The past couple of days I went to work on the cats in the Cat Loft at BARC Shelter in Brooklyn. There are a lot of cats there - two rooms full of them - many in cages and a bunch of cats which are loose in the space. Of course I wanted to seek out the shyest cats or those feeling under the weather to work on.
When I walked into the second room, I saw on my right two semi-feral young black kitties in a cage together - Mittens and Muffin. One sits on the right hand shelf and one sits on the left hand shelf. They are very playful but are not eager to be touched, so I decided to work on them with the long-handled brushes that I have been using for some cats who do not want to be directly touched by hand at first. For these little ones, I used two brushes so if one of them was playing with one brush then I would stroke it or do circular touches on its back with the other brush. Sometimes in the midst of this the other cat would get involved but I started to get a rhythm of working on one cat and then the other. The one which likes to sit on the left hand side seems the most ready to be touched - the other one is more skittish.
I worked on them several times each day when I was there (Fri and Sat) and on Saturday after a bit, both cats were lying down on their shelves. The one on the left was on its side and was very much relaxing into the circles with the brush which I was doing down its sides and even a little on its stomach. The other kitty would sit up when I started to work on it with the brushes but started to stay still a bit longer for some strokes and circles with the brush. Both were ok with being touched with the brushes on their body but were frightened of being touched on the head. I look forward to working with these two, they were very receptive and continued to look at me afterwards as though they wondered what I would do next. In the picture below, you see them looking pretty relaxed!
When I walked into the second room, I saw on my right two semi-feral young black kitties in a cage together - Mittens and Muffin. One sits on the right hand shelf and one sits on the left hand shelf. They are very playful but are not eager to be touched, so I decided to work on them with the long-handled brushes that I have been using for some cats who do not want to be directly touched by hand at first. For these little ones, I used two brushes so if one of them was playing with one brush then I would stroke it or do circular touches on its back with the other brush. Sometimes in the midst of this the other cat would get involved but I started to get a rhythm of working on one cat and then the other. The one which likes to sit on the left hand side seems the most ready to be touched - the other one is more skittish.
I worked on them several times each day when I was there (Fri and Sat) and on Saturday after a bit, both cats were lying down on their shelves. The one on the left was on its side and was very much relaxing into the circles with the brush which I was doing down its sides and even a little on its stomach. The other kitty would sit up when I started to work on it with the brushes but started to stay still a bit longer for some strokes and circles with the brush. Both were ok with being touched with the brushes on their body but were frightened of being touched on the head. I look forward to working with these two, they were very receptive and continued to look at me afterwards as though they wondered what I would do next. In the picture below, you see them looking pretty relaxed!
Another thing that was interesting, which often happens, is that while I was working on Mittens and Muffin, the lovely grey and white cat pictured below, named Castaway, came right next to me and laid down to take a nap. Animals seem to be drawn to the atmosphere of calm energy which TTouch or Reiki can create.
There is also a large black and white kitty loose in the shelter named Cody (sorry I didn't get a picture of him). He is a real character, he is loose in the shelter and LOVES to have attention. But he can also get over-stimulated, so though I did let him jump up into my lap and plop there, I primarily did Reiki on him there, and did a short session of slow abalone TTouches to calm his energy down. What a sweet guy!
There is also a large black and white kitty loose in the shelter named Cody (sorry I didn't get a picture of him). He is a real character, he is loose in the shelter and LOVES to have attention. But he can also get over-stimulated, so though I did let him jump up into my lap and plop there, I primarily did Reiki on him there, and did a short session of slow abalone TTouches to calm his energy down. What a sweet guy!
Above is Teddy, and below is Teddy with FDR peeking from the lower left hand corner. These are two VERY shy little kittens who were huddled at the back of the cage. I did some little strokes with the back of my finger on their heads, some slow clouded leopard TTouches on their body and then tome small raccoon ttouches around the outside of the mouth area. The mouth area can be a really great area to work for stressed-out little kittens. The touch did help them relax, it will just take them some time to trust people. They are very gentle and sweet, just shy. Teddy seems to be the less shy of the two.
I also did a short session with a tortie cat, Patches, who will come to the front of the cage for contact, but can only take a short amount of contact at one time before it seems she is overwhelmed. So I am working on her in very short spurts of time, giving her breaks in between, then coming back and trying again with her later on. It will be interesting to see what can happen with her after a few sessions.
I look forward to working on these and other cats at BARC again soon!
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