Original subtitles

Monty, did you do this? Our cat Monty eats everything.

I can't wear this. You know, just some tax documents.

No big deal. My t -shirt, my underwear, my bras, all part of his diet.

It is a strain on the relationship.

We argue about her leaving stuff out. One day he might eat something that

doesn't come out.

If Monty dies, my husband will never forgive me.

Jesus. Thumbelina.

Our problem child is Thumbelina.

Thumbelina. I run a cupcake business out of my house.

The cat's fighting is definitely affecting my business.

Get off the counter or I'm going to bake.

There have been times where I have burned my cupcakes because I have to

them from fighting with each other.

We have four cats. Tiggerbell and Thumbelina used to be best friends, and

brought Tigger and Sahara into the house, and that's when the fighting

God. It's causing us fighting.

I don't think I could live this way if it caused me too much stress.

I don't want to give any of my cats.

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.

Monty, did you do this?

Nope. This is disgusting, Monty.

I'm on my way to go see Amy and Marco and their cat, Monty, and Monty's got an

appetite for destruction. I mean, he will chew up anything and everything

not nailed down in their house.

Freshly chewed.

Amy is so sick and tired of changing her lifestyle around the cat, and Marco

just wishes she'd be a little bit more helpful.

It is one huge mess, and I'm going to go over there and try to help clean it up.

I'm Amy. I'm Marco.

And we've been together for two and a half years, and we just got married.

Our cat, Monty, is about four years old. He's a domestic short hair. And he

eats. Everything.

This is disgusting, Monty.

My t -shirt.

Freshly chewed. My underwear. My bras.

Are you serious, Monty? Did you do this? I can't wear this in public.

It's all part of his diet.

Hey.

Ever since he was a little kitten, I noticed that Monty had a chewing and

issue. What I eventually started doing was picking up my stuff and putting it

away. And then after two and a half years, when Amy came to live with me, it

interesting because she tends to leave stuff out and he gets into it. Brand new

towels, completely destroyed.

He's a neat freak, and I am not a neat freak.

You know, just some tax documents.

No big deal. Didn't need those for the IRA.

It's a problem.

It is the string on the relationship. We argue about...

We're leaving stuff out. Right, but at the same time, I don't want to live in a

place that's completely devoid of all decoration. I want pillows on our couch.

want to be able to have sheets in our guest room. And I want to be able to

towels. I get it.

Put your stuff away.

It scares me that one day he might eat something that doesn't come out.

If we can't get help from Jackson, Monty is going to die.

If Monty dies, my husband will never forgive me.

How are you, man? Good. Marco, nice to meet you. Marco, I'm Jackson. Good to

meet you, man. Come on in, man, please.

I'm Amy. Amy, I'm Jackson. Good to meet you. Thank you so much for coming. Oh,

of course. Of course. Well, tell me. Tell me about your cat troubles. You

not have come at a better time.

Just last night, we had to take Monty to the emergency room.

Get out of here. Yeah. He had recently eaten a towel.

He stopped eating and stopped drinking. And Saturday and Sunday, every time he

went to the water bowl, he would drink water, walk out into the living room,

throw up. Oh, wow.

So it sounds like the towel he ate didn't pass through his system.

So what did the vet do?

They did an x -ray that was inconclusive, and they gave him fluids,

pepped up. Is he here? He is here. Oh, he came home. He came home. Good. He

home last night. He still hasn't used the litter box.

Yikes. The towel that Monty ate is still in his system, and Amy and Marker were

just waiting for him to expel it somehow, poop it out, or throw it up.

And if that doesn't happen, then the towel can be wrapped up inside his

intestines, and that can be a life -or -death situation that requires surgery.

So we need to be ready to take him back to the vet at a moment's notice.

Have you ever seen anything like this before? Yeah. If it is what I'm thinking

it is, it's pica.

Now, pica simply means eating non -food items, but that's deceiving. It is a

really complex behavior pattern.

Obsessive -compulsive, sure, but it baffles vets, it baffles behaviorists,

baffles everybody. There is no single reason why cats will target certain

to obsessively chew, and unfortunately, the cause is as elusive as the cure.

Is there anything you can think of that triggered his last two sessions?

Every weekend, I run with a car club.

Do you really? You race cars too? Cool.

Yeah. And we left town.

That's what I'm talking about. Now, I don't know whether Monty's acting out

because of separation anxiety or whether separation anxiety is triggering an

underlying condition like pica. All I know is I've got a lot left to learn.

Have you gotten to that point where you're just not living a normal life

you're putting stuff away? I'll answer that. Well, wait a minute. It's really

difficult. We get in a lot of arguments. I'm an adult, and I don't like when my

husband tells me to put my stuff away. It makes me feel like I'm living at home

with my dad again.

Do you give a lot of grief about the stuff? I give her tons of grief.

What's going to happen when Monty dies? It's going to be my fault, and Marco

will never be able to look at me the same again.

It scared me a lot.

This problem is not just affecting Monty. You can feel the tension between

and Amy. Amy's living in fear and guilt of what could happen to Monty. And in

the meantime, Marco seems completely unsympathetic to all that Amy's going

through.

Okay.

Oh, wow. It doesn't take long, man. Look at that.

Yeah. Holy. This is just part of his handiwork. This is the thing that made

sick? Yeah.

You can see that he's really worked through almost every single corner.

Holy!

Now, I was expecting to see the towel that Monty chewed on. I didn't think it

was going to be towel, plural.

It's just a matter of time. This cat's going to kill himself.

Hey, buddy.

There's our boy.

Normally, with new people, he doesn't want to run away. He wants to come up

kind of rub and sniff.

Monty is clearly feeling pretty lousy, and it worries me that he's not eating

drinking because that's how he would push that towel through his system.

I'm going to do my best to tempt him with some food, but if he refuses it,

action will have to be taken.

That's fishy.

Well, yes, it is.

He's like, I want some of that. Look at how he's licking his lips. I love it,

man. Please eat.

Go for that, buddy. Come on, bud.

It's okay. It's okay.

He wants it.

Try it out, bunny.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Come here.

It's okay, brother. It's okay.

I just saw Monty salivate over food and then walk away from it. He's hungry, but

he can't eat. That's bad news.

So, I mean, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm worrying that the towel might be in

him right now.

We've got to get him to the vet again.

That way you guys can hopefully get a blood test, so if there are meds we can

put him on, he'll be ready for meds, okay? Of course, you guys are going to

check in with me later? Yeah, absolutely.

In the case of a cat with potential intestinal blockage, I can't even assign

homework until I know that he's out of danger.

Then, once he's out of the woods, a simple blood test will determine if it's

nutritional deficiency that's causing him to chew. If it's not, we'll know

it's indeed pica, and then we can focus on managing it.

All right, guys, well, I'm going to take off. Please make sure to call me

tonight, okay? Okay, thank you so much.

I don't want my cat to die, so we're going to take the cat to the vet

and... See if he's feeling better. If it turns out to be pica and it's a forever

issue, we're going to learn to live with it and work around Monty's issue.

Simple.

Thinking about having to deal with this for the next 20 -something years is

absolutely exhausting to me, and I'm not sure that I'll be able to do it.

All right, I'm here for my second visit with Amy and Marco and their cat, Monty.

Now, a couple days ago, I was here for my first visit, and it was pretty

stressful. When I met Monty, he was in the midst of a medical emergency, so we

had to act fast.

Hopefully, I walk in today, Monty is happier and healthier.

But in cases like this, you never know.

Hey, Marco, man. How are you? Good, Jackson. Come on in. We've got a lot to

about. Oh, okay. Let's get to it, man.

Hey, Amy. Hi.

Thanks for coming. Good to see you again.

You too.

Things feel serious here, guys. Tell me what's going on.

The vet we went to was phenomenal.

They took great care of Monty. Good. He started eating and drinking again, so he

did eventually move the towel out. There was towel in his system. Yeah.

Now, the last time I was here, I wasn't sure if Monty was going to live or die

after eating that towel.

He wasn't being social, and he didn't want to eat. So to hear that he passed

that towel through his system is a huge relief. Did the vet that I sent you to

confirm that we're dealing with pica? Yes.

How are you feeling about hearing that?

It's very scary. There's no hard, fast solution.

No. No, there isn't.

Did you discuss meds with her? We did discuss that with her. Medication can

reduce that compulsion to engage in pica.

You're going to do it, right?

Yes. Okay, good.

Now, there's no cure for pica, but with anti -anxiety medication and a lot of

hard work, hopefully I can teach Marco and Amy how to live with a pica cat.

So what else is going on?

Friday night we came home from dinner to find this.

That used to be a whole sandal.

Uh -oh. It's just, it's not fair.

Are you pretty quick to put that blame on Amy? I am, because there are her

left for the cat to get to.

Aye.

freaked out thinking like this is it this was my fault and then what's gonna

happen when monty dies so i stayed up all night and at four in the morning he

threw up two very large pieces of leather wow i want to check out monty

how he's doing okay okay okay

Monty's pica is still completely out of control, and so in order to manage this

mysterious condition, I gotta see if Monty can be more social than he was on

last visit. If he can't, then we're all in trouble.

All right, so, where's our boy?

He went back under the bed.

Hi.

Monty, come here.

Come here, buddy.

Hello.

Hey, buddy.

Oh, don't go back there.

The fact that Monty doesn't want to come out and play concerns me. I'm hoping

that I could lure him out with treats, because if he doesn't want to play or

eat, then he could be headed to the ER again.

What do we have here?

What is it, Bubba?

There we go.

You will come to me.

Where are you, Bubba? He's there. He's waiting right there for you.

Oh, hi.

Come here, puppy.

Magic. Food motivated.

Like magic.

I am so relieved that Monty came out from under the bed for food. I mean,

means he's recovering from chewing Amy's sandal, and he's capable of being

motivated. So, I got some stuff for you. A beta. That is a real fish.

There ain't nothing wrong with a little beta fish.

We know that Monty's chewing kicks in when he's alone. Every minute that he

spends watching a fish is one minute that he's not chewing on something that

potentially kill him.

Also, we got plant life here. Wheatgrass, ryegrass, catnip. These are

that he can graze on. Actually good for his digestion. Things that can entertain

him while you're not there. I also want you to change up your leaving routine

because he knows everything that you do before you leave the house.

I'm going to leave you with some hard plastic toys that are safe for Pika Cat.

And you're going to want to put away those other houseplants so he doesn't

down on them. Let's see if that helps. All right? Yeah.

And lastly, Marco, you need to let Amy off the hook. This is causing her way

much stress.

If there's any problems at all, you give me a shout, okay?

Thank you. All right. Thank you.

Bye -bye.

I hope we can find some sort of solution.

Because I don't want my cat to die.

I don't think I can last much longer under the stress of thinking about what

Monty has or hasn't eaten. I can't handle it.

Now it's time for a kitty bit.

Cats are unable to taste what flavor?

A. Sour. B.

Sweet. C.

Bitter. Or D.

Salty. Find out after this break.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Cats are unable to taste what flavor?

And the answer is B, sweet.

And by the way, compared to humans, the cat's sense of taste is weak.

Humans have 9 ,000 taste buds, while cats only have 473.

Marco and Amy's cat, Monty, has a dangerous condition called pica, which

uncontrollable urge to eat non -food items.

If we don't get a handle on this fast, it could cost Monty his life.

I've come all the way out here to the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway to talk to

Marco. He's out here this weekend racing.

Hey, Marco.

Jackson, what are you doing here, man? How you doing? Good. I figured it's a

great chance to see what he does.

But most importantly, I want to talk to him without Amy about Amy. He's blaming

her way too much about what's going on with Monty.

What are you doing here?

I'm here to talk to you, man. Got some time? Yeah, I got some time.

You want to go for a ride?

In the air?

Unbelievable. Unbelievable, man.

Unbelievable.

That was so, so effing cool.

Was it scary? Yes, it was scary out there.

That was amazing. Dude, thank you so much. I thought you'd have a good time

that. I had an amazing time. Here's what I want to talk to you about. I want to

talk about Amy.

That thing that went down with the sandal was crazy.

Are you pretty quick to put that blame on Amy? I am, because they're her shoes.

You're pretty hard on her.

When she was following him around all night long, waiting for him to puke, at

what point did you let her off the hook? When he did.

See, that's what I'm saying to you, man. You need to stop blaming Amy for

Monty's behavior. Can you do that?

I'm absolutely willing to make that effort.

I'm glad I came out here, man. You're so pliable today.

That's only because we got to go fast. I know. I feel like coming out here

today, not only was I able to bond a little bit with Marco, which is really

cool, but also I got his sign -off on some really important matters. I am so

psyched now to get back in there with Monty, with Marco and Amy. I can't wait

for it.

I'm out in front of Marco and Amy's house for my last visit with them and

cat, Monty.

Now, I saw their video homework, and I noticed that Monty was interested in his

new fish and chewing the edible plants I left. You like the mint, buddy?

I also saw Marco and Amy changing up their routine when leaving the house.

What shall I leave out today when I go to work? Maybe this catnip boy?

Hopefully today I'm going to walk in here, and the two of them are on the

page, and that means that Monty's energy is much more focused.

on doing the positive things and not on chewing. But that's a long shot, I'm

hoping here. Hey, Marco.

How are you, Jackson? I'm great, man. How are you doing? Good. Welcome back.

Thank you, man. Now listen, I've got to ask you right off the bat, since the

last time I was here, is Monty okay?

We're doing great. No hospital, no chewing, no nothing.

Ow! Yay!

I've had this cat five years now. I've never had that.

Ah, music to my ears right there.

The thing that Jackson gave us that was the most helpful was to avoid routine so

that Monty is always thinking about that instead of chewing on things. So now

it's just all good Monty all the time.

Where is he today? Behind the table.

Now here's the thing. Each time I've come here, I've seen a cat not well at

Right. Not social at all. I need to see him out here playing. If I could just

get him out here, I know we've gotten somewhere, okay?

Now, last time I was here, I couldn't get Monty out from under the bed with

play. I had to lure him out with food. Now, today, I want to see that he's a

confident cat. That means he's following the toy out on his own. Come on, buddy.

Come on, bud.

Let's not do this again.

Come on, buddy.

I've got to see him playing. This cat is the happy, healthy cat I want him to

be. Come on.

Come on.

What is it?

Good boy!

Good boy!

This is a cat that we were digging out from under the bed a couple weeks ago.

This level of focus from him right now means he's not going to chew.

Finally, it happens. Monty focuses on the laser and he goes for it. I mean,

a vengeance. That's all I was waiting for. A chance to see Monty free from the

obsessive anxiety he suffers from and playing with reckless abandon.

I didn't realize.

that our dynamic affected the cat so much and that the stress between us

trickled down.

I know how much you love Monty. Cats got pica.

Accidents happen, and it's not ever your fault.

Thank you. You're welcome. I love you. I love you, too.

Working with cats and people. Well, here's the funny part. It is all tied

together.

With that being said, I feel like I'm done.

We're in a really good place with Monty right now.

I have the tools that I need to feel confident that I'm not going to kill

poor cat.

Goodbye, Monty.

Goodbye, Marco.

Goodbye, Amy. Take care, all right?

Jackson's given Monty a greater shot at living longer.

Obviously, Pika, there is no cure for something like that. But he's given us

tools we need to help give Monty the quality of life that he deserves.

He's such an awesome little cat.

Ooh! Our problem child is Thumbelina.

Thumbelina. I run a cupcake business out of my house. The cat fighting is

definitely affecting my business.

I've got to get off the counter. I've got to bake.

There have been times where I burn my cupcakes because I have to stop them

fighting with each other.

Jesus. Thumbelina.

I'm at the point where I'm like, just get rid of Thumbelina. I don't want to

under my cat.

I'm in San Diego, and I'm on my way to go see Leilani and Michael and their cat

Thumbelina, who's just one of their many cats ruining their chill SoCal

lifestyle.

I'm hoping to return them and their cats back to something totally awesome,

dude.

I'm Leilani.

I'm Michael.

And we've been together for 15 years and married almost 10 years.

We have four cats.

Thumbelina is a Balinese, and so is Tinkerbell, and there's Tahira and

and they're both Savannah cats.

Our problem child was Thumbelina.

Tinkerbell and Thumbelina used to be best friends, and then I brought Pigger

Sahara into the house, and that's when the fighting started.

Thumbelina!

Thumbelina, basically, she'll stalk whoever she's pissed off at the time, or

at, then she'll just go after him and hit him.

Some days there's catfights, like, all day long.

The fights have gotten so bad, we're afraid that somebody is seriously going

hurt somebody.

God,

what did I do to you? I run a cupcake business out of my house. I make custom

cupcakes.

It's difficult for me to run my business and keep the cats from, you know,

tearing each other apart.

There have been times where I burn my cupcakes because I have to stop them

fighting with each other.

The cats fighting is definitely affecting my business.

And then we fight over it.

I'm at the point where I'm like, just get rid of a ballina.

If Jackson can't help us, we'd have to give up somebody.

I don't want to give up any of my cats.

You know, they're my kids.

Hi, Jackson. I'm your mommy. Hey, good to meet you. Welcome to San Diego. Thank

you so much. How are you? Good, how are you? I'm Michael. Michael, good to meet

you, man.

I've been a fan of Jackson for years, and I was really excited to see him

because we really, really needed help.

I appreciate the work that he does for animals and everything, but I have some

doubts.

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

She's bullying the other cats in the house. We have three other cats.

We have Pigger, Sahara, and Tinkerbell.

Okay. And she's chasing them around the house. She's smacking them around.

And this has been going on for how long?

Starting to get aggressive once we got Pigger.

He's a Savannah cat.

Oh. And, yeah. Oh.

Okay.

Yeah, and then we brought Sahara in. Sahara is another Savannah. Oh.

Oh, my God.

Savannas are a hybrid between a domestic cat and a serval, which is an African

wildcat. And because of their wild heritage, Savannas can often be violent,

destructive, or both.

What kind of cats are Thumbelina and Tinkerbell?

They're a Balinese cat.

Okay. Now, Balinese are typically very sweet -natured, so when Leilani and

Michael tell me that Thumbelina is their problem child, I suspect that there's a

lot more going on here, because four cats is a lot to have in this small

How is the bullying manifesting?

There's a fight every day. Fights every day. Every day. Okay. And a lot of times

that affects me and it puts me behind for my business. What do you do?

I make cupcakes for a living.

There'll be something in the oven and it will burn because I'm upstairs trying

to break up the fight.

I'm putting the blame on her.

It's kind of like the I told you so.

Why?

She wanted Savannah. Because I brought the Savannah cats in the house.

I was against it.

Let's get up and move around a little bit. Come on, guys.

There is so much violence going on in this house.

You can tell it's taking a toll on the humans. Just get rid of a balloon.

So, I need to meet all the cats in this crowded house because that's the only

way I'm going to get the full picture.

And we've got a cat!

Hi! That's Sahara.

Wow, there's a lot of Sahara to love.

Hi, Sahara. I would love for you to say hi to me, baby.

Hi, my love.

Hello, my love.

Ooh, it's okay.

Ouch. God.

Wow, I was not expecting that. When a cat is this territorially defensive, you

know there's a lot of tension in the house.

Ooh.

Ouch.

I haven't even met somebody yet, but right away I can tell it's not going to

easy sharing a space with a Savannah who's this big and this defensive.

Let's keep moving, guys. Okay. I really wanted to see the kitchen because you

put four cats, violence, and food in the same barrel, there's going to be an

explosion.

Okay, so, into the kitchen. Well, hi.

Hi. So this would be... That's a tiger.

That's Tigger. That's a lot of cat, man.

Yeah. Like Sahara, Tigger is an F2 Savannah, which means that he's very

related to a wild cat. So after what happened outside... Ooh.

Ouch.

I'm going to give him his space.

Now, I see bulls down here. Do they fight around food?

Um, yeah. Tinkerbell and Stumblinos are swatting at the other cats.

Here's the thing. Nothing is more important to a cat than where food comes

Those tiny Balinese don't stand a chance of getting their share of the food when

they're competing with savannas. And now that I finally met the wild side of the

family, it's time to meet the domesticated side.

Oh, we have cats.

Yeah.

So, guys, we got

Thumbelina and Tinkerbell.

In a little cat ball together here.

The Thumbelina that I'm seeing is not the Thumbelina that these guys are

describing. She's not vicious. She's not a bully.

She's just your typical sweet -natured Balinese.

Here's the thing. Just because they started fighting doesn't mean that

mortal enemies.

But I need to see that for sure. And I'm not seeing it right now. So hold on a

minute. I'm going to grab something, okay?

Thumbelina and Tinkerbell are very cute and cuddly now, but I'm worried that my

presence is throwing them off their normal behavior.

I want to see what happens when I'm not in the room. This is my cat cam case,

right? Okay.

Okay, so here's one of them.

Okay, we're going to start right here.

Now I'm going to see behavior as it actually goes down as opposed to what

happens when I'm around.

Meantime, you guys just hang, and I will get you when I'm ready, okay? All

right. Cool.

Let's see what you guys are up to.

Come on.

Fighting? No.

There you go.

There it is.

Now I'm seeing the aggression that Michael and Leilani are describing.

And yeah, it's pretty bad. But I'm more worried about the overall picture I'm

seeing in this household. I mean, you have these two huge, half -wild

who are dominating both mealtimes and territory.

And you have two Balinese who are being marginalized.

Thumbelina's violence is not the cause of the chaos in this house. It's just a

symptom. Let me tell you what I saw. I saw a lot of territorial aggression.

And that's what we have to work on in this house.

You guys obviously love the beach.

So I'm going to put this in as many beach terms as I can. The first thing

guys need to have here, you've got to have a life preserver, okay?

And that means that when you see things starting to go down, grab a piece of

cardboard, put it in between them. That sight locker makes it for that instant

the cats are like, what's going on?

Then you can just sort of shoo them off.

The second big need here is meal time structure.

You can feed the savannas outside, close the door, then come in here and feed

the other two. Boom, we're done. Make sure you keep them separated because if

the savannas finish their food, they will rush in and they will make the

Balinese feel totally insecure.

We don't want that to happen at all. Then I need you to catify the space.

I need to have other things around here that Thumbelina can own. Hold on one

second.

Oh. Okay, guys.

Oh, wow. So these are your beach blankets, right?

We're going to use all of these to mark territory.

And looking around this house, I can't help but notice that while it may look

like a tropical paradise for the humans, there's really not a lot of territory

for the cats to own. When you have four cats in a small house, especially when

two of them are big, half -wild savannas, you need to have things that

can identify as their own. So let's give Thumbelina and the rest of these guys

some beds that they can soak their scent into.

To wrap this whole thing up, it's so important that you guys stop

Zambolina.

She's throwing up an SOS, and she has been for years now, and you guys got to

listen to that SOS, okay? When Jackson was pointing out that it was actually

Tigger and Sahara, it definitely confirms my worst fears.

I told you so.

Guys, I'm going to take off. If you've got any questions at all, you let me

know, and I will talk to you soon, okay? Thank you very much.

Bye -bye, guys. Nice meeting you. Nice meeting you.

Homework needs to work.

We're going to have to rehome Tigger and Sahara.

All right, I'm back in San Diego for my second visit with Leilani, Michael, and

their cats, Thumbelina, Tinkerbell, Sahara, and Tigger.

Now, the last time I was here... Jesus, Thumbelina!

Thumbelina's aggression towards the other cats had Michael and Leilani

the blame game. I'm at the point where I'm like, just get rid of Thumbelina.

I don't want to get rid of my cats.

Now, this time around, I want to see the Balinese cats getting an equal share of

the territory in the house, because if this house is still totally taken over

the Savannas...

Oh, we're going to have trouble.

Hey, Michael. How are you, man? Welcome back to San Diego. Good to see you, man.

Leilani, how are you? Good to see you again.

You too.

So, guys, how's it going with the cat? Tell me.

We definitely see improvement.

But they're still fighting.

Okay.

We started using the fight blocker. Okay. But then Thumbelina comes back.

Yeah, and then she'll come back 10 minutes later and fight.

Right, right.

Would have been hoping for a little more progress.

What else? Tell me anything else that's going on.

The pain.

What? Did I know about this last time I was here? I don't think we knew. I don't

think it came up. I was doing cleaning and I went underneath the couch and I'm

like, oh.

As soon as I thought it just made me mad and so I ended up yelling at her and

then it's, you know, just bickering back and forth.

When I heard that Leilani and Michael had discovered their cats were peeing,

heart sank. I mean, peeing outside the box is another way that cats respond to

territorial insecurity. So that just means that things in this house are even

worse than we thought, especially since it's increasing the tension between the

couple. Let's take a look at what you guys have been doing.

Okay, so I'm feeding the Savannah cats outside.

We had all four cats eating in different camps. There wasn't competition over

food, which is really important among four cats.

And I saw them using those beds, which hopefully is giving the cats more

territory to own around the house.

I saw a fight between Tinkerbell and Thumbelina, and

that concerns me.

Okay.

I'm so feeling it's frustrating.

I mean, it makes me sad.

I don't want to give up any of my cat.

I don't think we can live this way in general. It's causing too much stress.

We're going to get through this.

And I'm with you guys until we get through this.

We still have a lot of work to do. Let's get on top of this. Come on. Let's go.

Look who's here.

Last time I was here, all she was curious about was, like, how far she

strike me to the bone.

Oh. Now, although Sahara seems a little less violent, she's still protecting her

territory more than I'd like, so I want to see if I can get her to play with me.

Hello, good girl.

I would love to see you come down from there.

Look at how brave you are today.

Are you going to go after it?

Do you know it to me?

I want to bring out one other toy for you, baby. I want to see if you like

Good girl.

When Sahara went after that toy, she lost every trace of that defensiveness I

saw when she attacked me.

She just looks like a happy cat. I want to bring this to all of the cats in the

house because I think if we can get them all playing in the same room, they'll

start to realize they can share space.

without being threatened by one another.

Okay, so now I know that we've got to start here at the pee.

Yeah, it's underneath the couch part right there. You mind pulling that back

me?

Let's lift it up for you. You can kind of get an idea of what it looks like

right there.

So this is a... Oh, my God, it's wet.

Oh!

Oh, that's awful.

The pee smell is overwhelming.

So how many litter boxes do you have?

Two. What?

Come on now, you know you can't have two litter boxes in this house.

You have four cats.

I don't know, it doesn't look very... I don't know, I don't feel like having

that litter box.

Little honey.

I know.

We have to have a reality check here. As a rule, you want one more litter box

than the number of cats in the house. And for a house with two huge savannah

cats who dominate the territory, two boxes are definitely not enough.

Having ample litter boxes is another way for a cat to feel...

ownership of their territory. And when you don't have ownership, that's when

get fighting and peeing.

Guys, this is what I want to talk about right here.

Miss Thumbelina, good to see you again.

Oh, look at who.

This is the tree in the video, Homer.

Oh!

And you're telling me that that's something that happens regularly.

Yeah, every day.

Daily. Every day? Every day. I have to break up them fighting over the top.

All right, let's start talking about the vertical world here. These guys are

telling us that's not enough. We're still fighting over resources.

You know, one thing that strikes me about this living room is its bareness,

especially when you're considering how badly these cats are struggling for

territory.

Oh!

We've got to open up that vertical world, or else these Balinese don't

chance here.

All right, guys, are you ready for some homework?

Sure. Now, the first thing I want to start talking about is the vertical

I really want to see shelving in here.

Now, the next thing I want you guys to do, I want to make sure that you're

playing every day. Play with all of the cats in the same room.

Good girl.

If you play with something, it'll wear you down, and it allows everyone's

to chill out a little bit.

Finally, here's the fun part.

Five litter boxes.

I want to see them out in socially significant areas.

Out in the open where these cats demand it. Guys, I'm going to cut out. Thank

you. All right. Take care, guys.

Bye. Bye.

If things don't get better, I think that there's going to be a major fight.

I don't know if this is important to work out because I don't want to give up

son.

All right, I'm back in San Diego for my final visit with Leilani and Michael and

their cats, Thumbelina, Tinkerbell Sahara, and Tigger. And the last time I

here, it was bad.

Oh!

That's awful.

There was pee ringing up the floor, fighting going on unchecked. Oh!

Now, I got a chance to take a look at their video homework, and they put up

shelves, which is great, and some litter boxes, and I saw them playing with the

cats all together. Now, hopefully, I'm going to walk in this time to see no

aggression. No peeing out of the litter box, and Leilani is finally able to

focus on her baking.

She's asking for a lot, but I'm pretty hopeful.

Tell me, how are things going with your cats?

They're going a lot better than last visit, for sure.

Okay, good.

Since you came, we put down more litter boxes all over the house. We have five

of them now.

Any peeing whatsoever?

Zero. No peeing. No peeing. No peeing. Oh, in this house?

Yeah. That's insane.

So what else? The fighting has definitely gone down a lot since we've,

had the catification going on, the beds everywhere.

Boom. When cats have more to own, like litter boxes and shelves, they don't act

out in insecure ways like peeing or fighting. How are you guys doing

this point?

We're doing good.

I'm not putting a blame game on her anymore.

We have to be a team.

We've definitely bonded closer doing the projects, doing the homework. I love

hearing that. Now, I've got to go look at the Cat Superhighway and how the cats

are taken to it.

Now, let's start talking about your Cat Superhighway here. I mean, I like a lot

of the elements to it, but what I need you to do is expand it out. I need you

make it friendly for four cats.

Two of whom are only 20 pounds.

You did? Yeah.

You knew I was going to say it. Why didn't you do it? We have a surprise for

you. We're going to go show you. So come on.

Oh, sweet.

Okay.

What?

Did you do in here?

So we walk into the office, and I mean, how?

I mean, it was floor to ceiling, beautiful.

Cats sitting everywhere. I am in cat heaven right now.

Poor cat.

No fighting, no tension.

Oh, oh, oh.

Okay. Look at this. Look at what she's doing right now. She's looking for other

routes, right?

You have set this up.

So that you're not competing for the resources because the resources go on

forever in here, you know? So Thumbelina jumps up there, and the beautiful thing

was she saw no competition of resources.

And that's a game changer. That means that I can leave here knowing that these

guys are going to be okay. So, guys, tell me, is there any chance at all of

cats being rehomed in this house? No.

No, never.

That must feel really good to know you've made them so happy. Oh,

mean, it's...

Why? I don't know. Seeing my cats happy.

I'm happy for you. I really am. I really am.

It makes me extremely happy to see my cats happy. I mean, I don't think

enough words we can say how grateful we are.

Hey, I'm going to cut out. Hold on.

Wait here. We'll be right back. We've got one more surprise for you.

We'll be right back. I ain't going anywhere. All right.

Right? Just you and me?

Thank you, President, for all the work you've done for us.

Leilani's passion is baking.

The fact that she could get back to this again is because of the fact that she's

not breaking up fights, and that makes me really, really happy. I'm going to

take my cake and run.

Thank you again so much. Thank you so much. When Jackson first came in, I was

kind of skeptical.

Ooh! I made him a fan. He's definitely not a Jackson fan. I'm on board. Thanks

lot, Jackson. Now that the cats are not fighting and we're not fighting and

everybody can kind of just chill and we are all a big, happy family.