Original subtitles

The three cats that we have are Good Kitty, Flea, and Tiny Dancer.

The boys are kind of a little dang.

Good Kitty is afraid to eat. She doesn't want to use her litter box. She's

living in fear.

I don't know what to do. I'm really frustrated.

Sorry, Good Kitty. We're going to try to get you some help.

We have two cats. Their names are Tiki and Marley. When we took them home, they

started suckling our blankets right away, and that turned into a bad habit.

Tiki, no.

When I see something that they have eaten, I just see dollar signs.

I am so frustrated with this problem. It just boils my blood. I just get to the

point where I just want to lash out. Tiki, no.

No. I just feel hopeless.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

Oh my God, I love my job.

The animal behaviors 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.

I'm Nora.

And I'm Mike.

We're both drummers, and we met in 2004 on the Vans Warped Tour.

Started dating and got engaged and almost married five years ago.

The three cats that we have are Good Kitty, Sleeve, and Tiny Dancer. When we

went to meet Good Kitty, I immediately started crying when I saw her because it

was just really emotional.

She reminded me so much of my dad, Cat Tootsie. And I didn't want to feel like

was trying to replace Tootsie, but at the same time I...

Didn't want her to go to the shelter.

Are you a good kitty?

Then we've got two others.

Sleeve, who's the big bully.

And then Tiny Dancer, who's more of the silent stalker type. He creeps up on

Good Kitty.

And then when she bolts, he goes after her.

The boys are kind of a little gang.

They see Good Kitty, and they scare her.

She's afraid to eat. She doesn't want to use her litter box, and she wants to go

outside because she knows the boys don't go outside.

She's living in fear.

Who's out there?

Mike's approach to solving the cat problem is isolating Good Kitty in the

bedroom, and she's closed in one room all day long, and I don't think that's

fair. I'm the police here in the house, and she just wants them to be together,

and her style is, oh, no, they'll figure it out, and they haven't figured it

out. I don't know what to do. I'm really frustrated.

Try his way. Try my way.

Nothing.

Sorry, good kitty. We're going to try to get you some help.

I'm in Burbank heading to meet up with guardians Mike and Nora.

They've adopted three cats, good kitty, tiny dancer, and sleeve.

From what I've heard, tiny dancer and sleeve.

have been ganging up pretty mercilessly on Good Kitty, who's having a pretty

rough time being the odd cat out.

Now, hopefully, I can get in there and get these cats and this couple living a

little more harmoniously. Doesn't sound like it's going to be easy.

Hey, Jack.

Hey, I'm Mike. Hey, Mike. How are you? Good to meet you guys.

Good Kitty's right here.

Hi, my little love.

She's the one who gets bullied by the two boys.

How long has that been going on?

Over a year. Over a year, yeah. Sweet.

Had them the whole time. Are the boys neutered? Yeah.

Are you getting bullied by the big boy?

Meeting good kitty, I can tell you right off the bat, she's not scared of me,

but she's suspicious.

She's very tight in her physicality. She's scared of something else.

What was her story? She came in before the other guy? Yes. When we had lost our

cat, I wanted Nora to get on with let's get another cat.

So we got her and we took her and she was great.

And then...

Why stop there?

A month later, we adopted the boys, and there was no introduction process.

Just, hello, here they are.

Work it out.

No. The boys just chased good kitty into the open pantry.

Are you okay, kitty?

Before we go any further, can we explore the house? I want to follow the path of

destruction. Well, it starts in the bedroom. Let's go to the bedroom. Let's

So here is... Good kitty's set up.

She has her own litter box, scratching post, food and water.

Is there ever a time when all three cats are in this space? Oh, yeah. This is

when I'm on tour, though.

Wait, so what's the difference between when you're not on tour? I don't let it

happen. I'm keeping separated.

I'm keeping separated. What's that room right there? That's where they are right

now. What would happen if that door were open?

Oh, they'd come out. The only way to challenge and assess Good Kitty is for

other not -so -good kitties to be let loose. Right now, both Sleeve and Tiny

Dancer are locked away in the guest room. I want to see the other two cats

and I want to see them interacting with Good Kitty.

Hello, one cat. Who's the orange one?

The orange one is Tiny Dancer.

And there we go. Okay, so cool. We got him on the move.

So what is Tiny looking for right now? Tiny's looking for Good Kitty. I would

imagine that she's in a constant state of fight or flight, but really just

fight. She's always looking over her shoulder.

Is it safe to say that Good Kitty is always that cat unless they're locked up

she's outside?

Yeah. See, that sucks.

It's hard for me to follow his rule of not letting her out.

Because... I see how happy she is. Yeah.

I'm happy to let her out, too, but I sit there and watch her.

It's just, you've got to keep your eye on her. From listening to Mike and Nora,

I understand why nothing is getting any better in this house. These guys are a

total stalemate when it comes to how to take care of these cats.

In your shoes, you never get any kind of stability because you come off the

road. You're trying to now.

get a way of operating here that hasn't been happening at all. And the second

you leave, that's gone. And now you're coming back and you do it again.

We've got to find a middle ground. Exactly.

Look at how he's going back. That's his window he normally looks out.

See, now he's looking for her.

Again, I haven't seen Sleeve yet.

You go at the head of the hallway there.

When you turn the tables on a bully, they usually turn tail, and that's

happening with Sleeve right now. He's under the bed somewhere.

I've got to get these cats as close together as possible, because in order

me to come up with solutions, I've got to see what the problem looks like for a

pen.

Hello, little boy.

Okay, let's see what happens when you let him go.

Let's see.

I feel that Tiny's learning his bad manners from Sleeve. Oh, there she is.

Just follow, please. Everybody just, I just want to see.

Okay, so little good kitty is now in here hiding behind dad's cloak, as

it were. So she's safe because she's with you. Good kitty acts her part as a

squeaky toy, as the most fun thing to chase in this house.

Good kitty was taking her place as a mojito cat, walking around like she owns

the place. Believe me, these other two cats will back off because the payoff is

just not there.

All right, the toy trick.

Off we go with toy.

Boop. Tiny wants in. Oh, hi, Tiny.

Oh, wow, he's like right in, right?

You going to jump up here?

Okay, so that's cool.

But you're telling me also that he's not our main concern, right? He'll follow

Slee's lead.

Yeah.

There you go, my love. Come on up. Come on up. Come here, baby. Come here,

please. So she is really struggling.

She's hungry. I know she is, but I cannot get her to get herself out into

open to take those treats because as soon as she makes herself available, she

knows it's game on.

So far, I've used toys and treats to lure Good Kitty out of the corner, and I

got nothing to show for it. Now, Mike and Nora tell me that Good Kitty's a

confident cat when she's outside because she's away from Tiny Dancer and Sleeve.

So, we're going to try to lure her outside into the fence yard because I

see the kind of cat they're talking about. Even though it's drizzling out

you think that she would actually come out? Because, you know, by and large,

cats do not like rain. I think she might.

Either turn around and go back in, or God only knows where she's going to go.

She might go for the wall and go over. You know what I mean? I don't know. Go

ahead. See what you can do if it's shaking food, doing whatever.

All I know is that good kitty's always got one eye on outside.

And there's all kinds of bad things waiting for her outside this yard. So

really dangerous situation, but one I can totally sympathize with.

Look at her standing there, tail down.

Tiny's on the counter looking down.

You might drop down on her.

That is not a good position right now.

Look at her standing there, tail down.

That is not a good position right now.

Oh, here he comes.

She ain't coming out here, that's for sure.

Is she back on the chair? She's underneath.

Okay. The situation seems under control for now.

I've got to give these guys some tools to help these cats go to bed.

Let's start talking about the three R's. And the three R's are...

Routine, ritual, rhythm. Whether you're on the road or not on the road, the day

is going to look the same.

First thing that's the ingredient to this day, we're going to move to just

times around here. Three times a day, morning, get home from work, and right

before you go to bed, we're going to have this routine where the cats can

up to their food, eat, and walk away.

And no, no posturing, no nothing. One other big part of the three R's is sight

swapping. The fact is, she has to own out here sometimes.

No way she can be mojito if all she ever owns is your bedroom.

And the other guy's got to know what it feels like to be back there.

Okay, so you take those routines, you turn them into rituals that happen day

and day out, and that becomes your daily rhythm.

Next, I'd like to see some catification with some shelves, especially out here

in the living room. Good Kitty needs a way where she can escape from Sleeve and

Tiny Dancer and eventually become confident in this open, shared area of

living room. Here's your challenge. Your challenge is, I want you to have... a

way for her to get from the bedroom out here without being on the ground. I want

something in that hallway where she can be up and out, right? So a whole hallway

is a revolving door because right now, again, just because of the layout of the

house, there's no way for her to get from A to B without, you know, the okay

corral happening, right? That standoff. So I want you to find a vertical way for

her to get out of there. That leads us to mojito training.

So I want you to be able to use all of these revolving doors, the catification

that we're putting up here, the cat superhighway, and start leading her

the house. During play, you can use treats because she's pretty highly food

motivated by just leading her. The idea is this. Let me demonstrate to you.

So, I'm her.

She's coming from this hallway out to the rest of the world.

She is used to the fact that once she gets out in the open, she's going to get

her ass kicked.

So this becomes an electrified fence.

Every time she comes here, there's going to be that pause.

By you leading her with a toy, by you leading her with treats, and you're just

telling her, come follow me, you're trying to de -emphasize these

fences so that your goal is, instead of going like this, that's it. That's all I

want. That automatically makes a mojito cat.

Now, the other part of the equation is you guys.

which every time you speak, you demonstrate the fact that you are on

sides of the planet when it comes to the solution here.

I want you to come up with these three R's together, and I want you to write

this down.

I want to know what the rules of engagement are, what every day looks

the ritual looks like, what the rhythm of each day looks like, so when I get

back here, we can go over that contract of each day and tweak it. I am giving

Mike and Nora the ingredients.

to a safe and happy home. And it's up to them to take those ingredients and turn

them into a rhythm.

With all of this said, how are you feeling right now? I know we can totally

this because she obsesses on detail and you've laid some detail out. Cool.

Jackson gave us a lot of homework and I'm concerned about keeping up with this

new routine because there's a lot of changes coming.

But we're going to figure it out. We're going to figure it out. All right, guys.

I'll talk to you soon. Good to meet you both. Thanks, Jackson. See you. Bye

-bye.

Poor good kitty. I mean, this girl is a target. She's a wallflower. She's

intimidated at all times. My job right now is to get that cat feeling her

mojito, and then we got a chance here.

Hi, I'm Ashley.

Hi, I'm Richard. We have two cats who are brothers. Their names are Tiki and

Marley.

Marley?

and we saved them from a kill shelter.

You guys aren't supposed to be in there. That's why the tape's on there. When we

took them home, they were five weeks old, and they started suckling our

right away.

I know.

I know.

We thought it was cute, you know, because they're so small, and we were,

watching them, like, oh, wow, look at them, you know, that's so interesting

so kind of... So cute.

Get!

And that really turned into a bad habit.

Tiki, no.

Don't you eat that.

When I see something that they have eaten, I just see dollar signs.

You're eating it.

You're eating the carpet.

I think the worst thing that could happen with the cats is they die.

One or both of them will eat something that they cannot pass, and we may not

to them in time to bring them to the vet.

We absolutely love our cats. They're kid -friendly, they're great with us, but

they keep eating everything.

It's definitely gotten worse.

now that we have kids. Because we're sleep deprived, we have our own stresses

with the kids, and now the cat.

Oh, come on.

I am so frustrated with this problem. It just boils my blood.

Busted. Busted.

Busted. You're busted.

I just get to the point where I just want to lash out.

Nope. Bad.

I just feel hopeless.

So I'm in Las Vegas and I'm going to meet up with Rich and Ashley. They've

two young kids and two cats, Tiki and Marley, who are chewing these guys out

house and home. Tiki.

No. And hoping I can do something about it. Hello.

Welcome. How are you doing? How are you, Ashley?

Ashley, good to meet you. I'm Rich. What's up, Rich? Good to see you.

Richie and Rich. And who's that?

Tiki. And who else do we have? Marley.

Tiki and Marley. He's upstairs.

Hello, Mr. Tiki.

Tiki's how old? Five years old. They're brothers.

Littermates. And where'd you get them from? We saved them from a kill shelter.

Right on, girl. And they were how old when you got them? We think they were

about five weeks old, maybe six.

Yeah, we know that they were weaned too early from their mom, and that's why we

think that they have this issue.

So what are they doing?

Eating everything.

Couch pillows.

There we go. Oh, there.

And this one.

You can really see it on this one.

So both brothers do this?

Yeah. Is this as bad as it gets in terms of damage?

I would say so, yeah. I mean, this is our duvet covers. That's a good one. Let

me see that one. We knew that it was an issue. I bought him a blanket, and it

looked like Swiss cheese when you held it up from all the holes in it. That was

the first time you noticed anything? That I noticed an issue. How old was he?

just brought him home. Oh, that young.

Okay. When I have the information that I have cats that are chewing on things,

Second I cross the threshold, I'm checking out the environment.

I'm also trying to figure out how long the behavior is happening.

And from what I'm hearing right now, it started when they were very young, and

it's continued at the same level since they were very young.

Babies are a whole different ball of wax for cats.

The movement, the sound, the crying, the smell, everything is different for

them. Have the cats ever been aggressive towards the kids?

The cats have never swatted at the kids because they would have been.

Gone. I'll pretend I didn't hear that one.

Cats are family and not furniture. They're not something that we just look

and we admire. They're family members, and like all family members, they have

their peculiarities. I got this little, like, edge of, like, I can't keep this

up. Are you guys getting to that point where, you know, are you getting to the

point? I am.

I'm the one.

you know, find my bedsheets completely chewed. But then I lash out on him.

go the cats again. There go, you know, another pair of bedsheets, another thing

of pillowcases, another, you know. It's okay.

Mommy's just getting angry at the cats.

If you're blowing up all the time and you can't handle all this, is it another

case of like... For me it is because I'm home all day with the cats and the

kids. Ashley is right at that peak of... These cats are almost out of here. It's

also a matter of one more hole in a blanket. They're gone. They're out of

So have you guys had the discussion about rehoming these guys? I don't want

do it. Yeah.

I really don't. Well, clearly we've got to get a handle on this because you guys

are at that place, or at least actually you are.

It's incredibly hard to be holding a three -month -old and trying to make

everything is picked up.

Sometimes I just say, you know what, I'm just going to leave it out, and if it

gets eaten, it gets eaten. That's to the point I'm at.

What do you want me to do?

To figure out what's the underlying issue.

Okay. What might throw me over the edge is if something happens and now we're

spending $2 ,000 to $3 ,000 at the vet for an emergency surgery in the middle

the night. We've already identified that this couch is what I call a hot spot.

What other...

Hot spots are there in the house, or are there?

There are if I leave a door open. So if I left one of my kids' doors open, they

would go right in. And chew? And chew.

You know, I'd really like to see these hot spots.

Absolutely. So let's go take a walk. Let's go.

Well, one of them is this little toy.

His tail.

No. Poor little guy's tail.

Okay. But these toys aren't cheap.

You know, and they're gifted to us, and then...

They get chewed.

But I got to say, that ain't much.

But on every toy, it gets to the point where.

Right, I get it. You know.

And it begins and ends here. So it's not in the Velcro.

I think it's things that are, if it, you know, is on its back and it's sitting

there staring at him like, come eat me. Come eat me. Like this kind of thing,

right? Yeah, like, look at that. It's so inviting.

So inviting, right?

And other, but here's the important thing for me.

Here's the important thing for me.

No plastic.

No plastic.

No plastic. No fabric. Big, big, big distinction.

Is your toy okay?

He's like, yeah, my tail.

So, mine.

We can also go upstairs. Yeah, we can go upstairs.

Let's go do that.

All I'm worried about is what materials they are and how fast I can send these

guys to the hospital. I'm not caring about a hole here and a hole there. I

about these cats winding up in the emergency room. Here's our blanket.

Oh, that's pretty hot. Look at it. This blanket has been destroyed.

Look at that. Look at that bad boy. That's a good one.

Oh, here's Swiss cheese.

Okay. And so everything that you're pretty much hiding in here.

You hide in here because of them? Yeah. Oh, my heating blanket got it. Ooh,

well, that's dangerous.

This was in my bed.

Part of my job right now is to create perspective here, that this isn't really

about a blanket. This isn't about clothes.

This is about the lives of two of your family members that are very much

in the balance.

They could very easily chomp on a wire, and that's not just a hole in a blanket.

That's a hole in a cat.

not to mention a huge fire hazard.

They could very easily chomp on a wire, and that's not

just a hole in a blanket. That's a hole in a cat.

Rich and Ashley both are much more focused on the damage to their good than

potential danger that these cats face.

This is interesting also to me. Look over to this tree over here.

So, again, we're looking at fabrics. We're looking at, I mean, come on, this

pretty dangerous.

When we talk about an invitation to a bad problem, a scytheful rope that's

dangling loose or anything that's long and stringy like yarn or wool or a wire,

that's a huge problem because that's what winds up getting wrapped around

intestinal tracts. And, by the way, that's something that will kill your

I feel like I've got every bit of information that I needed.

Here's what we're dealing with. Tiki and Marley have pica.

Pica is a condition that literally is described as the ingestion of foreign

materials. It's not really something we can cure.

Unfortunately, it's one of those things where science is pretty stumped. I just

can't believe that it's pica. That's not what I wanted to hear. That was just a

bone crusher. The way it works with pica is... They go from wool suckers to

kittens, and then they start eating the fabric. Then they're going to graduate

to plastics.

Now they're eating anything that's not nailed down. I mean, it is a nightmare.

And my theory is with your guys, these guys were taken away from mom way too

early, and this weaning becomes a full -on ritual that reminds them of being

little kittens. So that's why they do this kind of thing. That's the

okay? Now, what I'd like you to start looking at...

is your cats as family members.

Because you won't be able to solve this problem without being fully committed to

the entire family, and that has to include Tiki and Marley. It's about you

getting on the same page right now, because in order to sort of embrace the

of this program, that's where it starts.

So let's take a look at your house right now. Oh, baby gates and locks on the

cabinets. This you have on every doorknob in your house. This is stuff

probably say, I would rather not have these things, but I do because I'm a

That's what I'd like you to start getting towards with the cats.

If they ingest, let's say, that sisal rope that's hanging off those cat trees,

if they eat that, chances are you're either in the emergency room at 3 o

in the morning or you missed that opportunity and they die.

So pica -proofing. There can be nothing that is a fabric that they've gone after

before that is long. Another pica -proofing thing, by the way, is your cat

trees. We want to make sure that you either hot glue all of those ropes or

them off. Anything that hides wires, electric blankets, should be kept far

from them. These guys are not chewers out of necessity.

They're chewers out of opportunity.

Next thing is we replace things that are non -ingestible with things that are

ingestible in the areas where the chewing tends to occur. Dog toys are

a really cool thing. So they can chomp on them. They can get that chewing mojo

going on without the fear of something that's going to kill them. So be aware.

Be proactive.

There are certain dog bones that are chewable, which is to say that if the

chews them and ingests them, they actually do break down. They're made of

organic material, and they won't clog up anything.

Hopefully we're going to see you guys really getting on top of this problem.

If something was to happen to the cats, it would be devastating.

It's on us. It's not on them. They don't know that they have this disease. So if

we don't do our part, then it would be a shame on us to not help them because

they could die.

It's going to be challenging.

All right, guys. I will see you in just a few weeks. Perfect.

Thank you. Let's get to work. Sounds good.

Bye, guys.

Bye. Thank you.

Man, I can't tell you how important it is that Rich and Ashley get on the same

page here because if they don't, I could come back to a home with two cats who

were just let out the back door or, worse yet, dead. And that's something

entirely preventable.

Are you okay, kitty?

So I'm here for my second visit with Mike and Nora and their three cats, Good

Kitty, Tiny Dancer, and Sleeve. Last time I was here, there were definitely

problems between the three cats, but what I'm worried about, homework -wise,

the contract negotiations between the couple, because if I said it once, I've

said it a thousand times, it begins and it ends with the humans.

Hello! Welcome back!

How you guys been?

Oh, great.

Nora, you just look really happy.

Beautiful. Look at the highway.

He's so happy.

That is amazing.

As soon as I walk in, I see Good Kitty sitting on her superhighway, looking

comfortable, and that's a good sign.

I also see a cat contract, and I can't wait to get into the details of that

Mike and Nora.

Let's take a look at the cat contract from hell.

8 a .m., play with cats breakfast.

6 o 'clock, play with cats, dinner, all three cats coexist.

Okay. 9 o 'clock, play with cats, snack time. Good kitty gets back in the house,

boys get in front of the house. Great. So that's our rhythm.

I'm hoping that since the last time I was here, there haven't been any fights.

Has there been any fights? Yeah, it still happens. But when we're around to

break them up, to distract them with a toy, it's okay.

1 to 10, how severe were the fights?

It's the same. It's just happening less frequently. But she's not standing up

for herself. Okay. So that's a big deal.

So I'm hearing the good kitty is not the mojito cat that I want her to be. I'm

hoping to see why we're not further along here. So let's take a quick look

where you guys have been with your homework.

We're site swapping. The boys are now closed in our bedroom and the kitty is

out. We're trying to lure her through the doorways to work on building her

confidence. Scary door.

Looking for the boys.

Come on, kitty.

Yeah, yeah.

They're not here, Kitty. They're not here.

I'm going to stop right here just so I get a lay of the land. For Good Kitty,

this is still like, it's a little weird, yeah.

So clearly, real bad stuff seems to happen right here. Good Kitty is a

wallflower. She literally hugs the wall. If she is forced into the middle of the

room, she loses all confidence, tail down, ears down. She runs to the next

place. We can't have that. I want to see ownership, not wallflower.

This is the longest time she's ever spent out in this room.

True. Well, this sucks because this is the usual stalking all over again.

Come on, Tiny. We have this going on, and we have that going on, and that's

called ambush.

We still have a lot of work to do with Good Kitty. It's not about the boys as

much. It's about her.

If Good Kitty is ever going to be a confident cat who claims territory for

herself and refuses to be bullied, she's going to have to learn to stand up to

sleep in Tiny Dancer.

The boys are in here.

Hello, my boys.

Hi.

What I would like to do is bring Good Kitty in here with these guys.

And I just want to see what her reaction is. Do we have food in here? Yeah. We

do. What I want to do then is go through a routine.

Best case scenario, I got three cats eating in the same room, not paying

close attention to one another.

Worst case scenario, they pay really close attention to each other, and I got

break up a serious cat fight. So she's going to take it in. She's going to take

in the world. She knows the two boys are here. Now let's go right in to a little

bit of food.

You want some food?

I left you some food.

If he would eat, that would make me very happy.

Do you not see a sleeve there, kitty?

Good kitty's making a beeline to the window.

There's a good chance the sleeve turns around and just absolutely destroys her.

Are you going to eat?

Hold on.

We're breathing.

Are you kidding me right now?

Our wallflower not just walked down the middle of the bed, not just settled on a

nightstand behind, she just smacked him upside the head.

This is a good thing.

Hey, babe.

What's that?

What is that?

Hey, girlfriend, you made your point.

You made your point. I am...

so impressed with her right now because there's a certain degree of his fear.

She picks up on it like that. She's in charge right now because of his body

language. If these boys had been the ones to initiate this, checkmate.

See where she's looking right now?

She's making sure it's not checkmate. It's check.

Now, she's going to jump.

You want to come this way?

We're seeing the body language turn back into wallflower.

I don't want to trap her in here one minute longer than she has to be, so go

ahead and let her out.

Good Kitty made her point.

It's not about stopping the aggressive cat from attacking.

It's about the wallflower standing up to prevent the attack. To help her get all

the way there, we have to make her comfortable in the middle of the room.

just reestablished a new challenge line. Now Mike and Nora have to grab that

line for all it's worth and take us to the finish line.

Good Kitty wants to be...

feeling like she's always covered. So I want you to get one of those cat play

tunnels. It's a fabric tunnel that can go right in that doorway. As you're

playing, you take the toy, you lead it through the tunnel back and forth,

her a sense of security in the middle of the room. And when she feels more

comfortable, she won't need the tunnel anymore.

Next thing, the feeding exercise.

Feeding time will happen here for all three cats. She's got to be able to walk

through, tail held high, not dashing for the corners.

She owns the middle of the floor, so we want more stuff happening in the middle

of the floor. Okay. Cool? All right, guys.

Okay, I'm out. Thank you. Keep it up. Thank you so much. All right, good to

you. Good to see you, buddy. All right, buddy.

I'll see you guys soon, all right? See you later.

Okay, good work.

Solid progress, but still unfinished business, because I got to tell you, if

come back here next time and there's fights of any shape or size, then the

wallflower will never die, and that would be a tragedy.

Tiki. You're best then.

You.

I'm here for my final visit with Rich and Ashley and their two cats, Tiki and

Marley, who have Pika. Now, I needed these guys to get on the same page,

surrender and accept the fact that Pika is here to stay.

Hopefully, so are the cats.

Hello. How are you? I'm good. How have you been? Good, good.

Good to see you, brother. Good to see you. Everything's good.

All right. Well, then we're going to get right to it. I want to take a look at

your homework.

Okay. And see what you guys have been up to.

So we are going to peek -a -proof the upstairs.

Just by closing doors, there's a blanket.

So we'll go ahead and put the blanket inside the ottoman.

And then that way the cats can't get it.

Do you now see it in that light? I mean, have you gotten yourself acclimated to

the point where now when you're looking around, it's an instant like, oh, boy.

Yeah. You know?

Watching the video homework, I'm seeing a couple committed to the pika proofing,

and every day they're going around here. They're trying to figure out what they

might have left around, how to just get it out of the way proactively.

Everything that I ask them to do, they're doing.

Okay, so we are fixing the cat tower here. We're hot glue gunning the loose

materials back onto the tower so cats don't eat them. It's wonderful, new

toys arrived.

I really hope that they don't eat.

These little strings on there, but it'll be a test to see if they eat them.

You know what? Let's go backwards here for a second.

This, on a toy, is dessert. So just cut off stuff like this that comes with

them. Today we went out and bought some fresh catnip. And some fresh wheatgrass.

And my only concern with this is... Wow, they like it. ...that putting this into

the house, they'll start eating every plant that I have.

Your concern's a good one. But pica -proofing your plants is actually really

simple. I mean, there are products that you can get. They get on it, and it's

kind of sticky.

They'll go to something better. If you have these sitting next to your potted

plants, you're saying no by putting a little bit of sticky...

or something of an aversive smell. But there is a chewable thing for them. No,

yes. But watching the cats eat that grass, they're not just, you know, oh,

is really good. They're in that OCD kind of, which is amazing.

When you discover things that pika cats will gravitate towards, you grab that

and shake it, man, because that's going to save you guys.

So are you seeing less chewing all the way around? Yes.

What turned you around?

Now I know it's on us.

We left it out. Not on purpose, obviously, but it was on us. Whereas

would just be like, that's it.

I can't believe it. Open the door.

Yeah, I can't believe they ate something else. And Rich helping me out and

picking up things and just me asking for the help is a big thing. That's a big

deal, isn't it?

This process is a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be, but we

love Kiki and Marley so much. They're, you know, our family. And since doing

homework that Jackson assigned to us, we're slowly starting to see a

I think it definitely changed the cat's habits in a good way.

I mean, really, everything that you guys are doing is great. And it seems like

we have really gotten over a huge hump here.

So, plain and simple.

You guys on the same page at this point. We know Pike is here to stay, yeah?

Yes.

Second question.

Are the cats here to stay? Cats are here to stay. Okay, we are on the same page.

Look at that smile, man. Okay.

That smile does not lie. That makes me happy.

Rich and Ashley accomplished every single thing that I wanted them to

accomplish, not just the physical acts of pica -proofing and making sure

nothing left for the cats to chew. That's not really what it's all about.

it's all about is understanding, accepting, doing what you've got to do

proactively and acting like a team. That's the stuff I wanted these guys to

and they did beautifully.

Clearly, you guys are complete. completely different than the guys I met

So many times we come in for final visits and it's all about how much the

change. And this time around, we know it's not going to change to a large

degree. We know that this is something they can't control.

You guys have learned how to manage Pika. This boy here is going to be safe

the end of all this.

What all of us care about. Absolutely. I know that. So I'm going to leave you.

You have fun with toys. You have fun with treats. And please don't have fun

pillows and strings and stuff, okay? I learned to not get so angry at the cats

because there's more things in life to worry about than a sock being eaten. The

cats are here to stay.

You guys, you've done amazing work here. Thank you. On the same page. Thank you

very much. Take care. Bye -bye.

It doesn't always work out that way, but for this family, there's hope with

Pika. And that means that these cats are safe and they're here to stay. And

that's what I care about.

I have put her food in the tunnel. Here comes the growl. You know, I can hear

the panic. No, no, no.

Tiny Dancer still sees good kitties at Target.

Today I'm in Lakeside, California to meet up with Carolyn and her inspiring

Sophia. You know, suffering can manifest in so many different ways, both

emotionally and physically.

But when two souls come together and they say, you complete me, in this case

.S. Army veteran and her cat, then stories can have happy endings. And I

wait to see this one.

Carolyn. Hi, Jackson. How are you? Hi.

Good to meet you. Good to meet you, too.

I'm Carolyn, and I am a U .S. Army veteran. I deployed to Iraq in 2004.

So April 15th of 2005, just before we were about to leave, we had a pretty

roadside bombing.

I actually had suffered a fracture in my lower spine and a flip in my spine and

a herniation in my spine. Oh, boy. When you talk about dark days, that's pretty

much the epitome of dark.

I fell into really deep depression, and I had such bad PTSD. And, you know,

chronic pain just changes your personality, right? It makes you, nobody

you because you don't even like you, right, because you're so upset.

It just got to the point where it was done.

You know, we talk about the 22 a day, which is the suicide rate in the veteran

community. And suicide is never the answer.

But you get there because you're so exhausted.

So I reached out for help, and the help kind of found itself in an animal

shelter here in San Diego. And that's where I met Sophia.

This is Sophia. This is the famous Sophia.

This is.

Hey, babe.

Hi. baby.

So when I went in to adopt her, they're like, okay, just so you know, you know,

there's kind of a problem.

She's an amputee. Wow. She was found with her umbilical cord wrapped around

paw. And so she went through an amputation. She was a couple weeks old.

like, well, that's not a problem. I have friends that are amputees. Like, what's

the big deal?

Life is full of defining moments waiting to be discovered. For years, Carolyn

couldn't find those moments because she was living in darkness. When she opened

herself up, made herself vulnerable, there was Sophia.

That was a defining moment. The two of them belong together.

What I didn't know, and I learned a little bit later, is that cats do

that dogs don't do. So when they purr and they're sitting on your skin, they

release oxytocin. And so this natural feel -good chemical is something that...

I could feel, and that's exactly what I needed. Sophia is a cat from heaven

because she took a veteran out of hell.

One of the things that's just so remarkable is that feeling of just

love. And I think for someone who's suffering, and whatever they're

from, even if it's temporary, it's a cure.

Yeah.

Clearly, there's a lot of inspiration to go around with this story.

Carolyn was suffering so badly before she met Sophia.

There was that one missing component, and that one missing component in her

had three paws.

She's a wonderful cat. She really is. And you are a wonderful cat guardian.

Oh, thank you.

Let me know how the journey progresses, okay? I'd love to. All right, take care,

Carolyn. Bye.

And I'll tell you what, an inspiring, amazing story.

Carolyn and Sophia, they get the Cat Daddy Medal of Honor for strength,

perseverance, and, of course, grace. And Sophia, she's not just a cat from

heaven, man.

She's a soldier of love.

Are you okay, kitty?

I'm here for my third and final visit with Mike and Nora and their cat, Good

Kitty. Last time I was here, we actually got some great work done.

But these guys have still got to become a unified front. I've got to make sure

there have been no smackdowns in this house. I want to see harmony prevail for

sure. Hey, Jackson.

How are you, man? Good to see you. I'm good. Great, actually.

Oh, good.

That I like. How are you? It's working. I don't even get a word out of my mouth

and it's working.

Hello, my baby. Come say hi to me. Come say hi to me, Miss Mojito Loveliness.

So I'm validating. I've never seen her here. Now, this is everything I ever

wanted to see. We got good kitty walking out the middle of the room looking at

Tiny Dancer, but not in that worried way. She's just like, there's another

Let's get to it. I can't wait to watch her stuff here.

We are working with the tunnel to get her to come to the center of the room.

That's cool. She gets hyped.

Good girl.

Go back to the middle of the living room. Come on. And there she is in the

middle of the room.

Good girl.

And look at that. Ba -boom.

Dinner in the living room for good kitty.

Beautiful. Beautiful position.

I'm letting her start dinner, and then I will release the terrors from the

bedroom.

Okay, okay.

Here come the growls. No, no, no.

I just closed Tiny Dancer's sleeve in a bedroom.

I have put her food in the tunnel to see if she'll eat.

Okay, so let's talk about that moment for a second. You know, I can hear the

panic in your voice.

We can let some of this stuff happen. What these guys have to be able to keep

mind at all times is potential conflict may lead to potential reward.

The last time I was here, Sleeve got knocked down a peg, and Good Kitty found

herself a little bit with him.

What I'm seeing in the video homework is that Sleeve is hanging back. He's

watching the action. What I'm also seeing is that Tiny Dancer still sees

Kitty as a target, and that I want to work through today. Before I leave, I've

got to see these two cats hanging out in the same space. I've got to make sure

that it's not always going to lead to mayhem.

Now, look, we've got Good Kitty up on the shelves, and Tiny Dancer is on the

move. Tiny Dancer still sees her as his favorite toy, and I've got to make sure

that he also learns a lesson here.

Fears back.

She's fearful.

Okay, and?

Okay, so now I'm not entirely sure I want to let this happen, but I'm going

let it happen.

And there we go.

That's not bad right there.

Congratulations, girlfriend.

For me, witnessing this moment feels a deal around here.

Good Kitty just gave Tiny Dancer the no. I'm not your toy anymore.

And Tiny Dancer got that message loud and clear. This wallflower has become a

mojito cat.

I know that you've made a lot of hard choices.

And you being that unified front is the reason why it's working out. Keep doing

what you're doing.

Thank you. Great stuff, man. Great stuff. Thanks, Jack. Of course. You did

amazing work. Thank you so much.

My pleasure.

My pleasure. You guys, please.

Keep it up, okay?

All right. Take care.

Man, now that feels good. I mean, the wallflower disappears.

The mojito cat emerges.

Mike and Nora are a unified front. But, hey, at the end of all this, it's about

good kitty. Her courage changed everything in here, and I am proud of