Mika and Mischa are two dear, fuzzy little Russian blue mixes who are probably about 4-5 months old. I had initially thought they were both girls, so had called them Nika and Mika, but now I call them Mika and Mischa. They were extremely scared, but have been gradually coming around. Mischa is actually getting very playful with me, but Mika is still quite shy. She will hiss at first, but once I touch her for a while, she begins to relax. She does not try to bite at all, I think she is hissing because she is still unsure. Below you will see a little video of me TTouching her. I generally start out with the back of just one little finger, doing small circles on her head, and then some ear strokes. Later on, after she is more relaxed, I will work in some touches on the body. In the video you can see her hiss and then her ears remaining back for a while, but at the end she starts to relax, let her breath go, close her eyes and go into nap mode.
The part of the visual which you don't see was quite humorous, her brother Mischa wason the lower level of the cage pawing at me, trying to get me to play with him.
On looking at the video, I see that next time I will try doing circles at a slower rate on Mika, it may help to achieve more relaxation with her. It is very helpful for me to see these videos, I always see how I can do better for the animal in my next session.
I look forward to working more with these sweet, shy ones and others at Social Tees. If you are in NYC, stop by sometime!
No comments:
Post a Comment