Feral Kittens at BARC Shelter: Belly Lifts, Ear Work and Mouth Work

I have been continuing to work with a batch of feral kittens who arrived recently at BARC shelter. First two arrived, then a third (the tabby you see on the right above), and then one more black and white kitten (sorry didn't get a pic of him).

They started out hissing and very frightened, but have been getting increasingly friendly. I have been doing a lot of TTouch and Reiki with them, and others have been working with them to help socialize them as well. As you can see from the pictures, they are getting very playful, which is a big improvement from the initial cowering in the litter box!



Recently I was working with Crazy Horse, the tabby and white kitten who is the shyest of the bunch. I noticed that when I happened to put my hand under his belly, he got very comfortable. So I began to do some gentle TTouch belly lifts with him, lifting my hand up just a very little bit, holding my hand there, then slowly releasing. This prompted him to want to eat, so I continued doing a few TTouches with him while he ate. In general, the belly lifts can help a cat to feel more comfortable, as it releases the muscles there, enabling the animal to breathe more fully, etc. It can also be helpful for digestion. At times I also held my hand still and let Reiki energy flow to him.





Most recently, I have started to get them used to being picked up, little by little. I will lift a kitten up with two hands under its belly, gently lifting it, still within the cage, then set it back down and do some circular TTouches, zigzag TTouches and octopus TTouches (like a double zigzag TTouch, using both hands at the same time. Hair slides and ear strokes are also helpful. I do the TTouches for a minute or two, then lift it up again, put it back down and do the TTouches again, helping them to associate the lifting with very gentle TTouches. The next step will be lifting them up and out of the cage, but I wanted to acclimate them to the process of being lifted up in a very gradual way so that the lifting out of the cage is not such a big deal when it happens. See you soon, little ones!

TTouch and Reiki at BARC: Feral Kittens

Recently, a group of 5 feral kittens arrived at BARC shelter, and I was asked to work with them to help them to be more comfortable and to be more at ease being touched by people, which in turn helps them to be more adoptable animals. And of course we want these little babies to all have homes soon :)

Initially they were terrified, squished up against the back of the cage, moving very little. They would often wait til people weren't walking by or watching to come forward to where the food and water bowls are. They hissed when you opened their cage or moved your hand towards them.

Before I began to try doing TTouch with them, I sent them Reiki from a short distance away. I could see them start to relax with the soothing Reiki energy.

To get them accustomed to being touched in a non-threatening way, I started out by using a very long feather to touch them. I did little circular TTouches and strokes with the feather, around their head area and then working in some touches going down the body. Little by little I noticed their muscles start to relax and their breathing began to slow down (they were nervous so you could see that their breathing was sped up as well).

The circular movements of TTouch are a non-habitual movement, so often when you begin to work with an animal doing these touches, you will see them stop in their tracks and look at you as if to say, "wait a minute, that feels different!". Usually they realize the touches are very gentle and do feel good, so little by little you see the behavior and body language change.

It wasn't long before I was able to work my hand down the feather to begin doing TTouches with my hands. I found that doing little raccoon Ttouches around the outside of the mouth area (which is connected with the limbic system, which has to do w/emotions) and doing ear strokes (there are many acupressure points in the ear) were particularly helpful in soothing these little creatures.

Since there are five kittens in the cage, I would work on one for a little bit, then go to another, so as not to overwhelm them. The kittens not being worked on would often watch and look at me wondering what was going to happen next.

As the kittens grew more accustomed to me, the hissing was less and less and then stopped altogether. Below are two of the little ones looking very relaxed indeed!

After a few sessions with them, I also noticed that they were starting to figure out how to play. Another kitten from a different litter was put in their cage temporarily and, I think, helped them in this process too.

In the pics above and below, you can see one of the kittens experimenting with playing with the ball. Within about a day after this or so, they all were playing with balls and other cat toys in their cage.

After some sessions with them, it was time to take the next step and get these little ones used to being picked up and held. They still were running away initially when most people were trying to pet them.

First of all, I did a few gentle belly lifts with them (see my youtube page, http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat for demo), then began to just scruff them a bit and gently lift up under their stomach. Then I took a small towel, scruffed with one hand and then held underneath with the other hand holding the towel, then brought the kitten onto my lap, gently wrapping the kitten in the towel if I thought it appropriate. I did the picking up and putting on my lap pretty much in one swift motion, so they didn't have time to get scared about it, and once the kitten was in my lap, I began to do some little TTouches either directly on the body or thru the towel, and the kitten relaxed right away, stretching out. I found that I had pretty much the same reaction, even with the two most scared of the kittens (which happen to be the two ones which have more white fur, who are seen cuddling together below, hard to tell where one ends and the other begins!).

The following Saturday I had several other volunteers holding the kittens as well, as it is good to get them used to various people holding them instead of only being comfortable with one person. Since that day, they have more and more attention from volunteers, as it is easier to pick them up and handle them.

The two shyest kittens are really coming around, too. Below is the little girl, named "Arctic Fox", who is the smallest one as well, and below that is "Pearl Harbor", her brother. Both of them really relax into my hands now.

The day before yesterday, the last time I was at BARC, I spent an especially long time with Pearl, who is the most reluctant one. Though he is comfortable once I touch him, sometimes he will run away if someone reaches towards him. I held him in my lap, offering him Reiki, and heard and felt him do a couple of big sighs, as though he was reaching a level of relaxation that he hadn't felt in a long time. He really stretched out and let go.

When we were done, I returned him to the cage and about an hour later, opened the cage to work with the kittens within the cage, to work with the ones who still may run away on initial contact to be more comfortable so that they don't do that. Pearl started to run away from me (maybe it's still a bit of a reflex?), but I did a little TTouch with him and he settled down. I then focused on a kitten who was laying on a shelf at the opposite end of the cage.

This kitten (named Normandy) had come around the quickest, and is comfortable laying on his back for belly rubs. As I was starting to rub his belly, little Pearl came running over, jumped on the shelf, and snuggled right alongside Normandy so he could have some TTouch as well.

This was such an unexpected delight, and was a real breakthrough for this kitten, as it was the first time he came to ME for attention. I felt so much pure love and affection from this little one as he snuggled alongside his brother so I could TTouch them both at the same time.

Thank you, little ones, look forward to seeing you soon unless you are adopted, which would be even better:) and thanks to all the gals and guys (volunteers and staff) at BARC who have helped these little ones!

Sophia Remembers......

The beautiful kitty pictured above is a very special being who arrived at the shelter where I was working over a year ago as a terrified, apparently feral kitten. Initially she was hissing, spitting, swatting, and seemed so terrified and unhappy to be there.

I spent a lot of time with her, working very slowly and gradually with her and she eventually became very comfortable with me, running to the front of the cage when I entered the shelter and extending her paw to say hello. I called her Jimmygirl.

Her best buddy in the shelter was a black kitten who we called Luke, who was semi-feral and shy at first but became comfortable very quickly. They adored each other and cuddled together. I think that Luke's calm demeanor was soothing for Jimmygirl.

Eventually Jimmygirl and Luke were adopted together into a very loving home. Jimmygirl was renamed Sophia, and Luke was renamed Poe, lovely names which suit them both so well. Their "mommy" Yasmeen has kept in touch with me, sending me pictures and updates about them. You can see how happy they are in their forever home, and it means a lot to hear about them.

TTouch and Reiki can help connect with animals in such a deep way that even when the animals in the shelter go off to homes, I still feel that connection, that they will always live in a special place in my heart.

Yesterday Yasmeen sent me the following message:

"How are you? I don't know if my sister mentioned to you the other day, but Sophie seems to remember you. The other day she was looking at your blog and found some old videos of you working on Sophia. Well she had the volume way up and Sophie was across the room napping at the time. She heard your voice talking to her gently and as soon as she heard you call her Jimmygirl she instantly popped up giving a few meows and looking around the room for you. It was the cutest thing! She kept walking and sniffing around the laptop trying to find you.

Goes to show cats do have a long memory and that they do appreciate the loving humans in their lives.

Anyways, Just wanted to let you know that Sophie does remember you and does miss you.

Have a great day!"

Thank you so much for sharing this with me, Yasmeen, it means so much to me -- and what Sophia did says so much about how animals do remember, it really touched my heart.

And thank you for adopting these two cats together and giving them such a wonderful home.

The Cat Loft at BARC Shelter Sept 4 - Mittens and Muffin

I worked again on Mittens and Muffin, two semi-feral youngster kitties at BARC shelter out in Brooklyn. They are really coming around!!

Again, today I worked on them a number of times, giving them breaks and working on other cats in between.

Today I could touch Mittens with my hands right away. She rolled right over on her side and then onto her back as I did clouded leopard TTouches on her body and mouth touches and ear touches on her head. She responded very enthusiastically and for the first time, she came forward towards the door of the cage and wanted to come out. I was not able to let her do this at the moment because she could be very hard to catch and get back in there, but it was great to see her coming forward all on her own for further contact. And this time she was PURRRRING quite a lot, which was something new to hear from her.

Muffin is still more shy but she is really coming around as well. In the beginning of the session I was still working on her using the brush, but by the end of the day there I was able to do TTouches on her body and a bit on her head using my hand. She looked a bit startled by being touched with my hand but she didn't try to run away from me. She just looked a bit like having me do TTouch on her was a different sensation and she wasn't sure how to react. After a bit she relaxed more, laying on her side as I did TTouches down her body.

I am so excited about the progress these two have been making in a couple of short weeks - and I thank them for being brave and trusting me :)

August 27-28 at The Cat Loft at BARC Shelter

The past couple of days I went to work on the cats in the Cat Loft at BARC Shelter in Brooklyn. There are a lot of cats there - two rooms full of them - many in cages and a bunch of cats which are loose in the space. Of course I wanted to seek out the shyest cats or those feeling under the weather to work on.


When I walked into the second room, I saw on my right two semi-feral young black kitties in a cage together - Mittens and Muffin. One sits on the right hand shelf and one sits on the left hand shelf. They are very playful but are not eager to be touched, so I decided to work on them with the long-handled brushes that I have been using for some cats who do not want to be directly touched by hand at first. For these little ones, I used two brushes so if one of them was playing with one brush then I would stroke it or do circular touches on its back with the other brush. Sometimes in the midst of this the other cat would get involved but I started to get a rhythm of working on one cat and then the other. The one which likes to sit on the left hand side seems the most ready to be touched - the other one is more skittish.

I worked on them several times each day when I was there (Fri and Sat) and on Saturday after a bit, both cats were lying down on their shelves. The one on the left was on its side and was very much relaxing into the circles with the brush which I was doing down its sides and even a little on its stomach. The other kitty would sit up when I started to work on it with the brushes but started to stay still a bit longer for some strokes and circles with the brush. Both were ok with being touched with the brushes on their body but were frightened of being touched on the head. I look forward to working with these two, they were very receptive and continued to look at me afterwards as though they wondered what I would do next. In the picture below, you see them looking pretty relaxed!

Another thing that was interesting, which often happens, is that while I was working on Mittens and Muffin, the lovely grey and white cat pictured below, named Castaway, came right next to me and laid down to take a nap. Animals seem to be drawn to the atmosphere of calm energy which TTouch or Reiki can create.

There is also a large black and white kitty loose in the shelter named Cody (sorry I didn't get a picture of him). He is a real character, he is loose in the shelter and LOVES to have attention. But he can also get over-stimulated, so though I did let him jump up into my lap and plop there, I primarily did Reiki on him there, and did a short session of slow abalone TTouches to calm his energy down. What a sweet guy!

Above is Teddy, and below is Teddy with FDR peeking from the lower left hand corner. These are two VERY shy little kittens who were huddled at the back of the cage. I did some little strokes with the back of my finger on their heads, some slow clouded leopard TTouches on their body and then tome small raccoon ttouches around the outside of the mouth area. The mouth area can be a really great area to work for stressed-out little kittens. The touch did help them relax, it will just take them some time to trust people. They are very gentle and sweet, just shy. Teddy seems to be the less shy of the two.

I also did a short session with a tortie cat, Patches, who will come to the front of the cage for contact, but can only take a short amount of contact at one time before it seems she is overwhelmed. So I am working on her in very short spurts of time, giving her breaks in between, then coming back and trying again with her later on. It will be interesting to see what can happen with her after a few sessions.

I look forward to working on these and other cats at BARC again soon!

Ear TTouch with Mario and Luigi

These adorable little tabby kittens, Mario and Luigi, came into the shelter absolutely terrified. After being put in their cage, they banged themselves up against the bars for a while before finally settling down. When I first did TTouch on them, I had a few hisses but no biting, and though they remain quite shy, they are really responsive to TTouch and begin to purr.

I found that in particular, the ear TTouch was effective with these two little guys. I held one of Mario's ears in one hand and one of Luigi's in the other hand and as I began to do ear strokes simultaneously on both of them (they were cuddled together as seen here), they began to simultaneously purrrrr up a storm. I have let the other volunteers know that this TTouch is helpful for these little guys so that they can help them feel comfortable as well.

I have a youtube clip of the earstrokes here if you would like to have a look, enjoy! The tabby I demonstrate on in the clip is my own tabby, Garbanzo :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT5BMwnIsfA

Update on Shy Kitten Bobbi

I have been continuing to work with kittens Bobbi and Joie at Social Tees shelter. They are still a little frightened but are really coming along. Bobbi is a little more timid than Joie. You can see when I start to work on her here, her back is a bit hunched up. It begins to relax as I work on her, and she starts to stretch out and relax. I start out doing TTouch on her head and then work my way down her body. In the second video clip, you will see me doing what I have showed before, where I very gently press the skin, working my way down one side of the back and then the other, to give the kitten more awareness of its whole spine. Bobbi used to meow as though she was really scared when I picked her up to take her out of her cage, and now she is still a bit scared to be picked up but I feel her body in a much less tense position even to start with. In the videos you will hear further explanation of the touches etc. It is very strange to be working on these two cuties, their markings are very similar to my cat Garbanzo, but they are female and little kittens, whereas he is a big adult boy.

I look forward to working with these kittens further and am really pleased to see them more relaxed. They are more at ease with the other kittens who are in the cage with them too, and I see them snuggling with other kittens as well as each other (they are in a cage with two other kittens, who are both from different litters than Bobbi and Joie.

Tail TTouch with Joie

Joie is one of two sweet, shy tabby kittens I have been working on lately at Social Tees shelter. They have been coming out of their shells lately and becoming more relaxed after a couple of weeks of TTouch and Reiki.

They had initially appeared as though they were limping. I did some TTouch and Reiki on them and it seemed as though the limping may have been related to their stitches possibly being tight after their spay surgery or perhaps it just was a frightened body posture, because when the vet checked them out, they did not appear to be limping and she thought they were ok. As always, please keep in mind that the work I do is not a substitute for veterinary work. It is nice to make an animal feel more at ease though!

I am finding that they still are tense at the base of their spines and in their tail, so i have been doing some tail work on them, which I show in these videos. Please keep in mind that I am using extremely light pressure, just enough to push the skin around in a circle. And when I am circling the tail, I am doing very small circles and am not pulling the tail out, I am just gently moving it in the smallest circle I can, working my way down the tail. I also do some conected raccoon touches down the tail. Little Joie is purring by the end!

Bobbi and Joie, update

A few days ago we had noticed that two little tabby kittens we have at Social Tees shelter were limping a bit. I did extensive sessions of TTouch and Reiki on both kittens, being sure to do any touch very gently until they were able to be evaluated by a vet. I touched them everywhere including their back, legs, tail, and though I noticed some tightness near the base of the tail, neither kitten acted as though any touch hurt her.

Meanwhile, after the first session both kittens began to walk much more easily, standing taller on all their legs and using their back legs more fully than they had before. By the time they were seen by one of our vets, the vet thought they seemed ok. It may be that the stitches had been tight after their spay surgery before they came to out shelter (our animals come to us thru the city shelters where they are spayed or neutered if they are old enough to be). Or that they were just shy, who knows?

The kittens still run from me initially sometimes but once I pick them up, they immediately settle in my lap and are extremely relaxed, as you can see from the pictures of Bobbi below. I do raccoon touches around their head and mouth, ear strokes. connected touches down their back, clouded leopard touches down their legs, little raccoon touches on their paws and between their toes. They are quite relaxed even having their paws touched. Next time I will try clipping their claws, and see if I can keep them relaxed while I am doing that :)

I could really see Bobbi stretching her back out as I did touches down each side of her spine. It was a pleasure to see this!

Once again I have to stress that the modalities I use are not a substitute for veterinary care. But it is lovely to be able to offer them a gentle form of healing that can help them feel better physically and emotionally.

Chakra Healing, TTouch and Reiki with Joie, Bobbi and Leo

Hi folks, first of all I want to reiterate that I am not a vet, and that the work I do is not a replacement for veterinary treatment, but can be helpful in conjunction with it. That being said, I'd love to share the following:

Recently we got in two kittens who appear to be limping a bit. Of course we will have them evaluated by a vet soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to offer them some gentle healing and touch. I took the kittens out one by one very gently and did pretty much the same procedure with each one, so I will just continue describing as though I'm working on one of them. She is quite shy and so it took a minute to calm her. I contained her in a towel initially, doing some gentle ear strokes and a bit of gentle TTouch using a very light touch. I did not find any place on her body (includng down his back and back legs) where she flinched or pulled away or appeared to be in pain when I touched her.


She had calmed down so I then opened up the towel. Then I placed my fingers on the two chakras which are in the shoulder area. I could feel quite a bit of heat there, and once I put my fingers there I could feel the energy opening up and going down her body. she really relaxed and stretched out, purring.


As I did this, our sweet elder kitty Leo came near where we were and looked right at me. For a while he hung out under the stool I was sitting on and then he came around and looked at me again. I only had one hand on the kitten as you see here, and so with my other hand I placed it in the offering position and began to feel Reiki flowing to him. He stayed right there for quite a while, until I felt it was enough, and then he went on about his day. He often hangs around when I am working on the other animals, and, of course, I make time for him too!

But back to the kitten. I continued to feel energy flowing from the chakras down the body and the kitten totally relaxed and stretched out. When it seemed that it was enough time, I told the kitten I was going to move her back to her cage, wrapped her up in the towel again and placed her back in his cage. She seemed a bit scared at first, but I did see her stand straight up on her legs, then she scurried a bit, and then in a minute went over to her food dish and began to eat. I was glad to see this as well, as we always want to make sure these little ones are eating!

I look forward to working with these little girls more and am curious to see what will happen when they are looked at by a vet as well. maybe there's a possibility they are still recovering from spay surgery or that their bodies were stiff from sitting in a scared crouching position? we'll see.

ps. I'm actually posting this two days after it happened, and yesterday (the day after this work), I only could stop by the shelter briefly, but when I checked on the kittens, it truly appeared that they were standing up taller on their legs and that they were walking with more ease.

TTouch on Kittens in the Shelter

I have been working on the many kittens we have now in Social Tees shelter, some of whom come in very frightened as they are either semi-feral or feral. I have found that wrapping them in a small piece of towel is a good way to contain them as I hold them in my lap, and I keep them wrapped if they are scared and wriggly. I also keep them slightly contained if there are dogs who are loose in the shelter who could startle them. I do TTouch on top of the towel or under the towel, and if the kitten is comfortable as I go, I often loosen the towel or unfold it. The kitten above is one of a litter who were born outside but they have been really coming around.

The cat below is Charles, one of our resident so-called "feral cats" who are loose in the shelter (he is quite friendly now), and he always hangs around near me when I am there. Doing TTouch on one animal usually makes the other animals who are nearby either start eating or go to sleep. Yesterday I was at the shelter when it was not open so it was just the animals and me in the back room in these videos. the whole atmosphere grew very calm after a while.

The kitten below is the brother of the one at the top, he is the most outgoing of the bunch, and begins purring as soon as I open the cage.

Here is Charles again, hanging out and very relaxed in the TTouch atmosphere. This is when the shelter can feel especially magical.

More Kittens

We currently have many kittens at Social Tees, so I am having the fun of doing TTouch on them. It is amazing how quickly some of these kittens can some around, especially as quite a few have not known human contact before.

The sweet kitty above I call Harley, as he looks like a little harlequin. The first day he came in with his two brothers he was quite scared, but as you can see, by the second day he was purring away comfortably on my lap. I started out doing TTouches around his head and ears and worked my way down gradually to doing TTouch on his body. I did this first with him in his cage and then picked him up and held him in my lap to do this.

Yesterday we put four kittens (two sets of two from two different cages and litters) in our window enclosure along with our sweet one-eyed cat Baby and our super-sized boy Big Al. I got into the enclosure to do TTouch on everyone to make them comfortable. I started out by doing TTouch on Baby (pictured here sitting in back of the 3 kittens), as she is the shyest. She knows me well as she has been in the shelter for a while and so she grew more at ease after I TTouched her for a while. The little kittens gathered in the cat bed, as you see here, and Big Al was on an upper shelf, unconcerned with it all. Baby began to touch noses with the little ones to see who was receptive. One of the kittens was not ready yet and gave a tiny hiss but no swatting or spitting, just a "give me a little more time to be comfortable".

I began to alternate betweeen the two adults and the four little ones, doing TTouch on each, and felt a very calm atmosphere was there. The four kittens were cuddled in the bed and Baby was sitting where you see her in the picture. I had noticed that one of the kittens had very long claws so I decided to clip their claws. I was amazed at how relaxed they were with me doing this. They are so used to me TTouching them that I think they thought this was part of the TTouch. I pivoted the cat bed around to get each kitten in a good position for the claw-clipping. So, though I know this is obvious, the earlier you get these little ones used to the claw-clipping, the better! I used simple toenail clippers to do this. I find that giving medication (if we need to do this, we are generally giving liquid meds with a syringe in the mouth) is also easier on these little ones who are used to being TTouched, as I do it in a gentle way and sort of slip it in as part of the TTouch, doing a little TTouch, ear strokes etc and then put the syringe in the side of the mouth and squirt the medicine in (always make sure you don't squirt it in straight down to avoid choking them).

Getting the little ones used to being picked up, held in a lap, etc is also very good because, for one thing, these are the first things that potential adopters want to do with cats, so it is great to have them be comfortable with this.

Kittens

It's kitten season and I'm having the opportunity to work with many kittens at Social Tees shelter. Many of the kittens arrive quite frightened, at least initially, and I'm finding that for the most part, even kittens that are pretty feral can be brought around fairly quickly with TTouch, especially the ones that are very young. So many of these little ones start out pretty squirmy when I first pick them up, but after a few sessions of TTouch they learn that I am going to touch them in a gentle way and they settle right down in my lap.



This little fluffball above was pretty unsure at first, you can see that her face looks a bit worried. I tend to use a lot of the smaller touches, such as raccoon touches and chimp touches, as kittens are so small, but sometimes I will use some abalone touches (circular touches using the entire hand) as they can be quite warm and comforting.

Little raccoon touches around the outside of the mouth and jaw can also be quite soothing. I know that the little fellow below looks un-soothed and wide-eyed, but I think he was startled by the camera :)

Another thing that I do sometimes, especially with a squirmy kitten, is to wrap the kitten up in a small cloth like a washcloth. I can do touches through the cloth and once they feel comfortable then I can loosen the cloth and do touches directly. The cloth serves as a containing device so that they don't get loose in the shelter and also as a comforting, soft feeling thing similar to a wrap (ace bandage), which we use (mostly on dogs) in a variety of configurations.

hoping for these many cutes ones to be in new homes soon!

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.

Jimmy Girl and Her Friend Luke

Jimmy Girl is a young kitty (about 4-5 months) with whom I have a very special connection. When she first arrived from one of the city shelters at Social Tees shelter a couple of months ago, she had to be taken out of her carrier with gloves, and she would hiss and spit when you tried to approach her. We think she was feral. I did very slow, patient TTouch work with her and over time gained her trust. Now she comes to the front of the cage and meows at me when I come into the shelter. She has also become very playful and sweet, with a quirky sense of humor. She has a best friend, Luke, the little black kitty pictured below. They came into the shelter at the same time (but from different places), and soon became good friends. Luke was also a feral kitten, and he took a while to become comfortable, though his process was much quicker than Jimmy Girl's. Luke is now completely comfortable being touched, and will lay completely out on his back, even letting me touch him on his stomach sometimes.

Luke and Jimmy Girl are really sweet together, playing all day long. They need to be adopted out together, as they are inseparable. Jimmy Girl still has some shyness, and will initially run away from someone new, but I feel certain that someone who has the patience to let her take the time she needs to come to them will have a sweet little companion in her over time. Luke will probably also be a bit shy at first but I think will come around very quickly. Both of these kittens have come such a long way since I began to work with them. And I can feel both of them reaching another level of comfort lately. Jimmy Girl used to only let me work on her for short bursts of time, and now she will let me do TTouch on her for extended periods of time -- I start out rubbing her ears, then work up to doing TTouches and strokes on her body. Sometimes during the course of working on her, she will run away for a minute, then come right back to me and paw at me to continue. I wish these dear little ones well! And I surely will miss them when they do go to a forever home, but I will be so happy for them.

Little Mika

Mika and Mischa are two dear, fuzzy little Russian blue mixes who are probably about 4-5 months old. I had initially thought they were both girls, so had called them Nika and Mika, but now I call them Mika and Mischa. They were extremely scared, but have been gradually coming around. Mischa is actually getting very playful with me, but Mika is still quite shy. She will hiss at first, but once I touch her for a while, she begins to relax. She does not try to bite at all, I think she is hissing because she is still unsure. Below you will see a little video of me TTouching her. I generally start out with the back of just one little finger, doing small circles on her head, and then some ear strokes. Later on, after she is more relaxed, I will work in some touches on the body. In the video you can see her hiss and then her ears remaining back for a while, but at the end she starts to relax, let her breath go, close her eyes and go into nap mode.

The part of the visual which you don't see was quite humorous, her brother Mischa wason the lower level of the cage pawing at me, trying to get me to play with him.

On looking at the video, I see that next time I will try doing circles at a slower rate on Mika, it may help to achieve more relaxation with her. It is very helpful for me to see these videos, I always see how I can do better for the animal in my next session.

I look forward to working more with these sweet, shy ones and others at Social Tees. If you are in NYC, stop by sometime!

Tatiana, a Timid Kitten

Recently several very frightened kittens have arrived at Social Tees shelter, and I always welcome the challenging opportunity of working with them -- it is always a big learning experience for me, and it is such a pleasure to have the possibility of helping these animals to feel more comfortable in their bodies.

Above you see Tatiana, a gorgeous tortoise-shell kitten. She was scared out of her mind on arrival -- she was hissing and thrashing, we could barely transfer her to a cage, and then she escaped from the cage a while after that. When I started working with her, she was cowering in the back of her cage or in the back of her litter box, as you see here. I soon realized it was ok to touch her -- she was not biting or hissing, simply scared and frozen in place. For a few days I did TTouch on her head and body -- starting out with little raccoon touches around her ears and on her forehead and around the outside of her mouth and jaw, and slowly working up to connected touches down the body. As I worked, I felt her relax and start to let her breath go. But still, she was still remaining pretty much in the same place in her cage while I worked on her, though her body position did relax somewhat.

I did notice, though, that when I was working on other animals in the room, she started to come towards the front of her cage and watch what was going on.

Yesterday, as I begain to do connected clouded leopard touches down her body, all of a sudden I started to hear a PURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR coming out of her. What a welcome sound! The purr continued, and she began to free her body and move, starting to push her head against my hand at times, stretching out her body, etc. I worked on her in a bunch of very short sessions of a few minutes each while I was there. She still would start out by seeming scared and at the back of the cage, but quickly resumed the purring and friendly behavior, so she seems like she is on her way to coming out of her shell.

At the end of the day, a very socialized kitten arrived, so we put it in the same cage with her, thinking it could help encourage her progression to become a more socialized kitten. I still feel the texture of her fluffy, soft kitten fur as I write -- she is a lovely kitten and I am so glad to feel she is on her way to becoming a more comfortable creature and more adoptable kitty.

New Mommy and Kittens get a TTouch Bath

At Social Tees shelter where I voluntter, we take in a lot of animals with one issue or another, the "undercats" and "underdogs" from the kill shelters. Recently we took in a mommy cat and her five kittens who came in with bad ringworm. Of course my favorite was the kitten we are calling "Scrappy", the little fellow pictured above, who has a bad case of ringworm but is quickly getting better.

Here he is surrounded by two of his siblings who are nearly ringwormo-free now, and below is a clip of them. TTouch is really wonderful to incorporate when having to do various procedures with animals, and these cats were really a case in point. The first day they came in, I had to bathe them all in a medicated bath to help clean them and soothe the ringworm. While I was bathing them, I was massaging their ears, doing abalone and clouded leopard touches down their body and legs, which helped to counteract their squiggliness at getting wet. And once we got to the towel-drying, they seemed to enjoy this and began to purr, as I was incorporating touches as I was drying them off.

In the days following the bath, I am coating the spots which still have ringworm with topical anti-fungal cream, so I am doing this as I have a TTouch session with each of them, which they really settle into and they either settle down on my lap or on the table, purring all the while. Little Scrappy still needs the cream over much of his body, but as the application of the cream turns into a TTouch session and massage, he seems to have no complaints!

The mommy cat is a wonderful mommy, so she is very watchful when I handle her darlings, but she seems to know that I am doing something that is ok.

I wish these dear kitties the best, and am sure they will be ringworm-free and adopted very soon.