Original subtitles

Cat meows all night long. We do not sleep.

He'll take a turd and he'll play with it. It's destroying everything.

Look at what he does to my turd.

My name is Adrienne. I won the first season of America's Next Top Model.

I have threatened to get rid of the cat. I threaten to get rid of Todd.

I'm being held captive by my demonic cat.

Storm's just waiting and plotting to attack people.

I was meeting this guy named Bobby. We got into this huge fight, and he's like,

it's near your cat. I'm like, well, peace.

Storm has attacked so many people.

Animal control told me that once she reaches three attacks, they have to put

down. It is life or death for Storm.

I don't want to have to put her down.

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.

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... You can't always focus on the cat's needs,

right? We all have needs in this family. And cat guardians have reached their

emotional limit.

This is the last straw. Killed me. I'm their last hope.

I just love him so much. And I know he's got a good side.

Cats have nine lives, but humans only have one.

Oh my gosh!

I'm heading over to go meet Adrian and Todd and their cat, Billy Shears. Now,

Adrian is famous for being on America's Next Top Model and My Fair Brady, and

now she's tweeting out all of Billy's bad behavior for the world to see.

He's destroying their house, keeping these guys up all night with his

Todd is threatening to rehome the cat, and Adrian is threatening to rehome

I'm going to get over there right now and see if there's any chance at all of

restoring some teeth.

My name is Adrienne. I am a retired model. I won the first season of

Next Top Model.

And this is my pet, Todd.

I am Todd. I'm not a pet. I resent that. We've been together now for two years.

And we have a cat, and his name is Billy Shears.

Someone on Twitter was like, I have kittens. So I adopted him and I drove

hours. And when I got him, he was in such bad condition. I just knew I had to

get him out of the situation. So I adopted him even though he's a... But I

him.

Adrienne has a very large social media. And so she posts these exploits of the

cat. His hashtag is AFFCA, which means Face Cat of America because he is.

Get down.

No. No.

They find me as a very vocal cat.

The cat meows all night long. We do not leave.

Why would evolution make that? Why? Why would evolution do that?

This is a historic building built in 1922, and this cat is destroying

everything. He tears up all the woodwork. He likes to scratch.

Look at what he does to my chairs. No!

And what's really surreal is that people... Look at this.

Get down!

Get down!

Get down! Get off my chair!

Get down!

Get down!

He'll take a turd and he'll play with it. It smears everywhere.

Why do you do this to me? I think a lot of times Todd encourages the bad

behavior of the cat. I play with the cat in a very appropriate way.

If we can't resolve these issues, the cat, I am afraid, is going to have to

That's funny because it will really be him leaving.

Hi, how are you? Jackson, this is Todd. Hey, Todd. Glad to meet you.

Usually I'll walk into people's homes. The first thing we do is we sit down,

tell me about your cat.

This is one of those times I don't have to ask that question because Adrienne

tweets out.

Everything. I have proof.

So let's see.

Oh, God.

All of the meows belong to me. I hate this cat.

Being forth the sacrifice, I offer Billy Shears to the gods of shut up cat.

Yeah. I know it's all in good fun, but if you say things, they take on life.

if you say that my cat is a big a -hole, then that cat becomes that in your

eyes. Tell me everything that he does that makes you crazy.

Constantly tearing into the woodwork. He ripped up all the cushions in the

dinette center. He ripped up the drawers over there. Just the seat cushion on

your chair.

Yeah. Another thing my cat does is he's decided that the litter box is a play

den. He'll choose a select turn to bring out and then bat all over the house,

which is disgusting.

Sounds to me that Billy playing with his poop is just plain, simple boredom.

Cats need to play a lot.

If they don't, bad things like this happen.

He's a very playful, energetic, fun cat. He's intense.

He's the most intense.

Wait, that's the first positive thing you've said. Yeah, and I love that about

him. I mean, he's always with me. The cat wants to be fed at a very specific

time, 4 in the morning. The cat will wake us up, so then you have to get out

bed. So by the time you're fully engaged with a cat like that, you're awake.

So now I might as well just go feed it. Probably not the most consistent

behavior. He's trained him that it's okay to do this. Yeah, so ultimately

her fault somehow, but she will blame me.

So it's three in the morning and you hear this.

Like a moaning sound?

And then when you go and you go, what? He goes.

To me, it sounds like you guys are on different pages when it comes to the

concept of. co -parenting this cat, having a plan.

Yeah, it's gotten to a point where it's affecting our relationship to some

degree. So Billy actually starts fighting. Yeah. I don't like how rough

with him. So tell me, guys, your breaking point. I have threatened to get

the cat, and Adrian doesn't want that cat. I threatened to get rid of Todd.

We do love the cat, just when you...

are trying to be productive at work, but you're hampered because you're tired,

you have to start making a decision when you look at the bigger picture. And

fortunately, this cat keeps us awake. And we fight a lot because we're so

Yeah, so you've got to fix the cat. There comes that place where this is

becoming a problem in their relationship.

And this is that really interesting intersection.

Cat problems, human problems, relationship problems.

Here's me sleeping, not waking up.

Look what's under the pillow. Give me that.

Yeah, that's one of them. Look at this.

That one, I got a second one. Let me have this for a second. I've never had a

client before that had two spray bottles under the pillow. Spray bottles are the

ultimate symbol of frustration and futility. It shows me that they have

into shortcuts rather than putting in the work to figure out exactly how to

the problem. So I can't use the spray bottle.

No, you're done.

Sorry. You see that look? You see that look that you're giving me right now?

That's the look I enjoy seeing on the cat. I enjoy this part. I got to spray

you. I got to spray you.

That's the look I enjoy.

Meows are there to get the attention of humans. Cats don't make that sound to

each other. So I know that it's attention getting and he succeeds.

There's Billy.

It's amazing. The place that he's hanging out right now is just so

marked up.

So here's what I want to see, you playing with him. I don't want to show

because you'll judge me because I'm probably doing it wrong. No, I'm

will never. But I do want to see it.

Sometimes I like to play what's called Up Above It All.

Up above everything. He likes to sniff things.

Sniff, sniff, sniff.

Sniff, sniff, sniff. I get to go everywhere.

Sometimes he likes to dance.

Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.

Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.

Sometimes he'll just toss them on those things.

Todd is literally barking up the wrong tree. We know that dogs really respond

roughhousing, where most of the time cats don't. Todd is putting all of this

energy in and then saying, see you later. And that is going to make for a

destructive cat.

Here's what I'm going to do. Oh.

Look at that. His attention is right on it, right?

So here's the thing that makes this so beautiful.

Yes, he's a slave to movement, right?

The difference between when you were just doing that to him and this, no

tail, no big eyes.

Doing what a cat does. He's absolutely 100 % focused on his prey.

Cats are hunters. And if you don't give them an object to catch, they won't burn

energy. As a matter of fact, they'll just be creating more energy.

And Todd, you understand what it is that gets him excited. It's just it doesn't

have an end goal for him. This does.

Hunt, catch, kill, eat is an end goal. It's about giving him focus.

Right now, he's like the portrait of focus. So that's what I've been looking

for. After spending the day with these guys, it's clear to me that Billy Shears

is not the evil villain that Adrian is portraying him as on Twitter.

Adrian and Todd have got to step up, take responsibility for their part in

mess, and work together to overcome this.

I want to start coming up with a schedule around his eating, his

his playing, right? First thing we're going to start talking about is play.

it's not spinning or throwing. It's about giving him focus. And then, when

tired, eat.

If Adrian and Todd want to control his sleeping habits, the first thing they

have to do is create and adhere to a very strict play and feeding schedule.

Now comes the hard part.

It won't work unless you do this. You pretend to be asleep and you ignore him

completely.

He has to learn. This doesn't.

Earn me anything.

Todd has admitted to getting up in the middle of the night and feeding Billy,

which is reinforcing the bad behavior. And even worse, it's been going on for a

long time.

So as hard as it's going to be for the first week or so, they have to be

resolved if they want Billy to stop.

Okay, here's another thing. I want to start turning around the language that

use around Billy Shears. I have taken the liberty of setting up Billy Shears'

own Twitter page.

And I would like you very much every day.

to commit to writing in his voice.

Does it not call him?

Hey. Take a break on it. The more you speak it, the more true it is.

This barrage of negativity towards Billy Shears has got to end.

Through tweeting as if she was Billy Shears, Adrian will learn to see the

through his eyes and maybe learn about him because he's not an a -hole. He's

just a fun -loving cat and he needs to be treated with some respect.

I'm going to take off. I'll be back in a few weeks. You call me if there's any

snags. Okay.

It's easy for someone like Jackson Galaxy to come in here and think that

cat's behavior will change, but I'm pretty skeptical.

All right, guys. I appreciate all the advice he gave us, but if it doesn't

he's got to go.

He's not going. That's funny, but he's not.

I need my sleep.

We're here today for my second visit with Adrian and Todd and their cat,

Shears.

Last time I was here, Billy was just running the show.

Get off my chair.

He'll take a turn and he'll play with it. Keeping these guys up all night with

his howling. But Todd and Adrian weren't exactly making things better.

Now, I got a chance to look at their video homework.

I did see Adrian letting Billy hunt using the toy I gave them.

And I'll give the couple props. They're at least tweeting pretending to be

Billy. But they can't seem to just be the voice of the cat without calling the

cat a jerk.

Other than that, I don't know what to expect.

Hey, man.

Oh, wow. Put the cat drug in.

Come on in.

Good to see you. Things going well? Well, we'll talk. Uh -oh.

So tell me, how are things going with Billy?

Good. He's obsessed with your toy unlike anything I've ever seen in my life.

Yeah. Like, if I touch it, he... In his mind, believes that he's catching a

bird. That is the portrait of, like, a mojified cat, right? It's just like, I

got this, man, I got this, right? That's what we want to see out of a cat. The

toy has definitely stopped all damage to wood in the house.

And has he stopped playing with his poop as well?

Yes. Oh, yeah. It is a huge relief to hear that the play schedule has stopped

all the destruction.

They give Billy a positive outlet for the raw cat energy, and he rewarded

How's sleep going?

It's really bad.

Just flatten me on the pavement.

After you left the first two or three days, awesome.

Now I think he started this rebellion against the Empire.

It's usually the other way around. One of you guys is flipping out.

Did you hear the doorbell? Oh, boy.

One morning, like 2 .30 in the morning, I heard something, so I come out, and

Todd and the cat are sitting at the kitchen table like two human beings

a carcass of chicken.

Wow. Yeah, I gave him a few pieces. Was that the only time?

Yes. It's a lie. No.

He's just lying. Would you just relax?

There was another time when this guy's crawling on the floor with the squirt

bottle, which he didn't use, but he's threatening him. Oh, God. Todd.

I'm telling you this, guys.

There's no way that this behavior continues if you stick to the game plan.

Todd is going to continue to feed Billy in the middle of the night, Billy is

going to seek attention from him even more while he's sleeping.

I know you guys are really good at this point with the play. Now I want to take

it a step further. I want to start working on a bit of a course in here

has to actually think. So we're going to work the hunting brain along with that

physical brain.

I know Billy loves to play. I've seen hours of footage of him playing. But

Billy's a Siamese. He's very intelligent and sometimes so intelligent they get

bored easy.

So let me just see something here. I've got some freeze -dried turkey. Let me

see how much you dig this.

Do you dig that?

So I started to teach Adrian and Todd about using treats to motivate Billy

specific actions.

Here we go.

Up here.

Let me see if I can get you to do a little sit.

Good. As soon as this button hits the ground, click treat.

Watching Billy behave with Galaxy right now is amazing.

I'm watching him demonstrate behaviors that I wish he would just do all the

time, and I'm starting to really realize that I might be contributing to his bad

behaviors. I'm going to give you homework right now. Okay. Here is your

treat. He only gets this magical treat when we're doing our obstacle course

work. Okay. Okay?

No other time.

God, boy. There you go.

Another thing I ask you guys to do, tweet in the voice of Billy. I'm seeing

you guys are trying to get into Billy's voice.

Yeah.

I feel that I have stepped back a whole lot.

There's no way that Billy Shears would ever refer to himself as Faith.

I have all brothers. It's a very testosterone -heavy house. It is. Where

feels like college. Like, hey, Faith, how you doing?

If it's a term of endearment. Yes.

What do you call Todd, then? I call him stupid, stupid Todd.

Stupidest Todd I've ever known.

Any other names you call him? Stupid face.

Anti -spart -diver.

Turd.

That's when we were being romantic, she called me that.

I say it with love.

We still have one more piece of homework.

Let's go, guys. Come on.

I'm a little bit nervous where Jackson is taking us right now. I have a feeling

that this is going to be bad news for Mia. I don't know why.

Now, last time I was here, I asked these guys to tweet in the voice of Billy

Shears something that they did not do very well. So this time around, I'm

them to someplace cool, Hollywood Boulevard, where hopefully we'll get

inspiration to do this thing right.

We're going to pull some strangers, and we're going to have them stick up for

Billy Shears the Cat, tweet style.

Here's the deal, man. Just tell me how you would answer this tweet.

I've been up since 4 .45 a .m.

Faces meows were abundant.

Now he is so tired from keeping me up. What would you say back to her? That's a

perfect night for me.

Let's pretend you were a cat, right?

And this woman, who says she's your guardian, then calls you.

I didn't say to repeat it. I want you to get into the mind and body of this cat

for a second. What would you tweet back?

Feeling is kind of mutual, but I don't like you either.

Well, how do you think that these guys should treat their cat?

Give her kisses.

Oh my God, you're the cutest girl in the world. What do you tweet back to me?

If you would just feed me.

That's exactly right.

There you have it. I'd say that we learned just by the people's reaction to

of the tweets that we put out speaking to our cat the way we have in it, that

might not be the best approach.

All right, guys, we got a lot of interesting viewpoints. You got a lot of

homework to do. Let's get out of here. Come on.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Hey, Jackson, can you tell me what does my cat do when I'm gone at work for

eight hours?

The answer right after the break.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Chris from Los Angeles, California asks, what does my cat do all day long while

I'm away at work?

Well, Chris, your cat is crepuscular, which means they're active mostly at

and dawn. Because cats praise out during dusk and dawn, cat's vision is uniquely

constructed to see through that darkness.

But that doesn't mean all they do all day long is sleep.

Actually, they spend most of their day looking out the window. So what can you

do? Cat TV.

Hang a bird feeder outside the window. Put a bed in the window. After all, if

they're going to spend a lot of time in that window, you might as well make it

entertaining.

I'm here for my final visit with Adrian, Todd, and their cat, Billy Shears.

I'm hoping this time around that Billy is getting that energy drained often

because otherwise he's going to keep these guys up all night and I'll never

the end of it.

So, tell me, how are things going in the world of Billy?

Uh, good. We've been sleeping.

Yay. Yeah.

He slept on the bed the entire night once. Hold on a second. He slept with

the whole night?

Yes. Yeah.

Wow. Eating on the schedule and ignoring the cat when he is misbehaving has

worked great.

It's created a routine for the cat, which he seems to thrive on. You're

The first, like, five or six days was terrible because he brought his A -game.

-game to try to get us out of bed, and we just sat there trying to support each

other. We can't get in.

Okay,

there was human tension spilling over because of what was going on, lack of

sleep and other things.

How about that? How are you guys doing? Quality of life has gone way up since

the sleep has come back.

And we're a lot nicer to each other.

That's great. It is kind of nice to wake up in the morning now and not be tired

jerks to each other like we used to be. Let's talk about punishing him with

tweets. How's that been going? We call him Billy Shears a lot more than we ever

have, to the point where one of my friends was like, I didn't know his name

Billy Shears. I thought it was his face.

Really great work. I do want to see how you've been wearing him out. Let's see

Billy in action.

Okay. All right, come on. Cool.

Before I leave today, I need to see Adrian take Billy through the obstacle

course that I assigned for their homework.

She needs to take him through it, challenge him, keep challenging him,

that's the only thing that's going to keep him happy and out of trouble. He's

just ready to go, man. I'm going to give you a treat if you want to start this

whole process going here.

Let's see our man do something.

Nice going, buddy.

Come on.

Come on. Giddy, giddy, giddy, giddy, giddy.

Come on. He's like, I'm just trying to make sure that you're not going to give

in. Come on.

And up he goes. All right. Come on. All the way up.

Very nice.

Good boy.

They're playing like real pros and demonstrating how trainable Billy is. It

shows me that Todd and Adrienne have really taken this seriously. And Billy.

Is it a happy cat? I got to tell you, I've met a lot of people who have

threatened to rehome their cat. You're the first person to ever threaten to

rehome her man.

Is that still on the table?

No, he stopped bitching about getting rid of the cat, so I'm not going to

about getting rid of the guy.

Good to hear. I would say that our relationship has actually grown a little

more, gotten closer together.

And I think our little family unit is a little bit stronger.

Before we leave, the first day I was here, I made a gruesome discovery.

And what was under this pillow?

Nothing. No water bottles. You truly have reformed yourself.

Now these hands are meant for petting, not for spraying.

It's awesome to finally have a pet that can be a pet instead of just a terror.

I love them.

So thank you, Jackson. Thank you so much.

You got the quiet cat.

Because you have done your job. You've played him down. You're feeding him on

schedule. You've created a nice, beautiful human space in here. You guys

ready for a good night's sleep?

Yay. Good night, guys. Good night.

My work here is done.

Adrian and Todd are sleeping comfortably through the night. And Billy's

reputation is put to rest as well.

Jackson, can I have a glass of water?

I'm being held captive by my demonic cat.

Storm's just waiting and plotting to attack people.

I'm on my way to go see Ashley and her cat, Storm. Now, Storm is so aggressive

that Ashley's friends won't come over. Now, on top of that, Storm has already

attacked two people. Animal Control has told Ashley, one more attack.

We're going to force you to put your own cat to sleep.

Are you kidding me? That would destroy this girl. I'm going over there right

to make sure that doesn't happen.

I'm Ashley, and I'm a student, and I'm being held captive by my demonic cat.

bites, she swats, she growls, and it's a scary growl.

I totally feel like Storm's just waiting and plotting to attack people.

I was dating this guy named Bobby. Bobby and Storm never got along.

Storm literally Satan.

I can't live with her.

We got into this huge fight and he's like, it's me or your cat. I'm like,

peace. She is my best friend.

I love her.

I just wish she could get along with other people.

I feel like I might just be alone forever if my cat keeps this up. My

they don't want to come over or hang out with me because of my cat.

I'm a college student, and I want to have friends and have people over, and I

can't with her.

I'm not even close!

I was informed that after a certain amount of complaints and incidents to

control, that Storm would have to be put down. She already has two complaints

against her. The first one was from the shelter.

She actually bit one of the volunteers, and then Storm ripped my mom's lip open

at the vet. The vet called animal control.

and filed a report.

It's terrible to think about. She totally deserves a chance.

It is life or death for Storm. I don't want everyone to see, like, this demonic

side to her.

That's not all she is.

Hey. Hi. I'm Jack. I'm Ashley. Nice to meet you, Ashley.

Come on in.

I know a little bit about Storm. Why don't you fill me in?

Storm is fairly aggressive.

She bites, attacks, there's blood being drawn.

So how old is Storm now?

Storm's 10.

10? You've been dealing with this for 10 years?

Yes. Wow.

I did have a boyfriend, Bobby. When he was living here with her, it was just

constant tension.

He threatened that it's either him or the cat.

Cat won.

Yeah. I really like Ashley a lot. She loves this cat. She's willing to do

anything for this cat, and that included losing her boyfriend.

Do you have any idea what her history was before you got her? Storm was so

violent that the animal shelter told me that I had to get her declawed.

Are you kidding me?

You're not pulling the claws out. You're not just clipping them. You're cutting

their fingers off, basically. You're amputating them at the first joint of

knuckle. And they will bite more because they don't have their tools to scratch

anymore. I didn't know that. Oh, my God. What did I do to my cat?

I know that. I know it's not you. I'm appalled that shelter did that.

Don't declaw your cat.

It hurts. The fact that Ashley's...

Animal Shelter said we won't even adopt to you unless you declaw this cat. It's

horrible. So tell me what you're most worried about here.

Because Storm has actually attacked so many people, the animal control has told

me that once she reaches three complaints that they have to put her

That's awful.

Wow.

You know, I love this cat so much. She's everything to me, my best friend. She's

my baby.

I don't want to have to put her down.

No, I don't want you to do that either.

I'll do everything I can.

Thank you.

This is really defining high stakes, because without her, this cat would have

been dead ten years ago. She wouldn't have made it out of the shelter alive.

I appreciate her love for her cat so much, and it makes me want to dig in my

heels and help even more.

So when your friends do come over, what happens?

She'll go underneath the couch, like behind it, and wait there and growl and

hiss. Storm likes to hang out in front of the bathroom door.

My friends won't even use my bathroom. They'll actually go home.

Talk about a vulnerable spot.

Yeah. Okay. People get beat up right here, and people get beat up when they

off the couch to leave. Yeah. And you identified the bathroom as a hot spot as

well. So, where is she? She's in the bedroom.

I'm going to go on into the room. You stay here, because I just want to see

she's like if I meet her one -on -one, okay? Even though Storm is declawed, you

take this volatile combination of a small territory, a hyper -aggressive

and I mean, it is one big ticking time bomb.

Oh, hi.

I know, I know.

You got your eyes locked on me.

Can I come a little closer?

Okay.

Wow.

Can I get closer?

Hey, hey, hey.

Ow.

Uh -oh.

That's a compromising position.

I heard that growl, and I felt the heat of her breath right in my face.

Believe me, I do not want to get bit by Storm.

I don't want to be the reason that poor Ashley's got to euthanize her cat.

Well.

Clearly, we've got boundary issues.

You know, I realized pretty quickly that Storm is defensive.

She's not coming after me. She's warning me. But now I want to see what happens

when Ashley comes in the room. Will the cat suddenly become much more aggressive

because she's protecting her person? I don't know. What I'm trying to do is

figure out her challenge line, what that point is where your cat goes from being

somewhat comfortable, not so comfortable, defensive, and then

Okay. All right, so now I'm going to just put my hand out here.

She's giving me plenty of warning right now. Look how close in I am to her right

now. Now see what she's doing right now?

She's defensive. She doesn't fight unless she's feeling really threatened.

Storm is not only predictable, but she responds from a fear place. She's

defensively aggressive.

It's important that Ashley see that Storm is capable of showing restraint.

You go ahead and talk to her for a second.

Hey. Pretty woman.

See, just when you start talking, she starts closing her eyes.

Now, we're going to do the handoff. The handoff is you're petting her. She

trusts you completely. Another hand comes in.

And then when she realizes what's going on, she's like, who the? Ooh, this is

good. This is an exercise that requires me to join Ashley as she pets Storm.

If I can pet Storm, there's hope here.

Keep doing it.

Holy crap.

I really hope she doesn't just bite him right now. I hope she doesn't do that.

Keep doing it.

Keep doing it.

There we go.

Good girl.

There's a good girl.

Yay, good girl.

How was that?

That was cool.

Nice smile.

There we go.

One of the most rewarding things about this job is in a guardian's face when

see resignation turn to hope. Okay. Ready for some homework?

Yeah. I have confidence that we're going to get where we need to go. Okay. That

said, we got work to do. We're going to treat Storm like the new Storm, right?

We're not going to lock her up anymore.

When your friends come over here, you've got to show them exactly how to

approach Storm in a more relaxed way. When I come back the next time, I want

make sure that everyone's starting to redefine Storm, that she's out in the

open, and that all of Ashley's friends stop looking at this cat like the devil.

Number two, I want her to have...

creative places.

Now, I know you're in college. I know that you're not going to go out there

spend $300 on a cat tree. I can build one.

Hand build. Damn right you can build one. I'm instructing Ashley to build

cat condo with a hammock in it and curtains along the side to give Storm a

of safety and something to call her own. Now, I want you to pick at least one

friend to do the handoff exercise.

Somebody who can play the part of me in that room today. Okay.

I'm really anxious to put my friends in a situation that could possibly end

really badly, but that's something I kind of have to take a chance on if I

her to get better. Just so you know, everything that you've done for 10 years

huge. It is an example of love that other people should see, and I

it, and I want to give you a hug. Thank you.

Thank you for what you do.

Okay? Let's see if we can make this work.

Today was amazing.

I really hope all this homework makes Storm better because I don't want to be

alone forever if my cat keeps this up.

Alright, I'm here for my second visit with Ashley and her cat Storm, who, when

first met her, was a pretty violent cat.

Poor Ashley was at a place where she was going to lose her cat if Storm were to

bite one more person.

Now, I watched her video homework, and I saw Ashley putting together the

catification DIY box to act as a bit of an anxiety diffusion post, where she can

go inside and start to be comfortable with people moving around her. And right

now, that box is in the middle of the room, and Storm takes to it, doesn't

harass people when they walk by her. So, huge success on that one. I also saw

Ashley working on the handoff exercise with a friend. The handoff is where

Ashley's petting Storm, and someone else joins in.

And it wasn't quite working out the way I had envisioned.

I had Ashley call her friend Kyle to come over later today because we really

need to get this exercise down if we want Storm to ever trust humans.

So tell me, how's it going?

Storm has been using the cat condo. And when my friends come over, she'll just

stay in the box instead of attacking people. But she still does a little

and growling.

Stop that.

Stop.

But how do your friends react? Because we know that we were dealing with a

problem with your friends. Right. Being way, way scared of her. Right. My friend

Kyle has put his hand out a couple times for her to smell it.

It's okay.

It's okay, Storm.

But if she goes any...

closer towards his hand than he pulled because he's like, I don't want her to

bite me.

Well, you know what? I'll give you some more tools later on today because you're

basically having to be a therapist with your friends. You know what I mean?

Don't get me wrong. I'm really excited that Storm could maybe ignore certain

people when they walk in the door, but you still can't go near her, and that

really concerns me.

Hey, how are you? Hey, I'm Kyle. Kyle. Jackson, here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to give you this helmet.

It's got a camera on it so I can see what you're doing. I wear this.

The handoff is a very important exercise, and that requires training. So

crucial for me to guide Ashley and Kyle from a different location.

So basically everything you see, I'm going to see. Now I'm going to give you

this walkie, and that way you can hear everything I'm going to say to you. You

can then feed that to Kyle. All right. You guys go on in there. I'm going to go

watch what you're doing. Okay, cool. Let's do it.

Going in there, there's all this pressure on me. I'm hoping that

just work out.

I'm going to sit over here if you just want to take a seat over there. All

right.

Ashley, you hear me?

Okay, I'm here.

First thing that I want you to do is I'd like you to get Kyle to sit next to the

cat. Kyle, sit comfortably on the corner of the bed.

All right. He can't act relaxed. He has to be relaxed.

Can you please put your hand in? Relax the hand.

He still looks completely tense.

I'm looking at the monitor, and I'm seeing Kyle's hand go in with so much

so much hesitance. This is about to go bad.

Careful.

Why don't you guys switch positions and you show him? Okay, I'm just going to

show you. Okay, Kyle, so what you have been doing is you have been like this.

Stop!

Focus back in on her.

I have Jax in my ear, and, you know, all the tension that's going on in this

room with me, Kyle, and Storm. It was really heartbreaking when she lashed out

at me. It's okay.

We're basically going backwards right now. Now it's starting to unravel.

I'm seeing Ashley and Kyle approach with fear, and I was really concerned as to

whether I should let this go on or just call it a day. Okay, here's what I want

you to do, Ash. You guys can hang talk. Normally, just hang for a few minutes,

okay?

I'm going to be real with you, Kat.

You are perfectly fine.

Nobody's hurting you.

Chill. You're doing great, Ashley. What I would tell him to do when you feel

comfortable is just do the handoff real fast.

If you could just want to try and pet her, just be confident and trust her.

Oh, my God. This is amazing.

That's it. That's all I needed to see. I'm glad I waited until Kyle relaxed and

we could have a nice moment with Storm before ending it because he gave me a

of hope for all of Ashley's friends to approach in a more relaxed way.

I think I've seen everything I need to see.

Let's call it a day, and I'll meet you guys in the living room, okay? I learned

that the key is not to push her so much.

Even though we had this frustrating bump in the road, we still did manage to

make a little bit of progress.

So...

Kyle, you really did great, but it took a long time to relax.

Ashley, I need you to continue to work with Kyle on that handoff. If you can

him there, you can get everyone else too. Kyle needs to get this handoff down

pat because I need to know that this cat can trust humans by the next time I'm

here. Second piece of homework, it looks like you free feed the cat, right?

Yeah. You pour out food and you leave it there. That's what we're going to

change. Okay. We're going to go to mealtime. What I want you to do, Kyle,

often as you can, be the feeder. Because I want her to know that people bring

good things. If we take away food from Storm for the better part of the day and

just present it during meals and by a certain person, I think we're going to

somewhere. Last thing, I do want to prove that she can be in a room full of

people and not care about it.

So, I want to get more people in here.

and see how she does.

I want her to organize a party. I want to come back here and make sure that

Storm can be around all of Ashley's friends at the same time and not dive

anybody, threaten them, swat at them, bite them, anything.

All right, so listen, I'll be back soon.

Okay. And in the meantime, you got a lot of homework to do. It's not often that

the homework that I assign has a 50 -50 chance of succeeding. I don't want to

tell Ashley about that. I want her to think that it's completely possible.

But Storm is a complicated cat.

And I'm not sure if this will all work out.

All right, I'm here for my final visit with Ashley and her cat, Storm.

Now, Storm in the past has been so violent, so unpredictable, that Ashley's

boyfriend broke up with her. And Animal Control has told her if Storm attacks

one more person, she's going to have to make that choice to put her own cat to

sleep.

Now, I got to see the video homework, and I saw that Ashley and her friend

continued to do the handoff exercise.

I also saw Kyle playing the role of the feeder, getting more and more confident

as he's doing. And of course, Storm then follows suit.

I want Storm to realize that there are nice people in the world who mean her no

harm. I also thought that Ashley had friends over.

I'm eager to see if Storm's at a point where she can handle social situations.

I'm just hoping that Storm didn't at some point attack somebody during that

evening. So, tell me, how are things going here?

Storm... Storm has been... pretty well.

Pretty well. Yeah. Oh, my God, you're a tough one.

Well,

first and foremost, since the last time I was here, has anyone been attacked?

No. Yeah, no one's been attacked. I know, yeah.

Oh, my God, that's amazing.

Yes. I got a chance to watch a video homework before I got here. So you had

friends come over like I told you? How did it go?

Yeah, she didn't guard the bathroom at all.

She didn't guard anything.

You just made my mouth fall open because that had to feel good for you. It did.

It did. It felt really good. She's being the Storm that I know that I can now

show to everyone.

On cue.

Here she is.

Baby girl. Hello, my love.

When Storm comes up to my finger and just goes nose to nose with me, it's a

of trust. It's a sign of saying, hey, how you doing? It's a cat handshake. And

that's a big, big step for her.

She's like, yes, Mom.

Dig that.

I'm so happy for you. I mean, you have had to defend this cat since the

day you met her.

Look at what she's doing right now. She's a little sweet thing.

I want to try something. I'm just going to sit right down next to you, so you

just move over just a little bit. I really wanted to prove to Ashley that if

could go up to Storm and pet her, then everyone can do it. But you never know,

not with this cat.

Well, hi, Storm.

How's Storm doing today?

Now we just have a conversation.

Okay. We totally ignore her. I want her to trust that me being here is also a

good thing. Let's pretend we were actually just watching TV. And, you

would talk normally if you were watching movies and whatever.

Yeah. And then I go in and I go for a pet. And there's my little dog.

How does that make you feel?

Oh, my gosh. Like, I'm just so proud.

Honestly, I'm proud of her.

through the handoff, the feeding exercises, and other social exercises,

people. So, listen, this is for all the haters out there. If you think that it's

time to give up on a cat, think again.

Wow, okay, that level of change is... Yeah. I don't even know what to say.

I feel like so much progress has been made between the DIY cat condo at

and working on the handoff. I definitely think the homework has helped a lot.

Wow. Honestly, I can 100 % tell you I feel good about what I'm leaving here.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Man, let me tell you, the first day that I met Storm, I was

worried. And today, that cat has turned herself around. It's that proof that

every cat has something in them that is worth standing up for.

And I feel like I'm leaving a little piece of me with this cat.

Real pleasure with you. Yeah. And you deserve all good things.

Jackson, thank you for being the only other person

that has ever given Storm a chance besides myself.

I just feel like all this weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

And it's great.

Now you can find out how the cats I've helped are doing today. Check out my new

series, How Do You Like Meow, available only online at AnimalPlanet .com.