TTouch and Reiki with Feral Cats: Griffin and Samantha

Griffin and Samantha are two young feral cats who I have been working with for a few months at BARC Shelter in Brooklyn. They arrived hissing and absolutely terrified, and over time they have become more and more receptive to contact. Griffin is the more frightened of the two, so my blog posts up til now have focused on her, but I will discuss Samantha here as well.
For a while Griffin seemed in a little bit of an in-between place where she wasn't sure whether she wanted to use an approaching hand as a toy or to settle into being touched. She has grown much more used to the concept of being touched very gently, so now will just be a bit startled for a moment when I first make contact, but once she feels my hands begin to make the gentle circular motions of the TTouches, she settles into it and relaxes. I first touch her forehead with the back of my fingers, do a few TTouches with the backs of my fingers, then usually turn my hand over for some Raccoon TTouches.

I do Raccoon TTouches (circular TTouches using the tips of the fingers) around her forehead area, as this is a place she is accustomed to and she soon closes her eyes and settles in. And now I have been able to work in TTouches around the outside of the mouth area, which is a wonderful area to work, especially with a frightened animal, as it connects with the limbic system, which affects the emotions.
The catch-22 about the mouth work is that it is a risky area to work if you are in danger of being bitten, so you have to use common sense about what is appropriate for the animal at any particular time. It may be useful to TTouch the outside of the mouth area first with a tool, something with a smaller surface like a small paintbrush or even a toothbrush.

However, I have worked with Griffin enough, and have TTouched her close to this area, so it was not a shock for her to feel my hand touching her mouth area.
Depending on how I am positioned, it is often convenient to do the TTouches using my thumb, while my fingers are in a more stabilized position on her head, rather than the other way around. So this is the way I have been doing the mouth TTouches with Griffin. I started out by sliding my thumb outside of the mouth, then doing connected TTouches going along the outside of the mouth.
As you can see by the photos, she settled right into the TTouches, and I could feel and see the rest of her become more relaxed as a result as well. One can work inside the mouth, on the gums etc but I rarely do this with fearful cats since that can be a bit too close for comfort to the teeth!






Next I worked with Samantha. Samantha is quite fearful as well, but tends to react to people by shutting down rather than swatting, so she has been quicker to be receptive to TTouches. I also began by doing raccoon TTouches on her forehead, then began to do little slides on the outside of her mouth area, then transitioning to doing connected TTouches around her mouth area.


She was very receptive to all this, and began to relax the rest of her body little by little as I did these. I could hear and feel her doing a very quiet little purr! At times recently I have heard little Griffin purr as well.



Samantha is receptive to being touched on her body as well as her head area. Two of the types of TTouches that are comforting to her are the Lying Leopard TTouch, which is a circular TTouch done with the hand very flattened out, which most of the surface of the fingers in contact with her body, and the zigzag TTouch, in which I am opening and closing my hand at the same time that I am moving my hand in a zigzag pattern. Here is a youtube clip of part of my TTouch/Reiki session with Samantha: http://youtu.be/pINP0hAQlv4






I do the Lying Leopard TTouches going down one side of her body then the other, doing a circle and a quarter, sliding my hand a little further down her back, then doing another TTouch, etc. The zigzag TTouches I do going from one side of her back to the other, while going from her neck area down towards her tail. Zigzags can be done going down one side of the body at a time, if you prefer. Please check my youtube site: http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat for demos of many of the TTouches.





At times I would pause and just feel the Reiki energy, which was constantly flowing, be absorbed into her body. I could also see her relaxing on an even deeper level when I would do this, closing her eyes. Her body stretched out more and more as I worked with her.


I make sure to maintain an especially quiet energy with both Griffin and Samantha, as they can become startled so easily. It is also important to make sure your breath is not held, that it is constantly flowing.


It is such a pleasure to see both of these cats becoming more comfortable. Before they would always remain at the back of the cage until we left for the night but now they will come right to the front to eat, etc.


Much love to you Griffin and Samantha - look forward to seeing you soon! xo

TTouch and Reiki with Jinx (and Sammi)

Above: Offering Reiki to Jinx (grey and white cat) with one hand and Sammi (black cat) with the other

Today I went to work with my friend Jordyn's (http://dancingminddesign.com/) cat Jinx, who has been losing mobility in his back legs, due either to a disk problem or tumor. It's been a couple of weeks since I saw him, and he did seem weaker in his back end when we started out today. Sometimes he will walk on his feet knuckled-over, drag one or both back legs, or collapse. This has been ongoing to some degree but did seem to be worse initially today.

First I worked with him with a TTouch half-wrap on, which seemed to help his awareness right away. He began to use his back feet more and was falling less. As he moved, I was doing connected TTouches going down either side of his back, as well as some TTouches on his hind feet and legs. These also helped him to get some more connection. The above pic is from a previous session, but is to show you basically what the wrap looks like. Please visit this link at my youtube channel for a demo of the wrap, plus demos of many other TTouches: http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat.

When he was tired, he curled up on one of his cat beds and I began to offer Reiki energy to him, first from a short distance, and then hands-on. His eyes closed and he began to stretch out. I also did little raccoon TTouches on his hind feet, in between the toes, on the toes and feet and up and down the legs a bit. Sometimes I used my thumb to do the TTouches, stabilizing my hand with my index finger. Below, he nudged my hand with his paw, as though to connect further.

While I did this, Sammi, another of Jordyn's cats, was on the other side of where I was sitting, rubbing against me as she is in heat (she will be spayed soon!). She was craving the energy as well, and calmed as I put one hand on her back, and then her belly. Both of them calmed as I did this.

After a while, Jinx got up, walked around some more, then settled on a cat bed again. Again, Sammi settled on the other side of me, so I offered her Reiki as well part of the time (with one hand on Jinx and the other on her). I started out with one of my hands on either side of Jinx, close to where he was, and ended up with my hands around his shoulder area, or the brachial chakras. I felt a very strong connection and the energy being pulled into his body, and I visualized it traveling down his body to his hind legs. Later on, he shifted so that one of my hands was over his lower back around the base of his tail, and so I sent the energy to first his sacral chakra and then his base chakra, again feeling and visualizing the energy going into his body and down his legs. I literally felt it pulled there as well. We spent quite a good amount of time there. The energy in the whole apartment felt very peaceful.

When I felt he had enough, I ended the session. When he got up to walk again, Jordyn said that he was doing much better than he had been before.

Much love to you Jinx, Jordyn, Sammi and the rest of the Jordyn's furry ones. Look forward to seeing you all soon.

TTouch, Reiki and Wraps with Jinx: November 30

Yesterday I went to work with Jordyn Thiessen's (http://dancingminddesign.com/) kitty Jinx. Jinx has been having mobility issues, either due to a disk problem or tumor, and has been having trouble using his back legs. Over the past few sessions, I have been using a TTouch half wrap, full wrap, and a bit of a candy cane wrap with him. Though he still clearly has trouble, and tends to bring the middle part of his back up and sort of swivel his hips to make his legs move, I have noticed that he does seem to use his back feet more than I had seen before, and he seems to be retaining some of that feeling without the wrap.

When I arrived at Jordyn's apartment, Jinx was very cute, it seemed as though he was showing off for me, showing me what he could do without the wrap on. There are steps which lead up to the bed, and Jinx climbed up and down these, really using the pads of his hind feet, instead of dragging the hind legs along. He did this both going up and down the steps, and did it several times during the session. He also walked up and down the apartment, using his legs quite well for him. Sometimes he loses the feeling and will drag the right hind leg a bit, the top of the foot dragging on the ground a bit, but overall he seems to be using his legs more completely than I observed a couple of weeks ago before we started using the wrap.



We went out in the hallway, which has long been a place where Jinx likes to go, and he enjoys walking up and down the hall. The minute we got out there he started purring and rubbing his head against the wall, and rubbing his head against my hand when I got near him. We used the half wrap (above two pictures and the one below),



as well as the full wrap, which I made by adding on to the half wrap and wrapping around each hind leg (sorry, no pics of that this week). We also tried using the back half of the wrap to do a kind of candy cane wrap around the two hind legs. I looped the second wrap through the back part of the half wrap and then wound each side around each hind leg, tying around the bottom. Not quite sure if this is an official TTouch configuration, but it did seem to help remind him of the feeling in the legs. I didn't leave it on long, as it seemed to be a bit much for him, but it felt like it was a good idea to try for a short bit, just to bring his awareness to the legs.

I was also intermittently doing some TTouches on him - connected circular TTouches going down his back, some TTouches going down his hind legs, etc. After several forays up and down the hall, I took him back into the apartment space. We did some walking work there too, then gave him some treats and a rest on his bed. While he sat on his bed, I did some Reiki with him, as well as some TTouches on his hind legs and feet. I did clouded leopard TTouches going down his hind legs, then some raccoon TTouches on his hind feet. I did even teeny tiny circles on his toes, and then held each toe one by one, doing the smallest possible circle with the toe. Trust me when I say it these were small circles with the toes, barely a movement at all. This work is very careful and subtle, but these subtle movements have the very powerful effect of helping to bring awareness of what is at the root of these movements, and ideally to retrain the body how to move in the most efficient manner, or to be as balanced as possible in any given situation, even one that may continue to be compromised.

The Reiki helped Jinx to be very calm and relaxed and he started to groom himself, seeming to tell me he was done. Thanks Jinx, look forward to seeing you soon!! xo

TTouch Workshop with the Homeless Cat Network

Above, left to right: Cookie, Marilynn (top center), Sue (bottom center), me

About a year ago, on a trip to the SF Bay Area, thanks to a conversation I had with Holly at the TTouch office, I connected with Cookie of the Homeless Cat Network. I went with my mother and sister out there to visit the shelter, which is so well laid-out and so well taken care of by the dedicated people who volunteer their time there, taking care of the cats in a variety of ways, as well as helping to socialize them. A number of the volunteers had learned some TTouch, and some of them practice Reiki, which is so helpful in making the cats more at ease, and more adoptable, as well.

The next time I was out there, I gave Cookie a private TTouch lesson, showing her some of the newer TTouches that she had never learned. Some time after that, Cookie and I spoke about me doing a mini-Ttouch workshop there, which would serve as a refresher course for some, and an introduction for others. I had the pleasure of doing this workshop this month, on a lovely spring day which, festively enough, was also the day of the SF Bay to Breakers race, so I also had the fun of seeing people in various costumes as I traveled to and from the workshop.

Marilynn, a long-time volunteer at the shelter, was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off at the BART station - thanks Marilynn!

I arrived at the shelter with my bag of tools, as well as some photos, before and after, of some of the shelter cats who I have worked with. The cats are housed in large condos (see below), and have the opportunity (unless they have a health issue or other factor which requires isolation), in rotating shifts, to roam in the middle section of the shelter as well. It is wonderful for the cats to have this amount of space.

I was greeted with so much warmth and hospitality by Cookie, Marilynn and the rest of the group. The group was comprised of volunteers at the shelter, plus a vet who works with the shelter, who had already taken a workshop in TTouch and has been practicing TTouch on many of her patients. It was wonderful to hear of a vet using this work in her practice.

Below: Marshmellow, who has really benefited from TTouch at the shelter

Part of the time I demonstrated on a couple of the willing cats there – Jade (below) and Hansel – and some of the time I demonstrated on a stuffed animal, which can be easier to use once I got more in-depth about how to do each TTouch.

Jade is a super-friendly black and white cat there, who seemed to particularly settle with some of the TTouches around the mouth and forehead, while Hansel responded more to the TTouches on the body. I emphasized how fluid we need to be in our thinking when we work on these animals, as each one is so individual as to what it will respond to.

Below: Me with Jade doing Abalone TTouch, a circular, calming touch using the whole surface of the hand

Two very calming TTouches for a shy animal are the abalone TTouch (above) and the llama TTouch (below). Abalone TTouch is a circular TTouch using the whole surface of the front of the hand, and llama TTouch uses the backs of the fingers. Back surfaces of the hand are less threatening than front surfaces, and the abalone TTouch is soothing as it uses a larger surface, which disperses the intensity of the touch.

Raccoon TTouches (below) are also extremely useful, especially for smaller areas of the animal, such as the forehead, the paws, the mouth, etc.

The class was very focused and engaged, and everyone had such interesting questions which helped ME to think of some new uses for the TTouches, etc. Below you see Marilynn (with the blue T-shirt) asking a question about the belly lift. She wanted to know if this would be helpful in getting a cat more comfortable being touched on the belly in a gentle way so when you go to pick the cat up, it won't be such a new or scary sensation. Great observation!

I went around to each person to see how they were doing the basic clouded leopard TTouch, to make sure the pressure wasn't too hard, that the skin was being pushed around in a circle (instead of the fingers sliding over the skin), etc.

After a break and some tasty treats (thanks to all who brought them!) we continued our discussion about TTouches, as well as some of the tools which are especially useful for shelter cats, to get them accustomed to being touched in a non-threatening way. For cats, we use tools with a variety of textures and lengths, such as dowels with an ace bandage at the end, paintbrushes, back scratchers, hair brushes, toothbrushes, makeup brushes, barbeque brushes, feathers, etc. Cats are very particular and very different from each other in their preferences of textures that they prefer, as well as where and how it is best to first make contact, so it can take some experimentation to find out what works best.

Below is a photo of Lois with her stuffed kitty, and on the table to the left you see a few of the many tools I brought for people to see and try out.

After this, we tried out some of the TTouches on the cats.

Below is Gretel, who I hear has come a long way, but she is still a shy girl with new people. I am sure that with more of the volunteers now able to do TTouch with her, it will help her continue to come out of her shell.

Here I am with Spot, a very sweet cat, who enjoyed some ear strokes, which can help a cat get very comfortable as there are many acupressure points in the ear.

Below is Stella doing TTouch with Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes came to the shelter recently, and I have heard since the workshop that TTouch has really been helping her to feel at ease.

I think everyone was pretty worn out by the end of the day, as you see by the pic of Johnny and Mr. Meow napping below :)

It was such a wonderful, enthusiastic group. We got some very lively discussions going, and everyone did a great job!

I went out to dinner after the workshop with the four women in the picture below (Cookie, Marilynn, Sue and Lynn), thanks for treating me! and we continued our discussion about TTouch, cats, and other related topics.

Thanks so much to all of you for making this a fantastic experience. And especially thanks to Cookie, who made this happen, and made it happen in such a first-class and friendly way. I look forward to working with Homeless Cat Network again soon!

TTouch and Reiki at BARC Shelter: Heidi

Heidi is a very dear, petite little kitty at BARC Shelter in Brooklyn. When I first began to work with her, she was pretty much frozen, curled up in her litter box. Since she gave a little hiss initially, I first did TTouch on her using a paintbrush, then transitioned to using my hand. I also did some gentle Reiki with her.

As with many cats, she was more comfortable being touched on the head than on the body at first, so that is where I focused first.

In the picture above, I am doing little raccoon TTouches on the back of her neck area. This can be a great area to work, as it gets very tight on a nervous cat, and I think cats in cages in general can get a lot of tension back there. As always, I was using a very light pressure. Cats are so sensitive that in general I am using extremely light pressure, just enough to move the skin around in a circle and a quarter. You can get a sense of how light this can be by taking a finger and moving the skin on your hand around in a circle and a quarter.- not pushing down into the skin, just touching it and moving it around in a circular motion.

Around the mouth area and under the chin is often a great area to work with a cat as well. In the photo above, I am doing circular TTouches using the back of my finger. This is not an official TTouch, but it is one that I use often on frightened cats. I am gently moving the skin outside the mouth in a circle and a quarter, then sliding my finger a little ways towards the jaw, doing another circular touch there, etc. Back surfaces of the finger or hand are less intense than front surfaces, so this worked quite well with Heidi. She started to be responsive by rubbing her face against my finger and hand.

This is another hand position I used in order to do some circular TTouches around the outside of the mouth and jaw area. As one is a bit limited in space when working on an animal in a cage, I have to adjust myself to that situation.

Above is a photo of Heidi looking more relaxed - she was leaning her head into my touch by this point. The above photos were taken during two different sessions two days apart. During the second session, I also worked in some very lightly-done zigzag touches and other touches on the body, just a little at a time, then going back to touching the head, as that was where her comfort zone was.

Above is Heidi a couple of days after those first sessions. Here, she is comfortable enough to lay completely on her side. At one point she stretched all the way out, showing me her stomach. Her eyes are more open and relaxed here. Again, I started with TTouches on her head area and then worked in some TTouches on the body as I went along. She still sometimes gets startled or confused, sometimes making a sound that sounds like a combination growl and purr, simultaneously leaning into the touch, so I do still give her frequent breaks so as not to overwhelm her. She is still tending to stay at the back of the cage, but is definitely much more comfortable, and is more at ease having other volunteers touch her as well, which is terrific.

Thank you Heidi, look forward to seeing you soon -- and thanks to all the lovely staff and volunteers who help Heiki and the other animals to feel better every day :)

TTouch and Reiki at BARC: Statler

Statler is one of the dear cats who arrived recently at BARC shelter in Brooklyn after their owner passed away. He is a very gentle, sweet cat but quite shy. Little by little he has been coming out of his shell though. He still hangs out at the back of his cage but now he is actually getting up and starting to move towards the front of the cage when I do TTouch on him.

A couple of the key places that he especially responds to are mouth work (doing little raccoon touches and slides on the outside of his mouth, going all the way back to the jaw) and doing ttouches on the back half of his body, including doing light little raccoon ttouches down his tail. The belly lifts are also very effective for him and usually result in him turning on his side and exposing his belly to me. He also is increasingly responding to ear slides, which he was not so sure about at first, probably because he had a minor ear issue (ear mites, I think) when he first arrived at the shelter.

It is important to stress that a belly lift is such a subtle movement that you hardly see it. With your whole hand, gently lift the belly in an upward motion, then very slowly release. Just a few times of doing this can really open up the breath and relax the digestive system as well.

Also, with the tail work, the pressure is SOOO light, just barely pushing the skin around in a circle as you work your way down the tail, connecting one raccoon touch to the next. As for the touches around the back half of the body, I was doing abalone ttouches (circular ttouches using the whole hand) and clouded leopard touches, as well as doing zigzag touches from the front part of his body to the back, going down his hindquarters too, and from one side of his body to the other. The zigzags really help connect one part of the body to the other.

Now, when I start to do TTouch on Statler, he almost immediately recognizes it as something that will make him feel good, and he is starting to rub his face and body against my hand, walking towards the front of his cage. It is so sweet to see him becoming more confident and more comfortable.