Original subtitles

Our cats cannot stand each other.

There's Jeff's squad hanging out of Sadie's face.

Sadie's trying to murder Jeff.

Everything that we've tried has failed.

Uh -oh, we've got a huge mess on our hands.

I have a 13 -year -old feral cat that I rescued a year ago. Blackie.

Blackie stays in the closet because he's afraid of everybody.

I mean, cats start destroying everything.

Uh -oh, he just urinated under the bed. She hates cats.

I don't hate cats. And Blackie's picking up on it. She thought Blackie was

possessed.

It's like an exorcism. My daughter has lost her sense of reality.

Oh, here we go. Here we go.

I'm Jack from Galaxy.

I am Cat.

The animal behavior, the guardian's call, and they're dealing with a

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.

Hi, I'm Grace.

And I'm Josh.

Grace and I are best friends who live together with our two cats. We love

together. It's the perfect situation, theoretically, but our cats cannot stand

each other.

My cat Sadie is nine years old. My cat Jeff Bell is three years old.

Sadie is a wonderful cat who turns into a crazy monster every time she has

access to Jeff.

Sadie, no! Stop! We have tried everything to keep the peace.

We read all the material, we started them separate, and we started with

and we started with shared defense, and everything that we've tried has failed

miserably. The only solution we've been able to agree upon was to

keep them separate at all times.

Jess Bell gets to go out at night, and Sadie has the apartment during the day.

Going to the lengths to keep them sequestered has taken a strain on our

relationship because we have to choose between spending time together or

spending time with our cats.

I would not feel comfortable leaving the two of them alone for fear one of them

might not come out alive.

There's a piece of Jess's claw hanging out of Sadie's face.

We can't enjoy our cats at all because Jess is terrified of Sadie and Sadie is

always trying to murder Jess. No.

Please, Jackson, help us so I don't have to move out, so I don't lose my

friendship with Jess.

Hey. Hi. I'm Jackson.

Who's this?

This is Sadie. Oh, hi, Sadie. Yeah.

Is Sadie our problem?

Sadie's the initiator. As soon as we introduce Jess Bell, she becomes a

How long have you guys lived together?

18 months. Yeah, about that. Tell me.

How these cats came to hate each other. Like they hated each other from moment

one. And when you say hate, hate looks like I see you and I just want you dead.

Yeah. And when we moved in together, we talked about like our plan and like it

was going to take months. What was the plan?

We did scent exchanges first.

How did that go? There weren't any red flags. It wasn't like I smelled you and

hissed at the bag? Not really, no. In fact, it seemed like we were making

genuine progress until they actually could see each other.

The first time that they encountered each other, they had a vicious fight.

I mean, we found blood.

Blood is a game changer because it means I do want to hurt you. I don't want to

scare you off. I don't want to claim dominance. I want to hurt you. And

bad news.

Have you guys ever thought about it comes to a point where we just can't

together? Yep.

We definitely have. The more we live together with the cats unhappy, the more

think we are becoming unhappy.

We just continue to feel really guilty that we're making the cats' lives

terrible by forcing them to live in the same apartment.

I feel like I'm just torn between what's best for my living situation and what's

best for my cat's life.

I feel like I'm failing her.

How are you guys doing with this whole thing? Are you united front? Are you

guys...

Oh. I mean... Okay, wait, wait. I just hit something.

Let's hear from the person who just made the face. You guys don't approach this

the same way or what? No. From the get -go, every time there's been a fight,

just for me to cope with it, I've needed to have a plan. And for Josh to cope

with it, he needs to physically leave the apartment. If there's a fight? After

there's a fight, yeah.

When they fight, I totally shut down. I just...

kind of become an emotional wreck.

That, of course, leaves Grace to pick up the pieces. Yes.

When there's conflict between these cats, Josh is a vapor trail. He's gone.

You can't do that. If your cat is causing a fight, you've got to break it

You've got to take charge of the situation. You can't just walk away and

Grace deal with the whole mess. This is not fair.

I would love to see Jess. Where's she at? She's hiding under my bed. Oh, God,

really? Yeah. Grace, let's go and visit Jess and see if we can get her to say

hi. What I'm looking for is the level of fear. Is she glued to the back of that

headboard? I'm looking for that 1 to 10, where is the fear?

Try to get her to take a treat. Want a treat?

Good girl, Jeff.

She's not looking so bad, Grace.

This is a success.

We got her out from under the bed. She's not in that 7 to 10 range of scared.

She's more like, you know, 2 to 4. That means we can work with her, which is

great. That's a good girl.

That's what I wanted.

Yay. Josh and Grace are an unusual case in that they've been living with this

ordeal for a while. They've tried a lot of things, and nothing has worked. So

now they're just paralyzed by the fear of more of these awful fights happening.

So the first thing that I want to do is show Josh that he can redirect Sadie

away from Jess Bell with food and play.

Now, it is risky putting two cats with this kind of history in the same space

together, but given our circumstances, I don't see any other choice.

So here's how it's going to go. Grace, I'm going to have you take Jess, and I'm

going to have you guys settle in by the front door, that area there.

I'm going to take a baby gate. I'm going to put it across the hallway here.

Then, Josh, your job is going to be, Sadie's in your room right now. I'm

to have you lead her, whether that's with treats, toys, whatever it's going

take. The whole goal, I want her to walk down the hallway and walk in here.

That's it.

Because she's going to have to walk by Jess and Grace.

And go, okay, all we need is for one cat to walk by another cat without all

kinds of mayhem breaking loose. Okay? Okay.

Not only are the cats going to be so close together, but it's my job to keep

Sadie distracted.

I can't say for sure whether I'll be able to do this, but I'm really going to

try. This is going to be a disaster.

Great. As soon as you get her, I'm going to fence you guys in a little bit.

The humans expect me to come in and challenge their cats, but they don't

to be challenged themselves, and that's what we've got to do. Now, this might

not be the Wild West, but I've got to set up a duel between these two cats.

Hopefully it doesn't end with someone taking a bullet.

Fingers crossed.

Sadie. I am terrified that Josh isn't going to be able to distract Sadie. I

trust Jackson, but I'm honestly afraid we could end up in the emergency room.

All right. Look, I got another treat.

Sadie. Here we go.

Good. Fantastic.

Okay,

now she sees her. We've got eye contact going on here, guys.

Josh, I want you to break out that toy.

Toy, go back towards your bedroom.

Yeah, go.

See, now she's locking on target.

What do you want worse?

As Jess and Sadie's eyes lock, I'm thinking, this is it. This is the moment

it all goes downhill.

She hasn't, like, hissed, though, yet.

That tail is going.

Josh, it's all on you.

Sadie, come over here.

Now we have a hit.

Face to face, eyes are locked, hitting, not good.

Looking for a way around, aren't you? Look, Sadie could easily leap right over

me, and we've got a huge mess on our hands. This could go either way right

Sadie, keep her low.

Looking for a way around, aren't you?

Look, Sadie could easily leap right over me, and we've got a huge mess on our

hands. Sadie, leave her alone.

You've kept her face to face.

Josh has to take ownership of the situation and stay there. This is a game

what I call cat chess.

Jess can't move one way or the other right now because that is a stare down.

If she moves, it's game on. Josh, I want you to be present here.

If you can guide her, really present it to her. Okay, towards your rear. There

you go. Done.

Wow. Wow.

Holy cow.

You see this?

Yeah. You guys watch this?

I can't believe Josh is stepping up and Sadie's actually responding. Like, I'm

completely floored. Sadie is very focused on her, but I can break that

which I didn't think I could do before.

Good. I mean, this is the best they've ever done in the same room together by

far. Okay. Yeah, ever. Fantastic.

Sadie is showing us that she can be interested in something besides getting

target. That's a great sign, man.

Josh just led Sadie away. So the exercise itself was an amazing success.

That's awesome.

Now, you, my friend, we got gates gone, we got cats gone, and we have a frozen

solid cat sitting right here. What I'm seeing from Jeff Bell is a little

depressing. It's embedded trauma. We have a history of a lot of bloodshed,

infected bites.

We got to break it down.

Number one, in terms of...

Switching sides of the house, no more status quo. I want you to start getting

these guys acclimated to owning the entire space.

Okay. Does Sadie ever get into your bedroom? At this point, never.

Never? Does Jess ever go into your bedroom? I don't think she's ever seen

inside of my bedroom. What?

Since that's Sadie's territory, we've never, that's like never even been a

Yeah, I don't think it's, honestly, I don't think it's ever even crossed my

mind. It is now. It is now. For instance, you've got... Sadie, out here,

take Jeff for a minute into your bedroom and hang there. Do whatever it takes to

normalize that environment. We're going to start working on catification of the

house. I'm looking around here.

Nothing above here. There's nothing above here for cats to go on. I want you

start exploring how you can use this space more effectively. We did have

here today.

It's not going to be that way every time, I promise you. Things are going to

bad again. The difference is that when things go south, You will know what to

without completely freaking out, okay?

Josh, it's really important that you stay present.

It's a parental responsibility.

So it's a fantastic start. There's a lot more work to be done, but it's not

hopeless. I know it's a lot of work, and I feel like it's all riding on me. I

really hope with Jackson's help we can stay roommates and no cats die in the

process.

Pleasure, guys. All right, take care. You too. Look, if I come back here next

time and Grace and Josh have not changed everything about the way they operate,

we're going to have fights. We're going to have bloodshed, plain and simple. The

humans have got to step up if we expect the cats to stand out.

Where are you going, Blackie?

I'm Patty.

And I'm Catherine, Patty's mom.

I have two cats, Mini -Me, I've had for about 11 years, and Blackie, a 13 -year

-old feral cat that I rescued and brought home a year ago.

Everything was fine until these cats start destroying everything, including

relationship.

My mother moved here, and that's when all hell broke loose.

Everything spiraled out of control quickly.

Blackie. He just urinated under the bed. It smells like incense -covered pee.

There was urinating everywhere, defecation. I was very upset.

We're lighting candles.

In her case, she's praying.

In my case, it's to get the smell out of here.

Blackie stays in the closet because he's afraid of everybody. There was

defecation in the closet as well. Holy cow.

I think Blackie is wonderful.

He's misunderstood.

And I just need some guidance here.

How do you misunderstand a bad odor?

Well, we fight about these cats all the time. All the time. My daughter has lost

her sense of reality.

Oh, here we go. Here we go.

If Blackie's behavior doesn't improve, we will be evicted.

That's what she thinks.

It's frightening. I'm tired of living with this crap.

There goes my reputation. You need to go to confession.

I'm losing my dignity.

They're driving me up a wall.

Jackson, if you don't help Blackie, nobody can. Please help Jackson.

Hey. Jackson!

Come on in.

This is my mother, Catherine.

Hey, Catherine. Hi, Jackson. Nice to meet you.

I know there's a pretty deep backstory with you and Blackie. You want to tell

about it a little bit? Right. He was born on the streets at a car lot.

I was selling cars.

That cat was with me every single day. The other cats that have lived there,

they die a terrible death. They get hit by cars. People throw things at them.

I've even seen antifreeze put in the water.

Blackie, I was able to get him fixed.

Get him shot.

And Blackie wound up coming with you.

Yes. It's a miracle that he survived what he did. What Patty did is really

remarkable. I mean, typically the opportunity to became a feral cat is

much lost by the time they're an adult.

Patty started caring for Blackie at such an early age. Thus, over time, he came

to know and trust her as his primary human.

One of the things that really sent me over here was sort of this sad...

concept that he had really backed himself into like a closet.

He lives in the closet. Well, that's a big one. It's kind of like a little

prison. Blackie's story is one that I've heard and seen where we see a feral cat

who's in trouble and we just want to save them. And in saving them, we just

them in another version of hell. And that is in our home.

So we got a cat living in a closet.

What leads me here now? He started to come around and everything was great.

my mother moved here and that's when all hell broke loose. He started to go to

the bathroom under my bed.

I put everything under there to block the bed. And then it was just, I put two

litter boxes for Blackie. And? He uses the one in the corner. But he doesn't

the litter box now. Yep, yep, yep. But the door's shut. But he is back to using

the litter box. Yes.

So the current situation is very different. We're not dealing with the

poop thing. So you guys are copacetic now in terms of their...

No. No.

I have a theory.

He hates cats. No, I don't hate cats. And black is picking up on it. That's

true. And then she makes me wear these crazy gloves with cat written on them

that she wrote with nail polish. Hang on. Pump your brakes.

Shorty.

Pump your brakes.

I'm not allowed to open cat food around her because it makes her gag. I'm tired.

I don't want to be eating larvae and stuff. No larvae. There's no larvae. She

was never this wacky. She even put holy water around the house. I did. I was

ready to cry.

You never saw such a disaster in your life. I come around the corner, I get a

snoop full of holy water.

Father, son, spirit.

She thought Blackie was possessed.

It's like an exorcism. Did you have any interaction with Blackie when you... No,

I kept my door shut because...

I don't like cats sleeping on my bed.

You don't like cats? I don't like cats. I like cats. I got that part. There is a

lot of back and forth between Patty and Catherine, but I think I'm finally on to

what's happened here. When Catherine moved in with Patty, Blackie responded

marking his territory and hiding in the closet.

Now, by adding litter boxes and closing the door, they took care of the

spraying, but the bigger problem was worse than ever.

Blackie is a cat who is scared to death and still won't leave Patty's closet.

I don't. I had cats. I had many cats.

But you've gotten less tolerant of them. You couldn't live with this.

Talking to Patty and to Catherine, there's a comedy going on. In the next

there's a tragedy playing out because I know that right over there, something

really heartbreaking is happening.

What I need is to go meet Blackie. I've got to spend some time with him and

figure out where to go from there.

Hey, my friend.

Why is there poop in the closet?

The fact that there's poop in the closet right now concerns me even more.

Because that's telling me that just because I came to the house, he got

enough to poop in the closet. That's bad news, man.

I just want you to use your nose.

What is that?

Come on, buddy.

Just smell it.

Can't even get you to smell it. Okay, so that's kind of a bummer.

My worst fears are confirmed.

He is a cat in a house.

who doesn't want to be in a house.

Now what?

Look at your life, buddy.

You don't want this life, do you?

Don't you want a bigger life?

My worst fears are confirmed.

He is a cat in a house who doesn't want to be in a house.

Uh, hmm.

I don't like that.

No, I don't like that. I'm not going to lie to you, Patty.

I mean, you've got a feral cat in your bedroom.

He doesn't know any other way of living.

I went in there and tried to hang out with a cat who was a frozen cat in the

closet. That's who he is.

As troubled as I am that I can't get Blackie out of the closet right now, I

still think there's reason for hope.

Patty and Blackie's relationship goes back many years to when he was living at

that used car lot that she worked at. And so there's this underlying layer of

trust that Patty earned from Blackie. I'm convinced that we can build on that

relationship to give Blackie a bigger life beyond Patty's closet.

You've done a wonderful thing for a cat. Now we've got to teach him.

Right. So I'm going to give you guys some exercises to do with Blackie. We're

going to work on base camp expansion.

I want to start bringing beds, cat trees, and litter boxes out to the rest

the house so that everything has its scent on it. The food bowl, let's start

bringing it towards that door, getting it past the door, leading him out. But

every time he gets to a destination, he goes, oh, yeah, this is mine. I own

this. Now, here's the tough part. The problem's not about litter boxes.

It was Catherine.

You came into the picture, and suddenly the cat disappeared.

So, Catherine, I need you to start being a part of his life that brings good

things. No.

No. You want me to run away. No, I want you to be his friend.

Are you okay?

Are you all right?

In order to solve this problem, Catherine has to be part of the

All right, guys, if you have any questions or anything, you let me know,

All right. All right.

If Blackie is still frozen stiff by the time I come back here next time, that

tells me.

Catherine didn't live up to her end of the bargain, and I got a cat who's still

going to break my heart every time I see him.

Well,

I'm here for my second visit with Josh and Grace and their cats, Sadie and

Jessville. Let me tell you, when I first met these two cats, every encounter was

a bloody one.

I have no idea what I'm going to find walking into this place. Hopefully what

am going to see is two cats who haven't killed each other.

How are you, man?

I sent you guys a way to shake everything up. Tell me about it. We

everything we were doing and just threw everything out the window. I'm more

confident that I have sway over her to keep her distracted.

Josh is convinced if a fight breaks up, he's going to be able to man up and stop

it. I'm not so confident it will go that easily.

Let's say it doesn't work that way. Are you out the door? I'm fully committed to

staying in control and not letting my nerves get the better of me. I'm really

just wanting to dig into your homework.

Let's watch it.

All right, ladies, secure.

Time to get Jess Bell.

Okay, there's no lady in here.

Look, pretty interesting in here.

Somebody's just chill in here, huh?

Hey, Shelly.

See, you can have access to this room all night.

Isn't that going to be exciting?

I think, based on what I'm seeing from Jess Bell, that she's demonstrating

enough confidence to stand up to Sadie.

That's fantastic.

You know what? I want to go check out your catification.

Let's go on over here. Look.

Fantastic. I really love the fact that Grace and Josh used Square Cat Habitat

shelving system for this room because it looks good and it works well. They

really showed me that they're serious about this. Look at you.

Look at how completely at peace she is. The last time I was here, I saw great

progress from Josh. He was redirecting Sadie away from Jessville, but this time

around, because Sadie is so comfortable up high on these new shelves, I'm going

to have Jess come in on ground level with Sadie watching her from above.

Now that puts both of these cats in the same room without a barrier in between

them except for Josh.

Now this is high risk, high reward for everybody. Because if it works, it's a

huge breakthrough. And if it doesn't, we are back to square one.

All right.

I am not ready for Jess and Sadie to come face to face. I'm really worried

how it's going to go down.

If there is a cat fight right now, it's not the best outcome.

But we've got to find out where we stand.

Worst case scenario, Jess and Sadie attack each other and I get in there and

stop that fight right away.

That's how confident I'm feeling.

So now, here we go.

Grace, just carry Jess in, and we're going to put her right around here.

Now, what you can do is head on over to her. You can go and talk to her or

whatever. In the meantime, what do we got?

What do you think?

It's your favorite, Jess. What is it? Now, I like the fact that she's hanging

out.

Worst case scenario, Sadie turns into a sadist, bolts down, and she completely

goes to town on Jess and beats her up, and Josh is gone.

And this ends in a bloody, hairy mess.

Now, Josh, treat.

Treat. Good.

Good going.

Josh, lead her up.

Uh -oh.

Josh, we got a fight going on. No, no, no, no.

Good going.

Josh, lead her up.

Uh -oh.

Josh? We got a fight going on. No, no, no, no.

Fight's over.

Well, that's it. Wait, wait, wait.

Josh, pick up your cat. She goes into your bedroom.

Okay.

I got information about the baby from this, that when she sees Jess, she's not

trying to intimidate her, she's not trying to walk her down, and she's not

stalking her.

She wants to kill her.

What happened, baby?

What happened?

It's okay.

It's okay, guys.

Come here. I learned a lot about the humans in this process as well.

Josh throws solids.

Well, clearly that experiment didn't work.

Epic fail, especially by Josh.

We have to at this point say that's the last time that happens, because she

can't take it anymore.

Jess has been knocked down a peg again, and we have got to get her back on the

horse tonight and build her back up.

For homework, we have to really work on her, and it's about working on her

confidence. We have to get Jess more secure in a larger territory because

confident cats are less likely to be seen as prey and get attacked.

One of the biggest things that I heard today was that if Grace is not home, she

does not come out, and that can't continue.

This time around with homework, embrace the idea of what I call base camp

expansion. So that is all the good stuff that smells like her and smells like

you that's in your room. Start bringing it out.

I want her to feel like she's got a home in every room in the house. I want you

guys to create a safe enough environment for her that when you open that door,

she's out.

Next piece of homework is I want them to do an introductory feeding exercise at

a closed door. This way the cats get to introduce themselves through scent and

reintroduce themselves in a non -threatening way. But, of course, the

important part of homework is when I walk out this door, you guys lift each

other up. I know it's hard.

We saw what's happened. Sometimes you have miracles, and sometimes you get

crashing back down to Earth. The good side is I'm not sensing any injuries on

her part.

But please, trust me, we can do this. You guys got to support each other right

now. We faced our biggest fear today, and it was a complete nightmare.

A part of me is just really terrified that it's a lost cause.

We're not just fighting for our friendship and being roommates. We're

for our cat's happiness and our cat's quality of life.

I am not going to give up. All right, guys. I will see you in a few weeks.

Absolutely. I believe that ultimately Josh and Grace can do this because I've

seen Josh step up and take control. I know he has it in him. Plus, I've seen

Sadie choose food and play over fighting with Jess Bell, so I know she can be

distracted. Despite what we saw today, I think this is still a workable

situation, although not the easiest.

Where are you going, Blackie?

I'm heading over to meet up with Patty and Catherine and to check in on

Blackie's progress.

Last time I was here, it was just a circus. There was larva talk and fear of

litter. And the poor cat that was stuck in the closet. I don't know what I'm

walking into. But hopefully, you've got a cat now living in the closet.

It's a very strange place to find yourself with a feral cat in your house.

have you been seeing?

Oh, my gosh. Night and day. There's no litter box scandal.

There's no defecating or urinating anywhere.

It's a dream come true.

That's fantastic news.

Now, Catherine, did you have any moments with him that surprised you?

He's been good with me. You know, gradually came along to get his food.

surprising and good. Hearing about the progress, I think Blackie's really

stepping up to the challenge. Now, I've got to see this for myself.

Let's take a look.

Great. Blackie's going to freak out when he comes out of the closet.

I put a litter box in the living room. Do you expand the base camp?

Blackie is smelling everything, and this base camping seems to be working.

Look at that.

I'm seeing scent soakers and food placed all around the house where the open

doors are, encouraging Blackie to explore his new territory.

This is what base camp expansion is all about, and it's really paying off for

Blackie. Whoa, there you go.

You can see in the homework, by the way, that Blackie is interacting with Mini

-Me, that Mini -Me was never the problem here. These two cats don't have an

issue with each other. It was Catherine that Blackie had an issue with all

along, and they're making some progress.

There you go.

Watching the homework makes me feel completely exhilarated. Look at Blackie.

He's coming out. He's interacting with Mini -Me. He's eating in the middle of

the hallway. The Base Camp expansion thing worked very well.

Evidence that I'm seeing so far is bananas good.

Blackie has to learn to trust you.

She's going to try to lure Blackie out.

Okay,

so he knows it's out here.

Okay, all right. I think we can stop talking and see if he comes out.

Okay, just push the food in front of the door.

Okay, put it down.

Put it down.

Okay, back out. Back out. Back out.

Here in the living room.

That's a good boy. Okay, back out. Walk away.

So. Of all the good stuff I saw with Blackie, there was a lot of tense little

moments where you're trying to accomplish something with Blackie and

you're being a little on.

Top of the situation.

The dynamic I'm seeing between Patty and Catherine, too much direction giving,

too much noise and static. She's very possessive of him.

It's like the helicopter mother.

Takes one to know one and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Crab apple. I got to be perfectly honest with you. We had a couple little

fights. She thinks I'm going to.

Ruffle the feathers or something. You just want to keep Blackie in that room

forever. That's not fair to Blackie. Oh, no, no, no, no. Patty doesn't want

Blackie like anybody.

She wants him all to herself.

All of the boys. You make me sound like a cat. You make me sound like a cat

freak. She's overprotective.

Afraid he's going to have a breakdown or something.

I know you were trying, but you're not comfortable ceding control of the

situation to anybody.

Patty is a control freak with her animals. She never stops. Just because I

like he got...

And I know how much he can take. If it's overstimulation, he's out of there.

What I'm concerned about right now is not Blackie.

I'm concerned about you.

You're not comfortable ceding control of the situation to anybody.

She's very possessive of him.

It's like the helicopter mother. Patty's not just a helicopter mom when it

comes. to her cat.

Patty's helicoptering over her own mother. What I'm concerned about right

not Blackie.

I'm concerned about you.

Animals sense when you get all tense and I keep saying, just relax.

I am not the problem. Patty's the problem. Mother knows best.

But Patty doesn't listen.

Patty, do you think that your mom is not to be trusted with Blackie? It's me not

wanting to challenge him because I feel so bad.

You don't know where he came from, a really terrible place.

You have a constant picture in your head of the suffering that he went through.

You know, I feel like I'm hurting him. Even though I'm seeing results, like

major results, it's hard for me to do that. The painful job of parenting

is... Letting him go and trusting that it's the best thing for him. He was

to face these challenges.

Right? Yeah. I'm absolutely going to continue to challenge Blackie. I'm not

going to stop. Everything Jackson told me to do has paid off. So what I would

really love to do is actually spend time with him out here and see if I can get

him to show any trust in a stranger that he wouldn't give me the first day I met

him. Good idea. All right, cool. Thank you. See you in a little bit, of course.

Thank you.

Great to work with you.

Wonderful working with you. I learned a lot about cats.

You're good.

All I'm hoping for is that Blackie comes into the hallway and makes some eye

contact with me. And then I can gauge how his progress is going.

That's nice.

Finally, I get to see Blackie out and about, walking.

You want to go in your base camp?

You go ahead, buddy.

I'm just going to sit and make sure he knows I'm nice and quiet. I'm not a

threat. See what he does.

Good boy.

Not a way to do it.

When Blackie gets into that little cabana, it's proof that base camp

works. Blackie's not running. That's evidence that he is staking claims in

home. Wow, you look like a house cat.

You ready to let me touch you now?

Good boy.

Super duper proud of you.

When I first met Blackie... Hey, my friend.

It broke my heart to see this cat frozen stiff in the back of a closet. He

couldn't even move when I was extending my hand or trying to talk to him.

Come on, buddy.

Look at your life, buddy.

You don't want this life, do you?

I asked him, is this how you want to live? And I'm telling you, this is not

crazy cat guy stuff. He didn't want to.

I am hyper proud of you right now. You've come a long way.

It's not perfect, but it's a lot more perfect than a closet.

It's home, buddy. It's home.

You've taken a feral cat out of a parking lot who was going to die out

and you were a hero to him, and you brought him into this home.

I never in a million years expected that I got the payoff that we did. For the

first time in Blackie's life, I think he not only feels safe, but he feels like

he's home.

I couldn't be happier. Thank you so much. You're welcome so much. You're

welcome. You've done a wonderful thing.

I fully expect moving forward that as long as Patty can hold true to

Blackie, he is going to just take to the world in a way that he never has

before. I can guarantee that. Great work, Patty.

Thank you.

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.

Just a few years ago, the concept of a cat cafe was very novel. It started in

Tokyo. People who didn't have time to have cats could go and drink some tea

hang out with those cats. Well, now here on the Lower East Side of New York,

there's a new movement. There's cat cafes.

The difference is these cats, homeless, adoptable cats.

off the streets, out of the shelters, and now at a place called Conecco.

Look at this place.

Hi. Welcome to Conecco Cat Cafe. I'm the owner here, Ben. My name is Ben Kalb.

I'm the founder and owner of Conecco Cat Cafe.

The idea is we have 15 cats, and we have a cafe, and people can hang out with

the cats. They're all rescues from the city's euthanasia list, and they're all

adoptable as well. How long have you been here?

We opened about three months ago.

And how's it going?

Amazing. Turns out people like cats.

Here's your catachino. Get out of here.

Now, have you had adoptions out here? Yeah, so we're averaging about two or

three adoptions a week. Wow. We've done about 20 so far in our first couple

months. Amazing.

Yeah. Now, as much as I would love to sit here and drink more catachinos, I

actually would like to meet some actual cats. I would love that. Yeah, let's go.

Hi, I'm Allison.

Allison, great to meet you.

Nice to see you. Nice to see you guys.

Hi. The idea is really to make cats as comfortable as possible here where you

see them in their best form. As I'm looking at this, I'm just thinking now,

can we bring this to a shelter? You know, we talk about this concept that in

shelter environments, you go in there, a cat jumps on your lap. I can imagine

myself at home with this cat. Time for us to model a home environment so these

cats can go home.

Do we have a cat here who has been here for the entire three months?

Sammy has been here for a while, too. That, to me, is completely mysterious.

Yeah. He's your doorman. Why is Sammy here?

Oh, he can be a little hissy. Now, let me just actually test him out. What

happens when I pet you?

Aha!

That's what you're used to seeing, right?

That's why he's here. If you don't mind, I would love to play a little bit.

Dave, look at this.

Sammy's just like, what is that? Look at that boy.

Yeah, son.

Now let me just actually test him out.

Yeah, you're cool.

I bet you want to get pet now, don't you?

Don't you?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, you're not going to do anything with me right now, are you?

So I feel like if you could engage Sammy in a heavy -duty play session, then by

the time he goes and meets other humans, he's not as snap, crackle, poppy.

really thought about playing with Sammy before the customers come in. I hope

that, you know, by draining his energy, the customers can see the real Sammy.

Well, it has been really fantastic being here. Congratulations. Thank you so

much for coming today. It's been my pleasure.

I came away from Conecco not just feeling inspired, but also feeling a

validated because it's no longer enough for you to just house them. No more

bars, no more cages.

This is the new business model. Bye, guys. Have fun here.

They're like, yeah, that's what we do.

I'm heading in for my last visit with Josh and Grace to check in on Sadie and

Jess's progress.

But the question remains, can these cats live together at all? I have no idea,

and I've got to go find out.

Well, hey. Hey, how's it going? Welcome back.

I gave you guys a...

Ton of homework.

And let's just get right to it. Little cat high where we're building at her

level. She gets a little more comfortable knowing that this space is

Good progress.

And now we're going to try feeding them on either side of the door. See if

Sadie's more interested in us than in attacking Jack.

Okay, now it gets done and she's looking at the door.

Uh -oh. Look at that tail.

And then there's that.

All right.

Base camp expansion seems to have worked.

That said, I'm not seeing what I want out of Sadie. Yeah. At all. And after

this work, that's really troubling.

Knowing that these two cats may never be able to share an open space. Grace, do

you basically take Jess and move out?

This is extremely difficult.

We've come so far with Jess, and I feel like she's such a happier, braver cat

than when we started this process.

So I want to keep trying with her.

Okay. So that takes us to a new place.

If there was one other thing that concerned me besides the fight, the last

I was here was that I had to step in. You, Josh, I felt like you froze.

That fight was a wake -up call for us. We talked about everything that went

wrong, how we can avoid it next time. We're feeling confident that we have the

tools we need to break it up on our own. So the last thing left for me to do

with you guys is to put you in a situation with the cats where we can

if you can handle...

Whatever comes your way. I really want to see where they're at.

Okay, so where are the cats right now?

Sadie is in my room right now, and Jess is out here in my room.

Oh, good. Jess is out here. I like that. I couldn't be happier. We have a

different cat than who I started with. She used to hide when she was low down

the ground, but now she's up in that cat tree 100 % mojofied.

Let's make this happen.

Okay. Come on.

What I need to see in order to walk away from here today is that these two cats

can coexist in this house with no bloodshed and that Josh and Grace know

own the situation.

All right, let's go and start leading Sadie in.

So here's the game plan. Josh is going to lead Sadie into the room.

It's about Josh's ability to take control of Sadie. It's about Grace's

not to hover over Jess when bad things are happening. These cats are going to

in the same room with nothing standing in between the middle of them.

The last thing I want to happen is a repeat of last time.

There you go.

Last time, I froze up. This time, I plan to redeem myself.

I got a treat.

You want it?

It's going to be right there.

Good girl.

All right. What about this, the toy?

Josh, get in front of her.

Yep. Uh -oh.

Sadie? Hey, uh -oh.

Hey, hey, Sadie?

What about this, the toy?

Josh, get in front of her.

Yep.

Sadie? Hey, uh -oh.

Hey, hey, Sadie.

All right.

Josh, move her that way.

Go, go, go, go, go.

Why don't we try a treat?

Yeah. There you go.

Josh, look at you go, man. All right.

Josh handles the business. He was the guy who, when there's any conflict, he's

out of here. Now he is guiding.

Sadie, he's got full control over the situation. I'm proud of him. How are we

doing here? We're doing pretty good. She doesn't feel as, like, paralyzed as she

has in the past.

Come on, Sadie.

Yeah, good girl.

At this moment, all the homework we did, all the training we did, it's finally

paying off.

You guys did very nicely.

Josh, today it felt like you had control.

I'm not scared of it anymore.

It feels good to be in control.

Look, whatever happens...

Jess has come a long way. She's not a cat who has to be confined to a room

because she's too scared. She's taken the space.

So I am proud of you, Jess Bell. And I'm proud of you, too, as well. And I feel

good leaving you guys. And I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. All

right? All right. Jackson has absolutely had a major impact on our life. The

amount of progress that we've made, the amount of confidence and hope that we

now have for the situation, it's night and day compared to where we started.

I think what we've seen is so tremendous that I don't feel guilty living here

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

Bye -bye. I feel really good that I've made a difference in Jess Bell's life.

Jess Bell is not that scared little cat anymore.

Sadie's not going to attack Jess indiscriminately. And the guardians are

committed to this process. They keep following my direction.

Things are going to be okay here. I will put money on a positive outcome in this

house.

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

Microsoft's gifts and much more.