Original subtitles

Come on, get up. Henry was an indoor -outdoor cat. And then we moved, and he

became an indoor cat and started peeing on everything.

Oh, God.

Henry! This is not how I like to spend my afternoon.

If Jackson can't fix Henry, I'll have to get him to a rescue.

I don't want to do that.

Johnny's guardian died, and when Johnny came into the shelter, she was a danger

to herself and others.

She would not even allow me near her.

She's just not a safe cat to handle. When I take a foster, I make a promise

make sure that she finds her forever home. But if she bites, I'll have to

the shelter, and they may require that she be euthanized.

My cat, Raisin, is the full -time therapy cat. She goes into exam rooms

snuggles with the patients. It completely changes them and really helps

to not stress out so much.

That's her usual stuff right there. Oh my God, that's the sweetest thing ever.

Whoa!

Holy! I'm Jackson Galaxy. What the hell, man?

The animal behavior is...

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

that I didn't have her.

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

my help. This is fun.

I'm Jen.

I'm Jeremy, and my cat's a pit bull.

Come on.

Get off. Get off. Henry is a seven -year -old Maine Coon, 18 pounds of piss and

vinegar. I got him when he was really, really young, about six weeks old, and

lived out in the country with him. He was an indoor -outdoor cat. And then we

moved to Southern California, where we didn't have a yard for him, and he

an indoor cat and did not like it.

And so he started peeing on everything.

He's destroying our bookcases and our books.

He's destroyed the buffet in the dining room.

You see, this is one of Henry's spots.

He loves to pee in here for some reason.

And the drapes.

And the drapes.

Oh, yeah.

And behind the couch.

Oh, honey.

And the cabinets.

This is not how I like to spend my afternoons.

Henry! We need to do something.

It can't continue. If Jackson can't fix Henry, I'll have to give him to a

rescue. I don't want to do that.

I don't want to do that.

Hey guys, come on in. I'm Jackson.

I'm Jeremy. Jeremy. I'm Jen. Hey Jen.

So, let's talk about Henry. When did you get him? I got him about six weeks old.

Okay, he was a little baby. Yeah, yeah. When did the problem start?

When we moved when he was two. We moved from a house in Northern California with

a yard and a neighborhood that he could roam around in to being in a condo with

no yard and not wanting him to go outside because of cars.

And coyotes.

It makes sense that Henry started peeing the second this family moved and put

him inside permanently.

This cat was used to being outside whenever he wanted to, calling the

They shrink that away from him, give him a box -sized territory.

He's going to get a little uneasy, a little anxious territorially. Does he

and pee on things or does he spray?

He sprays. So he sprays. Okay.

There's a big difference between squatting to urinate and spray.

squatting just strictly about releasing your bladder, but it's spraying when

it's about marking territory.

What have you done to sort of curb the problem? Letting him outside.

Oh, okay, we're letting him out now. Yeah. Okay. Now, of course, at first

like, I'm not going to let him out because we have coyotes and we have

heavy predator areas.

I was fed up.

I was done. I got a nose for cat pee, and it drives me up the wall.

Okay, so you've pretty much given in to that because you're not wanting to live

with this anymore. And has that helped? A little bit, but he's still doing it.

We caught him the other day.

Henry!

Oh, God.

So where do you let him out? We'll let him out in the indoor courtyard, but we

will also let him out in the street, into the wild. You know, he usually runs

out and goes right into the bushes, and then he'll play with the stray cats that

are there.

The short -term reward of letting Henry outside is that, well, he won't pee in

the house and, according to them, he's happier, which is probably true.

Downside, he's not going to live a very long life. I mean, statistically, his

life indoor -outdoor like that might be as little as half the normal lifespan of

an indoor cat. So that's the chance that these guys are taking.

As far as all the pee in your house?

Nothing has slowed it down besides letting him out. Yeah.

One time I treated him like a dog and I rubbed his face in it. Oh, wow.

And he's never gone in that spot again.

That's totally coincidence.

You think?

Yeah. Because he hit that spot a lot.

Yeah. No.

It's not one of those things that they understand.

No, your cat doesn't understand. If you rub their face in their urine, all

they're going to learn is to be afraid of you. It's not going to make them stop

peeing. So, if I didn't get here, what's our worst fear?

I mean, I love Henry, and I want to keep him around, but I was looking into

Maine Coon rescues. Okay.

So, like, rehome? Right. Okay.

We had tried everything, and nothing was working. Do you think that one of the

things that frustrates him is that lack of being able to hunt? Yeah.

Absolutely. I mean, that's what he did when we lived in Northern California. It

was, he enjoys the hunt. And on cue! Yeah!

What the hell?

He just did his laugh. He just wanted to say hello.

Let me go say hello.

Hello, Henry.

Hey, Henry.

Hi. He is gorgeous. And he is mostly Maine Coon.

Yeah. I mean, first of all, he's a beast. He's huge.

So he's got the hair between his pads. He's got the tufts coming out of his

ears. Those guys do like out there. They're resistant to the cold, you know,

wet. So up in your old neck of the woods where it was wet. Wet and cold. Wet and

cold. He must have loved it. He must have loved it. Well, you know what I

love to do is just, now that we're up, let's take a look around at all the hot

spots. All right, so we have litter box number one. Now, is this here because he

peed? Oh, I can see it. Yeah.

That's a lot of spots.

Yep. And he's hit the curtain as well. Oh, yeah. And right behind you on the

bookshelf. Oh, wow.

Taking up the wood. Yep. So this area, does it stop?

Nope. It goes all the way down to the bar area, and it would seep in through

here. And you can see where it's destroyed the wood on this. Oh, wow.

Normally, I would expect to see pee just around the window. But what Henry has

done is... taken the corner, and then gone all the way down the wall, the

length of the bookcase and the bar. It's unusual. It's not what I would expect

to see.

So this is the office, spare bedroom, and right there, that is his numero uno

spot. Any other rooms in the house that have this particular view?

No. The other bush is right outside the window. Right outside the window? Yeah.

There's a big long hedgerow there, and there's like a little animal highway

through it that they travel through. Yeah.

That is a gimme.

When it comes to spray, we're used to seeing perimeters, marks, windows,

things where you're sending messages to outside cats. And that lets us know that

this is territorial insecurity.

He has demonstrated the same insecurity over and over and over again.

It's chilly out here.

Okay. So, well, look at... What the hell? Who is this? This is Isabel. She

next door. Hi, Isabel.

I know it's hard to believe, but that little thing beats Henry up.

This little cat beats Henry up. Yeah. On a daily basis. And when you say beat

him up.

We'll back him into a corner. Yeah. Meow and hissing and then they'll just go at

it fur flying.

Wow, man. You watch Isabel walk around this courtyard. She owns this place.

I mean, Henry doesn't stand a chance. If we're talking about Henry being

territorially insecure, nothing is going to ring that bell.

More than another cat who beats the hell out of him outside his front door.

She's a very destructive force in his life.

But look at her.

Look at how she's going right up to your door right now.

That's what she does.

She's got her nose in your door.

She'll do that all day long. She's all about Henry.

Look at that.

Oh. A little bit of that.

She's pawing at the door. Come out and play.

Oh, Henry.

Yeah, she's torturing him. Yeah, she is. Stop.

Crazy. Isabel wants into this house, and I mean badly.

Where's Henry, Henry?

Oh, and Henry's right at the door. Oh, he is? Oh, yeah, Henry's right there.

Oh, yes, he is.

And his tail is going crazy.

They're nose to nose at this point.

Henry's right at the door. And his tail is going crazy.

They're nose -to -nose at this point. He's not backing away.

But still, know that the cat who completely kicked his butt every time he

crosses this threshold stands at your front door. That's got to be

Hey, we're done. We're done. Bye -bye, Isabel. Bye, Isabel. Okay. Start going

in. Bye, Henry.

Wow, look at him now, man.

Yeah, he's not happy. Look at that tail. He is pissed.

And I don't blame him. I mean, right there on the other side of that door,

basically thumbing her nose at him. Seeing Henry in this state, I have a

opportunity right now to teach these guardians how to help Henry get past

moments. When he just puffs up with that energy, he's just going to carry it

around with him or he's going to play. So I'm going to play. Hi, buddy, buddy.

Hi, buddy, buddy.

Wow.

Large and in charge, man.

Oh my gosh, you are such the uber hunter. You are just a beast.

Henry wants to kill things. Good boy.

And that's good for our purposes right now. If he's taking all that energy out

on the toy and not peeing all over the place, I'm all for it.

So, homework time. We know that there's a very strong territorial frustration

element that's going on here.

So the first thing that I'm going to have you guys do is go to the places

he tends to hit constantly and make them unfriendly. Use deterrents. We have a

variety of different deterrents, one that will blow air at him, one that will

start flashing light or sound or both.

Remote deterrents are really helpful when it comes in cases like Henry.

the human getting involved and making themselves into a bad association, the

piece of furniture itself becomes the bad thing. So the next thing is

your clock.

I want to get his body into a predictable daily pattern. We're going

his access to the outside.

I want you to eliminate his access to the street.

No, I'm not going to say, close the doors, he doesn't go outside anymore, as

much as I would like to, because it's dangerous out there.

But if I just shut the door, all hell's going to break loose. Yeah. So every day

you're going to have a set schedule. He goes out, he comes back in, over.

We feed him once he's in, we play with him once he's in. He needs this play,

man, in order to satisfy that raw cat intensity.

Last thing, how do you guys feel about harness training him? I have been

With no luck? No, he tears me up. Okay, so here's what we're going to do. You're

going to harness train him.

to the best of your ability by forming a positive association between the

harness and his favorite treat. Because my evil plan here is that we can replace

all of this free access to the outside world with controlled access so that we

can give him what he needs at the same time extend his life.

So that's it. All right, guys, I'm going to leave. All right. The end goal here

is an ambitious one. I want Henry to be challenged.

I want him to have freedom. I want the couple to not have a house that's all

peed up. And I want Henry. be safe.

I'm Mimi. I'm a TTA foster, which means time to adjust.

A lot of cats don't handle the shelter environment very well. The TTA program

just giving them a little bit of time to see whether they adjust to life in

foster care.

Basically, I work with the cats. People may not want them.

I get them adopted as soon as I can.

Johnny was brought into the shelter by a neighbor. Her guardian had died, and

they had to forcibly remove Johnny from the area.

When Johnny came into the shelter, she was not allowing any handling.

She would lunge at the kennel door. She would slam herself against the side. She

was a danger to herself and others around her.

Usually within a day or two, I'm able to interact with the cat. With Johnny, she

would not even allow me near her.

I've tried luring her with treats. I've tried working with wand toys.

I've pretty much used up everything in my arsenal, but she's just not a safe

to handle.

When I take a foster, I make a promise to them, and it's my job to make sure

that she finds her forever home.

But Johnny has some aggression issues, and if she bites, I'll have to tell the

shelter, and they may require that she be euthanized. So really, Jackson is

Johnny's last hope.

Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you.

So, Mimi, how many rescue cats we got in the house? I have four of my own cats

and two foster cats, but they're here for Johnny. Tell me Johnny's backstory.

Johnny was brought to the shelter by a neighbor after Johnny's guardian was

found deceased in his apartment.

Right. But she couldn't even be checked in at the shelter. She was so scared she

would ram into the front of the kennel. So she was acting straight up feral at

this point.

Yeah, so they had to sedate her in order to give her shots and make sure that

she was bathed. And that's when they actually found out that she was

which poses different problems. Right. The term declawing is so misleading.

We're defingering. We're denuckling that cat. It's mutilation. You're maiming

that cat for life. And it's something that changes the way a cat walks,

functions, defends themselves. It alters their life.

I'm pretty immune to being scratched.

It doesn't bother me. But being bit, I have to report that to the shelter.

Right. Claws are Cat's first line of defense.

They're trying to warn you. Without that weapon, they go for the final line of

defense. That's heat. And they hurt a lot more than claws do.

A bite has to be reported. The report puts her under quarantine and puts that

big scarlet letter across her that will make it even that much harder to get her

adopted. So how long was she in the shelter? She was in there for about two

weeks. and she didn't get better at all. So they asked me to take her. Okay, and

how long has she been here?

About two weeks now.

What have you done in the past two weeks? We started at just me being able

in the room because she doesn't have claws. I didn't have to worry about her

scratching me, so I was able to get a little bit closer to her. But you still

can't touch her? Mm -mm. I slide the treats to her.

It's incredible to me that this is a, quote, owned cat who spent years

apparently with a human, and it's this resistant.

Johnny's a big mystery. We know she was declawed and her guardian died, and

that's it. We know nothing about her life. We don't even know how old she is.

It's really hard to work with a huge question mark.

I just need her to, like, sniff my hand or show me something that says that

she's going to eventually be adoptable. Clearly.

Who would adopt a cat that they can't pet?

Yeah. Do you see her thing here? Are there other options?

If she doesn't improve and if she is not deemed safe to be around humans, then

euthanasia might be an option.

Let's go on in there. What I want to do is be as much in the background as

humanly possible. Just take her through what you would normally do when you

visit her.

She's in there.

Let's go.

Meeting Johnny for the first time, I want to be as close to invisible as I

possibly can so I can observe and start establishing that I'm not a threatening

presence.

Hey, Johnny.

There you are.

It's okay. Now, let's start pushing it a little bit.

Let's open the gate up.

I want to be able to establish that challenge line with her.

Let's start pushing it a little bit.

Let's open the gate up.

I want to be able to establish that challenge line with her.

I'm sorry, too fast, too fast.

So the second that you put your hand in there, you cross that barrier.

Switch so that your back is up against this thing. Keep your hands at your

I want you to be able to get a few treats near her.

There you go.

Good girl.

So when you're in the room like this, she comes out? Because she wants out.

Usually she won't. She won't? Until I go and do something else. What? Like when

my... Put a treat right outside the cage.

Maybe. She should like move me around.

One more.

Keep your hands totally still right now.

It's okay.

Don't pause. Just drop it.

Does she get it? Yeah.

I gotta take little movements.

No hesitation.

Okay, well, this is not a good start. I can see that Johnny is very handshy. I

mean, very handshy. All you gotta do is move a finger, and she's ready to strike

out. Johnny is scared beyond belief, and as a result, aggressive.

Do me a favor.

Take your hands, put them flat on the floor like this.

Hey, Johnny.

Come on.

It's okay.

Good girl, Johnny.

Well, that's pretty amazing, right?

I'm so surprised.

It's all about the hands.

Just as I thought, if Mimi doesn't move her hands, then Johnny won't hurt her.

Now that I've seen Mimi with Johnny, I would like to spend some time alone with

her because if I'm right, Mimi's nerves are getting the best of her and causing

a negative reaction.

So if I put my hands out like this, now what if I come near you?

You don't like that at all.

Somebody had to have hit you.

Let me introduce you to a hand that's not going to hurt you.

Right?

All the way in.

It's okay.

Good girl.

Sleepy girl.

Bam. My work with Johnny just proved my initial suspicion.

She is a scared cat, not an aggressive cat, not a cat who's chemically

imbalanced or anything like that. She is fully traumatized and living inside of

this traumatic loop.

And our job is now to prove to her that life can be exactly what it was for her

at a certain point.

Now, first of all, she's up there in terms of the most hand -shy cats I've

worked with. I mean, she'll see your fingers moving from across the room.

But I do feel like there is a lot of promise for her. So homework -wise,

thing is we need to establish trust.

And I mean that in a full circle way. She can't trust the hand or trust the

human behind the hand if you don't trust her.

So you start by placing the treats around you. And then she's going to

you, hands on the floor. And you're just talking to her, telling her how great

she is, using that sort of sing -songy voice. She'll just take the treats and

as long as you're still. She's learning that your hand is a really good thing.

If I can get you feeding her by hand, that's a huge hurdle.

I'd be happy with that. Johnny has to learn how to trust the hand. And in

to do that, you have to desensitize the presence of the hand and form positive

associations with the hand. My hope is that Johnny will take a treat out of

Mimi's hand. That would be a show of real trust.

The second piece of homework is to continue normalizing her life. We're

extinguish the barrier between the two of you. This cat was brought in caged,

and that's her life. She's going to have that long -term association with

barriers. So let's start by opening up the crate, and then by the end of the

week, crate's gone. Okay. I want it to feel like home for her. So we need to

turn that room into a base camp.

Okay. So that's cat trees, little donut beds, a little nice place in the window.

Make it just that much more inviting for her.

Last thing, your cats, I think, can play a big part in this. I'd like you to try

bringing in one of your cats for a visit. Okay. The most likable.

Least offensive, least demanding cat that you've got.

Sebastian. Sebastian.

So I want you to start bringing Sebastian in with you just to see how

responds. The hope I have is that he becomes that social bridge.

She'll watch him take treats right out of your hand. She'll watch you pet him.

All she has to do is watch.

Let's see what happens. Let's see if we can get that social bridge happening,

okay? Okay. As a foster, I have a responsibility to safely place this cat.

a little bit hesitant.

I just don't want to push her too much. I'm afraid that she's going to possibly

bite. All right, take care of yourself.

Thank you for coming.

I want to get to a point where I trust her, but right now, Jackson is her only

answer.

Oh, honey.

Henry! Oh, God.

I'm here for my second visit with Jeremy and Jen and their pee machine, Henry.

These guys originally solved the problem by letting Henry outside, but that led

to a whole set of other problems, including Isabel, the courtyard cat who

beat him up.

Walking in here today, what I'm hoping for is that these guys have been

gathering more intel and less pee.

Hey. Well, how are you? Welcome back. What I want to do, straight away, get

your homework and see what your progress has been like over the last couple

weeks. We're going to play...

The first deterrent underneath the office desk where he really likes to go.

Oh, there you go. It works.

All right, perfect.

Okay, so we got the other deterrents. They are the ones that make noise.

We're going to see if these work.

They may wake us up.

It's a little loud.

This is why I love video homework.

I assigned these deterrents because Jeremy was so angry about having things

ruined. But clearly the deterrents work because all it takes is Henry going up

and he gets the hint. No more cabinets.

I'm kind of happy. He seems to be acclimating to being in the house.

He likes the playtime.

We play in the morning and we play at night.

I kind of like it too. I do like the fact that he's on the routine and that

honestly that we're paying more attention to him.

We've got two examples of you guys playing and both examples.

He's on his butt. Always. Always.

It's so hard getting him off his butt. Yeah, but you see what his tail is

Yeah. While you're playing?

Flappity, flappity, flappity, flap.

So clearly he has the energy. He just doesn't have the motivation. So let's

going.

When did she get in here? What the hell?

Whoa. Holy.

Did you not even know she was in here? No. Had no idea.

God, that's just the worst possible thing.

When did she get in here? What the hell?

Whoa. Holy.

Did you not even know she was in here? No.

No. Had no idea.

Isabel sneaks in this house a lot.

I don't know how she keeps getting in.

She'll sit around the corner and wait for the door to open like one of us to

out. And zip right in. She's so tiny and quiet.

God, that's just the worst possible thing. There is no greater threat to a

especially a cat like Henry, than a breach of their territory. Can you

being Henry and suddenly your worst nightmare is in your house? Come on.

Putting the harness on him.

Doesn't love it.

You can try this. Come on, you can do this.

Come on.

Okay, let's try again tomorrow.

No cat likes being in a harness the first time, but...

Jeremy gave up. Here we go. Henry squirms a little bit, and he just cuts

and leaves.

That's not what I wanted to see.

Now, has there been any pee since the last time I was here?

Not that I know of. No. No, I haven't smelled anything.

Mm -hmm.

Yay? Yeah.

Seriously? Yeah. Wow, that's kind of better than I thought would happen. I'll

let him out. 10, 15 minutes later, I'll open the door, and he'll be like, all

right, I'm ready to come in, and he'll just walk right in. We do our playtime.

feed him. That does explain it.

Resetting Henry's body clock completely worked because he gets more quality

experience from the play and the food and the time with you than he does from

wandering around, and that might be the key to this whole thing.

So, last time I was here, there was this rehoming thing that was on the table.

No, we haven't discussed it once, actually, and I think that option is off

table with all the progress we're making.

Good. I'm pretty stunned, but I do want to nail down what's happening here

that's making him happier.

What I want to do today, I want to see what we can do to get Henry in that

harness and not make it such an ordeal for you guys.

It's so important that Henry keep going on this harness training because he

needs that safety and structure while still getting the exposure to the

outdoors. So what we hope with this thing is that it becomes not a big deal.

this his favorite treat in the world?

Yep. Henry, Henry, come here, baby.

What's that? He really doesn't go nuts for anything. Really?

Yeah.

Where'd you go?

See, I want a reaction to his treats that's like ten times better than this.

I want to find Henry's jackpot treat, something that's going to tempt him to

point where he's willing to do things.

I've got some chicken. It needs to be cooked.

We're going to cook it? All right. Good.

This is a first.

Now it's time to break out a secret weapon here. We're going to use some

to see if that will get Henry off his butt. Give him a little piece of that.

Come on.

There it is.

That is the most present I've seen him today.

Look at that.

Yeah, you're acting like a cat, buddy.

What is that?

What is that?

Now, do me a favor. Hand me the harness.

I'm going to put this right next to you. How about you eat a piece of chicken

off the harness?

There we go.

Clearly the harness is not such a terrible thing, right?

Now that we know what motivates Henry, now we've got that positive association

we can start with.

So. The good news is that a lot of our work is done.

We found the thing he was asking for. He wanted rhythm in his life, and he got

it. But we've still got more work to do. We have reset his clock. Now we have to

reinforce that rhythm by finding more high -value things.

Play, more high -value. And more food that's high -value. The chicken totally

worked. Expand it out. You've got to get Henry off his back. You've got to get

him playing, because if we can't get him moving and then calm down...

How can we ever expect to get that harness on him predictably? I want to

down on this harness work so we can give him the quality of life that we all

want for him.

Start with getting that harness on him for all of 10 seconds.

Take it off, chicken. If he's hanging pretty well in there, you can give him

chicken in the harness. But I just want him to make that association that

whenever I do this action... I get that treat, right?

Even though we've stopped the peeing for now, unless we have this predictable

way of getting Henry outside safely, I'm telling you, it's going to come back.

I also want you to put the same deterrents that you have in the house, I

you to take one of them, put it out to the front door, just to make sure that

Isabel stays away.

Great idea.

All right, guys.

Stay on it, because you're doing amazingly well. We still got work to do,

To be honest, the harness training is going to be the hardest part. When he

doesn't want to do something, he lets you know he doesn't want to do it. Well,

we got our work cut out for us.

Honestly, it's just a little frustrating. I really want to take him

he'll have to get used to it. Take one for the team, Jeremy.

I'm back for my next visit with Johnny and her foster guardian, Mimi. And the

last time I was here, Johnny was all but wild. Now, with all the homework that

I've given Mimi, hopefully she can get close to Johnny because if she can't

touch that cat, Johnny's never going to find a home.

Hi, Jackson. Hello, Mimi.

So, let's take a look at what you have been up to.

So, today we're going to finally take down the crate.

She's ready to get this crate out of here.

Okay. She's out.

The tunnel is up and ready to be used.

We moved the cat tree back in. I think Johnny will like it. So part of the

homework was that I bring Sebastian, my easygoing cat, in to kind of give Johnny

a little bit of cat therapy. Okay. We did have some issues yesterday.

I was taking Sebastian out of the room and... Oh.

Johnny bit me on the leg.

This is what we couldn't have.

A no -joke fight.

I was taking Sebastian out of the room and... Oh.

Johnny bit me on the leg.

And don't, don't bite.

Oh. So this is what we couldn't have. I mean, not only is it a bite, there's a

puncture wound.

And that means that the shelter's going to have to know about this. And that

could be a black mark on Johnny that she can't overcome.

She broke skin. You had to report it, which was what we were trying to avoid.

What was their reaction to that?

There was some talk about maybe she would have to go back to the shelter.

The normal protocol, 10 -day bike quarantine.

But then once they knew that you were involved, they trust you, they trust the

process, and they were willing to give her another shot, and she just did her

quarantine in my house.

Thank God, because the one thing this cat couldn't afford is to go back into a

cage at the shelter. If she were to go back to the shelter, back in cages,

forget it. She would revert to a state where we will never be able to pull her

out. Thank God that didn't happen.

What was going on before this happened? They were just hanging out. I had just

gotten home from work. They were in the room all day. Okay. They got along

really well. Right. They communicated really well. So you were removing him,

she was like, wait a minute. He's my bridge.

I want to go where he's going.

Johnny got to bond with Sebastian.

They became close friends, which we had hoped for. But the downside of that is

Mimi then went to remove Sebastian.

Johnny's like, wait a minute. I finally felt safe. Where's he going? Don't take

him. And she panicked.

So today we're just going to treat first. My goal is that Johnny will eat

my hand.

Yeah, baby.

That's right.

Oh. Oh.

Not expecting it to happen. At least not yet.

Johnny went from that wild cat in a cage.

To a cat taking a treat out of Mimi's hand. So, the big news is Johnny let me

pet her last night. Whoa!

And I'm super excited about that.

She's a completely different cat.

It's amazing.

This was the end result that I was hoping for.

I mean, come here.

I have no words right now. I just wanted this cat to take a treat.

out of Mimi's hand, and she is on her lap taking pets. Johnny is saying, thank

you. This is what I wanted.

I did not expect that. Me neither.

I couldn't be happier with the progress I'm seeing on video, but the proof is in

Johnny. I want to see her come out here, spend some time with us, and really see

how far she's come.

Johnny girl.

Look at you.

Come on out. Johnny is walking out into this room, tail up in the air. Hey, how

you doing? Just looking around.

That's crazy.

Somebody swapped this cat for somebody else, I'm sure of it. She has no problem

being around me right now.

Your best friend in the world dies.

You're stuck in the house with them. You are then rescued.

put in a crate, thrown into a shelter, sat there for weeks in a cage. You come

into another house, sit in the cage for a few weeks.

What would happen to you? Would you swat and growl and try to kill whoever came

near you?

That's what happened to Johnny.

Watching her bloom now, that's moving through trauma.

Whatever I'm experiencing, you must be experiencing tenfold.

Oh, my heart exploded a lot of times during this process.

You're clearly attached to her.

She's special to me, but my job as a foster is to find her forever family.

Knowing that we have Mimi in this world means that there are a lot more Johnnies

that are going to be saved and find loving homes.

Now I can go home happy.

Jackson was Johnny's last hope.

But with his help, she's a completely different cat.

It's just amazing.

Thank you so much, Jackson. Johnny deserves the best, and I'm going to make

that she has a very happy life from here on out.

I'm here in Sarasota, Florida, to meet up with Ruth and her Sphinx cat, Raisin.

Now, Raisin comes to work with Ruth here at the vet clinic every day.

where Raisin has a very interesting and, of course, very heavenly job.

Hey, Jackson. My name's Ruth. Nice to meet you.

Hey, Ruth. And let me guess, this would have to be Raisin. Yes, it is. My name

is Ruth Heffernan. I'm a veterinary technician.

My cat, Raisin, is the full -time therapy cat at the clinic. She goes into

rooms and snuggles with the patients. It completely changes them and really

helps the pets to not stress out so much during the exam.

She does it fabulous.

Tell me the story of Breeden. She wound up in a shelter?

Yeah, so basically she was born with ulcers on her eyes.

They almost thought that she was going to lose her eye because it was so bad.

The breeder, I think, felt like it was too much to take care of and too

expensive.

So she went to a rescue. She was about five months, and straight away I was

like, I want her.

What led you to thinking she could be a comfort to other animals?

I do have epilepsy.

Oh, wow.

I have a seizure basically every couple of hours.

Oh, my God. Yeah. When I would come out of the seizure then, she was always

there meowing and so close to me. All of a sudden I realized, my gosh, she

senses this, and I would love for her to do something like that for patients.

So I texted Dr.

Lantra and I was like, do you mind if we kind of just bring her in and do a

little test?

And I swear from the first day she came in, she was so comfortable with this

thick animal.

You know, they kind of have a bond.

Well, can you take me back there?

Absolutely. Cool. Let's do it. It'll be fun. I mean, the cool thing is that

Ruth, being a vet technician, is trained to recognize stress in animals. And in

Raisin's presence, she noticed that something unique was happening. And with

training, she was able to say, you know what? This is a benefit.

The first one we're going to work on is Fenway. Okay. And he is a pit bull. All

right. And he's blind, and he's adorable.

So here we are, post -procedure. Yes. And Fenway is just starting to come out

it. Now, there's this moment where all animals do this after anesthesia, where

there's the confusion.

She totally senses it.

Here you go, Ray.

That's her usual stuff right there.

Oh, my God, that's the sweetest thing.

Ever. Ever.

Yeah. We're dealing with a blind dog here. Yeah. And a sense of confusion

any dog would have got to be doubled. So to have this.

Oh, yes.

She really is like, okay, I've got a job to do. Oh, yeah. No, absolutely.

Nurse raising.

This is a very unique cat. It makes you think twice about who cats are, what

they're capable of, what animal -to -animal relationships they're all about.

People think that people are the only ones capable of loving deeply.

You've got raisin here to just show you otherwise.

Look, she's like, wait, your tail is like my tail. I'm telling you.

Honestly, it's one of the most unique things to see this cat go from dog to

to rat.

And you have that same sense of, I have a job to do here.

I would love for other vet clinics to take on therapy cats. And I think it's

great for all the patients who experience Raisin. She's so caring.

loving. Raisin makes people happy.

You take care, Ruth. All right. Thanks very much. No matter how nice the vet

clinic, and this is a nice one, when your animals come here, they're going to

nervous. But Nurse Raisin makes sure that these guys feel as at home as they

be. You know what people say about cats not caring about anything but

themselves? Another cat myth busted.

Oh, honey.

Henry!

I'm back from my third visit with Jeremy and Jen and their cat, Henry.

Last time I was here, I was surprised to see how fast the peeing had stopped.

The homework was about reinforcing that progress and desensitizing Henry to the

harness. I hope I'm going in here now to no backsliding in the cat that has

acclimated to that harness.

Life good?

Life's good, yeah. Good to hear. I mean, last time I was here, things were

already getting a whole lot better.

Please tell me that your boy has not gone back to peeing all over the house.

Nothing. Nothing? Nothing.

Fantastic. Well, you know what? Let's get to your video homework because good

news. Yeah. All right, man. Let's go.

Done.

Look at that.

Learn your lesson.

And that's all it takes, right? Yeah.

Now, that's a cat who just got the hint.

Isabel is not going to be tormenting Henry anymore from the other side of

door. That is called a wide berth.

This is Henry's personal bubble.

Having that, it's a big reason why I think things are cool around here.

Come on, bud.

You get a hunt and then you can eat. Come on.

Henry seems to be enjoying the play that we're doing with him and then feeding

him afterwards. He's responding really well to that.

Yeah, man.

I had a really good play session with Henry. He was all over the place. Tired

him out, tried to put the harness on.

Now he's just kind of angry.

If Jeremy and Jennifer haven't persevered when it comes to

to that harness, then the whole idea of Henry having safe outdoor access is

shot.

Tried to put the harness on.

Now he's just kind of angry.

If Jeremy and Jennifer haven't persevered when it comes to

to that harness, well then the whole idea of Henry having safe outdoor access

shot. Yeah, I got home and we put the harness on him and then gave him the

treat, the chicken treat, after he had it on for a while and then tried to get

him to play a little bit. He ate his dinner.

Wow. And he wore it for about an hour. It was really great.

Whoa!

An hour?

An hour.

Deserves a little on that one, man. That's insane.

At one point, he laid down on my lap for the first time in our life together.

No, wait. He wasn't wearing the harness when he was on your lap. Yeah.

Wow. Henry curls up in Jeremy's lap with that harness on.

What that says, I am safe.

I am desensitized. I know good things happen in this harness. And by the way,

like you too again. The two of us, we're bonded.

It does mark a turning point, not just in his relationship to you, but in his

comfort level here. He's settled in, so that's amazingly cool. I thought Henry

being outside was the key to his happiness, when really it wasn't. It was

here in the house. It was me and Jen, and our relationship with them needed to

improve. A long time I've been thinking about just a life without him, and it

was sad, and I would cry a lot about it.

I'm glad it's not come to that. I'm glad it's getting better.

That is happily ever after.

This wasn't just about stopping the peeing in the house. That was just a

of Henry's unhappiness. It was about moving past that, moving past the loss

his territory and accepting a new life. That's where Henry's at now. My job is

done. Great, guys. Thanks. I'm so happy that Henry is not peeing anymore. It's a

miracle. Thanks. Thanks so much. I know we can continue with all of the things

that we've learned and keep Henry happy and keep him content.

I'm just as happy as I can be.