Yesterday I went back to Social Tees shelter (http://socialtees.com). One female cat I had worked on just briefly had been adopted, but the two tabby girls were still there (see top photo). It was very interesting, we picked up pretty much where we left off .
The tabby and white girl is receptive to being touched anywhere on her body, and the all-tabby girl is initially reluctant to being touched, but by the end of working, she was fine with very firm ear strokes and work with my hand on her head. She was a bit shy at being touched on her body with my hand, so I only did very light abalone touches on her body with my hand, and circles w/the wand and corn dog, and she was quite happy with that. I alternated from one cat to the other, and it seemed that seeing me work on the tabby and white girl made the all-tabby girl more and more comfortable with me. By the end of the session with them, they both were snuggled up to each other and sleeping. I had worked up to a harder pressure with the ear strokes on the all-tabby girl and these seemed to help her really relax, I could feel her head relax into my hand, as I did raccoon touches on her head and then gently down around the base of her head and neck area. This helped her relax as well.
I hope so much for these girls to get a home soon, they both are very sweet, they are just a bit scared, and I'm sure it is hard being in the cage for so long.
Then I had the opportunity to work on three shy kittens. These three pictured above were all a bit flinchy and hissy with flattened ears etc when I started to touch them but I kept alternating between the three of them, first working on their heads, doing light ear strokes and raccoon touches, then Noah's march and llama touches on their body. I also did some strokes on their body with a feather, which they were all quite receptive to. The feather seemed to be a better concept than the wand and corn-dog because these kittens are pretty small! Little by little, I gained their trust and was able to touch them more readily without them turning away or flinching. The most reluctant of this trio was the one on the bottom picture with the swirly tabby pattern (can't remember the correct name for this!). By the end, this kitten actually was the most receptive of all, letting me even do some raccoon touches down its legs and on its paws. I hope these little cuties get homes soon!
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