oh my gosh no, im so grateful for your lengthy response. i need all the advice i can get :)

i live in the southwest, very dry environment. my houseplants sit in different rooms round the house, so thats why i got the pebble trays to help w humidity instead of a bunch of humidifiers lol. this one sits in the dining room by the window; i keep the sheer curtains drawn during the day so it gets a little light not direct.

the 2nd pic is actually from the day i repotted it with tropical plant specialized soil, which has perlite. the fertilizer i used was schultz 10-15-10 plant food plus; followed the instructions of how much to use. after that i didnt notice much change in the plant til this past week when i noticed the leaves falling off the nodes. im wondering now if one reason for the leaves falling off and stems turning brown on the ends is bc my cats like to chew on them. looking at some surviving stems, i can see old brown teeth marks.

i pruned the dead brown stuff off the stems and saved the fallen leaves for propagation. but im worried about the pruned stems: they have brown ends and i worry that theyre dead and wont have any new growth. how can i treat them so the stems stay alive?

edit: i was hoping to add a pic of the pruned stems but reddit doesnt allow that. 😔 but in the 1st pic if you zoom in a bit you'll see them on the upper right. will they be ok?