Original subtitles

We have a cat named Toss who's making our life a living nightmare.

Ow!

Ow! I have a daughter, Annette, who is nine, and she doesn't treat her very

well.

He scares me.

Toss!

He growls at her, hisses at her. We're here hoping that we can fix him,

otherwise I'd like to throw him off my balcony.

Our cat, Vincent, pees in my house and just generally runs a rocket.

Vincent wants to escape all the time. He has cried from almost every window in

the house. It's not Vincent's fault. Kotar makes excuses for Vincent all the

time.

Vincent has been journeying in my studio, and I'm at the point now I want

wring his little neck.

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 Andy and Alyssa, and Alyssa's cat, Tosh. Now, since

Andy moved in with his nine -year -old daughter, They're both getting

by Tosh, who he calls a demon cat and wants to move out. So I'm going to head

over right now, see if I can change Andy's mind and change Tosh's way.

Hi, my name is Andy, and this is my girlfriend Alyssa.

We've been together a year and a half, and we have a cat named Tosh who's

our life a living nightmare.

Ow!

I adopted Tosh three years ago when he was a baby.

He was kind of a piece of fire, too.

Me moving in, but then he just became a demon cat.

He will attack, scratch, bite, he hisses, growl.

I have a daughter, Annette, who is nine, and he doesn't treat her very well.

The worst attack I saw Tosh do was he scratched Annette right across the eye

once. That could have been a pretty serious injury.

Every time I, like, see him, he scares me.

He growls at her, hisses at her.

I don't want him to scratch or hurt my daughter. He did it once, and that was

enough. It's not safe to have Annette around Tosh, and I don't feel like any

us are really safe here. As far as I'm concerned, he could go live in the cat

shelter, be fine with me.

If something's not working, just get rid of it.

I don't want to get rid of him. I think I rescued him for a reason, and I would

like to see it through and make sure that he's got a good home.

Tosh? Jackson, I would like you to fix Tosh.

I love Catskill. I hope Jackson will help Tosh and make him a friendly cat.

Hey. Hi. I'm Jackson.

Melissa, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. How are you? Good.

Andy. Andy, I'm Jackson.

You must be Annette. Yeah. Good to meet you. Good to meet you, too.

Now, I hear that Tosh is attacking Annette.

Yeah. Our cat, Tosh, he is a little demon.

He bites, he scratches, he hides pretty much 24 hours a day, and he goes into

attack mode.

Would he like this since the day you got him? I mean, he never really took a

liking to me from the beginning.

And we've had him for two and a half years.

Wow. I think the breaking point was when he became very aggressive and started

scratching Annette.

Every time I go near him, he'll start hissing and start scratching. It scares

that he does that.

I never want to see a nine -year -old girl get caught in the crossfire here

a cat that's potentially dangerous.

So the key here is, can I get a nine -year -old girl to coexist with

a mean cat?

He sounds completely feral to me. This kind of total aversion to humans, and

only barely get him to tolerate you.

It's heartbreaking, you know. Now, obviously, I haven't met Tosh yet, but

more I learn about Tosh, the more convinced I am that he's indeed a feral

This ups the stakes just that much more in this case, because in my experiences,

it is rare for a feral cat, especially one this age, to live with humans

successfully. But I'm not giving up hope yet.

How did you get him? Through a shelter?

I adopted him from a rescue agency. He had been with a foster parent for a

couple of months.

He's a creepy cat. He's a demon.

He's a jackass.

I don't like being around him. I'm hoping that we can get rid of him.

Say no.

Why do you say no?

Because I believe that he can be better.

You can't just give away a cat because it's mean.

I believe he can be nice.

Okay, if you believe he can be nice, then I believe he can be nice, too. I

to meet Tosh to gauge how bad he really is, but I do have some faith that this

cat can be fixed, especially because Annette, the one who's getting attacked,

told me she sees good in him.

So, guys, we have a lot of work in front of us, clearly.

Let's meet Tosh. All right, come on, let's go.

Okay, so what's so important about this room?

Tosh spends most of his time here when Annette's not home. When she's here, I

kick him out of the room. Okay.

I know he's more scared than I am of him.

Yeah. What if I talk to Annette for a little bit longer?

All right, guys.

Excuse us, then. I wanted to talk to Annette alone because right now she is

only one on Tosh's side.

So tell me how Tosh acts around you because I need something from you,

He, like, stares at me.

When he's staring at you, are his eyes big or are they...

Little. They're big. They're big.

Does he scrunch back?

He does.

Okay, that's good stuff. That's what I needed. I learned so much from Annette.

When Tosh stares at her, his eyes are dilated. His body scrunched back. That

tells me he's afraid of her. He's not out to get Annette.

Somewhere inside him, I know he's good.

Yeah, well, me too.

I like to have cats that will play with me, snuggle with me.

So I hope Tosh will be friends with me.

So I'm going to spend some time with him by myself.

My job is to help save cats. I always try to believe in the good.

Hi, Tosh.

I need to spend time with Tosh. I need to see if he's really a scared cat or

that malicious jerk cat that Andy's made him out to be.

Buddy, if you don't mind, I'd like to come in and say hi to you.

Now, listen, I've got to find out if you're feral or not, okay?

Now, I need to determine if Tosh is a feral cat or not because that's going to

determine how I work with him. All right, I'm going to come in a little

okay? Feral cats are really tricky because most of the time they can't be

I'm hoping that's not the case with Tosh.

Can I say hi to you? Is it all right?

It's only a hand. Wow.

Look at that look on your face right now.

I hear you.

If I come in here, is it okay?

How much farther back are you going to go, man?

All the way back. Look at that, man.

That is the feral cat I've been looking for.

Can I touch?

Ow! It's okay, man.

Damn it.

Ow!

Ow! Ow!

Message sent. I see fear.

Suddenly his eyes go all saucer -eyed. He's looking for escape through

peripheral vision. He wants out of there. He is backing himself further and

further into the corner. These are all signs of a feral cat.

Ow!

So by the time he did strike out, it was hard, it was fast, it was with claws

out, and his teeth, I didn't even see them coming when they hit me.

I gotta go talk to your people. I am seeing nothing but fear.

I think that all of our homework is based around who is Tosh? Because I know

don't know what his story is. I don't think. Is he a scared, more feral cat?

Or is he an angry...

More house cat, more domesticated cat. I don't know yet. I see him in that room.

He seems feral.

Just because he was born feral doesn't mean the end plan. I believe that he can

still become a part of this house. However, all this makes the challenge

much harder because of where they come from and because of their previous

experience with humans.

Now, our role in figuring out who Tosh is.

Annette, this starts with you. I'm going to have you do what I call feral story

time. I want you to draw the story.

of you and Tosh. Then, every day, spend just a little bit of time reading the

book with him in the room. Use the nicest voice you've got. And that nice

is something he's going to learn to associate.

Okay? Alyssa, your job is to supervise Farrell's story time. Okay.

I need Tosh to get more comfortable around Annette, and I need Annette to

more time with Tosh in a non -threatening manner. Also, I need Alyssa

reconnect with Tosh, and what better way to do that than to witness the love and

faith that Annette has for this cat?

Andy, your homework. I'm going to leave with you a few toys to determine can he

respond at all to positive human interaction. I want Andy to spend more

with Tosh, and I need to see if Tosh will accept positive human interaction

playtime. I also need to see if Tosh is feral or not. Now, based on what I saw

today, he seems pretty feral to me. Now, if he is feral, there's no way that I

can make him into some domesticated cat. But I can teach Alyssa, Andy, and

Annette how to make his life better. I got homework, too.

I need to actually find out what his story is. I got to know where he came

I got to talk to his foster parents, okay?

So if you can give me that info, I'm going to give him a call.

All right, bye, guys. Bye, thank you.

The steaks are still...

pretty high with Tosh because if we go through all this work and that doesn't

work, I prefer that we cut our ties.

I'm outside Andy and Alyssa's house for my second visit with them, their

daughter Annette and their cat Tosh.

Now, the last time I was here, both Alyssa and Andy were ready to send Tosh

packing, and the only one holding out hope for Tosh was Annette. Now, I

their video homework, and I saw Andy playing with Tosh, and I could only hope

that he's starting to form some kind of a bond with him. I also saw Alyssa

supervising Annette during feral story time. Now, this exercise was key for

getting Annette more comfortable around Tosh and getting Alyssa more trusting of

Tosh around Annette.

I also did my homework and called Tosh's foster mom, and I found out that Tosh

was feral after all.

All right, take care. Bye -bye. This gives me the info that I've been looking

for. I mean, it's going to take a lot of hard work, but there is huge reward in

managing this feral cat, not only for the human, but also for this cat.

Hey, Andy. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Hey, guys.

Well, good to see you guys.

I've got to know, I've been thinking about this. How are things going with

Good. We've been seeing some really good progress with Tosh. Okay, what? He

hasn't been hiding as much, which is amazing.

Yeah, that is amazing.

His attitude is improving, and Nett's making an effort, and as a whole, our

health feels so much better, and I think that Tosh sees that, and that is being

reflected back in his new attitude, too. I've been able to play with Tosh and

pet Tosh without Alyssa around.

Do you see?

Yeah, it's great. It's still 50 -50 -ish. Like, he's still, but the progress

there, and that's really awesome. I was going to say, 50 -50 for this cat is not

what I was expecting.

Originally, when Jackson came here, I thought that Tosh was a little bit of a

jackass, but, you know, I've seen some great progress in him since, and I'm

happy to see that he's capable of being nice.

What else? Tell me more.

I kind of, I want to pet him, but then I just take my hand back because I'm

scared he's going to bite me. The progress with Annette and him.

I think it's still at like 10 % of what it could be in comparison to where I'm

at. Andy expressed a little bit of disappointment when it came to story

need him to move past that and look at the fact that we've seen progress.

We've got a new beginning here. I found out some amazing information about Tosh.

I talked to his foster mom, and he is the feralest feral. She told me that she

took him home, socialized him, he was doing okay, and then he reverted

completely. He had to start from square one.

It's in his bones.

It's not to trust human beings.

Knowing that, does it change the way you see him?

Well, you know, the last time you were here and mentioned that, he could be.

That was the only thing that made sense to me, but I'm still worried about NS

safety.

All right.

Lots of work ahead of us. So, Annette, come with me. I want to show you an

exercise I find really helpful with feral cats.

Both Alyssa and Andy are really guarded in their optimism because they don't see

a lot of progress between Annette and Tosh. And if I don't have their buy -in,

can't guarantee that Andy's not going to remove the cat from his house for the

safety of his daughter.

Now, we got Tosh over there in the corner.

Now, what we want to do is somehow we want to get him to know that your voice

a really good thing.

Okay? And so you're reading to him, and you're trying to make him go to sleep.

So it's like a lullaby, right?

And so I want you to also, when you're reading, every now and again, look over

to him and see if he's listening to you. You're talking to him.

Exactly. I want you to talk to him. All right?

Hi, buddy. See, like I just talked to him?

Hi, Todd.

Hi.

Okay. Here we go.

Bedtime story.

Toss the Rock Star.

It was a Friday night when there was a show. It was Toss the Rock Star.

He was a guitar playing maniac.

His agent Marley was such a princess.

Marley and Toss were friends since they were kittens.

They always worked together and if one of them were sick, not feeling good, or

even lazy, they would cancel a show.

They were getting ready when a crazed fan jumped in their dressing room.

She said, O -M -G, it's you, Toss the Rock. She didn't leave until she would

give her an autograph.

Then she said, you are coming with me right now and live there.

Wait, hold on. Sorry. You're going to come home with me right now and live

forever. Tosh then ran to the stage and Marley said, I'll handle this.

Tosh said, be careful. She's crazy.

The show was on.

And he was singing his song called Cats Just Want to Have

Fun.

Okay,

good. Great story, by the way. Very good.

Very good.

I've got sight lines to Tosh. I've got Annette making eye contact with him. And

boom, that cat starts walking out from under that chair and settles in under

bed inches away from her. Are you kidding? Just like that story time

Now, I want you to practice something, okay?

Okay. It's called the cat I love you. Now, the cat I love you is a way that

talk to them with your eyes. So I want you to just blink.

And hopefully, he's going to blink back at you. I wanted Annette to start doing

the cat, I love you, the slow blink with Tosh. It's just another way to

communicate with him. Let's get on the floor. And for a feral cat, this is the

ultimate sign of trust.

Now, you see him right now, right?

Mm -hmm.

I'm going to pretend I'm him, okay?

Love it.

Love it. You got it. You nailed it. Okay, so let's try to get his attention.

Now, start your blinking.

He's going.

Now blink.

Again.

He's there, buddy.

Want to come out?

He's looking right at you. Blink at him.

Give a little blink.

Roll motion.

Blink.

Keep blinking.

Roll motion.

Keep blinking.

Hey, look.

Blinky back.

Did you see that?

Yeah. Did you see that? Yeah.

You got it.

I like the blinking thing, so I can know if he likes me or not.

Let's go join your dad, Melissa. Come on. And so far, he does because he's

blinked at me twice. I am excited about that. Let me tell you exactly what we

discovered in that room. We started working on the cat, I love you.

But I want you to add one more thing into the mix, and that's food. You break

up into pieces. You start where he is, right, which is under the bed, and you

put a treat right outside the bed. And then another one, and another one. Oh,

like a, kind of like a trail?

Exactly. You make a trail that ends where?

Right by you. Okay? I want Annette to lure Tosh out of his comfort zone, and

the process, he'll start associating her with good things, like treats.

Alyssa, your homework.

What I want you to do is use the kitty kiss. It's the concept of him petting

you, that you put out a hand and you wait for him to come to you.

Next piece of homework is playtime. Andy, you were the play captain last

around. We're going to keep you there, so I want you to start leading him out

the middle of the floor. All you care about is getting him to follow.

So play for Tosh is nothing but leading.

We've got to work extra hard, extra hard to make sure that we earn his trust. He

comes out and becomes a part of the society.

All right, guys, I'm going to take off. I'll talk to you soon. Bye, guys. I

think it's great that we've made the progress we've made with Tosh, with

and Alyssa.

But, you know, his relationship with Annette still hasn't flourished, and it

needs to.

And that's kind of the top priority. So now we just need to figure out how to

get Tosh to be nice to Annette, or I'll gladly kick him out.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

True or false, cats have a better field of vision compared to humans?

Find out after this break.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

True or false?

Cats have a better field of vision compared to humans.

And the answer is true.

A cat's field of vision is about 10 % wider than humans. Cats see 200 degrees

compared to 180 degrees in humans.

All right, I'm here for my final visit with Alyssa, Andy, and Ned and their

Tosh.

Now, Tosh was a cat that was extremely violent and, of course, extremely feral.

and Andy had some major concerns about Tosh being around his daughter to the

point that he was on the verge of getting rid of him. We made some

time, but things are still pretty up in the air.

So I got to take a look at their video homework, and I got to see Andy playing

with Tosh, which is great, but I can only hope that he's getting him out into

the middle of the room, which is key for a feral cat.

I got to see Alyssa doing the kitty kiss exercise.

I'm hoping that's improving her connection with Tosh. Lastly, I also saw

doing the trail of treats exercise.

Hey, Annette.

How are you?

Now, today, I'm hoping I'm going to walk in there. There have been no attacks

whatsoever, and I got to promise that Tosh has a forever home.

So, tell me, I've been dying with curiosity. Have there been any attacks

Tosh onto you guys?

Any attack?

We're attack -free. Attack -free.

Yes. Yay!

When I first stepped foot in this house, it was ruled by the fear of attacks.

I mean, Andy didn't want his daughter anywhere near Tosh, and Alyssa felt

because she was exposing everybody to Tosh. And now to hear that nothing is

happening at all is so cool.

Annette's story time has been really great. Yeah? She's been reading her

and making a trail of treats.

High five, girl. That's fantastic.

And a big smile. What else?

What else has been going on?

Playtime? Yeah, I've gotten Tosh out of the hallway and, like, you know, the

main living room area. Oh, my God. That's amazing.

Tosh gets a chance to have some fun.

Which speaks to another thing, which is actually that you have a relationship

with this cat.

Andy, every day, is forming a tighter and tighter bond with Tosh. And not only

does he accept him, not only does he not call him a jackass anymore, they are

having fun together. For Andy, that's a big, big move.

Alyssa, how's your relationship with Tosh right now? I think he trusts me so

much more than he ever has.

Ah, that's so great.

I know. It makes me really happy, and he's very affectionate with me now.

Tosh now doesn't see Andy, Alyssa, or Annette as a threat. He no longer is

attacking them because he's no longer afraid of them. He's learned that humans

equal good things, like food and play. He was so far feral. I just find it,

like, so incredible that a cat liked him.

can actually make bonds with human beings. You've been fighting for this

long time.

I really couldn't be happier.

What I'm seeing is a formation of a very tight bond with all of you guys and

Tosh, but I've got to see that in action before I can leave here. Come on.

Now, before I leave today, my goal is to prove to them that Annette is safe. No

violence, all love, and I'll be good. I can leave.

Wow, now the first thing, I walk in and Tosh is sitting on the bed. Now this guy

would usually be cowering underneath the bed.

Unbelievable. So I had them all sit down on the bed with Tosh, and again, they

amazed me.

Looks rockin' good, man.

You know the thing that's amazing is that as much as you guys are petting

now, he's not getting overstimulated.

He's relaxed.

His eyes are completely relaxed.

It's been the most I've seen you smile since I've known you. It's incredible.

I mean, this is all I wanted from all of this was for Tosh to be happy.

So now's the time. Now I've got to get Annette in there. The success or failure

of this entire case hinges on Annette's ability to touch Tosh without it turning

violent. Fingers crossed.

Here we go.

That's pretty amazing.

Getting this happening right now, Andy, do you feel a little more comfortable

about what's been going on?

Oh, absolutely.

It feels great that Tosh is enjoying human contact from all of it.

It's really cool.

What about you? Are you feeling okay?

It feels good because I'm getting to pet Tosh, and I also never knew he was so

soft and fluffy.

I've got to know that Tosh has a forever home here. He's going to be here.

My favorite part of today was having Oliver and Tosh together.

He was happy. He was relaxed.

He was good. You guys have done amazing work. Look at this. I mean...

I couldn't be any happier.

You got to look back just a few short weeks ago, talking about a feral cat,

who has never known the joy of touch before, a cat who Andy hated, who now

relationship with this cat. I mean, the move from A to B over just a few weeks

has been outstanding.

Okay, guys, I'm leaving.

Congratulations for having a forever home, buddy. Bye, guys.

Thank you. Bye, thank you.

Jackson, thank you so much for coming.

You've made such a difference for our family. I'm really happy that Tosh is

part of our home, and we couldn't have done it without you.

Thank you.

I'm heading over to go see Kotar and Eric. They've got three kids, but their

real problem child is their cat, Vincent, who's tearing up, screaming,

constantly, peeing all over the house. And the tension between this couple is

insane. So I'm going to go over there right now before Vincent tears this

family apart.

I'm Eric. I'm Kotar. And we've been married for 15 years. We have three

ages 14, 7, and 14 months.

And a cat named Vincent.

Vincent is a Siamese, approximately six years old, and we've had him since he

was a kitten.

Vincent wants to escape all the time. He has tried to escape from almost every

window in the house.

Now he's found his way through the screen in the front door.

He's popped this screen out a number of times.

He's been pulling it so much that the paint has come off. Vincent has been

urinating everywhere.

There'll be the smell of cat urine in my studio.

The answer?

It's another litter box. There is no litter box in this house that to me is

acceptable. He is not fit. I don't know, maybe it's a man thing.

I just feel really bad.

I feel that that's his nature. He should be able to hold on to that as long as

he can.

There's so much that Vincent affects in our house that if he wasn't here, it

would really make things a lot easier.

We're not getting rid of him. A great... deal of it is not vincent's fault cotar

makes excuses for vincent all the time if jackson can't stop vincent from being

in the house i'm really going to try to get rid of vincent which would be a

problem with me i can't take anymore

vincent

vincent hey how are you Hi, I'm Jackson. I'm Cotard. Nice to meet you. Cotard,

nice to meet you. What's going on? I'm looking for Vincent. He escaped again.

Get out of here. Yeah. Our work has already started. Let me leave this here,

let's go look for Vincent.

I walked up, and one of my worst fears has come true. Vincent, the escape

artist, has escaped.

How are you, man? Hey, Jackson. How you doing? You're Eric, aren't I? I'm Eric,

yeah. I looked in all his regular hiding spots. I checked the back, and he could

go all up and down the street, behind the bushes, hiding.

So let's go over there and look for Vincent, huh?

Cats try to escape for a lot of different reasons. I mean, they're

want to go out there and hunt their prey.

Now, if they're not spayed or neutered, they're going to want to go out there,

mark their territory, and, of course, reproduce.

Vincent!

Now, the last time I dealt with something like this was a few years ago

cat I went to visit named Kitty.

But at least we found her.

Vincent!

Come on, buddy, buddy. Vincent!

No? Vincent is nowhere in sight. Now, of course, I want to keep looking for him,

but I still also have to sit down with Eric and Kotar and learn more about

issues so that when he does come home, at least he stays home.

Okay, guys.

So, clearly, I already know what the issues are here.

Yeah, he escapes every day. Every day. Every day.

He's coming back injured, and I'm really afraid that he's not going to come back

one day. Yeah. Does he get into fights a lot? Yes.

In my opinion, it's just not safe for cats to be outside. So when Eric and

told me that Vincent's been getting outside, getting into fights on a daily

basis, man, the stakes went through the roof.

He destroyed hardwood floors by peeing in the same spot hundreds of times. Oh,

really? So he's a peer.

He's a peer. How old is Vincent?

He's about six years old. When he was little, he was a great cat, great

But as he got older and more mature, those problems started to come out.

interesting. Is he neutered?

He hasn't been neutered.

Why is he not neutered?

As a man, I guess, I felt really bad.

Oh, God.

Okay, his manly urges are what's causing him to escape every day. His manly

urges is what's destroying your home and causing him to pee on everything. Not

to mention that one unneutered male can be responsible for up to 2 ,500 kittens

in one year.

There's a litany of awful things happening only because he's not

I can't imagine, though, how neutering him is going to change these problems.

They called me here to help them. I'm telling them what the problem is, and

they're dismissing my advice. If I can't get through to Eric, Vincent is in big

trouble.

If we can't fix these problems, then we should get rid of Vincent.

Getting rid of him, to me, is not an option.

It's not? No, it's not.

Okay. I'm not willing to tolerate that. This isn't working.

So not only do I have to save this cat, looks like I've got to save this couple,

too.

Clearly, I've got my work cut out for me, so I didn't want to waste any time.

Come on, let's go. I wanted to get up and have them show me around.

This is the room formerly known as my music room.

This was also Vincent's favorite place to eat.

Is that because of him that it's sort of... Yeah, he has been here hundreds of

times, constantly small and cappy in here now.

And that's got to be pretty bad to get to a point where you have absolutely

evicted. This was the tipping point.

I wanted to wring his little neck.

This is, actually, it's a pretty unholy mess.

And if you look over here, he started over here.

Look at all the chew marks.

Not only are the blinds completely destroyed, but screens are torn out.

are claw marks going up to the window. The cat is literally climbing the walls

to get out.

It is like his body meant to do one thing and one thing only, and that is to

propagate. Well, I mean, I can't see how...

That propagation instinct would lead him to pee in my corner, though. Let me

tell you exactly how. He looks out this window. He sees one of the neighborhood

towns walking by. He goes, oh, my God, must protect this territory, and then

pees off into the corner.

This cat is saying loudly and clearly, I have to get outside.

This cat's not making a choice. His body is. All right, so here's the concept

that I'm completely lost on. All of this.

is because you won't neuter him. All of this. Like, I can't make it any clearer.

And as a matter of fact, I got something I want you to see. Just hold on one

sec, okay? Okay.

For Eric and Kotar's first piece of homework, I had something brought over

that I thought would drive the point home pretty poignantly.

Oh, boy.

So... Oh, my gosh. I've got a homework assignment for you. Will each of you

open this box for me?

Oh, my gosh. It's a kitten.

Oh, yay.

Just so you know, more than half of the cats that are killed in our shelters are

kittens like these guys, over half.

I needed to prove a point to these guys, that for every time Vincent escapes

that house, those kittens could be born.

There is an immense amount of cats that Vincent is producing out there. So your

first homework assignment is the biggest.

Tell me you're going to get him neutered.

Yeah. You all right? I think that's the best idea. I mean, after what you told

us about the kittens, that's terrible. And I'd hate to think that I would be

contributing to that problem.

Realize something. By making this decision, you are making a global

Well, we got that out of the way. Let's put these guys back down, let them hang

with their litter mates, and let me give you the rest of your homework, okay?

I never really considered the ramifications of not having Vincent fit.

I don't want to be part of that problem at all.

Second thing up to bat, got to get your place fortified, okay? Take care of the

screens. Make sure he can't get out of the house, and that way he won't get out

again, and I won't be out here chasing him all around the neighborhood.

Now, there's also the litter boxification of your house. You've got

a cat for one litter box.

I want to see a litter box in that corner where all the wood's been rotted

You've got to set the cat up for success. You don't have to keep all

kittens, but you can keep them for about another hour. My friends over at the

Best Friends Mission Hills Adoption Center are going to come pick them up,

Meantime, I'm out of here. If you can't find Vincent in the next few hours, you

let me know, okay?

Otherwise, I'll see you in a few weeks.

Thanks, Jackson. Bye, guys. Thank you.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with Jackson that the neutering is going to

change his behaviors that are causing problems in our home.

It just seems a little far -fetched to me, and I'm at the point now that if

Jackson can't stop him, I'm done. It's just ridiculous.

All right, I'm here for my second visit with Kotar and Eric and their cat,

Vincent, who is not only a major escape artist, but he's also peeing all over

the house and causing some massive friction between Kotar and Eric. Now,

last time I was here, I didn't even get to see Vincent because he had escaped.

Now, I saw the video of homework, and I was really psyched to see that not only

had Vincent found his way home, but Eric went through with his promise of

getting Vincent neutered.

So today's the big day. We're taking Vincent in to have his procedure.

I also saw that they took some really good strides in fortifying the house, so

it's not so easy for Vincent to escape.

I just hope I can finally get to meet Vincent. Hey, man. Welcome back. Good to

see you. Yeah, same here. Come on in. Hey.

Hi. Now, before we get into anything, you've got to tell me, am I going to

Vincent today?

Yes. The cat is here.

Well, miracles never cease.

Very nice. So if he's here, does that mean he's been here a lot? He has been

here since the procedure. We got him neutered for our homework.

He hasn't tried to escape or bolted out the door or anything.

That is such great news.

Man, I can't tell you how happy it makes me that I finally got through to Eric

and Kotar.

Like I showed them on my last visit, the byproduct of Vincent escaping as an

unneutered male would have resulted in potentially thousands of homeless

kittens, over half of whom would have been euthanized. So since the last time

was here, have there been any incidents of peeing outside the box?

No, but there's been a few times where he's still interested, I noticed, in

outdoors. He'll hang out by the back door and kind of peer out.

Instantly, I was afraid that the old behaviors would come back.

Just because we lose the hormones doesn't mean we lose the will to mark

territory. I made it perfectly clear at COTAR that if we can't get this thing

solved, if he does backslide, then we're right back at square one, and then we

get rid of him.

It's still, in my mind, not an option to get rid of him. I do fear that

something is going to happen.

Man, these two are worlds apart when it comes to this cat. While Kotar seems

fully committed to supporting Vincent's transition to being an indoor cat, Eric

seems to have nothing but negative feelings towards him in the first place,

which scares me to death because if Eric doesn't have a bond with this cat, then

what's going to stop him from just tossing him out on the street the next

he does something wrong?

All right, so the next thing I want to do is meet Vincent.

So where is he?

He's in the front bedroom.

Do you guys mind? I'm going to leave you here. I'm going to go spend some time

with him, okay? I'll be back. All right.

Well, hello there.

Hello, Vincent.

What is that? What is this?

I can't even get you to follow this?

So, my first impression of Vincent was that he was adorable, but he was also a

little disengaged, which is normal for a cat that's just been neutered, but at

the same time, it's something worth taking note of.

Unbelievable.

You just want to be mellow, huh?

Wow, you are almost too mellow.

And where's your litter box?

You don't have a litter box.

Seriously?

Looking around the hot spot that is this room, I'm realizing there are no litter

boxes. So I called Eric and Kotar back in the room so I could find out what the

deal was firsthand.

It was this room, that corner over there being the big pedon plate. That was the

primary target.

Now, I notice, of course, that there's no litter box in here. If we don't put a

litter box in here, we got issues.

I'm still very resistant to putting a cat poo box in the place we sleep.

We've got to start talking about a compromise somewhere.

This isn't just a human house. It's a cat house, too, and that means a litter

box in the bedroom.

If Eric doesn't buy in, I'm afraid where this is going to end up. So I figured

now is as good a time as any to give these guys some homework.

Okay. Oh, my gosh. I got a couple of things for you guys. I got a couple of

things. Now, first of all, this is all about bringing the outside in. Look at

this stuff. There's cat grass in here. There's catnip. So this, this around the

house, it reminds him of being outside.

My first piece of homework for Eric and Kotar was to help get Vincent's mojo

back by bringing the outside inside.

Once you've done that, I'd love to see you move into the music room. I'd love

see you encourage him to play in there.

By bonding with him, it'll make it impossible for you to even say he's out.

I know it's an important space for you, and I wouldn't say it otherwise.

I'm definitely apprehensive about Jackson's suggestion of allowing Vincent

the music studio.

Just the idea of thinking that I'd bring him into my new space that I spent so

much money on is a little frustrating, makes me a little nervous.

Speaking of the music room, I want to see you try to bond with Vincent just a

little bit more by writing a song about him. And a sentiment is that you're

actually inviting him in.

Now, finally, guys, you need to get more litter boxes in this house. It is a

stern warning that if you don't do it, there will be pee in the house, and

you're going to get really mad at him. What's it going to take for Eric to

that I know what's best for their cat and for them?

All right, guys, as always, if you've got any questions at all, pretty

time you call me, all right? Yeah. I'm still very resistant to putting a litter

box in the bedroom.

I don't really know how this is going to work out.

All right, great to see you again. All right, take care.

I'll talk to you soon.

I'm hoping for the best, but I'm expecting the worst. And, you know, if

behaviors do keep up, then, you know, cat's got to go.

All right, I'm here for my third and final visit with Eric, Kotar, and their

cat, Vincent.

Just after I left the last time, I got an e -mail from Eric with some pretty

disturbing news.

Murphy's Law, Vincent decided that he was going to pee on the bed.

What do you do?

Now, since then, I've had some chance to take a look at their video homework,

and I see some good and some bad.

Now, the good news is that they're working really hard at bringing the

inside, helping to make the inside a lot more appealing to Vincent.

I also got to see Eric working on his new Vincent -inspired song.

Now, the bad news is that I'm still not seeing any litter boxes, and that

coupled with the peeing incident means that I don't know what I'm walking into

today.

And I will get right to the point. You tell me something.

Last time I was here, I did ask you to put another litter box back in the house

again. Did you guys do that?

Yes, we did. Yes, we did. No doubt.

Good. Where is it? It's in the bedroom. Oh, my God. I'm so proud of you, man.

You actually, that's fighting the bullets for you especially, Eric. I

should put it right in there in that corner.

Now, of course, a big question since that incident.

Vincent decided that he was going to pee on the bed.

You had any? Not one.

Not one.

Yeah. Yeah. I can't begin to tell you how happy it makes me that Eric has not

only added litter boxes around the house, but he's added one in the

This shows me that Eric is more than willing to compromise for the good of

Vincent, and in turn, Vincent has rewarded him by not being in his stuff.

Okay, so.

Tell me the truth. How's Vincent's mojo doing?

Vincent's mojo is back.

Very nice, guys. Bringing the outside in. Yes, and the catnip and all the

grasses. He really loves that. I don't think Vincent's trying to escape at all.

Fantastic. Good.

There have been great things that have happened here with Vincent and Eric and

Kotar, but I need to see Vincent brought into Eric's music room. I want to see

Eric singing Vincent that song. I will know then that Vincent and Eric have a

bond and that Vincent is not going to wind up.

out here on the street. Ah, the familiar music room. Yep. Wonderful.

Walking into the music room, I can't help but notice Vincent sitting in the

middle of Eric's music room, and they had also provided him with a cat house,

which shows me that Eric has opened up his arms and welcomed Vincent into his

hallowed space.

Now, all of this put together says to me that you have forgiven Vincent and

moved on, but I gotta hear, at this point, the idea of getting rid of him.

that off the table?

Absolutely. Yeah. Seriously? Yeah. He's my little buddy now.

Without you, Jackson, we couldn't have done it, buddy. We got a bond, and it's

the strong one.

I was a little apprehensive about bringing Vincent into the studio, but I

it's definitely productive for him. It's good for me, and Vincent is part of our

family. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that boy. Look at that face.

Are you kidding me? I mean, Eric and Vincent forging a special relationship

why I do this job.

But the one thing I haven't seen, or rather heard yet, is Eric's song to

Vincent.

Yay, Vincent.

With

every

word that goes by, I know that it's a true bond. But this guy really does feel

for his cat.

And that's what I needed. That's what I wanted all along. I know Vincent's home

is a forever one, and I can go home.

Guys, I'm going to take off. Goodbye, Vincent.

Take care of yourselves, okay? I'll talk to you soon. All right. Thanks,

Jackson. Appreciate it. In the end, I think it's turned out really, really

great. It's nice to have Vincent and Eric bonding together.

It's what I've wanted all along. For everything that you've done for us and

making Vincent a happier cat, we just wanted to say thank you, Jackson.