Louie - parts 3 and 4

Here are the third and fourth parts of my session with Louie. As I said in my previous post, it took trying several tools to see what he was receptive to, but this brush on a thick long stick seemed to do the trick! I was so glad to see him getting more and more comfortable, and look forward to working with him further.

Louie - Parts 1 and 2

Hi folks, I taped my session with Louie, and had to break it up into parts so the files will work properly on the blog, so two clips will be in this post and two in the next post.

Louie is a young male cat who recently came into the shelter. He can get overly stimulated easily and swat very hard with his claws out as a result. I have been trying different tools with him over a few sessions. First I tried the wand and corn dog, which just made him irritated. Then I tried a long feather with him. This worked well in one session, then in the next session, it simply made him pissed off and he wanted to destroy it.

Finally the day before yesterday I tried the tool you see here, probably originally used for basting. It is a long stick with a flat paintbrush at the end. You will see when I first open the cage he is a bit unsure, but then he grows increasingly comfortable.

He has really responded to this tool, and is comfortable with me doing circles and strokes on his head, ears, and even down his front legs. I love this cat, he has a sense of humor and is a real character! and I want to do whatever I can to make him a more comfortable cat (which will also make him more adoptable, which would be the best!).

Leo

Leo is a very shy, gentle, sensitive kitty, he has been loose in the shelter as a "feral cat" for a number of years, though he and his best friend Charles have become much more friendly lately, due to socialization and me giving them wet food (!).

Here I am doing TTouch on sweet Leo. He is an older gentleman cat and quite fragile, so I use gentle touches on him and usually just touch him with the back of my hand or fingers. As you can see, he is not so fond of being touched under his chin, but then when I go back to touching him on the top of his head and body, he is much more at ease. I love this sweet lion-kitty very much, he is a dear old soul and recently his face has often appeared in my head when I wake up.

Update on Jerry

Jerry is an extremely timid kitty with a sweet soul who came into the shelter emaciated, shaking and terrified some time ago, as pictured above.

I have worked with him slowly and carefully, and he has continually made progress, which would seem like teeny baby steps of progess to most people but for him, each step took a lot of courage to make.

The past couple weeks, it seems like he got past a certain plateau and he has become exponentially more comfortable. Even the texture of his fur feels different. You still have to be very patient and quiet with him, as a sharp movement can frighten him, but now he purrs just about as soon as I start to touch him, and when I open his cage, he seems to look at me as though he wants me to touch him, whereas I often would feel before that he wanted me to touch him but he was still pretty afraid of that.

Yesterday really brought a tear to my eye. I had said hello to him but hadn't had a chance to work on him yet, and I looked over at him and he was laying on his back with his legs in the air, totally at ease. And when I took my camera out to take a picture, instead of being afraid and moving right away, he looked right at me, as you see here.

What a sweet boy! Every day I can't wait to see him and I keep sending good thoughts for a patient, kind person to arrive in the shelter to take him home when he is ready for that, and I feel that day is getting closer and closer.

Myron

Myron is one of the most challenging cats I have worked with at the shelter. He is SO frightened and sensitive, sometimes he will hiss and swat if anyone even comes near his cage, much less open the door and try to touch him. If I get to the shelter early enough, I offer to change his cage so that I can do it extremely quietly so as to put the least amount of stress on him possible. I have also been adding rescue remedy to his water.

Occasionally, one other volunteer and I have been able to touch him just on his head, but most of the time even that is not possible, he generally lets out a huge hiss and swat that lets you know he really means it, LEAVE HIM ALONE.

The past couple of weeks, I have been standing outside his cage, offering Reiki to him. He is so sensitive, I can see him respond to the Reiki energy quite rapidly, and he becomes more relaxed, often closing his eyes and taking a nap.

More and more often now, we will see him at the front of his cage rather than at the back of his cage. He still seems like he is afraid of being touched, but he is getting closer.

Yesterday while I was sending him Reiki he was lying on his back, legs in the air and head against the cage door. It was lovely to see him in such a relaxed position.

I know that I need to continue to be very patient with him, and that he will be ok to be touched in his own time. Meanwhile, I am very happy to send Reiki in order to help him become more and more relaxed. What is interesting, too, is that lately his coat looks cleaner and healthier, and his eyes seem more clear. This has happened with our kitty Jerry as well, who was terrified and shaking when he first came into the shelter and he has really been coming around.

Here's to you, Myron, I'll be ready to TTouch you when you're ready :)

Charles and Leo

Some of the most beautiful moments at a shelter can come in observing how sweet these animals can be to one another, and what loving friendships these animals form. The two cats above are named Charles (left) and Leo (right). Charles is a strong young boy and Leo is an older gentlemen, and these two are the best of friends. They go everywhere in the shelter together, and It is especially moving because Leo is older and extremely delicate, and Charles is very protective of him. He lets Leo eat first if I put down food, and he generally watches over him. Even in the photo above you can see Charles's expression is "don't even think of messing with my buddy," as Leo sits there with his gentle, lion-like smile.

If I do TTouch on one of them, then the other begins to rub his head against the cat I'm TTouching as well. It is so beautiful seeing them together, it really brings a tear to your eyes. Lately I have woken up with the faces of these two cats in my head.

Both of these cats were designated as "feral cats" in the shelter, meaning that they supposedly weren't friendly, but once I began to feed them and Ttouch them and a couple of the other voluteers began to pet them and sometimes feed them, they have become extremely friendly, and a few of their other "feral" friends are starting to come around as well. Many of them sit up on top of all the cages, watching everything, and I can feel that they receive some of the TTouch and Reiki energy when I am working on the animals in the cages, it is interesting to see!

Here's a big hug to these two, we humans have a lot to learn from these creatures about loyalty and true friendship.

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.