Sweet Moments with Dr. Teeth and Ice Cream at BARC Shelter

Dr. Teeth is a very dear, shy kitty who arrived at BARC shelter a bit over a year ago, along with a bunch of other cats, after her owner passed away. She was terrified to be touched, and I showed some of the volunteers how to use a paintbrush to make contact with her, so that we could collectively help her to feel more comfortable being touched. She has come a long way! I have been able to TTouch her directly with my hand for some time now, and the BARC staff and volunteers are more able to have contact with her as well. She is still shy, though, so you still need to approach her with a very quiet energy, and let her show you what she is ready to do.
In general, she has been more comfortable being touched on her body than on her head, but little by little she has been getting more at ease with that. This past week, I discovered that she now is very comfortable being stroked under the chin, and will rub against my finger when I do this. I have also started doing slow zigzag TTouches going down her back (that TTouch was a bit too overwhelming for her before), and she really responds to these, often pushing up into my hand, which is quite a step for her.

Something else that happened recently was that she was put in a larger cage, which was right next to one of our sweetest, gentlest cats, named Ice Cream. He is a super-friendly, super-mellow kitty. The two of them are very drawn to each other, and sometimes Dr. Teeth stares at him as though she adores him. They often will hang out next to each other (so they are next to each other on either side of the bars of the cages). Last week, while I was TTouching Dr. Teeth, Ice Cream put his paw through the bars of the cage to give her a pat.

And when he put his paw on her, it truly looked and felt that he was giving her such loving, reasurring energy. I know that his presence has been helping her so much as well.
A big thanks to the wonderful staff and volunteers at BARC for giving these creatures and all the animals at BARC so much love too. It really makes a difference!

TTouch and Reiki with Jinx: Oct 30

Today I went to work with Jordyn's cat Jinx, who has been having trouble using his back legs. The vet is not sure whether it is a tumor or a disc problem. I have been working with him with TTouch and Reiki to help him to be as comfortable as possible, and to maximize whatever possibility there may be for connecting neural pathways especially in the back end of his body.

I started out doing Reiki with him from a short distance, directed towards the front part of his body, the brachial chakras near either side of his shoulders. I stayed there for a while, and interestingly enough, he turned his body til his back end, the part that has been having difficulty, was facing my hands, so I sent him energy from that position for some time.

After a while, he needed a break, and began to walk up and down the hall. At this point I did some TTouches with him: connected TTouches going down either side of the back, and some zigzag TTouches which wound around his body, down his legs, connecting front to back in a variety of ways. This is to help stimulate whichever neural patterns that may still be there, to help him connect his front and back ends as best he can at this point. He was very receptive to this. I also did some TTouches going down his hind legs, and on the tops of his paws.
Later, he laid down again, and I sent him Reiki first on the front part of his body, then on the back end of his body, around the hips and leg area.
By the end of the session, he was sleepy and extremely comfortable. Thank you Jinx, sending healing thoughts and look forward to seeing you soon. xo

Camilla and Animal: Reconnecting

Camilla (above) and Animal (below) both arrived at BARC shelter a few months back along with a bunch of other cats after their owner passed away. I have worked with both of them a lot, as they have both had ongoing digestive issues and Animal is also quite shy. She is blind in one eye and seems to be partially blind in the other, so her depth perception is not so good, so she can get startled very easily. They are both in a lot better shape now, and Animal has become a lot more comfortable being touched as well. The other day, they were put into a cage together. I came in a couple of days after this was done, and they still did not look at ease being in the cage together. Camilla was especially agitated. When she had been in her old cage, which was on a lower level, she would always come out onto people's laps for attention, but when I took her out of the new cage (which is on a top level) and began to put her on my lap to do TTouch, she started hissing at the other cats in the vicinity, and seemed nervous, so I put her back in her cage and gave her a bit of a break so she could settle down. When I opened the cage again, Camilla started acting as she usually does with me, rubbing against my hand as I did TTouch. I worked with her for a while, then worked with Animal. Next I decided to try working with both cats at once. Since both cats are used to me and friendly with me, I thought that perhaps if I did this, they would both calm down and maybe a connection would be established that could connect all three of us. I started doing zigzag TTouches on both cats (one hand on each cat), which is a TTouch that they both really respond to, and it is a great TTouch to help connect all the parts of the body. They both started rubbing against my hand and became very comfortable. The food bowl is towards the center of the cage, more on Camilla's side, and during this time they each came to eat from the food bowl, which was great to see that they were at ease enough to do this. After all those zigzag TTouches, my hands were very warmed up and buzzing. I decided to try something I had not tried before. I began to do Reiki simultaneously with both cats, one hand on each cat. I felt my feet very firmly in the ground, light coming through the top of my head and out my hands and into their bodies. I felt both cats really absorbing the energy, and both cats really settled. I felt the whole atmosphere in their cage become very calm and quiet, and a lot of heat was coming out of my hands. I felt such a strong connection with both cats, and it was a pleasure to feel them both becoming so quiet and calm inside. When I finished the session with them, they were each resting on their respective beds, looking very cozy indeed.

Luigi

Above is one of my sister Katie's cats, Luigi. Luigi has a very big personality and is a sweet, lovable guy, as well as being incredibly smart and interactive. I did TTouch and Reiki on him for quite a while the other day, and he continued to follow me around for a good deal of the rest of the evening while I was at my sister's apt.

I am doing a short demo on him of zigzag touch, and what I call "knuckle on the noggin", but what is really a circular touch I do with my thumb instead of my fingers. This is not an official TTouch, as I have never seen Linda or others use their thumb instead of fingers, but I have found that when doing TTouch on the forehead of a cat, it works very well to stabilize my fingers behind the cat's head and then do the circular touch (doing a circle and a quarter) using the thumb on the forehead. Doing these touches on the forehead is very relaxing for cats, and also works very well for humans. I do these touches on my human companion, Jeffrey, when his mind gets too busy in the middle of the night, and quite often, moments later he is snoring away.

Zigzag Touch

A friend who reads my blog was curious about the zigzag touch, so my cat Garbanzo agreed to help me demonstrate it. This can be a calming touch or a stimulating touch, depending on the speed at which it is done. I tend to do it at a slower speed on Garbanzo, as he gets over-stimulated quite easily. I am using a medium touch as far as pressure, not too light and not TOO heavy, this, again, depends on the animal as to what is appropriate. This touch can really help connect parts of the body as well, and variations on it can be done, such as zigzagging down a leg, etc. In the case of my dear littie Mika who I have been working on at Social Tees shelter, this touch really helped her to release to another level, and she began to purrrr when I did this on her the other day, a sound which I have never heard out of her. On her, I did the touch at a slow speed, and rather gentle touch, as she is a gentle, sensitive little kitty. I alternated between doing down one side of the body and crossing over from one side to the other. Garbanzo is a big strapping fellow, so can take a stronger pressure. I like doing the Noah's march after this touch, as it seems to connect everything very well.