Mrs. Patches and Kids: update and adoption news

Hi folks, a while back I told you about Kathy and the feral cats she rescued: mom cat Mrs. Patches and her three kittens Darla (bw kitten below), Carmelita (originally called Einstein until we found out he was a she, tortoise shell kitten below) and Bette (bw kitten on right). I did a number of TTouch sessions with these sweet cats, and we made good progress. Kathy and Marge also did TTouch on them at that time. Since that time, Kathy continued to do TTouch and Reiki with these cats and they have really come along.

Recently, Darla was adopted to a good home with another cat, where she is adjusting well, and the day before Thanksgiving I found out that both Carmelita and Bette, who are really attached to each other, were being adopted by a couple with two other cats. I wish them well! Mrs. Patches still needs a home but meanwhile she is still being taken care of by Kathy and Sisca (Sisca acted as foster mom for all these cats for most of the time since they were rescued from a wood pile in New Jersey).

As you can see by the picture at the top, Mrs. Patches is simply gorgeous and is a sweet soul. She still is pretty shy so she is looking for a patient, kind, gentle forever home.

Best wishes to all and thanks to Kathy for rescuing these cats and to everyone who has helped these cats along the way:)

It's a (TTouch) Wrap!

At the recent TTouch training in Dayton, NJ, Debby Potts (http://integratedanimal.com) taught us quite a lot about TTouch wraps. These wraps are done using ACE bandages (or similar materials) and are gently wrapped around the animal in a variety of ways. When an animal is stressed or uncomfortable in some physical or emotional way, it can be very disconnected from its body. The wraps can help bring the animal back into its body, and can feel as though it is being gently held and cuddled, which can be very comforting.

In the two pictures below you see Debby demonstrating a couple of ways to do head wraps on Naomi, a lovely German shepherd owned by Gerlinde (you see her in the second picture on the left). A head wrap, in addition to being calming, can also be great preparation for getting a dog ready to have a head collar put on. A head collar was a good idea for Naomi because of her proportions and because she tends to be very forward with her head, so Debby showed Gerlinde a leash configuration with three points of contact which included one point connected to the head collar and then two points connected to a harness and leash, or to two different points on the harness (the "superbalance leash" which is connected to the back center clip of a step-in harness, looped through the front of the harness and then connected to the side clip of the harness. See one of the TTouch for dogs books for a full description before trying this!).

Next, below you see Marsha W (www.ecsca.org/rescuehome.html) and her dachshund Gracie, great to get to know both of them! Marsha also brought a lovely black Cocker Spaniel with her named Bella, unfortunately I did not get a good pic of her. Anyway, Gracie has a lot of difficulty walking, as her back legs are not working too well, and so we thought a wrap was a great idea for her, especially a "full wrap", which goes around the back end of the dog.

Pictured below is Gracie in the full wrap. This will give her a lot more awareness of her back end. Later, Marsha and I cut an Ace bandage in half so it was a thin strip, cut this into two shorter strips, and wrapped these around Gracie's back legs. This seemed to help her to be even more aware of her back legs and although she seemed a bit confused by the leg wrap at first, I think this could be really helpful for her. She is a sweet dog! and was very cooperative while we were wrapping all these contraptions around her.

I was also very pleased that my friend and Feldenkrais practitioner Kathy Yates was at this training with her dog Mia. Mia is a great dog! She was also extremely cooperative with having a wrap put on her and so below you see her in another kind of wrap, I believe this is what we called the racing stripe wrap. Mia is an older dog and has arthritis so it is helpful for her to have increased body awareness going to the back part of her body as well.

Mia is a terrific dog but she is extremely attached to her mom and can get very jealous when Mom pays attention to someone else. Kathy (below right) was sitting with Gracie on one side and Mia on the other side, and Mia decided that was just too much for her and she wanted attention, so she moved away from Kathy and right into the middle of the circle, where everyone would see her. This is pictured below, and gave us all quite a chuckle!

If you are trying a wrap on your dog, be sure not to wrap it too tight and just leave it on for a few minutes at first, so it is not too overwhelming experience. I have found so far that cats really do not like to be wrapped but a few people have found otherwise. We had an expression in the training "DOD" which means "depends on the dog" and in the case of cats, it is "DOC" as to whether a cat will enjoy a wrap, that's for sure.

Mrs. Patches and her kids, continuing story

Hi folks, here's an update on Kathy's ferals - Mrs. Patches (pictured at the bottom of this post) and her three kids (clockwise from above pic) - Darla, Bette and Einstein. First of all, it appears that little Einstein is actually a girl :)

Last Friday, first I did some TTouch on Mrs. Patches, who was still shy and squished herself in the back of the cage. She was not resistant to me doing TTouch on her, so I did this for a short while to try to get her to relax.

Then I took Bette out of the cage to do TTouch on her. I did not have to wrap her in the dishtowel this time and she settled very well. I tried some raccoon touches on the outside of her mouth and jaw area, and this quite profoundly settled her to another level. After I put her back, I took Einstein out and did the same thing (although I had to keep her wrapped a bit), with the same result. Unfortunately though, little Bette did a little leap inside the cage, startling Einstein, so she jumped out of my hands and I had to quickly catch her. After I put Einstein back in the cage, suddenly she seemed very sleepy and decided to take a nap. Darla is quite often sticking close to her mother, so I did some TTouch on her within the cage.
Mrs. Patches seemed a bit stressed by all the activity, so I quietly explained to her why I was doing TTouch on all of them, and that I was trying to help all of them. Her paw was hanging out of the cage, and at that moment I touched my finger to the bottom of her paw and felt an amazing connection with her. We stayed there for a while. I tried to see if I could touch the other front paw as well, but this was too much. I finished the session by doing Reiki, picturing a bubble of light right outside their cage, and a couple of kittens who had been inside a carrier within the cage came out of there, and they all went to sleep. Mrs. Patches got on top of the carrier, relaxing with her leg dangling over the side.
Yesterday I went again to work on them, and I took Einstein and Bette out of the cage each separately, and I did not have to wrap either one of them. They settled for a longer time than they ever had before. Again I did raccoon touches around the outside of their mouth area in addition to clouded leopard and chimp touch and hairslides on the body and strokes on the ears, and they found the mouth touch especially relaxing.

Mrs. Patches was inside the carrier with a couple of the kittens. The carrier was turned facing away from me, and so I reached into the carrier and did some chimp touch up and down her body a bit. She was a bit tense but did not try to move away.

I stepped away from the cage to go into another room for a moment, and when I returned, Mrs. Patches was lying outside of the carrier, against the cage. She looked quite relaxed, so I decided to try doing some more TTouch on her. I opened the door and gently put my hand on her body, slowly beginning to do abalone touch. She would have usually moved away towards the back of the cage, but she did not do that this time. She did seem still a bit concerned though and was looking at me and I was afraid she felt tense with me looking at her, so at that point I closed my eyes and continued doing connected abalone touch up and down her body. She then shifted to her other side so I could do the same thing up and down the other side of her back. Every once in a while I would slightly open my eyes, and I noticed her eyes relaxing closed. Her body was also relaxing as I did this, more than I have ever felt before. After this, I was able to do some raccoon and baby chimp touches around the outside of her mouth area, as well as TTouch around her ears. Every once in a while I would tone to her very softly. She was very comfortable by the time I finished. I wanted to work on Darla, but after having this much progress with Mrs. Patches, it felt important to let everyone chill out. Next time, I will make more time for little Darla. Below is a photo of the lovely Mrs. Patches.

These gorgeous, sweet cats are all up for adoption, so if you are interested, please email Kathy at ktyates@gmail.com.

Mrs. Patches and her Kida, continued

Above, right to left: Bette, Einstein, Darla, Ms. Patches


Above: Bette

The end of last week I went to visit Mrs Patches and her three kittens. The kittens now have names - the black on with white chest is Bette, the little white with black one is Darla, and the tortoise-shell one is Einstein. AAWWW!

Each time I go there, they are more comfortable with me in general and with being touched. Frist I worked on Mrs. Patches a little bit, doing circles on her head with the wand and ace bandage wrapped around the end. She is still quite shy but once I started touching her she calmed down somewhat. Then I took Bette out, and she is the most comfortable of the bunch. I placed her on the floor near me and gently did abalone and chimp touch on her body, and ear strokes and raccoon touches on her head. She was a bit squiggly when I picked her up to take her out of the cage but settled down quite well as I began to do TTouch on her. I made sure that mommy could see her and she could see mommy at all times. When I put her back, I put her back near mommy and she went to her for a little grooming. Then I took Einstein out, who is the most skittish, and he was more relaxed than he had been before. I gently contained him by wrapping a little dishtowel around him like a cape, holding it in the front around the upper chest area, and he settled for some abalone touch, chimp touch and ear touch. Darla was mostly staying right near her mom so I did ttouch on her while she was in the cage, which she was quite comfortable with.

Above: Ms. Patches

The cats all seemed hungry so I gave them a bit of food, which they all ate with gusto. The kittens went wild and were playing, wrestling etc Mom started looking more relaxed, so I tried to do a bit of TTouch on her with my hand. I started out on her head. She is still shy, so moved towards the back of the cage when I did this but she didn't totally run away from the touch so I persisted a bit, and was able to work a bit on her body, doing strokes and circles (chimp touch and abalone touch and Noah's March with the back of my hand). Her body was still tense but relaxed somewhat in this process. It was a big breakthrough for her to let me have this much direct contact with her body.

Today I went back to visit them again, and again they were all increasingly receptive to touch. I did TTouch individually on Bette and Einstein, who I took one by one out of the cage. Each time I work on them they let me keep them out of the cage for a longer time before they get squiggly to get back in the cage w/mommy. Darla was cozy in the cage again so I worked on her inside of the cage.

I wanted to see if I could work on more of Ms. Patches' body today, so I nearly got completely inside the cage to do this, as she was behind a small cat carrier that is within the cage. She was comfortable with me working on her there, as she was hidden enough so she didn't see me looking at her. I did raccoon touches and ear strokes on her head, then worked little by little down her back, doing llama touch and chimp touch (these are touches using the back of the hand, so are less threatening), and Noah's march with the back of my hand. Though her body is still tight, she did not move away while I was doing this and relaxed somewhat while I worked on her. She gets more and more comfortable with me each time I work on her.

All of these cuties are up for adoption now, so please contact Kathy Yates at ktyates@gmail.com if you are interested, and check out this website

http://picasaweb.google.com/ktyates/MsPatchesAndFamily?feat=directlink

to see more photos of these cats. She is hoping to adopt them in pairs, preferably Ms. Pathces and Darla, and Einstein and Bette, as these pairs really are bonded w/each other. Enjoy!