Original subtitles

I feel like I'm in a horror movie with darkness.

Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and he's spanning over me,

just looking at me like he wants to kill me. It's near darkness.

We have four cats.

We cannot trust them. They cannot be together because they won't kill each

other.

I've gotten badly scratched several times when I've tried to break the

up. We've tried everything that we can try. Nothing works. If we can't make

work, the boy cats have to go.

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. It 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!

Watch darkness.

Come on.

Oh, God.

I'm on my way to go see a cat named Darkness.

With a name like that, you know it's all downhill from there, right?

Now, Laura and Steve have been together for quite a while, but the cat came into

the relationship with Steve. And the problem is, Laura has always thought

darkness had it out for her. Come on, darkness.

It's either her or the cat.

And if there's one thing I hate, it's someone saying it's me or the cat.

I'm Laura. I'm Steve. We've been together for seven years, and we live

cat, Darkness, and he's from hell.

Out.

Get. Go.

Darkness has always been aggressive towards me. Come on, Darkness.

Be a nice cat.

I don't like that she hates my cat. I just wish, like, he could understand the

frustrations that I go through.

He seeks out my belongings and throws up on them. He's a devil.

I always wanted a puppy.

So we rescued our puppy, Rascal J. Fox, about two years ago.

Rascal is my sweet baby dog.

Darkness is like a creepy goth kid with no friends.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a horror movie with Darkness.

Because when I'm sleeping, sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night

he's standing over me, just looking at me like he's plotting to kill me. He

keeps us up all night. He takes the bathroom doors and there's a closet door

behind the bathroom door and he pushes one door into the other and it rattles

the whole house.

Whenever darkness is misbehaving, Rascal tattles on him.

We yell at him, darkness will attack Rascal and take it out on him.

Off the couch.

He's a monster.

So as awful as darkness is, I still love him. I had him since he was a little

baby kitten. But it's just like, you know, a parent, if your child grows up

becomes a psycho killer, you're still going to love him.

The alternative to not keeping darkness is putting him down because nobody would

want this cat. It's near darkness.

Deal with it.

Hi, man. Hello.

Whoa. How you doing? I'm Jackson. I'm Steve.

What's up, Steve?

That dog.

Yeah, it's Rascal J. Fox. Rascal J. Fox. Come on here, Rascal. Hello. I'm

Jackson. I'm Laura. Nice to meet you.

Yeah, it's Rascal.

Hi. Hi.

From the second I walk in the door, the dog demanded my attention. Of course,

the cat is nowhere to be found.

So tell me, what's going on? We've been together for seven years, and since day

one, his cat, Darkness, has had...

A little bit of issue with me. How old is Darkness? 11. So he predates you.

Yeah. He acts so differently toward the two of us. Darkness has a jealousy

issue. He wants Steve all for himself.

Look, I may be in the minority. I don't believe in cat jealousy. I haven't met

Darkness yet, but it seems to me that we're dealing with a bad case of human

projection. What are some of Darkness's bad behaviors?

A couple years ago, I was sitting on the couch. He forced himself next to me.

swatted at me, and he threw blood in deep. So has that made it so that you're

just sort of like this with him all the time? Yeah, I kind of try to keep our

distance from each other. I would think she moved in yesterday, not seven years

ago. I mean, to be so traumatized that the cat hasn't even done anything in a

couple years tells me we got a long road ahead of us.

My major issue with him is that he doesn't let us sleep at night.

Say I wanted to lay spooning Laura.

Well, darkness won't have that. He'll jump up on the bed and he starts clawing

at my back. And if that doesn't work, then he jumps out of the bed and goes

like bang the closet door.

Rattle the whole house. I'll have to give in, turn toward him. And he wants

spooning him.

You have to spoon him.

Okay. What else does he do that is driving you guys to call me? He grooms

himself on my pillow specifically.

And then he'll throw up on my belongings.

So what do you read into that then? That he doesn't like me. Because he pukes on

your stuff?

Yeah.

What if he hangs out on your pillow because he likes you and that the reason

he's throwing up there is because he just happened to be there? No. There's

of a deep psychology at work here because Laura wants to believe that

he makes and every negative action is directed... At her. What's that doing to

you guys? We just fight over stupid things that darkness does. Do you wind

having to be the one defending? I have to defend darkness a little bit. Right,

so that's where the fighting comes from, right? We can't live like this anymore,

especially with Fraskel. He's my little baby, and I'm scared that he's going to

get hurt. I love him. He's afraid of darkness because darkness charges him?

When he hears the word darkness, he kind of gets up. Seriously? Yeah.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness. Although it was pretty funny, that name carries a lot of negative

weight, and it signals something inside of Rascal. That should be all you need

to hear to know that you're doing something wrong in the house.

Okay, so the living room is the area of destruction and violence. This is the

area of annoyance, right?

Yeah.

That's loud, man. Do your neighbors ever complain about this?

Yeah. Your dog is now absolutely rubbing every orifice of his body. Look at

that! Look at that!

But that's all in good fun. Oh, my God, what's wrong with you?

Rascal rubbing his body on Laura's pillow means the same thing as Darkness

rubbing his body on her pillow.

Absolutely nothing.

And this is the problem we've got in this house. The dog's the good guy and

cat's the bad guy.

Hey, buddy.

All right, guys, I want to spend some one -on -one time with Darkness.

Yeah.

All right, Mr. Buddy.

Hi. Steve and Laura have built up Darkness's aggressive behavior, so I

see how close could I get to him when approaching him with fear. Here's what I

want to try.

I'm going to act like Laura.

Can we just be friends? Oh.

I do not like the way you're looking at me.

Ow. Damn.

Oh, man.

That was not necessary.

Okay.

Ow.

I don't want to be scared, but I am.

Please get off my couch.

Oh, my Lord.

Look at that.

My challenge line experiment was pretty successful. I found out that if I

approach darkness with fear, he responded with fear and a claw in my

is my job.

Cats shed the outside layer of their claws. It's natural and actually

for a cat, but I'd prefer they didn't do it in my hand.

All right, listen, I totally forgive you.

How about we do something different, okay? Let me get you a toy here.

What is that?

Hi, doctor.

You need a pet?

Me? If I just move in like we're friends.

There, my good boy.

Are we friends now?

Oh, and on that note, how's about we bring in a dog friend?

You want to say hi to darkness?

That's that look.

Oh, hi.

Oh, yeah, you guys are just like mortal enemies.

Dog is not scared of darkness at all. These two do not have that antagonistic

relationship that the humans in this house have ascribed to them. That leads

to believe that the problem is redirected aggression, and that belongs

humans, not on the animals.

Hey, guys.

That was interesting because I don't want to freak you out. This can happen

you ask for it. If you approach him with fear, he will respond with fear, and

that's what the aggression is. Now, Laura, your relationship with darkness

have to work on. Your homework is largely around forging a new groove. You

haven't been really attacked in a while, but the fear, the trauma that you've

experienced with that is what informs your current movements with him. So if

approach him with confidence, He gives you confidence back.

I'll try my best. It's going to be a little scary.

I really hope it works out. If not, then Jackson's going to have to do an

exorcism on our demon.

Now, when it comes to darkness attacking Rascal, my theory is that what you're

seeing mostly is redirected aggression.

Redirected aggression is when you freak him out by trying to get him off the

couch. That's why he goes after the dog.

So your job is exhausting.

So he's not part of that energy that causes darkness to redirect.

I want Rascal to spend some time at a dog park, taking long walks, just so

when he comes home, he doesn't spend the entire time running around and barking.

Next thing is to be able to redefine what you're seeing. It's reducing him as

darkness, puts a cloud over him. So I want you to give him a new name.

I always call him Princess, but that often just makes him more upset.

It's going to be really hard changing his name and changing his identity.

We'll have to think of something to call him.

And finally, we're going to change the darkness, his body clock, okay? The only

way to do this is to completely ignore him when you guys go to bed.

If you have any issues at all, give me a call, okay?

All right, I'll see you in a few weeks. All right, take care, guys.

I hope Jackson's advice works. I'm a little skeptical. I don't want to think

about the alternative, but I don't know how much more I can live like this with

darkness.

All right, I'm here for my second visit with Steve and Laura, their cat,

Darkness, and, of course, their ever -present dog, Rascal.

Now, the last time I was here, I was dealing with a pretty aggressive cat.

my Lord.

But we were also dealing with people who were looking at this cat as if he were

the devil himself, and that was a problem, too.

Hey! Now, I took a look at their video homework, and it didn't look too good.

had another night of not being able to sleep very well.

Doesn't like this.

Now, I'm hoping there's a little bit of sunshine lurking behind these stormy

skies, but, you know, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Oh, yes. Well, hello, dog.

All right. Let's get right to it. So, what's up? Well, we did your homework.

changed the cat's name. I figured, well, what's the opposite of darkness? Yeah.

And Jedi.

Jedi. I like that.

Let's give them an empowering name. Totally. That works.

I had them rename darkness so they could reframe the way they see the cat.

This will allow a fresh start for Jedi and it'll allow Laura to see the cat in

brand new way. That's something that we have been successful on doing, the

homework. So that must mean there's a bunch of stuff that wasn't successful,

huh?

Yeah, we can get into that.

Last night we had like two hours of sleep. It's almost like the nighttime

activity gradually increased.

He'll sit in the corner and stare at us. I'll wake up and he's hovering over me.

I still feel like he's possessed.

If Jedi does anything wrong, he's possessed.

Now that's insane.

To think in a serious way that your cat has a devil in him is just a ledge that

I have to pull her back from because if I don't, I don't even know why I'm here.

You actually believe that his intent is bad. Then it will be.

Because he has no way of defending himself.

Is there anything that you would call progress?

He hasn't vomited on any of my belongings.

So that's really good.

Did you actually believe me when I told you that it wasn't a personal thing? I

still think it's a personal thing.

I'm past my breaking point with Jedi. I want to know what Jackson is going to

tell us to do next because I don't want to live like this anymore.

Hey, buddy, buddy.

Hey, Jedi.

Well, that doesn't help. You know what? Let's try something new.

Steve, do me a favor, will you?

Will you go and take him for a walk?

Not only did I want a little break from Rascal, I also wanted to spend some time

alone with Laura and Jedi.

I'm going to have you sit on that pillow next to him and just sit.

Okay? I'm going to sit on this side. Okay.

So, and all we're going to do right now is just sort of sit back. I had one

really important goal, and that was to prove to Laura that her cat is not

possessed. Get as close to him as you can without touch.

Good boy.

Go ahead and present your hand. Just put it down.

Now,

the last time I was here, I got beat up pretty bad by Jedi, who was darkness

back then. But the reason that happened was that I approached him with fear,

which is what Laura does every single day. Now, if she approaches Jedi from a

completely relaxed and confident place, I'm hoping he's going to respond in an

equally relaxed way. So, Laura, what I want you to do is go in for a pet, come

in from the side, and do it slowly but with intent.

Oh, gosh. I hope he doesn't, like, scratch me.

Oh, gosh.

He was just staring at me.

There it is.

There it is. See?

That was awesome.

Good boy.

When Jackson asked me to pet Jedi, I was kind of hesitant because I was scared

that he would attack me.

Well, I like that I can pet him right now.

Normally, you couldn't. Like, he would hiss at me and say no.

What was that?

Well, I got scared. I thought he was going to do it. Okay. Listen, this whole

thing has to begin and end with trust. Yeah. And if you don't trust him to sit

with you, that's a big deal.

Now, Laura's really prone to this kind of behavior. I've seen it before, and I

saw it today.

If she approaches him with fear, at some point, Jedi's going to attack her. And

then, I've lost her.

Let's get to your homework.

So, let's start with quiet time.

sitting next to him, taking a nap, doing whatever it is, so that you're inviting

him to just be quiet with you. It's something that never happens that I get

sit with Jedi and pet him, so we'll see on the homework if we can continue that

bond. If you think he hates you, he hates you. We have to be able to blank

this whole thing and start again.

The next part of the homework is the catification part of things, okay? So

on one second.

So, Cat Tree, okay?

Very simple. The cool thing is we've got two different levels. When you're

playing with him, you can encourage him to just jump up, find his place that

he's comfortable. I wanted them to have two different cat trees in their world.

I presented one of them, which I want them to put by the couch. And my hope is

that when they're on the couch, Jedi finds his place and isn't roaming around

much. Finally, Steve, keep taking the dog to a dog park. Take him for long

walks. Just hire him out. All right, guys, I'm going to cut out. If you have

questions, please call me. Good luck to you.

I hope the next time that Jackson meets Jedi that the Force has awoken and he is

a happy, friendly cat that is approachable by anyone.

If not, then Jedi is out.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Jackson, I need your help. How can I get my dog and cat to get along?

The answer, right after the break.

And now it's time for a kitty bit. Jackson, I need your help. How can I get

dog and cat to get along?

I'm glad you asked, Sue. I would go for an uncovered litter box because if you

uncover that box, cats have escape routes. If the dog is coming, the cat

head for the hills.

Second thing is, feed your cat up on something, like a table, because they

to have a fighting chance to eat their dinner before the dog comes for that.

Third of all, make sure you're training your dog so that cat can walk across the

floor. in safety without being chased because the dog thinks the cat's a toy.

Remember, you can tell the cat it's a safe world, but then you've got to be

to cash that dog check.

All right, I'm here for my final visit with Steve, Laura, and the cat formerly

known as Darkness, Jedi.

The first time I visited them, Laura was convinced that Jedi was an evil demon.

Off the couch.

hell -bent on their destruction, while their dog Rascal was this perfect little

angel. Now, I've had my work cut out for me this whole time with this couple,

and I just hope that when I get in there today, I'll see that the work paid off.

Hey, Laura.

Hey. Well, hi.

Hey, Bubba.

How are we?

Oh, man, I was not expecting to come in and say hi to you. Now, every time that

I've visited in the past, Jedi's been hiding. The fact that he is social

enough... To be here, to hang out, signifies a lot of really cool stuff.

Now, the big question is, are you guys getting any sleep?

The first couple days were really awful, and I just was like, no, I'm just going

to ignore him. He would come and try to get in my face, and then it was

scratching at the door, and I'm just going to ignore him. And then he went

shut himself in the bathroom so that he could bang the doors together.

He kind of just gave up over time. He was just like, she's not getting up.

I'm just going to have to sit here and go to sleep.

Fantastic. Cats can be very persistent when they're trying to get you to resume

old patterns. But Laura didn't give in, and Jedi learned that his old tricks

weren't going to work anymore. What was it from the homework that allows you to

sleep now?

I would say the fact that we ignore any of the bad behaviors and the pet tree.

Yeah. And taking Rascal on lots of trips to the dog park. Well, it looks like

things are going pretty well. But most importantly, do you feel safe now?

Yeah, I do.

Aha! That's fantastic.

I have been collecting all your video.

And time to watch it. Let's take a look.

Ooh!

It's a treat.

Aren't you sweet?

You talk to your cat.

Nice.

Oh, get out.

Oh, my God.

How cool.

Oh, no. You're kidding me.

Oh, my God. That's the sweetest thing ever.

Yeah. Oh, that's so great, guys.

There's so much good stuff on here.

There's so much that I'm just kind of bursting with right now because I know

that you guys are on such a good track.

I feel like my bond with Jedi now is so much stronger than it's ever been

before. I used to think that Jedi was jealous of Laura.

Now I'm jealous of Jedi going after Laura all the time. I'm like, what

to my baby cat?

Hi.

Hi.

Killer, man. Look what you've built, Laura.

Look what you built.

He's never been just like, oh, let me just be a friendly cat.

I love him.

Yay!

He's my cat, and Rascal's my dog, and I love them both.

Nothing is a nicer thing for a cat guy to hear than that.

This whole experience has helped myself claim Jedi as mine, and in turn, Jedi

now can claim me as his human.

Through Jackson's teaching, I have a changed cat and a happy girlfriend.

So, Laura, I have something for you.

What do you think? That's cute. Thank you. I present to you. Thank

you.

It speaks the truth. I love my baby Jedi.

Pretty disappointed that I didn't get one.

And there's our boy.

That's it.

Cats are all about energy. When I first met these guys, the energy was chaotic

and polarized.

Now, by changing their attitude towards the cat, they've created positive

energy. And by exercising the dog on a regular basis, they've gotten rid of the

chaotic energy.

Bye. Bye.

Now, Jedi is part of a harmonious, loving family.

We have four cats.

We cannot trust them. They cannot be together because they will kill each

We've tried everything that we can try. Nothing works.

If we can't make this work, boy cats have to go.

Malice. Malice. No!

No!

So I'm heading over to see Mark and Catalina and their four cats.

The girl cats in this situation are beating up the boy cats on a daily

The cats are tearing each other up, and I'm just afraid they're going to tear

this marriage up as well.

I'm Mark. I'm Catalina, and we have been together for eight years.

So we have four cats, two girls, Kamal and Mipo, and two boys, Norman and

Sebastian. The combination of the four cats is not a good combination.

Back when we just had the two cats, life wasn't great. It wasn't until we

brought the other two cats in here that things really got crazy.

The four cats cannot be together, ever, because we cannot trust them that they

will not kill each other.

Mark,

he wasn't so excited about having them. They really never liked each other that

much. The boys are standoffish. When I pick them up, they don't like it.

scratch at me.

I got a big scratch yesterday where post -fight I was getting another cat out of

the way. Unless we keep them locked in completely separate places, something

happens.

Our solution to have a glimpse of a normal life is to keep the cats apart.

But that is not a solution.

It's not a solution.

And we're sleeping in different bedrooms.

This is where I sleep with the boys at night.

And the girls will either be free or with my husband.

It's a nightmare.

No! We are stressing each other. Sometimes in the mornings we don't want

to each other. We can't always focus on the cat's needs.

We all have needs in this family.

It's clearly not a sustainable arrangement.

Nobody's happy.

And if we can't make this work with Jackson, then...

It's really our last option, which means, boy, cats have to go.

I know it would break your heart.

The part that kills me is their future, like what will happen.

Sending the cat back will be so painful.

Hey, let's talk cats.

Sounds great. Well, now, where's your husband? Well, he's working.

So I walk in to talk to Catalina and Mark and no Mark. And that's a problem

right off the bat because I know we're going to have a lot of work to do in

home and we can't do it with just one partner. We have four cats.

Yes. Two boys, two girls. Correct.

The girls are Meatball.

And Tamale. And Tamale. And the boys are Snowman and... Sebastian.

Tell me a little bit about the girls.

So the girls were about four months old when we got them. And we have been with

them for about two years and a half. So where'd you get the boys from? The

regional owner of the cats.

took the cats to the vet and left them there.

And they had been there for nine months in a cage.

They were in a cage for nine months? How old were they? They are now like a

year. So most of their life was spent in a cage.

Wow. You can't imagine what it's like to be Sebastian and Snowman. I mean, their

entire formative period was spent in a cage.

They had no social life to speak of with other cats or with other humans.

And that puts a dent in their development that I'm not so sure we can

The fighting among the cats has affected their lives tremendously, from fighting

with my husband, from having to sleep.

Are you guys sleeping separately?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know.

Once the couples have gone to that place, I know they're in different

they have no level of intimacy because of the problem in their home. When it

comes to the concept of rehoming the boys, is that okay with you? No.

I'm not ready to give up.

Was Mark for or against?

The boy's coming.

He wasn't so excited about having them.

Who's his favorite? What would he say?

Tamale. If you had to pick one cat that is the instigator?

Tamale. Isn't that interesting?

Is Mark saying, let's just give up? Correct.

We got our work cut out for us.

If this doesn't work, it will be very difficult and very painful.

Here's the kitchen.

Okay, then we have cats. And we have some cats there. This is Somali. Somali,

the red color.

So he's cornered already.

There you go. Let's go this way.

Oh, there they are. Okay, we don't want to break this up. I've got to be able to

see this.

That's Sebastian there. Now you see how Sebastian is acting like prey, right?

See how frozen he is? And as he starts to move, see, now she's getting

interested.

See?

Now, Sebastian knows what he's doing. You see? He's turning over on his side.

He's saying, I'm not a threat.

Now she's done.

Oh, no, no, no. There they go. Come on.

From what I'm seeing, Tamale's not trying to assert dominance over

all. She's hunting.

He acted like prey. She acted like a predator. It's really pretty black and

white.

OK, close the door.

Stop right here. Yeah, yeah. We have the boys, the girls.

So see how he goes up? She goes up, right?

So now he's trapped up here.

And now you've got Sebastian.

I want to go too.

No, see, he can't. And now he's surrounded.

What we have here is not a male versus female issue. What we have here is a

clear -cut case of prey versus predator.

The boys are acting like prey, so they're being hunted and attacked by the

girls. Plain and simple. So we took them into another room to work on that. And

Sebastian immediately disappeared.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on. I know. But Snowman didn't,

which gives me the opportunity to get to know Snowman.

This boy, you see his challenge line?

Mm -hmm. Right here. Mm -hmm. Right? You get him to jump on this here.

We have a whole new story for him.

He can come out and take the middle of the room. What that tells me about a cat

is that he has confidence.

Look at him. He so badly wants to.

Almost there, buddy.

Oh, God.

Good boy. Good boy.

It is so huge. The snowman came out and met the challenge line that I set for

him. Sebastian, on the other hand, he's another story.

But, you know, I... Hey. Hey, how are you?

Good. I'm Mark. I'm Jack. Good to meet you, man. Good to meet you. Thank you.

how has this entire problem been affecting you guys?

Well, it certainly has a lot of stress to our relationship.

Sometimes we argue about it. Sometimes I get angry.

So tell me emotionally, where are you?

We're really at the end.

This is our last opportunity to have the cats work together. And if it doesn't

work out, then I think we need to rehome the boys.

No, I'm not ready to give up.

They are our cats.

I mean, the future is uncertain if they cannot stay here. What is going to

happen to them? And that will totally kill me.

The tension between Mark and Catalina is clear. Though Mark knows getting rid of

the boys would break Catalina's heart, he's not going to be moved on this

I have to get all of these cats properly socialized and keep this family

together. All right, guys. So I want you to do sight swapping. Every hour the

boys spend with you, the girls spend with you.

Sight swapping is simply switching environments with the cats so they can

know one another without actually being in the same room.

Now, this is the first step towards getting all four cats being able to

in the same space. Let's talk about play.

First job is yours, Mark. You're going to have the boys, and the boys need to

achieve that ownership.

This piece of homework is crucial. It's going to help the boys' mojo come out

while getting them to explore the house, and at the same time help Mark develop

a bond with them, which he currently doesn't have.

And for you, Catalina, girl play time. I want them to really get that energy

out. Kamal has got predatory instincts that are not being drained away. That's

your job, okay?

Next time I come back here, the sleeping apart thing cannot happen anymore.

Groovy? Yes.

Okay. Great meeting you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right. I'll

see you in a few weeks, okay? All right. Awesome. Thank you. All right, guys.

Bye -bye.

I'm super hopeful. I'm super willing to do everything.

I'm hopeful, but I'm also apprehensive because we don't want to get our hopes

up. If it fails, we're out of options.

I'm here for my second visit with Mark and Catalina and their cats Snowman,

Sebastian, Meatball, and Tamale. And the last time I was here, we were dealing

with... Serious cat -on -cat aggression.

There was a lot of problems.

So I took a look at their video homework. I saw Mark's been playing with

boys and Catalina with the girls, and they've been sight -swapping and getting

the cats used to each other since.

We're in a really tough spot right now. I mean, Mark can't live with four

constantly feeding cats under the same roof, and Catalina refuses to let the

boys go. I hope I can get these boys socialized properly and keep this family

together. So tell me, what's been going on?

Where to start?

Uh -oh. I don't like the sound of that. Let's start by the most exciting part,

which is the snowman. He is doing amazing. Is he really? Amazing, amazing,

amazing. So much more confident, so much more relaxed. So basically what we had

seen last time with him coming out and playing more of that. Yes. I like that.

I've been playing with the boys every day.

Good. But Sebastian is still very timid. What do you think the reason for that

is? We don't know.

It's great that the homework has paid off with Snowman. A cat with confidence

will not look like prey to the others. But if I can't help Sebastian find his

mojo as well, Meepo and Tamale are still going to see him as prey, and the

fights are still going to continue.

How are you feeling in terms of the sake of having to rehome somebody?

There's encouragement and there's frustration together. We're encouraged

see progress in three of the cats, but unfortunately it's an all -or -nothing

situation. And it will totally, totally break my heart to send them somewhere.

The situation managed to become even more complicated, and I wasn't sure what

make of it quite yet. I just knew that I needed to see Sebastian and assess his

condition. Where's my boy at?

Well, there you are.

Hi, Sebastian.

He's like a rock.

Yeah, he's petrified, yeah.

Where did this blanket even come from? Well, I put it there, yeah.

So he could be covered. Yes.

I saw Sebastian in the bathtub under a blanket. And when I took that blanket

away, the portrait of fear that was Sebastian was pretty shocking.

So I decided to focus on the positive, which was Snowman's incredible progress,

and start mixing things up between him and Tamale, one of the girls.

Okay, our goal here is to have Snowman and Tamale exist together here in the

same room. We have the cats in basically opposite sides of the room, and we're

going to occupy them. Name of the game is, how long can we just keep them in

here without anything breaking out? These cats only know life as boys on one

side, girls on the other. Now we need to break up this dynamic by building new

relationships, one co -ed pair at a time.

Oh, what are we doing?

I do not want her focusing in on him.

So I thought to Molly, come up to Snowman and kind of corner him. That's

we get into trouble.

If you can get her, even with a toy, to turn her head that way, we're great.

You got her going right now, man. Fantastic.

Great. Good move.

There you go. Exactly right.

Now, get her to move.

If she takes one step in that direction, I'm psyched. This exercise is all about

redirecting focus.

And there we go.

This is just fantastic. She's got her back totally turned to snow.

So now the goal is let's get him out a little bit. Let me take over for you for

just a sec. Now we've got Tamale occupied, but the longer that snowman

under that tree, acting like a scared rabbit, the more of a chance is that

Tamale's going to turn and chase him. And then everything falls apart.

Let me see if I can get him. Good boy.

There we go.

There's my boy.

There's my boy.

Seeing Snowman come and play and don't pay attention to Tamale at all, huge.

We're so excited about that.

Talk to me about, are we all sleeping in this room now? Mm -hmm. All the time?

Not all the time.

Most of the time we are. There have been a couple of instances when we haven't

because of the cat.

The cat can't be trusted.

The situation still isn't where it needs to be.

Now, I've got a surprise for you guys. I will be right back. Okay.

Come on in. Hey, guys.

I'd like to introduce you to Kate Benjamin.

Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

And if you know catification at all, you know it's about making your house into

a really appealing place for you and your cat. We are going to catify this

in a big way, okay?

Mark, I know you got an opinion, man. I know you do.

What is it? I mean, I'm kind of a minimalist guy when it comes to

but I think that you can have a lot without looking like it's a lot.

And this room is so important, being the bedroom, for you both to coexist,

right? Kate, I know you've got a lot of work to do, and you guys are going to

have some homework to do. Awesome. Let's go out there, and I'll give it to you,

okay?

First of all, what I'm going to want is couples playtime, which is exactly what

we just did, but I want you to expand it out to different groups.

Boy, girl, boy, girl.

We saw today that Snowman and Tamale can be fine in the same room together.

They need to repeat the exercise every day with these two, and also separately

with Sebastian and Meatball.

And the next time I'm here, we can get all four of them together without a war

breaking out.

Fingers crossed.

Mark, been kind of quiet through this whole thing. How are you feeling right

now?

I feel confident and I feel ready to take on the challenge.

But we're concerned a little bit that Sebastian isn't coming along enough.

And it's certainly added a lot of stress to our relationship.

Don't get discouraged.

It's lots of work, but let's keep working, okay?

All the cats really need to progress and be in a better place.

Or else we're back to square one, which is finding a new home for the boys.

All

right,

I'm here for my third and final visit with Mark and Catalina and their four

cats.

Now, the first time I was here, it was total chaos with the girls, Meatball and

Tamale, hunting and attacking the boys, Sebastian and Snowman, every chance they

had. So, I'm taking a look at their video homework, and couples' playtime

to be going well.

Also,

Kate's catification is a work of art, giving four cats plenty of room to do

their thing without infringing on anyone else's space.

And I saw Meatball and Sebastian within a few inches of each other. I hope it

didn't end badly because the option of rehoming the boys is still on the table.

Tell me, since the last time I was here, have there been any full -on fights

between the cats?

Nothing.

That's a starting place. Fantastic.

So I had you guys mixing up the couples. How did that progress?

I think the best part has been Meatball and Sebastian.

We think they're like this close to be friends. Friends?

Yeah. Few changes from day one to today.

The power of play, it has been so clear.

Now Sebastian is the one that is like not hiding. He's not afraid anymore.

Good.

Today, we're going to get all four cats in the same room.

So these guys have been working on couples play time with one boy cat and

girl cat over the last couple of weeks.

But today is going to be the first time that we're going to get all four cats in

the room at the same time. You guys ready? I am ready for it.

And I am worried about it. Yeah, me too. Let's go.

I got to see this. And more importantly, Mark needs to see this if the boys have

any chance of remaining in this house. Now, the cool part is we've got Meatball

and Tamale here in the room, both of whom seem pretty relaxed.

Let's have you start working with the girls. Sure.

And I'll bring the snow.

The girls were already comfortable in the room, so I sent Catalina out to

the boys in one by one, starting with Snowman.

And Snowman made a beeline for the corner with Tamale Fast on his heels.

But this time, rather than lay down and look like prey, Snowman hisses at

Tamale. Now, this is a strong display of confidence. Snowman's telling Tamale,

don't mess with me.

Okay, see, here's where I step in.

I'm the human diffusion post here, right?

You see what happens the second I walk in front of Tamale. She's not as drawn

into him. She's lost interest in Snowman because I'm distracting her with a toy.

The whole idea here is movement.

Basis is our enemy. Yes, I'm acting as the human diffusion post in the middle

the room, more like a traffic cop. But as the cats learn how traffic works...

They're not going to need the cop. Once she's not after him, Snowman relaxes

too. She's like, there's no payoff in this for me. Awesome.

And off she goes.

Yeah. With Snowman safe from Tamale's unwanted advances, it's time to focus on

shy little Sebastian.

Hello, little Sebastian.

What's that?

Sebastian does feel comfortable.

The last time I was here.

He was so scared, I thought his heart was going to come out of his chest. But

giving him this vertical space, he does feel protected.

You know, the great thing about the catification is Sebastian coming out

that room, getting on a shelf and finding safety up in the world, that was

deal. This is probably the first time that he discovers that being high saves

him. Yeah.

Thinking back to where we were before compared to where we are now, the change

has really been tremendous.

It used to be I couldn't pick up Sebastian.

Sebastian's the one that clawed me, but we're now best friends.

You are best friends? Yeah, Sebastian comes to me for play.

So no more getting clawed? No. In terms of the first time that all four of these

cats are in the same room together, pretty remarkable. Watching things come

together today was intensely satisfying.

both on the human side and the cat side. Now, I know the job was really hard for

you, Mark. The first day that I was here, you were the one talking about,

if this keeps up, we're going to have to find another home for the boys. Where

are you now?

Well, we no longer have conversations about rehoming the boy.

We used to talk about it every day, and I don't think we've mentioned it for

quite a while now. Really?

Absolutely. That must feel nice. Yeah. I got to ask you, because we're standing

here by the bed here, are we here now? Are we all here?

We are here.

Good. No sleep to be suffered. No sleep to be suffered.

Then my job is done.

Thank you so much.

And we're so lucky we were able to work with you. Yeah. You really were our last

hope. Thank you so much. Through this process and the homework that we were

given, we were able to rebuild the relationships between the cats.

And in turn, we rebuilt our relationship as well. The boys are part of the

family now.

I couldn't even think about rehoming them.

Jackson, we are eternally grateful for your collaboration.

Thank you very much.

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.