Original subtitles

This cat is a completely crazy cat. He's a beautiful cat and I love him, but

he's crazy.

He thinks his teeth can get into any part of my body that he can.

And he will not let go.

My friends like to tell me that I'm in an abusive relationship.

We recently moved in together.

With his cat, Nico, who is crazy.

Not crazy.

Misunderstood. Nico, get out!

She hates the sound of the microwave button.

She'll swat at me, hiss at me. She'll draw blood. I'm the other woman.

But I didn't expect the other woman to be a cat.

If Sid gave me the ultimatum, I would have to choose Nico.

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 God!

I am back in my hometown of New York City.

New Yorkers live with four million cats, and that's my kind of town. But with

four million cats come four million cat problems.

My first stop in New York is at the home of Anne Breen and her cat Calvin.

Ow! Calvin!

Now Calvin's a biter, but with a difference. When he bites Anne Breen, he

doesn't let go.

Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!

To be honest with you, it's like nothing I've ever seen. So I'm going to get

over there right now before Anne Breen winds up in the ER.

I'm Anne Breen. I have a cat named Calvin that's 13 years old. I've had him

entire life. He's so cute. He's a beautiful cat, and I love him.

But he's crazy.

Okay, next cat to completely crazy cat.

He's very attached. He needs to be all over me and he sits on me. But then he

quickly turns vicious.

He sinks his teeth, his front claws, his back claws, everything into any part of

my body that he can.

And he will not let go.

But simply, he beats the crap out of me.

Calvin! My friends like to tell me that I'm in an abusive relationship because I

always have scars and scratches and sometimes open wounds.

These are all red from everywhere he was fighting.

I know Ambry loves him so much, but it's like an abusive relationship.

Calvin!

I'm terrified of him.

Terrified. And I would say consensus among my friends is that I'm absolutely

insane for keeping Calvin.

But he's mine. I love him. Now Calvin is urinating all over my new apartment and

new furniture.

The attacks are getting worse, and they're in my face a lot, too, so I'm

about my eyes.

I just can't keep living this way. I don't really know how anyone could

fix him.

Stop!

You're my last hope.

Hi. I'm Jackson.

Ambreen. Ambreen, nice to meet you. Come on in. Thank you.

Gorgeous here, man.

Now, I got to tell you something. The video that you sent me, it is truly

horrifying.

He's older, yeah? Yeah, he's 13.

When did the attack start?

When he was a year and a half old.

Okay. He has this thing where he likes to, like, pounce on my head if I go to

bed before he wants me to.

He got me on a blood vessel because it gushed all over my bed.

Wow. people tell me that i'm completely crazy for having kept him for this long

and for still keeping him i mean after 13 years when something's in your life

like you're attached to it no matter what i can't imagine how you have

these attacks for 12 years now at some point you just think it's normal in a

really odd way this defines an abusive relationship because she's kind of

dismissive about what's going on here and while i'm happy that she spared a

life, and this cat would have been dead years ago if it wasn't for her, there's

still something really wrong about it. Wow, that's a big one, man. Oh, yeah.

Have you ever wound up in the ER? No, not yet.

This is total intervention.

80 % of all cat bites get infected.

Now, it's only a matter of time before something really bad happens to Ambreen.

Do you have any idea as to when an attack is coming?

When I'm sleeping, I mean, anytime.

In the middle of the night?

An obvious question, but do you ever think about just closing the bedroom

Oh, yeah. He meows so loud, he will not let up.

Okay.

I'm hearing horror stories about Calvin attacking while Ambreen is sleeping, and

yet she insists on letting him sleep in the room. It's crazy.

You can't live like this anymore.

Hey, friend.

Yeah, like this is the stare down.

Hi.

Now I'm starting to get really stressed.

He's starting to tense up, which normally means he's going to bite me.

What do you do?

You're going to just let this happen?

I kind of have to let it start at this point, because if I were to remove him

right now, he's going to claw in.

Calvin is starting to settle in for this sort of love fest with Ambreen, and he

may attack.

I mean, I'm scared.

Oh. Okay.

I can't stand this. What disturbed me the most about watching Ambreen's

to Calvin was there was no reaction.

And that really concerns me.

So, over here is one of his favorite urine spots.

Any idea why he's peeing right here?

I mean, I do travel a lot.

How often do you travel?

At least every other week sometimes.

Twice a week.

Does he attack you more after you've been away?

Yeah. Do you have a pet sitter that comes by?

If it's more than three days, then I'll have someone stop by. But you leave him

for three days in a row.

That's a problem.

It's a huge misconception that you can go away for two or three days at a time,

leave a bowl of food and some water for your cat, and think they're going to be

okay. They're social creatures.

Separation anxiety is manifested in symptoms like defecation, urination

the house, and excessive meowing.

all things that Calvin has exhibited.

Now, the only thing left for me to do is to actually interact with Calvin.

But before I do that, I got something I gotta take care of. Hold on a sec. Now,

I've never worn anything before to protect me against the cat.

Calvin!

All right. Whoa, what is that?

This is my bite -proof suit.

Knowing how hard Calvin bites, knowing he has no control over it, and that once

he bites, he clamps on, Man, this thing right now is the only thing that's going

to save me.

Hello, buddy.

Can I touch?

Aha.

Okay, so now we got the bite hiss, right?

Can I pet?

Okay, okay, okay. Gotcha.

The thing about Calvin is that he acts very differently with me than he does

with Ambreen. With me, he goes, bite, flap, gone.

But with Ambreen, it's I love you, I love you, I love you, chomp. The only

I've seen a cat fight and hold on to something is when the cat's trying to

that something.

But I don't think he's trying to kill her. Just the opposite. It's like he's

trying to hang on to her. How food motivated is he?

What is that?

Good boy, can I feed this to you?

Now, if I can get Calvin to eat, especially for me, a stranger, that

demonstrates that he could make... Positive, consistent, present choices.

If not, well, then I've got to rethink this whole thing.

Oh, come on.

Look.

It's okay, buddy. It's okay.

Okay, okay.

Wow, you can feel him right through the gloves.

Okay, listen, look.

Food.

If I needed proof that something is going on in this poor boy's head that's

-normal, that would be it.

Food bite, food bite, food bite.

In all the years that I've been doing this, I've never seen that.

Let me go change out of this, and I'll give you some homework. Sounds good. I

desperately trying to come up with a formula that equals Calvin.

I'm not a vet.

But Calvin, I'm sure, has some sort of chemical imbalance as well as extreme

separation anxiety.

Whenever Ambreen leaves, his anxiety increases. And when she is here, he

literally clamps onto her out of fear that she's going to leave again. I mean,

this is crazy.

The first thing that I want to do is get your boy to the vet. We've got to get

Calvin to the vet because I've seen pain cause all kinds of unpredictable

behavior. Okay, listen, look.

Food. But if it is a chemical imbalance, more than likely, we're going to have

to get him on some mood -stabilizing medication in a hurry. Now, normally, we

have a peeing problem in the house. I'm going to say add litter boxes. But I

just think that the peeing is going to clear up once we take care of this

overriding separation anxiety.

Now, the next thing is make sure that you start looking for a pet sitter.

Every day you're gone, there's somebody in here spending at least an hour a day

with him so that there isn't a notable absence.

I want Ambreen to get a pet sitter. If we can just get the pet sitter to spend

some time with him, I think that his aggression is going to decrease.

Now, I am thoroughly uncomfortable with you sleeping in the same room as him. I

got to ask you to lock him out of the bedroom and ignore his meowing.

I just don't think that it's going to work.

I mean, he just is so loud and he does not give in.

That's how it's going to have to be.

Ambreen can't be sleeping in the same room as him. It's just too dangerous.

I'll be back in a few weeks. Try to stay safe.

I'll talk to you soon.

When Jackson said that he had never seen anything like Calvin in his 20 years of

doing this, I was like, oh, God, you're my last hope.

Like, I really hope there's something that you can do to help.

All right, I'm back from my second visit with Ann Breen and her cat Calvin, and

I've got to tell you, I've never seen anything like this before.

Last time I was here, I was convinced that Ann Breen was going to wind up in

ER, but she wasn't taking that idea seriously.

At some point, you just think it's normal.

I got a chance to look at Ann Breen's video homework, and I saw she went to

vet. I'm anxious to find out what's going on with Calvin.

I also saw this horrifying series of attacks.

Amber. Hi.

So hopefully today I'm going to walk in there, and she knows that this is a

dangerous situation, and she's ready to do something about it. I've already

watched your video homework, and man.

Let go.

The really bad one was one night at 4 o 'clock in the morning.

I just got attacked while I was sleeping.

He got my arm, and he got my face.

You obviously love him so much. But it really concerns me that you're getting

attacked on your face in your sleep.

This is exactly why I asked you not to let him sleep in your room.

I just can't. I am worried about your health.

The attacks on Anne Breen are just unacceptable.

And at the same time, Anne Breen will not be separated from Calvin. She won't

sleep with the door closed. If she doesn't take these attacks seriously,

don't know how I'm supposed to fit into the equation.

Okay, so I sent you to the vet. What did the doctor say?

The vet basically gave him a clean bill of health. He looked very good.

The vet put him on some sort of behavioral medication.

What's he been like since you started giving him the meds?

It's only been three days, and he's totally different.

He's not himself.

I don't want a sedated cat.

This specific medication takes about six to eight weeks to achieve proper blood

saturation levels. This is actually good.

We're seeing that he's not as desperate for you. That need for you, I think,

triggers him.

Each cat is going to react differently to these types of psychotropic drugs.

And Breen wanted Calvin to change, that's why she called me. She doesn't

him to change too much because she likes some of his behavior. The bottom line

is, that kind of needy behavior could be part of his problem.

Has he peed on the rug at all?

About three times. Three times since the last time I was here. We know there's

not a medical cause behind his peeing, so that tells me that it's separation

anxiety. Now, I also asked you to get a pet sitter for him. That's one thing I

didn't see on video homework.

I have one lined up. I just haven't gotten to her yet.

I specifically told Ambreen to get a pet sitter, and she didn't do it.

Calvin's chemical imbalance takes the separation anxiety and turns the volume

to 10. Echo.

Just like last time, there's this weird emotional disconnect. I'm being affected

more than Ambreen is.

Where's our boy? Oh, there he is. What's that?

Come on, buddy.

Good boy.

Come on, man. Let's see you go. Good man.

In my experience, normally a cat that's sedated wouldn't be able to play and

hunt and catch things the way Calvin is doing today. He's very focused and very

content on catching that toy and not attacking me or Ambreen. To me, that's

progress.

Good boy. Now that you're here, how about a reward?

Last time I was here, I offered Calvin a treat, and he just snapped at me

instead. Food.

Believe me, the last thing that I wanted to do was put my hands in this cat's

mouth. But for the sake of Calvin and for the sake of Ambreen, it had to be

done. How about a reward?

Come on, take it.

There it is.

Oh, this is pretty monumental.

Good boy.

Today I learned that Calvin is capable of focus and he's capable of decision

making that doesn't end up in someone getting shredded. And it's important

Ambreen see it through because I know he can change now.

Here's what I need. And I know you're going to have traveled by the next time

I'm here.

Somebody has to be here with him because my belief is that your separation from

him feeds in to the behavior.

I am starting to understand the severity of my situation, and I can't continue

to live in my constant fear that my cat's going to beat me up. Another

what I want to do is I want to set him a place on the couch that's not on you.

So hold on.

So, here you go.

This is a self -warming bed. There's a material, reflective material in here,

when he lays on it, his own body will heat it up. Oh, cool.

He can be close to her and not on her, and that's really important.

Now, I want you to treat play like it's his job. When a cat is hunting, they are

just singular.

These cacti have little holes in them, and you just put treats in, he bats it

around, and the treats come out. All right, I'm out of here. You get

you call me? Yes. All right, take care.

I've been dealing with this with Calvin for 13 years, so as much as I want

Jackson's help, of course there's a part of me that's just skeptical.

We'll see, but I'm still skeptical.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Hi, we have a question to ask.

What does it mean if Ruby rubs against my leg when I'm feeding her?

The answer, right after the break.

And now it's time for a kitty bit. What does it mean if Ruby rubs against my

leg? When I'm feeding her.

What she's saying is, I love you, I love you, I love you. They spread their

scent all over you. They'll rub up against you in between your legs.

headbutt you, their scent glands there. They're saying they own you, which in

cat language means, I love you.

I'm here for my third and final visit with Ann Breen and her cat, Calvin.

Now, the last time I was here, I started off the day horrified by what I saw on

her video homework.

Now, I got to watch your video homework this time, and I saw that Calvin is

using his litter box. That tells me his separation anxiety is starting to go

down. I see that he's playing, which is great. I just hope that he stays focused

on that toy and not on Ambreen. I also saw that Calvin loves his heated bed.

Hopefully, he's sleeping there and not with Ambreen.

She also got a pet sitter that's wonderful.

Now we've got to put it all to the test. I'm going to meet Ambreen outside as

she comes home from a business trip. Hey.

Hi, Jackson.

How are you, Ambreen? Good. How are you? I'm good.

Hopefully all of our work has paid off, but will that separation anxiety get

triggered? And will if you just go off? I mean, there's no telling right now.

You nervous?

A little bit.

I mean, it's the first time I've had the cat sitter watching him, and it was for

a bunch of days, so I'm interested to see how he reacts.

Interested. All right, that's code for nervous.

Go on in there.

Walking into that apartment, my mind is racing because I'm thinking about all of

this horrifying stuff that I saw before I ever even met Ambreen.

There's our man.

Now we're going to play it ultra cool, right?

Hi, Callie.

All right, we're not going to make a huge deal of this. It's just like you

gone for an hour.

Let's come on over here.

All right.

So, we walk in.

What's up, Calvin? How you doing? He's like, what's up?

That's a great start.

No attack so far. It was wonderful. But don't forget, this is the first time

that Calvin's been left alone with a pet sitter, and Ambreen is coming home

after a trip. This could lead down a very bad road very quickly.

Hold on now.

See, the thing is, I can't trust this until he's laying down.

He's got that choice to make right now, man.

Is he going to go after you or me or will he lay down?

And cue the lay down.

High five.

Cue the lay down, man.

Ah, Calvin.

I love you. When Calvin laid down in that bed, man, that was one of those

moments I hoped for. He made that choice to be present with the two of us and

not over -own Ambreen, not to come after me, nothing.

Tell me how the last couple weeks have been. It's great.

It's great.

I don't worry about attacks really at all.

At all?

At all.

Oh, yeah.

Calvin hasn't even come close to trying to attack me since he started the new

routine of playing every day and having his own separate bed.

And the pet sitter has been great. And thanks to Jackson's instructions, he's

more content.

He looks good to me. I can't believe it's taken me 13 years. Last time I was

concerned that medication was too much and maybe he was getting sedated. Now

seeing the old Calvin, but in a good way.

It's almost like you don't know how bad something is until it's not happening.

And Breen's saying that she didn't realize how bad it was until it stopped.

I've been waiting for her to say that for the longest time. She was basically

battered woman.

And now she's seeing how bad that battering was.

Calvin's also not urinating anywhere anymore.

It's another change.

Yeah, it's totally connected.

The fact that Calvin's not peeing outside the box anymore tells me that he

secure about his environment. That he doesn't have to own Ambreen through

marking the territory.

I'm going to come on over here, and I'm going to sit next to him. In order for

me to be able to walk away from here today, to know that you're safe, your

friends are safe, the unpredictability is down, I've got to see if he's

receptive to touch and my presence.

Calvi.

I'm absolutely threatening right now with my hand above him like that.

Hi. Can I give you a pet?

You want to explore?

Oh, I get kisses?

I get kisses?

There's my man. Wow.

Hey, Calvin.

I'm loving this.

How do you feel? Great. Yeah. After 13 years, to have Calvin in this normal

state is a complete miracle.

My concerns that Calvin would, like, end up putting me in the hospital are,

like, totally gone at this point. You hung in in a way that I've never seen

anyone else hang in.

this cat would have been dead 12 years ago. He means so much to me. I mean, I

put up with him for 13 years, and to feel like I can actually love him

being afraid of him is just, it's something I never thought would happen,

can't thank you enough for it.

My pleasure. I'm leaving here today knowing that the person I'm leaving is

the person I met, and the cat is nowhere near the cat that I met.

You guys take care of each other, and I will talk to you real soon, all right?

All right. Bye, Embry. The new Calm Calvin is just so much more relaxing for

to be around. They say animals help increase your lives, and now I can

say I feel that way. I can't believe he's changed.

Oh! We recently moved in together.

With his cat, Nico, who is crazy.

She'll swat at me, hiss at me, draw blood.

I just can't live with this cat.

If Sid gave me the ultimatum, I would have to choose Nico.

No!

Ow! No.

I'm on my way to go see Josh and Sydney and Josh's cat, Nico.

Now, Sydney just moved in with her boyfriend, but Nico has been anything

welcoming. She's biting and scratching and hissing, and Sydney's made it clear

that she can't live like this. Josh has made it clear that Nico's going nowhere,

and I'm going to go over there before someone gets torn apart.

I'm Josh. I'm Sydney.

We live in New York, and we've been dating for about two years. We recently

moved in together.

And we've been living with his cat, Nico, who is crazy.

Not crazy.

Misunderstood.

Ow! Hey, stop it.

Nico is eight and a half years old. She's a tortie, and she is aggressive

Sydney. And that is creating a whole world of problems.

Oh! She'll swat at me.

She'll hiss at me.

Sometimes she'll scratch me. Sometimes she'll draw blood.

She gets very anxious about food, whether you're trying to feed her or if

there's some sort of exciting snack on the table. And then she lashes out.

swiped food off the table multiple times and just gobbles it down.

I feel like this damn one is trying to get my boyfriend to help me with this

evil cat.

Hey, I just want to go over here.

There's a rivalry for your affection.

Like, I'm the other woman.

And look who's in my spot.

But I didn't expect the other woman to be a cat.

I think that kind of overreacts every now and again. I mean, you know, it's

the end of the world. I live here now. I just can't live with this cat.

I love her, and I cannot give her up.

She's not going to be a second -class citizen in my apartment.

Our apartment.

I thought this would be a good step forward if we want to start a life

but this is a real big stumbling block.

Hey, man. Hey. How are you? I'm Jackson.

Josh, come on in. Thank you so much.

Hi, Sidney. Sidney, good to meet you.

Well, I know we've got an aggressive cat.

Yeah. That's all I know. So tell me more.

I moved in recently.

A lot of her behavior is sort of getting in my way, attacking me, kind of

hissing at me.

Does she sort of predate you guys? Yeah, I've had her for eight and a half years

or so. I got her as a little baby. She was three months old.

And we started dating a little less than two years ago. Do we know anything

about her life before that? She was a stray. Somebody had brought her into the

vet. Was she...

A quote -unquote normal kitten?

Not really. She was always very aggressive and anxious.

She definitely has a special bond with Josh. I'm the other woman in her mind.

You know, it's a really slippery slope to start talking about jealousy and

I don't think Nico really cares that Sydney is sharing this territory and

she happens to be a woman. I don't buy it at all. Tell me what else.

She gets very anxious around food. Okay.

Even when you're trying to feed her, she just starts meowing and hissing and

jumping on the counter.

Hissing while you're trying to feed her? Yes. Cats that are born and have their

first couple of really formative months on the street know that food is a

valuable resource they have to fight for. So it's something that stays with

for a good long time.

I just can't live with this cat, and I'm worried about that.

I'm not going to get rid of Nico. That's not an option.

If Sid gave me the ultimatum, whether it was between her or Nico,

I would have to choose Nico.

Okay. Talk to me about the whole feeding ritual that we got going on here. Well,

to get a little distance between me and Nico, I figured out a couple things. One

of them is she hates the sound of the microwave button.

I will just go over here.

the button and just open and close the door a couple times. And then there's a

little bit of feet stomping and sort of talking loudly and then probably seeing

the microwave stomping.

Maybe both.

This dance that Sydney has to do every time the cat goes in the kitchen is

ridiculous.

Josh, the first time you saw this technique, your response was?

I have no idea what she was doing and sometimes I feel bad, but other times

like, you know what?

Just toughen up. But you ever come in here and be like, well, this is what you

should do?

Not really.

Josh was very dismissive. He basically said, toughen up. It's a little

oversimplifying, and he's not taking into consideration that he's got an

-and -a -half -year relationship with this cat, and that's why he can do what

does. Sidney doesn't have that advantage, so I want to see this feeding

that often results in aggression without Josh there to diffuse the situation.

In comes the cat.

Go ahead and put it down for me.

All right. I want you to just walk through her while she's doing this.

And I also worry about my fingers sometimes.

Oh. Now, what if you were to pick it up? Now, normally I wouldn't ask a guardian

to take away food from a seemingly food -aggressive cat, especially when they're

eating. But this is a unique case. I need to push the challenge line with

so I can see how afraid of Nico she truly is.

Wow, Sydney, you have been completely traumatized by this cat. You can't pick

that dish, can you?

Sydney is demonstrating so much fear. She was assuming that she was going to

beat up, which was causing a more extreme reaction.

Oh, boy.

You're not messing around, girl.

I can't respond to her being aggressive.

I just want to feed you.

Ouch,

ouch, ouch.

If you do that, this goes away.

You're not going to get this if you growl.

I was not going to be intimidated by Nico. I pulled it back and I said, you

what? You're not getting this. And instantly, she sat down.

First time I've seen this cat not on guard.

Now I know we're getting somewhere.

No?

Nothing. You have a choice.

There's food here or you beat me up. One or the other.

Right now, she's actually being very kind of obedient.

And I dig that. Now comes the fun part.

Nico's getting totally overstimulated. She's hungry. She's demanding.

This is the definition of the challenge line. This is about trying to work

through what could be completely reflexive actions. So I wanted to see if

get Nico to eat out of my hand.

Now, when she makes a move for me, which she may, I'm just going to take it

away. Go ahead, babe.

Oh, boy.

Go ahead.

There you go, my love.

Nico is waiting for the next command. It's almost like a dog would do. I know

that this is something I could work with. And now it was time to give these

some homework.

We found out today that this cat can be trainable. So first thing is I need you

to start performing.

Basic body checks.

You're always afraid of what's going to happen. The unfortunate thing with cats,

they're like energetic mirrors.

Whatever you bring, they're going to shoot right back at you. If you're

Nico's going to be tense.

The second part is the trainable part. The first thing that we have is this.

This is your Nico tool belt.

There's all kinds of fun stuff in here for her, from catnip kickers to crinkle

balls. Two little mice. I'm hoping the tool belt will take away the fear,

replace it with a sense of empowerment, and at the same time train the cat.

Oh, but wait, there's more. All right.

This is your clicker spoon. The idea is that this gets really long, so you can

keep her at a distance. Whenever she goes for the food and she's not

not doing the hissy thing.

Instead of hearing the sound of microwaves slamming all the time, the

I want to hear is from the clicker. When she gets the quiet and then she gets

the cat going for the spoon, click. You act a certain way, you get rewarded.

All right, guys, it's been wonderful meeting you. If these homeworks don't

and Nico's behavior doesn't change, that would just make living here terrible.

We would have to make some radical change.

I can't get rid of her. That's not in the cards.

So I'm here for my second visit with Josh and Sydney and Josh's cat, Nico.

Sydney just moved in a few months ago. Hey!

Welcome! And Nico has made it very clear that she wanted no part of Sydney.

Now, I watched their video homework. I got to keep Sydney using her tool belt,

which is great because it serves two purposes.

Nico gets toys that come out of it. Sydney...

feels more comfortable around Nico.

I also saw the long spoon feeding exercise, which became the short spoon

exercise. That's exciting. But I also saw Nico really going after Sydney's

I'm going to have to address that later on because Josh has made it clear that

he will pick his cat over his girlfriend. Guys, tell me.

What? Are you telling me what's going on?

She's sitting next to you, which is pretty cool.

Tell me how things are going since the last time I was here.

I think I definitely have been able to see certain progress.

She's been more receptive to when I try to play with her with some of the toys.

Your body language is still very much like I don't trust this cat.

Remember I was talking about doing body check? Right.

And now would be that time. Yeah, well, I could certainly move my arm more

towards this.

Perhaps, or maybe uncross my legs a little bit.

And don't forget the breathing part.

Oh, yeah. You send fear, you receive fear. That fear is still clearly there.

How's it going with the clicker spoon?

There is still some sort of combative moment.

One time in particular, she really went after my foot, and she was, like, really

kind of starting to claw at me, and then I yelled at her.

Ow! Ow!

I don't like her calling Nico profane words.

I understand your reaction to that situation, but I also kind of want some

sympathy from you. Well, I think there could be sympathy if you chose your

better. I don't know. There's this battle between the two ladies.

You know, just this little moment, it shows you there's tension bubbling

underneath this relationship. There are stakes involved here because Josh has

made it clear that he will pick his cat over his girlfriend.

So let me tell you what I want to do.

We're still having a little bit of a sticky situation when it comes to the

feeding. So today we're going to try the feeding exercise, but we're not doing

it in the kitchen. That kitchen is gone. We can't use it anymore. It's loaded

with negativity and anticipation and fights.

What we're going to do is we're going to start feeding in the study. And then

from there, we'll spread it out all over the house. All she knows now, the space

doesn't give her the food and the satisfaction Sydney does.

You want to sit?

All right.

What are we doing?

Hey there. What are we doing? Are we going to get some food?

Oh, I know, I know.

I know it's tempting.

Hold on.

Just a little bit. Okay.

Lead her back toward the floor.

See what you're doing right now? See how you're moving away from her? You move

toward with the food. She'll follow the food. There you go.

Follow the food.

You see?

Get another little piece.

And don't forget, you lead because you have the food.

Okay?

Lead her forward.

All right. How about that? There you go. Good girl.

Are you breathing through it right now? Are you good?

You seem okay.

Mostly, yeah. Pretty good, pretty good.

Now we take another risk. I want you to try hand feeding her.

Now, last time I was here, I was able to feed Nico out of my hand. So today, I

want to see if Nico can trust Sydney enough to take food out of her hand. I

to see if Sydney is strong enough to offer that food. And I don't know if

one of them is ready for that. Drop a little in your hand. Take a little bit

your hand.

Go ahead. You can move the piece.

There you go.

Now just go to that piece.

Look.

How's that?

Look. Down here. Down here.

Look. Down here.

Do you see it?

Oh. Hey.

Try it one more time with just putting it in your fingers.

Just be smooth.

Be smooth.

Getting work, huh?

How are you feeling right now? A little nervous.

Exactly.

You guys have developed this sort of push -pull relationship.

As you went back, she got more aggressive.

Your ability to take control of this relationship is the key here. I was

that Sydney wasn't able to get Nico to eat out of her hand, but I'm not

discouraged, and I don't want Sydney or Josh to be either.

Today, we learned that we have to work at Nico's pace.

I also learned that Sydney is still working through her fear. I'm just

that both of these ladies can get on board and start looking at one another

positive light and not as the enemy.

The first thing I want to do is instead of just feeding her out of your hand

again, I would like you to put the spoon in your hand. And then eventually when

you feel comfortable, then away goes the spoon.

I also want you to just continue with the whole body check thing. I can't

underline how crucial it is that Sydney gets through this exercise and gets

through it with confidence. And if she doesn't, I don't see a way that she

cohabitates with Nico.

The last part of the homework, Josh, I want you to get involved in this, okay?

All right. Help talk her out of the situation.

Josh is very good at saying, you know, you're doing this wrong, or stop talking

like this to my cat.

He needs to be able to give Sydney the tools that she needs to stop the

frustration from happening in the first place. They also need to start working

as a team, so the next time I come here, it can be a house united, not divided.

I'll be back in a few weeks, all right? Great. I feel like Nico and I have made

a lot of good progress, but we'll need to get some work done before I really

feel like I'm in this apartment and a part of this.

We're not there yet.

I don't know what to tell you.

I'm here for my final visit with Sidney, Josh, and their cat, Nico.

Oh! Now, I'm hoping that this time around, Sidney is much less afraid while

trying to feed Nico.

Oh! Hey. I also hope that she and Josh are finally working as a team. Hey, man.

Hey. Because if not, Josh has said that Nico is not going anywhere.

All right, guys, but tell me, since the last time I was here, Sid, have you been

attacked at all?

Um... There's some, like, mewing, but she doesn't attack the way she used to.

Yay! I mean, that's big, man. From the day I met you, the fear level that you

had around her was big.

Do you feel that pervasive fear anymore? Much less. It used to be that I always

felt like I had to be on my toes around her, but now she starts to snarl. I know

it'll just stop at that. That's pretty major stuff right there.

Between the feeding and the clicker training, I do feel much more empowered

able to cope with this cat. It's taken a lot of stress out of our living

situation. The last time I was here, I pushed your challenge to the nth degree.

Be smooth.

Be smooth.

How far have you gotten since then with the spoon to the hand?

That's been going pretty well. She has definitely eaten out of my hand.

She's actually respecting kind of the routines we're building.

All right, butt on the floor. Butt on the floor. Like that. Good.

I could even call her obedient.

You're able to feed her, and that's great, and I'm really proud of you for

All right, Josh, the last time I was here, I asked you to be Sydney's

Talk to me about that. It's kind of nice being able to share her with Sydney. To

have Nico and Sid get along definitely warms my heart. And now that we're on

right path, I think we could definitely have some sort of family unit.

All right, guys. Now, I love that you've been working as a team.

Now, before I leave here today, you've got to prove it. What I need to see

is, first and foremost, Josh and Sydney acting as a team. So I asked Josh to go

lead Nico in and hand her off to Sydney, who's going to do that hand -feeding

exercise one more time for me.

Keep her. Keep her. There you go. Keep her wanting a little bit more.

And hand off that spoon.

Josh, move away.

Josh, move away.

You take the spoon.

A little bit. Good. Give her a little bit more.

Make sure she goes where you want her to go. Come up here. But what I need

Sydney to do is own the relationship with Nico and own her role.

If she moves backwards, she will get attacked.

Towards your head. No, no. I don't want to knock it.

There you go. Hey, Nico. Now feed her a little lower. A little lower. There you

have it.

Now bring that towards your lap.

Towards your lap.

There you go. What I would love for you to do is put the treat in your hand.

Have her eat it out of your hand.

I needed to push Sydney to that place where Nico was eating out of her hand,

because if she could tackle that successfully, if she could move forward

her fear, it would all be stripped from her mind, and then Nico would have that

space to be able to trust Sydney.

Tell her again to sit.

Sit.

Sit. Relax.

Body check.

Oh, boy.

It's okay.

Yeah. Don't lose her.

Have that treat just waiting down.

In my hand, though. Yeah, when she wants it.

Relax. Allow her.

That's it. You got it. You got it.

That's right.

Good girl.

Excellent. Very cool.

Good job.

There it is. Good job, Nico.

Look at that. That's beautiful.

Boom. Sydney takes control.

It's everything I needed to see and definitely everything Josh and Sydney

to see. Guys, I'm really proud of the work that you've done.

Awesome. I'm out of here.

The stakes on day one were pretty high because I moved in, I've been living

for a few months, but I still just really didn't feel like I was living

Whereas today I feel like I can actually live in this house and be a part of it

instead of just an intruder.

I'm really happy that my two most important ladies in my life can finally

along as a little family, as a little team.

And if I could give some advice to people, I would say try to listen to

other and try to work together.

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.