Buddy

Recently this adorable dachshund mix arrived at our shelter, apparently with very little use of his back legs. The xray which had been done showed nothing broken, but a disk problem of some kind. My friend Jordyn Theissen (http://www.myspace.com/dancingminddesign) came to see the dog and they connected immediately, so she is now fostering him and doing an amazing job with him.

I went to see Jordyn and Buddy (and the rest of her gang, Petey, Noodles, Dura and Jinx, two dogs and two cats) a couple of days ago. Within four days, she has made amazing progress with Buddy. She walks him with a leash slung around the lower part of his body and a leash attached to a harness, which works very well. He also has little booties on his back feet to keep them from slipping too much. Buddy is still learning how to use us feet and sometimes they flop over on the top side of the foot, but he is learning fast.

I showed Jordyn how to do a variety of Ttouches on Buddy which will help him bring more awareness to the back half of his body and his feet: zigzag touches going all the way down the body and down the legs, connected abalone touches going down the body, python lifts on the legs, and raccoon touches all around the paws and pads of the paws. Buddy is an enthusiastic learner and responded to everything we did. We also put a half-wrap on him for about five minutes. I would like to try a full wrap but didn't want to overwhelm him with too much information in one session.

I demonstrated the TTouches not only on Buddy but did them on Jordyn's arm as well so she could feel the very light pressure which I was using. As we don't have many details about Buddy's condition, I did not want to use a heavy pressure with any of the touches.

I also had him simply stand on all four feet briefly (supporting his back end when he needed it) a couple of times and subtly adjusted his body and feet til he was more in balance.

Two nights later I spoke to Jordyn and she said Buddy was able to walk without the leash around his hind end. He's still learning how to do this but she said he is learning amazingly fast and is increasing in mobility by leaps and bounds. I look forward to working with them more, and congratulate Jordyn and Buddy on so much progress. I'm sure all the love she gives him doesn't hurt either :)

Margrit Coates Workshop, and more

Hi everyone, I took a very interesting workshop in Animal Chakra Healing at the Open Center from Margrit Coates, a very powerful healer from the UK. She is an inspiration, and one of the essages which came to me during the class was how strongly I am compelled to do this work (I know that, but it is always good to get a powerful hit of confirmation). It was very intense, and at one point she had us connect with animals past and present, to send them healing energy, and of course in addition to my own dear cat, who came from a tough beginning, I connected to many animals in the shelter who have come to us in very rough condition.

Anyway, a lot of energy and information to process, and the workshop helped me to clear my mind of a lot of extraneous stuff, so that when I went back into the shelter after class, I felt a lot clearer and felt that my energy flow was a lot stronger, and I could really see the animals responding more immediately as well.

Zigzag Touch

A friend who reads my blog was curious about the zigzag touch, so my cat Garbanzo agreed to help me demonstrate it. This can be a calming touch or a stimulating touch, depending on the speed at which it is done. I tend to do it at a slower speed on Garbanzo, as he gets over-stimulated quite easily. I am using a medium touch as far as pressure, not too light and not TOO heavy, this, again, depends on the animal as to what is appropriate. This touch can really help connect parts of the body as well, and variations on it can be done, such as zigzagging down a leg, etc. In the case of my dear littie Mika who I have been working on at Social Tees shelter, this touch really helped her to release to another level, and she began to purrrr when I did this on her the other day, a sound which I have never heard out of her. On her, I did the touch at a slow speed, and rather gentle touch, as she is a gentle, sensitive little kitty. I alternated between doing down one side of the body and crossing over from one side to the other. Garbanzo is a big strapping fellow, so can take a stronger pressure. I like doing the Noah's march after this touch, as it seems to connect everything very well.

Taylor, and update on Murray

Just a short while back, I wrote about Murray, who initially was terrified after being initially in our window enclosures, hiding in a box in there behind the litter box. With TTouch every day and extra TLC from other volunteers, he has really come out of his shell and he has such a sense of humor too, often rolling over on his back and looking at you from his upside-down position. He also has become an escape artist, and has figured out how to get out of several different types of cages. Each time I find him he goes back into a cage very cooperatively, as I think he doesn't actually like being out where there are dogs who can be a bit scary. His latest container is a larger one, with glass walls, and he seems very pleased at his panoramic view. Here he is looking very assured of himself. I am sure someone will come into the shelter soon and find him as charming as we do:)

The handsome boy above is Taylor. He came out of a difficult situation was very sad and frightened to be in the shelter and growled at first. I had a feeling he would not try to bite but to be safe, I wore thick gloves when I first opened his cage to see if I could touch him. I tried touching him with the back of my hand on the top of his head, and the growling stopped. I did llama touches (circular touches using the back of the hand) on his head, making contact with only part of my hand. The back of the hand is less threatening than the front, so can be a good way to introduce yourself. I kept the first sessions short, and before too long, he began to come forward to push his head against my hand.

When I first felt I made a connection to Taylor's inner self through the body work, I felt tears well up in my eyes. This often happens when I first really make a connection to an animal. I felt his sorrow, which felt so heavy, and it seemed as though he wondered why he was there and what he did wrong. I reassured him that he didn't do anything wrong, that he was a very special, wonderful, beautiful cat, and that things were going to be all right for him. Most of the time I say these things out loud, slowly, as I think a very soft, gentle voice can be as soothing as the body work.

I was soon able to stop using the gloves and start working my hand gradually onto his body. I'd do a bit of TTouch on his head, go a bit down the body, back to the head, etc. Now he will roll over on his back or his side in relaxation. Above you see him looking pretty sure of himself. What a brave, lovely kitty!

From a Little Dog's Point of View

Sasha is one of the sweetest dogs we have in the shelter. She is a dear little toy poodle. I know she looks a little funny here, with her shaved body, but she just had some surgery, from which she is recovering like a champ. She doesn't let any of the big dogs in the shelter bother her, either, she really holds her own!


I took Sasha (above, here we are in a cab) to the one of the vets we use, Janet Ficarra, who is a wonderful vet, and did Sasha's surgery. Janet did an amazing job on her and she and her staff were great to Sasha while she was there. When I went to pick her up, we got a ride downtown part way, and then I decided to walk her a few blocks before getting into a cab. We were in the heart of the West Village in NYC on a Saturday. It was sunny outside and everyone was out on the street, so it was busy and hectic. All of a sudden I felt myself imagining I was Sasha and feeling all this movement and all these people and big dogs passing around me. It was scary! and I understood how stressful it must be for small animals and their people in the city, I was afraid she would get stepped on. At any rate, I continued on for a while, keeping my peripheral vision very open so that I could sense approaching movement from all sides. It was pretty interesting! and I really understood why little dogs can seem so stressed out in these situations, it is a lot to handle.

Sasha and I really bonded on our little journey and now she often follows me around the shelter and will hang out sometimes in the area where I'm doing TTouch on the cats. I have done some TTouch on Sasha as well, which she greatly enjoys.

Thank you Sasha, you are teaching me so much! and I am sure the right person will arrive soon to give you a forever home.

Mika Purrs for me

Mika and Mischa (Mika is at the top of the picture and Mischa is peeking in at the bottom) are two very gentle sister and brother Russian blue mix kitties (maybe 5 months old) who I have been working on for a while. They were absolutely terrified when they came in, and have become a lot more comfortable after TTouch. Mika has been the more shy of the two, and will still hiss at first sometimes, but she is not aggressive, and once you touch her, she becomes more comfortable.

Mischa has become more playful and seems to have a funny side to his personality too. You can see that when I want to pay attention to Mika, he tries to get in on the action.

A couple of days ago, I decided to try doing zigzag touches on Mika, a type of touch I hadn't tried on her before. All of a sudden, she began to purrrrrrrrr. I could barely believe what I was hearing. She even began to look like she was smiling. Over the past couple of days, she seems to have really started to come out of her shell more.

We did many adoptions over the weekend, and so wanted to move these two to a more prominent cage so people could see them better. First we tried a cage in the front area, but that was too much for them, as these cages are open and the other cats in the row could see them etc. So I moved them to a cage which had walls all around, where they felt more comfortable, but it was in a place in the shelter that has more light so they are more visible. They were much more comfortable there. I have to say that both of them were very good sports about being moved twice! Once they got to the second cage, when I put some wet food in for them, they started chomping away right away, so I could tell they were more comfortable there. Here's to these two continuing to feel more comfortable around people and hopefully getting a forever home soon. They have such sweet little spirits.

And something I learned and reminded myself of is to continually vary the types of touches I do with an animal, as sometimes just a little different approach can help them break through to another level.

TTouch in the News!

Hi folks, some of my fellow TTouch people and I got a mention in the NY Daily News yesterday. Thanks so much, Amy Sacks!

FYI though, the Social Tees website is http://socialtees.com, not .org, as listed.