Cats’ Behavior Tears Family Apart | My Cat From Hell
JACKSON: What's going
on with your cat? We've got a big cat
chasing a little cat. I mean, these two can't be
in the same room together? SUSAN: Uh-uh. When Einstein is
locked up and lets out, you know, he starts kind of
hunting around looking for her. The minute he's out and about. Yeah. I'm actually the one
who closes the doors and opens the doors. You're in charge of
closing and opening doors. So you're in a constant
state of swapping them. Shuffling them. How long have these
two been together? Two years. Yeah. Well, it's not an environment
that I want to live in. I don't like having
rooms closed off and having to worry about what
happens when you're not there, and it's like the whole
situation's insane. I would, you know, take
it out on Susan, right? She brought the cats in. JACKSON: If I hadn't come
here, what would have happened? We'd probably be looking
for another home for Einstein.
I really don't want
to give him away. I just love him
so much, and I know he's got a good side because
whenever he's by himself in a room, he's just so sweet. We've got a family divided. I mean, clearly,
you've got Seth saying that it's not fair to Izzy
to keep Einstein around. But then you've
got Susan saying, I am the parent of
both of these cats, and I'm not going
to fail these cats.
So I've got to get up,
meet Izzy and Einstein, and see how bad the
situation really is. So living room. Oh.
– Yes. Who was that? SUSAN: That was Einstein. Well, no time
like the present. You want to go grab Einstein? I love Einstein
because he was probably one of the first
things I can remember, and he's hard not to love. Look at how beautiful
you are, Mister. So this is our troublemaker? Wow. It's so hard to think about
cats like this tearing each other limb for limb. SUSAN: I know. Einstein is this
archetypal Birman.
He's just calm, collected,
attracted to humans, not in a threatening way
whatsoever, and it's just so hard to
imagine him turning into this murder machine. Talk about this
array of stuff here. Well, this is
basically a cat muzzle. Einstein wears this? This was for Einstein, and
then their head is in here. And then they can't
bite anything. Oh, sure. Yeah. I have never seen a more
ridiculous invention than the helmet muzzle. Slide his head in. Slide his head in. And then we
clamp it back down. Isn't that cruel? [LAUGHTER] I want to go home. It was clearly one of
the most ridiculous things I've ever experienced. All right, let's
go ahead and put Einstein back in the bedroom. SUSAN: OK. And speaking of
which, let's get up and see what these two are
like when they're together. In order for me to
help them, I have to see what causes the bad
blood between Einstein and Izzy, so I asked Ashton and
McKenna to wait outside because the last thing
I want is for those two to be caught in
the middle of this.
Izzy comes in, and she's teeny. Immediately, Einstein
starts to come closer. SUSAN: I was scared to death
that this was not going to be pretty for either cat. JACKSON: Oh. This is that look you're
talking about, yeah? SUSAN: Yeah. It's OK. Hold on to him. OK, hold on to him. Are they all right?
SUSAN: I think so. Hey, baby. It's OK. That ain't good. There was a moment during
the standoff between Izzy and Einstein that
I actually thought it was going to just end,
but then Einstein just went. And when he went, he went
after her to kill her. Now I know this isn't
play aggression. They've got Einstein
growling and ready to pounce at any moment. And to Einstein, the only
one who exists in this room is Izzy, and he wants her dead. Let's get down to it. I don't like what I saw at all,
and this is what I want to do.
What I have right here
it's one-way cat glass. We're going to put
Izzy on one side of it where she can see him. Einstein can't see her. I'm going to feed her right
in front of that glass. We're going to feed
Einstein on the other side of that glass every
day, and with every meal this has to happen. So the first thing I brought
in was the one-way cat glass. I want Izzy to be able to
see Einstein while she eats so she gets to learn that
not every encounter is a threatening one. At the same time,
I want Einstein not to see Izzy while
he eats but to smell her so that he can associate her
with pleasant things like food. The second thing I want
you to do is play with her.
You're going to play with
her around this glass. She's going to learn she
can play in from that gate. She can have fun, and she can
do it in front of Einstein without bad consequences. And finally, I want you
to use the shelving, and get Izzy up
high off the floor. Then play with
Einstein on the floor. I want to build
Izzy's confidence up by keeping her elevated.
At the same time,
I want Einstein's aggression focused on an
appropriate target like play and not Izzy. So does all this stuff makes
sense to you that I gave you? Yes, I think this will work. JACKSON: You think so? I think so. Right on, man. So how are things going here? Things are
getting much better. SUSAN: Much better. There we go. Good news. You notice it too?
ASHTON: Mm-hmm. – Yeah.
– Good. Good. So tell me what you're seeing. SETH: Izzy just kind of casually
ate, and Einstein didn't jump.
Yeah. The first time I was here,
Einstein wanted to kill Izzy. And now they've removed
the one-way cat glass, and both cats are eating
with no bloodshed. That's pretty amazing. Izzy is more confident, and
Einstein doesn't see Izzy as prey anymore because
he's associating her with good things like food. How is Izzy doing
on her shelves? SUSAN: I haven't seen
her cower up there. That play thing, I
mean, yeah, I thought it was a little bit
hokey, honestly, when you told me
to do it, right? But it works. The kids were just so
much more comfortable, and the cats are getting more
comfortable with each other in the same room. I'm feeling a lot
better because Einstein's not scratching, and Izzy's been
acting a lot more confident. You know how these
guys like to play now. You can be a part of the
solution, both of you guys. Now what I need to see today
is the shelving exercise, is seeing Einstein on the floor,
seeing Izzy up on the shelves knowing that these guys
could be in the same room.
If you kids don't mind
sticking around here, I'm going to take your
parents, and we're going to go check this out, OK? All right, let's go. Now I'm hearing great
things from Seth and Susan, and the video homework
was fantastic. But unless I can see these two
cats existing in the same room, I've still got it
in my back pocket that I might want to
rehome one of these cats. But for Ashton and
McKenna's sake, I just hope these
two cats can coexist. OK, Izzy just did
us a big favor. She's on the tree. My friends over at Refined
Feline, they got it down. Now all we need is Einstein.
So, Seth, if you don't
mind going to get Einstein. Sure. So I sent Seth out
to go get Einstein. Susan, definitely,
she's nervous, and I hope that Einstein
is going to prove that this has all been worth it. [MUSIC PLAYING] What I really need to see, Seth,
is Einstein having interest in something other than her. Right now, he's still doing
a little bit of the fixating. I want to see her calming
down a little bit. You know what death is here? Death is the eye lock. Einstein loses focus on the toy. And he looks up,
and he sees Izzy. And in that moment, she
tensed up just a little bit.
And I thought, now she can
run, she can hold still. If she holds still, we're OK. We keep him moving. We keep her still. There we go. There we go.
There we go. Great. That's it. Look at that. No eye contact.
– Good. No problems. Einstein looks at Izzy. He Izzy shifts a little bit
as if she's about to run, and then she doesn't. It's as if she's
saying bring it on, and that tells me that
these two cats are on track to coexisting peacefully. As long as Seth, and
Susan, Ashton, and McKenna keep doing their homework and
associating the cats to one another with positive
things like food and play, we'll be able to take
these baby gates down, and these two cats will be
able to share the same space without violence.
