-[woman 1] Hi, there. -[woman 2] Hi!
-[woman 3] Hi! [chuckling] -Hey! How are you?
-Hey! -[woman 4] Hey! Oh!
-[woman 5] Oh, yeah! -[woman 4] Hey! [laughing]
A little hairless butt. [chuckles]
So, hey, everybody. I'm glad you guys could make it.
Oh, my gosh. This is so crazy!
I know some of you guys are new to the cat community.
So, if you guys just wanna go down the line and introduce yourselves
so that everybody knows who's on the call.
I'm Stacy, and this is Bonaparte.
[woman 3] Hello!
This is Mersha.
Here's Lynx. He's just chilling over here.
-Well, hi, Lynxie! -Hi, Lynxie!
-[cat meows] -[all chuckling]
[woman 4] Oh, hello!
There's Mavi. Say hi to your friends.
-Mavi's one of a kind. -Say hi.
He's truly special. He's more than just a pet to us.
Hi, Mav! [smooches]
I'm having such a hard time putting it into words,
because it's such a special thing.
He's my emotional support animal,
just like dogs are for so many other people.
Hola.
[Kayla] And it took being on Instagram and the cat community
to see how prominent it really was.
So, um, I wanted to get your guys' input.
I don't know if you guys are aware, but next month is Maverick's birthday.
-Yay! A birthday party! -Turning two?
[Kayla] Yep, he is. He is.
Look, Kayla, he's almost ready.
[Kayla] Oh!
Oh, look at that.
[Kayla] You're so cute, Mersha!
If you had told me two years ago
that I'd be planning my cat's birthday party,
I probably would have called you crazy, but here we are.
We could do fish cakes.
Ooh, that's a good idea. Have you done those before?
No.
I think it would be fun if we all did, like, our costumes
but out in public.
-Oh! -And do a video.
There's boxes, too. Like a box party.
-[Kayla] Oh, that would be so cute! -Oh, yeah!
-Oh, that is so perfect. -[Kayla] Isn't it?
You could call it-- Who said that?
Surfer Cat Island. That's so cute.
-That could be fun. -[Kayla] Oh, that's a great idea.
Amazing.
Kayla, I'm actually excited to get your water training video.
We're excited to put that one out.
A lot of people think that cats just sit around the house all day,
doing nothing.
But let me tell you, Mavi can really do some cool things.
[opening theme music playing]
[humorous music playing]
I, initially…
I mean, I don't know how he felt, but I always sort of didn't want children…
um, but, you know, "never say never" kind of feeling.
[meows]
[Kayla] Hey, Mavi.
-[Mavi purring] -I just, for myself, it…
it just seemed like it was not in the cards for me.
Did I ever think I was ever gonna be a father? I'd never…
I don't really…
I-I cannot remember thinking about it like that.
[Kayla] When Nick first moved in,
aside from not having a cat, he had also never had a pet.
Within a month, the cat won him over.
-[Nick] Hey, buddy. -[Kayla] Whoops.
[Nick] You ready? Go for an elevator ride.
-[meows] -[Kayla] I'll say two dozen.
-Hey, buddy. -[Kayla chuckling]
Am I doing it right?
Yeah? We'll get you something as well, don't worry.
I'm hungry.
[Kayla] Yeah, me too.
You want the other, uh, onion chopped up into small bits?
No, but you can take those off now that you're not doing onions.
[Kayla] Maverick actually chose us.
It's kind of a long story, but, um…
My brother, he got a Bengal cat,
and she was… she was different
than any other cat our family had ever owned before.
And then she had kittens.
I was gonna find homes for them in-- in LA
and have their potential new parents come and check them out.
And one of them, which was Maverick, he had, like, a little limp.
Uh, so, then I'd end up picking him up and taking him everywhere with me, and…
Nick and I often joke that perhaps he was faking the limp
'cause he really just wanted to stay with us.
I started carrying him around in the kangaroo pouch,
and so he would poke his little head out.
It was-- We were just connected right away.
From about seven years old, I've always had a cat in my life.
I had a cat growing up named Pizza,
and she was a mean cat. [chuckles]
She was, like, indoor-outdoor, but she would, like, bite…
We loved her anyways.
And then I had, um, Sasha when--
The beginning of my, um, adult life, like, 18, 19,
and then I got Titten when I was 20.
And I had her my entire adult life until she passed away.
I've battled depression pretty much my-- my whole adult life.
Uh, starting when I was, like, 16, 17,
and I didn't really know what I was experiencing,
so it was very foreign early on.
It's something that's sort of prominent within my family, um…
Just last year, December of 2019, my cousin took her life.
My father took his life.
So, it's something that was really hard for me to talk about for the longest time.
I just knew that I had these times in my life
where things were really dark.
I think of it as riding a wave,
so the ocean goes out,
the ocean comes in.
[purring]
Having Maverick for those times
just makes it so much more livable.
And then the times shorten, and hopefully, you know,
the times that are good, lengthen.
I personally have Maverick as an ESA, an Emotional Support Animal,
because for traveling, it's really nice to take him along.
It is necessary for, like, mental health.
[gentle music playing]
[indistinct announcements on P.A.]
[Kayla] We shouldn't discriminate on whether it's a dog or a cat.
I think that they both should be included.
There's no exaggeration when I say he goes everywhere.
Like, there's nowhere that he doesn't go.
If we go to a grocery store where it's not allowed,
one of us will stay in the car with him.
Um, but other than that,
we've totally restructured our lives to where--
Any sort of staples that we need, we pick stores that allow pets
so that we can take him.
Come on!
[Nick] You know, when he gets really mad, if Kayla and I have to leave…
[meows]
…he'll jump on the wheel and he'll go really fast.
He'll run on the wheel.
It's his way of saying, "Hey, you guys, take me with you."
And we'll be hearing him as we're walking away.
I started taking him in the bag places,
and he would sort of treat it like he was on a balcony.
Like, he would perch his-- his front feet and just sort of--
his head out, and he was checking everything out.
He's worn a harness since he was eight weeks old.
The first day that we put on the harness, we just sort of let him integrate
with the harness around the house.
Then, the second day, we did another six hours.
By then, he was sleeping in it, playing in it, napping in it.
It was like second skin.
He sort of forgot he was even wearing it.
And then, on the third day, we took him out.
You got it, Mavi.
You got it. You got it, boy.
So, I had a pet store harness on him,
and we were on Melrose Boulevard at one of our favorite coffee shops.
And we were sitting outside at the patio just sipping our coffee,
and he backed out of the harness.
So, he pushed backwards and pulled it off through his head,
and he was standing there with nothing, and there's cars whizzing by.
And so I scooped him up, and my heart was racing.
That was what motivated us to create our own harnesses.
Ready to go, Bubs? Which one do you wanna wear?
Want this one?
This one?
Purple?
Sparkles.
All right. Get your booty in.
Good boy. Have a seat.
All right.
Seventy-six percent Syrah.
That's gonna make for a bit of a spice-driven…
[Nick] People react very strange.
Some people say, "Oh, my God, is that a cat?"
And I always say, "No, no, it's a dog."
"It just looks a little bit different." [laughing]
[Kayla] Come on, Bubs.
[laughing]
-[woman on computer] Hello, handsome. -Hi, Grandma.
-How are you… -I miss you, you know?
Aw, I miss you, too.
It's very good to see you. We have a special guest.
-Oh. -You do?
-Yeah, yeah, he's… -[man] Four-legged friend, is it?
Four-legged guest. He was pretty good yesterday in the pool.
I grew up in Newcastle, England.
It's just below Scotland, on the northeast coast,
and I came to America when I was a late teenager.
The wake experience.
[surf music playing]
And through the sport of wakeboarding,
I was lucky enough to become a citizen and came to stay in America.
[laughing]
Maverick was, I think, around ten or 12 weeks.
We did a day trip to the beach when we were visiting my folks in Florida.
We're on the beach, and there was these little pools of-- of water,
uh, that were shallow,
and he wanted to get from one side to the other
'cause there was some mangrove trees, and he just walked right through.
It was pretty deep for him, and we couldn't believe it.
Looked like a little jaguar, he was so young.
And went right into the mangrove trees, the water went up to his neck
and on his back, and then he came out the other side
and shook it off and continued on.
[Kayla] With Bengals, they do take to water a bit more
than the regular domestic cat does.
We did, like, super, super tiny baby steps to integrate the water experience
and make it a positive one as well,
and he took to it right away.
So, Nick was like, "I'm gonna teach him to surf."
He started the surf camp.
[Nick] I pulled a board down, and I put it in the house.
He was just so little.
He would climb and run around the board, and he got comfortable on it,
and then I would put it up on a chair, so it would be like a seesaw almost.
And after he played in the house on that,
I just said, "You know what?"
"Let's take it into the pool and see how he does."
And then, when we went onto the lake in Florida, in Orlando,
um, on the stand-up paddle boards, he completely surprised us.
Kayla and I were in the middle of the lake. I think she was on a kayak,
and I was on the stand-up,
and Maverick just dove into the lake.
I was definitely panicked.
I was scared. Like, I was, "Is he gonna know how to swim?"
[Nick] Kayla was maybe, you know, 20 feet away,
and he swam over to her and jumped on her kayak, dried off,
and we were like, "Wow, that was crazy!"
And after that, I thought,
"Oh, maybe he needs to, you know, catch a wave,
and I'd love to take him surfing."
I just wanted to take him out
when it was, like, six-inch waves and really small.
And that's what we did.
And he caught his first wave in Malibu.
[surf music playing]
I just thought, "This cat's something else."
And maybe I've rubbed off on him a little bit, who knows?
The qualities that really stick out, that he has as a Bengal,
is his energy level.
I never-- I didn't even know what a Bengal was till Kayla told me.
It's a-- a cross between a tabby and, uh, an exotic cat.
So, an F1 Bengal is the first generation of Bengals.
Now, they get more diluted as they go down.
So, F2's a farther generation removed.
F3.
The closer they are to the source, the-- the more rambunctious they might be.
[peaceful music playing]
[Kayla] He's an extremely high-maintenance animal,
so it's definitely not a breed for everyone.
If you can't spend a certain amount of time with them,
they start to digress mentally,
and then they can even have aggression issues.
[Nick] A Bengal needs to run, whether it's on the wheel in the house…
…and outside.
-They have a lot of energy. -[Kayla] Good boy!
[Nick] They love to explore.
[Kayla] I've heard so many sad stories about Bengals
because people will get them because they're pretty
and they have a high price tag,
and they think that it has, you know, a status symbol or something to have them.
Or they just think it's cool,
and then they don't set aside the time to put into the animal.
And then six months goes by, and they're like,
"Well, I got a broken one. Mine's broken."
"Mine pees in the corner, and mine bites me, and mine scratches me."
And I get so frustrated with those people
because I think that that's created through neglect.
'Cause there's a lot of Bengals that do get returned,
and they end up in sanctuaries,
and those habits are really, really hard to get at and fix.
They're not a good animal if you're a super busy person.
-[clicking tongue] -[cat meows]
-[Nick] Good boy, good boy. -[Kayla chuckles]
Mav, this one. This one. It's got your top on it.
-[meows] -Let's go with this, Mav.
Let's take old faithful.
Wanna ride in one of these, buddy?
Which board do you want, buddy? He's sniffing out the one he wants.
Oh.
What you got in your mouth, buddy?
-[Kayla gasps] Oh, my God! -[Nick] What happened?
-[Kayla] It's a dead mouse or a live one. -[Nick] It's live, he just grabbed it.
Hey, Mavi. If you pick him up, he'll let it go.
[Kayla] But I-- I can't.
He needs his leash on.
Bubby, you can't be eating the mice.
Now, needs to let it go, and it can run.
I don't want him to get hurt or sick. Honey, don't do that. Don't do that.
-He needs to drop it. -[Nick] I'll let you do it, then.
[Kayla] You can drop it.
Mavi.
Oh!
-[Nick] He's never done this. -[Kayla] I'm just afraid--
Oh, there we go. Let it go, let it go.
Sorry. I'm sorry, Mav.
-[Nick] Run away. -I know you're gonna be so mad at me.
I'm sorry, bub. Sorry, bub.
[chuckles]
-No, no, no! -[Nick laughing]
[Kayla] Can you get rid of it?
-[Nick] Mavi-- Sure. -Well, not with your hands.
-[Nick laughing] Okay, what with? -What do you want me to do?
-I'll pick it up. -He's gonna choke himself.
-Sorry. Did you get rid of it? -We'll get you better food.
-Yeah, it's gone. -He won't find it?
-No. -Okay.
-Good boy, Mav. -Whew!
[Nick] Come on, Mav. Let's go pick a board.
Not a mouse.
-What did you do with it? -It just ran away.
-Oh, so it lived? -It was playing dead.
-Yeah. -Okay, good.
[Kayla] We decided we move from the city to the country,
that it was a perfect opportunity, um, to get some chickens.
[chickens clucking]
Ever since I was little, I grew up surrounded by animals,
so it's really important to me that Mavi loves them, too.
-They're good boys. -[Mavi meowing]
So, Ashwagandha,
she would just ride around in the palm of my hand.
She's obviously now bigger, so she's not so much of a lap chicken,
but I can walk in and pick her up, and she likes to ride around in my hands.
Uh, we have Minooka, Ashwagandha, and Drogen.
He's known them since they were a day old.
And during that time, they would be in the bathroom
and, every single day,
he would come in and he would, at first, see them through the cage.
Eventually, the baby chicks were, like, riding on his back.
Like, I'm not joking. [laughing]
And now, they're just sort of, like, brother and sister.
Okay.
[Nick] Good boy, Mav. That's his sister.
[Kayla] I don't know if he sees that they're chickens
or if he thinks they're cats or whatever.
Good boy, Mavi.
So, we wanted to add a few more to the family.
'Cause these ones are a little bit…
-[Nick] They're a little feisty? -[Kayla] Yes.
We'll have to reacclimate Mavi from the beginning,
but I'm hoping that he remembers all of his training.
'Cause a predator is the cat, and the prey would be the chicken.
So, we kind of have to get them together in a controlled environment.
Hi.
-[dramatic music playing] -[Kayla] Oh!
-[Nick] Oh, he's scared. -[Kayla] It's okay.
[Nick chuckles] Mav got scared.
[meows]
[Kayla] For his second birthday,
we wanted to let him show off what he could do on the water.
[Nick] He's confident on the board. He can jump on the board.
He's not scared of being out floating on the board himself.
Good boy.
Ready, Mav? [laughing]
-Hey, he did it! -Oh, good boy!
But if we can get him used to traveling at speed on the board,
then it-- it'll really help with his confidence.
[surf music playing]
[Kayla] So, Maverick is a Leo.
His birthday is, uh, August 18th.
Last year, for his birthday, we did Cat Burning Man.
And it's pretty cute. You can check out the hashtag.
This year, we're gonna have to come up with something to beat that.
'Cause I'm thinking…
I don't know, the movie-star thing might be too hard to do.
Right.
But you have to think, like, what--
I don't know…
Like, how can you top last year?
I know.
I don't know, I always liked the stuff that's, like, super extravagant, like…
diamonds and…
Yeah, yeah.
-All sorts of, like, fake fur. -Yeah.
-I can see people-- -Oh, it could be like "Mavi's Luau."
-Yeah, yeah. -Or "Mavi's Maui Luau."
Yeah.
When it's summertime, 'cause he has a summer birthday, so…
What do you think, Mav?
He's able to communicate on a different level as well.
He can tell us what he wants.
You need to walk, Mavi?
-[Mavi meows] -All right.
He can tell us, "I don't like this," or "I wanna do that."
-Or, "Can I go over here?" Or… -[meows]
Um… you know, "My leash is caught."
-[meows] -He can let us know vocally.
I think he's taught us his language.
[meowing]
And then, one morning, he told us something was wrong.
He-- he went all quiet.
It happened very much out of the blue.
We woke up one morning,
he wasn't in the bed. He wasn't even in the room.
[somber music playing]
Eventually, I found him in the far corner of the closet.
I don't even know how to explain it. He looked as if he was drugged or drunk.
He tried to walk, and he couldn't use his legs.
And he fell down, and then he tried to get back up,
and he fell down.
And, as he got to the hardwood floor, his legs just split apart and he fell.
We were-- Immediately knew something was up.
Kayla came and ca-- started calling,
and we got a vet that, uh, said, "Yes, come down right now."
So, we just took off.
Was getting into the car. I'm holding him in his bag.
He just starts to go. Like, he starts to leave us.
Like, consciousness-wise, his body becomes limp,
almost as if he's been tranquilized.
He's just out.
Then, we got to the animal hospital,
and, um, they took him in to do some tests.
Ran test after test after test.
Everything's coming back, "We don't know what it is."
"Let's run more tests."
It's, like, nearly midnight, and they're saying to us,
"Okay, so we wanna keep him overnight to monitor him."
I was like, "No, he's not comfortable if he's not with us."
"He's not happy."
I was like, "No, no, we're taking him home."
It was definitely in the realm of reality that he could leave us.
[Nick] We couldn't imagine life without him. He's part of our family.
[Kayla] The little guy's, like, stolen my heart.
[emotional music playing]
Little bit of time goes by, and-- and he throws up,
and we're like, "Oh, my God, this is horrible."
"The symptoms are getting worse."
[uplifting music playing]
And what it turned out to be was he had gotten into fishing lure
that had, like, a certain coating on it,
and that's what had affected his neurological system.
Oh, sleepy boy. Come here, sleepy.
It was one of the most scary experiences I've had with Mavi.
There we go.
Sleepy.
I just have to realize how blessed we-- we really are.
[Nick] Yeah, he's very unique.
Mavi was sleeping on top of the fridge. He's been--
He's got his birthday bandana.
I'm gonna put him in his chair. Hopefully he'll chill out.
My goodness, there's a handsome boy. He's two now, right?
-He's two today! Exactly two today. -[Nick] Yeah, he's two today.
-Happy birthday! -[Kayla] Say hi.
To the one who really changed our adventure life. [laughing]
Cheers!
Bonjour.
-Happy birthday! -Happy birthday!
[man] Did you guys get his present that I sent?
-Is this your package? -Yeah.
It's the box, right? You got him a box.
-[Kayla laughing] -Oh, Doctor.
Drew sent the toilet training system.
Oh, Mavi loves the box. Oh! Danger zone, bubby.
Mavi's favorite part is the box, of course.
Cats just love boxes.
We have a five-foot Maverick.
I think he's gonna have a nap.
Dan, you better jump in before Mavi falls asleep.
-[Mavi purring] -[chuckles] Well, happy birthday, Mavi.
I can't wait to see the new sports you're gonna teach this cat.
Jumping through fire hoops, and…
-[Kayla and Nick laughing] -…back flips, and ice-skating.
Happy birthday, Mavi! Cheers!
Cheers!
Cheers, Dan!
-Cheers to ice-skating! [laughing] -Cheers to ice-skating!
So, he's been learning how to jump.
He's gonna do a show today for the guests that come.
He's gonna jump from board to board.
Kayla taught him all the tricks, and I taught him how to surf.
Don't like that, do you?
-Well, I love you guys so much. -[all] Cheers, love you!
Cheers! Happy birthday!
-[Kayla] Bye, guys. Bye. -[Nick] Bye.
-[Dan] Bye-bye. -See you in person soon.
Bye, Vaida!
[man and woman] Bye.
And we'll see you soon.
[chuckles] Bye, guys. Bye, Grandma!
Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad.
-All right. -[Kayla] Come on.
-[guest 1] So good to see you guys. -[Nick] You, too.
-So good to see everybody. -[guest 2] Cheers!
[indistinct conversations]
[guest 3] Where are your chickens?
-Oh, that's where you are. -[Nick] That's what we want.
They were the wee, wee, wee ones.
I was expecting little chickens I get to hold and play with.
No, they grew up fast, man.
Where's the birthday boy?
Um…
[Nick] Mavi pulled through.
We weren't sure if he's his old self, but we're about to find out.
[Kayla] Okay, here we go.
[Nick] Here he goes.
-[all cheering] -[upbeat music playing]
[Nick] He knows where he gets that.
They're coming. They're lining up.
[Kayla] Ooh, that's a big jump.
[Nick] Lining up. Launching!
-[cheering] -[Mavi meows]
-[Nick laughing] Yeah! -[Kayla] Okay, that one deserves a cheer.
[guest 4] That was excellent.
[Kayla] Holy cow, Mavi!
He got so-- so proud of himself.
Attaboy.
[uplifting music playing]
-[cheering] -[Nick laughing] Oh, yeah!
[Kayla] Holy cow, Mavi!
You've had a long birthday. It's still not over.
Ready?
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday, dear Maverick ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
[Nick] All right.
-[blowing] -[cheering]
Good job, you did good.
-Happy birthday, Maverick! -[Kayla] You did good! Whoo-hoo!
[indistinct conversations]
[Nick] Him coming into my life was something that I never saw coming,
and it just became something really huge.
[Kayla] There was something about knowing that his birthday almost didn't happen
that just made it extra special.
[Nick] Thought we'd celebrate his birthday and recovery by hitting the waves again
and letting him unleash his inner surfer cat.
[Kayla] A lot of people probably think that we're crazy,
but I would just say to them we're having the time of our lives.
[uplifting music playing]
[closing theme music playing]