Original subtitles

I have a cat named Marley. She can go El Diablo on you just like that. Dude, is

this blood up here? That's my blood.

I'd like to be able to have company, but nobody can hang out at the house. It

always turns into a bloodbath.

Oh, man.

If it's fight or flight, Marley will choose fight.

Help!

This is not how we felt our first year of marriage. No. My cat is Pancake. My

cat is Lobster. They're definitely tag -teaming and destroying our house.

They're peeing everywhere.

I can't believe they're peeing in the house.

There's a lot of hissing and quatting. It's real nasty.

I would like to get rid of Lobster. The only thing I can think of is to get rid

of Pancake.

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 the beautiful Pacific Beach Pier here in San Diego, and I'm here to go

see Jay and his cat Marley. And Marley's aggression is so bad, people can't even

get through the front door.

So I'm going to get through that front door, and I'm going to help Marley.

Well, I'm Jay.

I'm just a regular dude.

I have a cat named Marley. She can go El Diablo on you just like that.

This is Marley.

As you can see, we have a bit of a problem. She's just...

Downright mean.

I should have a t -shirt.

Don't touch the cat.

She'll take on anything or anyone.

I love her, but she's opened me from here to here before.

Oh, oh, oh! My social life is greatly affected because nobody can hang out at

the house.

My friends tend to get a little freaked out when Marley does the whole...

Because she can be very intimidating.

It always turns into some sort of bloodbath type of thing.

Life ain't meant to be lived alone.

I'd like to have a new girlfriend.

Romance is all out the window when somebody starts bleeding.

And, of course, when they leave, I'll look at Marley and go, you know she's

going to call, right?

Marley absolutely loves human food. She jumps up on the table and works whatever

you're eating from the other end. This is for my onion rings, baby.

Jackson's going to think this is going to be easy.

She ain't going to go for the slow blink.

It might mean I love you to other cats, but to Marley it translates as you.

Something tells me you're the joker to Mr.

Galaxy's Batman.

Hey. Hey, how you doing, brother? I'm good. How you doing? I'm all right, man.

My name's Jay.

Jay, I'm Jackson. Come on in, Jackson. All right, good, man. And look, there's

your cat. There's Marley. You come say hi to me? Come say hi, Jackson.

Okay.

That's Marley. Yes, and that's hello. That's as good as it gets. If that's

hello, then how's about we go and sit outside?

Sounds good. Sounds good.

Marley, I will meet you later. All right.

So I go up to Jay's apartment. Marley introduces herself to me at the front

door, and it's very clear to me that we should have our talk out here.

All right, Jay.

Now, that was an unpleasant meeting, but I still need to know everything else

about Marley. You got Marley. How old was she?

I would put it at two weeks, man. She was actually being attacked by a swarm

birds when I met her. Seriously? In a parking lot.

Marley made perfect eye contact with me and screamed help.

Oh, dude. And so I was like, oh, dude.

Scooped her up. I figured she picked me, you know what I mean? Yeah, she did,

man. This poor two -week -old kitten, he sees her getting pecked on by birds,

and Jay saves her. I get this insight into this guy very quickly, and I just

love him.

Marley's... violent behavior, how bad does it get?

It gets pretty bad sometimes, man. I mean, I can't really have nobody over at

the house. I really don't have a social life at my home.

Nobody can come into your house safely.

Correct. Wow.

Man, I'm looking at your arms right now. I mean, you are beat up. And I can get

it just as much as anybody else.

When did that happen?

This morning. I made the mistake of touching her on the butt. She let me

keep my damn hands to myself.

Is the cat...

safe in this house, are you going to re -home the cat?

No, I'm not going to re -home the cat. The cat's going to roll with me, but you

know, I would like to have company.

I'd really like to have an old lady that can roll with me through life. Yeah.

But, you know, talk somebody into coming into the house and spending a good

amount of time and leaving like that.

They're not real hip to it. Jay tells me that there's no way he would ever get

rid of Marley. That's great, and I love that, but I want this guy to have a

life, too. He deserves it.

It was time to get up and actually meet Marley again.

I wasn't exactly thrilled by that.

So, Marley, she is kind of a big cat.

I'm seeing some wet food in there. What else do you feed her besides the treats?

She eats food with me, too.

She eats human food? Yes. Marley likes to stick her face into everything that I

eat. Sandwich, pizza, chicken, onion rings with ranch sauce, carne asada

She loves nacho chips.

You go on.

Eat a little bit for me, sweet potato.

She's not going to eat in front of you.

What else?

Donuts. You feed the cat donuts?

When she wants one.

All right, well, that's kind of going to have to stop.

Cats are on this planet to do very specific things. Hunt, catch, kill, and

meat. Not chips or pizza or donuts. The amount of sugar in any of those things

will send a cat's glucose levels off the charts. Put that in a cat like Marley

and you're bouncing her around energetically like crazy. Bad things

and happen consistently.

Dude, is this blood up here?

That's my blood from this morning.

I mean, I'm just sitting here looking at those claws, man. Is she a playful cat?

Very much so. We play all the time. Now, if you wanted to start play, how would

you start it with her?

Sweet potato!

Sweet potato!

What's going on, baby? Is that my kitty? Is that daddy's kitty? Are you kidding?

Wow, man.

What the hell was that? That was not play. That was attacking your cat.

And Jay wonders why Marley's so violent.

He found her as a kitten after she was attacked by birds, and now she's spent

the last few years being roughhoused by him. I mean, come on. Really, Jay?

You're the problem.

Now, you do that, and then I come in, and I'm like, hey, right? And then

instantly, and then she comes out. She means business, Jay.

She just spliced me, man.

Marley hit me so hard that I just, everything went white.

It hurt in ways that I cannot describe to you.

Now, listen, we've got a lot to go over. Let's have a seat. I'm going to give

you some homework. Okay.

The first thing, we've got to start redefining play, right? That

has got to stop.

No more hand play ever, never. It's over. I want Jay to find the right toys.

want him to find the toys that just make Marley run around without attacking

hands or feet or faces or anything else like that. Let's talk about nutrition.

Meat protein is king in a cat's world. We call that the catkins diet.

Just meat protein. And nothing else. No more chips. No more donuts. No more

pizza. No more nothing that is not raw or cooked meat. If Marley can't have it,

I guess I'm going to have to go on a damn diet, too. I'm not going to be a

douche and eat it in front of her.

You and I definitely like our tattoos.

These are cat -toos, right? Awesome.

These stickers, I want you to put them up.

anywhere she attacks.

I hope you got a bunch of stickers. I got a bunch of stickers, man.

I want to know, at which place, every time someone comes over, does Marley

attack? All right, man, you got your homework.

I'm going to hit the road.

Great to see you, man.

Nice meeting you, Jackson.

The next meeting I have with Jackson, I see Marley just not cooperating with him

whatsoever. I would not be surprised if she was twice as aggressive towards him.

I hope it goes differently, but quite frankly...

When you live with Marley, you learn to expect the worst.

All right, I'm here for my second visit with Jay and his cat, Marley.

Now, the last time I was here, Marley beat me senseless. She met me at the

by saying, no, you don't get to come in here. And the two of us were a bloody

mess by the time I left.

Now, I got to check out Jay's video homework. I got to see him playing with

Marley using toys designed for cats and not being aggressive and roughhousing,

which always riled her up.

Last time I was here with Jay, I specifically assigned him the catkins

Meat protein and nothing but meat protein. No more donuts, no more chips.

Nothing that the humans eat. And he said he's been sticking to it. And that's

awesome news.

I just hope Marley's a little nicer, getting some exercise, eating better.

brother, how you doing today, man? I'm good. How you been?

Just a little more grounded. If all that happens, man, I'll be a happy guy.

How is Marley? Tell me how she's doing. Well, she's shown a little improvement

as far as having some interaction with other people. But she's still like that

ass up if you stick your hand down there to her.

All right, that's not cool.

I'm looking all over the place at the Cat 2 stickers. She still feels

territorially threatened, and we can't have that.

At least Marley's not being as aggressive in her attacks.

I mean, for instance, I was able to come right through the door this time,

something I couldn't do the last time I was here.

When was the last time she drew blood?

Marley hadn't hit me since the last time you were here.

All right.

That's good, man. So seriously, that was one challenging cat beating me up.

We stopped all the modes of play that we used to function under.

It's a little boring, but I'm adapting.

I could just drop down on her and rile her up and run in the other room right

now. We could have a good game going.

But unfortunately, that's no longer the case.

You're bored, which I find a little strange.

Do you enjoy the fact that she beats people up?

As I'm talking to Jay, I'm realizing that he actually gets some kind of joy

of the fact that his cat is a bully. And if that's the case, it seems like I've

got to work on Jay almost as much as I do on Marley. What about friends? Have

friends been over here? My friend Janet, well, she's actually stopping by today.

Oh, there you go. So you'll get to see how Marley acts towards Janet for

yourself. I'm glad Jay's having someone come over today. It's important for me

to see how Marley reacts around Jay's friends now that he's completed some of

the homework, and most importantly, he stopped roughhousing her.

Let's stop right here. We got ourselves a tattoo.

If this chair is a bad place for humans, then why is the chair right there?

Well, you see, it's Marley's chair. She has an affinity for destroying things.

Chairs are not scratching posts. Chairs are for humans to sit in. That's an easy

fix, and we'll get to it when I assign Jason homework.

No, this one basically says don't stick your hand over here on her thing. She

will. reach out and slap you. The next cat two sticker, that's where the last

time I was here that Marley beat me ten times.

Of course, that's a pretty big hot spot.

Now here's what I'm worried about.

Somebody sitting on that couch with her over their head.

That could be all kinds of bad. You know what I'm saying?

Speak of the devil, I look up into that tall cat tree and there's Marley. I want

to see you sort of play her down from this position. See if we can get her to

play a little bit on the floor.

Oh, we can certainly try.

You want that bird?

Is it under here?

Huh? Is that the bird?

You go, man. You want the bird, baby?

Come get that bird.

Come get that bird, sweet.

Best thing about Jay breaking out that toy and playing with Marley is that she

is engaged in a more relaxed and playful manner than I've ever seen. Next time

she lets go of it, I want you to sneak it around this arm of the chair.

Yeah, yeah, there she goes. Good girl. To me, this is her getting to be all

aggressive in a positive way.

Oh, exactly.

What's going on? Hey, how are you? Good, thanks. I'm Jackson.

Nice to meet you, Jackson. I'm Janet. Janet, good to meet you.

Marley's completely involved in chasing her bird. She doesn't even notice that

Janet's just arrived.

What is your experience with Marley?

Marley's pretty intimidating.

Is that why you're looking to see where she's at right now? Yeah.

It's one of the first things I do when I come in is make sure I'm not going to

get clawed.

Hey, Marley.

Okay, so there's that look.

Now, I'm going to turn this over to you. I want you to walk right this way for

me. Okay.

Now, I want Janet to play with Marley because if Marley's made any progress

whatsoever, the proof is in the pudding.

Walk that way so that she's not paying attention to you, she's paying attention

to the toy. Go for it.

I would not say Marley is a nice cat. When I first met her, she tried to

me, and I don't think I've been comfortable around her fence.

Walk that way.

Go for it.

Come on, Janet.

Nice going, Janet. You got her attention completely right now.

You almost got her. There you go.

That's something Janet's been wanting to do since I've known her.

Janet, first of all, I've got to give you props. You come into this house.

She lets you in this house.

That's huge.

Which is huge, right?

Yeah. And you're playing with her. That's awesome. It is awesome. Oh, look

it. You've got to look. Your friend is actually here smiling as opposed to

hiding from your cat.

This is the first time I've been able to walk by Marley and not be afraid and

have her not try to attack me. It was very cool. I hope this is a new

for Marley and me. It would be really nice to be able to be friends.

Bye, Marley.

See you, Jay. See you.

Later, Janet.

Fantastic to meet you. I've seen some really positive things here today,

especially with Janet. However, we are only halfway there.

Marley's hissing concerns me, and I'm also worried that Jay's not taking this

seriously at all. And in turn, he's encouraging Marley's bad behavior when

not around. So it's time for me to give Jay some homework.

Let's start talking about all of these cat two areas. We'll start with the

chair. Well, let's replace it by giving her something positive in that area. So

instead of the chair being her scratching post, let's get her a

right? Then what I want to do is I want to turn this area back here in the

dining room. I want to turn that into your zen den. Back here, this will be

area, right?

First thing we're going to do is take this tree. We're going to move it back

that corner.

That catchery can go right in the corner of Marley's new zen den. She can claim

her own space that's calm and peaceful, someplace that's positive for her to

just zone out and get zen.

So what I need you to put in your zen den are things like possibly a

a little butterfly sanctuary, something like that, okay? And with that territory

in place for her, hopefully we can give Marley the calm, safe space she needs to

have a better quality of life and even get her to continue to engage better

people instead of reacting out of fear.

Take care. Stay frosty, bro.

All right, take it easy, man. I was expecting the cat dude rolls in, does

mojo, and the cat's fixed. And see you, dude. I didn't expect for me to have to

change crap.

It's like, oh, man, I can't just sit on the couch and have this magically

happen? What?

Now it's time for a kitty bit.

Which furry friend needs more protein in their diet?

Is it A, dog, or B, cat?

Find out after this break.

Now it's time for a kitty bit.

Which furry friend needs more protein in their diet?

And the answer is B, cat. Cats need five times more protein than dogs do, and

that's in ratio to total food consumption.

However, don't go feeding your cat or dog protein in the form of junk food.

meat protein is the best for an animal's diet.

All right, I'm back in San Diego for my final visit with Jay and his cat,

Marley. Now, in the past, Marley has been, to say the least, a violent cat.

Now, taking a look at video homework, I saw Jay got Marley some scratches, and

hopefully she's using those and not the furniture or people's skin. Also, I saw

betta fish and battery -powered butterflies in her zen den, which I'm

going to provide her with some calm, or at the very least, some distraction when

people come over.

Today, hoping I'm going to walk in there this time.

And meet a cat I can pet, hang out with, be interactive with. And I want Jay to

have a place where he can invite people in and not be afraid that his cat is

going to rip them up.

Fingers crossed.

Welcome back to San Diego, brother. Thank you, brother.

How's life?

Well, mine's a whole lot more chill than she used to be.

Amazing, man. The last time I was here, I asked you to create the Zen Den for

her, that area where she could be watching people from a little bit of a

distance and not feel like they're...

you know, on top of her all the time. The Zend -In works great.

She just chills and doesn't really guard anything anymore.

I think the Zend -In was so successful basically because now Marley has her own

little territory to take control of.

But as long as you're not in my territory, you're cool.

Now, I'm sure I'm going to find out the second I walk in that door, but the

first time I came over here, he greeted me in a very not friendly way. Now, do

you feel like when you bring people over, you've got to warn them at this

No, because I've rearranged everything, changed all the problematic spots.

Right. And now he just sort of chills and then, then, then, and don't care.

Don't care if you're sitting on the couch or anything.

I thought, well, his behavior is funny.

But now I'm completely opposite of that. I'm really happy that Marley's wanting

love and affection.

I'm really stoked about everything.

Now, I'm going to go hang out a little bit with her. Hopefully this time I have

a much different result. Hang out in the Zen Den a bit.

Ready? Let's go take a look, Brian. All right, man. Let's do it.

Now, when I first met Jay, he was roughhousing Marley and feeding her junk

It was a toxic relationship that was spiraling out of control.

Now, Jay seems really positive, but it's hard to tell if he's just telling me

what he thinks I want to hear, or if I can trust the fact that Marley's really

different cat.

So it's time for me to go and check in on Marley and see for myself.

All right, there's Miss Marley in her zen den.

Very nice, man.

There is just a sense of flow coming in here. Best part about the zen den is

that it's a calm.

safe space for Marley outside the main social flow of the traffic in the house.

It belongs to her, and the rest of the house belongs to people. And while I

usually recommend the opposite, Marley proved that she's the type of cat who

does better in her own space.

This is a case where I really had to listen to the cat's needs.

Litterbox, we got butterflies down here. She loves these butterflies, because

when she smacks it, they flitter around in the jar.

What is that?

The last time I was here, I was able to get Jay's friend Janet to play with

Marley. Now, while Janet walked away very happy, I honestly wasn't, because

Marley didn't attack. She did hit.

She still showed territorial aggression.

Now, I'm hoping today to not see any attacks or any hissing, and then I'll be

able to call this one a success.

You see that? Look at that look on her face.

I'm going to see if I can get her to come on out here.

What is that?

Come on out, baby.

She knows what that is, don't you, baby?

All that attention suddenly goes to the toy. The last time I was here, when she

was playing in this spot, she was hidden behind a chair.

Now she can still own this area, and obviously she still does, but she's not

waiting underneath the chair to hurt people. No, she doesn't care if you walk

her scratching post now like she did when it was the chair.

Good girl!

So after we've done the hunt and the catch and the kill through playtime,

time to eat a little bit. So I went to my case and got out some treats. Now

I want to do is see how close I can get to her without triggering that threat

response.

Mind if I get down to your level with you?

What do I got for you?

I had to know if she can take food from me and just accept it. Then I can walk

away from here, job well done, for both of these guys.

What do I got for you?

It's all right, baby.

What is that? What do I got for you?

What do I got for you?

What is that, baby?

Good girl.

The Marley that I'm seeing today is not the Marley that I met on my first visit.

I mean, when I first met Marley, she wouldn't even let me in the door. And

she did, she tore me up.

Today I'm seeing a calm... confident cat. I mean, I'm closer to her than I've

ever been before.

She's taking food from me. She's not attacking.

I love that.

All right, brother. I'm going to take off. It's been wonderful, man. She went

from being a mixed martial arts fighter to like a grandma that makes, you know,

pies or something. I think it's a total win here.

Great potential for the future with me and Marlon.

Stay frosty. Take care of yourself.

Bye.

This is not how we thought our first year of marriage. No.

My cat is Pancake. My cat is Lobster.

They're definitely tag -teaming and destroying our house.

They're peeing everywhere.

I can't live in a house full of terror. It looks like an insane asylum.

I would like to get rid of Lobster. The only thing I can think of is to get rid

of Pancake.

It makes me so angry.

I'm on my way to go see Allison and Dylan and their cats, Pancake and

Now, these guys are both artists and they recently got married, but their

is full of anything but wedded bliss.

It's more like beef and fighting amongst the cats as well as the couple.

So I'm going to go over there right now.

and hopefully keep the love alive.

My name is Allison.

And I'm Dylan. We've been together for four years and married for three months.

When we moved in together, we called it the Great Cat Marger as we both had a

cat. My cat is Pancake.

Pancake's full name is Admiral Pancake Esteban.

My cat is Lobster.

I named him after my favorite season.

Lobster season.

They're definitely tag -teaming and destroying our house.

Lobster is peeing just all over the house.

Cat pee all in this area.

Spray all over these benches.

Urine all over here.

Blankets and things that are in the closet.

Curtains. The toaster's been hit several times. Our last bed. A laundry basket.

Bathroom rug.

Fireplace. Chairs. They're peeing everywhere.

With all the cat pads up on the walls, it looks like an insane asylum.

For cats.

When we first introduced the two cats, they had a big problem with each other.

Lobster usually sets off Pancake by just following him around, and then Pancake

goes on the offensive. There's a lot of hissing and swatting.

It gets real nasty.

Our entire home life, it seems to revolve around, what are the cats doing?

they fighting? Are they peeing on things?

I can't live in a house full of terror, basically.

I would like to get rid of Lobster.

I don't know what other solution there is. The only thing I can think of is to

get rid of Pancake.

It definitely causes tension between us.

Anytime he gets really upset, then that makes me upset, and then it's kind of

like a domino effect from there. This is not how we saw our first year of

marriage. No.

Jackson is our last hope.

Nice to meet you. How are you? Excited to have you here. Oh, good, good. I'm

glad. Hey, I'm Dylan.

Dylan, I'm Jackson. Good to meet you, man. Nice to meet you.

So, I know you guys got cat problems. Lay it on me. Let me hear it.

Well, pancake and lobster.

Pancake and lobster.

They're peeing and marking all over the house.

And fighting.

Oh, they're fighting. Good.

How long have they been fighting?

Since we've moved in together.

Over a year ago.

And so whose cat was whose?

Pancake's my cat.

Pancake's yours and Lobster's yours.

It seems like Lobster is the victim all the time.

Pancake's always been the more energetic, adventurous cat.

And Lobster sort of followed him around from room to room. He seemed like he was

trying to hang out with him. And then Pancake would initiate the fight at that

point? Yeah, he would turn around and start to chase Lobster off or corner him

somewhere. Based on what I'm hearing, it doesn't sound like Pancake is trying to

kill a lobster. It almost seems like both of these guys are having a hard

sharing the space.

The more troubling thing to me is that one or both of these cats are peeing

outside the litter box. That tells me that the stress is so intense that one

both of these cats are feeling the need to mark more territory.

Who starts the marking? Do you know? Lobster spray. And he sprays on

couches.

Kitchen appliances, doors, windows, beds.

Damn. All lobsters, as far as we can tell. All lobster all the time. It's

Our entire life revolves around taking care of these cats and cleaning up after

them. You know, sometimes it comes to a head and we just have to get out of

there. So, yeah, we, like, tend to, like, go on a vacation just to get away

the cats.

That's crazy.

It is crazy. We feel like hostages in our own house.

To be honest, like, we don't even think this could work. We really feel like

we've tried everything.

You're the third cat behaviorist that we've actually talked to about this

program. I'm the third?

It's a little intimidating hearing that I'm the third behaviorist they've

called, but I'm always up for the challenge, and more importantly, Allison

Dylan are newlyweds, and this is no way for them to start their marriage.

There's a lot riding on this case.

Okay, so, oh, really?

I hate puppy pads. So do I. So, lobster, the entire area?

Yeah, usually it's in that corner there.

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, we've got old wooden boards down here,

and it's hollowed out here in the corner.

There we go.

That's it. That's our problem.

That hole back there goes straight through the floor.

You can even feel air coming up through that hole. And you can smell whatever

that is down below there. It could be rotting something, whatever it is.

what he is marking right there.

Territory is already a source of contention in this house between Pancake

Lobster. So if Lobster is smelling animals from outside, it's only going to

him more stressed out. No wonder he's being there.

Well, there we go. Hello.

Who's this?

That's Pancake. Pancake is like, this world belongs to me. This is my world.

He is so gorgeous.

So, this must be Lobster.

Hi, Lobster.

Hey,

buddy. Can I pick you up?

Oh, hi.

So,

when you say that he's skittish, that is what you're used to. Okay.

Uh -oh.

This just took a different turn. I didn't realize that Allison is afraid of

Lobster. These guys have no relationship at all.

This is a definite my cat, your cat vibe in this house, and I do not like that

at all.

Pancake is starting to stalk Lobster.

Okay, so that just happened right there.

This is the nutshell of what you guys are dealing with right here. Now,

is in this really insecure, unconfident position of being underneath this thing.

Oh, that's kind of heartbreaking.

Yeah. You know, he seems just miserable all the time.

Now the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. All Pancake has to do is look

the wrong way at Lobster, and Lobster is terrified.

This is a perpetually fearful cat who wants to be near everyone but who has

confidence. So that explains the peeing and the terrified reaction when I tried

to pick him up.

Oh, good boy.

There we go. Good boy.

Now, I'm encouraged by the fact that Lobster's creeping back out into the

but at the same time, his tail is down, he's slinking close to the ground, and

his ears are to the side. He's not remotely confident.

Okay, Allison, come on over.

Sit with me.

I want to get your confidence up with him because it's going to inform his

confidence. You guys are going to mirror each other.

You see? Immediately, a little bit of hesitation on his part.

See if you can get him back out here.

Give me your lobster.

Pull him back. Don't give it to him there.

Pull him out. Pull him out. Keep him coming. Challenge that cat.

There you go.

Hold it up. Have his eyes follow it. I want you to get him to do a sit. All the

way over the top of his head.

Have him follow it.

Come on, follow it.

Have your butt hit the ground.

Almost. Almost.

Look. That body posture is leaving him. Right? That scared body posture.

Good. Now.

Every time he does that, give him a signal that he just did what you wanted

to do. A lot of times we do it with a clicker, but you can go, you're going to

use that.

Clicker training is a system of positive reinforcement.

If you want an animal to complete a task, you make a click sound, either

device or your mouth, and then reward that with a treat. And eventually, you

get rid of the click and the treat altogether.

The animal just knows that this action gets a positive response.

All right, you ready for some homework?

So you're going to use your clicker training work and you're going to turn

into the confidence clicker training. I want him to live firmly in the middle of

this world, right?

Allison, I want you to be the one training him.

Now, when Allison got Lobster to do a sit, you could finally see that

unconfident body posture leaving him. In that moment, Lobster learned that he

could do something and get rewarded for it. And that's the kind of thing that's

going to help him become more of a confident cat.

And by the same token, having Allison do this exercise is going to build her

confidence when it comes to dealing with Lobster. Now, the second thing, we move

over to you.

Dylan, I know that you're an animator by trade. What I want you to do is start

thinking about...

what this place could be. In terms of catifying this entire house, I want you

draw me a blueprint of a cat superhighway. Because I'm making Allison

the solution by clicker training Lobster, I'm going to make Dylan a part

solution and put his skills as an artist to use by having him design his own cat

superhighway, which is a series of shelving to give these cats the extra

territory they so desperately need. The other thing he's telling you, I smell

something coming up through that hole in the kitchen, and we might as well just

plug that hole as well.

Unconfident cats will pee to mark their territory when they smell their animals.

So let's stop up that hole and remove that threat.

All right, guys, I'm going to take off. But if you've got any questions at all

over the next couple of weeks, you can give me a call. Will do. Thank you so

much. Take care, guys. We'll see you soon.

Definitely still have doubts as to whether or not this is going to solve

problems. Just because we have tried so many things, I don't feel totally

optimistic about it.

All right, I'm here for my second visit with Allison and Dylan and their cats,

Pancake and Lobster.

Last time I was here, we had cats that were fighting and peeing all over the

house. Spray all over these benches. Urine all over here.

The toaster's been hit several times.

I got to see Allison and Dylan's video homework.

Good boy, Lobster. I got to see Allison practicing her clicker training. Look at

that.

That's new.

This is fantastic.

I'm just going in and filling up this hole.

And I thought that Dylan was spackling that hole in the breakfast nook, which

the last time I was here smelled pretty strongly of other animals. And Dylan's

been working on his cat's Cooper Highway blueprint, so hopefully this time

around we have less pee, less fighting, and no more threats of rehoming anybody.

So, guys, tell me something.

Tell me that there's good news on the lobster pancake front, please.

Come on, good news.

No can do.

Really? Nothing?

We did all the homework, and unfortunately, it doesn't feel like

really getting better.

It's just super frustrating.

It's been every morning we're waking up to fight.

Oh, wow, man.

Okay, so that is bad.

A lot more peeing.

Oh, a lot more? Yeah, a lot more.

Worse? It's worse? I mean, they've gone through two different behaviors on the

third I get here, and now it's worse than it was? You know what that feels

It's not great.

I got home the other day, and I was like, oh, my God, it smells again.

And I was like, no, not again.

When I come home and I see cat pee, it's super infuriating, just because, like,

we've done all the homework.

My first reaction is those mother - I can't believe they're peeing in the

all over again. These little heads.

And it makes me so angry.

Yeah, I think with everything going on, We still feel like we want to get away.

I feel like maybe the only option might be to get rid of Lobster.

I don't want to do that.

I've had some bad second -day visits, but, man, by far, this one is the worst.

I mean, I get it. I mean, I wish there was even one thing that we can hang our

hat on and say, that's it.

Actually, to give you, like, some...

Some glimpse of hope. You're giving me hope. A little bit. That's so awful.

The clicker training seems to be building Lobster's confidence.

I'm able to build up a rapport with him, which is really nice. That's great

news. He's fit now.

At least on the Allison -Lobster front, things are good.

Still a house divided, and I've got to act fast.

I need to restore Allison and Dylan's confidence because nothing good can come

from feeling defeated.

Right now, I'm going to hang my hat on the only good news I've gotten today,

that's the clicker training. I want to see for myself the effect that it's

having on Lobster's confidence and how we can maybe improve it. So we've got

little Lobster here. I want to see your clicker training.

Go for it. Let's see what you can do.

Remember, it's a click treat.

Allison is doing great. She's exhibiting confidence, and Lobster is mirroring

that confidence.

When Lobster successfully completes this task, his confidence should increase

even more.

Sit.

Wait until I sit.

I'll tell you when.

Sit. There you go. Very nice.

You have a relationship with this cat right now, which you didn't have the

day that I was here. Now, we do have Pancake lurking in the background right

now. The second Pancake is on the scene, his body posture changes completely,

and now he's just not the same. Cat tail goes down.

And look at that.

Pancake comes out.

Lobster's gone.

When Pancake came out, all the progress that we'd seen with Lobster just

vanished. His old, unconfident posture came back, and this really worries me. I

really think there's only one thing that's going to make a difference, and

that's the cat superhighway that Dylan has designed.

Now let's take a look at your blueprint.

There is some missing pieces here. What we have here is two pieces of a highway

with a massive dead end in the middle.

So I do want to make sure that you connect these dots. And, Allison, then

going to be in charge of taking Lobster up on this furniture. By having him take

this world, it's an extension of the confidence that we saw from taking the

middle of the room. Not only will this give him more vertical places where he

can gain confidence, but it will double the amount of territory in this house so

these cats can just stay out of each other's way.

Now, also, there's this built -in mechanism in Lobster that when Pancake

on the scene, he's gone. So I want you to build a backyard run for Pancake. For

him, it's actually a creative timeout. They can sunbathe, smell what's going

have a couple toys, beds in there. In the meantime, then, Lobster has the

to himself.

And in that time, he can play without Pancake around.

Finally. Lobster is sending up a very distinct red flag.

He's saying that he sees the world as being completely on fire at all times.

That's why he marks everywhere.

I think he needs to be on mood -stabilizing medication.

The fact that Lobster is still acting like prey and peeing tells me that even

though these guys have taken steps to make him more confident and reduce the

sense of threat from the outside world, Lobster is still too fearful to stop

these behaviors.

So I want a vet to check him out and see if he could benefit from mood

stabilizers to cut down on the sense of fear while we continue to work on him

behaviorally. All right, guys, I'm going to cut out. Ciao.

This homework needs to work because we are running out of options.

It's just gone on for too long. We can't take it anymore.

I'm here for my final visit with Allison and Dylan and their cat's pancake and

lobster. And the last time I was here, things had gone from bad to worse.

We still had peeing all over the place. And we had fighting. And Allison and

Dylan were at the end of their rope.

As a third behaviorist, these guys had called in. That made the pressure even

higher. So I pulled out all the stops when they gave them their homework, and

saw that they had built up that superhighway.

They put up an outdoor cat run by perfect fence for pancakes. And finally,

vet I sent them to, Dr. Sueda, put lobster temporarily on mood stabilizers

lower the sense of panic he was feeling.

Hopefully over time, the medication will do its work, he'll realize that the

world is a safe place, and we'll be able to get rid of the meds. So the

medication in conjunction with all the behavior modification and training may

help the two cats get along better and decrease the urine spraying.

So I'm hoping this time I'm going in there and it's a total 180.

No more peeing outside the box and two cats who can finally share their space.

Rainbows and unicorns, that's what I need. Tell me something good. What's

on with Pancake and Lobster?

The pee is...

Completely gone now. Are you kidding me? Yay!

Good. Hallelujah.

They don't fight at all anymore.

Oh, good, man.

That's unbelievable news.

Because of all the homework we've been doing, we're not seeing any fighting or

peeing. It's been a huge relief.

Finally, I feel like we're in a really good place.

Yeah, like building the shelves really helps.

Loftor loves it. This feels like a totally different kind of cat. He feels

much more confident.

Yay, Lobster.

All right, so let's talk about Pancake a little bit. Last time I was here, I had

you build a backyard run for Pancake. And how's it going?

It's going great. We love it. When we need to play with Lobster, like Lobster

has his playtime without getting intruded by Pancake. Allison and Dylan

really gone above and beyond my expectations for a backyard run by

perfect playpen by Perfect Pen.

Now Pancake has this awesome space to chill out while Lobster continues to

his confidence in the house. Man, everyone wins.

Now, are you guys noticing a difference now that Lobster's on mood stabilizers?

He's starting to settle into it, and, you know, I think that it's made a good

positive impact on him. I only suggest that cat guardians consult their vet

about mood stabilizers in extreme cases, and this was a pretty extreme case.

Cool. So, let's... Oh, that's what we got.

Let's just freeze.

This moment in time. So I walked into the living room, and let me tell you,

like cat wonderland. Dylan really brought this blueprint to life. This

insanely happy. I mean... He's hardly left the little shelf.

Oh, yeah, he lives here now.

The fact that he's not peeing, the fact that there's not a lot of fighting, all

stems from this.

Blow it up.

Nice going, man. Now, the cats have new places to hang out, so there's less

territorial aggression.

And... Lobster's got escape routes, so he can feel safe.

Look at this!

Okay, now, here's a test.

When Pancake and Lobster were going nose -to -nose on the Super Kitty Highway, I

was really nervous.

This is where this gets brilliant.

Now look, this is a stare -down, right?

Yes!

In that moment where the cats decide, you know what? I don't need conflict.

means there's finally enough territory to go around. And Lobster finally has

confidence to not act like Greg.

That's it.

That's all we needed.

To finally see them kind of cohabitating, it's...

Such a relief.

Well, kind of hopefully you're not going to take vacations away from your house

anymore. Absolutely. I think we would go on a true honeymoon, not like these

short stints. Yeah, exactly.

The get us away from the cat honeymoon.

We don't have to worry about giving the cats away or we can live all together

and feel good about it. All right. On that note, guys, I'm out.

It's been wonderful.

Congratulations. I was very skeptical of Jackson in the beginning.

You know, we had tried so many things and we were hopeless.

But it's really turned around. It's like a night and day difference.

I personally can't thank him enough.

Have a hellish cat?

Get my tips on how to better understand your cat's behavior.

Go to AnimalPlanet .com forward slash my cat from hell.