Laura is a new rescue kitty at the boarding facility where I do TTouch with cats from the Mayor's Alliance. She is very sweet, though she seems a bit leery of the other cats. I did clouded leopard TTouches going down either side of her back, then some ear strokes. The ear strokes were especially calming for her. I also did the Tarantula pulling the Plough touch, which is a bit hard to describe but a demo is here
http://www.youtube.com/sarahsuricat#p/u/12/CZi9VAgkVJ8
It is a very helpful connecting touch, which a lot of cats respond do. however, I wouldn't do it with a cat who is not so friendly, as it can get them over-stimulated. I also did some chimp Ttouches with her, which are circular TTouches using the back of the middle section of the fingers.
Kobie is a friendly but rather hyper kitty, very sweet, but he can get startled easily by sudden movements or sounds. He waits at the front of his cage to be let out. I put my hand out for him to sniff, and he started to rub his head against it. He responds most to TTouches which use a larger part of the hand or a back surface of the hand, such as the llama TTouch, abalone TTouch and chimp TTouch. You can see a lot of these TTouches on my youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/sarahsuricat
He is kind of a character, so what he finds enjoyable is to weave between my feet when I am standing, and I lean over to do TTouch on him as he does this.
Louie has competely come around now. Last week I had started TTouching him with the back scratcher as he had just recently arrived and was a bit shy. But today, he jumped right out of his cage and started rubbing his face against my face, very sweet. I did abalone TTouches on him, which use the whole hand, and can be very soothing, and he calmed and was more focused after a while, then settled on my lap, purring, as you see above.
Mack (above) is also quite friendly now, and purred, rubbing against me after I let him out of his cage. I did abalone TTouches on him to calm him, then ear strokes. He found the ear strokes to be extremely calming and started really leaning into me as I was doing them on him.
Nene is a love, so sweet, and he also especially responds to abalone TTouches. He can sometimes get a bit nervous when he sees other cats, but the TTouches really put him at ease.
Pattie is quite a character, and, like Kobie, likes to weave between my legs as I do TTouch with him. The TTouches which he especially responds to are the abalone TTouch, llama TTouch (using the back of my whole hand), which I follow with Noah's march, a straight stroke done down the back. I often do this stroke using the back of my hand.
Tango is such an engaging little cat, comes right out of his cage and wants to interact with you immediately. As he is quite active, I often need to do TTouches on him while he is in motion. With him, I especially like to do connecting touches, such as the zigzag TTouch and the octopus TTouch, to give him a sensation of his whole body, as he still is walking a little strangely. He is using his back legs more than he was initially, he just doesn't use them in quite the usual way, and doesn't bend or flex them in the way that most cats do. So the connecting TTouches can remind his nervous system to feel all these points from head to tail and down to his feet. I do zigags going all around his body, down his legs to his feet, and then do a few little circles with his tail. The circles with the tail are very small and done very loosely. I also do little raccoon TTouches going down his tail, as the tail is very important for balance. He does something unusual with his tail, also. He walks with his tail at an angle going back over his body, and holds it a bit stiff when he walks. It seems he does this to counteract whatever instability there is in the legs.
Love all these little ones and look forward to seeing them again soon, unless, of course, they get adopted, which would be the best!
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