TTouch and Reiki at BARC: Jan

Jan is one of a bunch of cats who arrived at BARC recently after his owner passed away. He is a gorgeous boy with one blue eye and one green eye. When he first arrived, he was quite frozen in the back of his cage, and it took some coaxing to even get him to eat at first.

Now he is feeling much more comfortable and, though he still prefers to hang out in the back of his cage, he comes to the front for his food, water and treats, and after receiving TTouch for a bit, will start to come to the front as well.

I found that he, like another scaredy cat from the same household, Statler, holds a lot of tension in his lower back near the base of his tail. And, if I begin to do raccoon TTouches all around this area, it seems to be the key to unlock his whole feeling and way of being. After some TTouches in this area, he will start to roll over on his side or start rubbing his head against my hand or his cage, and he starts to come a bit forward to me. Another area which is starting to be a great area to TTouch is around the outside of his mouth, as well as doing some strokes underneath his chin. He is now responding to touch in this area in a similar way, rubbing his head against my hand, flopping over on his side sometimes.

He is a very endearing boy and it is such a pleasure to feel his personality emerging, the more he gets comfortable like this. Recently he has been a bit more comfortable with other volunteers and staff touching him as well. He has never made an aggressive move whatsoever, but would just be frightened, glued to the back of the cage, unresponsive to touch. but I think this is little by little starting to change. These frightened beings have so much to teach us about patience and compassion, and I thank you Jan for that.

A side note: I also have to give a little plug for Halo's Liv-a-Little chicken treats, and big thanks to my friend Cookie from the Homeless Cat Network in the SF Bay Area, who told me about these treats. These treats are simple, just freeze-dried chicken, and they have been so helpful in addition to TTouch and Reiki in breaking the ice with a lot of scaredy cats like my buddy Jan. You can find these treats in pet stores or even cheaper online.

TTouch and Reiki at BARC: Jan

Jan is a lovely white cat with one blue eye and one green eye. She arrived at BARC shelter in Brooklyn recently after her owner passed away. When she arrived, she was very very frightened, and has mostly stuck to the back corner of her cage. For the first week or so, I felt her body was rather frozen. She did not object to me doing TTouch on her, and she did stretch out her body and breathe more easily afterwards, but she still seemed afraid to move from where she was in the cage. I finger-fed her a bit with wet food to get her started eating, as she seemed too frightened to eat as well.

This week she was moved to a different cage in a more central location of the shelter, and she seemed less frozen but still scared. Now instead of staying frozen stiff, she would flinch and move backwards when you first approach her. I began tempting her to come to the front of the cage with the Halo liv-a-little treats. It took her a while to get up the courage to take these, but once she tasted them she would come to the front to get them. The past few days, I mostly did TTouch on her forehead and a bit around the outside of her mouth. She was hesitant to be touched on her body, so I just did that a bit here and there.

Today was a quiet day in the shelter and the cats were very relaxed in general. While I was working on other cats in the shelter, I noticed Jan coming to the front of the cage to eat on her own. When I first put my hand in to do some TTouch with her, she did go to the back of the cage initially. I held my hands open, sending Reiki to her, and though my hands felt a bit chilly at first, I saw her receive the energy, and it was as though we were connected with the energy passing back and forth.

Then I began to do a few little raccoon touches on her forehead, and some slides and circles along the outside of her mouth. All of a sudden I felt her start to rub her head against my hand. This is the first time I had felt her respond like this. She began to rub her head against the side of the cage, then began to knead the padded bed she sleeps on. This was such a huge breakthrough for her! Then she rolled over on her side, exposing her belly to my hand, and I was able to continue to do some circular ttouches there as well. It was so sweet to see her so comfortable, it really brought a tear to my eye. After a while I decided to let her be, not wanting to overwhelm her. I thanked her and closed the cage. Below you see her kneading her bed.

Then she came to the front of her cage and started vigorously eating her food. It was as though her heart had opened and so much light was pouring out.

Here's to you Jan, I'm so glad to see you feeling so much more at ease and look forward to working with you more, so that this relaxation and comfort can become more and more part of your way of being.