Original Air Date: November 3, 1998
Starring: Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt, Anne Ramsay
Directed by: David Steinberg
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!
Synopsis: Jamie (Helen Hunt) and Paul (Paul Reiser) discover “nooners” while Lisa (Anne Ramsay) adopts a cat which is too much to handle.
Cat Cattle Call: When Lisa and Ira (John Pankow) go to the animal shelter there are several cats seen in the background.
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): They are surprised to see a reddish brown colored cat leaping straight up into the air and bouncing around the shelter, screeching (the cat actor is somehow tossed up in the air for this effect. All of the yowls and screeches of the wild cat are dubbed in.)
Lisa decides she wants that cat and asks the handler (David Dean Bottrell) to get him. The handler puts on a lot of safety gear before picking up the cat.
Taking the cat on her shoulder, Lisa says she likes the feel of the cat scratching her back. As she turns to leave, it’s revealed her coat is torn up.
Lisa takes the cat to Jamie and Paul’s place, going up in the elevator where she encounters Maggie (Judy Geeson). Lisa is excited to show Maggie her new “child” and points out that it’s a boy. Maggie is less than thrilled but takes more interest when the cat jumps on her hat and starts attacking (you can see the trainer’s hands drop the cat actor on the hat).
Lisa asks Jamie and Paul if she can leave the cat with them. She and Jamie leave and poor Murray the dog (Maui) is chased into the kitchen.
Later Jamie and Paul are shocked when they enter the kitchen to find Murray on top of the refrigerator trying to get away from the cat who is hanging into his tail (a fake tail was obviously used). Paul snarls at the cat who snarls back (the snarls are actually just mouth licks and other normal cat mouth openings).
Paul timidly enters the kitchen and has a peek a boo session with the cat who finally lunges at him.
Jamie calls animal control and tries to find out what kind of cat her sister has adopted. She finally learns from a book that it is actually a baby puma. “There’s a puma in the kitchen?” she asks herself. Paul and Murray are still cornered in the kitchen when Jamie tells them she is supposed to find a park ranger.
When the Centrak Park Ranger (Rodney Van Johnson) shows up, Lisa and Jamie follow him to the kitchen where Paul and Murray are still cornered. The Ranger plans to shoot the cat with a tranquilizer gun but as he’s about to do so the cat lunges at Jamie. Paul pushes her out of the way and the cat attacks his rear. The Ranger fires and hits Paul, knocking him out. It is not explained how they finally subdue the puma.
Over the end credits, director David Steinberg has a funny interaction as himself talking to one of the cat actors, complaining that the cat doesn’t know how to be a cat and that Murray is more of a cat.
The “puma” was actually played by what appear to be Abyssinian cats (or possible mixed breeds) who were trained by Beren’s Animals of Distinction.
Final Mewsings: Producers were obviously going on the assumption that most people don’t know what a baby puma actually looks like.
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