The Cat Loft at BARC Shelter - Sept. 4

Today I went again to BARC shelter out in Brooklyn to work on the cats.

Below is one of the resident cats who is quite a character, Cody. He loves to come and sit on your lap. You do need to watch his body language though, as he can get over-stimulated with too much attention, so a short time span with him is ideal. He is really a sweetheart though.

Mrs. Skeffington, pictured below, is a dear senior kitty. She especially responded to ear TTouches and clouded leopard touches, she really settled and stretched out as I worked on her.

Patches seemed a bit under the weather today, and not really in a mood to be touched, so today I did Reiki on her, keeping my hands about five inches away from her. She really started to relax as I sent Reiki to her in this way, and contentedly went into a Reiki nap.

I also worked on kittens Teddy (below) and his cagemate FDR (the grey and white kitten pictured below Teddy. Again, FDR was more shy, but they both are becoming more comfortable being touched. I tood them out of the cage one by one, sitting in a chair right by the cage so they could just jump back in if they wanted to, but they each settled in and stretched out on my lap as I did some clouded leopard TTouches down one side of the body and then the other, and some quite firm ear strokes going from the base all the way out to the tip of their ears.

The kitty pictured below is Pan. He is one of the cats loose in the shelter and I didn't get around to TTouching him today, but he is a very sweet guy and, as you can see, very handsome!

Mike and Marie are two dear little kittens. Below they are sniggled together, and you can barely see where one begins and the other ends, it looks almost like a two-headed kitten! They are very bonded with each other and extremely friendly. They respond to ear TTouches, mouth TTouch and raccoon or clouded leopard ttouches on their bodies.

Below is Clarice, who, as you can see, got quite sleepy after some TTouch and her cagemate and pal Billy Joel was also quite responsive. He initially was towards the back of the cage but once I started to do a few strokes with the back of my hand down his body, he came to the front of the cage for TTouch, and I mostly did strokes and circles down his body as he walked back and forth, rubbing himself against my hand.

I also worked again on Cher, who I need to get a good picture of. She is a tabby with very striking markings who can really get worked up easily, so I have been using two long-handled brushes that look as though they are used for putting sauce on barbecue - long metal handles with a brush on the end. As she becomes engaged in play with one of the brushes, I do circles and strokes on her body with the other brush. Little by little I am able to do a bit more work on her with this technique.

Thanks to all these wonderful animals and I look forward to seeing tham again.

Sept. 2 at BARC Shelter

Today I went again to work on the cats in the Cat Loft at BARC shelter in Brooklyn. The lovely girl pictured above is named Cher. This is not the most flattering photo, I'll have to get a better one next time I go! I happened to snap the photo when she was enjoying her food. She can tend to swat, so I used a tool which looks like something probably used to brush sauce on a barbecue - a metal rod with a brush at the end. I did some circles and strokes on her body with this, and her reaction was very interesting. I could tell she was experiencing a new sensation. She seemed to enjoy being brushed and stroked a bit with it. She is very sensitive so I just did a little bit, then stopped and closed her cage, then started again. She did want to play with it after a while, so I should try again with her using two of these so she can play with one while I do circles and strokes on her with the other.



Pictured above is Mrs. Skeffington. She is a gorgeous, sweet senior female cat. Her fur is very soft and she is very gentle and sweet. I did circles, strokes and some zigzag touches on her back and she really responded to these, she became quite relaxed and settled. I also did some Reiki with my hands near her lower back. As some animals do, after finishing my session with her, she was thirsty and went to drink some water.

I again spent a good deal of time with the two semi-feral youngsters pictured above, Mittens and Muffin. Every time I see them, they are more and more comfortable being touched. Before I tell you about that, below are a couple of pictures of Mittens checking out a picture of a cat :)

When I approached their cage, Mittens (below) was lying with her face against the cage. I wondered if she would let me touch her, so I tried doing a few small circles on the side of her face with my fingernail. She responded to this and so I did a little more on her this way, then opened the cage and little by little, I found that I was able to do TTouch on the outside of her mouth, the base of ears, and then clouded leopard and chimp TTouches down her body right down to the base of her tail. She laid down on her side and started to rub her face against me a bit, she got very relaxed! I then did some circles and strokes on her cagemate Muffin with the long handled paintbrush I have been using, At first Muffin wanted to play with the brush, but then as she got into it she was very responsive to having circles and strokes done on her back and she stretched out. I worked on these two several times while I was there, giving them breaks in beween. Later on, I was able to TTouch Muffin with my hand as well, but for a shorter time. Mittens got more and more comfortable being touched with my hand as the day went on.

Below are Marie (left) and Mike (right). They are two darling kittens.

In the picture below it looks like Marie is the vocal one, but it is actually Mike who will squeek to let you know he would like some attention. They are both very dear. I took them one by one out of the cage, staying near the cage so neither one remaining would feel too neglected. Then I did little circles on both of their backs simultaneously while they were in their cage, and they began to vigorously chomp away on their wet food. It was very cute! but it was also another example of the many times when I have seen TTouch prompt a kitten or cat to eat, which is great.

The gorgeous sweet girl below is Gary. She looked at me as though she wanted some attention and so I did some chimp TTouches on her head, and then some abalone touches and chimp touches on her body. I did these all at a slow tempo and as you can see here, she got very relaxed. And, as happens sometimes in the moment of a real heart connection

between me and the animal, I felt tears well up in my eyes - and I let her know that she was ok, she was safe, that she is loved. As I am writing this post a bit after the fact, I am able to share with you the lovely news that sometime in the next couple of days she was adopted!