Staying in the Moment with Garbanzo

Hi folks, above is my own cat Garbanzo, who is nearly 16 years old, and full of life, as you can see! He is a dear soul and has been my TTouch guide for my whole TTouch journey, as he led me to TTouch in the first place. I feel gratitude for him in SO many ways.

A point I'd like to make is that sometimes if an animal is not receptive to a particular touch or TTouch tool one time, that situation can change over time. Several years ago, I tried doing circles on Garbanzo with a jelly scrubber, which is a tool used for TTouch with a variety of animals. He absolutely did not like it and let me know! I decided that it was not for him and left it at that.

However, recently I decided to try this on him once again, several years later and a bunch of TTouch trainings later (meaning Garbanzo had a lot of TTouch from me during this time as well). So, whether it was further sensitivity on my part, changing sensitivity on his part, or what, who knows, but now he loves having gentle circles done on him using the jelly scrubber. I use the more bristly side towards his fur, and do the circles with about a two pressure. This tools is also wonderful for getting sensitive animals acclimated to being brushed and brushing young cats who have very short fur. So if you are using it for these purposes, you can do some circles, then a little brushing, etc.

At any rate, this event was a reminder once again to stay in the moment with TTouch, and sometimes I think we have to remind ourselves a bit further of this with our own animals. Thank you, Garbanzo!

Jigsaw Sr. at Social Tees

Hi folks, the handsome cat who is at Social Tees Shelter (http://socialtees.com/) above we have been calling Jigsaw Sr. He is a delightful, friendly cat but unfortunately has a problem with one of his front legs. It is a healed injury which has left him with the bottom part of the leg and foot limp. His name is because a while back we had a kitten we named Jigsaw with similar coloring and the same leg problem on the same leg!

Apparently the poor guy was found on the Williamsburg bridge. There was no info on how his leg was hurt, but perhaps he was hit by a car. The injured leg is the front left leg, and when he walks, he ends up landing either on his knee (if he puts more pressure on it) or on the bottom joint before his foot (if he is putting lighter pressure). He can get around, and can go from the upper shelf in his cage to the lower shelf, but rather gingerly, and walks very low to the ground.



This cat comes to the front of the cage and meows to me for TTouch when I come in the room. I started out by working on his head, doing raccoon touches, ear strokes and a little work on the outside of his mouth. He responds to being touched in general, and seemed to want me to do quite firm ear strokes on his ears. Cats all seem to have different preferences, especially when it comes to doing ear strokes, so it's better to start out lighter at first and see what happens. Sometimes they will start rubbing their head against you as though they want you to press harder.

Then I did connected chimp touches and clouded leopard touches down either side of his back, and some strokes with the back of my hand down all of his legs, including the one which is not working. He is more sensitive on the lower back and thigh of the back leg on his left side, though he still lets me touch him there.

Over the past few sessions, after talking to some of my fellow TTouchers, I have added some more touches. Among other things, I have been able to work on his paws on all four feet. I have done little raccoon touches all around the toes and on the pads of the feet, and have done little circles with the toes, especially on his front feet. The point is to bring awareness to as much of his body as possible. I will be very interested to see what happens after a few sessions with him.

He is incredibly cooperative and often wants to jump out of the cage into my arms! What a sweet fellow.

Adoptions and Success Stories at Social Tees

Pictured directly above and below are two little black and white kittens who initially arrived extremely scared and hissing at me when I first began to do TTouch on them. These are the "before" pictures, where you can see them huddling in the back of the cage and looking at me pretty skeptically! After some weeks of slow, patient TTouch (which you will see detailed in past posts), first using a feather to touch them, then working up to doing TTouch on them with my hand, they grew more and more acclimated and after a while, when they saw me, they would come right to the front of the cage, pushing to get my attention and practically coming out of the cage.

In the next two pictures you will see both of these kittens iooking more comfortable and, in the last one, right in the front of the cage.

I am so happy to say that both of these little ones got homes these week, and I am so grateful for TTouch, this work helped these very shy, frightened little beings to be more comfortable in their bodies and able to truly enjoy contact, ultimately making them more adoptable. So here's a toast to these dear little ones. They taught me so much about the importance of patience, sensitivity, and being aware of what each animal can handle in the moment. I wish them all the best in their new homes.

Kittens and their new Friends

Yesterday at Social Tees (http://socialtees.com) Shelter I started off again with the two very tiny kittens, first the white one which you see pictured on my previous post. I did TTouch all around her head, and down her body, and little strokes on her ears. The ear strokes seemed to be especially in order as these little guys came in with kitty colds, which seems to be common with animals coming from the kill shelters. They do seem to be getting stronger, and are eating very enthusiastically, which is always a good sign. At any rate, as I did TTouch with the little white kitten on my lap, with the kitten harness to secure her, she gradually fell asleep and was purring a tiny little purr. As I was doing TTouch on her, I also had a damp paper towel and was cleaning off her face with it and doing TTouch through it as well, as these little guys are getting the hang of cleaning their bodies but aren't quite so adept at cleaning their faces yet.

Next I took out this kitten's little black and white friend, who Este (another volunteer at Social Tees) has named Buster, which I think is perfect. Little Buster is even smaller than his friend but seems to have quite a strong little spirit. He really settled into the TTouch, and really responded to the ear strokes, seeming to enjoy a bit firmer pressure than I would have imagined he would like, particularly taking into consideration how delicate and small his ears are. I would say I am using a 2-3 pressure, instead of a 1-2. (For cats, the heaviest pressure I would generally use would be a 3 pressure. For dogs, other larger animals and humans, the pressure can be quite a bit more, depending on the creature's personal taste). I did TTouch on his head, his ears, around his mouth area, and up and down his body. I also used the damp paper towel on his face and on his tail. After I used it on his tail, he started grooming his tail all on his own.


Buster began to purr continuously, and his little purr grew pretty loud for such a little guy. Eventually he put his head down and took a little nap. After I let him stay there for a while, I put him back in his cage.

I put new food out for the two kittens and they both began eating vigorously, even though they had eaten only a relatively short time before. Many times I find that after having TTouch, the cats start to eat their food with a great deal of gusto. Here is Buster chilling out with his pal after having a good chomp.


Next I worked on a little tortoise-shell kitten in a different cage who I posted about previously. This kitten was quite fearful when I began to work on it and its black cage-mate a few days ago, but now the tortoise-shell one is completely outgoing. I took it out of the cage and, using the harness, did some TTouch on it. It wanted to move a bit, but was responding to the TTouch as well. It was great to have the harness so that I could let it move a bit but still have it contained and keep it on my lap or on a table. Eventually I put it back in its cage, and it started to meow very loudly. This was because it wanted me to take it back out.

It was lonely because earlier in the day, its cage-mate had to go to the vet to be checked out. So we decided to give it some new friends, and put it in with the very friendly orange brothers. At first the orange guys were growling and hissing and began to swat. I opened the cage and began to do TTouch on the most friendly of the orange guys who is always in the front of the cage. The shyer orange guy quickly came forward to receive TTouch, and the kitten then pushed to the front of the cage so it could receive TTouch as well, so I was doing the best I could to touch all three, alternating between them, keeping my hands on at least two at a time.

After a while I closed the cage, and went to get the kitten's food from its cage, and put it in its new cage. The kitten has been eating wet food and the adults have been eating dry food. The funniest thing happened next. The two orange cats began eating the kitten's wet food and the kitten began to crunch away on the orange boys' dry food. You can see this in the photo below. I was encouraged that the three were in good harmony with each other at that point. Something else that is rather humorous it that the kitten has a little orange tabby fur at the end of its tail, as though the tail was dipped in the orange brother's fur.

Kitten Harness in Action

In my last posts I showed you how I made the kitten harness on a beanie baby, and here it is in action on a real live kitten. Above is one of my tiny friends receiving some raccoon touches from me while I hold on with the shoelace harness. I had to wash her little face again because she had just eaten so I cleaned it off with a damp paper towel, which I put my finger inside so that I could clean her a bit and then do a few TTouches through the paper towel. After that was done, I used a tiny makeup brush that is for brushing out eyelashes and I was able to brush her fur a bit. I did raccoon touches on her head and raccoon touches and chimp touches on her body. She is a very tiny kitty! She settled right in and at one point put her little head down to take a snooze, making a little miniature purr.

Below you see that while I was doing TTouch on the kitten, one of the dogs also decided to take a snooze. I am sitting up on a table. The kitten is peering over the edge of my leg to see the dog, and is held safely as I have her secured with the little harness.

Below on the right you see her re-joined with her three kitten friends. Later yesterday the two "older" kittens (who are a good bit larger than my little friend and her tiny b/w pal shown below left), were adopted by a nice young woman. I wish them well!

Kitten Rascals and two Orange Boys

Hi folks, the day before yesterday I arrived at the shelter and saw these little punk-looking kitties waiting for me, with dirty little matted faces. Apparently they had just eaten and hadn't learned how to wash up after eating! Another volunteer and I washed them up using warm damp cloths, and they were then clean and seemed more comfortable after that. I also did TTouch on all four (one is behind the three others in this picture of these kittens using the little kitten harness I described in my previous posts, and it worked very well to contain them gently. I think they felt more safe being contained this way when they were out of the cage, as there are grownup cats and dogs roaming around. I did raccoon touches on their head, around their ears, and around their mouths, and very gentle ear slides. On their bodies I did raccoon touches, baby chimp touches and abalone touches. As I mentioned previously, the little black and white one, who is the smallest, became the most relaxed and took a little kitten nap, purring with the tiniest little vibration. When I put them back in their cages, they continued to cluster at the front of the cage. They are so eager for contact.

I also worked with the two slightly older kittens who are in a separate cage. They are still shy but are not hissing when I approach them now. Once I touch them, for the most part, they settle into the touch now instead of moving away.

Below are two orange brothers who are lovely and very appealing. One boy is extremely friendly, hanging out in the front of the cage and talking to people who pass by and he began to touch me with his paw while I was working on a cat in adjacent cage. His brother is shy and generally hangs out in the back of the cage (he's the one you see on the left here). Of course I had to see what would happen with a little TTouch. I reached to the back of the cage toward the shy brother. When I touched his head, he was a bit shy at first but once he figured out that the touch made him feel good, he began to rub against me for more, so I continued to do TTouch on his head and then did some strokes down his body with the back of my hand, along with some chimp touches. Eventually he came from the back of the cage to the front of the cage alongside his brother as you see here, and both cats were rubbing against my hand. They are both such charming fellows, I am sure they will have a home soon, together. If you want to see these guys and the rest of the gang, they at Social Tees (http://socialtees.com/) in NYC, come down and check them out!

Kitten Harness part two

So here is the second part of the clip showing how to make a temporary harness to use on kittens so that you can do TTouch on them and still have them gently secured so that they don't squiggle away. Another nice thing about this harness that you will see is that by simply pulling the end of it, it unravels and you can take it off easily without worrying about the little kitty getting hung up in it. Fit it so that it is close to the body but not tight. When putting it on an actual live kitty, you need to do the putting on of it fairly quickly. I suggest practicing on a little stuffed animal many times, until you are really comfortable with it. before trying it on a live animal. And please ignore how FAST I do the little TTouches in the demo, I rarely do them that quickly! I just wanted to show how you could hold the harness with one hand and do TTouches with the other. When doing TTouch on kittens, in general a rather short session is good but I have to say that these particular kittens responded to TTouch so well, especially in my first sessions with them, that I did longer sessions. The little black and white kitten actually fell asleep while I was doing TTouch on it, purring the tiniest little purr.