TTouch and Reiki at BARC: Tuco's New Adventure

Tuco is a beautiful kitten who I have been working with for some weeks now. She was brought to BARC shelter by the police, and had apparently been abused by people - her face had been smashed, her jaw dislocated, teeth knocked out and the skin scraped off the front of her jaw. Her condition was very dire, so it was really touch and go at first, but thanks to all the medical help, care and love by the BARC vets and vet staff, BARC staff and volunteers, she was nursed back to health. But she had been severely traumatized and so it has taken some time to gain her trust. Every time I work with her, she is more and more brave, has gotten more and more comfortable with contact and now seeks contact and is very playful as well. I always use an extremely quiet energy with her, as she still can get a bit startled by sudden movements or sounds if you are working with her.
Yesterday she gave me such a huge surprise. First of all, when I opened her cage, she came right to the front to say hello, and tapped my leg with her paw. We did some TTouches, then she ran to the back of the cage, then came right back to the front, tapping my leg again. I wondered if she was considering coming out onto my lap. She was a bit unsure still though, and so after some TTouches ran to the back of her cage again, looking at me as you see here.
In the pic below, you can see she's a bit tentative, but I just kept talking to her gently, sending her gentle Reiki energy, and before I knew it...

out she came onto my lap! I held her there and she settled as I did gentle TTouches and strokes and hair slides, PURRRRING very loudly!

I wish I had some pix of her on my lap but I didn't want to scare her by getting my camera at that point :)

After a while, some movement in the space startled her so she went back in her cage, but then came out onto my lap again. We did this several times yesterday, and I could tell she was a bit frightened to come out but once she was there, she realized it was very comfortable. It was incredible to hear and feel this sweet creature purring, especially having in my mind the trauma she must have gone through before she arrived at BARC.

She also started to look around the room at her surroundings, and did jump off my lap at one point to explore. When Colin, our wonderful keeper of the cat loft, went to catch her, we were a bit afraid that she might be difficult to catch, but he has a very calm energy and was able to retrieve her very gracefully.
When she was back in her cage, she had a quizzical look like "What just happened?" I think she surprised herself with her courage. Much love to you Tuco, and thanks for trusting me. It is beautiful to see you coming out of a shell, and I feel it won't be long before you will be going to a furrever home. Thanks so much to all the wonderful BARC people for all you have done for her and all the animals at BARC.

Update on Tuco at BARC Shelter: Slowly Learning to Trust

Tuco is a beautiful kitten who was brought into BARC shelter some weeks ago by the police. She had apparently been abused by people who had hit her in the face. She has received veterinary care and a lot of love and attention from the BARC vets, staff and volunteers. I have been working with her very gently to help her to learn to trust people again. Other staff and volunteers have given her a lot of attention as well. She has been gradually coming out of her shell, which is amazing to see.
She will still start out a bit tentative, as you can see by the above photo, but now with me she will often walk right up to the front of the cage. Understandably, a big hurdle for her to deal with has been her fear of a hand coming towards her face or head. I may start out by doing some llama ttouches (circular ttouches with the back of my hand) along the sides of her body, but she has also gotten comfortable with circular TTouches with the back of my finger (actually my fingernail) on her forehead or the top of her head, as well as straight strokes going down the sides of her back. The back surfaces of our hands are less intense than the front, so usually I will at least begin with the back surfaces of my hand when working with her.

The past couple of times I have worked with her she has started doing something new. She has started pushing her head up into my hand (either the back of the hand or the front of the hand). I then will continue the stroke gently going down her back (using either the back or front of my hand). Once in a while she may get uncertain and get ready to swat at me (she has not been using her nails with me though, even when she does swat), so I will move away from her if I see her start to do that, then wait a moment and try again. It is wonderful to feel her moving forward into my hand rather than being tentative or moving away.

Sometimes she will still retreat to the back of the cage, but usually will shortly thereafter come to the front of the cage again, curious about what will happen next. I give her little breaks in between our moments of contact, so she doesn't feel crowded.

It is so important to remain in the moment and read the body language of fearful kittens and cats, to be respectful of what they are ready to do.
She has come a long way, and I think she just needs time and patience to continue to come around at her own pace. See you soon, Tuco! xo

TTouch and Reiki with Tuco: Learning to Trust

Tuco is a beautiful black kitten who the police brought to BARC shelter (http://barcshelter.org) several weeks ago. She had been abused, apparently hit in the face, and the skin on her jaw was completely scraped off, and teeth knocked out as well. She has received medical attention from the wonderful vets BARC uses and a lot of TLC from everyone. She was understandably terrified of people at first, but she has been feeling more and more confident and comfortable each time I see her. I noticed that she often gets frightened when a hand is coming towards her, especially towards her head or face area, so sometimes I will touch her on her back first. But most recently what I have tried is just very gently touching the top of her head with the back of my fingers, doing the lightest strokes and circular TTouches. This seems to help her to be more receptive to the approaching hand, instead of swatting at it or moving away.
And, what has been wonderful to see is that often after doing some of these gentle touches with her, she will move forward on her own for more contact. Sometimes she moves forward, then retreats again initially, but then I touch her again very lightly, first on the head, then some gentle strokes down the body using the back of my hand (which is less intense than the front surface, and she will start to come forward again. The other day, when I took these pictures, she surprised me by leaning completely into my hand and arm, and pushing into me, then rolling on her back.

As you can see below, I am only using the back of my index finger (actually my fingernail) to do some gentle circular TTouches on her. I am just touching with enough pressure to move the skin around in a circle and a quarter, and I make the circles slower and slower, for a more relaxing effect. It is so important, too, to slow your own mind down before beginning to work with a frightened animal. Sometimes it is as if I hear my thoughts slow down like a record going at a slower speed.
Another thing I do with her if she starts to get into a mode where she wants to swat at me rather than have my hand make contact, is to stop for a few minutes, just sending her Reiki energy from a couple of feet away. When I do this, I see her body start to relax. She usually will lie down and her eyes get very sleepy. And then I will try again with some gentle TTouches.

The picture below was right after she had pushed her head up into my hand and was looking a bit surprised about doing that, I think! But you can see that her body posture is stretched out and relaxed in these pictures, not hunched up and tense.

Over the past couple of weeks, Tuco has realized she loves to play. Sometimes, as in the picture below, her facial expression looks as if the act of playing is a new discovery to her. It is so lovely to see her fear melting away and her true sweet, whimsical personality come forth. Many thanks to all those at BARC who have been so kind and understanding to her, as they are to all the animals at BARC. See you soon! xo

TTouch and Reiki at BARC Shelter: Surrounding with Love: Tuco

Tuco is a beautiful black kitten who arrived at BARC shelter a couple of weeks ago. She was brought there by local police, and apparently had been abused by people - hit in the face. It is impossible to understand how anyone could hurt this sweet, defenseless creature. She was at the vet for a while, as she needed surgery and then needed to be monitored for a while. I had heard that she was feral and fearful.

So when I began to work with her, I didn't want to overwhelm her by trying to touch her directly with my hand right away. I have a fan-shaped paintbrush with a long handle, so I began to stroke her head and do little circular TTouches around her head area. She hissed when I first opened the cage, but fairly quickly began to calm down. I was sending her Reiki during teh whole session as well. I worked with her for a while, then gave her a break.

Then I worked with her again, starting with the paintbrush and moving my hand down the handle of the paintbrush until I was doing TTouches directly on her head. Eventually I was able to work in some TTouches going down her body as well. I did chimp TTouches going down her body, as these use the back surface of the fingers, so it is less intense than using the front surface of my fingers.

This wasn't one continuous session, though. I would work with her for a bit, then stop, giving her a break, then start again. A couple of times I closed the cage to give her a bigger break, other times I just moved away from her and sat near the edge of her cage, continuing to send Reiki. Sometimes I would pause, holding my hands very still and letting the Reiki continue to flow through my hands.

She became more and more calm as I did this, relaxing the muscles of her face and body, and her breathing became deeper. I ended up just doing little circular TTouches on her forehead using the fingernail on my index finger. Little by little her head began to nod off into a very relaxed sleep. It was so sweet to see this creature who had been through so much become so peaceful.
Thank you, little one, see you soon!

The Cat Loft at BARC: Patches Settles in my Lap

Patches is one of the beautiful cats at BARC who I have had the opportunity to work with lately. She came to BARC from an abusive situation. Sometimes she can suddenly become very frightened. She is particularly frightened of other cats, but can usually only tolerate short amounts of attention, so one needs to really be patient with her.

I have been doing both TTouch and Reiki with her recently. Generally I will do TTouches on her head, then do some Reiki on her body, and when she is comfortable, do some TTouch on her body. She is more comfortable being touched on the head than on the body, so this approach gives her time to settle and get used to being gently touched on her body.

Recently she was put in a cage on the lower level, which enables people to sit in a chair right at the same level as her cage and if she is comfortable she can come out onto a person's lap, which she has done for several people, including me, lately. The other day, she did that for me the first time, and I realized that I needed to have her face her cage or the wall when she is on my lap so she will not be scared by seeing the other cats who are out loose.

So yesterday when she came onto my lap, I made sure that she was facing her cage once she came onto my lap, and I decided to offer her Reiki. She settled and absorbed Reiki more than ever before. She settled and spread out in my lap, draping her front legs over my knees. It was as though her entire being let out a gigantic SIGH. She was purring a beautiful silent vibrating PURRRRRR. There were no visitors at that particular time, which gave her more opportunity to really BREATHE and relax. Even a couple of the other cats who are loose in the space who usually come up to me when I have another cat on my lap were curled up taking a nap. It was so sweet to truly feel this cat relax - that she felt safe enough to do that with me. I moved my hands to several positions while she was there, but it felt that the optimum position for my hands was around her shoulder area (which is also the brachial chakra). Patches did not want to move, even after we had remained there for a very long time. I did a few TTouches on her, but it felt like she was so responsive to Reiki that I mostly continued Reiki with her.

Finally I gently lifted her back into her cage. Here she is (pic directly above, as well as top pic in this post) shortly afterwards. Her eyes are just so open and expressive. I feel that if a very patient, quiet person were to adopt her, she would do very well in a home with no other animals. She feels like she is so craving of that connection.

Thank you Patches for trusting me in these moments, and thanks to the others who come to BARC to help socialize these cats as well.