When I went to work with the Mayor's Alliance cats on June 13, Blackie 2 (above) was still there but his cagemate Kitty had been adopted. He was more affectionate than ever, coming out of his cage right away, rubbing against me. Very sweet cat! I did slow abalone and llama TTouches with him, which use large surfaces of the hand, so they are very soothing and calming.
Bastet is pretty new there, VERY friendly and loving. She gets so excited for attantion that she starts drooling when I do TTouch with her. She rubbed her face against mine as I did slow llama and abalone TTouches with her. I think she is a bit reticent about coming out of the cage, so I just worked on her while she remained in her cage.
Blackie gets excited for attention but can get overstimulated pretty easily so I find that using the jelly scrubber to do TTouch with her works well. It also serves to get off some of the extra loose fur, as some of these cats really shed a lot in cages, especially in the summer. With the jelly scrubber, actually a horse-grooming tool, I use pretty light pressure, just enough to move the skin around in a clockwise circle and a quarter. I also do some strokes with it, to get the loose fur off. there are two sides to the jelly scrubber - I generally use the one which has rubbery bristles rather than the one with larger pointy thngs on it.
Honey is very sweet but very hyper-sensitive so I make sure to work in very short bursts with her, generally doing TTouches using the back of my fingers like the chimp TTouch.
Isis (or Ices, I'm not sure how they want the name spelled) is a big, very gentle kitty. Often I find that cats with more gentle personalities respond best to TTouches using larger surfaces of the hand, so I did abalone TTouch (using the whole hand) on her body). I did TTouches using the back of my finger around her forehead area. The forehead can be a very soothing place to do these TTouches, and the back surfaces of the hand and finger have a more gentle feel to them than the front surfaces.
King Kong is new. He was hiding partially under his bed at first, but he pretty quickly became more comfortable as I did gentle circular TTouches with him using the back of the hand part of a back scratcher. This can be a great tool to use to introduce yourself to a cat who is new to you - it is a much more gentle way of introducing yourself than directly touching a cat with your hand. It can also protect you from being bitten or scratched if it turns out the cat does not want to be touched at that moment!
Kobie is a super-friendly, playful little guy - as he is such a peppy guy, I generally do TTouches using the back of the hand with him, such as the chimp TTouch. I did connected chimp TTouches working down either side of his back, then did some ear strokes with him as well.
Lee is so sweet and has so much personality in his little face. He can startle easily, so I approach him especially gently. I did llama and abalone TTouches going down his body, which are very soothing to him. I also did chimp TTouches on his head. As you can see, he was feeling pretty relaxed!
Marette has come such a long way. She still is on the shy side, but is more and more confident each time I work with her. I found that she really gets into a relaxed zone when I do TTouches using the back of the top digit of my finger - my fingernail actually. It is pretty dramatic - she can go from very alert and peppy to just settling right down with these TTouches. She also really responded to TTouches with my fingernail working along the outside of the mouth area, which is connected with the limbic system, or emotions.
Milla is very sweet and friendly and seeks attention, but she can get easily over-stimulated, so I mostly did TTouches on her head, as the TTouches on the body can be a bit too much for her right now.
I didn't get a pic of Hank today - he's a lovely grey and white cat. As he is also a cat who can get over-stimulated, I just did a few TTouches at a time with him, primarily abalone TTouch and llama TTouch, which use large surfaces of the hand and are less intense than some of the other TTouches which are more focused.
I didn't get a pic of Hank today - he's a lovely grey and white cat. As he is also a cat who can get over-stimulated, I just did a few TTouches at a time with him, primarily abalone TTouch and llama TTouch, which use large surfaces of the hand and are less intense than some of the other TTouches which are more focused.
If you would like to see demos of many of these TTouches, please visit my youtube channel at http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat. Thanks one and all and look forward to seeing you soon!
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