Thursday, July 15, 2010

TTouch with the Ferals

In Socal Tees shelter there is a group of so-called "feral" cats, though some of them have become quite friendly, especially as I have started giving a few of them wet food and doing TTouch on them. As there are usually dogs loose in the shelter, one of the places the cats love to hang out is on top of the cages, where there are also large pipes that they can drape themselves over, and they can watch all the activity. Above you will see me doing a bit of TTouch with a feather on one of the very shy guys (the bw kitty). I have tried touching him on the head with my hand a few times but he is afraid of this so this is the first time I tried a feather with him. He's still pretty hesitant but starts to get more comfortable with strokes on his face. After a few strokes on his body, he had enough. You can see Leo and Charles, two sweet kitties who are best friends and who are also friendly with me, watching. It is good to keep initial sessions with a frightened cat very short, so I left him alone after that, and will try again with him soon.

Below I am doing some TTouch on a very shy grey cat. He is fine with me touching him as long as he is facing away from me. I had tried touching him a few times when he was facing me and he was frightened of me doing that. So this is the first time I was able to touch him for any length of time, and I think he is surprised somehow when he turns around to find me there!

Here I am below doing TTouch on my pal Leo, who is so sweet. I do a lot of TTouch on him using the back of my hand, as he is an older, very thin, very sensitive cat. At the end, you don't see this, but he bumps his nose against my nose, something he has started doing with me every day :)

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