TTouch at Whiskers with Dallas, Doc and Leeloo

Today I went again to Whiskers Holistic Pets in NYC to work on Doc, Leeloo and Dallas.
Doc (pictured above and below) can get over-stimulated, when you go to touch him, he can react in a bit of a startled way and want to swat. Today I decided to work with him using long-handled flat paintbrushes to see what could happen. It is helpful to work with two brushes, because if they start to play with one brush, you can do TTouch on them with the other brush. I worked on him for very short periods of time, giving breaks and working on the other cats in the meantime. At first he did want to play with the first brush I used but when when I began to do circles and strokes with the other brush, I could see him reacting as though he was feeling something new, and little by little he started to get more settled when I touched him with the brush. I started out by doing these circles and strokes on the body, as he seemed more comfortable with this than getting TTouched on the head. However, as time went on, he got relaxed and a little sleepy and he was comfortable with me doing some circles with the brush on top of his head, around his forehead, and on the back of his head. It was such a pleasure to see him really relax, as he can so often be so ultra-alert and wide-eyed. He is such an intelligent, interesting cat.

Leeloo (pictured above and below) was extremely friendly and seeking touch at first, pushing her head against my hand to be touched, but can get a bit over-stimulated after a while, as she told me with a swat after a while that she had enough. I gave her breaks, and I mostly did TTouches on her using back surfaces of my hand or fingers. She was hesitant to have me touch her in the area of her lower back. She's very sweet though, and mostly was very responsive to touch. I did chimp touches, llama touches, raccoon touches on her forehead and on the outside of her mouth.

Dallas, the little tabby below, is a bit more shy than the other two, but extremely gentle and sweet, and once I started to work on her, she came down from her perch to get more TTouch. She also was a bit sensitive and tigh around her tail. She was most responsive to abalone touches on her body.

All three cats came down from their perches during the time I was there to either eat, drink water, or just get closer to me. Doc brushed by me and seemed to seek further contact, but I was a bit careful not to do too much with him at one time, and did a few strokes with the back of my hand down his back as he walked by me. Dallas drank quite a bit of water from the little drinking fountain they have set up in the enclosure after she received TTouch. And little Leeloo came down to get some food and some water.

I look forward to working on these three further, they are responding very quickly and I'm interested to see what can happen next.

TTouch at Whiskers - August 29 - Lily, Lil Fred and Doc

Today I went to do TTouch on the rescue cats in the window of Whiskers Holistic Pet Supply store. As previously mentioned, the little tabby Lorraine had been adopted, so from the previous session, only Doc remained, and there were two new cats who did not have names yet as they had only very recently arrived, so I have given them the temporary names of Lily and Lil Fred.

Doc (pictured above) can easily get over-stimulated so I am careful to work with him in very short bursts and primarily with the back of my hand. Today, Doc greeted me and rubbed his face against my hand. I did TTouch on him, primarily on his forehead, base of ears, back of neck, and then a few strokes down the body here and there. He mostly sat in his favorite perch in the sun, though when I was doing TTouch on the others, he did come over to investigate and see what I was doing. I worked on him several times during the session, giving him breaks. He is getting more comfortable with TTouch, though I am still only doing a few strokes on the body, and mostly working on the head area.

Above and below you see Lil Fred, he appears to be a young little cat. He is a gentle, sweet guy, and he was sitting on one of the cat condos off to the side, a little out of the way . He was a tiny bit shy at first but was extremely receptive once I began to touch him. I did TTouches on his head with back of finger and hand, including TTouches around the outside of the mouth area. Then I began to gradually work in TTouches on his body starting out with back surfaces of my hand, using the chimp and llama TTouches, and then turned my hand over and did some clouded leopard touches on his body. I noticed that at the base of his tail there was a tightness, probably due to him being generally a bit nervous in a new situation. As he grew more comfortable, he was rubbing himself against me a bit so I felt comfortable enough to do some raccoon TTouches down his tail. I use extremely light pressure when doing these little circular TTouches on the tail, just barely pushing the skin around in a circle. These TTouches were done in several stages.

When working on cats, I will most often work on one cat a bit, give them a break and work on the next one, etc, so as not to be too overwhelming. Cats are so extremely sensitive that it is most often more productive to do a short bit, give a break and then do a bit more. Sometimes though, they just really get into a groove with it and you can do a longer session. You have to use your intuition and really stay in the moment with the animal to see what they are most comfortable with. It is a tricky balance.

As I was working on Lil Fred, I saw the other little kitty, a small, young-looking little tabby who I am calling Lily (pictured below), come down from an upper perch. She looked curious as to what was happening.

She seemed shy at first, but still seemed up to try some contact. To provide a safe distance between her and me, I first used a long feather to do TTouch circles and strokes on her head and body. Then I gradually began to touch her with my hand, a little at first and using back surfaces of my hands and fingers, as these surfaces are less threatening than front surfaces. These sensations seemed as though they were a bit new to her but she was responsive so I continued, first doing TTouches on her head and then on her body. Again, I gave her a couple of breaks as I was doing all this, working on one or another of the cats in between. By the end, she seemed quite comfortable - though she was not coming down from the perch where she was, she appeared to be extremely comfortable with the TTouches.

All the best to these three and I look forward to seeing them soon unless they are adopted :)

TTouch at Whiskers: Aug 21

Today I went again to do TTouch on the cats at Whiskers Holistic Pet Store in NYC. I was told that Marty had been adopted, but wasn't told til after I worked on Doc (the black and white cat pictured below) and Lorraine (the tabby pictured above) that Lorraine and Marty had been quite connected and that she was really missing him. I had noticed while I was working on these two that she kept coming to the door of the cage as though she was waiting for someone but I wasn't sure what that was about, as she had done that a bit the week before and I had assumed it was because she was waiting for food. This time I think she was waiting to see if he would come back.

This time I used a feather on both Lorraine and Doc, doing strokes down the sides of they body. When working directly with my hand, on Doc I mostly did small TTouches on the head, as he can become overstimulated quite quickly and swat or bite as a result. So I would work on him in quite short bursts, giving him frequent breaks.

With Lorraine, I sensed she was most responsive to a comforting touch, so I did slow, connected abalone TTouches down one side of the body and then the other. I would do a pause at the end of each touch, giving her time to process the work. She seemed to be really responsive to the slow, big TTouches. I also did a bit of Reiki on her as well.

As I am getting around to writing this post rather belatedly, I have to put here that this story of Lorraine and Marty actually had a happy ending. The following week, the person who adopted Marty came back to the store, as poor Marty had been so sad without his pal Lorraine. The person adopted Lorraine as well, so these two sweet cats are in their forever home together.

TTouch at Whiskers: August 13

Today I went to Whiskers Holistic Pet Store, where they always also have a few rescue cats in the window. I went to do TTouch on these cats today, and met for the first time three lovely rescue cats, Marty (below)


Lorraine (pictured below)

and Doc (pictured below).

All three were quite eager to receive attention, but were a bit over-stimulated (I think they were also near their mealtime so were anticipating food). This being the case, I alternated between using a wided, long-handled flat paintbrush, using a feather, and sometimes using my hand. Particularly Doc can get over-stimulated so I did extremely short bursts on him. I kept alternating from one cat to the next, and this worked quite well, as it is really good to give cats frequent breaks, particularly when they tend to get over-excited and can potentially swat, bite or scratch when this happens. When I used the paintbrush or feather, I did gentle but firm circular touches and strokes down their back, and occasionally did touches on their head as well.