TTouch and Reiki with Mayor's Alliance Cats: June 13

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.

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!

TTouch with Mayor's Alliance Rescue Cats: June 6

Today I went to work with the Mayor's Alliance rescue cats through Tavi and Friends' TTouch-in-Rescue program.

During the posts about these cats, I refer to many of the TTouches, so if you would like to see demos of these TTouches, please visit my youtube site at http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat

Milla, a lovely tortoise-shell cat, was extremely friendly, purring up a storm. She gets so excited for attention that she can get overstimulated, so I give her frequent breaks, doing abalone TTouches and LLama TTouches, which use large surfaces of the hand, as they are less intense than other TTouches. I also did some ear strokes with her, which can be very calming.


Honey is very sensitive, so I generally use TTouches which use the back of my hand, so I did the chimp TTouch and llama TTouch with her, which she finds calming. I just do a few TTouches at a time, giving her frequent breaks.

Kitty (above) and Blackie 2 (below) are both very sweet now. They are in the same cage, and both came right out of the cage and onto the couch with me today for ear strokes, ear circles and, as they tend to be on the more gentle, timid side, I did soothing touches using larger surfaces of my hand such as the abalone TTouch (circular TTouch using my whole hand) and the llama TTouch (circular TTouch using the back of the fingers). Both were extremely responsive to these TTouches.

Blackie can be quite sensitive, so with her, I generally do mostly TTouches around her head area, then work in some of the larger TTouches going down her body, for example, doing an abalone TTouch and then a stroke going down her body, then giving her a break to see what she wants to do. The jelly scrubber is also something she really enjoys.

Bastet is very sweet. She is reticent about coming out of her cage, though, so I did TTouches on her in the cage. She really settled into them, purring and drrooooling. Drooling is something that some cats do when they are very cozy, which seems to be the case with her :) I did ear strokes, abalone TTouches and hair slides with her.

Ices (or Isis, sometimes her cage has one spelling and sometimes the other) is more brave than she was last week but still is on the shy side as far as coming out of the cage or interacting with the other cats when they are out of the cage. She preferred to remain in the cage today. She started rubbing her head against me as I did the TTouches with her. I did llama TTouches, clouded leopard TTouches going down her bac, and slow abalone TTouches. She became very relaxed and at ease as I did this.

Today I let Hank (below), Kobie (below that) and Lee (below Kobie) out at the same time. Hank and Kobie are quite comfortable and social, and Lee loves people and gets along with Hank - they were playing together, which was very cute.

I alternated between the three cats, doing TTouch on one, then the other, so they were able to have some playtime as well as some TTouch time. This worked quite well for these three, as they are active and generally extremely eager to get out of their cages.

Lee has the most amazing face, he is so expressive! his eyes can't help but touch your heart.

Last but not least was sweet Marette. What seems to be most comfortable for her is for me to sit on the floor, with my legs bent up. She likes to walk underneath my legs, and I do TTouch on her on either side. Today she really settled in when I did some TTouches on her forehead with my fingernail. The forehead can be an area which is extremely relaxing for shy cats, and it is usually best to work with a small finger surface there. I like to use my fingernail as it is a back surface of the finger, therefore more gentle.

Thanks one and all! look forward to seeing you all soon.

Mayor's Alliance Rescue Cats: May 30

It was a pleasure, as always, to go to work with the rescue cats from the Mayor's Alliance.

Munchie (above and below) is very sweet, he started weaving all around me, rubbing against my hand. I did clouded leopard circular touches combined with a stroke going down his body. Ear strokes were especially comforting for him. As you can see by the pic above, he really cuddled in and got comfortable with me today.

Hank is a very affectionate cat, but as you can see by his big eyes, he can get a bit over-excited, so I tend to do TTouches on him using the back surfaces of my hand, which are less intense.

Below is Kobie.

Kobie is a lively little young cat. He likes to walk back and forth past me, so I often do a circle and a stroke down one side of his body, then the other, as he walks by.

Blackie is sweet but can get over-stimulated, I use the jelly scrubber to do TTouches with her, which she finds comforting. Abalone TTouches, which use the whole hand, are also great to do with her as the energy is dispersed over a larger area so they are less apt to be over-stimulating.

Blackie 2 (above) and Kitty, who are both in the same cage, both jumped out of the cage immediately today, very excited for attention. When they first arrived in the shelter, they were on the shy side, not feeling comfortable coming out of their cage. I di dllama, clouded leopardand chimp TTouches connected going down their bodies. Both came up on the couch with me for attention. both at once and then they took turns.

Honey (below) always seems to crave attention but short little bursts with her are best, as she is ultra-sensitive and gets irritated if you have contact with her for too long a period of time. I generally mostly do Raccoon and chimp TTouches around her head and a few chimp TTouches or llama TTouches on her body, then either give a break or go back to working on the head.

Isis (below) is a new kitty there. I started out working with her with a paingbrush on the sides of her head, then rolled the paintbrush along the sides of her body. As I worked with her, she started to rub her face against me. She startles easily so I gave frequent breaks, letting her come to me to initiate contact. After a while I began to transition to using the back of my hand for TTouches with her, and she really relaxed into it.

Lee gets more comfortable all the time but he still gets startled easily with any sudden sound or movement. The TTouches using the larger surfaces of the hand, such as the abalone and llama TTouches, work best with him.

Marette still is very sensitive and will startle easily, but I had a breakthrough with her today. I started out by doing some llama TTouches and abalone TTouches going down her back. Then I tried doing some little TTouches around her forehead area using the back of my finger (actually my fingernail). She literally stopped in her tracks and really began to relax into the TTouch, purring. It was a great sound to hear coming from her! and wonderful to make this connection and feel her become so comfortable today.

Mila is friendly and sweet but can become over-stimulated, so I do TTouches with her which use the back of my hand. These are less intense than TTouches using the front of the hand.

Bastet is a new, lovely black cat with golden eyes (didn't get a pic of her today). She is very friendly, and came right to the front of the cage, rubbing against my hand. I did chimp TTouches on her head area, followed by circular TTouches followed by a long stroke going down her body. I didn't want to overwhelm her, since she is new, so I kept the session short.

Thanks all, look forward to seeing you soon!