Friday, October 16, 2009

A Kiss from a Calico and More

Hi folks. Yesterday at Social Tees (http://socialtees.com) was quite an interesting day. I was reminded of something our TTouch instructor Debby Potts (http://integratedanimal.com) told us in the training - that if you are too focused on REALLY WANTING, WANTING, WANTING to make a change, it is so much less likely to happen than if you let go of what your expectations are and simply remain in the moment. Sometimes so much MORE can really happen than you could imagine if you can truly do this.

So I approached the cage where a dear little mostly-white calico cat was. She was very afraid when she first came into the shelter and most recently had been purring once I began to do TTouch on her, but still remained at the back of the cage as that is where she felt safe. I did some very gentle work on her head and ears, and connected touches down her body, feeling her relax and purr. After a few moments I took my hand away and to my surprise, she did a little meow, and walked all the way forward to the front of the cage, put her face right up to my face and gave me a kiss! She rubbed her face against my face and then sat up very straight, just looking at me. She then came forward again and seemed as though she wanted to come out of the cage. I picked her up (I felt no fear on her part while I was doing this) and held her for a while, doing TTouch on her as I held her. She seemed completely comfortable there. I would not have been able to do this with this cat just a few short days ago. Here she is pictured below, isn't she pretty? The funny thing too is that she is in the same cage in which I had a very similar experience with another cat who came in quite scared and one day came to the front and gave me a kiss. Do certain locations in there have particular vibrations? I wonder.


Also, a black kitten who had previously been in the shelter is staying there again briefly. She still has a limp, so I decided to see what I could do to hopefully help her feel more in balance. I took her out of her cage, sat on a table and put her beside me, held securely but gently with the little makeshift shoelace harness which I have described in earlier posts. This is a very friendly kitten who is comfortable being touched anywhere on her body. I did clouded leopard touches down her body and down each of her legs. She had no resistance to me doing this, even on the limping leg, though on this leg she did make a movement when I touched her there which suggested to me that it was a different sensation to be touched that way on that leg. She then got very cozy and sat down, but I continued to do some touches and strokes down her legs for a while.

I also did TTouch for a good amount of time on the little blind orange kitten who has been in the shelter. She seems to really look forward to me taking her out of the cage, holding her and doing TTouch on her. The eye infection she had and the cold she has had seem to be clearing up very well. I have been doing a lot of ear stokes with her to help her immune system (and she seems to really enjoy the sensation of the ear strokes as well). She is eating quite heartily and is growing bigger. Here she is resting peacefully after TTouch.

Towards the end of the day, several new cats were brought in from the kill shelter. After they were settled in their cages, I did some TTouch on each of them to hopefully relax them a bit in their new environment. There were two adult cats who seemed to adjust very quickly to their new environment and were quite cuddly just about right away. This little kitten below was more scared though. I first did some little raccoon touches on her head and around her mouth area, and clouded leopard and abalone on her body, but she still seemed quite scared. Then I began to do ear strokes on her and like magic, she really responded to these and began to visibly calm down once I began to do these. She pushed her head against my hand as though she wanted me to continue, so of course I did. I'm not sure why one eye seems more open than the other in the picture below, hopefully just a temporary quirk but we'll see later on.

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