Original subtitles

The problem with Charlie and Frankie is that they don't get along.

Hey. Yo.

I haven't been in this house more than a couple minutes and all of a sudden

there's a fight going on. Oh, you've got to be kidding me, Charlie.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Baby Angel has a tendency to pee on rugs and anything fabric related.

She's peed so much in one area of our house that the floor is starting to come

up. Well, we would like to expand our family and have a child, possibly foster

an adult. Are you holding off even the foster process?

No pressure.

When I was three, the doctor said that I would never talk again because that's

when I couldn't talk.

Artemis started being social, so Sarah started being social.

Artemis really bridged that gap for her and people because she had a talking

point or a reason to interact. As soon as Artemis got into this home, she just

glommed down to Sarah. She said, you are my person. And that was the start of a

beautiful friendship.

Whoa.

Holy. I'm Jackson Galaxy.

What the hell, man?

The animal behavior that guardians call when they're dealing with a difficult

cat. Sometimes I wish that I didn't have her.

Man.

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 Andrew.

And I'm Liz. And we have two cats, Charlie and Frankie.

I love the cats, but the problem with Charlie and Frankie is that they don't

along.

Charlie and Frankie fight in the living room.

They fight upstairs in the bedrooms.

Frankie is very confident and not scared of much and probably scared of

everything. Charlie is freaking out before anything's even happening.

Charlie enters every room like there's going to be an altercation.

I would say Frankie and Charlie's behavior affects our relationship in

sets the tone right off the bat. Liz comes home from a long day at work. The

cats are excited to see her. They start fighting. I don't even get a word in.

Suddenly they've got to be broken up, and then Liz is frustrated. I am

frustrated. I am. I'm tired of the cats fighting.

I'm tired of Andrew being grumpy all the time. I'm tired of, like, walking into

my house and having everybody just, like, all worked up.

I love Andrew very much, but the cat fighting is one of the biggest things

we argue about in our relationship, and if we can sort that out, I think our

relationship will be a lot stronger.

How are you doing?

I'm good. How are you? Hey, nice to meet you.

Who's this that I'm seeing? That's Frankie. That's Frankie. So you have an

orange tabby girl.

Orange tabby females is pretty rare, and I would never generalize, but orange

tabbies have that thing.

They're gregarious. They're kind of Dennis the Menace -y, you know. Does she

sort of fall into that category? Yeah, I wish I knew that when we adopted her.

She's a sweetheart.

She's really sweet.

Frankie is incredibly social, tail up in the air. I don't see anything about her

off the bat that leads me to believe that she would be an all -out bully 24

But hey, I've been wrong plenty of times.

We brought Frankie home. We tried to introduce them. They didn't get along.

We then separated them and had them on a shift schedule of which one would be

out and about in the house for a 12 -hour shift. One would go away at night

one would come out during the day.

Hey!

Yo. Coming in.

Well, I haven't been in this house more than a couple minutes, and all of a

sudden, there's a fight going on.

Now, let's talk about that.

So, is that kind of how it tends to happen?

That Frankie will start it?

No.

We disagree.

In two seconds of being in your house, Frankie goes up the stairs, and all of a

sudden, you hear, ah!

You know, I look up here and Charlie is looking at me like I'm going to eat her.

She thinks everyone's going to eat her. Well, then how could she possibly start

it? Because she's so stressed out all the time, but she antagonizes before she

can be antagonized.

First time we've seen that. She was actually the first cat to start an

altercation.

Really? Yeah.

Frankie, like, walked up to Charlie, kind of, like, sniffed her, and then

Charlie swatted her across the face with her nails out. Okay, so that's not

calling instigating. What does that call?

Back the hell away from me. Liz misinterprets what went on that first

Frankie went to Charlie, got a little too in the personal bubble space, and

Charlie said, back off.

That Charlie thing, get out of my bubble.

And Frankie refused. I haven't fully relaxed since we adopted Frankie because

all she wants to do is have a brother. I haven't relaxed since the day it was

born. It's very, very tightly wound.

You know you are. I just want to make the relationship work.

It's honest communication.

Until death do us part. Until death do you part.

So far, Andrew and Liz don't agree about anything.

I mean, it's an endearing part of their relationship, but it doesn't get us

anywhere. I've got to get to the truth, and the truth has got to be somewhere

between the two of them.

Charlie.

Hi, baby.

Now, this is interesting.

Now, Frankie is 100 % hunting Charlie.

Yeah. Is this what it looks like all the time? Yeah.

It's worse in the morning. How the hell could you possibly blame Charlie for

anything? Because she started it. She started it one time.

Mama, you're all right. You're okay. Look. Look.

I mean, please.

Charlie is trapped.

Like, I know what's going on here, so it's so weird to hear you describe

something completely opposite. I don't think that Andrew and Liz have the

slightest idea why things are happening in this house.

They have completely misunderstood Charlie and underestimated Frankie.

They don't know their cats nearly as well as they think they do.

I mean, this just feels like a matter of time.

Yeah, well, Charlie's right there, and Frankie's getting ready to run. Oh, look

at us.

And here we go.

Hold on.

Does he ever not hunt?

No. When she's sleeping.

Yeah, what's with that? Or she's playing or she's eating.

So she doesn't hunt when she's eating?

No. Can they eat together? Oh, yeah, face to face. Get out of here. Now that

got to see.

Here we go.

Charlie's a -coming.

It's okay.

How do you like that?

So these two can eat like this all the time? Yeah. Every day. Every day. Every

day. Yeah. Now, right now, Charlie is looking up. Or does she always eat like

that? She kind of does. She will check in on Frankie to see what she's doing.

And Frankie is just so consumed by it. With her food, Frankie doesn't look up.

got to tell you, man, although I do identify that things are problematic

they're workable. I'm getting a lot of information from the cats right now.

It's time to push them a little bit. I want to see if I can tempt them, get

involved with toys, treats, to see what really motivates these cats.

Good girl.

Yay, that's very good. What Frankie is telling me is that she's like a kid.

She'll go wherever the fun is. My toy presents fun. And there you are, my

Now it's time to see if I can get Charlie to come out while Frankie's

somewhat intimidating -looking action.

Because I want to see if Charlie has what it takes to stand up for herself.

Come on, Charlie.

Oh, boy.

You're a little mojo deficient.

Come here, baby.

Come here, honey.

Charlie's face is starting to come out from under the chair. She's starting to

get brave, but Frankie is staring at her the whole time. If a fight breaks out

with this much challenge presented to them, we're in a bad place.

Don't cause a scene.

Come here, honey.

Charlie's face is starting to come out from under the chair, but Frankie is

staring at her the whole time. If a fight breaks out with this much

presented to them, we're in a bad place.

Don't cause a scene, honey.

Right there.

This is a cat who wants to engage, who wants to play, but she keeps looking

here.

Charlie could be just as social, just as present.

As Frankie. But she's not allowed to be that cat because she's always looking

for an exit.

Frankie. So we've got a little tube -o -tuna here.

Charlie is on guard.

Hey, hey, hey. Right here.

Look at that.

I can instantly redirect Frankie's aggression.

I can do it with a treat. I can do it with a toy. That's fantastic news

that tells me that for Frankie, this is not life and death state. Frankie was

totally able between this and this to be distracted away from Charlie.

Is that what you guys see on a regular basis?

He can easily distract her. Yay.

If I could clap right now, I would.

We are going to forge a new relationship between these two cats and hopefully a

new relationship between the humans here as well because this isn't working.

Charlie's not having a good time. You know, Frankie's fine. Frankie is

resilient. Frankie is confident.

Charlie's got none of that. And that's where things have to change around here.

Now the first thing we're going to talk about is X marks the spot.

We're going to have three different colors of tape here. So we have the

of tape, which is for confident areas where she likes to hang out. The yellow

piece of tape is for hiding, the unconfident path, where we're slinking

where we're feeling very unconfident. And the red piece of tape is for hunt or

where fights happen, okay?

By having all these green X's around the house, it'll help me find a pattern of

behavior. Now, playtime.

I want you to separate them for playtime. The idea is this. Charlie will

confidence through play. When Charlie gets to kill something, that's where

get their confidence. That is where their mojo comes from, when they're

their natural life.

And then for Frankie, the cool thing is that play drains out.

that energy that she then will use on Charlie. Separate play times set the

for together play times, or for that matter, together anything.

We're going to take their energy and put it in the right lane here so that life

itself can take root. And hopefully Frankie can stop looking at Charlie as a

play toy.

Call me if you need anything.

Bye. Bye -bye.

My only apprehension is that Liz underestimates my abilities to follow

directions.

My name is Jacqueline. I'm Devon, and we've been married for a year and a

And we are the Crazy Cat Ladies with ACAT.

It's Baby Angel, China, Blue, Red, Blackie, Bo, Bear, and Toby.

Was that it?

I hope so.

We are happily married newlyweds.

We have this wonderful new home together and a wonderful life together and a

wonderful fur family together.

And Baby Angel is definitely disrupting that.

She has a tendency to pee on rugs and anything fabric related.

She has peed on our brand new couch. We literally just got this couch.

It's tiresome to wake up in the morning and clean up pee, to come home from work

and clean up pee, like to constantly be cleaning up pee. It's a lot. You're

okay. I love baby Angel, but I don't think she likes me very much.

Jacqueline is the only human that baby Angel has a relationship with. She's not

very trusting.

always glaring at me or giving me nasty looks. We have been talking about

fostering a child, but we need to get our house in order first, and one of the

things on that list is fixing this problem.

We need Jackson's help and fast.

How are you? Hi.

I'm Jacqueline. I'm Jacqueline. Hey, Jacqueline. I'm Devin. Devin, good to

you guys. Welcome to our home. Who's this?

That's Toby.

Hi, Toby.

Who's this? Blackie.

Blackie, of course.

And that's Baby Angel on top.

How many cats?

Eight. Eight cats.

Okay. So I'm here because of Baby Angel's pee.

Where is she peeing?

Right in front of the litter box on a potty pad. Every day? Mm -hmm.

And then we have a day where she'll hit it twice.

Now I'm immediately hearing that Baby Angel's peeing right outside the box.

me, that's a red flag.

There's something about that box that is not safe.

Is that pain, discomfort, the other cats in the house? I'm going to find out.

Has she had this problem her whole life?

No. Where I previously lived was much bigger. She never peed anywhere.

But then when I moved in here, Baby Angel started to pee everywhere. But

It has the tendency to pee right in front of the litter box on a potty pad.

Every day.

When you go from a bigger space to a smaller space, stuff shakes out

Any other theories?

I met Baby Angel when we became roommates, and there was a lot of stress

change for all the cats.

So I always feel like she's punishing us because she does give me dirty looks.

Maybe she just doesn't like that I'm too close to her mom. She gives you dirty

looks. She's trying to punish you.

Her and I have a bond. So baby Angel, when I first saw her as a kitten, she

the hardest one to tame. She was not trusting and very, like... Could you

You couldn't touch her? No. It took a while. I would play with her with the

toys, and I would give her treats.

So we kind of connected. She trusted me.

So it's safe to say that you represent safety. You represent that one human

breakthrough. But now she's six years old. Are you saying that in those six

years, she's never...

trusted anyone to the degree she trusted. Correct.

Jacqueline was tasked with acting as Baby Angel's social bridge, and that

relationship continues to flourish through today.

We would like to expand our family and have a child, possibly foster and adopt.

Okay, cool. So that would require us not to have Baby Angel urinating on certain

areas of the house. That's a valid concern. Are you holding off even the

process? Really? Until this gets...

Okay, no pressure.

Are you holding off even the foster process?

Really, until this gets... Okay, no pressure.

So these guys are putting off fostering or adopting a human child because...

of the problem that's going on here and I think it's a smart thing to do because

all you gotta do is bring one more being in this house and things may go kaboom.

Hello, baby angel.

Hi, sweet baby.

It's okay.

When Jacqueline took in baby angel and she spent all of this time with her

getting her to open up, getting her to accept humans, but she stopped with her.

Baby angel, six years old, doesn't trust a single other human besides

Jacqueline. What I would love to do...

Start walking around and let me know about places of importance.

I want to see resources.

I want to see what Angel could possibly be competing over.

Okay, so this is a big spot here. Yeah, it's one of her favorites. She pees like

here or here.

This is ruining our floors. So this is like raised now.

Okay.

Why haven't you put a litter box here?

Seriously? You never thought of that?

Or you just don't want to.

Yeah, I don't want to.

I've been down this block before. You've got enough pee on this wooden floor to

lift up the floor, and you didn't think once maybe we should have a box? Of

course you did. Come on now.

Where's the litter boxes at? Two litter boxes and one in the office.

Now, eight cats and three litter boxes.

Which one?

of you guys is much more specific about boxes being in certain places and...

It'd be me. Okay. We don't have any cat to pick on other cats, right?

Nobody who... Angel's the only one that literally is, like, yesterday.

Will she block these? Yeah, Bear was in the potty, not doing anything to her,

and she was actually right here growling at him. I mean, that's a problem

because we're in a closet. I know. So that means that there's no out.

If someone's in there, that they can be cornered pretty easily. A litter box in

a closet, another litter box right outside the closet. So that creates this

bottleneck that Baby Angel just sits in front of and starts hissing at the other

cats. There's a lot of information that is kind of fuzzy right now. So I think a

lot of your homework is going to be based on defuzzing what's happening

The first thing it could possibly be is medical. So that's the first thing we've

got to do is go to the vet. In my experience.

When cats go right outside the litter box, they're letting you know there's

something in there I don't like. Meaning she's not going to say it hurts when I

pee. She's going to say that place hurts me. My guess is this.

It hurts when she pees. So whether that's a bladder infection, urinary

whether she's got stones, it could be a lot of things.

That's why we're sending her to the vet. The second thing it could be is litter

box aversion.

So in that respect, you know what your homework is. You know what's coming.

Tell me. More litter boxes?

Yeah. Your time's up.

You know.

Three litter boxes for eight cats is just not enough.

I want to see three more added to the house. All of these things come into

to provide more resources spread out that might be comfortable to a cat who's

avoiding the box.

The boxes should be low, no lids, because if it happens to be competition

resources, there could be ambushing going on.

A lidded litter box often poses a problem because it only presents one

route. So if baby Angel ever felt threatened by another cat while using a

with a lid, she may be too scared to go back there again.

The next piece of homework is to allow the bond.

Devin, clearly you're carrying a little bit of trauma.

Whether it's you saying that she got it out for you, she doesn't like you, she's

jealous. I have heard all of those today and more. They're all projections.

None of it's true.

Jacqueline, this is your person here. So I need you to start allowing that bond

in terms of allowing Devin to take on the rituals that define that

safety. So whether that's feeding, whether that's the touching, whatever

rituals are that you have.

Let Devin into the club, okay?

I know it's going to be difficult for Baby Angel to learn to trust someone

besides Jackie, but it needs to be done, and I'm willing to put the work in, and

I hope that we can come to a place where we can be friends and I can be in the

secret club.

They've been so annoying.

So I'm back in the city of brotherly love with two sisters, Frankie and

who have been at each other's throats.

Hopefully, I'm going to walk in here and Charlie will have regained the shred of

confidence that she had before Frankie beat it out of her.

Tell me how things have been.

Combative. Yeah, a little bit.

From a two -legged perspective or a four? You never know with you guys. From

four -legged perspective, actually, it's been a little better. We've committed

to all elements of the homework.

It's funny because I sat down here and I'm like, oh, how are things? And then I

noticed. This.

Oh, you are out of red tape. Oh, yeah, we ran out.

The last thing that I wanted to come and see here was an empty red spool of

tape. The red tape is for a fight. That means problems for Charlie.

And on cue, we have both cats in the room at the same time.

Charlie. Oh,

you've got to be kidding me, Charlie.

Frank. Hold on.

In this moment.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Frank. Hold on.

In this moment.

Hold on. Hold on.

In this moment.

What is this?

What is that? Stay with me now. Is this what we've been seeing? Every day.

But this is what I like, though. Charlie is present.

Charlie didn't go dashing upstairs and there was a fight at the door. That was

lot of noise.

But with a little bit of distraction and redirection, there was no contact

whatsoever. And the great news here, Charlie comes right back into the

She runs away and then she's like, you know what? No.

This is my room too. What I'd like to do is take a look at your video homework.

Let's get that out of here.

Bring it in. So much energy. I think she tires out after maybe 45 minutes to an

hour. I wish I had that kind of stamina. I don't. The only thing I do 45 minutes

to an hour is sit.

Number one, you're absolutely not playing as hard as you need to. Number

you're not playing smart either. If you're playing smart and hard with your

20 minutes max. Even a cat like Frankie.

So, we have a whole bunch of X's for Hunt or Where Fights Happen.

What patterns do you think? Charlie likes to be up.

Charlie likes the perimeter. We realize she hides around the edges, which

Frankie enjoys being in the middle of things. And she is willing to defend

and only permits Charlie just on the outside of the room.

Okay. The middle of the room is the promised land.

Everything has to happen here for Charlie, and if it doesn't, she's going

always be reminded that there's safety in the walls.

No more. We have one big hang spot for Charlie right here.

And again, there are no hang spots that I can tell that are on the floor.

She hides on the floor, but she doesn't hang out. Hides on the floor, hangs in

the air.

That's exactly, that's a breakthrough for us. What I thought was initially a

hide spot really is a confidence spot for Charlie, and that involves height.

was refreshing to see Jackson's take on it because it just really brought to the

surface that Charlie really doesn't like hiding.

She likes hanging out above everything, above the swinging paws of Frankie.

We've got...

An amazing bit of information.

The evidence is overwhelming in this house. Now I need to hang out with

to get that missing piece of the puzzle. We just keep pushing her a little bit.

So what I want is for her to come in here. Liz, can you use your voice again,

please? Charlie.

Charlie girl, come here, Mama.

Hi, Charlie.

There she comes. There she comes. Come here, baby.

There she is.

There's my baby girl.

With Frankie put away, Charlie sees that. She sees me not as a threat. She

this as a normal environment where she can come out and hang. Being herself a

little bit, being confident, that's all I want. Good girl. And up on the table.

Good girlie.

The play therapy homework has really improved her confidence.

This should be a cause of celebration, not just for me, but for Liz and Andrew.

So now homework, Andrew.

It is essential that we wear Frankie out during play.

So I want to teach you the play technique called boil and simmer. Now,

obviously, with Frankie, it's a piece of cake. You got her running around, get

her crazy, let her simmer. Bring her back up about two, three minutes later,

her simmer. That whole process should be 20 minutes. I can get behind that. And

that'll also work for Charlie as well. We need to fortify her confidence.

So for her, playtime has to always culminate.

in the middle of the room. We're basically going to just outlaw the

Play happens in the middle of the room. We're building confidence by making this

the promised land. I'd like you to get a special pet gate where they can see

each other but not get to one another.

And that way, when we're going to time out Frankie, Charlie owns the whole

and she gets to see Frankie in a way that's not chasing her.

Also, in terms of fortifying confidence, is catifying for confidence.

We know all of the hang spots are up.

All of the hide spots are down.

Got to encourage her up. We're going to work on cat superhighways.

Charlie is a bigger cat when she's up in the vertical world. So Charlie's got to

have a brand -new world, and it's got to be up off the ground. We're going to

make sure that we're blocking under so we can say, no, Charlie, you don't want

to live against the walls and under the stairs. You want to live up on your

purchase, but we've got to make those purchase destinations or it's never

to work. The other thing that I want you to do...

I want you to pick up all of the X's and I want you to start again. Because

you're going to see all the places that you've got to sort of fortify as you go

along in order to get us to that promised land of group play.

Okay? Keep it up.

It's a lot of work to follow the homework and do everything we can to

Charlie's confidence.

It's up to me and Andrew to help Charlie get where he needs to be. We're going

to try really hard, but I'm not a thousand percent sure that...

She's going to do it? We're going to find out. Yeah.

Baby angel, eat on her.

I'm back for my next visit with Devin and Jacqueline and their cat baby angel.

Last time I was here, Baby Angel was struggling to carve out a spot among

other cats to call her own, and because of that, the place was turning into a

litter box. Now, before these guys could bring in a human baby, they have got to

work out this problem, so I really hope they did.

Look at this.

Hi, honey.

Aw, hi.

Honestly, the last time I was here, Baby Angel was crammed into a corner under

the window. Now she's on the couch, sitting right next to Devin while she

her. That means work got done around here. We've been working really hard.

have clearly been working really hard. But she has to do it in her own way. So

before we get into any of that, let's start looking at your video homework.

Angel.

Look what we've got.

She's going to get her blood work done and also a urine test.

Make sure she's fine.

So the blood work and everything, you said everything was pending.

Where are we at with that? So she has the start of crystals. So what that

is she doesn't drink enough water.

Yep. For baby Angel having crystals in her bladder, well, those crystals have

go somewhere. And if she pees them out, they're going to hurt. And that could be

why she's been avoiding the box.

Wet food will help keep pumping those fluids through baby Angel to keep her

bladder and her kidneys healthy. I mean, I think bottom line, we got a lab

result back that explains why she's going right outside that litter box. It

It's starting to become painful, so it's great that we caught that.

I get to deliver all things good, which right now is food.

Hi, Mama.

Do you want some food?

Mmm.

There you go.

Breakfast in bed.

Dinner. Breakfast in bed, man.

Can I pet you from over here? Can I pet you?

There you go.

Aw. Yeah.

Look at her right now. That is a big change for this cat.

That has to, I mean, for you, because there was that whole thing about sort of

you had this special relationship with her.

Is it a good feeling?

It's a great feeling.

To watch this? Yeah, because I want her to feel secure and safe.

And I told them I want to show you guys off.

It is symbolic in a way.

making a family, making a home, you know? I think Jacqueline did a great

It's really hard to release a special relationship that you have with

and she did that for the sake of unifying her family. And she was also a

good coach. More litter boxes. So this is the same area where baby Angel has

been peeing in the past.

There we go.

Yay, Angel. There it is.

Right in there. So we're putting new box number two out. Pretty clear so nobody

can be trapped.

Good. There's still a lid on top.

Uh -oh.

Caught her in the act. In the act. Is she still continuing to pee outside the

box every day?

Yes.

So that's a problem.

More litter books. Homework number two.

There's still a lid on top.

Uh -oh.

Caught her in the act. In the act.

Is she still continuing to pee outside the box every day?

Yes.

So, that's a problem.

Well, there have been a couple days she did not. The only place she's peeing is

on that one potty pad in the office.

So, that is still...

From what I can tell, the only box with a lid on it in the house. We still got a

problem here, but we have a problem because somebody didn't listen to their

homework. That lid was supposed to come off, and I bet you when it does, we're

not going to have a problem.

So since I left, she literally was peeing everywhere.

At this point, we're down to that pad outside the box? Hell yeah.

Yeah.

Just take a second here.

Almost everything that we were hoping for in terms of the things that were

really affecting her were right on. I couldn't be more impressed with

and Devin. I mean, it shows that they were very serious about solving the

problem. But there's still some things about this place that are bothering me.

And I just want to walk around, see if I can tweak what the couple has done

here. So now, last time I was here, this was that sort of traffic jammy area.

It still is. I would really encourage you guys.

to continue to spread.

This, to me, is sort of a territorial bottleneck. Now, Baby Angel is doing

fantastic. She's not picking fights with the other cats, but with a bottleneck

like this, you're asking for it down the line. I want to make sure that I'm

setting these guys up for success in the future. We're still seeing pee happen

here every other day, something like that.

We were seeing pee twice a day, every day. Yeah. Okay, so we are 100 % getting

somewhere.

But I want you to stop thinking about human convenience here because for your

cat, there's no out.

If any cat's in there, they can be cornered pretty easily.

I'll leave with this. This is coming with me.

It's like collecting trophies. The most important thing I can say about that lid

is the cat is still peeing there.

So try everything, whether it's getting rid of the lid, getting rid of the pee

pads next to the box. There's one place left that she's peeing. It's now just a

matter of deductive reasoning.

So I feel like you guys have accomplished a tremendous amount. I got

worked for this. You guys put together a home with a family, and it works

really, really well.

We're a pretty good team. Yeah.

Now maybe the two -legged family.

I mean, that is, after all, why I came here. On top of all this, you guys

were wanting to get into fostering and possibly adopting a child.

How do you feel about moving forward with that? I think we're now to that

where we can start.

Thinking about that.

I mean, listen, if you can make room for eight cats in this house and have

peace, adding a child to it, hey, listen, I hope it goes well for you

But I think it will. I mean, this is a wonderful home. You guys have a great

family. All of Jackson's support and help with Baby Angel has given us

confidence. We can face challenges together.

Moving forward through fostering or adopting a child, we can really build a

peaceful and loving household.

I'm in Clarksville, Tennessee to meet up with Robert and Maggie, their daughter

Sarah, and their space cat, Artemis. Now, Artemis has been a best friend to

Sarah since they adopted her, but she's also helped Sarah in ways that have

surprised just about everyone.

Of course, for me, it's just another day at the office with a heavenly cat.

Well, hey.

Hi. You must be Sarah.

Good to meet you, Sarah. How are you? Good.

Good. Hey, man, how are you? Doing wonderful. Jackson. Hi.

Hey, and you have to be Maggie, wouldn't you? I'm Maggie, and this is my

daughter, Sarah, and her best friend, Artemis. Hi, Artemis.

Hi. What a gorgeous girl she is.

We adopted Artemis in 2014.

She came from a hoarding situation that happened here locally.

There was about 30 cats that was going to be delivered to the animal shelter.

There were a lot that didn't survive.

They were adopted out. Oh, really bad, bad. Yeah. Because nobody took care of

them. Yeah. She had never been held.

Oh, really?

Or she hasn't touched a step out of her cage ever in her life. Are you kidding

me? She was in a cage her whole life?

That is the saddest thing ever.

So then when you brought her home, was she scared when she first got here? She

was. She snuggled right up to Sarah, though. That was her comfort.

The really sad thing is that she spent her first six months of life never

stepping foot out of a cage.

As soon as Artemis... We got into this home. She just glommed on to Sarah. She

said, you are my person. And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.

When we got Artemis, Sarah could say maybe five or six words.

The doctor said that I would never talk again because that's when I couldn't

talk. Yeah, the doctor just said she would probably always be a late bloomer.

She made me have voice.

She gave Sarah her voice.

I love Artemis.

And I'm going to vet school.

Are you really?

Now, you know how happy that makes me? We need people like you to be vets for

sure. We explain that to go to veterinary school, you have to be able

So we tell Sarah that she has to read to Artemis so she can go to vet school

someday. And Sarah took it very seriously.

According to Maggie and Robert, there's no way that Sarah would have caught up,

that she would have had the desire to learn or to become more verbal. She just

didn't have that connection with other kids.

But because she had that connection with Artemis, she came around.

Sarah is now reading in a way that she just couldn't before.

You mind if we do a little bit of reading?

Artemis meets this little girl immediately. She's like, I have a

Pretty amazing.

I don't think anybody could have seen the change that Artemis had with Sarah.

That's not something that I've even read about.

There are days I come home from work and I will see Sarah plop down reading to

Artemis. Seeing her do that, it renders me speechless.

The way

that she's motivated her and changed things around, I think it was just that

missing piece.

Artemis has brought Sarah a purpose because she's got something to bring to

animals. She's going to help cure.

She's going to help keep cats alive.

Thank you so much for letting me in.

All right.

Bye. Bye.

I am just walking on air right about now. I mean, Sarah and Artemis, both

significant challenges in their life early on, meet each other and find the

courage to rise above those challenges. And no matter how many times I see this,

it never gets old. Children and animals forge a bond that is so deep, us

grownups will never get it.

They've been so...

Annoying.

I'm back for my third visit with Andrew and Liz and their cats, Frankie and

Charlie. And last time I was here, Frankie was still completely torturing

Charlie.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm hoping that their homework helped fortify what

confidence Charlie had to begin with so that she could live the life that she

really deserves.

How's life?

Better. But there are a few red X's by the stairwell.

That's a problem.

How's life?

Better. But there are a few red X's by the stairwell. Two or three. Oh, one,

two, three. But there are more green X's.

than ever before.

The green tape is for where they hang, and that's to say where's the confident

where, especially for Charlie. The last time I was here, there was not a shred

of red left on your roll. You had run out of red, and now you're running out

green. If we needed any indication that things were heading in the right

direction in here, that's it. Looking around and seeing green Xs versus red

I know that there's more resting than there is fighting going on in this

That means that the homework worked.

Hello. Hello.

Yep. Look at this, man. Immediately, I'm seeing catification. And I mean, really

solid work.

Nice.

Here you

have this moment where, right

there, where she went from wild animal to this, which is just ho -hum.

This is that moment where she realizes that the red dot is not something she's

going to be able to kill.

This is where you bring out the actual toy that she can kill. Andrew still has

lot to learn when it comes to boil and simmer. He's got the boil part down, but

the simmer, not so much.

You like that stuff?

Yeah, you do.

How long did it take her to... No time at all. So that...

It helps to prove our point that this is our little tree dweller, right?

Watching this homework, I mean, my wildest dream was that I would come back

Charlie would be walking around the walls as if she was walking on the

not better. And that's what I'm seeing. She is a tree dweller, and now she has

treetops to roam. We just had a feeding.

where I tried to put a food bowl down in the middle of the floor, and Charlie

was not taking. Charlie was still meandering around the outside, and

about her escape plan. So I moved the bowl a little closer to a different part

of the room that she likes, and Charlie took it, and they both started eating

next to each other. To see Charlie eat that close to Frankie, and not just eat

next to her, but posture up just a little bit, that's our girl just

grow some muscles, man. She's getting strong.

So, Merry Christmas, everybody.

Okay, Liz is already opening the boxes.

Look at this pet gate.

All right, baby.

That's really cool.

This body language of Charlie being in control of the situation.

It was this wonderful sort of like, wait a minute, I can watch all of this and I

don't have to worry that I'm going to be chased, you know?

Based on everything I saw in homework, I think that we need to... Push another

challenge line here.

We do feel confident having the two cats play together.

I think we can do it. You, my little love.

Do you think I can get you back up here? What do you think? Right now, the

exercise that I have in mind is something where Charlie is occupied to a

where she can be absolutely confident in the space as she has been. At the same

time, Frankie's coming down the stairs, entering the space, playing, following

treats, whatever Andrew has, so that they can both be occupied on a task.

And not each other. And of course, Frankie cannot chase Charlie. Use it on

floor. Guide it around. You know how to make her go, man.

Guide, guide, guide.

Here. Take a few of these.

And when all else fails, I want you to plant it where you want her to be.

Let her see you do it. Frank.

There you go.

Nice going.

Keep Frankie going.

Come on, baby. Right up here.

There it is.

Now that's exactly what I wanted. We have got Charlie up.

Frankie down.

This is a brave vertical cat, and this is an occupied floor cat.

Very, very nice. The end goal here was an ability to share space without

being a constant target and for Charlie to have the mojo it takes to live in a

house with Frankie. I'm seeing both of those things come to fruition right now.

It's a big, big change.

All right, guys. Take care of yourself. Thank you.

Bye -bye. Bye -bye. Hug it out with me, buddy.

When Jackson first came, Charlie was nowhere to be found, and now it's a

and day difference.

And if not for Jackson's expertise and perspective and experience, our lives,

cat's lives, would not have made such a dramatic turnaround.