Original subtitles

He's like a bad ex -boyfriend that I can't get rid of.

Pretty much at this point, I just call him bastard.

Our cats cannot exist in the same room.

I thought they were going to kill each other.

A little bit has to get a new home.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

I am Cat.

The animal behavior that guardians call when 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

my help. You did it.

My name is Samantha. I live in New York. I live with my cat, Spike.

I got Spike as a kitten from an ad I saw online, and I adopted Spike when he was

four weeks old.

I started to notice some issues with Spike early on, and I thought he would

out of it.

But as he got older, he got meaner, and he started attacking me and biting me

and just got worse and worse over time.

He's like a bad ex -boyfriend that I can't get rid of.

Help!

Hey!

If Spike can't be helped, my friends and family want him gone.

Why do you have Blow gone?

Because I don't trust this little... Spike is a horrible pet.

I'm going to try to help you, Samantha, but I don't know. Hey! I don't know

what's the matter. He's like possessed.

Get in the carrier!

Get in there!

Get in!

Forget it.

I have not given up on him because no matter what, I do love him and he's my

for almost seven years.

He's been with me through everything and I don't have the heart to give him

away.

Hey. I need Jackson's help now because I'm at the point where I can't take it

anymore and I'm scared he's really going to hurt somebody.

All right, I'm in New York, and I'm here to meet up with Samantha and her cat,

Spike.

And, look, I know that Spike is an aggressive cat. In fact, Samantha is

absolutely scared of him. My job, of course, is to get to the bottom of this.

know there's no such thing as a mean cat, right?

Outdoor cat house. Never a good sign.

Hey, Jackson, I'm Samantha. Come on in. Hey, Samantha, good to meet you. Are you

ready to meet the meanest cat ever?

This is Spike.

Well, hi, Spike.

So, Spike.

Let's talk about Spike.

Spike is a monster.

What? A monster?

A monster. You live with a cat and you call the cat a monster?

Pretty much at this point, I just call him Bastard. He doesn't even go by

That's terrible.

Okay, so when was the last time you actually referred to him as Spike?

Oh my God, years ago. Yeah, his name is Bastard. I mean, that I find really very

telling. I don't make a difference between humans and cats. If I walked up

you and called you idiot, then that might affect our relationship.

Just because a cat doesn't understand English doesn't mean they don't

understand. When was it that you started to realize there was a problem? Once he

was a year old, I was like, something's not right with this cat.

He was biting when he was a kitten, and I thought he would just grow out of it.

And as he got older, the biting wasn't cute anymore, and it started to hurt.

And he does this attack thing where he wraps both paws around your arm or leg

and just bites down really hard.

Is he mean to everybody?

He's mean to everybody.

Equal opportunity, huh? He'll attack anyone.

Did you ever...

Come up with anything to address Spike's aggressive behavior?

Nothing at all. I love him, but I'm scared of him.

Raising a cat is a lot like raising a kid. And as a guardian, the sooner you

on that page, the better. You can't just see a behavior, yell no, and then call

your cat a bastard because he's not cooperating the way you wanted him to.

You've got to give them the proper motivation to do the right thing.

There's a lot of back and forth frustration going on between Samantha

and a lot of lashing out as a result. Help!

Recently, I'd say the last year or two, I've been keeping him outside. I got him

a house outside.

For a year or two?

Yeah, it's just not safe for both of us to be inside together.

You guys live completely separate lives at this point, huh? Right.

You can't have a relationship with the animal in your life if they live in a

different area.

To me, that's eminently dangerous because of the weather and cars. This is

place for Spike to be living.

When was the last time he was at the vet? Well, I cannot get him in a carrier

bring him to the vet. The one and only time he's been seen by a vet is at six

months old.

Wow. Okay, so I got all the information I'm going to get from you.

Now I'm going to get some information from Spike. My mind is all over the

I'm looking at Samantha, who's telling me that Spike is a monster, that he's

unpredictable, that it's random attacks.

And in the meantime, Spike is sitting right behind my head, and I'm not

all that scared. So it's time for me to introduce myself to Spike and see what

the real deal is.

Want to give it a smell?

Yeah, that's me.

Yes, that's not so bad.

How about this?

Want to touch?

Can I touch?

When I try to pet him, he'll scream and try to bite me.

Hi, buddy.

Hi. I feel like he's scared right now.

Sorry, he doesn't look scared to me.

Look, I present my glasses, no problem. I go for a pet, no problem. Not only

that, he leans into my pet. He's enjoying himself.

I'm not seeing the monster, the bastard. I'm just not seeing it yet.

She has her cat pegged.

And it seems to me the people who peg their cats the most are usually wrong.

So I've got to start pushing his challenge line a little bit.

Now I'm going to come at him the way I would imagine you would. Okay.

Spike.

So that's saying that he's a little agitated.

I mean, I'm watching him sort of eyeball me.

Hey, Spike.

What happens if I crowd you?

What if I, aha.

There you go.

That's what I usually get. It's okay. As Spike starts getting physical with me,

he's giving me normal warning signs.

He doesn't just go in and start gnawing on my hand. He bats me.

with his claws retracted. What he's saying is, watch it, buddy.

Watch it. You're getting a little close here. Very interesting.

I'm telling you, you're getting too close.

And then finally, ah, there goes he.

Wham. Then he hits me. Hey, buddy.

So now the tail is going.

Right? Now he's suspicious. Now the paw's coming up.

Now I'm going to get hit.

Wow. Once he gets activated, he's up. Yeah.

But that, to me, is a predictable response.

But also, he gets crazy when I go down the stairs. He won't let me pass.

And he'll just come out of nowhere and attack me. Okay, but when he does that,

it could very well be play aggression.

So that's the good news. It doesn't seem to me to be that random attack.

Ouch. It seems to be something that people misinterpret all the time. They

it an attack when it's actually a hunting move. Ouch.

Let's play.

Whoa, good one.

By two jacks and zero.

He's a bastard.

Stop it.

Don't do that anymore.

I need you to be his advocate.

Right. Because I do believe that he will respond to that energy.

Since he was a year old, she's been calling him bastard.

And since that point, her family, her friends, everybody knows this cat by one

thing, and it's not Spike.

We've got to get him examined by a vet. So we know, is he dealing with a

physical problem or not? So that's our next step.

Okay. I feel like we've got to get a vet over to make a house call.

Cats actually act out because they're in discomfort.

It could be anything from an infection to a bad tooth. We need to get a full

exam done, and I've got a vet coming over here today.

All right, let's take a peek. I know, you're not going to like this big guy.

All right, all right, we'll save that for after.

All right, all right, all right.

All right, all right, we'll save that for after.

All right, all right, all right.

Dr. Corn is handling him beautifully. His staff is restraining him well, but

I've got Samantha standing next to me. She is starting to get really upset.

Hey, it's not easy to watch.

Spike, it's okay.

I know.

At least we were able to get an examination. I feel confident. We should

the Bobo effect shortly, and I'll get back to you as soon as we do, and we'll

from there.

We have a complete workup on him on the way.

Once that is in, then we can make the distinction.

Is this physical? Is it behavioral?

Is it a little bit of both?

So, there are things about Spike that are not adding up. The second I walked

in the house, you said,

You ready to meet the worst cat you've ever met? And then I meet him, and it

a different vibe.

There's a lot of what he does that could be play aggression.

So here's what I want you to do.

I'm going to give you this camera, and I want you to video everything, okay?

Anything that you can in terms of your interactions with him, I want you to

okay? Record everything. I don't think he's the cat you think he is. Really?

I could be wrong.

And you could prove me wrong.

I want to see what your relationship looks like. Do you think I should try to

pet him or stay away from petting? Did you watch the way I was petting him?

Yeah. Okay.

Stick around here.

Right? Just like I did. And let him tell you what he likes. He told me right

away, right? I did a little bit of this and he leaned into me.

That's him saying, I like that. And then be very aware when you start seeing his

tail go.

That's his sign of saying, I'm getting stimulated.

The last straw of your relationship was the point where you transitioned Spike

into being pretty much an outdoor cat.

Now you guys are never together, ever.

Ever. That we got to change up. I want you to be able to live in the house with

him at the same time. Now, the other thing I want to leave you is the toy,

because I really think that this is the key to your relationship.

Okay? Okay. I want you to get into the habit of playing with him every day.

is all about Samantha getting a better grip on Spike and at the same time him

loosening his grip on her by playing with an actual toy and not her leg. What

want you to do for your homework, this is the most important thing that you're

going to do.

I want you to erase Bastard. I don't want you to call him that anymore. And I

want you to tell everybody else it's dead.

No more.

Spike. His name is Spike. I want you guys to have a relationship again.

You have kept him around here when most people would not have.

But I want to heal something here, okay? Yes.

And I know we've had a heck of a day. I think Spike's a good boy. And I'm

looking forward to working with you. I think we're going to get somewhere.

you so much.

You're welcome.

I always wanted to keep my bases covered with Spike. I had a vet come over here

to make sure that he was cleared. I don't know for sure, but I've got to

my gut on this one and know that... Spike has a lot of good in him, and that

Samantha just needs to give him the chance.

I'm Kim.

And I'm Joel. And we are losing our minds in this house because our cats

exist in the same room.

We have two cats, Laura Cadbury and one who has a few different names. A little

bit, little bit, QB.

Tubestake. I prefer Tubestake.

Tubestake, which Joel came up with when he was full of hate, which he still is

full of some hate. Little Bit is the one filled with hate.

Not nice.

So there's a few different types of Little Bit aggression.

The ultimate aggression is with Lord Cadbury.

When we first got Little Bit, the cats actually broke through a screen door to

get at each other.

You couldn't tell which cat was which. It was dark. I was shrieking, and there

was blood everywhere.

We need some blood, more blood.

We have to really make sure that Little Bit and Lord Cadbury are not in the same

room.

That resulted in some panic on my end. I worry about them. I won't go out to

dinner straight from work. I have to go home and make sure that they're okay.

There's never a time that everybody's content because there's always somebody

who's separated from somebody else.

Joel's in one room with Little Bit, and I'm in the other room with Lord Cadbury.

But then Joel and I are not together.

I mean, it's definitely been a stressor on our relationship.

All right, stop it, stop it, stop it. Did she bite you hard? Yeah.

If I had to give Little Bit away, I would get euthanized because, you know,

she's a little crazy.

We are hoping that Jackson can help us.

to open our doors and have chats that are not trying to tell each other and

Hey, man. We are so glad that you are here.

Oh, good.

I always like a little enthusiasm.

That's great.

So why don't you guys fill me in?

We have a five -year -old cat named Lord Cadbury, and I thought he would maybe

be happier if he had a companion.

I had kind of an emotional moment with this little tiny calico in the adoption

window. Joel did not want another cat. It was a little bit of a surprise. Oh,

and then you surprised Joel with that one. Look at the look on his face right

now. Yeah, he was so mad.

All right, so the little calico, what's her name?

She doesn't really have a name still.

Joel kept saying that we're getting rid of her. So we're kind of referring to

her as little bit right now.

Now, wait, hold on a second. How long has it been? It's been seven months.

months? Look, when you've got problems the size of which that Joel and Kim have

in this house, you're not going to solve them unless you have 110 % commitment

and not naming your cat shows about 3%. Two days after we got her, I thought

they were going to kill each other.

We're keeping them completely separated from each other.

We have like a... whole fancy barricade that we have to put up because Cadbury

has got like people hands or something. I don't know. He can open things.

Well, there's more.

A little bit will just totally redirect the anger at us. And one morning,

Cadbury was in the bathroom and she was at the door and they're like this. She

flew up vertically and lodged herself in my hand.

I went straight to urgent care and they were like, you have cellulitis.

Listen, cellulitis is no joke.

If you get bit by a cat and you wind up with cellulitis, that could wind you up

in the hospital for a good long time.

Tell me this stops at a certain point.

How is it that she's still here? I just worry that someone else isn't going to

take care of her in the way that I want to be able to take care of her.

I've just been watching your facial expressions this entire time. Clearly,

guys have not been on the same page about a little bit from go.

I'm waiting for...

Him to reach her breaking point.

Obviously, this problem with these two cats is torn at this relationship. So

I've got to try to get a bird's eye view of what's going on.

Here's Lord Cadbury.

There he is.

When I meet cats who are fighting with other cats, one of the first things I'm

going to do is to see how well they respond to play. Because if I can

them with play, then that's a great tool to start the integration.

Good boy.

Okay, good. Good news. Love it. Love it, love it, love it, love it, love it.

Phew. Okay. I am just...

really about any little piece of good news I can get, this is one of them,

If I want to go and meet the other half of the equation a little bit, how the

hell do I do that?

So this is part of what we call the kitty swap, kitty ballet.

So the kitty ballet is like we have to really make sure that Little Bit and

Cadbury are not in the same room.

Cadbury's in the bathroom, door closed. We're going to come out, okay?

Okay, she's out. You want me to keep her out? Yes, keep Little Bit out. Okay, we

can open up then. Okay. Yoink.

Yep.

All right.

This is classic Little Bit right here. Well, hi, Little Bit.

Hold on a second. I want to see if I can, just like I did with Cadbury.

There it goes.

Oh, Little Bit has no tail. Yeah.

When I got her home, I noticed that her tail was paralyzed, and the vet said

it's definitely trauma -related, so it needs to be amputated.

Good girl. It's like you never had a tail to begin with.

It's too bad that Little Bit had to have her tail removed.

Good girl.

But from my experience, I highly doubt that that could be the reason for any of

her aggression issues.

Now, what I'm going to do, take a little bit of this.

A little bit of Uber Food Motivated. That means we use it to our advantage.

Everything that defines these two cats, they have to be cool for us. In this

case, a little bit of attachment to food may not go a long way.

So now, I've met a little bit, right?

I've met Lord Cadbury. Now I know that you may be dreading this part, but this

is what we've got to do. It's time to construct the Berlin Wall, I mean the

barrier, and see what happens.

Because these cats live in total seclusion from one another, I have no

knowing if this is even a workable situation.

I have to see exactly where the challenge line lies with these two cats.

Okay, so what we're going to do is build the biggest wall you got, and then

we're going to start stripping it down until we get to a point where the cats

say no more. Okay? But then the idea is, how little of a wall do we need?

Jill, you want to grab those weights over there? You know when it starts with

when you grab the weights.

It's all downhill from there.

This is every time you leave the house.

Yeah.

So this barricade started off pretty small, and it's gotten bigger based on

Tadroy's ability to break through it.

So tension rods.

I get them up really high so it can't reach them.

Air purifier.

This kind of fits in perfectly. This usually goes here.

I'm going to stuff this here because it'll go underneath.

And if I'm going out for a really long time, I'll tend to put a blanket or

something. Okay, stuffing in here.

This usually goes here.

Okay,

we are built.

The next step is to release the cats, trying to distract them using play and

food while gradually taking that barrier down to see at what point the

distractions stop working.

And right to the door.

Okay, so she's right at the door right now. Okay, now hold on. Right now, she

focused 100 % on her toy. Okay, let's start breaking it down.

Okay, all right.

The next step would be the screen door, but that's like a big step. Take the big

step. All right, I'm moving the door.

I'm feeling anxious because the barrier has become kind of my security blanket.

Okay, he's going straight for the door now.

Come here, baby. I can see him right at the door. He's about to... Oh! There it

goes. A little bit goes charging the door. She hits it with a big thunk.

Oh! And now it's time we got to back up again because I'm going to lose both the

cats and the humans right now. Over here.

Over here. Come on.

Get him involved in the toy. Okay, come here, mom.

Come here.

Okay, I am consistently able to pull her away from the door with treats.

All right, we're doing okay over there? Oh, he just went in the tunnel.

All right, I want to take one more step here, okay?

The good news is we were able to lead a little bit away from that door, even

though she just plowed into it.

So far, so good.

Now it's time to really push that challenge line. I want these two cats to

each other.

Here's what I want. I want visual access.

Kim, while he's in that tunnel, reach over and sneak the door open some more.

A little bit, a little bit. It's going to take treats. Okay. There you go. Ah,

nice going.

Walk that way, man.

Oh, he's coming.

I know. Walk that way.

There you go.

There

you

go.

I have been literally tearing down the walls between Lord Cadbury and Little

to see if, with enough distractions, these two could live together in peace.

So far, things are not going too well.

Ooh!

What'd you get?

I got a good one. She bit you? She bit you?

Yeah.

What I just witnessed was classic redirected aggression.

Little Bit just took a chunk out of Joel because he couldn't get at Lord

Cadbury.

Okay, that's fine.

Don't worry about it.

Aha!

Now we close the pocket door.

Yes, Little Bit did attack Joel, but I'm taking away some positives from this

exercise.

Lord Cadbury is easily distracted and Little Bit is highly food motivated.

I've seen two cats that could possibly live together.

So, number one, we're going to make this actually a functional piece.

I want both cats to get used to seeing each other safely without the threat of

the door coming open.

No more air purifier, books, all that stuff. Gone. Because that keeps you guys

completely barricaded from each other and is crazy.

So let's now talk about the process itself.

Now, what I want you to do is continue the exercises we did today. And we're

back to closed door right now.

Closed door, how long can we do this?

When it comes down to meal time, I want you to start far enough away.

I mean, you can even do what I usually do is I put a marker on the floor and

then move that up every day. Lead the cats away from the door, get them

interested in nothing but the toys and the treats. Then we're going to end it

with a meal.

I'd also like to see more in the way of cat trees, things like that. I want to

see some cat trees in the house. That way, these cats, when they're out, can

start swapping scent in a constructive way instead of going for the kill every

time they get glimpses of each other.

Finally. I need 150 % dedication.

And that means giving her a name.

Okay. After seven months, I need you to go there.

At the end of this, if they can't be in the same space without being miserable,

then it's time to think about what's best for them.

Sometimes it's kind of heartbreaking to have to deliver the message that folks,

this may not work. There's no guaranteed outcome.

But right now, between these two cats, all I know is they hate each other. And

at the end of all this, we may need to look for another home for a little bit.

So I'm here for my second visit with Samantha and her cat, Spike.

Now, the first time I was here, I met a cat.

Completely different from the cat I thought I was going to meet. I want to

that Samantha has taken Spike out of the box, Mark Bastard, and put him in a new

one. Jackson, this is my mom.

Oh, hey, how are you? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. Good to see

you. And there's our boy. There he is.

Hello, buddy.

So, how have things been?

I still cannot pet Spike at all, or he tries to bite me.

I am so terrified of this cat.

You know, this is truly a cat from hell. Last time I was begging, stop calling

him bastard. My mom gave him the name originally. I didn't exactly give him

name. Every time I came over, he came to attack me. And I was like, you little

bastard. I never in my wildest dreams wanted that name to stick.

Right. Spike is still bastard. Even if you're not calling him that, you're

treating him that way.

What were the results from the vet exam?

The vet said Spike is healthy and all the blood work came back good. Right on.

So that's really good to know.

And he looks healthy.

So that's great.

Well, the good news is that Spike came back with a totally clean bill of

which is great. I mean, that clears the way to work with behavior and get

Samantha and the rest of her family on the side of Spike. Let's take a look at

the homework that I have for you.

Here is how not to play with your cat 101.

You can't just dangle a stick and call that play.

Can I try to pet you?

I just wanted to say hello to you.

Come on, out!

Mom.

Hey!

There's a vicious cycle that I'm seeing where, first of all, there's a lot of

emphasis on petting.

And secondly, you guys don't really take the hint.

If I can pet Spike, he's a nice cat.

If I can't pet Spike, he's a demon.

I can't pet Spike. He's a demon. The whole family is that way. There's too

emphasis on petting.

I just woke up, and so there's some snow on the ground, and I'm going to go let

Spike inside now.

I feel bad he has to stay outside in the snow, but I can't have him inside

attacking me.

Come on, you know exactly what I'm going to say, right?

No. No?

You absolutely didn't listen to me.

What was the thing I wanted you to do?

What was the thing I wanted you to do?

Call him Spike.

No.

There's something that's not adding up here in her head.

Yes, I'm looking at pictures of your cat outside when I told you not to do it. I

told you I didn't want him to go outside anymore.

I want him to be an indoor cat.

You don't remember?

I do remember. You absolutely didn't listen to me.

There's no way that we can get a hold of who he is and how to fix what's going

on with him if he's living half a life of an outdoor cat, half a life of an

indoor cat.

You guys, come on, follow me.

Why is this still here?

That's Spike's house. No, it's not Spike's house.

No, this is not Spike's house anymore.

This is not Spike's house. That is Spike's house.

This is trash, man.

Are you hearing me?

I hear you. I need you to hear me.

If he doesn't live here, he might as well be astray. Let's go back and it's

cold.

Your best friend deserves to sleep in the house, in the warmth with you.

Let me start giving you guys some homework, okay?

Number one, as I've demonstrated, he's inside.

Now, in the meantime, though, I want you to get into a real strict habit with

him, all right? So in the morning and once at night before you go to bed,

going to have these play sessions.

Demonstrating, right? You're using the whole house.

Then, once he's played, that's when you feed him a meal. Because you're trying

to get his body into a rhythm that will keep him asleep at night. Right. I do

need everyone to be able to just sit there and ignore him. Nobody can pet him

all. I don't want anybody to pet him. Because I think by relieving everybody

the expectation that we give him a chance to be normal. Let him do what he

to do. And when everyone else is gone, if you want to experiment, that's fine.

I'm happy you guys are going to be happy, okay? Okay, thank you very much.

course, my pleasure. The cat is the victim in this case, and it's really

important that they allow him to show how he can be a part of the family. So

they can commit to the seriousness of the problem here, I think we can get

somewhere.

Then again, I thought that the last time I was here.

I'm in Brooklyn for my second visit with Kim and Joel, their cat, Lord Cadbury,

and the other cat who has no name yet. Last time I was here, it was quite the

mess. Little Bit was trying to attack Lord Cadbury and instead redirected that

aggression onto Joel.

Hopefully these guys have taken down the barriers and they've been working

really hard at getting these two cats comfortable enough to coexist with one

another.

Okay. Come on in.

Welcome. Thank you very much. Oh, wait a minute. What do we have here?

We have a very, very nice cat tree, man. And wait for it, wait for it.

I walk into this house, and boom.

No barrier of stuff.

Obviously, we still have to have Lord Cadbury locked away in another room for

now, because we can't have these two cats running around freely with each

not just yet.

But hey, it's definitely the right direction.

We have a door.

This is the best.

We have a latch now on this door so we can actually lock this. Because Lord

Cadbury's a master of breaking and entering.

Yeah, and then we have the option of the screen.

Oh, did you nail it.

Now that these guys have that shade, they can reveal the cats little by

to each other until both cats are fully comfortable.

The last time I was here, one of my main things with you guys, let's give her a

name.

We've been thinking about it? We got one. Lay it on me. What is it? Lady

Paprika. Lady Paprika and Lord Cadbury.

Of course, I've got her homework.

All right, let's take a look here. A little bit. He's here, eating.

Come here.

Come here, baby.

All right, redirected.

Nice. Here we go.

Cadbury. That's a good boy. Come here. I'm really impressed with what I'm

here.

We've got proper distraction with play and treats, and we've got two cats who

can eat on opposite sides of the door. Now, this is really important because

today's exercises are going to build on that foundation.

Okay, so what we're going to do here, we're going to go from play to eat.

Now, here's the part I need you to breathe around.

There is going to be complete vision contact between these two cats.

They're going to be able to see each other completely.

Then your job becomes in a very...

present and relaxed way to keep them busy on what they're doing.

It's about play and complete absorption into play. Today, we're going to

introduce absolute visual contact between these two cats.

Let's start. Joel, can you raise the curtain, please?

Yes, sir. Here you go. Raise that curtain.

Right there is fine.

Go for it.

In comes Lord Cadbury.

Let the games begin, baby. So right now we're at the door. We've got Joel, Lady

Paprika on one side. We've got Kim and Lord Cadbury on the other side. And the

goal of the game, much like it was last time, is to get the cats playing, moving

around on opposite sides of the door.

Comfortably seeing one another through that screen.

Without trying to kill each other. There he comes.

It's okay. If it fails, it fails in a big way.

Joel, try to keep Lady P away from that door.

Come here, come here.

Come

here,

come here.

As the exercise starts unfolding...

Joel fails immediately.

He cannot get Lady Paprika's attention to save his life. And within 15 seconds,

bang, she is throwing herself against the door.

But it's not the end here.

Joel and Kim need to engage these cats so they're not engaging with each other.

Come here.

Oh, yeah.

Nice.

There you go.

There you go. As I'm watching this exercise unfold, Joel has got Lady

handled, and Kim's doing great with Lord Cadbury. I'm pretty impressed with the

progress I'm seeing here. Okay, I think we're about ready. Let's get dinner time

going now. And go ahead, put your food on the ground right now.

Okay. Past our challenge line, folks.

Lady Paprika is incredibly food motivated. The go fish platter that I've

going to slow her down to the point where she can finish her meal at the

time that Lord Cadbury does, and that is a huge benefit to us.

Because the longer that these two can eat in front of each other without

freaking out, the better it is for us.

Oh, my God, they're close. Wow.

Look at this, guys. This is amazing.

This is fantastic, guys.

Oh, and he's walking away.

A couple of weeks ago, I couldn't envision what's happening right now. So

that point, I'm able to kind of calm down a little bit. That would be a

day. All right. Nice going, guys.

I want that moment to resonate with Kim and with Joel as well.

This is what it could look like for you guys.

All right. So every meal is going to look like this. Okay. The most important

thing that we got right now is continuing the positive steps that we

today. It's all about visual exposure with the screen door being between you.

We're still quite a ways away from opening this door. Yeah. And letting

cats be in the same room. Yeah. And I want to get there.

And as a matter of fact, I will do it regardless the next time I'm here. Oh,

God. You better be ready, man, because we have to make a call.

Are they both going to live here or are we going to go for the greater good? I

always want to reward commitment and hard work.

Kim and Joel are doing the work.

They deserve the happiness of having these two cats in their lives.

Do I see it happening?

I'm still 50 -50.

I'm here for my final visit with Joel and Kim, and the questions are very

right now. Can Lady Paprika and Lord Cadbury get along enough for Lady

to have a home here, or is she going to be a foster cat destined for somebody

else's home?

Well, as always, I have brought your video homework with me.

We got her. We got her. We got her. Yeah.

Oh, my God.

Welcome to the Crazy Cat Lady Club, son.

Hey, I think it's fantastic.

I love what you did catification -wise in the bedroom.

You had that refined feline shelf. You've got this nice choice of levels

cat. Okay, so this is our first attempt through the screen eating.

She did a lunge at the door, but it wasn't too bad.

Cadbury, stay there. You're doing great.

Good boy.

She moved.

Good girl.

You know, looking at the video homework, I'm seeing tools being developed by

both Kim and Joel, and all of those tools are going to come to bear today. I

loved that bit where there was a stare down. You guys did not give up. You

didn't step in the middle.

You guys are allowing it to go as far as it's going to go. And if it weren't for

that, we wouldn't have had that beautiful moment of stare down and then

turning around and going away. It's great news to hear that Lady Paprika is

longer throwing herself against the door to get to Lord Cadbury. Now she's doing

some hissing. That's normal communication.

And we're going to need to seek normal communication today if we have any hope

of getting through the day without blood being drawn.

Okay, the time for talk is done. Now it's the time for action.

You guys ready?

Ready? We're down.

Yeah. I'm ready. Okay, let's go.

I got to know that these cats can see that there's value in other things

each other. That's it. So, guys, this is the first time since the big fight that

these two cats will be in the same room at the same time.

Good going. Good girl.

Come on, girl.

There you go. Come on, girl. Using your crazy cat lady voice. I like it. It's

easy.

Here you go, baby.

Okay. Oh, ****.

This is the first time since the big fight that these two cats will be in the

same room at the same time. Here you go, baby.

Okay.

What defines success in this case is cats that will eat a meal and be led

by a toy, treat, or whatever, and not go after each other.

Oh.

Good boy.

Good girl.

The first time I was here, a little bit, lunged at the door so hard that she

almost knocked herself out. The last time I was here, she did it again.

And today, she doesn't even come close. She allows Cadbury to smell her and move

on. It's a momentous occasion in this cat's life.

Look at this.

And I am closing this door. Good girl. And you are officially...

Finished. The moment when Jackson says the exercise is done is really sweet

because, you know, there's just been so much turmoil involved with this cat.

I am so incredibly grateful to Jackson. I did not imagine that in this short

period of time we would get this far. And seeing, you know, with just, you

some help and some tweaks in this house, what can happen is amazing to me.

Thank you, Jackson.

Bye, guys. This is one of those days.

Everything went beautifully, and it wasn't just about the cats being able to

in the same room.

Joe and Kim have the tools now, and they have the willingness to use those

tools, and that's what matters. I know that this home is going to be a happy

one.

Final visit with Samantha and Spike. This has been a house of surprises. I

the last time I was here, Samantha did not do her homework and oh

come on seriously

well hi hello how are you we got something to talk about don't we oh

come on in oh hey there hi how are you how are you hey I'm Jackson I'm

Steve Steve good to meet you man good to see you again hi

How's life?

So? Samantha, time to come clean.

Last time I was here, I tossed that feral cat house in the trash.

And it's back again.

Why is that house out there?

Well, I took the cat house out of the garbage just in case if I got outside,

he would have a place to stay.

Just in case?

Just in case. But are you letting him outside?

He has been 100 % inside.

Go, girl.

That's fantastic.

Okay, good.

I'm glad to hear that.

So I would love to go over your video homework and see what you guys have been

up to.

Whoa, that's a jump.

Now you're playing.

Did Peppa copy your head spike?

Good boy.

I love what you did there. Samantha didn't just go to Peppa's bike and have

make that little turn.

But she kept her hand there, allowed him to smell it and say, OK, you're not a

threat. If she would have pulled her hand away, it would have been a

story altogether.

Have you guys been involved in the home? We've been playing with him a little

bit. I've never seen him as calm. Normally he'd be in the attack position.

He's thoroughly relaxed and he's totally down and chill. The cat is much more

docile now and seems that it can be integrated into polite society at this

That's a plus.

So in the past couple weeks since the last time we were here and he's been

indoors only, has he made a move toward anybody else that's been aggressive?

No. Great. He'll play and then he won't attack.

How do you feel like your relationship has changed with him? He's definitely

known as mean bastard anymore. He's known as Spike.

Good. And he's part of my family.

Now that's music to my ears.

I've loved walking away from places where people can see animals in a

light. I'm sure that this family had no idea that Spike could respond to their

energy. That's what happened here.

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