We hate hearing her cry.

This kind of heightens the stakes for me. This has to end. In order for this

be successful, these guys have to have equal time with you.

Equal time, okay?

So what we're going to do right now, we're going to open the door, and I want

you to get Riley on his harness.

Let's let Mia out of here. Let her explore the house.

Here comes Riley.

I just want to see what Riley's response is.

Does he give her just enough room to move around without diving after her? If

that's the case, we've got something to work with.

When we put the cats down, I thought Riley was going to react.

I was really nerve -wracking.

Come here, baby.

The cool thing is, watching her walk around here, now here's where it gets

interesting.

You see that?

Nothing.

Pretty cool, right?

When Mia ran by Riley, we were all expecting the worst. I mean, after all,

months ago, these guys couldn't be in the same room without violence. But now,

it looks like Riley had months to get used to the sound and scent of Mia in

den, so he's not instantly lunging for her anymore. And that is huge.

That means we still have a chance.

We got something we can work with.

Great. But remember, this all depends on the homework that I give you guys. So

you guys ready for that homework? Absolutely.

All right, here we go. Now, I still don't trust these cats together without

Riley in a harness. Mia is running around like prey, which can easily tempt

aggressive cat into attacking.

And it wasn't that long ago that Riley wanted to kill Mia on sight.

Even though things have calmed down, I'm not taking any chances. I mean, the

stakes are just too high.

We've already started the first thing, and that is letting Mia out. But what

we're going to do is site swap.

When he's out here, she's in your master bedroom.

Mia's got to feel like she owns the joint. Now she gets to be out in the

just at separate times.

The next thing I'm going to have you guys do, I want you to be Mia's advocate

for the next couple of weeks.

Maggie's energy towards Mia is alienating, and her energy towards Riley

smothering. So she has to back off from both, but I want her to take care of Mia

in the same way that she's used to taking care of Riley.

All right, and finally, now, Jimmy, I know you're a golfer, so I got something

for you. Hold on one second.

So, Jimmy, I present to you...

Jimmy's scorecard.

Basically, as scorekeeper Jimmy, you're going to make sure that you put one of

these stickers on every time you notice something good or bad that Maggie's

doing when it comes to the cats.

Maggie, stop hovering.

That's going to be hard for her.

And again, I'm going to have to keep this on the table, that when I come back

here next time, if it's just not looking good, we may have to find me another

home.

I'm nervous about the coming few weeks because if we don't have a positive

result, that would only mean rehoming me, and that's not what we want.

All right, I'm taking off.

Great to meet you.

Thank you very much. We have to make it work.

All right, I'm outside Jimmy and Maggie's house for my second visit with

and their cats, Riley and Mia. Now, Riley has FIV, a potentially deadly

deficiency disease, and one bite could mean a death sentence for Mia.

Last time I was here, Maggie's heart was breaking at the thought of rehoming

Mia. And all Jimmy wanted was a peaceful retirement.

I want you to help us. I can't leave this home knowing that Mia's in danger.

Now, all I'm hoping for this time around is we got these two cats getting

acclimated to each other even a little bit, because if they're not doing it, I

have to reiterate, rehoming Mia is still very much on the table.

Hey, Jimmy. How are you, man? Nice seeing you again.

Maggie, hi.

Hi, Jackson. Nice to see you again.

Welcome.

So, guys, you have been on my mind quite a bit.

Tell me, how are things going with Riley and Mia? Well, we have been doing your

homework, and the swapping is working really well. It is. She started roaming

around the house, and she loves it. She's really happy right now. Good,

Hearing that Mia is getting equal exposure to the house is huge. Not only

gaining more confidence not being locked up in the den, but she and Riley are

getting more exposure to one another's scent, which is essential in getting

these two cats reintroduced peacefully.

Good, good news.

Jimmy, the homework I gave you last time, you're already smiling because I

you the scorecard. The last time I was here, I gave Jimmy a golfing scorecard,

and I had him give Maggie birdies for good behavior and bogeys for bad

So let's take a look at what we got here.

All right. So, Maggie, if you can't be too happy about the bogeys I'm seeing.

I think he was being unfair.

I'm already being nice. We had a few arguments here and there. Well, the

hovering, they're still hovering.

Now the scorecard comes out and it shows that Jimmy believes that Maggie is

still hovering. And that worries me because we can't be putting nervous

into these cats when we're trying to peacefully reintroduce them. And that's

something we still have a lot of work to do on.

Let's take a look at what you guys recorded for me.

Whoa,

whoa, whoa, wait. Hold on.

Why are they eating on opposite sides of a gate? I never told you to do that.

You did that on one of your episodes. I thought it was great.

Yeah, but that's a...

different cat. Those cats didn't have FIV.

Maggie and Jimmy are playing with fire here. I mean, it's great that they're

taking advice from previous cases, but when you have a violent cat with FIV,

have to remember that advice isn't one size fits all. You had both cats maybe a

foot away from each other on opposite sides of that gate eat it, which it

doesn't get any more perfect than that. That's perfect.

Now, even though I didn't assign them the feeding exercise, it seems to be

working, so I want to see it for myself. But if I see one thing from Riley that

I don't like, then I am one step closer to rehoming Mia.

Well, hello, Mr. Riley.

There's Mia.

Come here. There you go.

Good boy.

Oh, there's Mia.

Riley took one look at Mia and started growling, and Mia knew she was in

and ran.

Now, this flimsy baby gate is being propped up against the wall. All it

Riley charging Mia, and it's over.

Mia, hi, love.

Jimmy, try to get him over here.

You want some food?

There you go, baby.

Let's go, Riley.

There we go. She's eating.

Good girl.

Come on, babies.

Come on.

There you go.

Good boy. There we go. That's what I want.

That's it.

Let him make that decision.

Yeah.

You go, Kat.

Yeah.

That's it.

Exactly right. Very nice.

Well, I was so happy that they're eating together. I couldn't be happier with

that. Yes, I just love it.

I'm feeling good about what I just saw. I mean, he chooses food over Mia. That's

encouraging. But we still have a lot of work left to do before these two cats

can be trusted in the same room together.

Let's not forget, Riley is FIV positive, and one bite could mean a death

sentence for Mia.

I did want to spend some time alone with Riley. Just check in with him. Come on

in, Jimmy.

Now look at that boy. He's got his harness on.

Very nice. Hi, Riley.

He is such a peaceful cat.

I'm going to take him up here for a second.

This boy could be like a poster child.

I mean, we put him out there as being like, this is the face of FIV.

Because when people think of FIV cats, they think of cats who will transmit

disease, you know, cause harm.

It brings out hysteria in people, you know, where they think that you can

it through the air, that if they lick your nose or, you know, if they rub up

against you, they can give it to cats and dogs and people.

We know.

Can't give it to people. Can't give it to dogs. And the only way the cats are

going to get it is what I call the death bite, right?

And that's all we got left here. But really, baby, you have got to be a

cat so you can be a poster child.

He is so adorable.

So here's what I want to do. For your homework, the hovering thing still

dominates a little bit.

I don't want to see any more scooping up of Riley, the hugging and kissing. That

doesn't happen. I know it's going to be hard.

Now, let's talk about the feeding.

I want you to step up the exercise itself.

When they start eating, I want you to pick the gate up a foot off the ground.

That's it.

Now, I may not have assigned that feeding exercise, but since we just saw

it could be done safely, I want to step it up and build on it. The next thing

I'm going to have you guys do, harness work. What I want you to do is I want

to be on a harness, for sure, but I also want her to be on a harness as well. I

want to see you do it every single day. If Riley's calm and Mia's controlled so

she's not darting around the room like prey, we have a chance at peacefully

reintegrating these guys with less attacks.

Now, I need to see this work, because with life and death still on the table,

can't leave this house if I still think she's in danger.

All right, guys, I will be back in a few weeks if you have any questions at all,

any concerns, any problems. You call me, okay?

Will do.

This homework needs to work because we really love to have Mia be part of our

family. We had a good day today, but the stakes are still there.

There's definitely no room for mistake because that's going to mean rehoming

Mia, and that's going to break my heart.

All right, I'm outside Maggie and Jimmy's house for my final visit with

their cats, Riley and Mia. Now, when I first met them, Riley, who has FIV,

wanted to kill Mia. And one bite from Riley could mean that Mia would contract

the disease.

But the thought of rehoming Mia was devastating to Maggie.

I want you to help her.

Now, in their video homework, I saw them working on the leash exercise and

raising the baby gate during the feeding exercise to get these cats more

acclimated to one another.

Now, today I'm hoping to see less hovering from Maggie and absolutely no

Riley infecting Mia with FIV.

Otherwise, rehoming is still very much on the table. Hi, Justin.

Welcome back.

Hey, Jimmy. How are you? Good to see you again. How you been?

So, tell me, how are things going with me and Riley?

No fights at all. Then we can throw a party. That's exactly what I wanted.

That's good news.

We're doing the side swapping every day. And, of course, the feeding too. But

the most effective piece of homework for me is the less hovering. I think it's

made Riley a much happier cat.

Everything that you're telling me is really positive.

So here's what I want to do. I want to get up. We're going to go to the living

room. We're going to get both cats, start with them on harnesses. Then we're

going to take those harnesses off.

Whoa.

Yeah, I need to see the two cats together in order to make a final

need to know that these guys can be in a room without Riley deciding that he's

got to kill Mia.

All right. Let's get in there. All right. Come on, guys, let's go.

We have to bear in mind what we're dealing with here, an aggressive cat who

FIV positive and a victim cat who is not. We have to make sure that Mia is

and I'm not going to leave here today until I'm 100 % convinced.

Come on. It's okay,

baby. You can sit on the floor with him.

So I'm going to have you start by starting to loosen up the harness pieces

little bit, okay?

Okay, you can go ahead and take that off, Jimmy.

What a good girl you are. I want to let her do what she's going to do because I

just need to see that Riley is not going to make the charge.

Now, at some point, Jimmy, you're just going to stop holding him with your left

hand. There you go. Keep petting. Keep petting.

That's it.

Now, get your hands off, please.

Let's just sit here.

Good girl.

Good girl.

Now I want to see what happens.

Now I want to see what happens.

It's okay.

And what's he going to do?

He's going to walk that way.

That's what we wanted.

That's it. You see that? You see that?

Man, that's good news. Riley is not interested at all in me right in front

him. But it just happened one time, and I want to make sure I didn't just get

lucky, so we're going to do it again.

We're going to hang.

Good girl. Now I want to see what happens when she walks away, because she

Okay, Riley.

Let's just sit here.

She's going to walk past him.

Look at that.

Good girl, Mia.

Come here, my sweet thing.

Now he's watching her. Here's the big test, right?

Mia, good girl.

You see that? You see that?

So I can't believe this.

That's it.

That's what I needed. Three times these cats have crossed paths.

Three times Riley's not going after her. Now I know things have substantially

changed in this house.

Fantastic. You.

are a champ, little girl.

There you have it. Do you see what's going on here? It's amazing.

I can't believe it. Oh, I'd like to see you happy.

I feel like right now we have an absolutely fine relationship between

cats, and I feel good.

You can breathe, huh? You can breathe? Are you breathing?

Are you breathing?

Now, what I saw today proves to me that this case is an absolute success.

Now that Mia and Riley don't have to compete for territory, for food, or for

their guardian's love, Mia's more confident, and Riley has no interest in

attacking her. Now, of course, I can't change the fact that Riley has FIV, so

Maggie and Jimmy will always need to supervise Riley around Mia, but I leave

here knowing today that they can cohabitate peacefully.

I feel like I can give you the news right now that I feel like you can keep

these two cats here. I really do. I think that it's going to be okay.

Make you happy?

Well, good. I like making you happy.

I really do.

When Jackson said we could keep Mia, I felt joy right away.

It was a great relief.

It was such a great relief.

I was so happy.

Take care. We are definitely very, very grateful to Jackson. If it wasn't for

Jackson, we wouldn't have a family together.

We're looking forward to a peaceful retirement.