My Journey with Peaches at Bideawee

Peaches was a dear, gentle, senior cat friend who I worked with at Bideawee in Westhampton starting in 2015, when I started coming to Westhampton to work with the kitties (and occasionally a dog).  I enjoyed each moment I spent working with him, and so was very sad to hear of his passing recently.  Following is a bit about how he came to Bideawee, and then about our journey and work together. 

Peaches had come to Bideawee in 2012 with mom Penelope and five siblings when their owner passed away.  They had been clearly loved and well cared for by their owner.  Bideawee gives all their animals such love and care, and the kitties were able to live in the spacious, lovely cat rooms they have.  These rooms are beautifully set up for the cats' comfort, with ramps, cat trees, cat beds, scratching posts, and toys.  All the kitties except for Penelope and Peaches were adopted.

Peaches was a very shy boy, and so of course I was eager to work with him.  He would run away when people approached him, and would usually go way up high in the room, or to the back of a crate in the room to get away from people.

I wanted to allow Peaches to slowly become accustomed to me in a way that would feel safe to him.  In my first sessions, I did Reiki with him from a short distance away.  If he was way up high, I would stand on a chair so I could see him, but still could be a good distance away.  I also did TTouches off the body, as you see here:

Feeling the gentle energy of the TTouches and Reiki from a distance helped him to feel more comfortable, and slowly he began to be more at ease in my presence.

The next wonderful discovery I made was that he liked treats.  Treats can be a wonderful way for a cat to learn that they can be safe near you, and they begin to associate you with something that they really enjoy.  Following is a video which shows how I incorporated treats with TTouch and Reiki to help dear Peaches feel more at ease. 

Now when he saw me coming into the room, he began running towards me instead of away.  Yes, it was for the treats, but later on, I was able to approach him for affection without the "bribery".  Also, in our sessions he was comfortable for longer and longer periods without using treats.

In the video above. you see me brushing him with a "mini jelly scrubber" brush - which is most often used for horses, but I found out about it in the TTouch training, as many cats enjoy being TTouched (or, I found out later, brushed) with it. You can see how he settles into touch for longer periods of time without the treats.
In the video below, you can see him enjoying contact more and more.  And in the last section, I had approached him quietly while he was cozy in the sun, and he relaxed into the TTouches with no treats being used.

The large room that he lived in (with some other cats) has big windows in the front that go over the top as well.  So on a sunny day, the light pours in, and there are cozy places for the cats to hang out in these sunny spots.

When I think of Peaches now, that moment we had of TTouch with the light shining on us comes back to me.  Truly a magical moment in time, a beautiful moment of inner and outer light and connection.

I looked forward to each time that I worked with dear Peaches, and felt our heart connection grow stronger each time.  I felt so honored that he felt safe with me, that he was enjoying these moments of closeness and contact.
And I heard that some other people were able to have more contact with Peaches as well, which was great to hear.
As we continued working, he continued making progress, and in this last session that I filmed, he realized he really enjoyed scratches and TTouches around his head.  He was purring and pushing into my hand.  Such a joyful session with him!

Not too long ago, I had noticed that Peaches was feeling more frail, and so I mentioned it to the Bideawee staff. Bideawee's vet checked him out completely with full bloodwork, etc and nothing showed up.  So it must have been a shock when Bideawee's Animal Care Supervisor Amy discovered that Peaches had passed away in his sleep. Amy has his ashes, and there is a photo of him up where his cage card used to be, to honor the sweet kitty.
Following is a strappo monotype I did of him a while ago.

I will always remember Peaches.  His gentle smile and sweet soul will live in my heart forever.

I will always picture him basking in the sun, with the sun coming in through the windows, with a beautiful smile on his face, glowing with light and joy.  Love you always, Peaches!  Thank you for all that you taught me, shared with me, and all that you gave to me.  xoxo

TTouch and Reiki at Bideawee: Ashanti - The Power of Patience

Ashanti is a lovely young black and white male cat with light green eyes that stare right into your heart.

I am sure he has touched the hearts of all who have met him at Bideawee.

He arrived at Bideawee in bad shape with a very badly injured paw.  They gave him great medical care, so he is doing much better now.  However, he seems fearful in a way that has led us to suspect he may have been abused.  He is extremely afraid of hands.

The wonderful Bideawee keepers of the cats (Jon and Kerrie) have been working with him to help him to feel safe and to encourage him to play, and he has gradually become more confident and less reactive.

I have been working with him with Reiki from a short distance, with TTouches using various tools, and with clicker training to help him feel at ease.  I also made a custom Bach Flower remedy for him.

Clicker training is something I have recently incorporated into the work I do.  I am finding that it can benefit so many different personality types - it can help bring a shy cat out of its shell, can help to focus a hyperactive cat, and it Ashanti's case, it seems to help both his confidence and his focus, and it is a way of connecting with him that does not need to involve direct touch.  He is in a larger cage with shelves, and I have had him jumping across the cage from shelf to shelf in the process of the training.  I will describe more about that in a separate post.

I particularly wanted to a recent TTouch session with him, because I think it is a good example of just how important patience is when working with with any animal, but especially an animal who is fearful.

As he is so scared of a hand coming towards him, his reaction to anything coming towards his face can be to bite.  So before even beginning the TTouch session, I usually sit quietly by him and share Reiki energy with him for a few moments (in this case, he was in his cage, though he is let out of the cage on a regular basis).  This gives me a chance to establish a quiet energy and connection with him.

Then I started working with him a bit with a fan-shaped brush (the brush part is smallish, maybe an inch wide at the widest part).  His initial reaction was to bite at the brush.  I tried this a few times, and he still bit at the brush, instead of allowing me to stroke him with it.

At this point, one could easily give up or think that the biting is what he is going to do every time.  However, I wanted to see what would happen if I gave him a break and tried again.  So I sat calmly by his cage a bit longer, and he began to get into a calmer energy.  Next time I tried it, he may have pawed a little bit at it.  So I paused again, continuing to send him energy and saying (silently) to him that everything was all right.

Ashanti had been moving around a bit, and at this point he started to settle.  So I tried again.  This time he did not bite or paw at the brush.  I began to do TTouch circles with the fan brush on his forehead, and he began to relax into them.  He laid his head down and became completely relaxed as I worked with him.

He was in such a snoozy mode that I decided to carefully try touching him a bit with my hand.  The first thing I did was to just use the back of one finger (actually just the flat part of my fingernail) to do some TTouches on his forehead.  He was very comfortable with that, so I continued for a while.  Gradually I found that he was comfortable with me gently stroking and doing circular TTouches with the back of the top part of several fingers on his head.  It was truly lovely to feel that direct connection with him, to feel him totally at ease with it, to feel that trust.

I know that this may not happen every day with him, but I do think with time and patience, he will feel more and more comfortable connecting with people.  I feel his soulfulness in his sweet eyes, and know that the personality behind his fear is coming forward more and more every day.

Below is a photo of me TTouching him with a paintbrush when he is out of the cage - it was great that he felt comfortable doing this :)

Thank you to all the dear Bideawee people for helping Ashanti and all the animals there :)

If At First You Don't Succeed . . . Keep Trying! TTouch with Harriet at BARC Shelter

Harriet is a beautiful grey tabby who my friend Jill rescued, along with her kittens, some months ago.  The rescue was a feat in itself, involving climbing around a rather perilous construction site on the Lower East Side.  I had the pleasure of helping take care of both Harriet and her kittens for a while when Jill was fostering them. 

Harriet's kittens were all adopted quickly, but Harriet is still awaiting adoption at BARC Shelter.  She was quite comfortable when being fostered and out of a cage, but being in the cage and at the shelter is hard for her.  She has not been comfortable being touched directly with a hand (except for when Jill has come to visit her), so I have been doing Reiki from a short distance, trying different TTouch tools, and recently started a Bach Flower remedy with her.

Up until about a week ago, Harriet's response to any TTouch tools (paintbrushes, back scratchers, and the like) was to swat repeatedly and become agitated, which of course was not what we wanted to happen.  The purpose of the tools is to give the animal and you distance, so that you both feel safe.  Anyway, at one point I gave Harriet a break from the tools, just doing Reiki from a short distance, speaking to her in a soft voice, doing whatever I could to help her to be more comfortable.  I gave her the Bach Flower remedy on treats, so of course the treats were pleasing to her.  Betty, one of my fellow volunteers at BARC, found that one of her iPhone apps, the Pocket Pond, seemed to be comforting for Harriet.  When Jill came to visit Harriet, she sometimes read to her in a calm voice, which Harriet found calming.


Still, I felt there had to be a tool that would be acceptable to Harriet.  Last week I decided to try using a feather toy with a very long handle to do some TTouches on Harriet.  I kept the cage door closed so she would not feel like I was trying to touch her with my hand at all.  At first she tried to swat at it, but I kept speaking to her in a calm voice and tried doing a few slow, small TTouch circles on her back with the tool.  To my surprise, she started to settle into it.  I kept slowing the circles down, letting Reiki energy flow at the same time, so she would have the relaxing flow of the energy as well as the TTouches.  I was also seeing, as I worked with her, that it was clear she was much more comfortable being touched on the body than on the head (the opposite is true for many cats, but sometimes especially feral cats can be shy of being touched around her head).  However, in subsequent sessions, I started to be able to touch her a bit around her head as well.  Interestingly enough, I found out that Jayne, the main keeper of the cats at BARC, had started to be able to touch Harriet a bit with the back scratcher.

Then, last Saturday, which is when I filmed the following video, a breakthrough happened.  When I began to TTouch Harriet with the feather toy, she was much more responsive than I had ever seen her, leaning into it, rubbing into it, even turning so that I would touch her head with it.  It was confirmation to me of how flexible we have to be when working with these animals - that what we might think to be true one day can change the next, or sometimes when we are wondering if we are making any progress, something happens to reassure us that we are on the right track.  When one thing doesn't work, we need to keep trying different approaches, because at some point something will click!  In this case, I think it was a combination of elements -- perhaps, most importantly, the continual positive intention on the part of all who have been working to connect with her -- and, perhaps, for Harriet, the growing feeling that people were in her corner and ready to open their hearts to her.

I have had a couple of sessions with Harriet since this, and have seen the same positive reaction, which is a delight to see.  I am going to share what I did with other volunteers so that we can reinforce the work to help Harriet to be more and more comfortable each day.  I know that eventually she will be comfortable being touched while in the cage, but we have to let her guide us. 

TTouch and Reiki at Bideawee: Quieting the Space with Panther

Panther is a handsome long-haired black cat at Bideawee shelter who was rescued, along with his sister Samantha, when they were being evicted from the store where they were living.  Samantha is extremely outgoing, whereas Panther is very shy.

His beautiful, quiet energy does remind me of a panther, and I have been mindful to especially quiet my own energy down when working with him.

Quieting the space can happen in a few ways.  First comes quieting down my own energy.  Then, in the process of Reiki, TTouch, or both, the energy from these modalities feels like it literally changes the feeling in the space, even the texture of the air.

Panther is in a room (called a "resort") with several other cats.  There are toys, things to climb on (great use of vertical space in these rooms) and some nice little hidey spaces for privacy so he is quite comfortable there.  Bideawee puts a lot of care into how the rooms are set up and which cats are together so that everyone can be comfortable.

When I first started working with Panther, he seemed so scared that I decided that the best way to start with him was to share Reiki with him, at a short distance.  If he was on an upper level in the room, I would sit down and just begin to offer it from where I was, and he would gradually come closer to where I was.  If he was down on a lower level, I would stand a couple of feet from where he was.  Little by little, I would see signs of him absorbing the energy: his eyes closing, his body starting to relax. 

At times, I would then see if I could do TTouches or strokes with him with a paintbrush or feather.  Sometimes, even this remote contact seemed a little much for him, so I would go back to doing Reiki from a short distance.  Other times, he would start to enjoy the contact, especially being stroked under his chin.  Being touched on his body was too overwhelming.  

So I would try to take the cues from him of where he was for any particular day, but then gently see if I could nudge him forward a bit, try something new.  Even if we seemed to go two steps forward and one back at times, I always felt we were continually moving forward and gradually establishing trust. 

I have found in general, that if he is in an enclosed place, he feels safer about being approached and is more apt to be responsive to TTouch. 

Yesterday, he was on a lower level and in the little enclosure you see in the photos that is part of a cat tree in the room.  He was looking out of one opening, and there was an opening on the side that I could put my hand through.  I didn’t want to move my hand towards his face, as that would have scared him. 

I started out by sending him Reiki from where I was (I was kneeling down so I was lowering my body position), and he soon was blinking and closing his eyes.  I spoke to him softly, telling him ahead of time what I was going to try (usually this I would do silently). Then I gently put the paintbrush through the side opening and began to do TTouch circles with him on his forehead.  He immediately began to relax into it, instead of his initial reaction being to pull away.  I would do a little bit, then pause, and then try a little more.  I stroked him underneath his chin with the paintbrush and he started to lean into it a little bit.  For him, this was very good progress.  In the clip above, you will see just a few moments of my work with him.  Such a pleasure to see him start to relax and close his eyes.

Then I decided to try something new.  I began to send him Reiki holding one hand a few inches above his solar plexus chakra (in the middle of the back).  One of the things this chakra has to do with is confidence, sense of self.  I felt a good amount of heat there.  After a bit, I just stroked him lightly, a few strokes, on his upper back, and he was ok with that.  I kept sending him Reiki.  In addition to Reiki near the solar plexus chakra, I also sent him Reiki directed at his heart chakra, which is in the center of the upper back, as I feel this is an area that could use healing. 

Then after a few minutes, I tried a few TTouch circles with him on his upper back. He was a tiny bit tentative but didn't pull away, even settled a bit.  I was doing circular TTouches with much of my hand in contact, either Lying Leopard TTouch or Abalone TTouch (see my youtube channel for demos).  This was the first time that he didn’t pull away and get frightened when I made contact in that area of his body.  Such a delight to feel him start to settle into the TTouches, to feel that connection, to feel that trust.

I didn’t want to push it so I didn’t do this too many times.  Something to always remember is that a little bit can be a LOT for a frightened animal, and generally less is more. 

I worked with a couple of other cats who are in the same room with Panther, then came back to him for a few moments, working with him around his head with the paintbrush, and again he was comfortable. 

Each time I went to work with him again, and each time I have worked with him previously, I have had in my consciousness the idea of quieting the space, quieting the space.

When I left the room, he was relaxed and blinking and closing his eyes.  Look forward to working with you again soon Panther!!!!

And thanks to all the people at Bideawee for all the love and care they give to these special creatures :)

Moment to Moment with Mrs. P and Mrs. Q

 

Mrs. P (above) and Mrs. Q (below) are two beautiful young cats who were feral or at least semi-feral, who had been rescued and brought into BARC Shelter at the same time.  Both cats were terrified upon first arriving at the shelter.  Mrs. Q was literally climbing the walls of her cage at first, whereas Mrs. P curled up in a ball at the back of her cage. 

With a cat who is new in the shelter, I most often approach them with a tool of some kind, to give them some space, and for the safety of both the animal and me, as I am often not sure how they will react to being touched.  I started with Mrs. P with a back scratcher, which has a long handle, which is especially helpful in this situation so that I didn't have to lean way into the cage, as she was all the way at the back. 

After a few TTouch circles and strokes with the scratcher, it was clear that she was not aggressive at all, just very frightened.  I worked with her a little at a time, giving her breaks, and soon worked my hand down the back scratcher to touch her with my hands.  I did some hair slides, which are very calming (see my youtube channel http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat for a demo of this), as well as some of the circular TTouches.  Pretty soon she started to stretch out her body and become more comfortable.

I knew that I would have to go much more slowly with Mrs. Q.  The picture above is actually after I had worked with her a few times.  Before even opening her cage. I went to the side of the cage and tried an approach which I used with one of my cats, Emmylou, when she first arrived at the shelter.  The idea is to be as gentle and non-threatening as possible, and to go slowly to determine what they are comfortable with at that given moment.

What I did was to speak to her very softly and I didn't even touch her quite yet.  I used a paintbrush and stroked the air about an inch or two parallel to where her whiskers are.  So it was as if I was stroking her whiskers, only I was slightly in front of them.  I just did this a few times and stopped. 

After I moved the paintbrush out of the cage, Mrs. Q got more relaxed, changing her body position to a much more relaxed position, lying down with her front paws tucked under her body.  I tried this a few more times, and little by little she became more relaxed with me. 

The next time I worked with her, I started out the same way, and also did something else I had done with Emmylou that had worked very well.  I stroked gently down the front of her front legs, and down her paws.  I know, one would not necessarily think this would be something a cat would like! But I have seen some very scared cats respond to this approach.  I know that in TTouch for horses, people stroke down the legs of the horse with wands to comfort them, so there must be something neurologically calming about this.
After working with Mrs. Q a few times just through the cage, sitting to the side of her cage, then I was able to open her cage and begin to do TTouch circles on her body with a paintbrush.  As you can see from the photo above, at first she was a bit startled by this, but eventually the TTouches began to calm her.  I did TTouch circles with the paintbrush down the sides of her body, and along the sides of her mouth.  Once in a while I did some TTouches on the top of her head as well, but not till a bit later on, as this was a scarier area for her to be touched.  Each time, she would be a little nervous at first, but then each time I worked with her, the nervous time has gotten shorter and she has settled into touch more quickly.















Now I still start out by using the paintbrush, but can usually progress quickly to TTouching her directly with my hand.  I most often will start with the TTouches using the back of my hand, as that is less intense than the front of the hand.  I have to go a little bit at a time though, as she still can be nervous about this.  At times she is completely receptive, but other times I may just hold my hand still to send Reiki energy very gently, then do some more TTouches.

Mrs Q has been more and more interested in play as time has gone on, as well.  Many of the volunteers can play with her, and she is responsive to that.  Mrs. P has started to play a bit as well.

Meanwhile, Mrs P (below) was becoming more responsive to touch as well.  I was doing TTouches over most of her body, on her head, and even sometimes on her paws.  As you can see by the photo below, she will most often relax on her side and in this picture, she was very receptive to very light little circular TTouches on her paws.  Again, this was a surprise to me that she would be comfortable with me touching her paws, but when she is in the mood, it seems to be very calming for her. 

Recently I started another element to my work with these cats:  treats!  As both cats are much more comfortable, but still often remain at the back of their cages, I have wanted to see what I could do to encourage them to come forward. 

I have used baby food as a tool in socializing my cats Emmylou and Natalia, and have often used it in the past for socializing kittens.  All-meat baby food with no onions is what works best.  Gerber turkey in turkey gravy is what I most often use - I was advised of this by Mike Phillips, who runs Urban Cat League and from whom I took a wonderful seminar on working with feral cats.  It helps the cat learn not to be afraid of human hands coming in their direction, and they learn to gently lick, rather than bite, fingers.  Don't try this if you are working with an aggressive cat, because you could very well be scratched or bitten!! But with a non-agressive, shy cat of any age, this can be a wonderful tool. 
Both of these cats were reluctant at first to take the baby food. 
With Mrs. P, I found that if I did TTouch circles around her mouth area, then offered her the food and continued doing TTouches under her chin and around her head, she would take the food and then, as she got more comfortable, I started to be able to encourage her to come further and further forward in the cage.  At that point, at first I just let her take the food. then after a couple of times, I approached her diagonally with my other hand, going right to her back instead of her head, so I wouldn't scare her, and she was very comfortable with me TTouching her as she tood the food.  So sweet to see her coming forward!
With Mrs Q, it was a matter of patience, waiting for her to take the food. as she just looked at it at first, not quite comfortable with my finger being near her mouth.  Then I just touched my finger gently to her mouth, so a bit of the baby food was on the outside of her mouth, and once she licked it, she realized that it tasted very good.  She still was a little nervous about me being that close to her, so I just did it a few times with her, and will start leading her forward sometime soon.
It is beautiful to see how much progress these two creatures have made in a very short time, especially considering how terrified they were upon first entering the shelter.  They remind me a bit of my own two cats, who were just a few months older than these two when they were brought in from outside.  I know I am learning at least as much from them as they are from me, and I feel honored to spend time with these special beings and that they feel comfortable enough to connect with me.  And of course thank you to BARC shelter for all they do for the animals,