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.
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