Original subtitles

Quincy. Quincy, no.

I don't think that this is a law.

What in the hell happened here?

He's being a jerk. I'm a jerk?

Ziggy was tossed from a moving car, and she paralyzed from the waist down.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

I am Cat.

The animal behavior is wow.

The guardians call, and they're dealing with a difficult cat.

Wow, he really got you.

I'm out to prove that there is no such thing as a bad cat.

Just a cat that needs my help. You did it.

My

name

is Christy, and I live in Northridge, California.

I found Skylar.

When she was about four or five days old, I found her in a garage.

Her mom had abandoned her, so I fell in love with her instantly.

Over the last three years, Skylar's behavior has gotten worse.

She really hates her tail.

She'll just start growling at her tail.

And she'll start hissing, and she'll run from it, and she'll hide from it. She

seems miserable.

because she's always running from her tail.

Skylar is a very loving cat, but she will whip right away. So

I can be petting her, and she's purring, and she's loving, and then all of a

sudden she will just attack.

Skylar!

No.

Skylar will scratch me, claw me, bite me.

Oh, my God.

I just don't know how to handle the situation, so I really need help in

make her life better.

You know, sometimes a cat's behavior is so mysterious that not only does it do

damage to them, it does damage to the relationship between them and their

guardian. Now, in the case of Skylar, it's driving Christy berserk. I'm going

go over there right now and see if I can make heads or tails of the situation.

Hey. Hi, good to see you. How are you? Good, how are you doing? I'm doing

thank you. Good.

So, let's talk.

Skylar hates her tail. She will hiss and growl and run away from her tail at

least 30 times a day.

30 times a day? At least.

That's pretty severe.

Yeah. Has your cat been checked out by the vet?

Do we know that there's no, never?

Nothing for this.

Now, here's the thing.

The way you're saying this, you're already feeling guilty.

It sets off really huge alarm bells in me that Christy won't take her cat to

vet. So I got to dig a little deeper into why.

I mean, no matter what we do is the first thing I always say. We got to go

the vet, make sure we got a clean bill of health.

The reason I haven't taken her to the vet, though, is because recently I was

go from my job. Oh, I'm sorry.

That sucks.

Yeah, it does.

So I don't have any money.

So, there she is.

Do you mind if I mess with you a little bit? Can I mess with you a little bit?

Hello, my baby.

And I'm watching to see if the touch to the tail would elicit a response.

So, it's not. Now, is it predictable enough for you? Because it seems like

have a hard time controlling yourself around her.

I do, because I love her.

I love her.

When she is in the midst of going through her thing, does she redirect

onto you?

I mean, I've got Mark everywhere.

Holy crap.

Hold on.

What in the hell happened to you?

I picked her up. You picked her up and this happened? Yeah.

That's horrific.

I don't get it.

I don't get that this isn't the reason I'm here.

I'm here because Skylar is biting her own tail, not because Christy is getting

the ever -loving snot kicked out of her. Why is Christy being so coy about this?

Can you trigger it if you want to?

Normally all I have to do is go, Sky, Sky.

I always say it like that. Sky, Sky.

And she'll move her tail and she'll start growling.

For her, that physical response triggers something, which is such a sad concept

that when you call her name, you're now getting a growl. It's really sad, and

it's very hard for me. Watching Skylar go through this on a daily basis, I get

depressed. It's really, really hard for me to watch.

She's my everything.

My cat is my life, meaning without my cat I have no life.

That's not just being a good mom.

That's being codependent. That's something you really got to look out

Do you think that there's any cause and effect, sort of the vicious cycle, that

you get depressed, she senses something's up, she's avoiding you, you

and the relationship is starting to fray?

Maybe my aura is negative, and that's why she doesn't come near me as much,

then she's just making it worse.

Why? Because I need my cat.

I need my cat's affection. To not get affection from her is kind of sad.

So if you feel rejected by her... Yeah, it's like, then I'm just here by myself.

Let's get out of here for a second. You want to take a walk with me? Yeah. Come

on. Sounds good.

I absolutely, 100 % believe that Christy's depression affects Skylar. I

it's this really vicious cycle where you've got depression that is then

back to the human, who mirrors it back to the cat, and the two of them are

circling the drain together.

I had my animals around me when I was OD'd on the floor, kind of thing, and

would get ill. They're sponges in that way.

I want to make sure you're taking care of you while I'm trying to help take

of your cat. Yeah.

I think that I'm uniquely suited to help Christy through this time in her life

because I share a history of depression and self -destructive behavior.

Let's go back to the vet thing.

Yeah.

Because I keep getting that out of you.

Every time I mention the vet, you get sheepish. What is that? Is it just

because, is it the money?

Money is a lot of it. I've had bad experiences.

What's your experience?

Every time I brought a cat there, it's never been good, right? So first they're

going to want to check for fleas, and they're going to want to bring her to a

neurologist, and I can't even imagine how much that

costs. Knowing my luck, this is going to be some horrible thing that I can't do

anything about.

But we want to find out.

One thing that doesn't add up to me at all, Christy is a devoted cat mom.

Devoted. At the end of the day, Christy, you've got to bring your cat to the

vet. That's part of being a parent.

Every now and again, I meet somebody who their situation supersedes that of

their cat.

Christy and Skylar together create this sort of chain of dysfunction that

affects them both in a really negative way. I want Christy to experience a

better, fuller life for her and also for the sake of Skylar.

I'll tell you my observations first and foremost.

We've got the twitch going on. The tail is going on. The tail is always... I'm

just going to not touch her at the moment. What you're seeing from Skylar's

is not behavior. It's physical.

From watching her gait, is that there may be something going on, whether it's

old fracture in her tail, whether it's a small fracture at the base of the

spine, because remember, the spine continues the tail. The only way to find

what's going on is to get to the vet.

Yes, we're going to have to do a lot of testing.

That's all there is to it. I mean, x -rays, for sure. And blood tests. I'll

a deal with you. You throw your arms around this process.

and I will help out with the vet thing, okay? So let me help take a little bit

of the money off.

That's not supposed to make me sad.

It doesn't make me sad.

I don't do that normally, and I wouldn't do it unless I felt like there's

something really great waiting for you guys, and I just don't want you to get

your own way.

I appreciate it.

I do.

That's the service to her. The second thing is service to you. There can't be

this Schuyler -shaped hole in you, right?

You've got to be able to be whole.

Christy's got to take care of Christy in order for her to take care of Skylar.

So I want her to start getting comfortable in her own skin. The way she

that is to learn how to meditate. The idea is for you to be comfortable,

and quiet, and not reaching for anything to soothe.

The last thing that I want Christy to do, I want her to spend time as part of

community. Right now, there's a lot of isolation happening in your life. I

that there's something in you that really needs to be around, not just your

animal, but animals. Yes.

I want her to go to a shelter, clean cages, just put some love on these cats.

It'll get her out of this place.

It'll get her involved in something, and that's really, really crucial.

Look, at the end of the day, I'm not a vet. I'm not a shrink.

I'm someone who shares your experiences.

In a big way. Yeah.

And I really believe one way or another, you guys are both going to benefit from

it. I think so too.

The work that I have to put in to help Skylar is a bit overwhelming only

a lot of it has to do with me changing who I am. I really have to help myself

that I can help Skylar.

I'm Stacy.

And I'm Gary.

And we live in Sherman Oak.

We've been together seven years now. Seven years, we've been married about

When I adopted Quincy, he was only two months old. It seems like the older he

got, his problems seemed to grow with him.

His behavior is really predictably unpredictable.

He knows exactly what he's doing. He knows exactly what's in the law, and he

keeps doing it.

When we first got him, he was an excellent litter box user.

And when he started growing out of the litter box, I replaced it with a bigger

box. And that's when he seemed to have started pooping on the floor. Not every

time, just sometimes.

So sometimes he poos in the box, sometimes he doesn't. And look what I

to.

Feels like he's just doing it to be mean.

He seems to have violent tendencies.

I mean, he's a cute -looking cat, but it's almost like randomly he becomes

violent and then just attacks.

He is cute, though, isn't he?

Mm -hmm. You know what you did.

No matter what we do or say, he's going to keep doing it until something

changes. If Jackson doesn't help us, I'm afraid the tension between Gary and I

is going to escalate to deeper issues that we won't be able to fix.

Hey, how are you?

Thank you for coming out. We need some help coming in. Okay, that's what I'm

here for, man. Help us. We're dying. We are.

So, what's going on here?

We've got a cat that has a behavioral problem.

Okay. Want to try grabbing him? Yeah, he's lurking in a corner somewhere.

Oh, there he is.

Jackson, this is Quincy.

Quincy Jackson.

He's gorgeous. He's the cutest cat.

He really is.

He is held. He's two years old. He brought him home, actually. I brought

home when he was about four months old. Was it not your idea? It was her fault.

You were going to say it. I was going to say fault, but her idea, he just sprung

it on me. I adopted a cat.

Really? Yeah.

Now what happened?

Initially, it was the litter box.

He sometimes poops in the box.

Sometimes he doesn't. And it's the way he poops in the box, too. It's so weird.

The box is pretty big, but he'll always go right to the very edge of the box and

put his front paws on the edge of the box. Your face is imitated a cat

You actually did that really well there.

What else?

That's just a small issue. It's my big issue.

That's a big issue for me. It's big for you, not big for you. It's not a big

issue for him because he doesn't clean it up. I clean up the poop on the floor.

If that's not the big problem, what is the big problem? He just attacks me.

This is from yesterday.

We can't figure out why he's doing it.

I feel like Quincy bites him and attacks him for attention because Gary doesn't

play with him enough. That has become a huge issue, and the way that we deal

with that, we lock him in the bathroom.

Look, I have seen people give their cats timeouts when they're just sick of it

and they don't want to deal with it anymore. They just put them in a room.

it work? All the toilet paper is off the thing.

He pooped in there before. So the answer is no, it doesn't work. I guess not.

So why do you keep doing it? I'm trying to find a way to punish the cat. She

kind of lets him do his thing, which we argue a lot about. You have polar

opposite approaches.

We're basically talking about our marriage right now.

Does Quincy become a catalyst for bigger things between the two of you? He is a

four -legged metaphor for how we deal with life and how differently we

circumstances and problems.

I'm seeing a lot of the common frustrations that I see in a lot of cat

play out through Gary and Stacey.

Number one, there's the concept that a cat is just willfully being mean. And

there's a misconception that cats don't need exercise.

And without exercise, they become Quincy.

Quincy, danger of leaving here?

No, absolutely not.

My God, you should have seen what just happened there. Look, I love the cat.

It's almost like I'd rather not be here. The cat can be here, but I'm going to

be somewhere else. Is this a conversation too? The cat's not going

If we can't get rid of these problems, I don't even want to think about when it

comes to our relationship, what it can do.

I want to see any stuff that you have that's cat stuff and any place where he

tends to wreak havoc. Okay? Okay. Let's go.

So that's the litter box.

So when he takes a poo, he dumps it right there. It's always in that spot.

cats go right outside the box, he's either uncomfortable in his gut.

Or he doesn't like the litter itself.

Okay, so you're saying that you don't pick up the poop because these little

circles, I mean, if it's wet and you grab it, it sort of smushes inside. If

weren't for getting into the hole, you would pick it up. It would be easier to

pick up the litter. He wouldn't pick it up. I think we could have a mat with

holes, a mat with squares. It does not matter. I don't think he's going to be

cleaning up any poop.

So where is it that he gets timeouts?

Pretty much every day he winds up in here.

Look, I have seen people give their cats time out and say, be better. It's not

going to happen.

What is it that you expect to change with him when he's in here? That he'll

understand that if he knocks stuff over or attacks me, he's going to get a time

out. This is that itty -bitty space.

This ends today.

If I wasn't such a nice guy, the end of this day would have been me locking

those two in that bathroom for ten minutes. Those guys would have clawed

way out of that bathroom. I swear to you, they would have.

So, this is the land of what?

Knocking everything over. When I try not to pay attention to him, he just knocks

over and looks at me again.

It's almost like he's waiting for my reaction. What is the reaction? I get

upset. And? I yell at him in the beginning, and then if he continues

I lock him in the bathroom.

Okay. It seems to be the subtext of everything in this home is, but stop it,

stop it. And your interpretation of what he's doing is what? He's being a jerk.

You know, the whole misconception about cats being jerks is just a blatant

misunderstanding. They don't do it just to get a reaction.

You've got to get into his head more because all of this comes from the same

place. I'm getting angry because the cat is being locked in the bathroom because

you can't deal with him. And you're not thinking about what you can do to make

his life better. I figured the only way I'm going to get that point across is

loudly, really loudly. I'm him. I'm a jerk.

No, I'm not a jerk. Am I hungry?

No, I'm not hungry. It's a cup. Wait a minute.

Oh, I'm bored.

I want attention right now.

I want attention right now.

Oh, I'm bored.

He's bored all the time, guys. He's bored all the time.

There's no cat.

stuff in here. This boy is two years old. He is just getting into that world

like, I am cat.

And what we have in return is, no, stop it. I'm going to put you in the

bathroom. And then you get this.

This is simple cat math right here. And everything's going to change. The next

time their cat is knocking things off the shelf, what are they going to say?

cat's bored.

See, they're going to think that now. I've drilled it in.

And if I'm acting all like this, I'm doing it for a reason because I am his

ambassador right now.

Jackson has clearly worked up. And I will say that I did get a little

heartbroken when he said we weren't seeing things from Quincy's perspective.

that really, that was a light bulb moment for me.

Gary, you're going to play a huge part in this because he is coming to you for

this. stimulation, and he's getting it, but now you have to guide him into an

appropriate place and say, this is the place, right?

So I'm going to start breaking stuff out here for you. So these kinds of toys

are where I want you to go. This opens, you've got a feather, and this is a

hunting toy. You get him locked into this toy and run him around until he's

tired. Every day, I want Gary to commit to quality playtime. Playtime does not

mean petting and stroking and touching noses. It means wearing your cat out.

All right, here, let me show you something. There's some simple things

can do.

This is a cup holder from a car. You stick it here, you put a cup in here.

It's not going anywhere.

When he goes after something like this, tries to knock it off, and he doesn't do

it, he's not a dumb cat. He'll stop doing it. Here's another thing. This is

cat tree. Literally, this is his cat tree, because he doesn't have one. Get a

cat tree and use it around here. I want them to stop setting him up for failure.

Right now, if there's a cup on the counter, he's going to knock it off.

just what he's going to do.

Make him do something that's more constructive.

So, we're talking litter box.

It's not the location of the box, and it's not the box itself, because he goes

in it. The other thing that he does that you imitated so beautifully was the

perching on the front of that box.

It's almost as if to say, I don't like the action of squatting in this box.

One of the assignments that I have for Gary and Stacey is I want them to take

the litter level down to about an inch. My hunch is that there's something about

when Quincy gets in that box as a big cat, he's just not liking it. He's

afraid of it, or he's afraid of the way his body feels when he's in it.

And both of those things need to be looked at. Also, there was the mat.

And if the only reason that you're not picking poop off the floor is because of

the holes in that mat, let's just get rid of the mat. If it works, it works.

There's one other thing, and that's Gary and Stacey actually communicating. If

these guys were to look at Quincy as their child and not an annoyance, the

problem would have been diffused years ago.

You guys need to be touching base a lot. And it's not about you doing wrong, you

doing right. It's about what's he expressing right now? What does he need?

Get him to know what it's like to be a killer, but in a constructive way and

making you bleed in the process.

And that's really pretty much it. But you have to make a commitment to ending

business as usual here. So that means there's no yelling at him. There's no

locking in the bathroom. Doesn't work with cats. Never, not one time. I don't

want to know that they did it even one more time past today.

Last thing, record the comings and goings of your homework over the next

of weeks.

Right on, guys. I'm going to take off.

Jackson. All right, guys. Thank you. Take care. Thank you so much. Nice to

you. Oh, you too.

All right. Take care, guys. Thank you so much. Bye.

If we're successful with this homework, that means we have communicated well

with each other. Maybe it'll improve other parts of our marriage, too.

We'll see.

I'm back here for my second visit with Christy, intercast Skyler. I really hope

Skyler's attacking her own tail left.

And that Christy feels a little more grounded. Wow, her tail is just busy.

It wasn't constant action last time I was here, right?

Sky,

Sky.

Sky, Sky.

Hi, sweetie.

You met Dr. Kelly.

Like Dr. Kelly. I liked her, yeah. Yeah, she's great, right?

I don't know what the outcome of all this is.

You don't either.

Okay, good.

She'll be coming later.

Oh, fantastic.

Oh, good.

So she'll give us the results at the same time so that we can all figure it

together. And talk it out. Yeah. Chiller. Okay, good. Let me just tell

something. Even if Skylar is like World War III right now, you feel grounded

to me. So tell me what you've done.

So let's start with meditation.

I do it at least for 15 minutes each day.

That's helped a lot.

I went to the shelter, which was therapy in itself.

Why? Because you go in there and you're just there. Or for me, that's how it

was. I wasn't thinking about, I have to get this job. I have to do this. I was

just there with the kittens. And they're just so adorable. It's like, how can

you focus on anything else? Right, right, right. So my energy has been

but good. Wow.

I got a job.

Yay!

But not only did I get a job, I got a job at a company that I've been trying

get into since 2005.

Wow. There's no way that would have happened without you.

There is not one part of me that believes I could have gotten this job

Jackson. He made me realize that my energy has so much more of an effect

really I ever thought it could.

Last time I was here, Christy was unemployed. She was absolutely lonely

devastated and depressed.

And just by the homework that she did, I believe her energy started to be more

inviting, less like she was pushing the world away. What happened? She just

landed a dream job. Now, you might be thinking that there's no connection.

I'm telling you there's a connection. When is Dr. Kelly supposed to come? Very

soon. Okay, good. What I want to do is go through your video homework. That

should shed some light.

I'm going to just gently, I'm going to press along her back and I'm going to

if she has any sensation or back pain.

What's going on with you right there?

They were touching my cat.

She definitely doesn't like it, does she?

Huh?

I'm freaking out at what is about to happen.

We're going to try and get the blood sample now.

Oh, my gosh. What I'm looking for.

What's going on?

I'm trying to think.

What I'm noticing in the video homework is that Christy is not being mindful

about her actions with Skylar. The singing part of things. Because I did

you to notice, Skylar actually got a little worse.

Christy got Skylar all ramped up. It shows me that Christy's still not at

place where she understands her own cat as well as she needs to.

Great timing. Cool.

So now that the doctor's here, I am holding my breath.

I've been dreading finding out if there is anything medically wrong with my cat.

Her blood test was very normal.

Internal organ function is all fine.

Good. So I had the x -rays reviewed by a board -certified radiologist and an

orthopedic surgeon. Both did not think that there was anything abnormal.

Nothing. You know, she's not acting this way because there's some kind of

undiagnosed illness.

Having said that, we still don't know exactly what's stimulating the behavior.

Blood tests are normal. The x -ray, clean.

That leaves us with... The big question mark, what is it?

There was nothing majorly wrong with Skylar, which is great.

But at the same time, we still don't know what the problem is.

So I'm hoping that we find that out. The syndrome is called hyperesthesia

syndrome. The syndrome that we don't know exactly what the underlying cause

Sometimes there can be a medical problem or it can be behavioral.

What we can do is a trial of a medication called gabapentin.

We'll give that some time. Definitely need to give me a call in a week or so

let me know if we're making any headway at all.

So going from this point on, it might be a little bit easier for me to take

Skylar to the vet because I had an experience that wasn't nearly as

I thought it would be. How do you feel?

I feel good about the fact that we are going forward and we're narrowing things

down. Hyperesthesia is one of those things that as long as the symptoms

abating, we're happy.

Number one homework, of course, is medication.

As we introduce gabapentin, I want Christy to log not just the attacks,

time of day they happen, and the context.

Hopefully, we're going to start seeing these incidents go down. Number two is

your more personal log, and that's going to be with your homework camera. And I

want you to experiment vocally with touch.

So if you're doing your sky sky, just be observant. When you do it, what do you

notice? We have pupils that dilate, ears that flatten, tails that flap all over

the place, and a cat who lashes out eventually.

All of these things are not random.

There's something that connects them, and Christy is the key to this whole

puzzle. Let's talk about being mindful of the space.

I'd like you to start looking into the vertical world.

Modification to the space will give Skylar something to do, just like

When she was playing with kittens, she wasn't thinking about her own life. She

wasn't getting depressed.

Same thing with Skylar. If she's looking at birds, if she's focusing out into

the world, she's not thinking about her tail.

I just want you to take that mindful look at the space and change things,

So far, everything Jackson has had me do has helped, so I'm going to stick with

that and just do exactly what he says I should do.

Thank you.

Last time I was here, I met Stacy and Gary's cat, Quincy. I left them with a

of homework to help stop Quincy's restless antics and his problem with

outside the box. I hope that Stacy and Gary followed through. If they haven't,

my claws are coming out today.

Hey, how's it going, Jack? Good, how you doing? Oh, God, I've been doing so much

better. Oh, there you go. The second I walk in, I hear good news.

So you're going to see some big changes around here. The toy, the cat tree.

It's like a cat lives here. It's beautiful.

You guys were great sending in a lot of stuff for me. What I wanted to do is go

over it with you and see what's going down.

Love it. Love it.

How do we like our new cat tree? King of the world now.

King of the world.

Here is one of the toys that we're going to use. So maybe away from energy.

We'll see if it works. Looking at Gary and Stacey's video homework, you start

see the progress. Gary at the beginning is like, Quincy. Quincy, go.

And then that turns into, what can I do for Quincy? And Gary gets it now and

resolves the problem. That was wonderful.

Let's talk about play.

I need you to step it up a little bit. Because right now, it's like fishing for

Quincy. We need him to move.

It's really important that you recognize that just because you give your cats

activities doesn't mean you're done. You have to keep upping the level of those

activities. Your cat's going to figure out the puzzle, and then it's boring.

Biggest things that you've noticed in terms of change in Quincy? I think the

level of anxiety in Quincy has gone down because we're not locking him in the

bathroom anymore.

That completely ended. He doesn't knock things off the countertops anymore.

The cup holder that you told us to get, we did it, and he starts knocking at the

cup in the cup holder, and you'll see that the cup's not going anywhere, and

then he'll just kind of be like, ah.

What did you guys do? I take the little toy with the feather, which she loves,

and play with him, and we kind of have like a little routine. Instead of

him away, I take 10, 15 minutes out of my day, and it's all better.

You've got to be fairly relieved of that. I am very, very pleased with some

the changes I've seen with Gary and Quincy. Gary, I can hear the change in

voice. You hear this place where you go from being annoyed to problem solving.

That's really admirable stuff.

That's amazing.

No, because it's not easy. You know, the last time I was here, this was

obviously a point of friction between the two of you. Everything cool in terms

of your communication?

Much better since we figured out the whole, you know, not yelling about

issue. Hooray for love.

Yeah.

So we've been going through everything that worked. What is not working?

Well, the big issue.

Pooping on the floor.

Really? So litter level didn't do it. The only thing we changed with the

box is we got the new mat, and it just makes it easier for me to clean up.

There's one thing left. Of course, it's got to be the poop. And there's still

poop happening outside the box. There's still Gary not liking picking it up. I'm

not picking it up. It's soft.

Yeah. Still got that problem.

I'm still...

A little perplexed, but we'll go in there later on and see if there's

that I'm missing. What I want to do now is just take a look around the house and

leave you guys off on a good note, okay? Let's take a look. I want to start

here.

So this is where we put Quincy's puzzle because this is where he re -saw the

havoc. Look at how his body is turning towards something more exciting.

And look at him go, man.

All right.

Great stuff.

Let's keep moving here. Okay.

I just love looking around. There's toys everywhere.

And you got to smell poop. I do. I was about to say something.

Where's the litter box? It's over here, isn't it?

And bullseye. The poop looks good.

What the hell?

Oh, my God.

This always tells me.

that there's something that screams I'm not comfortable. It just screams it. Um,

what the hell? Can you give me something like a tissue or... Thank you.

Oh, boy, some days my job just rocks.

You guys see that?

What's that?

Hair? No, that's not a hair. What is that? That looks to me like a string.

Oh, my God!

He pooped out a big, long hunk of string, and there's more in the poop.

My theory at this point is that Quincy is going outside the box whenever he

ingests something foreign.

Remember, cats are going to avoid boxes if something in there is a bad

association. I go in this place, and it hurts. I'm not going to go in it, but I

will go right outside it. I think it's coming from this. Okay. You have no idea

how lucky you are right now, because these are the kind of things that send

to the emergency bed at 2 o 'clock in the morning. Yes. Right.

There's a condition called pica. It's this compulsion to chew inanimate

that unfortunately affects a lot of cats. So you've got to pica -proof the

house. For cat guardians at home who are dealing with cats that are ingesting

foreign materials, unfortunately, we don't know a lot about what causes cats

do it. But if they get rid of those ingestible materials, then he's probably

going to go back into the box.

How lucky is it that he craps on the floor when I happen to be here?

Thank you, buddy. In my world, finding pieces of crap with clothes in it is

actually a good day.

He's excited about poop. You should be excited about poop because I think we

just cracked the code.

It's really a relief to find out there is an actual cause for Quincy not being

consistent in the box.

There's something we can actually do by changing the things that we're leaving

out that could cause Quincy problems.

I think we've figured out what's going on with Quincy, and you guys have done

amazing work all the way around. Now, we still have one issue, which is that

Gary does not like cleaning that up. Sometimes it's like runny, and it's

I might have a solution for that.

Here we go. All you got to do is this. Now, the big complaint, however, was the

goopiness. Yeah.

Hence, we have this. It's a poop freezer.

Oh, wow. That's right, man. First, you freeze it. Yeah. Then you scoop it. Oh,

wow. And officially, Gary has no more excuses. Here we go. I bequeath to you

freezer and the scooper.

Get to work, dude.

Yeah. All right. Let me see if I can do this myself. Now, when you pick up the

poop, it's going to be frozen.

Listen, in all seriousness, you guys did a great job. Thank you. I think this

case really presents a crystal clear vision of the right and the wrong. The

wrong is you get frustrated and lock your cat in a two -by -two bathroom.

The right is you solve the problem. People think that the cat can't drill a

in your relationship. The cat can. The cat did.

And Gary and Stacey have patched that hole up pretty nicely.

In my years of working with cats, I've seen them contribute to our well -being

in multiple, unexpected, inspirational ways.

And now you can too.

It's my pleasure to share some of their stories with you. Welcome to a little

slice of my cat from heaven.

My name is Michelle Hoffman, and I am the president and founder of Milo

Sanctuary and Rescue.

Ziggy came into my life last December when she was tossed from a moving car.

she had been paralyzed from the waist down.

And she is an amazing, amazing creature.

Hey, guys.

Hi. How are you? I'm Jackson.

I'm Michelle.

Michelle. And this is Ziggy. Ziggy. You went through a lot. She did. But what

she has brought into my life far outweighs whatever I can do for her.

Ziggy has taught me so much. Ziggy has taught me to never give up.

defy all odds, and to keep going through the toughest time.

And I am inspired every day by her strength and her ability to overcome

everything that's been thrown at her.

All right, come on. Let's see.

Now, she can get along just fine, right? Yes. Ziggy is great, but once in a

while, Ziggy has little meltdowns. Come on, Zig. She will hiss, growl a little

bit, and so she has her moment.

She gets grumpy. Yes, she does.

You've got to remember, here's a one -year -old cat. She's a teenager.

She's got that energy. Just because she doesn't have the mobility doesn't mean

she doesn't have the urges. And I am sure that Ziggy experiences a lot of

frustration not being able to get around the way she needs to. But I will do

anything to fix the problem.

It was amazing spending time with Michelle and Ziggy last time, and we had

problems with Ziggy's attitude because she doesn't have mobility.

So I've got a surprise.

They're going to love it. I guarantee they're going to love it. Well, hello

there. Oh, hey, Jackson. How are you? It's good to see you. It's good to see

you, too.

How you been? Good.

And Ziggy, how you been? I got something for you.

I loved Ziggy's story.

Loved everything about Ziggy. Oh, my God, Jack. I couldn't be happier that I

to just help a little bit.

Now, you want to suit up? Let's do it. Let's go. Let's do it. Come on.

It's okay, Ziggy. Life is going to get really good really soon.

You ready?

You ready? All right. I know. Seeing Ziggy in this new cart, moving around.

The end game for me. I mean, the drive was there. The desire was there. We just

had to give her literally the support.

This cart is fantastic.

Look, she needs a little bit of practice in this. And then I think we got it.

This cart, it's going to be fantastic.

I can take her more places. She can be out more. And there's going to be no

stopping this girl now.

We've come a long way. This cat only needed the ability to move from A to B.

Hopefully, this cart can fix that frustration.

You meet Viggy, and your perspective is going to change. And look at her. It's

an amazing inspiration.

Good girl.

I am pretty pumped up. I'm heading in to talk to Christy about Skylar.

With feline hyperthesia syndrome, I gotta see that Skylar has become a

more grounded. A little less attacking her own tail. A little less torturing

Christy. I mean...

These things have to happen here.

Well. Hi.

You are just like, you're like glowing. Every time I come in, it's like a

different person. Right? A little better each time, right? You know what? Let's

get right into it. Because there's just so much that I want to talk to you

about. So let's get to it.

So we're going to give Skylar her medicine. She's getting pretty good at

let's see how she does this time.

Aw, pumpkin.

By and large, the attacks are down. The worst case scenario was three in one

day. Okay, down from... 20 to 30, yeah. 20 to 30 were down to three? Constantly,

yeah. Pretty cool, man.

And Sunday she doesn't have any.

On Sunday there was only one attack, and then Monday there was nothing.

Tuesday there were two attacks, but they were right in the morning when Skylar

was waiting for me to feed her.

And that was the worst of all of them.

Skylar is not attacking herself anymore.

Skylar is not attacking Christy. The medicine has done its job, and Christy

done her job.

Good guy.

Guy?

All right, so the high -pitched voice doesn't work well. So you were testing

her. Yeah. That's fantastic.

That's mindfulness.

So happy.

Yay! So happy on so many fronts. First of all, I mean, she's

completely... in trance with what's going on out there.

Pale is not moving. Her eyes are not dilated. Her ears aren't moving

So do you feel confident at this point that you know what's going on with her?

Yes. Yes.

Done. Completely.

This is a case study.

This shows that if you focus the cat, present her with grounded energy, give

vertical space, and treat her with something like gabapentin, you go from

attacks a day to just about zero.

Right now what we're seeing is Skylar being a normal cat, Christy. I know,

right?

I can't believe I just heard Jackson say that my cat is normal.

That makes me so happy.

I have a normal cat.

Clearly, my work here is done.

Yes. Before you go, though, I have something for you.

Oh.

It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

I have something for you.

This is a picture I made for you. Oh, my God.

Oh. That's your baby. That's my baby.

These are all the cats from the show that you've helped. Oh, my God.

I can't even.

Tell you how special this is.

So Christy gives me this collage. And then, of course, there's a portrait of

cat, Benny, in the middle of it. Who inspired this whole thing?

Oh, my God. I can't believe this. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Thank you so much.

I want him to remember all the people he's helped.

Not just me and Skylar, but everybody.

Why do you want to do that to me?

You made me cry. I made you cry.

Thank you.

You deserve all that's coming, which is good. Thank you.

Thank you.

I promised that cat that I would do this.

And I know I've made a difference.

The hell isn't over yet. Go to the My Cap From Hell Facebook page for

GIFs and much more.