TTouch and Reiki with Mayor's Alliance Rescue Cats: May 2

Today when I went to work with the Mayor's Alliance Rescue cats through Tavi & Friends' TTouch-in-Rescue program, there were some new cats, as well as a bunch who I have been working with for a while.

Lee was great today, he is making such progress. Today he came right to the front of the cage, purrrrring, to greet me. I was able to do TTouches on his head and his body, and he was comfortable with all of them. He also even was at ease being picked up, which I did to bring him up on the couch with me. He settled in there for a while, as I did abalone TTouches and ear strokes on him. He was purring (and sometimes meowing, a content meow) the whole time.

What a sweet boy! The woman who cleans the cages told me that now he is comfortable being let out of the cage with other cats. Previously, he had been too frightened to be out with the others and needed to be let out alone. He also had initially been referred to by some as a “mean cat”, which of course couldn’t have been more inaccurate!





Talbot and Diyala are two new kittens. Talbot (above) is completely friendly, and came right to me for TTouch. Diyala (three pictures below) is more shy, so I started out with her doing TTouches on her head using a soft toothbrush. She soon became more relaxed. I could feel her ears becoming more soft, and could see her eyes and the rest of her face relax.



As she became more relaxed, I began to incorporate TTouches using the back of my hand.

After she settled into the circular TTouches with the back of my hand, I did some using the front of my hand around the base of her neck, also occasionally incorporating a few TTouches on the body, then going back to the head. I kept the toothbrush in my hand in case she became nervous, in which case I would have gone back to TTouching with the toothbrush. I gave frequent breaks, seeing if she was ready for more or wanted to rest a bit. When I was finished, even though she was still at the back of the cage, her face and body looked much more relaxed, so that was great progress for her.

Next was Pedro (below).

Pedro is hilarious, he gets very excited to come out of his cage for attention. I did raccoon TTouches on his forehead to get his energy a bit more settled. I also did some Reiki with him, and he was absorbing the calm energy like a sponge. Today I noticed the most heat over the solar plexus and base chakras.

Mila is a new, very sweet tortie cat. She began to purr right away when I opened her cage and started to work with her. As I hadn’t worked with her before, I used the gentler TTouches, such as the llama ttouch (uses the back surface of the fingers) and the abalone TTouch (which uses the whole hand). These big TTouches are especially gentle because the pressure is dispersed over a larger area.

Lucky is also new, she was super-friendly and laid right on her side as I did abalone and clouded leopard TTouches going down her side.

Honey is getting more friendly and more brave every time I see her. The TTouch I used most with her today is the chimp TTouch, as it uses the back surface of the fingers. These types of touches can be good for a cat who gets easily startled or scared with too much contact or heat.

Hank is such a love. He laid right on his side. His ears were relaxed and soft as I worked with him. I did abalone TTouches and ear strokes with him..

Kitty (above) and Blackie 2 (below) are coming along really well too. Kitty jumped out of her cage and onto the couch, and Blackie 2 came out of the cage briefly as well, which is great for him, as he didn’t do this before. So Kitty I TTouched while she was on the couch with me and Blackie 2 got TTouch both in and out of the cage. He is definitely getting braver, he just needs time and patience.

Blackie was purring like crazy. I primarily used the jelly scrubber to TTouch her, as she can get a bit overstimulated. I also did very slow abalone TTouches and ear strokes with her, which have a very soothing effect.

Angel is a new cat there and was friendly right away. She was sweet, purring and laying on her side as I did slow abalone TTouches with her.

Marette gets more brave every time. Previously I have mostly used the tools with her, as she can be hyper-sensitive. But today I was able to do some TTouches directly with my hand, doing a circle and a stroke on her body. She began to rub herself right against my hand when I did this, to my surprise!

TTouch with Mayor's Alliance Rescue Cats: May 9

Lee is doing so great, it is incredible to see his progress in just a few weeks’ time. Initially he was frozen in his litter box, hissing at most people when they opened his cage. Now he just can’t wait to come out of his cage for attention. He is so sweet! Today the TTouch that he seemed to respond to the most was doing gentle ear strokes on him.

Angel is super-friendly. With her I did ear TTouches and clouded leopard TTouches.

Blackie was so sweet again today, she knows me and comes right out of her cage for attention. Again, I used the jelly scrubber with her but have also been able to do more TTouches directly with her without her getting overstimulated. I do use the larger TTouches with her, the abalone (using the whole hand) and llama TTouches (using the back of the hand), so that the pressure is dispersed. She was purring the entire time.

Kitty (above) and Blackie 2 (below) both came out of the cage right away today. Blackie 2 is now so much more confident than he was initially. Both of them came onto my lap and rubbed against me. I did slow ear strokes, chimp and clouded leopard TTouches on both of them.

Hank is such a friendly cat, he came right up on the couch with me, as I did llama TTouches and clouded leopard TTouches on his body and a few ear strokes on him.

Honey can still get startled easily, so I make sure to use especially gentle energy with her. I did raccoon TTouches o nher head, circle and a stroke using the comp TTouch on her body, as well as the llama TTouch.

Munchie (above and below) was back in the room today, not sure if he had been fostered previously, etc. He has made wonderful progress. I started out with him using the back scratcher, as he seemed a little shy. After a bit of using the back scratcher, I was able to do circles and strokes on him directly with my hand. The chimp TTouch and ear TTouches were what he was most comfortable with.

Kobie was also back today. He is sweet. Both he and Munchie seemed to recognize me, and it seemed as though we picked up where we left off, that we didn’t have to get to know each other all over again. As Kobie can bet a bit over-excited, I used the chimp and abalone TTouches with him, and he became quite settled with these.

Lucky is very friendly, did circle and a stroke with the chimp ttouch on her.

Marette is becoming less shy, but I still feel I need to be mindful that she needs to come to me in her own time. When she comes to me, she is quite friendly, rubbing her face against me. Today, I mostly did chimp TTouches on her back.

Mila can start out shy but she warms up right away, I started out with raccoon TTouches on her head and she began to rub her head against my hand, as I did clouded leopard TTouches going down her body.

Talbot (below) and Diyala (above) again, Talbot is super-friendly, sort of overly-excitedly so. As I did clouded leopard Ttouches very slowly, followed by ear strokes, he started to slow himself down a bit and began licking me. His sister Diyala starts out a bit scared and was hanging in the back of her cage initially. As I began to do gentle TTouches on her head with the toothbrush, she began to lean into the touches. I began to incorporate Ttouches on the body as well, which she was less comfortable with, so I would do a couple of TTouches there, then go back to the head, etc, and she began to settle into them. She actually started pushing her head into my hand, which was so sweet!

Mayor's Alliance Cats: August 30

Today I went again to work on Mayor's Alliance rescue cats through Tavi & Friends' TTouch-in-Rescue program. Above is Diego. He is such a sweet, gentle soul. He really settled in today as I did ear strokes on him. The ear TTouch can be especially relaxing as there are acupressure points to other parts of the body in the ear. After this I also did some TTouches around his mouth, which is an area which can hold a lot of stress, and connected clouded leopard TTouches down his body - first one side and then the other. He really stretched out and relaxed.


Above is Angel. She is also a very sweet cat, and just waits at the front of the cage for me to open the door and give her attention. She almost gets too excited, so I'm careful not to do too much on her at once. She rubs her head against my hand and rolls on her side as I do TTouch on her head and on her body as well.

Smoky and Oreo are pictured above - Smoky is on the top shelf and Oreo is on the bottom shelf. Smoky is initially a tiny bit shy but once you touch him, he is so receptive to TTouch. The only problem with these two being in the same cage is that Oreo is very dominant and moves in front of Smoky when I am trying to touch him. On both cats, I did ear strokes, followed by small raccoon touches outside the mouth, working along the outside of the mouth back to the jaw area, and then clouded leopard TTouches down the body.

Above is a little kitten whose name I think is also Smoky, and below is his kitten friend Sunnie. These two are both extremely playful and well-socialized. I held these little ones, one at a time, and did ear strokes on them with a fairly firm touch, then clouded leopard ttouches on their body. They were both purrring all the while.

Next is Vaska (pictured below). Vaska is super-friendly but can get almost TOO excited by being TTouched as well, so I do a little bit with him, then stop, give a break and come back. He will stretch out on his back or side. On his body I will often do abalone TTouches at a slow speed as these can be generally more soothing than stimulating. The slow speed is important too as the tempo of the TTouches can help determine whether they are relaxing or stimulating.

Ziggy (pictured below) is quite a character, and very sweet. He also really loves attention. I did TTouches around his head, ears, and then strokes and circles with the back of my hand down his body.

Zorro (below) is also a very sweet cat, and soothing, slow abalone TTouches down one side of his body and then the next are what he responds most too, and can be very relaxing for him. I held him against my leg as I did abalone TTouches down one side and then stabilized him with my hand on the other side as I did the TTouches on the opposide side of him which was facing my leg.

Mayor's Alliance Cats August 23 - Sunnie, Oreo, Smoky, Diego and Angel

I went again to do TTouch on the Mayor's Alliance cats through Tavi & Friends' TTouch-in-Rescue program.

The first kitty I worked on is the lovely little grey tabby kitten pictured below, Sunnie. She is as sweet as can be and came right to the front of the cage, as you see here. I picked her up and held her to do TTouch, as I wanted to avoid her getting loose in the room and hiding somewhere that would be hard to retrieve her. She really resonded to ear strokes and immediately began to purr. I did raccoon touches on her head and then chomp touches and clouded leopard down her body. She was extremely comfortable and cuddled into my arms.


Then I went to do TTouch on Oreo (pictured below) and her friend Smoky. Oreo was waiting for me at the front of the cage and was eager to be touched. I did TTouch on her in short bursts, giving her breaks, as in the past she has easily gotten over-stimulated and sometimes will swat as a result. Today there was no swatting or even a hint of it. She rubbed her head against me as I did TTouches on her head and ears, and then touches and strokes with the back of my hand down each side of her back. Smoky was sleeping at the other end of the cage and looked so comfortable, I didn't want to wake her up :)

Diego (below) was very receptive to TTouch and very relaxed and gentle, as usual. I did slow abalone touches down his back (these are touches using the whole hand). Abalone TTouches can be extremely comforting and these seem to be what he especially responds to. I also did some chimp TTouches on his head and body.

Tempo is very important when doing TTouch - slow touches are very relaxing and faster ones are more envigorating - and what one animal finds relaxing can be irritating to another. It can take some work to figure out what tempo is optimum. Pressure is also very important, and the "right" pressure varies from one animal to another as well. When I demonstrate TTouch on another person to show them what pressure I am using with the TTouches on their animal, they are often surprised at how light a pressure I am using.

Next I did TTouch on Angel (still picture directly below and then a video below that). You will see that I did a lot of zigzag TTouches on her, as she really responds to these TTouches. I also do TTouches around her head and mouth area, and some plain strokes with the back of my hand. She is such a sweet cat.

Mayors' Alliance Cats, August 16- Oreo, Smoky, Diego and Angel

Oreo is in a cage with her pal Smoky. Oreo can tend to get over-stimulated quickly, so I found it best to do a few touches on her head, let her go away and then she comes back for more. This way she keeps from getting over-stimulated and apt to swat. I started out with circular touches on her head, then worked in some circles and strokes down her sides.

Smoky (shown below) came in with Oreo and is very gentle and sweet, a more passive personality than Oreo but loves to be touched. She responded most to a touch I did on her that was like the abalone touch, with my fingers flattened like the abalone touch but spread apart like in the Tiger TTouch. She really seemed comforted by these big touches which I did rather slowly.

Below is Diego, who is also a very gentle soul. He seems to be a bit intimidated by other cats but really responds well to people, especially when you approach him quietly. He also responds well to TTouches which use more of the hand, like the abalone TTouches. He laid down and stretched out as I did these TTouches on him. I also did ear strokes and raccoon TTouches on his head.

Angel (below) is a very sweet kitty, she comes forward for TTouch and begins to rub herself against my hand. She got so over-excited that she fell off her shelf (landing on her feet of course!). I did chimp touches around her head area and circles and strokes down her back, and some touches around the mouth area as well.

Mayors Alliance Cats, August 9

August 9 when I went to work on the Mayor's Alliance rescue cats, I found that Smoky (above) and Oreo (below) had been put in separate cages as apparently Oreo had been pestering Smoky. However, subsequently Oreo had gotten more ornery altogether being in a cage by herself, so she was put back in with Smoky while I was at the facility. Oreo had been super-friendly when I worked on her last week, though she had been a real attention hog and tried to block me from touching cage mate Smoky.

I found that Oreo was much more easily over-stimulated when I first tried touching her, so I touched her first using a flat, wide brush with a long handle, which you will see in the video below:



Doing the strokes and circles on Oreo with the brush seemed to get her in a more focused and less feisty mode so I was able to touch her with my hand after that.


Irene (pictured below) was a new, shy kitty, and you will see videos and descroption of what happened with her in a separate blog post.

Diego is a sweet, gentle kitty (pictured below) and seems like a loner-type of cat. He really relaxes with TTouches on his head, ear strokes and TTouch down his body. He will lay down, stretch out and get very relaxed. He seems to really seek contact with humans, I made a very strong connection with him. His big eyes just pull you right into his heart.

Angel (pictured below) is a very sweet tabby kitty who LOVES attention. She waits at the front of the cage for me to open it and give her TTouch. She begins to rub herself all against my hand as I do TTouch on her and usually ends up on her side, as you see here.