Princess is a lovely little kitty at BARC shelter. She has been quite a challenge to connect with. She does relax if I do reiki a short distance from where she is, but many times she is very hesitant to being touched. Part of her defensiveness could come from the fact that she was declawed by a previous owner. Many people do not realize that declawing a cat is like amputating the top of the cat's fingers, it is a very traumatic operation and can often affect the behavior of the cat afterwards. They can become a lot more defensive. Who could blame them?
It will just take continued patience, and working short spurts of time to get her more accustomed to being touched and more trusting.
I started giving her some Halo liv-a-little treats, which she loves. Right after giving the treats, I will do a few little circular touches on her head, and maybe a stroke with the back of my hand down her body. Now she will come to the front of the cage in anticipation of a treat, but is still generally hesitant to being touched, so I will just do a few touches, then give her a break, then try again. Sometimes if she is in a sleepy mood she feels comfortable with a few more touches around the forehead, but is still hesitant about being touched on her body. I have tried working with some of the tools we use - feathers, paintbrushes, etc and she does not like these at all, it seems that they irritate her, so I'll see what happens with doing reiki sometimes, and the treats and a few touches other times. Time and patience.
No comments:
Post a Comment