Original subtitles

Martini is a lot of fun when she's in a good mood, but when she's mean, she

likes to bite.

She just kind of turns. It's like a snap.

We have a seven -year -old niece, and Martini has attacked her on several

occasions. We really want to start a family. We really want to have a baby.

How is she going to react to that? You haven't started a family because of her?

Mm -hmm. Seriously?

I don't want to have to choose.

That's a lot of pressure to put on an eight -pound cat.

What, Tana? What do you want?

Tana's behavior is so unpredictable that I'm nervous for Buddha.

I got a cat. Any touch is going to blow this cat bomb up.

Tana, what do you have to say for yourself?

Oh, my God.

She'll be way friendlier in the bathroom. Oh, yeah. I am blown away

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.

My name's Erin. And I'm Sean. And we have a cat named Martini, who is going

be eight years old this summer.

Martini is a lot of fun when she's in a good mood. Hi, everyone!

But when she's mean, she's not that lovely.

She's just really aggressive when she doesn't want to play anymore.

She'll all of a sudden turn on you.

She'll growl at you. She'll swat you as hard as she possibly can.

The worst thing was after we were playing, she bit me like a snap. You

just gets me good.

It's a really awful feeling when she does attack him.

Not fair to him because just trying to love on her like a dad would.

It breaks my heart.

Martini is not a fan of any other animals at all. We had tried to foster

other cats, and she wants absolutely nothing to do with them.

Martini doesn't hate just other cats. She actually hates kids, too.

We have a 7 -year -old niece, and Martini has attacked her on several

I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm a bad mom because I'm not doing the

right thing to make it better for her. And that's just heartbreaking.

She's truly my first baby, and I can't ever see her out of my life.

I'm on my way to see guardians Sean and Aaron and their cat Martini, who has

some very troubling aggression issues.

Martini's bad behavior has even included going after their young niece, who's

now a trained cat general.

I've got to go over there and see what I can do for this couple and Martini.

Why, hello.

Hi, Jackson. Hi, how are you? Hi, I'm Aaron.

Aaron, good to meet you. Hi, I'm Sean. Sean, good to meet you, man. Very nice

meet you.

Look at what we've got here.

That's Martini. That is Martini. Martini.

And is Martini your only cat?

Martini's our only cat. She won't let us have any other cats.

Tell me a little bit about Martini.

Well, I got Martini when she was three weeks old. Yeah.

She actually was abandoned by her mom. So my friend called and said, would you

want a kitten? And I said, absolutely.

But she got really sick, and so we had to take her to the vet, and she almost

died. They diagnosed her as feline parvo.

Really? What Erin is calling feline parvo, when contracted as a kitten, will

almost certainly result in death. But if they do survive it, it will lead to

further complications later in life. What is that?

The other thing is, too, she won't play as actively as I've seen other cats

play. She'll play a little bit and then she gets... done. Like she doesn't want

to. And I think it's, you know, part of being deaf.

Oh, she's deaf.

So we're not sure if she was born that way or if it was because she had 106

fever at one point. If they're going to survive 106 over a couple of days,

deafness happens.

Well, now that I know that Martini's deaf, I'm going to approach her in a

different way.

It's so important to remember that when a prey animal is compromised in a

sensory way, you have to play with that as opposed to against it. What else is

going on with you guys and Martini? You have a knee.

And since she was a kid, she'd love cats. Well, Martini has totally

her to not like cats because she attacks.

She will start guring at her and then all of a sudden just come out and flash

her. So in terms of kids, she's not a big fan?

No. We really want to start a family. We really want to have a baby. So if we

bring a baby human into the world, how is she going to react to that? You're

telling me that you haven't started a family because of her.

Mm -hmm. Seriously?

I'm scared. I don't want to give up my baby. Of course.

Because I want to have a baby and I don't want to have to choose.

That's a heavy, heavy place to be. And is that really, at the end of this, why

I'm here?

Yeah. So our goal together is to assess whether having a baby with Martini is

even feasible?

Yeah. Correct.

What if not?

I don't know.

Not something I even want to deal with.

This is an unbelievably tough situation with incredibly high stakes. At the end

of this, Aaron and Sean are going to have a cat that they feel comfortable

having a newborn around, or I'm going to wind up advising them that they're

right, that it's not safe to start a family with this cat.

And either way, I'm always going to tell my clients the truth.

We want to have friends over and enjoy that, but we don't have them over

we're so worried about her attacking them.

So you don't have people come over here.

You're not expanding your family.

That's a lot of pressure to put on an eight -pound cat.

What's the worst damage she's ever done to another human?

She really attacked my mom pretty bad where she just had scratches all over

arm and had gotten bit by her.

Bit also?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. She bites him a lot. She bites me a lot and scratches me a lot.

Like, we'll be playing. We'll be playing. And then all of a sudden.

It's like a switch goes off and then she becomes me. What does your play look

like with her?

Very like... Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, there we go. In my experience, deaf cats can be more

overstimulation than other cats because they know that they're missing something

when it comes to their senses.

Turning her into like a little calico flapjack. The way Sean's playing with

stimulating her.

I can see that wild -eyed look start to come across Martini, and every fiber in

my being wants to warn Sean, but I've got to let it happen.

There it is. That is an invitation to an ass -whooping.

Well, knowing that Martini attacks, especially when she's in the tree, I

go over there and see what I can do, both on the positive and negative side,

establish... how hair triggered she is, and, of course, at the end of all this,

is her behavior predictable or not. I can tell immediately that as compared to

when I first walked in here, she's got a little bit of a... Yeah, a little odd

hair now. A little thing going on now. I want to see if when this comes out...

Now, of course...

Wow.

Mm -hmm.

And look, the tail is still going.

She's suddenly become much more hyper aware of my hand.

I'm coming in here. I'm just going to do a little petty pet.

Let me see what happens here.

That's okay.

Now, what happens if I come back? And there it is.

Let me see what happens

here.

That's okay.

Now, what happens if I come back? And there it is.

And there it is. Don't apologize.

I totally asked for that.

Don't apologize for her.

Following your cat. Yes, go for it. In challenging Martini on her cat tree, I

found that she reacted fairly predictably for a deaf cat.

With a deaf cat, you don't want to come around with your hands to their rear

side. You want them to be able to see what your hands are doing at all times.

did the opposite just now, and she reacted. And that's good information

forward as I continue to assess her. Okay, so this is the Martini -McKing

This is her room.

What do I want to do?

Huh, that is interesting.

I feel like... That's so common for cats to want to play, and she just doesn't.

Stay here. Sure. I'll be right back.

I just keep wanting to test different toys with her and see where she's at in

terms of her general level of interest.

But I can't validate from what I'm seeing that she doesn't really track

Now I've tried this twice.

And twice I'm getting the same response from Martini. That lets me know that

deafness is not the only after effect on the table right now. Does she tend to

respond to shiny stuff more than? No, she does not. Nope. She definitely loves

my case.

But she loves my case because there's treats inside my case, right? We knew

that. We knew that was going to happen.

Judging from Martini's lack of responses, I think that Martini is

tracking things. Her vision is probably compromised to some degree, and that

definitely has something to do with the virus that she suffered as a young

kitten, and that's affecting her ability to play. Now, that doesn't mean that

Martini can't play. It just means that we've got to come up with some creative

solutions.

Now, I have a little bit of baby food on a spoon.

Yes, we like that.

We're going to get that sort of motor going here a little bit.

And now I'm going to see where I can lead her. All the way in the bottom.

And there we go.

Beautiful. Good girl. You see what we just did? Yeah. We just kept her

on one thing for the entire duration of an action. As sure as we are that if

your niece came over here right now, she'd get her butt kicked.

Are you sure that if you had a baby that she'd freak out? You know, we had one

friend that had a baby, and Martini walked all over the carrier.

And then when the baby just moved, she got freaked out and started hissing at

her. That scared me as, you know, a future mom. I don't want the baby to be

the crib, and Martini wanders and comes in the crib and attacks her. I don't

feel comfortable enough moving forward with that until I know that she can

behave herself.

Yeah. You know, I really feel for these guys. And now it's time to start working

towards improving the situation.

But it all starts with Sean and Erin getting to know who their cat really is

isn't. Let me start with what I think is going on here for Martini.

She has this stigma over the top of her that she's a bad cat.

She's not a bad cat.

She's a survivor.

Yeah. You guys, I don't know that if you're aware of this or not. What you

call... Feline parvo is panleukopenia.

Panleukopenia, as far as viruses go, is the most fatal.

She's deaf because she had a 106 -degree fever that went on for a couple days,

and that is what happens. You don't have a demon cat. You have a special needs

cat.

Surviving panleukopenia is a gift.

But it's a gift with a torn package because most of the time there's going

after effects, either cognitive effects, sensory effects, central nervous system

effects, and that's what we're seeing in Martini. I've especially observed these

issues affect her ability to visually track things. So you're wondering to

yourself, why does she attack, right?

Absolutely. Over -stimulation.

Sean, love watching you. Go in there and treat her like a dog.

Cats are not meant to take that level of stimulation at all. The way their

bodies are built, they're just energetic balloons.

And everything you do to them is putting air into the balloon.

You do things with them to help take the air out of that balloon. Now, we know

that there's not a toy.

out there that she's going to track and follow predictably but we did find with

that spoon that she will follow food yeah she's food motivated and that rocks

for us so here's what i want you to do take her room catify it and create an

agility course for her right and then the idea is you use the spoon with the

treats and you guide her make it fun

and give her a goal.

Leading Martini with treats through the agility course will not only drain her

energy and get her into a more predictable rhythm, but it will also

to form a bond with Martini that doesn't involve overstimulation and petting.

This is going to be your assignment, Karen.

I'd like you to make a puzzle toy that's stationary.

Okay. You can use a toilet paper roll, poke a couple of holes, some tape to

it harder, take the tape off to make it easier.

Something that she really has to work at, just like the tissue paper, Martini

won't have to track it. And that's what I call a remote toy because she controls

the play.

We can do that. What Jackson gave us for homework is very achievable.

Is the end result really going to be a home in which we feel comfortable enough

to bring a baby into? And I can't say yes or no to that because I don't know.

All right, guys. Take care. Thank you, Jackson. We'll see you soon.

Hi, I'm Brent.

This is my wife, Lydia. We've been married 17 years. We have two cats.

Hi, Buddha.

Buddha is 13 months.

Tana. And then Tana is 7 years old.

Tana's behavior is so unpredictable that I'm nervous for Buddha. Tana, don't

scare him.

He's afraid of you.

Tana?

Tana has pinned him in the litter box.

He was actually laying in his own feet.

It's tense. Her tail is whipping back and forth. Her eyes are...

really dilated buddha you won't come out you're too scared huh i wouldn't want

to take off for more than maybe an hour we're hanging on by a thread every day

we need these two cats to live together in the same room without any kind of

violence so i'm going to go meet up with brent and lydia and their cat tana and

tana's completely unpredictable

She will lash out at their other cat, Buddha, at will.

So I'm going to go in there right now and see if there's any way we can

some order to the film.

Hey, man. Hi. I'm Jackson. Brent.

Lydia. Lydia, good to see you. Nice to meet you.

Who do we got here?

Well, the easiest way to remember him is Buddha. He's got a bushier tail and

buck teeth.

And we got Tana. She's got a thinner tail, and she's got a terrible attitude.

Hi,

attitude.

Hello, Buddha.

Hi, babies.

Buddha's the baby? Buddha's the baby.

Tana's the terror.

Well, that didn't take long. They weren't kidding, were they? I mean, it's

minute after I walk into this house and Tana's already bullying Buddha off the

couch in front of me. So, yeah, we got a problem.

Hi, terror.

You gonna hurt me right off the bat?

She'll warn you.

She is warning me. When I first meet Tana, her...

Pupils are completely dilated, and the hair on her back is already standing up,

and that's me just walking in the room. And I know that this is not a cat that I

just want to reach out and start petting. Look at how she's claiming this

where she's just like, yeah, welcome to my living room.

She's definitely on edge. That's the way she is.

She's kind of like an on -and -off witch. She's either friendly or she's

to hurt you.

Tana's body language is pretty clear. This cat is on edge, and she doesn't

me around.

And from what Brent and Lydia are telling me, she doesn't want anybody

So I need some more information so that I can fully understand Tana and find out

what makes her so uncomfortable in her own house.

So, where did Tana come from? We went to the pet adoption fair, and we found

Tana. So then we decided Tana needed a friend.

And apparently she didn't want one.

Yeah, it always happens that way.

Then... The issues began.

It started with Uta and disappeared.

And we said, well, where's the kitten? We jumped up, went looking, and he's

laying in a corner of the litter box in his feces. And she was standing over

him. Wow.

Even now, this happened just the other day, she rushed him.

While he was in the box. While he was in the box. That's problematic.

The fact that Tana is cornering Buddha while he's in the litter box tells me

that we are definitely dealing with a pretty territorial cat, because the

box is one of the most socially significant spots in the whole house.

always off from multiple litter boxes. This one's in our view. He'll use it

we can guard him.

Tana, let him go potty. I don't leave him out.

So we can't leave him unsupervised, and it'd be nice for us to be able to leave

the house.

So we've got a bully cat, Tana, and a scaredy cat, Buddha.

Now, Tana is definitely taking issue territorially with Buddha, and the key

finding a solution is finding the source of Tana's territorial insecurity.

So Buddha seems absolutely chill and present.

I love the way he was just like...

You know, I'll feel safer and cooler if I'm up, you know, being my little tree

dweller self and looking at the world, and I dig that. He seems really kind of

chill, and I was watching Tana walk by, and he's watching her, but he's not

scared. Do you feel that you can trust her?

You mean with him or with us?

No, with you.

I'm a little scared to pet her. Really? Sometimes, yeah.

I get right up in his face, and I snuggle him. Do you feel like you're

her for a good reason, or do you feel like at this point it's sort of PTSD?

I just don't want to get scratched.

Reasonable. His uncle almost lost his arm from a cat bite. Now I'm, like,

about, you know, any kind of.

Does she tend to bite or scratch when she gets on you? Well, when she's in

mode, it's both.

It's both. Yeah. Okay.

That's both. That's problematic.

Otherwise, if you just kind of, you know, tick her off, she'll just swipe at

you. We had a neighbor come over and he's like, you know, I'm good with cats.

And we're like, don't mess with a cat. And he's like, no, I'm good with these

cats. And I'm like, no.

Those are the people.

Those are the people. Please stop.

All the people who say, like, no, they call me the cat whisperer. Those are the

people who get their asses handed to them. No, for real. He started whining

about how he was bleeding after that.

You're like, told you. He told you three times.

Okay, so I've got one cat who's fairly unpredictable.

Not that predictable with Buddha yet.

Not that predictable with you either. She's got kind of a hair trigger and

she'll go off.

This guy, Buddha, who I must say hi to because you're so cute and lovely.

Hello, cute and lovely. Hello, cute and lovely.

But he seems to me to be a very normal kitten.

And he doesn't seem to be completely freaked out by time, but... We have a

couple issues.

Yeah, and the thing is, he's in such an important phase of his own development

that the more he learns to be afraid of her, the harder it is to undo over time,

you know? Right.

From what these guys have told me, Buddha's being terrorized by Tana when

on the ground.

But from what I'm observing, Buddha is a confident, present little kitten when

he's up in his cat tree. But I need Buddha to be a confident cat all over

house and not just while he's in his cat tree. I want to see if Tana will come

over and say hi to us.

She's right there in the bathroom. I can see her. Here's an interesting thing.

Like, we introduced her in the bathroom.

with the other two cats that we previously had.

Right. So that's the same introduction that Uta had.

I had read to put them in their own room into a small space so that they can

acclimate slowly.

And now she thinks the bathroom's hers. He thinks the bathroom's his.

He goes in there, she's like, this is mine. No, that's mine.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's really interesting.

The bathroom is clearly an important space for Tana, and I think I'm

to understand why. When integrating a new cat into a home, I encourage anybody

to start with a small base camp and then expand out.

Brent and Lydia succeeded in establishing that base camp, but now I'm

to wonder if when they were expanding out, they inadvertently created a

territorial battleground.

She'll go in there, and it's like she'll be way friendlier in the bathroom. Oh,

yeah. She'll roll over and want your rubber belly. But that's something you

can't do out here? No.

Show me. I got a cat out here where any touch is going to blow this cat bomb up.

Yet Lydia tells me that in the bathroom, no problem at all, she'll turn into a

kitten. And I got to see it. She is a little grouchy. Okay, go ahead and just

put her on in here.

I can't see anything changes.

Look at that. I am blown away.

She'll be way friendlier in the bathroom. Oh, yeah. Show me.

She is a little grouchy. Okay, go ahead and just put her on in here.

I want to see if anything changes.

Look at that, though. Yeah. Look at that. That's crazy.

Yeah. So the second she comes in, look at that.

That's bananas.

So the second she gets into her base camp. Yeah.

physically, she's a completely different animal. Yeah, across the threshold. My

logical explanation about this phenomenon that I'm seeing with Tana in

bathroom is that when she was brought in as a kitten, she was secluded in that

bathroom. All good things happened to her in there. It's her special

When they opened that bathroom up, suddenly she had to share her world. She

wasn't the center of attention anymore. She knows that in that bathroom, she's

special. I am blown away right now. You are rubbing your belly right now. You're

putting your life in danger outside of the room, but in here, you're fine.

I have never seen it this... For now?

Yes, especially when it comes to... I mean, and you, more than anybody, could

appreciate the fact that you get somebody this cornered, and that's when

worst of them is going to pop out, not the best of them, right?

This is like...

This is crazy.

This is crazy.

I mean, but I mean that in a cool way.

Like, you know, I mean, it feels like you guys know her key.

I am so blown away right now.

I know. Blown away.

Blown away. It's one of her quirks.

That's a quirk?

That's beyond quirk.

She's turning.

Straight up into a kitten right now. Yeah.

Yeah, she reverts. That blows me away. Watching Tana perform this ballet in the

bathroom while outside in the living room, she's a completely different cat.

I can use this, man. I'm going to construct homework for these guys that

turn Tana into the cat they want her to be.

All right.

So first and foremost, let's start talking about Tana out here versus Tana

the bathroom.

My idea is to put her back in the bathroom, which is her comfortable

and then expand her base camp outwards. In this case, what we're going to do

when we expand base camp is we're going to do it ritualistically.

We're going to take the things that you guys do in that bathroom that give her a

sense of confidence and slowly bring her back out here again. So, for instance,

the brushing. I want you to start doing the brushing right by the threshold of

that bathroom door, so out in the hallway.

And then, once you can get that response predictably, you're petting, you're

brushing, and she's doing the whole Tana in love thing, then you can start to

push that line a little bit. You should be able to do that out here. I want the

bathroom Tana in the rest of the house at all times, and it's up to Brent and

Lydia to bring that out in her. Now let's go to Buddha.

Buddha, as a kitten, was taught to live small.

by Tana. So we're going to get into catification, which is making this place

better for both cats.

This guy is a tree dweller. He finds his confidence up in the air. So let's

expand his world a little bit with some shelving, right? So let's use his tree.

That's the starting point of his cat superhighway. And from there, we're

to have some shelving that leads out into this area. I want him to feel like

can walk around in here without necessarily touching the ground.

Let's put him up there and hopefully expanding his space up and away from

will give him the confidence to stand up to her when he is on the ground. All

right. Thank you. I will talk to you guys in a few weeks.

Buddha is not a happy cat because he can't express his true kitten -like

Alternately, I think Tana really wants to be a happy cat, and she can't be

because of her territorial insecurity.

Brent and Lydia have a huge role to play to get both of these cats into a place

where they can feel happy and secure and confident at all times. I think it can

be done here. It's going to be a lot of work, but I think these guys can do it.

I'm here for my second visit with Erin and Sean and their cat, Martini. And the

last time I was here, these guys were making huge life sacrifices based on the

fact that they had a bad cat.

Hopefully, they've made some changes and realized they have a special needs cat,

because if they don't, they're going to have a hard time bringing a baby into

this family. Hello.

Hello, my little girl. Say hi to Jax and Dean.

Martini. That's right, I'm talking to you in your desk. How's our girl been?

She's been great.

All right, let's...

See what you guys have been up to here.

I just want to let you know that I have worked on my homework.

Wow. You put the treat kind of in here or in here. This one's kind of fun

because it goes around or here.

And she's going to have to bat him out. My God. I take it very seriously. You

did.

Get it, girl.

This is Martini getting into her treat games.

Watching Daddy.

Hi. Doing homework.

putting up some shelves for martinis.

Can you be able to hop from this shelf here to here? Pretty easy.

And there she goes.

Okay, good.

In general, some fantastic stuff. Now, let's go in and take a look at the

agility room.

Boom!

Amazing!

We have toys here. We have games. We have all kinds of things here.

Look at you go.

That's right.

You know how great this is also?

I mean, look at me. I am hovering over the top of her right now. For a deaf cat

who's got some challenges, I'm a huge threat.

Yeah. Right? Potentially. But she is absolutely...

focused on her toy here and not me. She does not care. This tells me that she is

so grounded in her activity that if there was a baby here, she wouldn't even

notice. I think this room has intense potential, and I want to start tapping

into that potential with you, Sean. I also want to take your experience with

and shape it a little bit. So, Karen, if you wouldn't mind, there's only a

limited amount of space in here, and let's let the guys go to it. The idea

behind this room was not just for Martini to have a nice active base camp.

was also for Sean. I wanted to give him something to do to interact with Martini

in a constructive way as opposed to the way he's used to interacting with her.

Grab that laser and lead her from point A to point B. Go on, Timmy.

Figure out where you want her to go next.

Now remember that she does have trouble tracking a little bit, so slow it down.

There you go. Now in.

Come on, girlfriend.

Yeah, baby!

That's what we're looking for. Now here's where your challenge comes, Sean.

just defined a route. I want you to be able to reimagine and reinvent that

so that every day, She's going from there, around, in, around, and in.

breaking it down into doable chunks for her. Right. Now that I've spent the day

working with Aaron, Sean, and Martini, I just want to check in with these

guardians and get a sense of where they're at in this process.

I mean, after all, there's a lot at stake here. Everything that we're trying

set up here is, can we think about the world with her and a small child?

At this moment, if you had a friend who came over here with a three -month -old

infant, Do you just let them together?

Do you allow it? You don't? Not yet.

Okay. Why? Tell me. Even though I've seen big changes in her and I'm really

impressed by what I've seen, it's still a child, and that's scary.

I want this to work more than ever. This is our future.

We want to have that baby.

That's where we are. You agree? I agree. If you were to bring somebody over here

and she were to strike out, you guys are back to square one, I think, mentally.

Yeah. And that worries me more than anything else. I totally get where

coming from. And the idea of rehoming Martini is not somewhere she even wants

go. So I have to give these guardians the final tools that they need to make

this situation with Martini work now and into the kind of future they're hoping

for. So what I want to do is...

Daily routines that add up to her rhythm in her life, right? So the daily

routine is going to be around her agility course training. She goes

tube and out. Great. That's an attainable goal.

Through the next tube and out, attainable. Now let's string them all

again. Now, once we solidify her daily routine, she'll have gotten all that

-up energy out. She won't be overstimulated, and she won't be

I think we can get where we want to go. I think this homework assignment is

going to give us that ability to make a routine just as we should for a child

and really follow it. So I think this is perfect parent practice.

Stay good, will you please? Bye, guys.

I'm here to check in with Brent and Lydia about their cats, Tana and Buddha.

Now, last time I was here, I saw Tana's transformation from an aggressive cat to

a playful kitten in her bathroom base camp. Now, what I'm hoping to see today

a peaceful home where Tana and Buddha are both comfortable with their

surroundings and with each other. Hi.

Hi, Buddha.

Say hi.

Hello there.

And Tana's here, too.

That's a step in the right direction, isn't it?

So, let's see what you guys have been up to.

Wait, what's Buddha walking on?

What the hell? Oh, I didn't even notice.

It fits in so well you don't notice it.

Look at that. That is fantastic.

Do you feel like Buddha is starting to own that sort of kitten mojo now?

I do. I do. Yeah. I think this all, the highway up here, he's loving it. He

loves looking down and he's like.

the panther in the trees now. This is exactly what I wanted to see. A

Buddha up and away from Tana where he can be his playful kitten self. Now he's

got plenty of space to escape from Tana when he's feeling threatened.

That's amazing.

There we go. Come on. Good girl.

Good girl.

Back in the bathroom.

We all right?

This bathroom is where Tana transformed into a loving kitten the last time I was

here. So I asked Brent and Lydia to expand her base camp through brushing

petting. So hopefully they've been able to get the loving Tana out of the

bathroom and into the rest of the house.

Excellent.

Out of the bathroom and into the threshold.

And we're in the living room.

There it is.

There's the rollover.

The Tana rollover. The fact that Tana is in the living room getting belly rubbed

is huge. Brent and Lydia nailed base camp expansion by moving the rituals out

the bathroom.

So, the big thing is, since the last time I was here, has there been any

whatsoever?

I can't think of one. No, definitely.

It's been really good. Yeah, and actually, since you've been gone, we

were away for a night.

Oh. They had to spend the night together.

Alone. Okay.

And I didn't drive all the way here to check on them. I kind of had some peace

of mind that they'd be okay.

What gave you that peace of mind?

Buddha wouldn't cross with Tana blocking his way. Right. Now he'll brush right

past her. Buddha wants to sleep in the same room with her.

The expansion of Tana's territory out of the bathroom has made her more secure,

and Buddha's expansion up off the ground has given him a newfound confidence to

stand up to Tana.

Now I want to see if that same dynamic extends out to a socially significant

space where Tana's been known to attack.

The final frontier, the litter box.

The goal is both cats near the litter box sharing the space peacefully.

Try to pull her this way a little bit. Come here, come here, Tana.

Now you, in the meantime.

There you go.

There you go.

If Tana rushes Buddha at any time, especially anywhere near that litter

it's back to square one.

And up.

Facing off.

Buddha's right in front of that litter box.

Let's see what happens here.

And up.

Facing off.

Right now, I've got to see these two cats back off from the stare -down. It

the only way that I can leave here confident, knowing that Tana's

aggression issues have finally been worked out.

Let's see what happens here.

Gotcha. I gotcha.

Yes! This is exactly what I wanted to see.

Tana locks eyes with Buddha. There's a momentary stare -down, but then she

decides, yeah, you know what? I'm much more interested in the toy.

This would have been impossible the last time I was here.

And Tana was only comfortable in the bathroom. And now that she's comfortable

the living room, too, that means that Buddha doesn't have to be scared anymore

because Tana's territorially secure and she doesn't feel the need to lash out at

her former target.

Look at you, Tana. Oh, my God, a totally different cat than I met.

This is a completely different cat. Buddha's much more confident these days,

I'm proud of the progress we've made, especially with Tana. I mean, listen,

got zero fear about...

the two of them together in the room.

Goodbye, guys.

I'll leave you guys. Thank you so much. All right, take care.

Walking away, I feel great because we know now that Tana is a whole lot

because her base camp has expanded. She's more comfortable and confident.

And Buddha is no longer hiding in the shadows. He's coming out and up in the

world. Because of that, these two cats actually can be friends, finally.

Everybody knows that just touching an animal will bring down your blood

and give you a sense of well -being. Let me tell you, nobody needs that more

than firemen. So I'm here in Greenville, South Carolina at a firehouse to hang

out with these guys who adopted a cat named Flame.

Can't wait to meet him.

Anthony Seegers. Anthony, nice to meet you. Jordan Lott. Jordan, good to meet

you guys. So is this the famous Flame?

That is. I have never dealt with a firehouse cat before, so

you're in it first.

How did he come here?

The crew that was working the day he showed up told me that there was a cat

here. And then one day he's sitting out here. And I walk up and I said, why is

the cat here? And he's like, well, he lives here now.

He was really malnourished when we found him. Oh, yeah. And so we started

raiding the guy's cabinet.

There was some fried chicken in the fridge.

He just went to town on it. I love watching him work this place, man. He

he has no fear.

That was one thing we knew he fit in, because the loud noises, the trucks, we

have tones going off all the time. I was thinking. None of it bothers him.

No way. He doesn't run out. He doesn't do anything. He just sits over to the

side. He knows to get out of the way of the truck. I'm telling you, man, the

majority of cats I know, they would be clung to the ceiling at that point. This

cat's day -to -day life, I mean, alarms going off all the time. These guys use

chainsaws, and yet.

Flame just walks around all mojoed out.

That's the kind of cat that I love to see. We got a little firehouse for the

man. Yeah. That's fantastic.

Well, where's the pole?

It's in the inside.

Oh, no, get out of here. Is that true?

That's freaking amazing.

Love the bed, man. That's an incredible bed.

For you guys, though, I mean, it's a really high -stress job.

He must bring something to you.

We had a fire Friday a week ago that, uh...

We had a couple people taken to the burn center, the occupant.

That night, I remember specifically coming home after that fire. Within 30

seconds, he come around the corner and just sat next to me, just kind of like

hey, I'm here if you need me kind of deal.

You know, one of the things that makes Flame, for me, a cat from heaven, is to

see a bunch of guys gathered around a cat and just having them melt. There's a

bunch of tough guys at that.

We don't have enough cat guys out there flying that flag and saying, come on,

man. Cats are for men, too, you know? I can't be alone in this.

All right, Mr. Flame, take care of yourself.

Take care, guys. Thank you. Man, that was amazing.

I mean, Flame gives new meaning to the concept of a working cat. I mean,

sometimes it's not about catching mice. It's about unconditional love and

support, and these guys got plenty of that now, and I'm so glad I got to see

Hello.

I'm heading in for my final visit with Sean and Erin and their cat, Martini.

last time I was here, we got some great work done, but Sean and Erin were still

pretty hesitant about the idea of having Martini in the house and expanding

their family. I'm looking forward to seeing if Sean and Erin have done their

homework, and they've done the right things to make this a safe environment

a newborn.

So, let's take a look at your homework. Okay, great.

Basically, what we've done so far is rearrange.

The two cat trees.

And then she can go across to here.

I really like what Sean's done with the cat trees. Now the agility course wraps

all the way around the room. It's really going to drain out her energy, make her

more predictable, and make any attack highly unlikely.

Sean got it. He broke down the agility course into achievable goals. As far

as I'm concerned, Martini should be able to do this.

Visitors!

Since the last time I was here, Sean and Erin decided to do a little test run

with Martini and their seven -year -old niece.

Martini has scratched up their niece before, so I'm holding my breath if this

exercise went well. If you just kind of pretend like she's not there, then she's

going to be happy.

I'm going to let her smell your hand.

Do you want to do that?

There you go.

Do you want to give her a pet?

Oh, no pet.

That's okay.

You just told your seven -year -old niece to ignore the cat, and when she

agreed, then you told her if she wanted to, she could go in for a pet.

Scared of her anymore?

Hello?

Hi.

Let's just stop, and I just want you to, because there's something we're missing

here in the homework. If Martini wants to engage with you, she will come to

Come here, baby.

Come here. See what I'm doing right now? Uh -huh.

All I'm doing is inviting by doing nothing.

Right now, I'm just saying, hang, right now I'm not going to pet her. Right. I'm

going to let her do that.

Okay. The small adjustment we want to make for people is that key phrase, let

her pet you. Okay.

So here's what I want to do. Erin, if you could call and get Chloe to come on

over here. Sean, you and I are going to go on into Martini's room, and we're

going to take her around her agility course and see how you've been doing

your homework, okay? Awesome.

At the end of my journey with Sean and Aaron, I want to be able to say to them,

I feel comfortable with you expanding your family. I'm not going to get there

until they get what I'm laying down here. You definitely changed stuff.

step number one in here now? Step number one we have over here. Step.

Go.

Go. We've got toys here.

Here she comes. Here she comes.

What the hell?

I'm getting out of the way, man. Come on. Let's go.

Sean's homework was to connect with Martini without overstimulating her.

her go. You haven't broken out a treat yet.

Getting out of the way.

Boy, I'm getting my agility workout too.

And I also wanted him to get her energy out at the same time.

All the way, all the way, all the way, all the way, all the way, all the way,

all the way, all the way.

There she goes.

I am seeing great results here. Mission accomplished.

Beautiful, man. You have been doing your work, man. She clearly is loving this

room right now.

Look, I'm very impressed with Sean's work here. He and Erin have been totally

committed. But when it comes down to it, they have to see this with a child.

Their niece just walked in.

So here we go.

This is Martini's room.

So this is her little agility course that we use.

to play with her. I'm really excited to have Chloe over here because this is the

perfect activity for that seven -year -old child because she gets to engage

Martini without the petting and without the expectations or the rejection that

comes from the petting. And it's the perfect opportunity for these guardians

see whether Martini's behavior has really changed.

Here she comes.

You want to let her get up here?

I don't know how Chloe's going to react. It's a little bit discomforting. I'm

just hoping it goes well.

There you go. Good job. There we go. All the way up.

All the way up.

There we go. Keep it moving. Good job, Chloe.

Chloe, keep walking. Chloe, good job. Keep walking, Chloe.

There we go.

And now, Chloe, you're on to the next one. There we go. There you go, Chloe.

Good job.

Woo -hoo. Next one.

There we go. Keep going, Chloe.

Nice job, Chloe.

Hey, this is so cool.

Oh, my gosh.

I'm so excited right now.

Such a good feeling to see Chloe's success right now because it means that

may not have fears of cats in the future. You go, Chloe.

Good girl.

You are a cat master.

It's so important for us all to see that Martini can be comfortable with

children. So now she's learning that you're like Santa Claus. Yeah. That

time you come into the house, you've got all kinds of good stuff for her.

Martini is much nicer than she used to be, and she's much more fun.

Chloe is a rock star!

Yay! You did it, girl!

I'm really, really impressed with your cat.

Thank you. I personally don't think that you've got anything to worry about.

Right. But where are you guys after what you've seen today?

I think Martini being able to interact with her without, like I said, any major

incident is definitely reassuring that, you know, kids can be in the house.

There's potential there, and it means that we can really have families.

I am so excited that these guardians feel like they turned a corner. And the

truth is that once I showed Sean and Aaron that Martini was a special needs

not just some sort of an angry cat, they bought in completely and they took

every step necessary to build an environment where Martini could thrive.

I'll tell you, I think these guys are going to be great parents someday

they're great guardians now.

Bye, guys. Bye, Jackson. Take care.

I'm thankful for Jackson for helping us and giving us that light at the end of

the tunnel.

It's amazing.