Irene was waiting for me at the front of her cage, purring and meowing her little silent meow. When I first opened her cage and began to work with her, her energy was very excited, so I started with touches that were a little faster and then began to slow the TTouches down as I went, and I felt her becoming more relaxed. I was doing primarily llama ttouches and chimp ttouches, as the back of the hand is not as stimulating as the front of the hand.
Then she came right to the front of the cage and jumped out, even though I could tell this was a scary thing for her to do. She was a little frightened once she got out, and she went underneath a table where there was a cylindrical scratching thing which she could have gone inside but she chose not to. I did abalone TTouches (these use my whole hand, in a circular motion) while she was outside the cage and spoke to her in a very calm, quiet voice, reassuring her that she was ok. After she had been out for a while, I could see that the guy who cleans was getting ready to vacuum the room, so I put her back in the cage. I continued to do some TTouch on her after she was back in the cage, and she was so receptive, purring and rolling on her back, kneading with her paws.
From the cage of the three lively youngsters, Buster had been adopted, leaving Rascal and Ophelia (both cats in pic below, and Ophelia in pic below that). They were both very excited to come out and play. As they were both more interested in playing and running around than settling down, I took them out one by one and let them tear around for a bit, getting some touches in here and there, some ear TTouches and hair slides and a few strokes down their bodies. They are sweet!
Smoky and Oreo (Smoky pictured below) are in a cage together, but as Oreo is much more dominant, I took Smoky out of the cage by himself. He is extremely affectionate, and craving attention. I did ear strokes, mouth work and chimp TTouch on him. The mouth work can be so soothing for some of these cats, especially ones who tend to be on the shy side, as Smoky can be at first.
I worked on Oreo within the cage as he can get himself into places up high in the room which are hard to retrieve him from :), and he was very excited to have attention, rubbing his head against my hand. I did mostly mouth TTouch, ear strokes and chimp TTouch with him. For him, the mouth work is good as it has a calming effect and he is a cat who can get overstimulated pretty quickly.
Vaska (below) always waits at the front of the cage and meows to me, often getting into humorous poses to get my attention. He came bounding out of the cage when I opened it. When I sat on the couch he was either on my lap or right next to it, rubbing himself against me, even against my face. I did slow, calming abalone TTouches with him and some ear strokes as well. He is such a loving cat!
Diego is a cat with whom I feel such a deep connection, and I really felt it today. I let him out of his cage and brought him up on the couch to sit with me, whiich he was completely comfortable with. I did abalone TTouches (which are comforting and seem to be his favorite) and ear strokes with him. As I did this, he looked at me with his extremely wise, deep eyes and we had one of those moments where I felt we really looked deep into each other's souls, I really felt it in my heart. It felt like he truly wanted me to take him with me. I told him I loved him so much and that I was sorry I couldn't bring him home, and that someone loving was sure to find him.
Right as I was working with Diego and before I was going to open Ziggy's cage to do TTouch, one of the Mayor's alliance folks came to take her (it turns out Ziggy is a she, sorry Ziggy!) to her new owner. Congrats Ziggy (pictured below)! She is such a sweetie, I'm sure she will have a great time in her new home. AND she told me that it looked like Diego was going to a forever home soon as well. Of course I will miss seeing these cats, but I am SO happy they are going home. I think Smoky is scheduled to go to a forever home soon as well.
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