It is also useful to keep perspective, as sometimes you are working along and you forget where you started out with an animal. I am thinking in particular right now about the little grey and white kitty we have been calling Jimmy Girl (pictured above). When she first came in, the volunteer who put her into her cage had to use gloves to do that and even then it was really difficult, with hissing, spitting, biting etc. A couple of weeks later, she is now rubbing herself against my hand and coming to the front of the cage after I touch her. She is still more shy with new people, but I know in time this will come along as well.
I also wanted to mention my progress with Stuart, who is making a wonderful recovery from his cold. But now that he is feeling better, some of his feistiness and meowy-bitey behavior is coming back (and he may also be afraid that I am going to poke or prod him with medication), so I have had to take a step back and begin again with him using a paintbrush with a rather long handle to do circles on him so that he is not so afraid of me approaching him and so that I feel safe as well. The past couple of days we have been just using the paintbrush instead of my hand, and he is really loving it, rubbing his face against it and letting me do circles all over his heand and once in a while a little bit on his body. I will work my way back to doing TTouch with my hands on him but I want to respect the pace at which he needs to go.
My little black kitten friend Cartwright is also continuing to do well - his stool is normal now and his appetite remains good. He has remained such a social, friendly little guy too, and meows at me to do TTouch on him when I am near his cage. What an endearing little face this guy has (though of course he looks more like a little bad-boy rascal in the photo above)!
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