Update on Nadia, Slow and Steady Work Facilitates a Heart Connection

 

 

Nadia is a gorgeous, very shy cat at BARC Shelter, who I have been working with for some time now.  She was dumped in front of the shelter with another cat, who was adopted fairly quickly because she was friendly.  Nadia is very cautious of most people, though she has been slowly starting to trust people more and more.  If someone approaches her too quickly, she may hiss or snap at them, but that behavior has been increasingly subsiding.

 

I have worked with her very slowly, often using a paintbrush to touch her, as that gives her the space she needs to feel comfortable.  More recently, I have also been luring her to the front of the cage to lick baby food off my finger, which has been really helpful as well.  If you want to try this with a frightened cat, I would suggest first putting the food on a spoon or if the cat is very afraid and may bite, something else with a longer handle so that you can try it with some space in between you and the cat, to assure that you don't get bitten!  Also, use only all-meat baby food with no onions.  Gerber's Turkey in Turkey gravy seems to be a pretty universally popular flavor.

 

Though I most likely could touch her right away with my hand without reaction, I am still starting out with her by doing TTouch circles and strokes with the paintbrush, and then transitioning to using my fingers, so it gives her a chance to get comfortable with me.  It feels very important to give her space.  Touching her with the paintbrush also gets her accustomed to the sensation of being touched without having a feeling of being threatened.  So, once she gets very used to that, then eventually she will feel the same way about being touched with hands.  I have found that it helps so much with a very fearful cat to take everything in very small steps.

 

I have shared how I work with Nadia with the regular volunteers and staff, and it has been helpful for some of them to be working with Nadia with the paintbrush too.

We have in her cage a cave-like little bed so that she can go in there to feel safe when things get noisy or hectic in the shelter.  A while back, I started taking the bed out of her cage for part of the day so people could socialize with her more easily, and so she could gradually start to realize that it is ok to be out of the cave-bed.  I would gently turn the bed so the entrance was facing sideways to me, and then tip it a bit til she came out.  Most often, she would loudly hiss at first, but little by little she has become accustomed to that as well. Lately, I don't take the bed out any more, but speak to her and put the paintbrush so she can sniff it, and she will come out of the bed on her own and walk towards me, as you see in the clip below (she was already out of the bed). 

 

 

What has been especially sweet is that now after she walks to the front of the cage, she will nuzzle against my hand or lick it a bit.   It is beautiful to see her seeking out attention on her own, and really responding to attention and touch as well.   I'm happy, too, that others are also starting to see the sweet, loving cat that Nadia truly is, underneath her fear.  She even looks more beautiful, as her face has gotten so much more open, and her body language more comfortable.

It is easy to be impatient or to have out ego want to make contact with a cat right away, but it is so much more beneficial for the animal to really slow down and go at the pace that they need.  In the end, you will be able to facilitate a connection with the animal that is more powerful and deep than you could imagine!

Love you Nadia, thank you for teaching me so much, as do all the animals who I work with every day.  And thanks to all the BARC Shelter people for all they do for the animals.

From Fearful Feral to Comfortable and Friendly: The Transformation of Berry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berry is a feral cat who was rescued from the same back yard as my two cats, Natalia and Emmylou, and brought to BARC shelter, as they were.  I am sure that both her feralness and the fact she seems to be related to my two has helped me to feel such a special connection with her.

She has come such a long way!  When she arrived at the shelter, just before Hurricane Sandy, she was absolutely terrified.  She would hide at the back of her cage and hiss, swat, and sometimes try to bite when approached. 

I began to work with her VERY gradually.  My first few sessions with her were extremely short.  I would send her Reiki from outside the cage, then open the cage and stroke her a couple of times with the back scratcher, then close the cage again.  I would try several sessions a day of this.  I would always talk to her, too, in a quiet, friendly voice, expressing how happy I was to see her. 














After a while, I was able to do TTouches with her with the back scratcher for longer and longer periods of time.  She began leaning into the back scratcher and over time, when I would approach her cage and say hello, she came forward in her cage to greet me.   She would often start eating her food in my presence, as I continued to TTouch her with the back scratcher.  I found that while she ate, she seemed to be very comfortable as I did little circular TTouches and zigzag motions with the back scratcher along one side of her back, then the other, sometimes crisscrossing from one side to the other..

At this point, sometimes she would get confused between play energy and affection, sometimes starting to swat at the back scratcher.  I tried to keep the sessions short, giving her breaks, to hopefully avoid getting to the swatting point.  And, over time, this has really paid off as well.  I do advise people not to stick their hand straight towards her (generally a good tip, as that can be too scary, especially for rescue animals), but to kind of approach her more from a diagonal, touching her first on the back of her head or side of her body.. 
 
 
 
 














Now other volunteers can approach her and pet her with the back scratcher as well, and she is extremely responsive to it, rubbing into it.  When she sees the back scratcher, she knows that something that feels good is about to happen, so she will often come forward in her cage even with a less familiar person.  Last week one of the shelter people who had not seen her in a while didn’t recognize her because she was calmly sitting at the front of her cage.
















And, over time, I have also been able to have more and more direct contact with her, which has been an incredible experience.  I have found that by incorporating the calming energy of Reiki and the TTouches, it has helped to calm her energy.  So sometimes I still will start out by touching her with the back scratcher with TTouch circles and strokes, but then very quickly am able to transition to using my hands.  But the past week or so I am more often comfortable with approaching her directly with my hands.   She still is having some issues with upper respiratory (being treated with medication and nutritional supplements), so she has been especially responsive to raccoon TTouches on the center of her forehead, which seems to help relieve her sinuses, and the TTouch ear strokes (there are acupressure points in the ear that affect the respiratory and digestive systems).  TTouch does not replace veterinary care but it can help the body to be in optimum balance so that it is able to heal more effectively.

Often in the process of doing the TTouches she will just lay down with her head resting at the edge of her cage, as you see here.  She also probably would come out on my lap, but we aren't doing that, at least not yet, because we don't want her to get frightened and get loose in the shelter.
















I still will give her breaks when I think she needs them, during which I may just sit and continue to send her Reiki, and I can see her relaxing into the waves of energy.  Or sometimes I will really give her a break, walking away for a bit, then returning for more. 

It warms my heart so much to see her respond to me calling to her by coming right to the front of the cage, kneading her paws in anticipation.  And I am honored to feel such a loving, trusting connection with her - that she feels comfortable enough with me to trust that she is safe with me.  It feels like energy waves of love that pass back and forth between us as I work with her.
Thank you Berry, I am so grateful to be on this very interesting journey with you and it is beautiful to see you so much more at ease and getting so much enjoyment out of contact with people (and she seems to be interested, rather than fearful, of the other animals at BARC as well).  And thank you to the staff and volunteers at BARC Shelter, thanks so much for all you do for the animals, and thanks for being so kind to Berry and to all the animals there. xo

Tuesday: Quieting the Atmosphere with an Extremely Sensitive Cat

Tuesday is a gorgeous and very intense cat.  She is completely bonded with her guardian, Leila, but is terrified of pretty much anyone else.  She often hisses, swats and sometimes lunges at them.  Leila has had her for about 8 years.  Years ago, she was accepting of attention from people with a very gentle energy but at one point Leila was in a noisier household and since then, Tuesday has had an increasingly difficult time with people other than Leila.
It is so important with ultra-sensitive cats such as Tuesday to think of energy in terms of proportional volume.  What I mean is, what to us might be a tiny sound or movement, could seem huge to a cat that is frightened and hyper-sensitive.  So when working with this type of cat, I have to quiet and slow my energy down even more than I generally do when working with any animal.  In this way, I can start to really feel where they are and to be in that place where the smallest movement or sound can be huge.
When I arrived for the first session, Tuesday seemed to know that I was coming for her.  She came out and stared at me with very huge eyes.  I spoke calmly and tried to reassure her that I was there to help her.  When I walked across the room (which was not directly towards her but generally in her direction, she lunged at me, hissing.  I had Leila hand me the long wands which I use for doing TTouch with cats who are very scared of being touched directly, and just very carefully and quietly began to try a few TTouches with the wands, a few on her, and a few on the floor.  I could tell she was still very amped up, so I decided to give her a break.  Leila and I sat at the kitchen table, and I showed Leila some TTouches on a stuffed cat which I had brought.  During this time, Tuesday had some time to settle a bit.  She remained in the room, watching what we were doing, but got a bit more relaxed.
After that, I decided to offer her Reiki from a short distance for the second half of the session.  I felt that working from a distance with the wands was too overwhelming for her at this time.
From where I was sitting in a chair, I gently began to offer Reiki energy to Tuesday, silently letting her know that she only need take as much or as little energy as she wanted. 
It took her a while to settle, but eventually she did.  Every once in a while, she would look at Leila, as though for confirmation that it was ok for her to receive the energy.  As we worked, I felt her pulling the energy in more and more. 
When we were done, she was calmer, but unfortunately she got jumpy again when Leila and I both stood up as I got ready to leave.
Leila got back to me after a few days had passed, and said that Tuesday was agitated right after the appointment, but then began to get much better.  She said she and her boyfriend sat on the floor while she did some of the TTouches and that Tuesday was very calmed by them - and that she had continued doing the TTouches with Tuesday at various intervals in between this initial session and my next session with them. Leila said that Tuesday was much calmer about her boyfriend.
As a further challenge, Leila had gone away for a few days. Upon returning, the cat sitter said that Tuesday was actually rather docile.  And when Leila and her boyfriend returned from the trip, they took a nap and when they awoke, Tuesday was actually asleep on top of her boyfriend!
When I came for the second session (a couple of weeks had passed), I first gave Leila a Bach Flower remedy which I made for Tuesday, which should help to calm her energy.  Then I showed Leila TTouches using back of hand, which are especially useful for animals that are really on edge and apt to get easily over-stimulated. 

The rest of the session, I offered Reiki to Tuesday from a short distance.  However, this time I did not remain in the chair, but kneeled on the floor in order to lower my position, which can be calming for frightened animals.  I knew I was taking a risk, as Tuesday could get suddenly scared and then lunge at me, but I had to follow my intuition that this felt like the right move. 
As I began to offer the energy to Tuesday, I felt that the area that felt it needed the most healing at that moment was the heart chakra.  As the session progressed, I also felt the energy pulled to the base chakra and to the solar plexus chakra.  These chakras can relate to quite a few things, so are a bit too complex to detail here, but balancing these three chakras felt they would help Tuesday with emotional issues and the nervous system as well as issues of security and grounding,
As I continued, I felt an increasingly strong flow of energy coming out of my hands and out of my body, and felt the energy filling her body.  I remained in the same position throughout the session, instead of trying to move closer, as I didn't want to take the chance of startling her.
While all of this was going on, little by little her body language changed - first she shifted her sitting position a few times.  Then she little by little shifted herself until she was lying down.  Next she stretched one paw out, then finally she rolled completely on her side, exposing her belly, and she stretched out in that position.  Her eyes, which initially were in that huge, extremely wide-open ultra-alert position, softened.  During this session, again she would sometimes look at Leila as if for guidance or approval or confirmation that this energy was ok to receive.  Tuesday is so completely connected with Leila. 
As Tuesday stretched out on her side, exposing her belly to me, I felt tears come to my eyes, as I do so often when I feel the animal is really letting go of something held in very deeply.  It felt profound, almost as if she had been holding her breath for a long time, and now finally, in stages, was letting it go.  I felt a huge shift had occurred.
As Leila and I spoke after the session, Tuesday remained relaxed, with a much softer gaze.  And when I stood up to leave, she was still relaxed and didn't get startled.  Later that day, Leila emailed me that Tuesday had continued to be very relaxed and mellow for the rest of the day.
Thank you Tuesday, for trusting me enough to let go....I keep picturing you so stretched out and relaxed .. .. and look forward to seeing you soon.... xo