A SHEBA® DOCUMENTARY THE CATS THAT RULE THE WORLD Most people when they come up here the first time
tend to get a little lost which is sometimes a problem because your cell phone won't work
up here . We're basically surrounded by the forest to the south you have Mount Hood and
to our north Mount St Helen's. One of the good things that makes it easy for us not to have to
really chase people if they decide to run away. I'm doing all right how about yourself man? My name is JC Miller i'm the correctional program
manager here at Larch Corrections Center and I've been here for about coming up on two years and I'm
in charge of all of the programs that we have here including the cat program. Miller how you
doing? I'm doing all right man good to see you I mean if you're in the cat program
the cats can bring you a lot of joys and that's beautiful because you
see everybody just happier people We partner with the Humane Society their
part in this is they come up and they teach the guys exactly how to train the cats and
if we can get these cats trained we can get them out there to somebody that wants a cat for
adoption. It's just a win-win all the way around When i look at these cats I
know exactly how they feel. They come in and they're sick and they're scared.
These cats were running the streets starving and just think of the trauma they went through
trying to just fend for itself catch whatever it can and eat. When I got arrested last time i was
a addicted to methamphetamines and I weighed 160 pounds i'm 205 now. I know what it's like you know
you come in you're dingy you're dirty you run down. iIwas an addict and that's what addiction does
is beat you down. My name is Craig Bigler i'm 50 years old i'm from Seattle Washington and i'm
a cat handler i'm in the cat adoption program. I have been around 14 years in prison most of
it for auto theft i've been to Monroe three times, Cedar Creek twice i've been here twice
and I've been to Olympic Corrections Center i ran around with a group of people and that's all
we did was drugs and steel to support our drugs Before i came here i was not into animals
at all i never had any cats no dogs nothing. This cat is so cool and has such a good
aura his name's Galileo when he got here He was nine pounds five ounces
and he had a respiratory infection He was in bad shape i basically had
him sitting on my lap and feeding him get holding the water dish getting them to
drink you just sleep 23 and a half hours a day. He's been here for two and a half weeks and now
he's out of a shell he's a great animal super friendly. I can hand feed him he doesn't fight or
nothing like. That right here... come on, there you go. Cats are pretty cool animals
and uh they just want affection you know and they want someone to
hang out and spend time with them uh they're predatory so you gotta stimulate them
so you gotta play with them because that's what they're used to and that's what that's what
makes a cat happy and a happy cat is a healthy cat. Tell me about it. This is belle and she's a six month old
four pound stray that came in 11 days ago from the city of Vancouver. She's real shy
and so she's she's got some some issues with that but we're socializing her with
slow introductions, small petting sessions. I know you're such a good girl though. My name
is David Hannigan i'm a cat handler at Larch Correction Center. I'm in here for burglary too
and trafficking stolen property in second degree. I've been in here for 29 months and i
still got a year and three months to ago. I don't really love anyone that i can't respect
and i don't really trust anyone i can't love. I mean it all kind of goes together and so when the
cats first get here the first 48 hours i like to do hands off and just let the
cat get comfortable get situated. Originally i started desensitizing her by using
one of these feather toys and i'd reach under there and go hey girl and i'd pet her with
the feather toy to see how she would react, that's a good girl and then i'll be daring
enough to stick my hand down there and kind of give her a couple pets and you slowly
introduce yourself. You're such a good girl. It's really my mission to make that
cat comfortable and to trust me and then to love me eventually and some
cats are quick sometimes some cats are slow but as long as i'm not getting stitches in the
process i'm i'm grateful grateful to do that. If we can get them to care about something maybe
by the time they get out they realize exactly what they put other people through. It's therapeutic in
a way where we get them to think about things that they never thought about before. The real mission
is is to get them to be more empathetic to people. Most of them have never cared about nothing but
themselves for the most part their entire life. The cats that we have here do have a
special power i guess you could say. This is uh Tierra she comes from northwest Humane
Society and hopefully uh this Thursday she's gonna get adopted. I've gone through so many cats that
you know uh it's kind of hard not to get attached to them but it's for their own good. We all fall
in love with cats but we also got to remember that when it comes time for him to go
we have to let him go we don't have a choice. Here at Larch Correctional Center we have
a paperwork we have to do every day for the cats When i wake up the first thing I do is I
grab his folder belongs to Humane Society and I write down his his daily activities.
Week one, day one, march 23rd. Describe cat's behavior. Shy and fearful. He is hiding under
the bed his head is down and he looks depressed. Here we are at 416 week two day five. Describe
the cat's behavior bell was somewhat fearful this morning but came around after some petting seems
to be right on track. Week two, day two, describe cat's behavior shy comes out at night not scared
any improvements yes there was less hissing and he set backs none that i've noticed. In the middle
of night he started cry so i grabbed him and put him on the bed with me and he relaxed. Morning time
they are allowed to be held. Concerned no. Week two day four...I lost where i was at. The cat's behavior
is still under the bed but she's eating. Hi sweetie. I know him i think he's on that pill but i'm
just worried about his stinky urine - I think he was dehydrated. The cat came out with the lights
on to poop that's a plus. Describe activities - i'm hugging petting and brushing talking petting and
playing watching tv with this new favorite homeboy. It's a shame we can't really communicate with
cats the same way that we communicate with people . I'd like to think that that i could
speak to a cat through my heart really, to let that cat know that i'm stuck here too we're
gonna get through this together - it's gonna be okay. Before i came in here i was
living paycheck to paycheck drinking smoking a lot of weed and doing a lot of
meth. I've been divorced since 2011 and not having responsibility to take care of my kids or anything
like that has really led me down a rough road. When i came here i thought that
uh being here would strengthen my relationships with a lot of people my
kids and all that kind of stuff and um sad to say everybody's busy out there, too busy
to write , yeah, it's not exactly what i expected. There's times when it's just raining
and you're stuck in your room and there's nothing on the tv and it's just
depressing and you're just thinking about where the last 20 years of my life have
gone or most my friends are dead now. I've tried not to really get attached to the
animals you know because i know that's not my animal it belongs to Humane Society but uh once
a while you get a cat that you know you kind of connect with and you wake up and it's a sleep
purring beside you you know i mean it's kind of being in an environment like this is just kind
of cool cats are very loving creatures and and I don't want to say that they're
manipulative necessarily but they are, you know you start petting her or something
like that and as soon as you pull your hand away she puts her paw on it and she wants more. i
don't resist i fall right in i fall right in line. In a place like this you don't
have much of an opportunity to share your emotions with people without
being thought of as a punk or soft or weak and I would say that having this cat in
my life having an animal that I can love on or whatever share my myself with has been
beneficial to me emotionally as and mentally to be honest with you I'm grateful I came here
and got me out of the mess that I was surrounded in I really opened my mind and heart up beyond
anything that could ever happen to me out there. I mean the level of maturity that I've achieved just
being in here and being able to focus on myself to really give you a chance to step back and look
at the bigger picture you know where am I going with my life and what do I want out of this now
it's i've got a whole different aspect on what I really want to do and how i want to use my time.
Is there anything that you could bring in from outside like maybe a pine cone. My cat really
appreciates the smell of my socks and shoes. I'm serious people are so quick because they lock
them up lock them up for every time that we lock people up it costs the taxpayer anywhere
from 60 to $100 000 a year and that adds up. What we want to be able to do is
get these people out give them some hope, build them up so they can have confidence to
get out go after what they want the right way and then stay out. She likes you already. With the cat
program they realize that they're worth something because to have something or somebody need you is
huge that makes them excited. it makes me excited realizing that we just saved their life. I was
sent here by the state of Washington for six years but because a good time I'm only
serving 43 months of that sentence. Now I've got a chance to really rebuild
you know to put everything on the table and take it apart and look at it
and then re-put it back together and say okay this is how I'm going
to be, this is what I want, you know. You think It'd be great to not have responsibility
because you can do what you want when you want. But if you don't have good self-esteem
or moral fibre or goals it's a disaster. I go home in 71 days, 50 years
old, five times in prison. I can't do it six times. I won't, I'm not
coming back to this prison ever again. If I didn't have this program I probably
wouldn't have the positive mindset that I have, thinking about how precious life is
and how short life is and how you can go from so toxic to so healthy so fast. So I
absolutely think he's got some power over me. I need to change some things about me
and I need to do some thinking about me. Right now I'm trying to adopt Galileo and
uh I just think it'd be cool to take him home you know walk through the door and he
comes running across the living room yeah now you green yeah. Some of it's
probably I could use the responsibility because if you don't have no one answer to or
no responsibility I go and do my own thing or get bored or go hang out with my old friends and
get in trouble you know maybe if I got something positive a cat I got to come home from work and
feed every day i'll stay home a little often. When you sit in your room with
your cat it makes you happy, you know. I mean it brings a little joy to your heart. Good kitty. Bigler, Bigler 985-100, Bigler 985-100 I've been in the cat program for 18 months I
stayed out of trouble. I did everything I was supposed to do and I was diligent about working
the program and I for once in my life I asked for something instead of taking it and they said
yes. Now he's 15 pounds you know he's a huge cat and he's really healthy. I think he's just a
benefit of doing the right thing you know I mean. I'm going home I think it's just uh if I
don't do it now they might as well lock me up and throw away the key. Are you taking your
family with you, yeah, i'll take it summertime my family's doing the tough love
thing on me, you know, no one's really trying to talk to me or anything right now
until I get out and prove myself and I get it and I deserve it okay then you can get your
cat ready and then it'll be all ready I've done more prison time than a murderer, you know, I mean
and I'm just tired of it I'm very proud of him. I know the journey that he has been on. I
mean a lot of times people don't realize that it brings us some joy as well so now it's
got a double thing the cat's got a permanent home he's getting released so it lets
us know that we've done our job. Outside the cat will be right by his side all the
time something goes up the cat will make him think about the consequences plus I think
he really cares about his animal. He does not know what to think does he? I know he's matured here, I know that he's
learned a lot here and I'm hoping that he'll take that forward and I think the cat
stabilizes him and I put a lot of faith in it. Hi mom, I love you love you yeah How are you doing , how are you doing good
, good you okay you're not supposed to cry mom All right mom this is our new animal. It's gonna be good having him home yeah I'm
excited about the cat, he's a beautiful cat. I mean I have been doing this for 25
years and I've watched people come in, come out and then before I even moved to
my next duty assignment they were back in don't see that as much when people when they have
something to care about. Most of the time if we can get people to stay out through their first year
then the chances of them not coming back increases , you know, dramatically. To love you unconditionally,
that's what our cats do, plus he has family support so all of that i think his chances are
going to be pretty good to stay out. He knows in his mind that if something happens to
him nobody's going to take care of his cat the way he will, so that's a wonderful
thing that we have going on here. CRAIG HAS BEEN OUT OF PRISON FOR OVER TWO YEARS. HE HAS A JOB, STAYS OUT OF TROUBLE AND LIVES WITH HIS MOTHER AND CAT GALILEO.
