Original subtitles

Penny Lane is out to get my roommate Lizzie.

I've tried being nice to the cat, but it just seems like there's nothing else to

try. Our only option is to go our separate ways.

It takes a lot to scare me. I spend my life with cats.

This cat freaks me out.

Whoa.

When we moved to this home, Roxy immediately became terrified of our

Max.

It's like a switch was just turned on and she hates the other cat.

And it's just a really violent and ugly situation.

She scratched my arm pretty badly.

I mean, it's a major source of stress.

If we couldn't improve the situation, then we should probably find her another

home. I mean, it's the same as asking me to get rid of a child. I'm not willing

to get rid of my cat.

I'm Jackson Galaxy.

I'm a musician by night and a cat behaviorist by day.

I've met cats with all kinds of problems.

But I've never met one I couldn't help.

In my career, I've worked with thousands of cats one -on -one, analyzing their

behaviors and retraining them and their guardians.

When relationships are at an end. I feel like I have to choose between my best

friend. And cat guardians have reached their emotional limit.

The end of the line. I'm their last hope.

I think your fear feeds the dynamic between the two of you. Cats have nine

lives, but humans only have one.

Beautiful day to do what I do.

Today, I'm going over to Laura and Lizzie's house. This is not such a

thing. They sent me in some video. This is Kat.

Penny Lane, flat -out attack.

That's crazy. She's completely unpredictable.

I've never seen anything like this in my life. Wow.

The violence is tearing me two roommates and best friends apart.

I've got to get over there.

I'm Laura.

And I'm Lizzie. And we just moved in together. We've been living together for

few months now.

Lizzie is not just my roommate. She's one of my best friends, and it's

that we live together.

I adopted Penny Lane when she was a kitten.

Look, kitty.

There you are.

Penny Lane's really affectionate with me, but she's almost out to get Lizzie.

From the second that she came to meet me for the first time, Penny hated me.

I kind of do think that Penny Lane is the devil.

I'll go in the shower and close the door, and I'll hear this noise, and it's

little paw coming underneath the door trying to get in.

Lizzie is not free to walk around the apartment.

Can't even go in my room. It's definitely...

causing a lot of issues and stress on our friendship. I've tried being nice to

the cat, but the intensity just seems to be growing and growing, and the stress

level seems to be growing, and it just seems like we've done everything and

there's nothing else to try.

I think if things don't get better, then our only option is to go our separate

ways and move out.

L .A. is a difficult city to be alone and starting out, and I don't really

that many people out here yet.

So if anything were to cause Lizzie...

to move out, then I won't be able to afford to live here, and I would

have to move away.

It's very important that we do something about this to save our friendship. We

don't have any other options.

Some cats can form bonds with humans just like we do with our own best

And just like friends, when your cat is in serious need of help, you can't just

abandon them.

Hey. Come on in. Hey, how you doing?

How are you guys? When Jackson showed up, I was so excited. I mean, he

have come a minute sooner.

So, guys, I've seen this video, and I'm incredibly concerned.

Has she done any kind of damage to you? Yeah.

I have a scar right now.

Oh, yes, you do.

She doesn't have front claws.

So the only damage she's going to do is with her teeth and with her back claws.

Oh, she's declawed? Mm -hmm.

Is this sort of her world now and you just rent space?

I feel like I can't be at home in my own apartment.

Like, I go in my room and I just shut the door. Well, that's no way to live

either. Right.

Either of us want to deal with it and we don't even really want to talk about it

because we both get angry.

I do kind of feel as if maybe Laura is taking the cat side and there is a

bit of a war going on between me and the cat.

I feel like this is affecting not only our roommate situation but our

friendship. If I give my cat away, then she'll probably be put down, and that

would break my heart.

I feel like I have to choose between my two best friends.

Let's get to it. All right. Let's see her.

Is she hiding somewhere?

There she is.

She actually seems kind of calm right now. Okay, but usually if I, like, go to

pet her, she'll just instantly, like, hiss and swat at me.

So I have the two girls in the room with me with Penny. Penny Lane would just

look at Laura and she would just have these sort of angel eyes. She'd look at

Lizzie and she would just start hissing.

Yeah, you're so cute.

Yeah, it's okay.

It's okay.

She obviously loves your voice.

People claim her to be this evil cat, but it's so bizarre for me because I see

such a different side of her, which is filled with love and affection.

It's okay. No one's going to hurt you.

I've seen the video of Penny Lane. I've seen her interact with Laura and Lizzie.

So I noticed that Laura's relationship with Penny is purely vocal.

It's about soothing and reassuring. On the other hand, Lizzie's relationship

with Penny was very non -vocal.

So I asked Lizzie to do the same thing. I really want you to tell her what's

going on.

But in that voice. I know this feels really stupid.

But give me a break and do it.

Penny Lane.

I hate when you're growling at me and hissing at me all the time.

And I hate that you're so sweet to Laura, but you're so mean to me.

I wish you wouldn't swat at me when I was walking around my own house.

Penny.

Penny Lane's behavior was so different between Laura and Lizzie, I decided that

I had to see what was really going on and just put myself in the middle of

What?

Come here.

Let's hang out.

Let's hang out. You want my foot?

It's okay.

I got on the floor to just say hello, and she immediately acted like I was

to eat her.

What? Where are you gonna go?

We don't have to do this all day.

We don't have to do this all day.

It's okay.

Whoa.

You take into consideration her body language, the unpredictability, the fact

that she's declawed, and I think that she'll go for her teeth first, and the

fact that she's looking at my face.

I was scared.

Here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to think here for a second.

This cat was completely unhinged. I couldn't get a read.

I couldn't. It's like she wasn't speaking cat at all.

We're not done.

I'm bringing some loving down for you now.

It was time to bring out my guitar case and see what I could pull out of there

that might work with her.

Instantly you're different.

I pulled out my mouth toy and first I was surprised because she really wanted

play. You don't care about anything.

You don't care about my voice or my hand.

What is it?

She's just following the toy as soon as I stopped it. And I would say, good

girl. You know, she wanted to kill me. I pull out my treat.

Bang! She knocks it out of my hand.

I think maybe fish.

Bang! She knocks it out of my hand violently.

It takes a lot to scare me. I spend my life with cats.

This cat scared me.

You are interesting.

Hey.

I just met Penny Lane.

This cat is in a lot of trouble. And Laura and Lizzie's friendship is in a

of trouble, too.

And I've got to come up with something.

But I have no idea what to do.

That was one of the most interesting cats I've ever dealt with. And when I

interesting, I mean terrifying.

I'm no veterinarian. I'm a cat behaviorist. But from what I've seen, I

that there's something mentally unbalanced about this cat.

I think Penny's problem, very simply, is that there's a neurologic issue.

The difference between a misbehaving cat and a mentally imbalanced cat is that

the misbehaving cat can still be approached with trust -building

food motivation, with play, whereas the mentally imbalanced cat just sees

threat. around every corner. Also, she's so hyper aware of where her weapons

are, as are every declawed cat in the world. So they'll go straight for teeth.

They'll go straight to those back claws because that's what they have to fight

with. Later on in life, they suffer a lot more arthritis.

In general, declawing is something that I personally fight against. I believe

that the cats suffer for it.

So let's move on and let's start talking about action.

Because Penny's energy is so radically different between the two of you guys,

obviously your homework is going to be different.

Lizzie, let's start with you.

Everything that is associated with you has got to be like jackpot.

Lizzie's home, jackpot, food.

Lizzie's home, jackpot, we're going to play.

You need to step out of all of those things now.

Right now it's crucial that Lizzie take over Laura's job in terms of feeding and

playing with Penny Lane in order to build a bond and gain trust.

You never are going to feed this cat again for a while.

It's all about Lizzie. This is definitely not what I signed up for. I

that, honestly, Jackson would just come in and be some miracle worker, and she

would just be cured.

So, Laura, it's your turn.

I'd like you to go to the vet, like, tomorrow.

I suspect she'll need to be on mood -stabilizing medication.

I'm having Laura take Penny Lane to the vet to check for any psychological

problems, and I really suspect that she's going to wind up on a mood

-stabilizing drug.

I'm not going to promise anything, honestly, because, like I said, I've not

a cat like her before.

So I'm just coming in for my second visit with Laura and Lizzie.

I'm pretty concerned because I've reviewed some of the video homework, and

I'm seeing is Laura when I specifically told Lizzie that I needed to see her

doing the play and feeding with Penny Lane in order to build a bond. Without

that happening, I think we're back to square one.

Hey. Hello.

How are you? Welcome back.

Thanks.

What's going on? I took her to the vet, and then they did prescribe her an

anxiety medicine.

It turns out I was right. Penny Lane does need to be on mood -stabilizing

medication. Now, it's hard for me because I do come from a completely

background, but let's put it this way. If mood -stabilizing drugs... Helps

Lane see the world in a less threatening way. And that's what has to happen. I

think it's kind of working. Who knows? She's only been on the meds for what?

like five days.

Oh, yeah. We were looking at like actually four to six weeks on certain

before we hit a real proper blood saturation level.

Honestly, the medication is part of it. It's not the whole thing. I just wanted

to make sure that the play and the feeding and things like that are

every day.

I mean, I'm trying to play with her. I'm definitely sure it's more affection

than she needs, but I think maybe other people should be more involved.

You're not taking the blame for this? I'm not blaming you. But you are, and

really starting to make me mad.

I know.

I'm putting up with all this and doing this for you. Yeah. So don't get me

started right now. I'm about to get really mad.

Lizzie, I gave you homework.

Homework didn't get done. So what's going on where it didn't happen?

What went on?

It's not my cat.

And then the truth came out.

It's kind of frustrating that I have to do all this extra work when, let's be

honest, the cat hasn't been very nice to me.

I can empathize with Lizzie. She's living in a house with a cat who's not

and who's vicious.

But she's got to get over this resentment and get more involved in

life if she wants to see her get better. A lot of this to me is about you. And

it's about you being able to move past where you were.

which was locking yourself in the room out of resentment and anger,

respectively.

Do you feel willing to move past the resentment part, the anger part?

I'm going to do it. It's just frustrating because it's not my pet that

back.

All right. Moving forward.

Next thing is I have to see her. Where is she at?

She's in my room.

Good. I'm going to go and spend a few minutes with her. I'll be back, okay?

Okay. Good luck.

I've already been beaten up pretty good by this cat. Going in there for a second

time with her just starting the medication feels like a suicide mission.

Penny Lane.

Hi, pumpkin.

How are we today?

You hate my voice. I forget about that.

Get it.

Go get it. Good girl.

Last time, I put down the toy and instantly she's going after my face.

This time, there was a pause.

Whoa.

What's that?

What's that?

The quality of the time I spent with Penny Lane was so markedly different.

Sure, she was still going after my hands or if my feet moved or anything like

that. But with Penny Lane, just seeing any progress shows me that there's a

glimmer of hope. All right.

We're going to talk to your mom, give her the good news and the bad news.

Okay.

Well, that was adventurous.

The only thing that's a no -go still is hands.

But that's okay.

What I'm seeing in terms of the medication is measurable. It actually

do what it was supposed to do, which is get her more trusting.

But that is now how we can take our action plan and start to hone it in. Of

course, you know I'm staring at you right now, Lizzie, because it's your

plan. Yes. You have to continue to make these positive associations.

So, homework in a nutshell, you're doing dinner time with her, so it's play,

dinner, play, breakfast.

Is that something you feel like you're going to be good with doing?

Yeah, absolutely. All right, good. All right, guys, good to see you. Thank you.

Bye, thank you. All right, we'll talk to you soon.

This is crucial for our friendship and our living situation to be fixed. And I

more than anyone want it to work out because I don't want her to resent me

having a crazy cat.

I don't like that you just said more than anyone. Like, I don't want it to

No, I mean, because I feel bad for you.

You don't feel bad for me.

Do you?

Well, it's your cat. I know, exactly.

I feel bad for you. There's nothing wrong with you. Yeah.

And now it's time for a kitty bit.

Dogs have bigger brains, but cats have almost twice as many neurons in their

cortex. How many neurons does a cat have?

A, 160 million, B, 220 million, or C, 300 million neurons?

Find out after the break.

Dogs have bigger brains, but cats have almost twice as many neurons in their

cortex. How many neurons does a cat have?

The answer is C. A cat has 300 million neurons in their cortex. A dog only has

160 million. The number of neurons correlates with intelligence.

Having more neurons suggests that cats have more information processing

than dogs.

This is my last visit with Laura and Lizzie, and I have never been more

in my life to see the final result.

This time, I'm just hoping that Lizzie did her homework.

and that Penny Lane won't turn out to be a lost cause.

Hey. Hello.

So, the last time I was here, you didn't do your homework at all.

I asked you to do it consistently, that her recovery depended on it.

Did you do it?

Yes.

I was a lot more comfortable doing it once Penny kind of adjusted medication,

and I could even see little small changes. I was like, all right, you know

let's suck it up. She attacks me. She's been attacking me for months.

She's going to attack me anyway, so let's just try and see what happens. She

follows me when I get home from work because she's hungry.

Yeah. She follows me to the kitchen to get fed.

I did my homework, and we've seen the changes.

Congratulations. Thanks.

Good. No, good work. It's all hinged on you, which is a lot of burden to bear. I

know that.

But you're the one who gets, I think, the most direct payoff. Lizzie even had

the opportunity to pet her while she was playing.

That's amazing.

You were able to pet her. That shows me that the resentment towards her is just

history, you know. So that's amazing work. I would say that my relationship

Penny is definitely a lot better.

We're getting along, and that's a lot more than we were doing before.

The cool Penny Lane is not a figment of your imagination.

It's great to know that, like, this is the kitty that I know, and that Lizzie

gets to see that.

Here's an amazing thing now.

There we go. There's his little belly.

That move right there, do you know how significant that is? That this cat,

surrounded by us, opens up what I call the midline.

Whether it's a human or it's an animal, that midline is the most vulnerable

place we have.

This move is to say to you, Lizzie, by the way, I trust you.

And that's a huge move.

Today to see her out in that room, playing with toys, exposing her stomach

us, just owning the space in a very positive and self -confident way does me

lot of good.

Penny Lane is so much happier and calm. And it's not just because of the

medications. It's because Lizzie's finally investing in quality playtime

her and letting go of her resentment.

Ooh.

It's amazing to see the three of you in this room together. Honestly, I feel

like the job is very much done because you guys are all sitting here together.

And you're not waiting to get beat up. So it's really, really, really, really

nice to see this.

She's changed a lot. She actually comes out in the living room, like hangs out

with us. Oh, my God.

And I mean, that's something I never thought I would see. So Jackson was

I did the homework and things have definitely changed.

And you moving out at this point still on the table or what? No, I don't think

anyone's moving out.

No one's moving out. No.

Woo! Very nice. No, good. That's amazing.

Good work.

I'm so relieved. Like, my two best friends are getting along, so I can

breathe and live in my space and not feel the tension.

We're just three friends hanging out in our little apartment, and everything's

great. Thank you. Thank you, Jackson.

We love you.

Yeah. When we moved to this home, it's like a switch was just turned on. Roxy

hates our other cat, Max. I've never seen anything like this before.

And it's just a really violent and ugly situation.

The attack has been so bad, I'm afraid that Roxy will be really seriously hurt.

I'm going over to Martin and Karen's house. I've seen the video of this one.

cats got along fine before they moved into their new house, and now they hate

each other.

The cat's fighting his Karen and Martin at their window.

So I have to get in there and figure out what's triggering the aggression

between Roxy and Max.

Hi, I'm Karen. And I'm Marty. And we've been together for seven years and

married for a little under a year.

Marty was my sister's roommate in my childhood home, and I came home from

college and found him living in my childhood bedroom, and that's how we

We have two cats, Roxy and Max.

We've had these two cats for six years, and they got along fine. They were

buddies. They snuggled with each other. They've always gotten along fine up

until our move to this house.

Hi, Roxy. Hi, Princess.

It's okay, Roxy.

All right. She scratched my arm pretty badly. She tore up my shirt, and she

peed on me.

Sweetie Pie, you want to go out?

I mean, it's devastating to us. It's like a switch was just turned on in

head, and she hates Max, absolutely hates him.

Anytime they're in the same room, Roxy will immediately start hissing like

crazy. And usually Max will lunge at Roxy and attack her.

and it's just a really violent and ugly situation.

The attacks have been so bad, Roxy has literally pooed where she was sitting

of just fear and anxiety.

We don't know what happened, but it's like there was a ghost in this house,

something changed.

Honey, I found Roxy. Where's Max?

You'll find him, then.

I think the first year of any marriage is hard, and buying a new house is hard,

but adding to that, that...

Our cats don't get along has been very difficult for us.

I mean, it's a major source of stress. You know, we have to tiptoe around the

house because our cats don't get along.

Our cats have to live in separate rooms. We've had to partition off our home.

Roxy lives in the back room, and we keep the door closed, and Max has the rest

of the house.

He's interacting with us freely as they always have, but Roxy's locked in the

back and not able to do that.

Cats have been medicated. They've gone to the vet. We've had behavior in here.

Nothing seems to work.

I continue to be against getting rid of any of our cats. I think that when you

adopt a cat, it's a lifelong commitment.

And like people, they all have issues.

I understand there are things I should do just to make you happy.

But her parents have said that they're willing to take Roxy in.

And I feel like she'd probably get a better life if she went there.

I mean, it's the same as asking me to get rid of a child.

That's something that we've fought about many times.

And continue to fight about.

It's okay, Princess.

He's the devil.

Hey. Hi.

Marty. Marty. Jackson.

Please, come on in. Hi, I'm Karen.

Karen, nice to meet you. You too.

So let's sit and talk for a little bit.

Absolutely. When we moved to this home last year, one of our cats, Roxy,

immediately became terrified of Max. When we moved in, we brought the cats

first, and we put them in our back room, and then we moved in. But while they

were in that room together, there was no fighting? As far as we know.

Okay. Something happened. Yeah. There has to be a defining event.

All right, so the next step we have is for me to see where you got these guys

living and how they're living. Okay. Okay? Sounds good. Lead the way.

The bottom line is that something happened in this house to cause Roxy and

not only to become strangers, but to become prey and predator.

When we first brought the cats in, we put them in this room. Okay. And, you

know, shut the door, let them get acclimated.

Were these guys able to see out windows?

Yeah, because we didn't have any window coverings. But they were getting up

there and looking out the window. Yeah, I mean, they had things that allowed

them to do that.

All right, let's move on. Okay.

How did the cat dynamic suddenly...

devolve into chaos in one day? It's very simple. It's called redirected

aggression. Let's say Roxy's sitting in the window, something as simple as a

garbage truck going by, and she jumps out of her skin. When she jumps out of

skin, there could be Max sitting next to her going, who are you? And he attacks

her, just like that. In that one second, they don't know one another anymore.

Max spends a lot of time in our bedroom.

He sleeps with us every night, so he spends a lot of time in here with us.

So, where would Max hide? Max is probably under the bed or behind my...

there he is. There's Max.

There's the boy.

Can I say hi?

After seeing the footage of Max, I expected to get my hand mangled.

One quick hi.

Hi, Max.

And that didn't happen. So that tells me that Max really isn't as much the

problem. The problem is Roxy. She needs to gain self -esteem in order to live

peacefully in this house with Max.

Hi.

He's one of those guys where you can see... More outgoing.

And outgoing can be a good thing and a bad thing, because I guess outgoing is

also manifested in beating the snot out of Roxy.

To see their relationship completely deteriorate like this has got to be

exhausting. We just want beef in the house.

Yeah. I've done this before in my house, and...

One cat happened to be my girlfriend's cat. Put that out there.

Beat the snot out of everybody else.

And it wound up being this thing where our relationship started taking this

It really does.

I mean, both of us, we have different interpretations of how to deal with it.

is more inclined to actually find a new home for Roxy, and I'm not. So we've

definitely had conflict about that. How adamant are you?

I have never in my life gotten rid of an animal, and I don't think I ever will.

I mean, I haven't had to get rid of an animal either.

I really strongly believe when you adopt an animal, it's a lifelong commitment.

But I've also never found myself in this position before where I feel like the

animal might be better off somewhere else.

Yeah.

Although my parents are wonderful people and love cats, too, they live far away,

and I wouldn't be able to visit Roxy. I mean, we've had her for six years, and

I'm very attached to her.

I know that this is supposed to be a uniting thing coming into the dream

as opposed to a fracturing thing. And so far, anyway, it seems pretty fractured.

So speaking of that, where's Roxy at?

Yeah, let me go meet her.

It's going to be a challenge to heal this fractured relationship between Max

Roxy. But we have to bring these two cats back together again to heal Martin

Karen's marriage as well. This is our office and where Roxy lives.

He is probably right now in this closet. She's usually in there when she's a

little scared. Back in here.

Hey, honey.

That would be called the tortie stink eye right there.

What if I introduce myself to you?

Hi.

Hi, Roxy baby.

Good girl. You don't have to hide if you don't want to.

I'm going to sit here for a second, okay?

Normally, I would visit a cat and play with her, but with a cat like Roxy,

a real scaredy cat, I just wanted to say hi, back off, and let her dictate the

interaction. She's actually not as bad as I thought she'd be.

She's fine around people.

Yeah. Just the other cat. She's not fine around things that beat her up. Yeah.

How long has it been since you made this her home?

Six months.

Six months, yeah.

Six months.

Roxy has been living in this room.

That kind of confinement makes me so sad.

She literally hasn't been out of here in six months? Usually she's sitting in a

cat tree that looks out on our neighbor's backyard.

Let's go take a look.

Wow, it's hot in here.

It's the sun and the furthest point from the AC.

And she tends to be up here? Yep, she hangs out on the top of that cat tree.

What's she actually looking at out here?

Not a whole lot to see.

Okay. I mean, it's pretty much up to the stakes.

This room is small and it's hot. This is where she lives? It's just not right.

Just her state is just going to decline more. So we don't have time on our side.

Let's get going. Okay.

I want to see the positive in everything.

Right now, all I am is filled with fear for Roxy.

If I let her out right now, she's going to be beaten down, and I don't see her

getting back up again.

We are going to work through a process of reintroduction.

Reintroduction is about positive association.

It means that every time these two cats smell food, they'll smell each other.

And that way, we can replace a negative association with a positive one. I'd

like you to put up a screen door.

Right now, there's a solid door separating the cats.

A little nervous about installing a screen door inside my house.

Seems a little weird, a little unconventional.

We're going to work on gradually moving them closer and closer through the

safety of the screen door.

Dinners and breakfast at the door.

If you can't make significant progress, I'm going to be very loud about that,

that I think Roxy should be rehomed.

I hear what you're saying. I appreciate that you're on her side. I'm not willing

to get rid of my cat.

Roxy has got to have the option on the table that she can find another home,

because this is life or death.

She can be killed by Max.

I'm going in for my second visit with Karen and Mark. And the last time I was

here, Roxy was really afraid of Max.

And the fighting between the cats was causing a lot of stress in Mark and

Karen's relationship.

Hey. Hey, welcome back. Hey, Juan. Come on in.

I'm feeling actually a lot better just having Jackson here again because I

didn't feel as if we were making all that much progress with some of the

suggestions.

How's life with cats?

It's going.

Yeah. I want to go over some of the video journaling that you guys did.

great. Which I found really interesting.

I think we should go over it together.

Reintroduction is about positive association.

I asked them to install a screen door in the hallway and to reintroduce the cats

with food on either side of that screen door. Have you worked towards...

Isn't she up a little bit? She's getting closer. Closer. The idea is to re

-associate these cats, reintroduce them as if they've never met before.

Right now, Roxy is eating, but about three or four feet from the door here,

decided to go through the screen door, the baby gate in front of the screen

with the towel over it.

I am a little actually more concerned now with the screen door and them

shimmying out of it. There might be.

An escape and an altercation.

Yeah. Let's go take a look at the door.

Jackson has advised us that if we didn't make the right kind of progress, that

he would recommend we find a new home for Roxy.

The shimmy we do every day.

Karen's pretty much felt as if I should go before Roxy, so I'm anxious.

Holy crap.

What happened was Max just went through the far square.

Karen came up with the good idea then to put a baby gate in front of it.

However, Max then...

shimmied up the baby gate and jumped over.

That's determination.

I was excited that these guys embraced the idea and hung the screen door. I was

equally disappointed the screen door was destroyed pretty much as soon as it was

hung. There's something called animal screening, and I think we should re

-screen this with animal screening.

Maybe some deer wire, actually.

Yeah, it's been an interesting progression.

Bank vault doors next.

So what I'd like to do next is actually have you prepare the meal.

I think it's really important that I get to see Roxy do what she does.

The next thing I wanted to do was actually do the feeding exercise the way

guys have been doing it. I wanted to see how close we could get Roxy to the gate

and still get work done.

That's a good boy.

That's a girl.

She knows he's there, and I'm not seeing bad stuff right now.

We were actually able to get Roxy and Max pretty close to that gate.

Unfortunately, it's a little further away than I'd like it to be. Marty, you

actually sneak him up a little bit further.

Yep, perfect.

Just needs a little encouragement. Take a few steps more, buddy.

Come on, baby.

Good girl, Roxy.

There he is, climbing up.

Oh, Max is.

Got one paw over.

When Max peeked his head over that baby gate, I completely expected Roxy to just

hightail it out of there back into the closet.

But she didn't. She actually walked toward him and gave him a little bit of

attitude, which was amazing progress to see. She showed Max, I'm here too.

She's doing great.

Previously, Roxy would hunch down and hiss to try to get Max to go away. Now

she's standing taller, which tells me she's gaining confidence.

Those moments define the future.

Because as long as she does that, then I think the relationship begins to

change. Right.

So, all right.

I just want to try something. Okay.

It's okay.

It's okay, sweetie pie. It's okay.

That's all I wanted.

Stay right here.

Okay. Oh, in the closet.

All right, so she's not ready.

The reintroduction process is working, but this is a really difficult

and it's going to take some time for them to be in the same room together.

Okay, guys, let's take a look at the great room here.

The first thing I noticed about the great room was how empty it was.

If you have nothing to own in a room, if it's bare, well, then you're never

going to own it as a cat. And if they can't own it, they're going to be on

Where was this in the old place? In our old place, we actually, we had that and

then a big thing that we built all in front of a big window.

Oh. Our old apartment was very cat friendly.

I think the absolute emptiness of this house affects the cat. No.

We want to hang out the welcome sign.

Let's start getting more in here. I mean, as long as it can somewhat, you

match the decor, we're fine with that.

Martin, I think, is a little more concerned about the overall aesthetic in

home. Decorating for cats might seem extreme, but we have a really serious

situation here. And because Karen refuses to rehome either one of these

feel this is the only way to get both cats feeling confident and comfortable

this home.

I'll show you things that you guys can bring in here that you will love. And

you'll get jealous because the cats have it better than you guys.

They usually do.

So, homework for this time.

We've got to pick your door.

There's no way we can allow your cats to just sort of at will come out. I'd like

to get more of an animal -grade screaming in there.

The second thing is we're back to the feeding with the towel.

Today we found out that every time I raised the towel, it was a little bit

much for Roxy.

Okay. Oh, in the closet. We know where her towel spot is.

We really want to start moving that. What we'll do is we'll start moving it

semicircle so that we end up, with her three feet on the other side.

Our goal, by the time I get back here next time, is that picture.

Three feet on one side, three feet on the other.

Big thing here, remember how you said that the old apartment was more of a cat

place than a human place?

It really was. Well, the thing is, it was when they came out here where there

was nothing to identify with that things went bad. The house, I want you to

start filling it.

If we build a space for them, then...

You also build a space for you.

I'm down for the process. I just want to make sure that you guys celebrate the

small moments because I already saw small moments today that I thought were

-ass.

Keep moving forward and remembering that small steps are still steps.

Getting you guys together in this house may be something that we're looking at

quite a while.

I'm not expecting a, you know, tomorrow everything's going to be fine. But I'm

thrilled with Roxy's progress just in terms of her self -confidence. I think

there's really been a change in her personality.

All right, guys. Take care.

Thanks. Take it easy.

I'm going in for my final visit with Martin and Karen.

All I'm hoping for is that we got the cats maybe getting a little closer to

eating on either side of the gate.

Hey, Karen.

Hopefully no new fights have broken out. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed

with this case.

Hey!

Nice!

The first thing I saw when I walked into the great room was this beautiful cat

tree. And the last time I was here, I asked Karen and Martin to go shopping,

make this home just as much a cat home as it is a human home. And these guys

went above and beyond, and really, it kind of surprised me. This has to be a

little bit of a...

A process for you, you know, Marty, because it was a concern of yours to

this much space to the cats.

You know, it's a give and take relationship.

We love the cat.

They needed it. You recommended it.

Your recommendation has been working. So let's do it. I mean, if I'm going to do

a screen door, I can do a cat tree.

I love it. Again, I'm so proud of you guys because this is just one of those

moments for me. I know you guys are going to be OK.

It's just a great symbol.

of turning this into a cat dream home as well as a human dream home. We

surprised ourselves.

Fantastic job.

A plus.

Karen and Martin get an A plus on the first part of their homework, which was

getting some cat furniture.

Now, how did they do on the second part, which was reinforcing that screen door

that Max has bust through?

There's our door.

Hey, honey.

Hi, Roxy.

You guys did a great job. It's nice and reinforced. We don't have a problem

anymore with these guys getting through here, right?

No, there's no getting through that. Okay, great.

Now, in terms of the Band -Aid approach, I know it's served a purpose.

Today, I want to start pushing that challenge line a little bit because I

we're ready.

Hi, Max.

Hey, Betty. I was going to say hi to you.

You may be going to say hi to Roxy. Yeah, well, let's see what happens about

that.

Max recognizes Roxy as his equal because as a confident

cat, she's no longer hissing and acting like prey. The thing that I love is that

when we see him right now, there's...

A complete relaxation in his body.

Reintroducing Roxy and Max slowly through the safety of the screen door,

through scent, then through sight, was a way for them to comfortably get to know

each other again. Now Roxy is free to roam the house with Max.

Goodbye to the towel.

All right.

Right on.

Look at your new toy.

I'm very relieved that we do not have to continue down the road of...

Re -homing Roxy because it was a very real possibility for me, and I know it

not a real possibility for her.

So tension could have only gotten worse.

There you go.

I think Roxy's quality of life is a lot better primarily because of Jackson's

suggestions. It's starting to feel more like a dream house because we're getting

that serenity that we've been looking for before it just felt like there was

conflict.

Jackson, you made a huge difference for us. Thank you very much.

Have a hellish cat.

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