Original subtitles

Daisy likes to attack people.

Dexter likes to attack Daisy.

Little... That's what they are. Daisy, she's no saint.

She pees blood all over our stuff.

And Dexter is just... We have a daughter named Chloe.

Chloe's gotten scratched a few times.

It makes me want to kill both of them. The idea of not having them here, that

kills me.

This is like the last straw for me.

Give her a text us once or twice a day.

It's not predictable. He has this odd affection for this bridge. And usually

can pet him here.

All of a sudden he'll just turn like that.

It's causing us a lot of tension.

Or he's always yelling at me and telling me how to change my behaviors.

He's got to be better or it's going to be gone.

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 to go see Chase and Maya about their cats Daisy and Dexter, who

are beating each other up constantly. Now, to make matters worse, they've got

young daughter, Chloe, who's getting in the mix. And believe me, I don't like

that one little bit.

So I'm going to go over there right now and see if there's any way to keep this

family together.

My name's Chase. My name's Maya.

And we've been married a little over three years.

We have a beautiful daughter named Chloe, who is almost two. We have two

Daisy and Dexter.

Dexter likes to attack Daisy.

Daisy likes to attack people.

The insanity that these two create inside of the house, it's my

personal hell.

Dexter is hunting Daisy, and Chase is hunting Dexter.

When Dexter attacks Daisy, she gets so stressed.

that she gets these inflammation problems and then she pees blood all

stuff, which I hide from him usually.

My husband definitely does not know that she peed on my Christmas present. He

would probably skin her and wear her as a hat.

I don't know. I didn't grow up in a household with animals at all.

Like, I grew up on a farm, so we definitely had arguments about the cat.

I have called the cats little...

He needs to have more patience, because I always have more patience for them.

Our daughter Chloe, she's gotten scratched a few times, and she's fallen

few times because they, like, run into her. That's upsetting for me.

It has definitely gotten to the point where it makes me want to kill both of

them.

I'm done with them.

I see my cats as part of my family, and the idea of not having them here, that

kills me.

I think that if Jackson can't help us... There's no thinking about that. Jackson

can't help us. This is like the last straw for me. The idea of them being in

shelter, let alone being put down, it kills me. I love them.

Hey, how are you?

Hey, it's Jason Jackson.

Nice to meet you. Hey, how are you? Good, how are you? I'm Maya. Hey, Maya.

Nice to meet you. And who is this? This is Chloe.

Hi, Chloe.

Yeah, hi.

Go play with Alex, bye -bye. Go play with your toys. How old is she?

She's going to be two.

She's adorable, man. Thank you. So, guys, tell me, what's happening here?

I'm sure we have cat mayhem. Yeah, a little bit.

Um, so we have two cats, Daisy and Dexter. Um, Dexter chases Daisy and,

tries to fight with her. And there's a lot of screaming and swiping and, um,

growling. Daisy goes to go use the litter box. Dexter will hunt her and,

just wait outside of it. And as soon as she comes out, she just mauls Daisy.

And then Daisy runs and pees on our laundry.

Oh. And she pees blood because she's so stressed. She does what? She pees blood.

Our vets checked her out.

And what?

He said that it's from stress. That's a lot of stress.

Yeah. How long has she been doing this?

Almost a year.

That freaks me out. I'm really concerned. As soon as I hear that Daisy

blood because of stress, I'm thinking rehoming.

Have you guys gotten beat up?

I have. And then Chloe's gotten in the middle a few times and had a few

scratches on her leg because she, like, ran through them. That must have put you

guys through the roof a little bit.

Yes. It's one thing to have two cats fighting all the time, but when you have

two -year -old child in the middle of that, the stakes get really high. She's

going to get hurt. She's going to get hurt bad.

What have you been doing in terms of keeping some peace in the house?

Because Daisy likes to pee on our stuff, especially if it seems to hit his

stuff, I always do the laundry so that he doesn't see the stains. Oh, wow.

I hide the stuff from Chase because he gets pretty upset when the cats destroy

his stuff. That's like bottom line, cats are out the door.

I can't.

put up with this anymore.

Dexter doesn't change. He's got to go, and that's where I'm at.

I always had a problem with people that rehomed their animals or turned them

back to shelters.

Wow, a lot of information from Maya and Chase about what's going on with Daisy

and Dexter, and obviously I want to get up and walk around the territory and see

where the fights happen. So where do they start?

Usually, Chloe will be over here playing, and the cats start fighting

They've run into her a few times. They've scratched her a few times. Like,

that's why I've kind of gotten to my wit's end, is because it's dangerous.

I'm really concerned right off the bat, because you've got this wide open space

there, and that's where Chloe's toys are, where she plays.

She doesn't know the difference between a cat and a toy, and the cats... Don't

know the difference between her and the other cats.

That's a recipe for disaster.

Let's take a look at this room for a second.

Chloe's going to wind up getting in the... What's that? That would be Dexter

Daisy. Okay, you guys hang out here. I'm going to go check this out, okay? So

I'm standing in the living room talking to Chase and Maya, and suddenly I hear a

fight, and immediately I want to see what's going on.

Come on, come on, come on.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Ow, ow, ow, ow.

I saw Daisy getting attacked by Dexter and then Daisy went running into the

bathroom where she got cornered by Dexter. But now the good news is, is

soon as I stepped in the middle of the two of them, Dexter retreated.

Come here, buddy. Come here, man.

It's okay, Dexter. Now I want to check in with each cat. I know, I know.

Okay,

just calm down.

Daisy's obviously still in a highly activated state. I went to pet her.

she's into action again. Now, Dexter, on the other hand, he didn't care.

It was as if it had never happened. And that tells me, Dexter, he doesn't want

to kill Daisy. It's play aggression from a teenager.

Maya and Chase have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to see these two

cats get along.

Look at every space in this home that represents ambush and dead end and make

into a cat superhighway. Find things like cat trees and shelving. Every place

that's an ambush zone has to either be blocked off or turned into a place on

superhighway. No more dead ends. We need to create a vertical world for Daisy

where she can feel safe and confident in her own home.

We're going to work on adding another litter box to the house, both litter

out in the open so Daisy can't ever get trapped.

We've got to make sure she can get out when she sees him coming. Remember, it's

all about Daisy's stress level and keeping it down. What I want to start

about is, Chase, your investment in Dexter.

I mean, I'm just completely detached from anything to do with him, really.

That's one of the first things we're going to have to turn around. That means

the play with Dexter specifically in order to wear him down to the point

there's more payoff with you than there is chasing Daisy.

I'm capable of doing that.

Here's the deal, though. When I come back here next time, if Daisy is still

peeing blood, we are going to reevaluate whether Dexter should be in this home.

And Daisy has to get checked out by a vet.

All I care about is what's good for her, you know, ultimately what's good for

Chloe, because she's not safe.

That is a guess.

All right, guys, I'm going to get moving.

The idea of not having Dexter, like, that killed me. That breaks my heart.

If Jackson Galaxy can't fix Dexter and Daisy, Dexter is gone.

It makes me really sad.

So I'm here for my second visit with Chase and Maya and their cats, Dexter

Daisy. Now, the violence between these two cats was so bad, you got one cat

peeing blood and you got Maya covering up the evidence because she doesn't want

Chase to kick them both out. And their cats are also endangering their

Chloe. I had a chance to watch Chase and Maya's video homework.

They've used cat trees and shelves to create a cat superhighway in the bedroom

and living room. Wow.

The new litter boxes with escape routes are out, and when you decrease ambush

zones, you increase your cat's confidence.

And best of all, Chase is playing with Dexter and wearing him out so he won't

tempted to use his energy stalking Daisy. Today, I'm hoping for no more

that Daisy is no longer peeing blood, and most importantly, that Chloe is

Fingers crossed.

Tell me, guys, what's going on here?

How are the cats?

Daisy really enjoys being up high and having more control over the situation.

Even to the point where she's kind of wiping back now.

Guys, that's incredible.

Daisy is fighting back. She's holding her ground. She's swatting at Dexter

he gets too close. The cat has found her confidence.

Hello, Miss Daisy.

So is she using the litter box? Mm -hmm. We haven't had any peeing on the

clothes. Whoa!

Stop! Stop!

I felt a lot less stressed. I'm not hiding laundry anymore. I'm not trying

get rid of stains.

I'm not. It's like off my shoulders.

Now, here's the big question.

Daisy, is she still peeing blood?

She still has some blood in her urine.

We've lowered her stress and there's still blood.

I feel like we're dealing with a medical issue here that needs to be diagnosed

by a vet.

Where's Chloe?

Chloe is at preschool.

She just started preschool.

Do you feel like Dexter is still a threat to her?

He can still be aggressive to the point where we don't want her to get tangled

up. Have there been fights?

But there have been. There still have been fights, yeah.

Okay. Okay. I need to know that.

If it doesn't get to a point where they're, like, fixed 100%, no fighting,

know, they got to go.

Chase is still at that place where one slip up and these cats are gone. Let's

get up and take a look around. That's bad for me because I got a really short

rope to work with.

Okay.

Nice. Love it.

Continuation of that superhighway. I got to tell you, there's no ambushing right

here. That's fantastic.

Here's Daisy. What we're going to try to do is try to lead her up to the

promised land.

What I want to do is test Daisy's vertical confidence. I want to see if

higher she gets, the more her cat mojo comes out.

Make a jump. Good girl.

There we go.

Now can you get up here, baby?

Oh, bang!

There we go. All the way to the top.

Now, if you could grab Dexter, that would be great.

This is a nice contained area to try and experiment in. The last time I was

here, I saw Dexter viciously go after Daisy. And this time, I'm just hoping to

see the two of them in the same room without bloodshed. And it's not just

important that I see this. It's important that Shay sees it, too,

false move and he'll rehome them. We have Daisy. I want to see what happens

she gets a little lower in the world.

Now, just wait. Here she comes.

One more step.

I don't like how Dexter's fixating on her.

Wait to see what happens.

Watch this moment here.

Now, what are you going to do?

That says a thousand words right there.

See, she's not even looking at him anymore. And let me just interpret body

language. She points at her ears at him as if to say, you got something?

He's like, no, actually I don't. She just saunters down the highway, staring

Dexter down. He moves out of her way.

Her confidence in sending a message. She doesn't feel like being Dexter's play

toy right now.

Now that she's catified this area, she has such a better world.

It was amazing seeing someone you love accomplish something.

I thought it was really cool.

Right? It was so cool.

Okay, cool. I'm not the only one. Look at you. I'm stoked. I mean, watching

like, face her fears and be able to master that, it's just so awesome.

On the surface, everything looks great, but we're not 100 % there. I mean, Daisy

still can't sit on the floor with Dexter, and most importantly, Daisy is

peeing blood.

There's something very wrong here.

Now the first thing I want to do is I want to get this cat to the vet. They're

going to work until they find what's wrong with her.

Something's wrong in this cat's body. We've got to deal with that. Next thing

we're going to do is have you guys continue with the work you just saw me

which is getting her working that superhighway. We have to give Daisy as

escape angles as we possibly can so she can get out and get away from Dexter.

I've got one more thing for you guys. Hold on one sec.

All right. Alrighty then.

So what I've got here is all kinds of self -activated toys.

But once you get them going, they go by themselves.

Because Dexter's a young cat with endless energy, I brought in some self

-activated toys for them. Things that they can put around the house just to

Dexter something to direct that attention on that's not Daisy.

Call me with questions, okay? Thank you so much. All right.

To be honest, right now I'm almost feeling kind of nervous, like my back is

against the wall, because I feel like we've exhausted every option. I mean, we

have Jackson Galaxy in our house trying to fix this problem. Like, we have done

everything that we can think of.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

What year was cat litter invented?

Was it A, 1936, B, 1947, or C, 1958?

The answer is B, 1947.

Before 1947, ashes and sand were used in cat boxes.

Edward Lowe suggested that a neighbor of his start using clay instead, which was

much more absorbent than sand and much cleaner than acid.

I'm here for my final visit with Chase and Maya, their daughter Chloe, and

two cats, Daisy and Dexter.

Now, the first time I met these guys, the violence between Daisy and Dexter

off the charts. Chloe, their two -year -old daughter, was getting caught in the

middle. And Daisy was peeing blood and urine all over the house, and Chase was

ready to send both cats packing. So today, I want to make sure that Daisy

seen a vet and that the bloodshed has finally ended. Hey, how are you? Good to

see you. Good to see you. How have you been?

I've been good.

Yeah? Well, the most important thing I can ask you is, since the last time I

here, any attacks, any ambushing?

You know, there are no more attacks.

There's no more aggression.

He's not cornering her. He's not hunting her. He's not predatory.

Fantastic.

Really, that's great news.

It's so much better. When Dexter gets excited now, we see that when that

goes up, grab a toy, intervene.

So you're able to redirect his play aggression from his target onto a good

target. And the huge change, too, with that is Daisy's involvement from that

time we distract Dexter.

It's like she's jumping right in and playing as well. Are you serious? Oh,

The fact that there's no fighting, I mean, it's huge.

Whoa. Right off the bat, fantastic news. I mean, there has been no aggression,

no attack.

They have reestablished their relationship together, and it's because

Maya and Chase have been doing.

Cool. Thank you. Kind of crazy.

Love it.

Of course, I still want to look at your video homework, so here we go. Oh, my

God! Two happy kitties.

Dexter and Daisy are sharing space on top of a cat tree. That kind of thing

you only dream about.

Got to be nice to have him back with you on this one, yeah? Absolutely. It's

hard being a single pet parent.

It is.

It is, I know.

Daisy at the vet.

I know, you're okay, little...

She's got stones in her bladder. Oh, my God. I seriously can't believe what I'm

seeing. Daisy's bladder is literally filled with stones. Now, there are

factors that could help cause this. I mean, from dietary factors to genetic

factors to the leftovers from a urinary tract infection.

It doesn't really matter. The bottom line is that Daisy's blood in her urine

not caused by stress. It was caused by these stones.

Oh my, she must have been in the worst pain.

So that means that we're looking at surgery.

We're trying right now, diet first, to try to dissolve the stones.

Yeah, with that many, I mean... Just waiting for these stones to dissolve

take a long time.

Now, I realize that surgery's expensive, but with all the days he's been

through, one more day of this kind of pain is too much. In my mind, it was

this diet better work, because spending $2 ,000 is like, I don't know how I can

justify doing that.

I do still want to get up, walk around, but most of all, I just want to hang out

with these cats, man. So let's just start in here. Come on. I got to see

two cats in the same space, sharing it, playing.

No. sign an attack fine i can leave this house happy we have success so uh

there's dexter there's daisy let's get some boys out get them over here man oh

what is that look at daisy daisy's just taking the space dexter's hanging back a

little bit he is interested only in that toy and chase you are playing with

dexter which i could not have expected the first day i got here Now, Daisy,

let's break it down for a second. She jumps down into the middle of the floor.

She takes the middle of the territory to play, while Dexter hangs out on the

side. Role reversal.

Completely different. She is a changed cat. She's more secure, more confident,

and that's a happy cat.

Who do we have here?

You say hi.

Hi, Chloe.

How are you, baby?

I want to play with the kitty.

Yeah, we want to play with kitties. Yeah. You want the toy?

How are you feeling in terms of Chloe's safety?

The ability just to have them in the same space playing together like we've

doing speaks volumes to me. Chloe interacts with them, and I'm not worried

anymore.

I'm not. Yay.

Yeah. I don't think about getting rid of him anymore.

I don't call him the little b**** anymore.

The birth of a cat guy.

Yeah. We recruited another one.

The fact that he was able to come in and take someone who...

didn't like animals very much, didn't like the cats, and was wanting to get

of them, and transforming into this, into someone who actually kind of calls

himself a cat guy, that's huge.

We can't thank you enough.

Daisy's life, ultimately, and Dexter's home. So that's so good to hear. But

here's the thing. You guys have put in so much work. I'm going to help you out

with this surgery, okay? And we're going to find a way to make this happen. Oh,

thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for everything. You're welcome. You're welcome. You guys

deserve it. Thank you. You deserve it.

You guys deserve all the happiness with these cats.

All right, guys, on that note.

I'm leaving, okay. Tell me what's going on with Daisy. I want to hear. We will.

Thank you.

Bye -bye. Bye.

Say bye, Chloe. Bye, Chloe.

Bye, baby.

Now, even though we know Daisy has bladder stones, I know we can take care

that quickly. I've got a vet friend who's going to step in and help us out

It's the least I could do.

So after my last visit, Chase and Maya sent me a video message of all their

progress. Hi, Jackson.

So we're here today at VIP that already married Thursday, waiting for Daisy to

go back for her surgery.

Hi, I'm Pedro Cisneros, but married.

Here's her little stitches.

She's waking up well.

It's such a relief to be able to walk past the letterbox down and not see

and not be afraid to look in there.

So cool.

Thank you so much, Jackson, for everything, for restoring peace to our

sanity for me and helping Deezy get back to her old self. We could never thank

you enough.

Anytime, Maya, anytime.

I love it when a case comes together. I love it.

Give her a text us once or twice a day.

People are deathly afraid of our cat.

He's got to be better or he's going to be gone.

Well,

I'm

here in Austin.

I'm going to go see Corey and Sarah.

Corey gave Sarah a giver for her birthday.

Considering that boy will draw blood at any chance he gets.

Man, he's one gift Corey would love to give back.

I'm Sarah.

And I'm Corey.

We've been married for a couple years, but we've been together for 10 years.

I love a cat that's aggressive.

All of a sudden, he'll just turn like that.

And go crazy and start to bite.

He bit my cheek pretty bad.

Ow! Ow!

He's a nightmare with guests and visitors, and we'll lash out at them

forcefully. And now people are deathly afraid of our cat.

This is not predictable.

This is the spot where he'll not attack, but where he's weak.

He has this odd affection for this bridge, and usually you can pet him

have no idea what it is.

Corey and I have very different perspectives on how to handle his

Corey is always yelling at me and telling me how to change my behaviors.

So what are you doing right now? You're playing.

He's telling you no.

It's been a big problem. I mean, we had a lot of fights. It's causing us a lot

of tension.

I have my theories about just giving them space.

I go in and I'm like, nuzzle, nuzzle, you're so sweet, I love you. And then

it's, there's bitten.

We don't agree. We don't see the eye to eye.

I'm not the type of person that wants to give a cat up.

It would break my heart. I would rather get rid of him, especially if he's

continuing to be antagonistic towards us.

Hey. Hi.

How are you, Jackson? Good. Nice to meet you, Sarah. Good to meet you, Sarah.

Hey, Jackson. Corey, hi. Corey, good to meet you. Yeah, thanks for coming.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, tell me what's going on here.

Just over two years old. He's been biting since we got him.

And he's aggressive and really bad.

And like even when you try to walk away, he's going to lunge.

He's bad.

He seems to be a lot more aggressive when friends aren't around.

He bounces and attacks or like jumps out at our friends.

It's one thing to get scratched. We've seen that a million times. But once we

get into bite territory, it's a whole other level.

80 % of all cat bites get infected, and that's because their teeth can inject a

bacteria called Pastorella. Then you wind up in a hospital with antibiotics

running through your system.

I leave him alone when he starts to show signs of being aggressive.

Sarah's a little bit more persistent with trying to get him to calm down by

physically touching him or by petting him or whatever.

You guys are obviously coming from a completely different place.

So I learned really quickly that these two are not on the same page when it

comes to how they treat Giver.

Neither approach has clearly worked.

I would rather get rid of him, but we're not in agreement about getting rid of

the cat.

Like it caused a lot of stress between us.

I don't want to lose him.

Okay. All right. What I want to do is first to have you guys point out all the

places in the territory that he tends to go after people. Let's just get up.

Start walking around.

Okay, so, guys, where are the problems in the house?

He kind of camps out under here a lot when we've got guests over, and that's

where he pops out.

So as they're coming through the door, you mean?

Giver is obviously a cat with violence issues, but he's also a cat with

territorial issues because he shows aggression to anybody who comes into his

home. This is the spot not where he'll attack, but where he's sweet.

It's only sweet here?

No. Like, you can pet him here. He's been really interested in the fridge.

He'll rub up against the table. He'll rub against the door.

He'll try to get in it. Let me get this right. Your wine cooler here, if he's

here, he's cool? Mm -hmm. That is a new one on me.

Now, I'm trying to figure out this whole wine cooler thing, and it's not making

any sense.

I mean, is it the pitch of the hum of the thing? Is it the coolness of it?

I don't know. Now, I could spend hours trying to figure this one out, but the

first thing that I have to do is meet Giver.

Okay, buddy boy.

Let's see when we get to know each other.

What do you say?

Immediately, I could tell the giver saw me as a threat. I mean, not only were

his eyes dilated, they were literally bulging out of his head. He was ready to

explode. And you and I are going to have a moment.

Yes.

Be cool.

Ow! Okay, come here, buddy.

Ow!

Ow, dude!

Ow!

Instantly, game on, lunging.

I had to see how Giver would react as a stranger.

He's pushing my challenge line, and I came in there to push his.

When Giver bit me, that was him saying, do you understand my language? Get away

from me. Oh, God, you got me good.

Now my next job is to see if he can recover. Can he trust me? Can he accept

things from me as well?

Or am I dealing with a neurological problem?

If I can just get Giver to play, then I know that I can work with him.

What is that?

What is that?

What is that?

Good boy.

at how you switch gears. Good boy.

Giver turned around, immediately accepted me as a playmate when, before I

dinner. That was fantastic.

We can strike out neurological problems.

Giver's a territorially insecure cat, and Cory and Sarah's different ways of

handling him are just increasing those insecurities.

If these two keep this up, one of them's going to wind up in the hospital from a

nasty bite.

I'm telling you, I got a lot of work to do with the humans as well as Giver.

Now, first thing, here.

It's our gold star jar, and this is your homework.

What I'd like you to do is just write cards out. With cards, you're going to

have tasks.

It could be, you know, give love the way you do it, or it could be brushing.

I want them to write down activities they can do with Giver, and then each

they're going to pick a card and engage Giver as a couple. This exercise is key

to getting everyone on the same page.

And this boy needs to play.

He's not getting enough play. The play has to happen every day. Then let's talk

about this wine cooler.

Here's the thing.

I'm still not sure what it is that attracts him so much to it.

So what I want to do is recreate that, bring it out into the center of the

I want you to build like a cat jungle gym. I still don't know what it is about

that wine fridge that attracts Giver, but I do know that I want Corey and

to recreate it in a socially significant area.

Then I want you to bring people over here, okay?

But you don't have to say, don't touch Giver. Just let him hang out with you,

okay? You guys are going to get to work.

And I will see you real soon, okay?

Sounds good. Great to meet you. Good to meet you. Good to meet you, buddy. We'll

talk to you soon, all right? If all these things don't work, I think we're

to have to have bigger decisions made about him.

He's got to be better or he's going to be gone.

I'm back in Austin. I'm outside Sarah and Cory's house for my second visit

them and their cat, Giver. Now, the first time I was here, I was dealing

couple who were not on the same page when it comes to how they treat Giver.

Giver's violence was off the charts. I mean, he tore me up.

Now,

I watched the video homework, and I did get to see Cory and Sarah playing with

Giver and trying to focus his energy on an appropriate target.

I also saw Giver on his jungle gym. Now, what I wanted was for that to be a safe

place, like the wine fridge, which was the one place that he felt calm. And

enough, I was right. Giver loves it. The one thing I didn't see was the gold

star jar exercise, and that was key to getting Corey and Sarah on the same

Now, that concerns me because Corey made it clear that if Giver doesn't shape

up, he's out.

Hey, Sarah.

Hi. How are you? Good. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Hey, man. How you

doing, Corey? Good. How are you? I'm great. Thank you so much.

Tell me, what's been happening here?

We've had a couple of visitors since we've last been here.

And the first visitor was pretty much aggressively stalked and attacked.

And the second visitor, by the time we had been able to do our homework

assignments, was...

A little bit different, a little bit better, I think. Good.

There were a couple times where he jumped out and batted at her legs, but

was no biting.

All right, good, good.

What did you guys do specifically that got him to that point?

We set up the jungle gym, and we've been playing with him a lot.

Did you get him to that point where he was just like, I've had it, I'm done?

Maybe once or twice we wore him out, but for the most part he wanted to keep

playing. What I want is literally panting.

Like, I want him done.

Hmm. A really important component was play.

And they said they've been playing with him a lot, but they can't tire him out.

That's code, if you ask me, to we're not playing with him enough.

I gave you guys the gold star jar last time I was here. Try to get you guys on

the same page. Tell me about that.

So we have been using the gold star jar zero.

The idea was to put action oriented tasks in the jar. You pull it out and

guys would have to do the same thing. You basically wanted them on the same

communicative page.

If people like this don't do their homework, when I come all the way from L

to Austin and they just blow it up, they decide that it's not important. It's an

insult to me today.

We're going to walk around the space again because we still have a sense. Is

territorial? Is it play? Is it something else completely?

We also have two of our friends coming.

Fantastic. All right, so let's start right over there. Come on.

First of all, lovely.

I love this thing so much. This is a great replacement for the wine cooler,

guys. As we explore the vertical space, I think we're going to find...

There's a knock at the door. These are the friends that Giver had terrorized in

the past when they were pet sitting. I couldn't wait to hear from them. I'm

Jackson. Hi, nice to meet you. Hi, I'm Amy.

These guys have had a bad experience with this cat.

So first it was Kristen's turn. Take me sort of step by step through what

happened. I got his food out of the refrigerator.

That's when he lunged at me. At this point I was kind of afraid. I hooked my

booty up on the counter.

I stimulated across.

Are you kidding me? It's hard for me because this whole experience that

is relaying to me is funny.

But you start thinking about the insane things that people do around their cats.

I went to the restroom.

He started coming at me. I picked up the rug at the front door and held it in

front of me as he's lunging at me. Got my purse and I left.

From these firsthand stories from both Kristen and Amy.

This is Giver Territorially Aggressive. I'm going to give you guys some

homework. You guys will come back over here, interact with Giver, and you guys

will video it for me? Yes. Okay. I want a trust accent, but going in to see

Giver makes my heart race. Like, it makes me sweat.

Thanks for coming, guys. Thanks. I think it's really important for Kristen and

Amy to go through the homework, not just because it gives Giver a chance to

change, but it gives their friends a chance to heal from their traumatic

experiences. Now it was time to spend some time with Giver. I'm hoping it goes

better this time.

Hi.

How's it going, mister?

The last time I was here, Giver beat me up pretty good.

So today, I need to see more progress.

I got tuna, and I'm just going to sit here with you.

Come on.

Ow! Giver's swats are more like warnings that he needs more time and space to

warm up to me, so I'm going to hang back and hope I see more progress, because

otherwise we're in big trouble.

Hey, buddy, buddy.

Hey.

It's okay.

Good boy.

Come here, please.

Come here, please.

That's a good boy.

That's worth a thousand words right there, isn't it?

That's worth a thousand words, isn't it?

Giver just rubbed up against me. Are you kidding me? I mean, just a few minutes

ago he was attacking me, and now he's rubbing up against me. He's basically

complimenting his scent with mine, saying, I own you, in a very loving way.

I just cannot wait to tell Corey and Sarah what just happened. Let me tell

what I...

understand about his language right now.

Territorially completely insecure.

That we kind of get, right?

But he's giving us the keys to his language.

When Giver seems nervous, you need to leave him alone. But when he's acting

violent, that's when you need to redirect his aggression with play. But

things first, we need to get you both on the same page.

That brings us back to the gold star jar. I'm going to give this to you

It's all about understanding his language.

Another piece of your homework, I wanted your friends to come back in again.

They will sit on the couch, a toy, a treat, something will come out to make

think that every time he goes in the living room, good things happen.

The other part of understanding his language is play aggression.

That's to tell you you're not playing hard enough with him. When he's pooped,

can promise you he's not going to come after you that way.

All right, guys, I'm off to L .A. Any questions at all? You call me, right?

Sounds good. Great to see you again. This is pretty much our last -ditch

to help out with givers, so if this really doesn't work, then I think we'll

out of options at that point.

I would rehome him. I don't know what else we would do.

So I'm here in Austin for my final visit with Corey and Sarah about their cat,

Giver.

This cat has a violent past, just carving them up and their friend.

Corey said that if Giver doesn't shape up, he's out. So hopefully these guys

on the same page about how to treat him.

Hey, Jackson. What's up, Corey? How you doing, man? If they follow their

homework this time, I hope I'm going to see a different cat, but you never know.

How have things been?

How's life with Giver?

Has he attacked you or your friends since the last time I was here?

He has not been vicious.

Seriously,

that's a huge deal. Last night we had two people over. He was actually

He was kind of rubbing up on our legs.

What? Yeah, he was as friendly as he's ever been with our friends over. Wow.

Gibber's not only not attacking, he's actually rubbing up against people. He's

letting them know that they're friendly, he owns them, he can keep moving on.

He doesn't have to challenge anymore.

We've been playing with Giver and keeping him active and having re

-territorialized the room and the space as well as giving him a lot of different

areas that he can call his own. We're still diverting his aggression when he

starts to show aggression towards us. Good work.

Jackson helped us learn Giver's language and I'm very happy that... we got the

help that we ultimately needed.

As always, I have your video document. So let's watch to see what you guys have

been doing.

Hi!

How are you?

I saw that friend Kristen come over and engage Giver with a toy to make him

think that every time he goes in the living room, good things happen.

Oh, nice move.

Nice move.

Giver actually, like... Is she really hand -feeding him? Uh -huh. Wow!

Now she's learned Giver's language. And for her, that's big.

So proud of him.

This is the jar that you gave us. We're communicating better.

Fantastic. And finally, I saw Corey and Sarah using the gold star jar, working

together to provide Giver with that stable home life, which is key to his

success. Corey, what do you think I should do?

Petting him or leave him alone?

He's obviously nervous.

Leave him alone. I'm going to leave him.

Look at that.

Got you speaking cat.

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

Immediately, when I get out into the living room, I see Giver poking his head

out from between the furniture. Now, when I first got here, Giver was only

friendly near the wine fridge, which was off of the corner and away from other

people. So, before I leave here today, I need to see Giver feeling comfortable

out in the middle of the room.

Then I'll know he's a changed cat.

I kind of want to get in here, so I'm going to grab a toy out of here, and I'm

just going to see what I can do for him.

Oh, hi.

Hi, babe. Oh, hi.

Come here, my boy.

What is that?

What is that?

Good boy.

Look at what we got there.

Let me just tell you something. The first day I met him, do you know how

this was?

Yes.

What a good boy you are.

What is that?

What is that? Oh, I know. We have all kinds of fun stuff for you.

How are you feeling?

Feeling great. This is incredible.

I love it. I am so happy right now. From the living room, you can see Giver's

ultimate exit route.

Hey, buddy boy.

Look at that.

Giver has found a new, beautiful piece of real estate. I love this, guys.

got this wonderful world out here. We've got a bed.

That's a beautiful fountain.

And it is increasing his sense of ownership of this entire place and that

place by giving him this space.

I mean, it's gorgeous out here, man.

This is a really nice area. And, I mean, beautiful cat TV, right? We've got

trees, squirrels, birds.

The whole nine yards, man.

It couldn't be better. And I think what you guys did is fantastic, and clearly

he loves it out here. So, yeah, I honestly think that it couldn't be a

space for him. It really couldn't be. And I noticed watching him walk out

even though he's looking like this, he's looking around, his tail is totally

still. He's absolutely focused. And that's when you know the giver is okay.

I mean, again, when we talk about giver's language, If his tail's moving,

not okay.

He's still, he is confident, and life is okay. So at least you know what you're

looking for.

Having Giver go out on the balcony keeps his attention firmly on what's going on

out there, squirrels, birds, whatever.

His tail doesn't move. He's completely focused. Now these guys see what Giver

needs in order to be confident, and that is a still body. So I love it out here.

And obviously, I mean, when you talk about the nature of catapying, It's a

really human -friendly area. This is beautiful out here.

Fantastic. And I also love the fact that he's got in -out. As long as this door

is open, this is just a continuation of that. Your territory just got that much

bigger, and so does his.

Okay, this is fantastic. I mean, how fortunate you guys are to have this

beautiful...

addition to the territory it really it makes him that much more calm so great

the first day i meet giver the guy is wedged behind the couch he's petrified

me and today he's grounded comes out to the middle of the room he's friendly

he's secure it's a different cat all the way around out in the open like this

with people around this is incredibly rare i don't think he's ever done this

Bang! From the beginning, I was a little bit skeptical about how Jackson was

going to help, but in the end, we're really happy with the progress he's made

and really happy not to have to resort to measures like getting rid of him or

rehousing him. Well, guys, it's been fantastic.

You've done wonderful work, and I think you're going to be great.

Jackson would have told us that by the end, Giver was going to come out and

friendly and be around all our friends. I probably wouldn't have believed it.

All right. You guys take care.

It's made us a happier little family.