Original subtitles

She'll attack you.

She'll bite you.

The only escape is to climb the bed that's locked in.

We're planning on getting married, but when you're fighting, the wedding

planning pretty much stops.

Is it a little bit of a war in the house?

Rothko, stop.

He destroys everything I own. He knocks things over.

There's no place for me in the house. I love my cat. I can't deal with it.

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.

Oh, hello. 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 don't have many more options than to

leave. And cat guardians have reached their emotional limit. Just get rid of

her. I'm their last hope.

Are you all right?

Sorry, I don't know. Cats have nine lives, but humans?

Only have one.

Mufasa.

I'm on my way over to see Rudy and Andrea. Now, they've got a cat named

that they're telling me is just terrorizing them, attacking them, and

trying to plan a wedding.

I have heard of guard dogs before, but a guard cat?

Really?

Really?

My name's Rudy. And I'm Andrea, and we've been engaged for three months.

Our cat's name is Mufasa, and even though it's a boy's name, it's a girl

We got Mufasa from my parents' cat, Blitter. She was the only long -haired

so I convinced Rudy to let us have Mufasa.

She's a very cute, black -and -white Norwegian forest cat.

You want to pick her up, you want to pet her, but she is an absolute terror.

Mufasa.

Mufasa.

She won't let you near her. She'll attack you.

She'll kiss at you.

She'll bite you.

It's not even if she's going to like you or she's going to not like you. She's

either indifferent or she hates you. No. Ow.

No. Every area that Mufasa's in, she gets tartar all over. The top of the

refrigerator.

By the window, Andrea's desk where she does her work from.

Mufasa is probably the number one stressor in our relationship.

We're in love, we want to get married, and we're planning on getting married,

but whenever we're trying to do any type of wedding planning, the cat jumps out,

creates an argument between us, and the wedding planning pretty much stops.

When you're fighting, you don't really want to sit there and pick out

invitations with each other.

As a little girl, I dreamed of having this beautiful wedding with this

gown, walking down the aisle, but right now, it's just not feasible.

Hey, how you doing?

Rudy. Rudy, I'm Jackson.

Hi. Andrea, nice to meet you. Andrea, good to meet you too.

If Mufasa doesn't change, we're not sure what steps we're going to take next.

But at this point, nothing has worked. So I'm hoping that this is the fix and

Mufasa will shape up. So tell me the story of Mufasa.

When she turned like one and a half, she started getting just like really

territorial and attacking us and hissing and clawing.

Like, I could just walk by, and she'll just, like, swipe at me. Or I can go sit

down at my desk, and she'll just come up and tap my feet. If we go near, and

she's up here, if we've got to do something with the blinds, she'll try to

us, as you can see by my pants.

Wow, man.

So she's starting to... You got... That's a good one. You are marked up

Oh, yeah. She loves me the most. Both of their arms were totally marked up. I

think this is the real deal, and it might be a long day. You're getting

Yep. So you must be, like, neck deep in the... We are literally nowhere near

neck deep in the process.

Yeah, we should be.

We can't get anything done. Every time we talk about the wedding, we always end

up fighting about Mufasa, so we just, like... Really?

Yeah. Well, what if she's talking about something, and then she'll attack Andrea

or something, and then all of a sudden it's just, like, stop.

So every time you guys are doing some wedding planning, Mufasa decides it's

to attack?

Yeah. Let me ask you something.

Only because, I mean, what I'm trying to get a grip on, either she doesn't want

you guys to get married or something energetically between the two of you.

Wait, hold on one second. You look like you're scared, right?

Yeah, she's really close to my head.

Your body language was this.

As soon as you knew she was back there, you went, at this, it was a horror

movie. It was absolutely amazing that just as we started talking about the

wedding, Mufasa jumped up on the couch behind Andrea's head, and you could see

her energy totally change. And that's why I think they're having such a hard

time planning that wedding.

I'm going to make it better for you guys.

But before we get further into this, we're going to take a tour around here a

little bit so we can put a picture together, okay?

Let's do it.

So this is a really interesting setup you guys have here.

Well, first of all, there's only so much space. So we needed something that

would get the bed.

In a studio off the floor so we got a room for like the desk and everything

because you are Okay up until this morning. She has not been able to figure

how to get up the ladder She learned how to use the ladder this morning at 6 a

.m. Are you surprised that she can climb this ladder?

I mean, I'm not because of her breed Norwegian forest cats are known for

climbing abilities and we're gonna have to sort of work around that I can

understand Rudy and Andrea's hesitation to have Mufasa up on their lofted bed,

especially with her tendency towards guarding and territoriality. So we have

find some other climbing spaces around this tiny apartment.

You work from home.

And so that's basically where you're going to sit all day, right? Yes. Okay,

when you're sitting there like that, I am completely at your back. Right. Both

there and here. I know that we have a very limited space to work with. Yes.

But... What if your desk was facing this way and this was facing this way? Now

you can see her. Right. These are the kind of simple solutions I love. I mean,

it's not going to make Mufasa any less territorial, but it is going to make

Andrea's workday a whole lot easier. The next thing I wanted to see, if you

could just pretend you're getting a glass of water or something.

Let's see how that goes.

I really wanted to go into the kitchen area because Andrea and Rudy both told

that that's been the site of problems, specifically the top of the fridge.

Oh, now she's in that place.

Right now she's in her tree place.

So as soon as we went in there, sure enough, Mufasa goes to the top of the

fridge. And now she's giving me the evil eye.

And the entire time I saw Mufasa watching her like she was watching a

steak waiting to pounce. It was about to happen.

So if I said that she can't be up here, what's going to happen?

I would try to take her down. Take her down. I usually grab the chair and the

oven mitt. All right.

Let's do it, please.

You got the oven mitt just sitting there at the ready, right? So this is a daily

occurrence with you guys? Yeah. Keep it pretty handy.

These are those weird rituals that people build around dysfunctional

relationships with their cats that over time just become what we do. And now I'm

here to say this isn't what you do. She just went in the closet, so you usually

keep that closed?

Yeah. Everything gets full of hair, and we just have business clothes. We just

can't have her back there.

No, now we're pissed.

Okay.

Now we're pissed.

Honestly, I'm a little bit at a loss for words right now. I mean, Norwegian

forest cats are supposed to be confident tree dwellers. They are supposed to

like to watch their domain from up high. Well, from what I saw, Mufasa does not

feel confident up there.

And as a matter of fact, once she gets down in the closet, she was also

unconfident. So this is why I need alone time with this cat to try to figure her

out a little bit.

So if you guys can maybe step outside for a little bit, and I'm going to hang

out a little bit with her, okay? All right. All right.

Now, normally, this is something I look forward to. I want to get to know you

without your people around.

This time, however, I got to tell you I was a little scared after seeing their

bodies, seeing what this cat's done, and seeing what she's capable of.

How's it going?

You want to show me what you're made of here?

You going to go right after me?

You going to go right after me?

Son of a gun.

My game plan was to discover Mufasa's challenge line. You've got to show me

you're made of.

The idea behind the challenge line is very simple. Every cat has

this place where they're very fearful of going past.

When I find what it is, we can set that line in the sand and gently, at the end

of the day, say, I need you to step over it. Come here.

Why are you going down there?

Let's get out of here. Oh, what?

I know you're nervous.

I need you to not be.

I know you're nervous.

I need you to not be, okay? For just a second.

Let's get out of here. Oh, what?

It's okay.

It's okay, Mufasa.

I had that coming. I know I did.

I've got Mufasa under the desk. I have found that challenge line, and she is

really agitated. I got it. Let's call it a day, and let's change the feel of

this relationship.

Let's see how long it takes you to rebound, because that's, again, a really

important facet of our relationship here.

Yeah, what's a little catnip between friends, right?

Good girl.

Oh, you like that.

We love it. We love our catnip.

She forgave me as quickly as she hated me. That was a great little moment. So,

got some really good information.

I also got really nicely cut up.

So, now we can all put our hands down.

Right? Now we can all, this is, but she really, when she nails me, she nails me

hard. I guess in one respect, I felt bad because I don't want anyone to get

attacked by our cat at any time. At the same time, it was kind of reassuring for

us to know that, okay, we're not crazy. It's not just us. You know, even Jackson

can get cut by this cat. One of the things I want you to know is that she's

territorially aggressive.

And that's our biggest issue.

Every time she gets into these tree -dwelling positions, for instance.

where she's at right now.

She looks relaxed and everything, but if you stood up off the edge of that

couch, you'd get beat up. That's going to happen.

So, conclusion, we're not going to let it happen.

The first thing I'm going to have you do, I really want you guys to rearrange

the furniture.

We have to make it so that you don't have to grow eyes in the back of your

Part of that, which was taking the desk, switching it with the bookcase. I want

the couch here, right? And then I want you to block off the top of the fridge.

You couldn't make a glass of water.

That's not allowed anymore, okay?

Now, as we take these spots away, we need to give her places where she feels

more secure.

I like the post.

I like the fact that she can look out the window. I want this window to sort

belong to her because she's much more interested in the window than she really

is the back of your head. That's my feeling. The second thing is I want you

start reexamining that closet.

I'd like you to start thinking about how do you keep your clothes in there, keep

the door open.

The floor becomes Mufasa Playland.

Very important, okay?

Mufasa needs a sanctuary.

As we've seen, she chooses the closet when she's feeling stressed out, so we

should cater to that. The last thing is, I don't like what I saw in terms of

your reaction.

It really bothers me that you get so scared. When we're talking about a cat

Mufasa, it's all about the energetics in her room. So you have to come from a

place of absolute...

Stillness and calm.

On paper, the homework looks simple, but it's not.

I'm not just asking them to completely rearrange their apartment.

I'm asking them to completely rearrange the way they approach Mufasa.

Now, it's going to take time, but if they want a better relationship with

cat, then they're going to have to take this homework incredibly seriously.

All right.

It was an absolute pleasure meeting you. Thank you a lot. Appreciate it. You

too. Thank you so much.

All right. Take care.

So I watched the video home with Rudy and Andrea, and there was some great

stuff. I mean, they turned their entire living room around.

The couch, the desk, that's pretty amazing. I also saw Andrea just start to

her energy around. That also was really good to see.

Hey, how's it going? How you doing, man? Good, thanks.

Now, we still have work to do, and I don't know what I'm going to see when I

walk in. All right, guys, so it's been a couple weeks.

You've still got a wedding to plan.

How's that going, first and foremost?

A lot better. Yeah? Yeah.

Tell me about it. I've noticed a lot since I've changed my body language

Mufasa. We're able to do things. We're able to talk to each other and get some

things done for the wedding.

And I'm not constantly in fear of her anymore.

There's still been a couple of attacks, but they've been far less, maybe down to

like one every two days.

All right. Well, that's interesting.

Now, as always, I want to get up, walk around, see what you guys have done. So

let's take a walk around.

The first thing that you identified for me was.

A problem up here, right? So you said you tried to block off? Mm -hmm. This is

the best you came up with? Yes.

We went to the kitchen, and immediately, Mufasa goes to the top of the fridge.

So not only did they not successfully block off the top of the fridge, they

didn't even come close to achieving what they needed to. I want you to see this,

okay? Has that come in here?

Mm -hmm.

As I interrupt this place, do you see her face right now? Do you see the

of the lips? Do you see the fact that she will strike out at me? This is why

this can't exist anymore.

I mean, you did try to address it, but in essence, we kind of made it worse.

All right, I think it's time we leave her alone up there.

Let's move forward.

So we stop at the closet, and it had to be the biggest surprise of the day. The

last time I was here, I said I wanted to see her be able to use the bottom of

the closet.

What do we got going on in here?

Well, we have tried to make a space on the bottom, but there's just no way. We

don't have enough space for our clothes.

Everything gets full of hair, and we just have business clothes. We just

have her back there.

So now she can't get in there anymore.

I asked you to do something, and you not just ignored it, but threw it back in

my face.

We can't have her go in there.

This is the only closet that we have. I know it is. We didn't even have anywhere

to put it.

I got really upset that these guys decided that a little bit of hair on

clothes. was more important than the work with their cat.

I know that you would love to hear me say, fine, let's just leave it alone.

If we had more room, I might say that.

That's the only place we have to keep our cats. No, no, I get it. I get the

that you're trying to protect your clothes, but I know there's a solution.

Try garment bags. Try plastic. Just get creative.

I'm not doing this for me.

I'm doing this for you and your cat. I'm telling you one thing. If I come back

the next time and they give me another excuse about that closet, I'm done. I'm

walking out. So your homework this week is the closet. The bottom line is there

is a way to protect your clothes, keep the closet for you, keep the bottom for

her. It is the ultimate compromise, and I know it can be done. We want to help

Mufasa. We're not going to do it if it means destroying all our clothes. So I

have no idea how we're going to figure this out.

Another thing.

I want you to block off that fridge.

You've got to get to that and make sure that she cannot get up there. All right.

And finally, wondering what this is? Yeah.

So this is the beginning of your rock face wall. Her ancestors could climb

up sheer rock face walls and your cat.

doesn't have that wall to climb. I want to see that area right there become that

rock face wall.

I think it's going to give her a positive activity to explore vertically

she was meant to do.

So, you know, that's about as creative as my gifts get.

Now you go, you just go run with it. All right. You got any questions on that

one? No.

You sure about that?

I think so. Yeah. I'm definitely skeptical that this couple is going to

job done. I mean, they could barely figure out the closet and a rock wall is

times harder. I mean, I hope I'm wrong. All right.

I am going to take my leave of you, and I'll see you soon.

Thanks so much. You're welcome. Take care.

And now it's time for a kitty bit. Which Norse god is associated with the

mythical Skogkat, ancestor of the Norwegian forest cat?

A, Odin. B, Freya.

C, Loki. The answer when we come back.

Which Norse god is associated with the mythical Skogkat, ancestor of the

Norwegian forest cat? And the answer is B.

Freya, who's often depicted in the chariot drawn by two dog heads.

I'm heading in for my final visit with Rudy and Andrea. They're engaged,

trying to plan a wedding, but their cat Mufasa is attacking them and guarding

areas in their tiny little apartment.

All I'm hoping for is that Rudy and Andrea took that final step. I want to

that closet done. I want to see my homework paid attention to.

Hey. Good day.

I want to see them enjoying each other's company. And you don't know whether

that's going to happen or not. We'll find out.

Now, guys, this is fantastic.

I love the fact that you actually built this thing.

which is amazing.

You actually glued your rocks on here, so this is a real rock wall.

As soon as I walked in the apartment, I could see that Rudy and Andrea had done

their homework. She's been having, like, this area to exercise her desire to

climb all the time. She hasn't really been going over the bed nearly as much.

That's fantastic.

I love the fact that Rudy and Andrea went the extra mile. They built their

version of a rock wall out of a stepladder, and now Mufasa doesn't climb

stairs to their bed.

All of her energy is based on one thing alone, and that's hunting that feather.

I love it. It was the first time probably since she was a kitten that we

actually got to do something that was positive relating to the cat.

It's also rewarding that she actually uses it.

Really nice.

So watching her play, watching her active like this, how are you feeling

terms of your safety?

I feel totally fine.

I've noticed a lot since I've changed my body language towards Mufasa. There's

been really no attack.

You have no fear at all. And you're proving it, too, because you didn't, as

came over, you didn't move your feet or anything like that. Yeah. That's pretty

amazing, right? It feels good.

Yeah. I'm sure it feels good to be me to look at you, you know. The amount of

fear that you had the first time I met you was just not an acceptable thing.

One of the biggest things that I heard all day was that Andrea said to me, I'm

just not afraid.

Mufasa anymore.

I know that she's not going to do anything to me.

That's amazing, because here's the thing. You can try to say, well, she's

differently, but having your body forget the fear response is a huge step to

take in just a few weeks.

Nice move, guys. The next thing that Rudy and Andrea and I looked at was the

kitchen, and I loved what I saw on the top of that fridge.

This time around, it's safe.

She could sneak back here if she really wanted to. Why?

You know, there's nothing for her here. Because if we remember back on the first

day I met you guys, this cat was all about guarding. And now that we've

her that all of this belongs to you, all of that behavior is pretty much gone

now. Yeah, it definitely is.

They got it done. There's nothing to guard anymore.

What does that mean? That means that Andrea can get a glass of water again.

Let's head over to the closet because this was my pet.

Right. As it were.

Let's take a look at what you've done here.

Look at that.

I love that you completely cleared it out in here.

Yeah. And she's taken it. Yep. Right?

This is hers.

Not only was the floor clear, but there was Mufasa just sitting on a box, and

she didn't have any of that language that she had the first day that I met

You gonna go right after me?

Ah, you son of a gun.

I really have to commend you guys because this was sort of this bone of

contention between us, but you did give it up, and I think you're getting

payback from it.

I think Mufasa is a lot happier since we've cleaned out the closet and

that little space.

There's times when Mufasa seems, like, stressed out.

She goes in there, and, like, 30 minutes later, she'll come out, and she's just,

like, you know, she's, like, just way calmer.

Let's talk about what we've seen today.

You took this small space, and you said, you know what? Instead of just living

in a frustrated world, we're going to share the whole thing. We're going to

compromise, and we're all going to own this. And you gave up things. Right.

I know that she's going to give you a great amount of payoff.

She already has.

And I'm just glad I could be a small part in helping you guys plan your

So, great work overall.

Amazing work.

All the hopes that I had for Rudy, Andrea, and Mufasa, I saw today. This is

I wanted to see a trio that was united, ready to move forward in their lives.

They now 100 % share their world both physically and emotionally with Mufasa,

and that makes everything worth it. It was great meeting you. Yeah, thanks a

lot. It was wonderful to meet you. Thank you. You too. We'll talk to you soon.

Really can't thank Jackson enough for everything he's done. You know, we can

plan our wedding. I think we will definitely reach the end goal of getting

married and having a happy cat and just a happy home.

He destroys everything I own.

It's a little bit of a war in the house.

Roscoe!

Roscoe was king of the castle, you know, and I moved into his territory.

This isn't working.

Roscoe.

over to see Ruben and Danielle right now. They've got a mischievous cat named

Roscoe, or so they tell me.

Come on, man.

I'm going to go over there right now, see what I can do to help.

I'm Ruben. I'm Danielle. And we've been living together for a little over a

year. Danielle and I met at a Halloween party.

And it was insult at first sight. And I insulted him back later.

I got my cat Roscoe at an animal shelter. It was just kind of he and I

several months, and then I met Reuben.

Roscoe was king of the castle, you know, and I moved into his territory.

It's a little bit of a war in the house for male status, hierarchy.

Yeah.

Roscoe, stop.

He destroys everything I own. He knocks things over.

He doesn't have boundaries.

If I'm in the kitchen cooking, Cat just moseys up and starts checking out what

I'm cooking.

And I feel like Mr. Wilson.

Hey. Stop it. I come in and I'm, but it's Roscoe, you know.

Roscoe. Come on, Cat.

I disagree.

Roscoe is a very rambunctious, curious, mischievous type of cat, but he's a

sweet cat. I love my cat.

I can't deal with it.

We need help.

We need Jackson because this, you know, isn't working.

All I want is for everyone to get along.

Ruben, me, and Roscoe.

Happy family.

Yeah, I just don't see that happening.

Hey. Hi, Jackson. How are you? I'm Jackson. I'm Ruben. Ruben. Hi, I'm

Hi, Danielle. Good to meet you guys.

How are you?

Good.

So, tell me about Roscoe.

Roscoe was her cat, and it kind of came into the environment afterward.

But now he's your cat. Yeah, yeah, he's our cat, but I think I just... You

totally still consider him to be my cat. Yeah.

I think Ruben's frustrated with the situation more so. I think I'm more so

frustrated with Ruben.

Yeah, and that's not good for me.

Roscoe frustrates me.

I frustrate Danielle.

He'll come between us, you know, and he likes to make his space.

And then if I were to get up to get a drink, he'll take my space.

She just goes, oh, you know, it's because your seat's warm. But he doesn't

when she gets up.

Because he'll even look at me and just be like, you know. And I can't move him

because he'll damage me, you know.

If Roscoe is misbehaving, Danielle will be like, oh, Ruben, can you make him

stop? It's like she doesn't want to in any way have to show him that negative.

kind of response that I feel like I have to show them. Did you ever?

I didn't think the cats could be different, other than just to tell them

to stop, because I thought they were very independent. They're not like dogs.

I've known cats that can learn down.

That's you.

Get off to the counter.

And then that's me.

Ruben and Danielle can look at Roscoe and see two totally different cats.

It's amazing and kind of maddening. I want it better, and I'm here for a

to make it good, but...

At this point, I don't have many more options than to just deal with it or

leave.

This is a big problem.

I mean, this is a new relationship, and this cat is already splitting these two

apart? That's not a good thing.

Here's the ottoman. He's made it his territory.

He's like Freddy Krueger. This is ottoman number two. And this is Ruben's

which he likes.

I don't see anything to keep him busy, and I don't see any toys.

He likes this right here. He loves that.

He, like, stole that out of one of my baskets when he goes through my stuff.

First of all, that's creepy.

Right? Well, she didn't buy, like, the legless edition.

The saddest looking thing I saw the entire time I was here was a creepy

little doll that was sitting in the middle of the floor, and that passed for

cat toy?

Let's keep moving.

Kitchen Joy, I mean...

Like, I don't even like him in the kitchen.

He's a chef. He's very sanitary. Well, okay. So you're a chef, and when you're

in your kitchen, you're using all of his space, right?

I tell him to get down.

He won't listen, and if I put him down, he'll just get back up.

And then, I mean, if I have to put him down, for me, now I need to wash my

again. All right, what else we got going on?

Now we go into the biggest territorial seat in the whole house, and that's the

bedroom. The bed is always a real big, important place for cats.

Well, I mean, I guess personally, I wouldn't want him on the bed.

If Danielle's in the bed, right, and say, I'm brushing my teeth, he'll be on

side of the bed.

That's not true.

It's so true.

In Ruben's eyes, we're looking at do no right Roscoe. In Danielle's eyes, we're

looking at do no wrong Roscoe. In the middle.

is where I got to get these guys looking, at the same cat, at the same

would just, like, push him and try to, like, get him to the side of the bed. I

want to see what that looks like.

Get him off. All right.

No, stop.

There you go.

And then just off.

Stay off the bed. But he'd always... Keep going for me. Keep going.

Come on.

Get down.

How does it make you feel that every single time that you say no and that you

say I don't want you here, like that, he's bad?

How does that make you feel?

You know, I'm going to be sleeping with Mommy tonight, and you can go somewhere

else. I'm looking at him like, are we looking at the same animal?

And then I realized that he had been gathering resentment.

Like, this is the deal.

Like, am I going to sleep on the edge of the bed here?

Get into bed.

There you go.

There we go.

Now I want to see what happens.

Look, he's looking for me to move.

He's going to attack.

Ruben sees Roscoe through these just hate -colored glasses.

The guy just does not like this cat. So really, anything he does, he sticks an

ulterior motive on. For instance, the cat's walking around the room.

No, he's looking for trouble. The cat sits on the couch. He's trying to get my

territory. The cat lays on the bed. He's trying to push me out.

So, it's all some good stuff.

He's still very much a teenager.

What I am here to tell you is that he's normal.

It isn't about him. It's about your perception of him.

I've never met anybody that could look me in the face and tell me that I was

problem and be so endearing.

Now, the first thing I want to demonstrate to you guys is what we have.

Toy -wise for him, all right?

See how he sees it?

I am not giving it to him. Not by a long shot.

Now, what happens? Moth, moth, moth, moth. He's like, oh, my God, I'm so

I can't do this for one more second. Then he goes like this.

Boom, right? Now he's on it.

I've never seen Roscoe react like that to anything.

He's jumping in the air, trying to kill this thing. But, like, playing, you

know, and having the greatest time.

Do you know that if you do this for about 15, 20 minutes with him every

day, what's going to happen?

He's going to get freaking tired.

If he gets freaking tired, he'll go to sleep.

Now you guys get rest.

Okay. homework time so here's the stuff that i need you to do over the next

couple weeks first thing is the commitment to play it's more than just

it's wearing him down and it's routine this is a new home for you and i want

to start filling it up with things that are destination points for him this lamp

It serves you no purpose except to piss you off.

Bye -bye. I want you to start thinking about getting trees for him, things to

up on to be able to look out the window and see the world, things to go up on by

the counter where he can watch you cook because eventually we're going to train

him to sit there.

I gave you guys everything you need.

I will see you next time. Thank you so much. It was great to meet you. Very

to meet you. It was great to meet you, too. We'll talk to you next week. See

you. Bye. Bye.

I'm going to try and apply everything Jackson said as much as I can. I'm just

hoping I don't fall into my old routine so quickly.

We're pessimistic people.

Well, we've got to wear cutouts for us.

Oh.

I've seen a cat come between couples many times before, and if Ruben doesn't

change his attitude towards Roscoe, his whole relationship with Danielle is at

risk.

I'm going in to visit Daniel and Ruben for the second visit, and I'm a little

nervous because Roscoe is really high energy.

Roscoe, stop.

And Ruben is fed up with the cat, didn't like the cat.

Personally, I wouldn't want him on the bed.

It's going to take a big turnaround in Ruben's attitude to change his

relationship with Roscoe.

Well, hello. Good day.

How are you, man? Hi, Jackson. Very good to see you again. Yes, great to see

you. Hi. Hey. Thank you for coming. Of course.

Okay.

What's he been doing? What have you guys been doing?

The last time that you were here, I felt kind of hit pretty hard with the,

you know, realization that I was most of the problem, you know, and I came to

terms with that. Good.

Let's take a look at the homework itself.

We're done with this lamp.

Thank you, Roscoe. And that is just going in the trash.

Thank you!

Look who's so comfortable in their little new home.

Are you going to be good?

I think that was a little whatever, Dad.

There's some great stuff on there. The thing that I didn't see on the video

I'm a little disappointed in is the quality of play between the two of you

still something that we need to work in.

There's that really kind of quintessential picture of you just going

You have... You have to exhaust him. The only way to exhaust him is to fully

involve him. I'm not seeing that from you in your footage.

I think, I mean, sometimes he exhausts me.

Were you pretty exhausted? Yeah.

I have something for you.

Give me a second. Let me bring it back in here because I think it'll help the

exhaustion level. Give me a second. I'll be right back.

Ruben stands there and he plays like this.

And then he complains about being exhausted.

Hello. That's not how it worked. The cat's supposed to get exhausted. We've

to work on that.

Okay.

Wow. All right?

So, there comes a point where this cat's wearing you out, and what we're going

to do, we just sort of turn it on.

What? Wow.

And this should impress him.

Speak of the devil.

Look at you.

So, Jackson surprised us with a new toy for Roscoe, and Roscoe loves it.

The bottom line watching something like this, I hope that you guys are making

this connection also, that Roscoe is not a spiteful cat. He's not doing things

to piss you off. He's doing things because he has got an incredible amount

energy, and he is bored.

This is the way to get him to stop destroying your house. It's not

It's just giving him all of the exercise that he desperately needs.

I guess I'm kind of selfish.

I mean, Roscoe's a cat.

He's Roscoe's being a cat.

You know, I just need to stop being aggravated easily.

Well, the first thing.

Nice. This is exactly what I asked for, basically.

I asked Ruben to get Roscoe a stool so we could watch him cook.

Roscoe needs to have his own space so he won't walk on the counter.

Now, you're saying that he gets up here, but that's a clear invitation for him

to get him up here. So what we're going to do.

We get him here, we tempt him here, but with cats, in terms of stillness, the

one thing that works is finding that treat, that thing that's going to make

go, ugh, this is a clicker stick, right? So what I'm trying to get him to do is

touch his nose to this.

He touches his nose, he gets reward, okay?

So this is where jackpot treat comes in, because he will do anything for that

treat. The jackpot treat is very simple. I want something that Roscoe is going

to go, oh, my God, I have to have that. What is it, steak? Is it shrimp? Is it

chicken? What is the taste that will drive him towards the goal so that the

training becomes easier? So he comes over.

As soon as he touches his nose to that treat, then this happens.

Touching this means this means treat, right? So then, as time goes on, that

click itself is loaded for him. It means good stuff is going to happen.

Now the next thing I want you to do is tempt him up here.

You take the stick, you drag it up, click. As soon as he gets up there, he

click. Eventually, he's going to sit there watching you prepare the meal. The

end of that meal is the treat.

Jackson seems to have this idea that, you know, Roscoe will be able to learn

from this clicker training.

And I don't know how confident I am. I mean, it seems pretty difficult to me.

Let me give you this week's homework.

You know, Roscoe will be Roscoe. He is a little bit of a Dennis the Menace.

I need you to play more.

You've got to play with gusto.

He's got to be exhausted, not you.

Next, I need you to commit, commit, commit to this cooking class over here.

sits there while you cook. The only way that happens is with the clicker

training. That jackpot treat is the key to everything.

And that's it for you guys.

I will see you guys in a few weeks.

Enjoy your time with him.

Thank you so much for visiting us again. You're welcome. We'll talk to you soon.

I really hope that Ruben and Danielle put in the effort to play with Roscoe

enough to tire him out and to train him to sit on that stool. Because otherwise,

this cat's going to tear this couple apart.

The last time I was with Ruben and Danielle, their mischievous cat Roscoe

wreaking havoc around their new home.

Roscoe. Ruben the chef was getting really aggravated that Roscoe was

around the counters of his clean kitchen, especially when he was trying

Hey!

I wanted him to find that jackpot treat, that flavor, that would allow us to

train Roscoe to sit while Ruben cooked. I'm going to go find out if that worked.

Hello. Good to see you again. Good to see you.

Tell me, what's going on?

How are you doing?

Way better.

Before, Roscoe was such a splinter in our relationship.

It wasn't that long ago that I did hate that cat.

He's really not tearing apart our furniture anymore.

Oh, cool.

Ruben played with him a lot more.

It's fun to play with him, you know? It's rewarding.

We had a bunch of fun toys to make him run around.

Well, he's tired a lot more. And that was the thing that originally made you

insane about him. Yeah. With that energy level.

Maybe somebody's getting a little tired from all the playing.

I did the jackpot treat.

You found it? Mm -hmm.

Hello.

I'm going to find out what my baby likes to eat.

I've got some deer jerky, some beef, some salmon jerky.

What's that? He seems to like that.

Like his mother.

Roscoe loves steak.

Loves the steak.

We know he responds to steak.

I do love steak. We have plenty of steak in the house, so that worked out. We

did the clicker training once we found the jackpot boots.

Good job, buddy.

So, you're going to take me through how you have him clicker trained or not to

sit with you while you do your cooking.

The true test of this relationship is to see whether man and cat can share the

same kitchen.

Ruben's in the kitchen. He's cooking steak.

And we've got Roscoe. I mean, really, this is the defining moment of all of

work together.

You're cooking.

You're sitting.

Now, this is pretty amazing.

Roscoe never made a move towards the meat. He never made a move towards the

counter. All that Roscoe has to know is if I stay right where I am, good stuff

comes to me in the form of the jackpot treat. If I get up on the counter,

nothing good happens.

Bigger payoff by staying here, very simple. How does it feel to be able to

that you can do this right now? It's pretty cool, huh?

It's just less stress, and I like having him around.

It's more like he's company now. Yeah.

Good work, man. Good work. The ease of watching your cat watch you cook.

It was really this perfect picture that you want to walk away with. And mission

accomplished. Ruben, I mean, the work you did was pretty astounding. And gives

you just a little bit of control over Dennis the Menace that you never had

before and allows you to have a relationship.

You helped me build a relationship with Roscoe. You know, I'm very thankful.

Just a few weeks ago, Ruben didn't even want to be near Rothko. Like, am I going

to sleep on the edge of the bed here? Get into bed.

To turn around completely and become this cat's best friend makes everything

do worthwhile. These two are now their buddies.

All right. Take care, ma 'am. Thank you very much. The most rewarding part of

this experience for me would be we all just get along.

I just can't believe that happened.

I did not think it was going that way.

It's like a little family. We're a unit now.

I thank Jackson for that. I really do.

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