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!