Charles and Leo get Adopted, and Update on Sparkle

Some lovely adoption news: I just heard that Leo and Charles were adopted together, that is so sweet to hear! Have to wish these two sweet friends much happiness in their new home.

When I started volunteering at Social Tees shelter over a year ago, both these guys were amongst the so-called "feral cats" who are loose in the shelter but were afraid of people. They would hide out in the highest places in the shelter and would not let you touch them at all. Through offering treats, TTouch and gentle approaches to socialization by me and some of the other volunteers, these two and subsequently some of the other "ferals" have become friendly and adoptable.

A few other cats who had been at the shelter a while were also adopted in the past couple of days.

And another update: I ran into the woman who adopted Sparkle, who had arrived at Social Tees as a terrified feral kitten and after months of careful, gradual work she became much more social, though still shy, and was adopted. The woman said Sparkle was doing great! that she was getting along with her other cats very well and was becoming very sweet and friendly with her.

Sparkle Gets Adopted

Some surprising adoption news: our kitty Sparkle, who arrived as a feral kitten, was adopted this past week.

Sparkle and her buddy Wally had been put into the window enclosure with our big friendly cat Big Al, and Sparkle came right up to the window a few times and made a connection with the woman who adopted her.

I spoke to the woman and explained, of course, that Sparkle is still very shy and at this point will only tolerate minimal contact, but that over time, I felt she would become more and more comfortable. The woman has six cats, all of whom are friendly and one is super-friendly, so I felt certain that there would be at least one cat who Sparkle would be able to bond with. I was a bit sad to separate her and Wally, but the woman and her husband were so kind and understanding, I felt that this would work out all right. I offered to work with them to help the socialization process as well.

A while after Sparkle left, I went to see how Wally was doing. I was surprised that he really seemed to be all right, he was super-friendly and enjoying having attention. He is such a charming cat, I'm sure he will have a home soon. I wish Sparkle all the best in her new home with all her new friends :)

Sparkle's Continued Journey

Sparkle is one of the more challenging kitties I have worked with. When she arrived, she was 2 1/2 to three months old and, I think, completely feral. She was absolutely terrified of any contact whatsoever. She was always hunched up in the back of the cage and hissed and swatted at any motion anywhere in her direction. I started out working with her with feathers, back scratcher, a dowel with an ace bandage on it, etc and could only do a few touches at a time at first. She seemed to like the back of the hand of the back scratcher and I found I could calm the hissing by doing little circles on her forehead and around her ears with that.

We thought we could help her by putting her with a friendly cat, so we put her with Wally, a friendly grey and white guy who is maybe 2-3 years old, and before long, they were cuddling together. He made her much more at ease and though she still would hiss upon having her cage opened, you could tell she was much more comfortable and she has become increasingly playful. Now she is very often right in the front of her cage, acting very playful, sticking her paw out and trying to play with cats on either side.

Little by little I worked up to having more and more contact with her, until I was doing TTouch on her using gardening gloves to protect my hands. Lately I have been able to do TTouch on her using my hand with no gloves, doing little raccoon touches around her forehead, neck, mouth, as well as some ear strokes.

Yesterday I had a big surprise. I began with Sparkle doing the raccoon touches on her head, and felt her being more receptive to me, without the initial resistance of one hiss-swat and then a little flinch, which relaxes once I touch her. sooo I decided to take the next step, and began doing some connected chimp touches and clouded leopard touches going down one side of her body, and the other, and felt her actually relax into it. I didn't continue too long as I didn't want to push the issue, so I gave her a break and then was able to do this again. I also was able to do ear strokes on her with a more firm touch than I had ever been able to do before. Her friend Wally even seemed to look at me as though he was a bit surprised :)

This girl has come such a long way and I thank her for trusting me and I look forward to continuing to work with her :)

Update on Sparkle

Sparkle is a feral kitten who I have been working on for a couple of months or so. She is one of the most challenging cats I have met so far, as she is SO fearful. She still will hiss and spit, and sometimes swat, when first approached, but she is much more curious and outgoing than before, and seems to really long for contact. She now is mostly in the front of her cage, reaching out to anyone who passes by (especially me or some of the other volunteers who she is familiar with), and sometimes trying to play with someone in a cage adjacent to hers. She is growing, as she must be about 5 months old now, and is long and slim, her body type seems similar to some Siamese cats. We still have her in a cage with Wally, who is a very sweet grey and white adult kitty, and they cuddle together.

Sometimes recently I had been sneaking my hand onto Sparkle when the two of them were cuddling, putting my hand on Wally first and then going around the back of him to the back of her head and doing some TTouch on her that way. A few days ago, I decided to take a plunge and try touching her directly. In order to protect my hands, I have been wearing some rather thick, but snug-fitting gardening gloves, so I can be protected but still feel what I am doing. At first she will still hiss at me, but once I begin to do some raccoon touches on her head, she will settle down for a few minutes. I have been keeping these sessions short, as I don't want to push the issue too much, but if feels like she is beginning to get used to the contact. This is such an interesting ongoing adventure -- Sparkle is teaching me so much about being in the moment and being patient, and letting go of any expectations I might have.

Update on Sparkle: Getting Closer!

Sparkle is one of the most challenging kitties I have worked with. I have little by little been able to TTouch on her with a plastic back scratcher (using the back of the hand on the back scratcher), and recently we put her with a friendly young boy cat named Wally, and he has helped her to feel much more comfortable. I have also had help with her from other volunteers, particularly one named Britt, who I showed how to use the back scratcher with Sparkle. It is good to have more than one person doing this, so she doesn't just get used to me touching her this way.

A couple of days ago, both she and Wally were on the shelf of the cage, she was nestled in front of him. I began to do TTouch on his head with my right hand, and I did some circles and strokes on her head with the back scratcher with the other hand. At one point, I moved my right hand behind her head and began to do little circles on the back of her neck and head. I was still holding the back scratcher with the other hand, which helped distract her a bit, and she ended up settling into the TTouch I was doing on her with my hand. I could barely believe it, and had to consciously remind myself to keep breathing and try not to be nervous about it. I stayed there just a few minutes, as I did not want to push the issue. Afterwards, I was not able to get back to that place, but I'm sure I will soon. As one of the TTouch sayings goes, "Moments, not minutes", meaning it is the quality of time, not the amount of time, that really matters.

Yesterday I was speaking with my friend Eileen and standing in front of Wally and Sparkle's cage, and Sparkle pawed me through the cage, as though to encourage me to touch her. This was truly a first! I had never seen her actually seek attention from a person before. She still is scared to be actually touched, but she is SO much more comfortable. Often she will sit in front of the cage, and, as you see in the picture above, she gets very cozy with her buddy Wally. I still will have to start out doing TTouch on her with the back scratcher at first, but am hoping for her to gradually feel more comfortable with feeling a human hand.

The Journey of Sparkle

Little Sparkle (pictured above, looking much more comfortable than a few weeks ago when she first arrived) is the most challenging kitty I have come across in a long time. We think that she must be feral -- she seems to have had no previous human contact. She is very afraid to be touched and will generally explosively hiss and swat when approached. Initially, most of the time she would crouch in the back of the litter box. We think she is probably 3-4 months old. I am calling her Sparkle because I wanted to give her a very positive name, and her beautiful green eyes do truly sparkle in the midst of her shiny black fur. When I first began to try to initiate contact with her, I used a long feather. A couple of times, once I started to do some little circles on her head with the feather, she began to settle down and relax her eyes. However, I soon felt that she wanted a longer distance between us, so I tried doing circles and strokes on her head with a paint brush. This would be ok off and on, but still I felt that for my safety and hers (as she was still trying to swat at me with claws out on initial contact), I wanted to use something even longer.

My good TTouch friend Marge Piatak had given me a plastic back-scratcher a while back, and this seemed to be the perfect thing - it is made out of smooth plastic and is very long, and by using the back side of the scratcher (the smooth side, not the scratching side), with very gentle touch, this seemed to be the most comfortable surface I had tried yet for Sparkle. Thanks so much Marge! I tried wrapping an ace bandage around the end of this to see if a more textured surface feels better, but it seemed that the texture irritated her, so I went back to just using the scratcher.

Meanwhile, a very sweet couple is very interested in adopting Sparkle, though they know she will take a while to be used to human contact. They have been coming by the shelter, and I show them what I am doing with her to try to get her used to me. They have already adopted a gentle, big Russian blue boy cat, who could be a very calming influence on Sparkle. For a couple of days, we had a very socialized little kitten in the shelter, and we put him in with Sparkle with some trepidation. I watched them closely to make sure that nothing dangerous was happening. The friendly kitten soon learned he had to keep his distance at least for a while, and later on I saw both of them squished next to each other in the litter box. The friendly kitten was soon adopted, so I waited until there was a good candidate for a new friend for her. About a week or so later, we put Sparkle in with a young adult male (about a year old) who we call Wally. Wally is the sweetest, most gentle kitty and he welcomed Sparkle by touching noses with her (she didn't hiss at him, either), and though she was probably a bit skeptical at first, they were comfortable with each other in no time, sharing food, and sitting next to each other. She still hisses when we try to touch her, so I am still using the back scratcher to do TTouch circles and strokes on her, primarily on her head -- and she particularly likes to be touched on her forehead, top of the head and stroked on the ears.

By the end of another day, they started to snuggle on the shelf together sometimes. In general, she seems so much more comfortable than she was in a cage by herself. Today I noticed that after she was hissing because she was afraid when the cage was opened, Wally began to groom her, licking her head, trying to calm her. Very sweet!


Above you see her looking skeptical still of humans, but perfectly comfortable next to Wally.

The woman who wants to adopt her came in a couple of days ago, just as I was thinking about her and wanting to give her a call to give her an update. I showed her how to do circles and strokes on Sparkle with the back scratcher, and encouraged her to try. I did TTouch on Wally in the meantime to keep him busy. Sparkle hissed at first, but quickly calmed down as the woman touched her with the scratcher. I had not told her that TTouch circles generally go clockwise, so she was intuitively doing counterclockwise circles, but they were working, so I just let her keep going. She said that the big grey cat they had adopted was now very comfortable in their home. He is a very friendly guy, so I feel pretty certain he would be welcoming to Sparkle. The woman wanted to talk the situation over with her boyfriend, and we'll see what happens next. I wouldn't be surprised if they come to pick up this little girl very soon. If and when they do, I will give them some more tips that hopefully will make help her acclimation to their new home to go at least relatively smoothly. I wish them all the best and have to thank Wally so much for his help. I also would like to give my friend, animal communicator Eileen Garfinkel, for her help in communicating with Sparkle, as well as the others at the shelter who have been very understanding and respectful of her. Below you see her taking a nap with her new pal Wally.