Original subtitles

We have three cats, Sasha, Kona, and Jackson.

Jackson loves people. He just hates cats.

Jackson put both of them in the hospital.

He almost ripped off Kona's tail.

But I'm not willing to send the cat to the pound or rehome anybody.

We don't have any other options.

I have a cat named Greeny who lives inside my mom's antique store.

Greeny is peeing on the merchandise.

I can't sell a poster of furniture. I can't sell couches. And he's ruined

that belongs to other people, and it's really embarrassing.

Greeny's a nightmare.

He's destructive, and he's ruining my mom's career.

Greeny is tearing my store apart and our family.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

Oh, my God, I love my job.

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

cat.

That really ups the stakes a little bit here.

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

my help. Thank you.

Hi,

I'm Chris.

And I'm Stephanie. We have three cats, Sasha, Kona, and Jackson.

Jackson is four years old.

He's such a lover. He loves people. He is so affectionate. He just hates cats.

We adopted Jack as a play buddy for Kona and Sasha.

That didn't go very well.

Jackson almost ripped off Kona's tail.

He had to have stitches around his tail.

After the second time to our vet, she recommended that we get rid of Jack.

We have a two -story house, so we can keep Jack upstairs and the other two

downstairs just to keep them from biting.

Because if they see each other, Jack attacks them and literally tries to,

rip their tail off. Jack gets lonely at night. He'll get at the bottom of the

stairs and just meow and meow and meow. And he'll do it 2, 3 o 'clock in the

morning when you're trying to sleep.

But I'm not willing to send the cats to the pound or rehome anybody.

What do we do now? What do we do now?

I'm heading in to go see Chris and Stephanie and their bad cat, and his

Jackson. We know if his name is Jackson, he's not a bad cat.

He's just misunderstood.

Let's go meet these guys.

I'm back where my cat career started, in Boulder, Colorado.

It's been a long time. Thank you very much. You got a Jackson.

I have a Jackson named after you. Oh, you actually did name him after me?

Oh, that's so embarrassing.

If you had named your cat Jackson and he was like the second coming of the

Buddha, then hey, I'm all good. But naming your hell cat Jackson?

Embarrassed. You have Kona, Jackson, and?

Sasha. Right, Sasha.

My God, they are like litter mates. So Sasha came first.

Sasha was here, and then we brought Kona, and then we went to the pound and

adopted Jack.

So we brought him into the house. Did the normal training between the doors,

separate rooms. You did a normal introduction.

And then when it was time to actually sort of let him nose -to -nose, he just

busted out of the door, went after Kona, flipped him over, and then just...

Tried to rip his tail off. Almost ripped his tail off. Damn. So we took him back

to the pound.

They have a camera there on all the kennels, you know, to help adopt the

I started watching that every day to see if he would get adopted. And that went

on for 60 days.

So I was really worried that they were going to put him down.

And that 60th day actually fell on my birthday.

And so Chris said, what do you want for your birthday? And I was like, all I

want is Jackson back.

Obviously, I'm happy that the guardians took Jack back from the shelter where he

surely would have been euthanized. But let's step back and look at this from

perspective for a minute. He spends all this time in the shelter. Then he goes

to a home that's already occupied by two other cats. It's their territory. Now

he's sent back to the shelter. He spends a whole bunch of time there. Now he's

back to the house again.

You just can't be surprised that a cat with this kind of an unsettled history

developing some serious deep -seated territorial issues.

Now, the behaviorist that we talked to told us the second time we reintroduced,

we should get this cat pen, put them in there, feed them, play with them, and

then they get kind of used to each other. If you take a prey animal like a

who is living by their wits in the wild, kill or be killed, you put them in an

environment that's enclosed and has no escape routes whatsoever, that's going

put some undue stress on that animal.

At that time, we lived in a house that really didn't have a very good setup to

have him separated. He was in one room. So we found this house, and the hole

upstairs is Jack Land.

You are not going to tell me that you moved to a new house for him. We won't

tell you if you don't want to hear it.

That's a first. I have not been in this situation before where the commitment

stretched to the point where they said, we need a better house for our cats. So

you moved into a house.

For Jackson, now you live... I sleep upstairs.

Chris sleeps in the guest room.

You guys are separated?

I'm like, what's wrong with you?

What's wrong with you? Chris and Stephanie might think that they're

from the same page and they're doing the best they can by their cats.

That's not how it works. This is the beginning.

It all goes downhill from here. We can't let that happen.

So... I want to meet Jack.

This is Jack Land.

Do the other cats ever come up here?

No. Okay.

Him being isolated from the rest of the house, living in a smaller space like

this, is going to take a toll on him if it hasn't already.

Hi, buddy.

Oh, I know.

It is your favoritest thing to rub your scent all over me. Make no mistake about

it. Even though Jackson is loving and wonderful, Jackson's actions almost

attention starved.

I can also see how the pen itself can be a little problematic, but I am actually

going to want to see that. Where do you keep it?

Downstairs. Downstairs. Let's go on down. Okay. Now, as much as I hate using

pen as a training device, because he's used to it, and as a challenge line

exercise, I think we'll put Jack in that pen just one more time to see how he

interacts with Sasha. I really need to see these three cats in the same room at

the same time in order to make an assessment, and at this point, using the

may be the best and safest way to do it.

So can we get everybody gathered around?

Yeah, let's try it. All right, let's go. A challenge line exercise like this is

where I put a cat into a challenging environment to see what they can and

handle. Now, obviously, this could be a really stressful situation for the cat,

but it truly is necessary so that I can make a diagnosis and assess their

progress along the way.

So what I'm looking for is the ability for these guys to be able to eat in each

other's presence without...

all hell breaking loose let's bring sasha a little closer to jackson

i'm seeing jackson being pretty hyper alert you know we got

ears pointed at her right now sasha seems more worried about jack than those

treats right in front of her i don't know kona's coming but he's also looking

out the other way now even though jackson's got treats in there right now

not interested

He's much more cautious, much less himself.

His eyes are squarely on Sasha.

Let's see what Jack does when Sasha gets closer.

He

is

not the same cat in this pen as he is upstairs. That is for sure. My diagnosis

of Jackson.

He's territorially aggressive.

He feels like he doesn't own anything. He's what I call a Napoleon cat. I don't

own this? Well, you're damn sure not going to own it either. I'm going to

it from you because I am insecure about my ownership.

Another thing I take away from the exercise in the pen is that although

has attacked Kona in the past, the real trouble here now is between Jack and

Sasha. I mean, I know this whole thing has been pretty hard on you guys. You

know, all the grief I gave you before about where you're sleeping and

everything, that's first and foremost what I want.

to nip in the bud. Just remember that you're a couple first and cat guardian

second, because if you are not taking care of each other, you can't take care

the cat.

So that begins with our first piece of homework, which is, you know, at least

-weekly slumber parties. Please start breaking that wall down again. You know,

Jackson will be okay. Anything that requires you guys to make a sacrifice to

that degree is doomed.

The pen's gone.

No more pens.

What we're going to replace it with is site swapping.

So at least once a day, he comes down and they go up, okay? And the other

is, that's his base camp.

The way that we can expand base camp is to take things in there that his scent

is seriously soaked into and start exploding it out to the rest of the

We're making it so the whole house smells like everybody.

And that's how cats first and foremost define ownership.

We're also going to do a reintroduction. Once there's visual stimulus and they

can see each other, bad things always happen.

What I'd like you to do is use this screen door. Every time these guys prove

that they can eat on either side of the door without the hissing, the

scratching, the charging the door, whatever, just eat, walk away, move on.

we're reintroducing, we're exploding base camp, we're giving everybody a

of ownership all at the same time, and that is going to get us going in the

right direction here. You could buy a bigger house. Hell, you can give each

a separate floor of that house, but that's just a temporary solution to a

problem. Jackson's behavior is a reflection of the continued segregation

house and his history of territorial instability, which has led to his

insecurity and his lashing out at the other cats.

Oh, thank you so much for coming. It has been my pleasure.

Hi, I'm Julie. I own Street Fair Antiques. I'm Melissa.

And I'm Emily.

I have a cat named Greeny who lives inside my mom's antique store, and he is

best part of our family.

Owning an antique store is hard work, especially when my daughter's cat is

peeing on the furniture.

Greeny is peeing on the merchandise.

I can't sell rugs. I can't sell poster furniture.

I can't sell couches. I have a lot of items on consignment in here that don't

belong to me. And he's ruined stuff that belongs to other people.

I try and cover up the smells. I try and get rid of areas where he's peed. I've

had the carpets cleaned.

Greeny's a nightmare.

He's mean and he's destructive and he's ruining my mom's career.

Greeny is tearing my store apart and our family.

So I'm heading in to meet up with Julie and her daughters, Melissa and Emily,

and their shop cat, Greeny. Now, of course, I'm always trying to save

relationships. This time around, some merchandise, too.

Hey. Hello.

This is fun. This is fun.

But, of course, that is not why I'm here. Unfortunately, I'm here because of

cat.

Yes. What's your cat's name?

His name's Greeny.

Hello.

And how did you get him?

A friend of mine brought me home the kitten, and so he's a rescue.

Very feral. Very feral when you first got him. A feral cat is a cat that was

born outdoors with little to no human interaction, and they're usually not

receptive at all to human touch.

On top of that obstacle, being raised as a shop cat instead of in a home caused

Greeny to miss out on another opportunity to be socialized properly.

What's his issue?

For the first seven years, he's been great, but in the past couple years,

started peeing on my furniture.

Not my rug.

There's no way to know exactly why Greeny started peeing around the shop

all these years.

Greeny is neutered, so at least we can rule that out as a cause for spraying.

A cat starts spraying usually as a way to express territorial panic, and

something's probably happened here to panic Greeny. So he lives with you?

He lives here at the shop. Ever since he was little, he's had free reign of the

store. I've been around a lot of shop cats before, and it's great. Shop cats

have a job. They're mousers.

They entertain people when they come in, but they're not...

House cats.

Greeny is very much part of the emotional fabric of the family, and that

little uncommon when it comes to shop cats. How bad is the problem?

Well, if you look on the floor, there's all kinds of spots.

I had a customer buy a dresser from me, and he said, what's this on the handle?

And I said, oh, accumulated furniture polish.

And then I went like that and smelled it, and it was Greeny Pete.

Potentially could be any...

animal that comes in during story hours.

She's blaming a rogue squirrel once or a rogue lizard that could have like one

time. Oh, you love Greeny. You're trying to protect him. She has doors open and

all these people around here are dog people and she's dog friendly. So she

them come on in. So I've been blaming the dogs in their sense.

Yes, it is very popular.

The difference between dog pee and cat pee? Cat pee smells way worse than dog

pee. That is true.

Emily's in such denial that she actually believes that maybe it's because people

let their dogs inside the store and the dogs lift their legs. Now, both her

sister and her mother understand what I understand.

Dog pee and cat pee are totally different animals.

Cat pee, you can smell a mile away. I want to talk to you guys separately and

get your take on the experience.

Who's to blame for this?

Well, I'd have to say it was Emily.

Greeny's my sister's cat, but she's not doing any of the day -to -day work. She

comes once a day maybe to visit him, but I'm the one that has to clean up. I'm

the one that has to do all the work involved with Greeny's upkeep. She

feral. It's this nightmare cat and just dumps the feral on my mom.

Can you afford to not have rugs and not have upholstered furniture or not? It's

definitely hurting my business.

You've noticed a change in the bottom line?

Mm -hmm. I definitely have.

Talking to Julie and Melissa may agree on one thing, and that is that Emily is

at the center of this whole thing.

Would you mind losing these lights for me? Sure.

So now to get a really clear picture of what's going on with Greeny, I want to

take a black light around this place. I have got to start checking the evidence.

Oh, look at that.

Look at all that.

Oh, there's more.

Look, do you see it?

I want you to see all of this.

All the stuff that's lighting up here, there's some more right here.

Here's where you start being able to smell it, too.

That is definitely Greeny.

As I'm going around the store, I'm discovering patterns where Greeny is

and the math comes together with a portrait of anxiety.

Look, do you see it? Yeah.

I feel horrible. I thought that coming by and visiting him on a daily basis was

going to be enough to maintain that bond, but apparently...

His accents are saying otherwise.

Now, what do you want me to do?

I want you to help me show to my mom and sister that he is, you know, this

wonderful, loving cat that needs to be treated like it rather than just being

treated like a problem.

Now that Emily's finally being honest with herself about the situation, the

way that I can see if or how I can help is to spend some time with Greeny. Where

is he?

Greeny!

Greeny's under the green.

I would like to see a Greeny.

Can I see a Greeny?

You take a cat like Greeny who was born feral, then raises a shop cat without

positive interactions with strangers. Well, that cat's not going to change

because of all the socialization that he missed out on early in life.

Talk to him.

Greeny.

Oh, there's a Greeny.

Hi, Greeny. Oh, my God, he's gorgeous.

Can I say hello to you?

No,

my boy.

It's okay. It's okay, baby.

Don't be scared.

The second I lay eyes on him and I hear that stressed meow, I know that Greeny

has a high degree of insecurity in this territory. Has he demonstrated any

measure of increased sociability with strangers?

So then what does then fixing him look like? If I can't make him more social in

a huge space like the store, you just want him to be able to what?

To continue on. He has a roof over his head and he's spoiled, and I just want

him to continue to have that life. We can leave him.

I just want one more little moment.

Hopefully. The next thing I want to do is I want to see if I can tempt his nose

in the same way that my presence tempted his eyes.

I get you to smell the glasses, baby.

What's that?

Are you a good boy?

He's frozen.

As I'm in this room longer and longer, he's shutting down more and more. Cute

Greeny is, he's still the under -socialized, anxiety -ridden cat I

was going to meet.

So, guys.

Why are you looking at me like that? You guys are all looking like I'm going to

give you bad news.

But you knew things had to change here, right?

Because he's really messing the place up pretty good.

Cats pee out of a sense of territorial insecurity.

Really? So there's something out there totally stressing him out at night.

Whatever is out there. It could just be people or traffic or whatever it is. It

makes him feel vulnerable.

And then he feels like he has to act.

right so that's what he does but the way he lives his life right now is not

great for him at all between this huge piece of territory that he feels

like he can't defend and then the fear that he has because he's only socialized

with you and that's it so he can't feel comfortable when people are here during

the day and at night we know that he's not comfortable because he's peeing

everywhere so my homework for you

is very simple. He can't be a shop cat anymore.

What are we going to do?

He can't be a shop cat

anymore. What are we going to do?

I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to make him a house cat.

dealing with a degree of fear that...

can only be what I'm seeing here. All of the urine, all of the places, the

perimeter marking, he's got to get out of here. Now it's up to you guys to

decide which home that is.

What needs to be there is a catified space for this cat.

He's used to hiding, so I want him to have, instead of places to cave, like

closets and places like that, I want places that are cocoons, that we can

him hidden for now, but guide him out. But then you guys doing the work is

to help to bring him out.

That's going to be pretty freaking hard.

It's not going to be easy, but you're a cat.

I mean, he probably should be with you, right?

How am I supposed to do that? Like, I work two jobs, then I work for you, and

then I'm also going to school full -time. Like, that's going to work?

It has to go with Mom.

What if he pees in my house?

Well, I mean, I really don't see any other option.

Let's not make this an emotional decision.

I don't...

Really care where it is that he goes. But you guys asked me for the help.

it is. I'll be back in a few weeks to someone's house, and we'll take it from

there. All right, guys? Thank you, John. All right.

I'll talk to you soon.

Looks like I got out of there in the nick of time. I don't want to be part of

that conversation.

These guys all wanted something very different from me. But what I want and

they should want is a cat that is out of that shop and into a home.

I'm back in Colorado to see Jackson. Here's what I'm hoping. Chris and

Stephanie, they're building a team again. That we're seeing desensitization

the form of base camp expansion and site swapping. And hopefully the mealtime

exercise is paying off and these cats are getting closer and closer to knowing

that there are positive things around each other. First of all, you guys.

How do you feel? Team building has been going really well, and it's really

brought us together.

It took a few days to kind of get into me moving back upstairs, but so far it's

been good. And you know who loves it the most?

Jackson.

Playpen. Gone?

Gone.

Gone. Love it. What I want to do is I want to get straight into your homework.

Boom.

Sasha and Kona do not like to be locked in a certain room.

Oh, wow.

And that's without Jackson.

That's just having the door shut.

They're still struggling with feeding exercise.

The goal of the feeding exercise for reintroduction is to bring the cats

to one another, forming a positive association using food.

He's not treat motivated. He's not food motivated.

Wait, hold on. Let's go back here.

There's the food over there.

There's Jackson all the way over there.

I totally know where you're going with this. Yeah. Our food sucks.

Your food sucks.

In these feeding reintroduction exercises that I do, the key is to forge

positive association between these two cats by being rewarded with a high value

food. Now, of course, that food differs from cat to cat, but you can start with

a generality like... A meaty dish that's warmed up to body temperature. That

should work with just about any cat. I think that expansive base camp went

really well.

There's Jackson on Kona's blanket.

And here's Kona on Jackson's bedspread. Good.

We are sight swapping. This is his first time downstairs ever.

Wow. Look at his eyeballs.

I'm psyched. Because I got Jackson coming downstairs. I'm looking at his

language, and I'm seeing mojo. I'm seeing relaxed, confident, exploring.

Jackson is smelling himself on everything, and he's associating that

Base camp expansion works.

Now what the job is in front of us today is I want to see Challenge Line in

action. All right, so let's get everybody set up, and let's do some

Line. Come on. Let's go.

And the vet's phone number is on the fridge if we need it.

I know it's a risk, but if this is going to work, I need to do a challenge line

to see how these cats react when they're in the same room together.

It's the only way I know how to gauge their progress to this point. I just

that nobody loses a tail this time.

If a fight starts to happen, I want you to be able to see it happening first,

right? But if it does go down, sight blockers, you put them down like this.

allows you that minute to be able to guide them someplace else so that we can

stop this fight from happening before it happens, okay?

Stephanie?

I'm so glad you're here.

I want Stephanie to go upstairs.

And what she's supposed to do is occupy Jackson, make him think it's just

another day, get him into playing a little bit, and start luring him down

stairs. But Chris's role is a little more difficult. Chris has to wrangle two

cats. He's got to get both Kona and Sasha getting interested in play and

around in the living room and drawing them out into the dining room. All

Chris, you can get up and start pulling her this way.

As soon as she gets in this area, I'm going to not worry too much about Kona.

don't want to stare down. I want activity.

So, Chris, you want to get up and start just walking. Come on. Get her moving.

Get her moving.

There you go. All right, Stephanie, come on.

Let's do it.

And out comes Jackson.

Right there, he knows exactly where Sasha is, but what he cares about is

thing. Right? See, he's looking in the opposite direction.

And that's what we want.

Sasha's coming out, a little hesitant, but not overly scared, not like Kona at

all. Chris can draw her out. I'm feeling good about Sasha.

Oh, good girl.

Get that food, man.

I want her eating.

Oh, you're way too interested in that door.

I am going to shut that door as soon as I get him.

Can you please come on out? Good boy.

Here, your side, left side. Now, here's the thing. I am going to, I am going to,

There we go.

Uh -oh. It's okay, Bubba.

It's okay.

All right, now hold up.

Hold up.

Okay, now we got a little bit of a problem. No, no, no, no, Sasha.

Hey, hey, hey!

Sorry. It's okay.

Do you want me to open the door?

Yep, go for it.

Jackson! I don't know where she is.

Jackson, come on, buddy. It's okay, Sasha.

Do you have both of them?

I got one.

Which one's this? Sasha?

Okay, there goes Tasha. Tasha wants to go upstairs. Here he comes. He's coming

your way. Oh, no.

Okay,

there goes Tasha. Tasha wants to go upstairs. Here he comes. He's coming

way. Oh, no.

I'm with Guardians Christmas Stephanie, who bought a two -story house to keep

their cats apart.

And now, an exercise designed to normalize cat relations has gone awry,

resulting in two enemy cats running upstairs, unsupervised. There has been

real damage done to these cats by one another in the past, and I can't let it

happen again, not on my watch.

Hey, guys.

Hi. What are we doing under there?

We're both under the bed. They're both under the bed.

Can you guys come this way, please?

Hi.

To my surprise, I find no violence whatsoever.

Then Sasha just slips past me and goes out the door.

She's out?

Yep. This tells me that these cats were more freaked out by the anxiety of the

moment than any kind of resentment they may have had towards one another.

If these cats wanted to kill one another in this moment, they would have, and

they didn't. That's encouraging news.

Let's all go downstairs, let him decompress, and...

Let's figure out what's next.

Just like a person, cats often need time to wind down after an emotional event.

Approaching the cat when they're in this state is just going to cause more

stress. So I'm just going to allow time to chill out. That's what I would always

do. Here's what I'm happy about.

Number one, I'm happy, obviously. No blood, no trips to the hospital, nothing

like that. I'm also happy that those two cats, Sasha and Jackson, sitting side

by side, they didn't want to kill each other. If they wanted to, it would have

happened. That's the good news, and we're going to build on that. So the

thing that I'm going to have you guys do is minimize the chaos.

Block off all unders.

The unders of the couch, the unders of the bed. Block it off. There's some

really easy ways to do it. It can come down to a two by four under these

couches. I don't want to see cats getting into fights under couches or

beds anymore. This way, we avoid confrontations between cats where we

reach them, which is always going to end bad for the cats and for the humans as

well. What we're going to do in here is give them the option to go up instead of

under.

The reintroduction continues as it was.

Now, while you're doing your reintroduction meals, I want to

we did today. Now, here's my plan. Bear with me. It's not about them being able

to be at the same space at the same time. We know they can.

What I'd like to do is how long can we make this go on to the point where can

these guys just be in the room together? Can it be 15 minutes? Can it be a half

hour? Can it be indefinite?

Indefinite would be great, and I want to see that happen over the next few

weeks. But the big important thing is the food. The jackpot level of the food

really goes a long way here. Food preferences vary from cat to cat, but

just want to start with a slightly warmed up, all meat cat food and see how

cat reacts.

We use that as the introduction.

But after that, I think that Jackson and Sasha can be in the same room at the

same time. So.

By the time I get back here next time, we've got to have this space catified.

have to have meal time down to a science.

Kona's been really relaxed since I got here, but I want to see Sasha and

hanging together peacefully.

And I want to see Sasha and Jackson peas in a pod.

Let's keep spirits up, and I'll talk to you in a few weeks.

I'm heading in to meet up with Tammy and her daughter, Jordan.

Jordan's autistic, but has found this intense connection with cats, and I'm

going to find out all about it.

Hey. Hi. Nice to meet you.

I am Tammy.

Pleasure to have you here.

This is my daughter, Jordan. Hi, Jordan. Hi. Can you say hi to Jackson?

Hi, Jackson.

Nice to meet you.

Good to see you. Good to see you.

So. Tammy, tell me the story of Jordan. So Jordan is autistic and currently

works at Adopt -A -Shop, a volunteer place to go and to interact with the

kittens. How did that happen?

So Jordan, ever since she was little, she's had a love for cats.

And through Jordan's volunteering, she has increased her language and her

communication skills.

Wow. And she'll tell me, like, how many kittens she's played with during the

day. Oh, cool. The difference in her is amazing, truly.

Well, I would love to go over to Adopt and Shop and see what Jordan is like

the cats.

Hey, Jordan, you want to go spend time with some kittens? Mm -hmm.

Me too.

Let's go. Let's go.

The reason there are programs like Adopt and Shop where it's about what if kids

with autism met up with cats who then have to get adopted.

Look who we got.

How many people would that help?

And because they asked that question, we see a difference in both Jordan and

these cats' lives.

Look at that.

It's a kitten.

We have another black cat.

No, he's so cute.

Let's see who wants to play with you.

You want to play?

This one likes me.

I got a friend over here.

Here we go.

The cats love you, Jordan.

What are you doing? Do you got a kitten?

Huh? It's so great to see how happy she is. Just like instantly.

Honestly, the difference.

She gets that smile on her face. Yeah, totally. She does, yeah. At Tammy and

Jordan's home, Jordan was in her own space.

Here, she's talking to me. And there's a smile and laughter. The change is

unbelievable. Hey, cat.

Come here, kitten. Come on, cat. Come on.

The cat's...

actually model a social group that Jordan feels like she can be a part of,

then radiates that confidence.

It's undeniable.

Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty. And it is so good for the cats, too. Let's

not forget that.

Just getting out like this, playing with toys, getting treats, getting loved on,

big deal when we're trying to get them adopted. Oh, yeah.

Having a presence in communities the way Adopt and Shop does helps everybody.

Obviously, the animals go home. Obviously, the less animals die in

You just ask Jordan or anybody else, what it does for the human population is

just as strong.

Chum, Chad, Chum.

I'm grateful Jordan gets the opportunity to help people pick out a kitten to

adopt, and she also gets to take care of them to know that she's happy doing

what she does here. It's a wonderful feeling.

You look like you have a friend.

I'm going to leave you guys alone.

That's so amazing to watch how much joy these cats bring out of Jordan and she

in turn gets them adopted. Come on. How cool.

Has he peed here at all? Anywhere but the litter box.

Any number of things can happen right now to cause absolute chaos. We've seen

before and believe me, we can see it again.

I want us to not freak.

I'm coming in for my second visit with Julie and her two daughters, Melissa and

Emily. And the last time I was here, the cat, Greeny, was ruining the

merchandise and wreaking havoc on this family. I made it pretty clear. Greeny

needs to be a house cat. Hopefully these guys heard me. We got a cat on his way

to being a happy cat.

Well, hi, guys.

Hi, Jackson. How are you?

Good to see you. Good to see you, too.

I'm looking. I'm looking.

Is there a cat in the shop?

There's not. There's not a catnip shop.

I'm so excited. Well, that's one thing out of the way. Where is it?

Well, we talked about it. There's no other option. We had to keep them at

house. Okay.

You know what? That's totally cool.

Well, there's no pee in the store.

That's one big thing out of the way. I would say since we have some unfinished

business, I'm going to take you guys and let's go to your house. All right.

Let's do it.

Hey, look at you.

Yeah. Look at you, Julie. This looks fantastic, man.

Do you think we catified enough?

You absolutely rocked this.

Loving what I see. Everything from tunnels to beds, cocoons. Greeny's going

be on the floor. He wants to be hidden just like he was in the closet before.

But they've also got all this great stuff to urge him up into the rest of

world. Greeny is set up for success.

I'm thrilled that you're using the Contempo cat stuff.

Towers all over the place. Great space. He loves the rug.

He rolls around on the rug.

It's so exciting. To me, the essence of what makes a confident cat is owning

property, right? Before, the amount of space was endless. But for him to be

here, that's a big, big deal for this cat.

But really, the big...

Question is, and the reason why you brought me over here was him peeing all

everything all the time.

Has he peed here at all, anywhere but the litter box?

Nope.

And there it is. Everything that I'm seeing and hearing from Emily and Julie

great news. Now it's time for me to check in with Greeny to evaluate his

progress myself.

Oh, my friend, it's okay.

Greeny. It's okay, buddy boy.

Give him this tunnel.

Give him... Give him his blanket, honey. It's okay, baby.

Don't be scared. My poor boy.

It's okay, honey.

Great as it is that Greeny is not panicked and peeing all over the place,

concerning that he's reacting with these really distressed yowls and going into

hiding. It means that he still doesn't trust outsiders and he still has a lot

deep ingrained fear. I want to give Julie some tips that will give Greeny

confidence to come out and explore the space some more. Then hopefully next

I come back here, I'll see more Greeny.

I'd like you to bring outsiders here to play with Greeny, give him affection and

treats, and make sure that other people can be okay.

And if you've done that, you've set him up for success in a major way.

Overall, today's visit had some real ups and downs. Hopefully when I come back

here in a few weeks, I'll see a big social improvement in Greeny.

So I'm here for my final visit with Chris and Stephanie and their three

Sasha, Kona, and Jackson. That name never gets old. So there's been a lot of

progress with these three cats, but really not enough. I've got to see them

getting along, or chances are they never will, and that's bad news for Chris and

Stephanie.

Come on in.

So you guys bit the catification bullet.

That just works in here so beautifully.

I'm trying not to get too excited. The catification is fantastic in this house,

but it's not everything.

Cats have got to get along.

Okay, so before we talk about anything, let's take a look at what you guys have

been up to. We are catifying the house.

We have eliminated lowers.

There's no couch under there anymore.

It doesn't go up.

Was it the first day? Yeah. So Chris has Baca next to him. And that's Jack. And

Jack has found a little perch.

Wait. Yeah. Where?

Yeah. Two feet. Here's Baca. There's Jack.

Wow. Yeah. Look at that.

tail up in the air baby that backwards question mark right there that shows us

that absolute mojo cat right there i mean after all this time of these cats

being separated that we have an interaction like this now i'm happy last

was here it was full on demolition derby mayhem here he comes

Fantastic stuff.

I'm really thrilled with it. The exercise today, our challenge line. I'd

get Jax and Sasha and Kona in this room. No sight blockers, no running around,

none of that.

Look, the video homework gives me great hope. Because after I leave today,

that's where the real work begins.

Kona's just chilling in the corner over there. She looks happy. So let's just

leave her be. Let's get Sasha in then, and let's get her settled. And when we

feel the time is right, we'll invite Jack in. Very cool.

Let her take in this whole environment and settling in. Good girl.

Now that's what I wanted to see.

Okay, I think she's settled in. Let's get Jack in here now.

Any number of things can happen right now to cause absolute chaos. We've seen

before, and believe me, we could see it again.

Hey, Jack.

Now, even if he does jump up, I want us to not freak.

Oh, now he is. I want to let this happen.

It's okay.

His eyes are big.

His eyes are dilated? Yeah.

I got him.

I got him. If I don't step in right now, things are going to go bad.

His eyes are dilated?

Yeah. I got him.

I got him. If I don't step in right now, things are going to go bad.

I really want Chris and Stephanie to own this, but I don't want them to own a

massacre.

Everybody, thank you.

That worked.

This is a huge learning moment for Chris and Stephanie. They're finding out that

they don't have to overreact during a tense moment between Jack and Sasha.

They can just sight block, redirect, and stay calm.

There you go, bud. That's all it takes, right?

So cute. I love it. Look, see? It's Jack in a box.

Hi, Jack in a box.

I'm feeling really good that this couple has got this. And in no time flat,

these guys are going to be sitting there with Jack, Sasha, and Kona in the same

room with no cats winding up with stitches.

When you came that first time, these two cats were lunging at each other.

And look at, she's like practically sleeping and he's just hanging out. We

Kona in the corner, Jack in the box, and Sasha is just doing her job right now,

which is normalizing this world.

This was exactly what we were hoping for. When I first got here, we had three

cats who were getting into extreme fights and a couple who were taking

measures to deal with them, like buying bigger houses and sleeping apart.

All that was running away from the problem and not dealing with it. Now I

leave here knowing that they're facing the challenge head on. It all adds up to

a house where three cats can coexist and two guardians can, you know,

cohabitate. Bye, Jackson the cat. Bye, Sasha the cat. Bye, Kona the cat.

Woo -hoo!

That is the way to end the day.

I'm back in Torrance to pay a visit to Julie and her cat, Greeny. Now,

hopefully, Greeny is coming out of his shell. Let's find out.

Hello.

Hi. How are you?

Good. Across the counter. Wow, good to see you. It's good to see you, too.

How's our boy doing? Is he doing well?

Yes. That's fantastic. So, has he come out for other people besides you?

Yeah, we were out of town, and I had somebody come in and feed him, and he

out for him. He came out? Yeah.

That's so cool.

Can I see him?

Yeah. Come on, let's go see him. All right. Right on.

Hey. Emily, look who's here.

And look who you got.

How's our greenie beanie?

Look at the way he's looking at everybody. He does not look freaked out

That is a huge change.

Yeah, I think he likes it here.

Not only is he enjoying life, he's comfortable. He's not acting like a

cat. He's not running away. He's just hanging out in your lap.

You created a really welcoming environment for him. Look at how he just

back in there, man. That was beautiful.

All right, take care, guys. All right. Now that's all the proof I needed.

Greeny is now a house cat. He belongs with Julie, and he's a happy cat. And if

he's happy, so am I.