Original subtitles

I have a cat named Callie, but she's not really a social cat.

Oh, OK. OK, we're going to back up. We're going to back up. I took her to

vet.

They don't know why Callie is so anxious.

I really need help to fix Callie's aggression issues.

I had a cat before that I was in a similar situation, and she would attack

So I had to put her down.

So now I'm at that point with Callie.

But I don't want to give her up.

Curtis Jr., he's a holy terror.

He eats everything, even my couch.

It's a couch from hell, like my cat from hell. And I'd like to get a new couch,

but I think I need to declaw him to do it. I'm at my wit's end. I don't know

what to do about him. He's out of control. If Jackson doesn't help me, I

going to get him declawed. No, no, I never want to hear you talking about

declawing, ever.

I'm Jack from 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 needs my help. Thank you.

I'm Tara, and I have a two -year -old calico mix named Callie.

I found Callie in my backyard.

Her eyes weren't even open yet, and I decided to take her in and keep her

Did you miss me? For the first year, it was just me and Callie, and then it

wasn't until about a year that I started having, like, people from school come

over. Having friends over for the night.

Good night.

And that's when she kind of took a turn.

And I realized that she wasn't really a social cat.

The first time I had a friend come over, Callie totally lost it.

I'd never seen her filled with anxiety or scared like that.

I took her to the vet.

They don't know why Callie is so anxious.

I really need help to fix Callie's aggression issues.

Because I can't physically, mentally, emotionally just give up on her.

It can't happen.

I'm on my way to meet Tara, a young woman who's living alone with her cat

Callie. One of the reasons she's living alone is because Callie is so incredibly

aggressive with anyone who's not Tara that she's afraid to have visitors over

all. So I'm going to get over there right now with the hopes that I can help

Callie and Tara get a fresh start.

Hey. Hi, how are you?

So, tell me what's going on with Callie. Her mom...

Left her to die. She had another respiratory infection, so I took her in

bottle fed her.

Oh. I couldn't just leave her out there.

So what happened? I was a full -time student.

I didn't really have any friends because I had just moved to California.

So it was just me and her always, did you miss me? So then I started making

friends, but she would not have it.

She was so territorial of me, of my apartment, of everything.

The first person I had over, she just attacked.

Oh my gosh.

Kittens go through what's called the sensitive phase of social development,

learning much of what will inform their life with humans by the time they're

only nine weeks old.

Callie's only human interaction during that time was with Tara, and that

extended for the first year of her life.

So now, as an adult cat, the only human that Callie will trust is Tara.

What was the damage that Callie did to the person?

She bit your blood.

No! Oh, God.

She goes to pet, and she's like... Hell no. To the point where she's being so

aggressive that she won't let anyone walk by.

Because at that point, when she's activated like that, you can't touch her

either. Yeah, I can't calm her down.

It's okay.

It's just me. I even feel my energy. I'm afraid of her at that point.

It's just me, Cal.

Is there any human being she's cool with besides you? No.

Nobody.

My one girlfriend, Erin, would watch Callie, and Callie hasn't budged.

Your cat does not like me.

Can you try to pet her? No. I'm scared.

So she hasn't warmed up to one human being beside you.

You know, normally, if somebody has an antisocial cat and company comes over, I

might make the suggestion to just lock the cat up in your bedroom while company

comes over. But in this case, Callie needs help. She is completely

and it makes no sense just to put a Band -Aid on the situation.

What are you left with at this point? What are you going to do?

Well, that's the point where I'm stuck at because I had a cat before that I was

in a similar situation, and she would attack me. So I had to put her up for

adoption, and she wasn't adoptable, and they had to put her down.

Her name was Moosh, and I absolutely loved her. She was the sweetest thing,

giving her up was so hard.

How did you find out that she didn't get adopted?

They called me. They called you and told you that they were going to put her to

sleep? They said that either they were going to put her down or I had to take

her back. And I couldn't do it because I was so stressed out about it.

So now I'm at that point with Callie, but I don't want to give her up.

Wow.

And that's why I reached out to you.

Moosh was very friendly to everyone, but then she would just kind of nap.

And I just saw a flashback of Moosh with Allie.

Wow.

I called my vet behavioralist that I worked with before, and she was like, oh

gosh, another one. One of the reasons that Tara's getting so hyper -emotional

because she's already had to euthanize Moosh because of aggression problems,

she's afraid that it's going to play out all over again.

Just so you know, it would never be my MO. We're going to make it work, one way

or another.

And as long as you're committed to her, I'm committed to you.

I am.

Well, I've heard a pretty harrowing story about who Callie is, but I haven't

her myself.

Apparently, she's in the laundry room, so that's where I'm headed.

Where do we have a cat?

Do I hear you, Callie?

Oh, I do hear you.

Oh, I see you, baby.

Hi,

Kelly.

I am seeing some unusual behavior from Kelly.

Come on, Kelly.

Normally, if she were to trap herself under that shelf, she would be frozen

fear. She's not.

She's giving me signals saying, hey, buddy, get away from me. She's present.

I don't necessarily like the fact that you're hidden like that.

If I just put my hand here, there's our challenge line.

Right there.

Come on, sweetheart.

Can you say hi?

Come on.

Even though I'm getting attacked, Callie's giving me warnings. Her lashing

graduates first from a tap to a punch, then the claws come out and it's a

strike. There's a logic to it. So this tells me that it's most likely not a

chemical issue.

Everything I pictured going wrong is now going wrong.

It's okay.

And I can't do anything to help it. It's okay.

I just don't want him to pack up his stuff and leave.

Okay.

You're not kidding around, man.

I'm working with Guardian Tara's cat, Callie, testing her challenge line and

getting my knuckles bloodied in the process. My goal was to test Callie's

levels to see if her responses were appropriate and if there was a point

her aggression subsided.

They didn't. You got every knuckle, too.

But I got some good information.

All right, honey, you stay right there as if you're going to go anywhere.

Well.

Sorry.

Yeah. Yeah. It was not an altogether pleasant get -together. Oh, my gosh.

It's okay. Let's sit down. Let's talk.

There's actually a couple of problems here. Number one is Callie's

problem. She's almost, in certain ways, feral. So here's my goal, is being able

to have people come over with her being present and not being completely freaked

out. I want you to start getting into ritual.

Mealtime. Right? It's a big event.

You get to feed her meals. She's hungry. She eats. It's over. You pick up the

dish. Before you do that, have a play session with her. Playing with Callie

help drain all of that energy out of her system. That'll make it a lot less

likely that she will attack Tara's friends.

What's going on with you?

No, I'm just, I'm seeing it. This is an emotional day.

Because of the failure or because of the possibility?

Everything. Just a long day.

For me and for her.

My assessment of Tara is that she's actually a really compassionate,

person. Because of that, her tragic experience with Moosh is traumatic to

an extent she hasn't even dealt with yet. It's my guess that she kept Callie

sheltered away from other people, not only because she was new in town, but

because she was so desperately afraid to see Callie fail with strangers the same

way that Moosh did towards the end.

Unfortunately, by overprotecting Callie, she didn't do her cat any favors, just

the opposite.

Your energy helps dictate how she is. If the two of you start this sort of death

dance of anxiety, you know where it's going to end. It's going to end badly.

I get back here next time and Tara hasn't learned how to regulate her own

emotional state and be her cat's social bridge, I don't even know where we'd go

from here. This is a real make or break moment for both Tara and Callie.

Hi, my name is Kurt, and I have one cat, and it's Curtis Jr.

He's adorable and everything, but he's a holy terror.

Curtis Jr.

destroys everything.

Magazines, toilet paper, paper towel, cell phone, headphone cords. I can't

any food out because he comes in price to eat it.

Curtis Jr. eating my lunch thing.

Best way to describe me, kind of like one -third dog, one -third cat, and one

-third rat.

He eats everything, and even my cup.

Crazy.

Why do you do that?

So I'm real social, and I would love to have people over, but I'm really

embarrassed about this couch. It's a couch from hell, like my cat from hell,

I'd like to get a new couch, but I think I need to declaw him to do it. I'm at

my wit's end. I don't know what to do about him. He's out of control. I love

Curtis Jr. so much, but I'm sick of my cat's claws ruining my life. If Jackson

doesn't help me, I am going to get him declawed.

Hey. Hey, man. I'm Jackson. I'm Kurt. Nice to meet you.

So, I assume you've got a cat. Yes.

It's Curtis Jr.

All these years, I've never had someone name their cat after that.

Okay, so, Curtis Jr.

He's destroying everything.

Toilet paper, paper towels, magazines, boxes, any type of...

paper anything he attacked he chews it up and spits it out i was raised with

cats and dogs and i've never had them like attack paper towels and toilet

and stuff like that i've never you are lucky like if i have food on the counter

he'll run up and start eating the food what i'm hearing is the most ordinary

stuff this guy tells me he grew up with cats I want to know what kind of cats he

grew up with. He destroyed my couch.

Yeah. Even though I have a scratching post for him. I'm not sure that we have

cat from hell, but I'm pretty sure we have a couch from hell. That thing's got

to be gone, and I mean like yesterday.

I want to get a new couch, but I don't feel like I can get one. I don't want to

declaw him.

Oh, that takes us in a totally different direction.

Because if you're going there, that means you're already sort of at the end

your rope. Yeah.

You're my last straw. That's why I have you here.

So if I didn't show up today... I'd probably get him to quad, yeah.

No, no, I never want to hear you talking about decline.

Ever. It's a pretty barbaric thing, and something that, as far as I'm concerned,

should be illegal.

The couch ain't worth it.

No, you got a cat who scratches.

They all do. And they have to. It's an absolute necessity.

They have to exercise this part of their chest. They have to rid themselves of

the dead pieces of nail.

It's the thing that makes them feel secure about themselves. Ah, that's me.

So I would have you start looking at what you can do for him. Ask not what

cat can do for you. Ask what you can do for your cat. When you got him, did he

have evidence of neglect?

Yeah, he was kind of malnutritioned. He was real thin. I think he's only

comfortable around me.

Anytime somebody comes over, he gets very scared.

He ran under the bed as soon as he knocked on the door now.

The one problem that Kurt's telling me about that I can get behind is Curtis

Jr.'s social anxiety.

So I'd have to coax him out or lift the bed to get him out.

There's a bunch of crap under the bed.

Oh.

First of all, let's point out exactly what makes you crazy. Okay. So look at

this. Exhibit A.

Look at this.

What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

That's really annoying.

Look, he's ruined the paper towel.

And then, like, I have food. Like, one time I had blueberries, and he gets up

here and he knocked all the blueberries all over.

And then I had lunch meat up here, and I went to the bathroom, and he had eaten

all the lunch meat.

And then he proceeded to puke it all up on the floor. It was like, ugh, hot,

gross.

You have had cats, right? Yeah, I was raised with cats. I can't believe that.

can't bend an animal's characteristics around our need to have blueberries

sitting on a counter. You see this look that I'm giving you right now? That's

sort of incredulous.

I mean, I can give you tools and stuff like that.

I don't know that that's enough.

Are you trying to tell me that I'm not a cat person and I shouldn't have a cat?

Is that what you're saying?

Yeah. Really?

I was born and raised with cats and dogs. Curtis, if you are to the point

you're going to declaw your cat because you've got a side of your couch,

blueberries, paper towel, and some lunch meat, then I'm having a hard time.

And I kind of take offense to that because I love animals.

You can bet that I am not going to leave here today without telling Curtis Sr.

exactly what it means to declaw a cat.

I guess because my parents always got the cats declawed, so I'm not used to

this. It's making sense.

I mean, he had declawed cats, and that's why he always had intact paper towels.

There is no good enough reason to declaw a cat, but the least of them are paper

towels. Grab that scratching board for me. Now, let's look at the differences

here.

You're laughing.

Well, I guess it's pretty small and rinky -dinky. Dainty is the word.

When I do get, if I get a bigger one and I put it by the couch, is that a good

idea or no? It should always be separate. Let me have you talk me

Pros and cons.

Why would you put it right here?

Because, I don't know. We have to go to the reason he's doing this, okay? Number

one, it's sturdy, right? So when he goes to grab, he's got that resistance,

right? This little job.

He goes to grab. Right. And you find it like this. Yeah. He has actually knocked

it over. Yeah, I'm sure. Right. Because this is the road that good intentions

are paved with. And I'm giving you props for the good intentions.

But the thing is that, yeah, he's got to be able to do his thing. Right. And

it's funny, actually, when you look at this.

I don't even see. Oh, there we go. Yeah. We have one scratch. Right. We have a

scratch. But that's one.

So two things I would tell you to do right off the bat.

Number one, we've got to get him something that when he pulls on it.

It gives him that resistance. Otherwise, he's going to always go back to this

thing. Secondly, it is about placement, right?

Because let me tell you why.

In the world of cat, nothing is more important than that ownership, than that

cat mojo, that thing that I smell me and I'm just like, you know what I mean?

This and this, and especially in a space like this, are the prime areas

where you...

Spend your time. So your scent is incredibly strong in these two places,

So he wants to sort of complement that scent and guard the most important

this being the big thing. I didn't know that. That's why this is the only

scratched up place.

That's the outside world. You're coming in here, and you best know Curtis Jr.

lives right here. It's like that little sign that you hang out, that little

wooden plaque that said Curtis Jr., right?

Right here. And then he's guarding this.

The idea of having that scratching post right here so that we have a way of

saying to him, this is the right path. This is the place for you to go. So that

will encourage him just to do the scratching post and not the couch?

Exactly. Exactly.

He's not doing this to piss you off. Okay.

Let's start there.

Let's start at the place that he's not trying to get under your skin. He's

trying to get his job done. Okay. And the job is remove the dead sheaves of

without removing the nails.

The job is to exercise, and the job is to leave that mark, right?

And he's doing a damn good job of it.

And with this here, and the other advantage that you have here is you take

Okay. All right. Now, if it was as tall, and you could put it right under the

couch like this, he yanks. It's not going anywhere. Okay.

Guarantee.

And he won't touch the couch. He'll just do the scratching post.

I can't guarantee that. I would love to spend some time with Kay Jr.

here. You said he's under the bed? Yeah.

Let's see where he's at.

Curtis, holy cow. I know, right?

I am so scared to look under this bed.

Here we go. I am pulling out bins and all kinds of nasty.

Kay Jr.

And none of those things contain a cat.

Don't judge me with what you see under the bed, all right?

Curtis Sr. needs to block the unders so that Curtis Jr.

can't hide under this gnarly bed.

I don't see him. There's one other hiding spot. Let me check.

Here he is.

Oh, for God's sake.

I just inhaled a year off my life, and he's not under the bed.

Hi.

Well, there's Curtis Jr.

Hello, my little man.

Curtis Jr. is sweet, he's cute, and he's not completely terrified.

It makes me think that his social anxiety is something we can work with

there's something about him that's saying, I'm scared, I'm not petrified.

I am adoring your cat right now.

Jackson kind of reassured me that my cat isn't as emotionally unstable as I

thought he was, so I'm really glad to hear that.

Back in the kitchen.

I think I insulted you.

I know you've got a good heart when it comes to your cat. I know you do. I can

tell. All of today's strangeness here aside, we have got to find a way to give

Curtis Jr. a bigger, less fearful life, and we've got to find a way to get

Curtis Sr.

on board with being a more giving guardian who's not afraid to compromise

his cat.

So, homework.

Okay. For Kurt and Kurt Jr., the first thing, environmental enrichment.

This is a small place.

Right. You've got to put yourself in his paws for a second. If I were him, what

would I want?

Curtis' senior studio apartment is big enough for Curtis, his cat, and not much

else. Now, cats can be perfectly happy in small spaces, but it's not about the

space. It's what you do with it. You better catify that space if you want

cat to thrive.

First thing, no living being should be under this.

Okay. Nobody.

So I'd like you to block off the under. Okay. I also want you to get a

scratching post. He needs something that is bigger.

You want him to be able to reach all the way up.

Okay. Grab and pull down.

Also, think up here.

Okay? It could be as simple as a $5 shelf that you put up. Now, he can jump

here to here. From here into that window sill. I want him to be able to look out

the window.

I want to get into routine.

If you get up in the morning and you invest literally 10 minutes in playing

him, you won't be doing that stuff.

Cats just need routine in a big, bad way. Now, here's an expectation I have

you.

I want you to get a new couch.

I want you to trust your cat. Get the new scratcher and you just take double

-sided sticky tape just for the first week or so on your new couch. You're

to touch it. You're going to go, oh, that's gross.

Oh, I have a scratching pose. Okay. He will go for it. I'm going to do

everything that Jackson suggested, but I am still freaking out about if I get a

new pouch or not, and he'll scratch it. But I'm going to try it out, so

hopefully it'll be good. You've been talking about declawing your cat if he

doesn't shape up, and it alarms me. When you declaw a cat, see how we have claw?

Mm -hmm. And then we have this first digit here, right there? Okay, right

Yeah. The whole bone. What?

At the first digit.

Cut. It is an amputation of every digit on his little paws.

I didn't know that. That's crazy.

I'm going to tell you.

It's a barbaric surgery.

I had no idea. I feel like I'm a terrible pet owner, even considering

cat declawed.

I'm going to take my leave of the two of you. I'll be back in a few weeks.

All right. Say bye.

Bye. Big Kurt, he's just got to realize that the life he's giving for his cat is

not enough to have expectations that he won't tear up toilet paper, paper towel,

knock blueberries off the counter, and eat his lunch meat. And if I come back

next time and he hasn't done anything, I expect we're going to have an entirely

different conversation, one that involves him not having cats.

So I'm here for my second visit with Tara and her cat, Callie. Now, the last

time I was here, Tara was in tears. Callie made me bleed.

Okay.

Tara is caught in a self -perpetuating cycle where her guilt over having to

euthanize the previous cat, Moose, is causing her to be overprotective of

Callie, who's completely antisocial.

I have got to help Tara break out of her PTSD so she can help Callie break out

of her small, scared world.

Hey. Hello. How are you? Welcome back.

Oh, hi, Callie. Sitting on the counter.

Yes. I'll take that as not the worst sign in the world.

So I'm trying to stay positive, but not too positive.

Yeah. I honestly didn't think Jackson was going to come back.

I thought Callie was a lost cause.

Let's get right to it. I want to start looking at your homework.

So Erin just got here, and we're going to have her feed Callie. That's Erin.

She's avoiding eye contact with her.

Erin's walking like Walking Dead, right? She's like doing the zombie walk.

She's kind of fun, but she's still growling, so it's kind of scaring me.

And that's Erin playing with her.

No, no, don't growl. I'm sorry.

No. Oh, God.

Erin is quite a fraidy cat. Yeah.

That's my friend Becky.

Becky? Yes.

Becky's in the bathroom right now. I'm going to remove Callie from the

situation.

Why? I know Becky was freaking out. Oh, that's the key here. Bad energy

everywhere. Great.

Good girl. Yeah, good girl.

Just to give you a little bit of cat body language 101, tail, right?

Her tail's straight up in the air. It's got that confident little flagger to it.

So even though she's clearly not thrilled, she's also not in full feral

That's Erin. What is she doing? She wants to close the blinds and she's

to walk past.

Callie's under the table now.

Please don't scratch me.

Oh. Wow. She like totally scratched her. Oh.

I got to be honest, I would expect that. Yeah. Because Erin is way too afraid. I

know. Nobody trusts Callie.

No! Everyone is expecting catastrophic results.

So you're almost predicting that those results are going to happen. Now we've

got to think about what's next. The fact that she's out gives me some ideas

about what I want to do with her.

It's vital that I show Tara what it's like to just walk into a situation and

care about the outcome.

Because I have to show Tara that Callie is capable of changing so that Tara

doesn't give up on her altogether.

What is that?

I'm just expecting a scratch and a negative reaction.

Jackson is my last hope.

I have no other options after this.

She's rubbing up against me.

Good girl, Cal.

Breathe, Tara.

That was cool.

She brushed on you?

Yeah, I got the rub.

Good girl. Good girl, Callie. Now I've got Callie coming up and rubbing against

me. That's saying you're my friend.

Compadres.

Good girl. Good girl, Callie. The reason why Callie doesn't lash out at me right

now is because I'm calm.

If I'm calm, she's calm. If I trust her, she trusts me. I need to show Tara that

strangers coming into the house can have success with Callie as long as they

demonstrate trust.

You know,

the bottom line is I've gotten about as far with Callie as I can get today, and

I'm kind of happy about it.

But I'm not happy with what I'm getting from Tara, and I've got to sit and talk

with her for a minute.

What happened to Moosh was a fate that many cats have gone through over the

years, too many to even count. I want you to walk me through Moosh.

As she started getting older, she would just get this look over her face, and

that was her, I've locked it, I'm gone, and I'm attacking.

Oh, that sucks.

So then you called the behaviorist. She gave me medication to give to the cat,

and then Moosh started.

resenting me and hating me and attacking me more.

And we didn't have like an affection relationship anymore because every time

would get her in that calm state, I would shove a pill down her throat.

And I felt terrible.

So I didn't know what to do.

And my behavioralist said, you know, the only thing you can do is give her up

for adoption.

And then within 24 hours, they called me and said that they weren't going to

adopt her out and they were going to put her down or I could take her back.

And I said, well,

If I take her back, it's going to be the same exact thing.

But I went in and said goodbye to her and I held her.

I want to be clear.

Killing cats for behavioral reasons is completely unacceptable.

What I witnessed... in shelters years ago was so heartbreaking that it sent me

on this journey where my ultimate goal is to entirely end the killing of cats

shelters. One of the main reasons that I've dedicated myself to cats with

behavioral issues is so that they will never, ever wind up in a situation like

Moosh did.

You were there.

Yeah, I was there like an hour before.

When I took her out of the crate before they put her down, she was so

affectionate. Which of course makes it.

That much harder because in that moment, she's all affectionate to you.

We all empathize with the cats who have to be euthanized. Oftentimes, we don't

extend that empathy to the humans who had to deal with that as well. I'm

of not giving Tara a fair shake the first time I met her, and I feel

about that.

The hard part is I don't think you ever forgave yourself.

I didn't. I feel terrible.

I need you to forgive yourself.

I forgive you. It's more important for you to forgive yourself and let yourself

off the hook.

You can't bring judgment on someone like Tara for what she had to go through and

what the results were. She tried. And that's more than I can say for thousands

of people that dumped their cats at the shelter where I had to kill them.

Do you think that it's going to wind up with the same outcome as Moosh?

Not after today.

There you go.

But in order for you to be present with this cat, I need you to get through your

process. The reason I'm asking Tara to forgive herself is because I know what

it's like not to forgive yourself, and I know the liberation that comes from

forgiveness. So I saw last time I was here that when Callie goes in that

that's her caving. When we say no to the caves, we've got to say yes to

something else.

Yes to me is things that I call cocoons.

She's still part of the world.

But she can hide, and she can be at a distance if she wants to. If she could

find a place to cocoon herself that was in a social space like the couch with

company over, I mean, that would be a major victory.

The job is for Aaron and then for Becky to continue to do things like feed.

You're great. It's okay. And play.

Oh, God.

But learn how to do these things without the zombie walk.

Oh.

Now, the hard part. I want a stranger.

I want somebody who Callie's never met before, and I want you to take them

through the steps. The steps are, first, acclimating Callie to strangers in the

house, and then second, getting her to interact with them through feeding and

play. She's got to make sure that anybody else that comes in reacts

expects the best.

Relationships are something that everybody should have, and now Callie's

to have them as well. If Tara doesn't embrace this homework, I'm afraid that

PTSD is going to continue to perpetuate this cycle.

Worst case scenario is that Callie and Tara will be cut off from the rest of

world forever.

And I am not ready to let that happen.

You're crazy, Curtis Jr. You're crazy.

So last time I was a little hard on Curtis Sr. Whoa!

Hey, man! How you doing?

But that's just because I want a better life for Curtis Jr. I want to make sure

that he's got places to scratch, he's got paws to scratch with, and he's not

hiding under the bed.

Whoa! Welcome to my cat palace. Bang!

There we go. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. That is amazing, man.

It's a totally different...

feeling here we're talking new couch we're talking shelves now when i look

around this apartment i know a cat lives here and it's not just because the

couch is shredded up but because there's places to be you kept that couch for

way too long yeah yeah that couch was from the 70s yes it was has he been

scratching on it he tried a little bit right here right and then i put the tape

on here and that's deterring him he'll never go back to it he doesn't know the

difference between tape and no tape By the way, he's got a nice little thing to

scratch on over there, right? And he loves this. Does he? He loves hanging

in here. He plays with this. Yeah, he loves it. He scratched inside here.

So he's been sitting in there.

Yeah, he loves it. He loves it in here.

I want to go through your homework with you.

It's pretty sturdy. I feel confident putting my kitty on here.

Curtis!

Curtis, where are you?

Oh, no.

Curtis!

He's pretty sturdy. I feel confident putting my kitty on here.

Oh, no.

Here you go.

What's all going in there?

So here's the problem, man. First impressions mean a lot, right? So him

up on here and immediately giving a whoop, you can pretty much guarantee

that point... That's toast.

This cat shelf in the front window, I think it's great.

On the other hand, putting your cat in the window, turning his head to look

outside, and putting him up there when it's not secure, all of those are big

no's. He is not going back to that space ever again.

All right, moving on.

You like that, Virginia?

Is that your new cat tower so you can see out the window?

Great stuff. You like that?

All right, on to the bed.

Good. So he's not allowed to get under the bed. Yeah, he can't get under there.

All he's got to do is think like his cat. Cat looks up in the air, put a

right there. He wants to get there, put a shelf over there.

Watch your cat. That's all it takes. I don't think I've ever said this phrase

before. I want to see your paper towels.

So I had the paper towels here. I'm tearing them up. I have them up here

Brilliant!

Woo!

Oh, my God, my head's going to explode. So simple.

Curtis Sr. now knows what to expect of a cat. You leave food on the counter,

cat's going to eat it. You put paper towel above where they can get it,

going to scratch it. Now he's moving his food, he's moving his paper towel.

Big round of applause for Curtis Sr.

All that with the paper towel and everything, it was like, man. That was

ridiculous on my part.

What was that? That was ridiculous on my part. Yes, it was. Good.

Now that we have an understanding.

Right now, Curtis Jr.

is hiding in the closet. I'd like to push his challenge line just a little

So if you don't mind grabbing him. Last time, Curtis Jr.

didn't like being around people. I'm hoping we laid the foundation, and I'm

hoping to show him how good the world really is.

Here's my boy.

Now, do I have a toy for you? What is that?

What is that?

You see, he's looking at the toy. He's going for the toy.

He's 100 % focused on the toy right now.

And that makes me happy.

Here's that moment I've been looking for. A cat who, instead of running, just

says, you know what?

Not so bad. I think I'll stick around for a minute. This is a cat who is

changing. And that's what I'm all about.

You've got a couch cat. Yeah.

Before I met Jackson, I thought I was a really good animal person. But I'm kind

of embarrassed that I was just going to get him declawed. I can just do these

simple things.

I, unfortunately, have to leave.

Curtis Jr.? Curtis Sr.?

You know, sometimes from the inside looking out, our situation can appear

hopeless. But from the outside looking in, solutions can be surprisingly

As simple as moving your paper towel up a few shelves.

I'll tell you what, some days I love my job so much. I'm meeting up with

Samantha and her cat Packard. Now, Packard's been through some serious

his life, but now he's paying it forward by teaching other cats how to get

through hard times in their lives.

Hi! Welcome!

Come on in!

Look at what we got here!

That's Packard!

That's our cat from heaven!

I'm Samantha, and I'm Packard's guardian.

He's a special needs cat, and he really helps me with my fosters.

I am so excited to see this boy. He's amazing.

When I bring a cat in, he helps them come out of their shell. He shows that

people are okay. That's amazing.

So he's, in effect, creating the same kind of social bridge that a mother cat

would provide for her kittens.

Yes. Oh, my God, I love my job. So Quigley is afraid of people, was.

afraid of people. But so when I brought Quigley home, him seeing me here is not

super comforting to him. You know, that's not going to help him. So I bring

I put him in the bathroom and his carrier, I open it up and I let Packard

in there. And immediately he's welcomed into this home by another cat.

And he was in the back of his carrier shaking.

Packard walked in and he walked straight up to him and just started rubbing on

him. Packard is that bridge between those cats that are fearful of people

because

They've got him in this house.

I feel safe. There's someone that I like that's on my side. And then he sees

Packard with me.

It helped me so much with my behavior foster. Sometimes I don't have to do any

work. They're social bridges. You demonstrate this behavior, and then a

go, oh, I can do that.

Building social bridges for these kittens is just so important, not only

their well -being, but to make them more adoptable cats.

The value that Packard is adding here, acting as a surrogate mother to these

cats, is really immeasurable. A kitten who's afraid of humans, who hasn't been

socialized, that's a hard cat to adopt. But a kitten that's comfortable around

people, who's been properly socialized via a cat like Packard, that's an

adoptable cat.

There's the grooming.

Packard grooming them.

Grooming them like a mom would groom their young. It's remarkable. It really

Since Packard has been a part of our family, I've had 13 fosters.

Because Packard is helping me.

I'm getting them in and out and into home faster with him.

Tell me the story of Packard.

Packard was always quiet in the litter, not moving much.

And all of a sudden we noticed a huge lump on the front of his head. It was a

bacterial infection eating away the skull.

My vet had a specialist come in, and that guy went into Packard's nasal

cavities, and he said it was black mush in there.

Scraped it all out. And he lived through that. And he lived, but he became deaf,

brain damaged, and he has the head tilt.

Packard is a rare cat.

He shouldn't have made it through his first couple of days.

And out here is a kitten raised without a mom who grooms kittens like a mom.

It's like he was born to do something.

I feel so proud of Packard. I just feel all choked up about my little guy.

This is the person who saved you.

It's been a great day. I just am in such admiration for what you do for animals.

Thank you so much.

Goodbye, buddy.

Goodbye.

Bye. Bye.

If we had more people like Samantha and more cats like Packard showing the way,

all cats would have great homes, and it would be amazing.

No. Oh, God.

So I'm here for my final visit with Tara and her cat, Callie. Now, Callie has

shown me last time that she can be tolerant of strangers.

She brushed on you?

Yeah, I got the rub.

But unless Tara's done her homework and learned how to forgive herself, I'm

afraid that she's never going to be able to give Callie a bigger life.

Hello. Hi, hello.

How are you?

You had a lot of stuff to do last time I was here. Let's take a look at your

video homework.

So we have Callie out here, and Becky is going to try to feed her.

Hi.

Tara's friends are allowing Callie to walk around. They're not expecting bad

things to happen, and that's because Tara is setting that up.

Get out of here.

Yum, Cal.

Okay, wait a second.

Yeah, I was so excited.

Right there.

The rolling on her back.

I mean, for cats to expose this part of them is the ultimate interest.

You know, because in the wild, I could be split right down the middle.

Got your belly.

So it's really incredible.

That's a really wonderful moment.

I think I'm going to give you guys a spoon.

Oh, that's when Saint and Veronica were here.

Wow.

Look at that. Now, had she met these guys? She's never met them. Never met

before. So here she is.

They're opening cans of food, and she's just like, bring it.

Come on. In the middle of all of us, just hanging out.

Look at that. I know. She's so gorgeous, and she's so soft.

Tara exclaiming, my cat is beautiful, and she's soft. You should touch her.

that's what she has to project to all humans and to her own cat.

Thought I'd throw something into the mix here just to show you how good Callie

has been.

She actually just texted me, and Aaron is here.

Really? Aaron is the person that Callie has a history of violence with. Now,

with all the work that we've done, I'll be really convinced that Callie's come

around if the two of them can interact peacefully.

Now, here's a good thing. We've got... Callie moving around. She's up on the

counter, which is great. So what I want you guys to do is just to get up, go

make a cup of coffee. Okay. I need to see if Tara can carry herself with

confidence around Callie right now so that her friend can do the same.

Oh, hi, Callie.

The more you are just as if there's not a cat there, the better everything's

going to be.

Take a moment and be a little chill.

Just be chill.

Oh, God. Okay. Okay, we're going to back up. We're going to back up.

Tara's friend Erin is back to her fraidy -cat ways.

Callie can feel it, and she's on the verge of snapping.

This is make -or -break time for both Tara and Callie.

Erin, it's okay.

I'm scared, though.

All right, just because she's on the counter doesn't mean that she's

in any way.

Great.

As soon as Tara and Erin calm down, so does Callie.

She's no longer that antisocial cat that I met just a few weeks ago. She's

behaving just like a normal cat should right now, mirroring the energy that's

projected onto her. This is a reason to sort of celebrate.

So we have Callie just walking around, just like life is happening here, and

then she winds up right there.

Good girl.

Good girl, Callie. Every step that Callie takes right now is proof of her

normalization in this world.

That's that spot that I was hoping that she would settle into at some point in

that cocoon. She's now feeling safe, and she made the choice to be among people

and in that cocoon at the same time. To me, that's perfect, which also means

that you don't get to move that cocoon ever.

Callie has absolutely transformed from a violently antisocial cat.

To one who's willing to let other humans into her life. And I give all the

credit to Tara, who was able to overcome her guilt over her previous cat, Moose,

and be the strong guardian that Callie needed. You guys have a great start.

There's a lot to keep going on, but hopefully you feel at least empowered at

this point. I do.

For sure. There was a lot of personal sort of work that had to go into this.

I realized that you reflected a lot of what I had to go through with my early

work in shelters and what I had to do. There was a lot of what I consider to be

a karmic debt that I pay forward. So I wanted to give you this.

This medallion represents forgiveness.

We all have to make peace with our past in order to create a positive future.

I've learned that.

And I hope that this serves as a reminder to Tara to forgive herself as

because I want her and Callie to have that better tomorrow that they both want

and deserve.

You've done so good by your friend, by the way. I'm holding back tears.

Why? Why are you doing that? You're always holding back tears. I know.

Why? Just thank you. I just appreciate everything that you've helped her with,

and I appreciate it. Thank you very much for everything.

It's been my pleasure.

Goodbye, Callie.

Jackson has impacted my life in a huge way, more than he even knows. I had no

idea what to do with Callie, but now I know she's going to be fine and I'm

to be fine, and I feel great.