Quinn, R,I.P.

(Above:  the green plastic you see on the right is a back scratcher.  Sometimes I would initiate contact with the back of the hand of the back scratcher, and, if he was comfortable, I would then transition to using my hand.)

I feel honored to work with animals every day, and each one has so much to teach me.  But it is a particularly special honor when an animal who is generally too frightened of humans to connect with them feels comfortable enough to let me into their world.

Quinn was a beautiful cat at BARC Shelter.  He was dumped at the shelter some time ago.  Like many of the animals at the shelter, we didn't know exactly what his past was, but he was extremely frightened of people.  I worked with him very gradually, just a little bit at a time.  Most often I used tools such as paintbrushes, feathers, back scratchers and the like in order to connect with him, but there were times when he was comfortable with me touching him directly. 

I found that underneath his often gruff exterior (most often he would meow and swat at an approaching hand) was a gentle, very sensitive soul.  When we connected in our very quiet way, I felt so honored that he trusted me enough to make that connection. 
I would feel the connection even if we weren't literally making contact.  If he did not seem in the mood to be touched, I would often sit outside his cage and send him Reiki energy from there, and I would feel him respond, relaxing and curling up to take a Reiki nap. 
Below, you see me TTouching him using the back of my hand, which is more gentle and less threatening than the front surface of the hand.

I showed some of the other regular volunteers how they could touch him gently with tools, so that he could feel safe, but could have contact. 

As time went on, when I would sit down next to his cage (I would put a chair sideways to his cage, as the sideways orientation is much less intense than straight-on), he would come right up to the front of the cage to greet me.  A few times I thought he was almost considering stepping onto my lap!

I grew to have a very special bond with this cat, who to me seemed like his heart had been wounded. We were able to enter a very quiet, peaceful space together, and I appreciate every moment we spent together.  He taught me so much about being patient and truly in the moment, and always being respectful of what felt safe and comfortable for him in that moment.

The BARC staff and volunteers were very kind to and respectful of him, as they are to all the animals there, and I send them so many thanks for that.  

Sadly, recently Quinn's health suddenly declined sharply, and too soon came his time to cross the rainbow bridge.  I'm sorry I did not have an opportunity to say goodbye to him in person, but I have spoken to him and said goodbye to him in my mind.  He will always live in a very special, quiet place in my heart.  Quinn, I have so much to thank you for and send so much love to you.  I picture you in a beautiful place in the spirit world, curling up on a cozy pillow in the sun for a pleasant nap.  xo

From the Litter Box to My Lap: TTouch with Angela at BARC Shelter

Angela is a beautiful cat who was dumped at BARC Shelter about a week ago, left outside the shelter in a carrier.  Who knows what she went through before she arrived at the shelter? At any rate, she was terrified and hissing when she first arrived there, huddled in her box.  When I opened her cage, you can see the skeptical look she gave me.  I decided to very gradually and gently try to work with her.  I calmed myself, taking some deep breaths before I began working with her.  Standing sideways to her cage, I gently stroked her head with a paintbrush one time and then pulled it away, to see what her reaction was.  Then I tried again.  Within a short time, she had rolled onto her side in a playful way, stretching out and looking cozy.  But she still was a bit unsure, and sometimes would want to bite the brush or didn't seem completely comfortable with it.  I kept the session short - after a few times of trying this she gave a little hiss to let me know that was enough.  So I closed the cage and let her have a break.  I worked with her a couple of more short times that day, and she gradually grew more comfortable.

The next time I worked with her, though she was still in her litter box, she started out looking more comfortable to begin with than she had previously, and she quickly settled into some circular TTouches on her head, then some strokes down the body as well, but not too much so as not to frighten her.

Then, on Saturday when I went to see her, her litter box was placed closer to the front of the cage and when I opened the cage, she actually got up and came to the front of the cage to see me.  I began by doing TTouch circles with the paintbrush on the top of her head, under the chin, and then some down the body.  She was very affectionate and was rubbing her head into the paintbrush.  So I moved my hand down the paintbrush and began to do TTouches on her directly with my hand.  I was mostly doing TTouches using the back surfaces of my hand, as the back of your hand is less threatening to a fearful animal than the front of your hand.

Then she really surprised me by calmly walking out onto my lap!

I sat very quietly, mostly sending her gentle Reiki with my hands loosely on her, doing a few TTouches here and there, and she seemed quite at ease there, continuing to rub her head into my hands.  When I had first contact with her last week, I had a feeling that she wasn't feral, just frightened, but I didn't know the transition would be this fast!!

So she didn't get overstimulated and unsure, I very gently started to make the first tiny movement in the direction of standing up, and she went back into the cage. 

This was so wonderful to see this cat who had been so frightened come such a long way in the space of a week.  Looking forward to seeing you soon, Angela!  And thank you for trusting me....

T

The Power of Positive Words and a Soft Voice with Quinn at BARC Shelter

Quinn is a beautiful cat at BARC Shelter who is extremely fearful (and possibly was at least somwhat feral). I have been working with him for some months, constantly adjusting and varying the way in which I work with him in order to be able to meet him at a place where he can feel comfortable connecting.
Little by little he has been getting more comfortable, and I know that even though most people cannot make physical contact with him, the staff and volunteers at BARC do their best to help him feel at ease, even if it is simply sitting next to his cage and speaking with him.
Most recently, I found that I was able to relax myself and him by doing deep, relaxing breaths and positive visualzation, then just one gentle stroke with a wand on his back.
Yesterday I wanted to try a variation on this. The shelter was very quiet to begin with, so that was helpful to start off with. I began as I had before, doing several deep breaths, imagining stroking him with the wand and him relaxing, then doing one stroke down his back, then the deep breaths and visualization again.
I could see that he was tolerating the strokes, but his tail began to twitch, so he was not quite at ease. So I began to very slowly say to him a mantra which was taught to me as a way to center and ground myself, but I replaced the "I" with a "you". "You are very loved, and you are very safe..." I could see that the tone of my voice and the feeling of what I was saying was helping him to feel at ease.
I repeated it over and over, very slowly, and saw the tail twitching slow down, and then stop. I continued, my voice becoming softer til I was barely making a sound, mostly thinking the words. After a while I felt very in synch with his energy, and felt tears well up, feeling that something was opening up in him. I kept working through the impulse to cry, just reminding myself to continue connecting with him, continuing to feel something was releasing. I do think this cat has trauma in his past, something that causes him to be so afraid of people.
A number of times while I was doing this, I very slowly and gently stroked him with the plastic wand (just a plastic flexible stick from a string toy). Sometimes I would do a little circle and stroke. With this approach, I felt him continue to relax. I didn't push it with the contact, and after a while was just very softly saying the words, very slowly. He eventually got into sleepy mode and curled up to take a nap. I thanked him and closed the session.
Thank you Quinn, you are teaching me so much every time I work with you. Look forward to seeing you soon.... xo

Quinn Reminds me to B-R-E-A-T-H-E......

Quinn is a very handsome big cat at BARC Shelter. He is very frightened of human contact, but little by little he is becoming less afraid and learning that people can approach him in a gentle and non-threatening way.
I have been working with him for some months, using both TTouch and Reiki. I find that it is important with him to keep varying the tools that I use. Sometimes he will decide that he is not fond of whatever surface I am using to touch him, so I need to try something else.
Most recently he has been coming right up to the door of the cage to greet me, even looking as though he's contemplating stepping onto my lap (which I have been visualizing him doing).
But then he seems to get scared, perhaps swatting at me and then moving back in his cage again. I stopped trying to touch him for a while, just sitting next to his cage and sending him Reiki from outside his cage, which he really responds to, closing his eyes and becoming very relaxed.
I wanted to try using a tool I had not used before with him, so I got one of those string toys that have a long plastic wand for a handle, and just used the wand part. But before touching him with it, I began to do some very deep breathing. Sometimes I can get a bit nervous when I touch him, even with a tool, as he can suddenly swat, which can be a bit unnerving, even if he does not use his claws (which he often doesn't).
So I began doing deep, relaxing breaths, feeling Reiki energy coming out of my hands. And I began to visualize stroking him with the wand and him relaxing with it. Then I took three deep breaths, and on the third one, I stroked his back very gently one time, but without hesitation. And sure enough, instead of getting spooked and swatting at me, he remained lying down and relaxed.
I got into a pattern of three deep breaths, then on the third one just, again just doing one stroke down his back.
I think we were both a bit surprised! I didn't want to push the issue, so I stopped when I started to see his body language going in the direction of overstimulation.
Once again, he has reminded me of how important it is to stay truly in the moment with animals, and to always keep my mind open to trying something new.
Thank you Quinn! I will be so interested to try this again with you and to see what can happen next. xox

Gentle Energy with Val at BARC Shelter

Val is a beautiful cat at BARC Shelter, who I have been working with even more attention, focus and sensitivity, as she can flip from being affectionate to swiping and scratching. I feel she wants the attention so badly, but can get over-stimulated with too much contact.
I am working with her very gently, and with short sessions, to help her become more and more accustomed to the experience of pleasant contact, stopping before she gets to the point of overstimulation, when she is likely to scratch someone
Before I start to work with Val, it is very important for me to center myself, as she will pick up on my energy. So I focus on grounding myself, and beginning to let Reiki energy flow through my body. Before I move towards Val to touch her, I stand outside her cage with my body sideways to the cage (much less threatening position than straight-on) and begin to send her Reiki energy from there. She will usually either go lie on her bed or come up to the front of the cage and settle there.
The two pictures below are from a session in which she settled right at the front of the cage. After she settled there, I reached through the bars of the cage and did little raccoon TTouches around the base of the ear, which is a very calming place to work as it connects with the triple heater meridian, which has to do with respiration, digestion, and distribution of energy through the body. I kept giving her breaks as I did this, to avoid her getting over-stimulated and so I could pay attention to her body language to see what would be best to do next. By this I mean that I did the TTouch circles for a few seconds up to a minute or so, following my intuition, give about a half minute break or longer, then start again. She settled into these TTouches very well, but I didn't want to push it so after a bit I gave her another break and tried something else.


The next thing I did was some TTouches on her forehead using the back of the tip of a finger or two. There's no official name for this TTouch, but I was doing the clockwise circle and a quarter movement with perhaps just my fingernail, or at other times a bit more of the back surface of my finger. The forehead can also be a very calming area to work for many cats.
I was using very light pressure, as is usual with cats, as they are so sensitive, just enough to move the skin around in a circle and a quarter. She calmed quite a lot as I did this, relaxing and closing her eyes. After a few minutes, I gave her a longer break, then later in the day went back to work with her again.

A few days after I took these pictures, I had another very interesting session with her, which surprised me even further. This time after I sent her Reiki energy for a few minutes, she settled on her bed in the back of the cage.

I opened the cage, still with my body sideways to the cage, and began to do TTouches on Val's forehead with the back of my fingers. But this time, to calm her (and, I think, to calm myself), I found myself softly and slowly saying "b-r-e-a-t-h-e". As I did this, I felt a calm bubble of energy around us, "b-r-e-a-t-h-e", and Val's eyes began to close. She looked very relaxed in this moment. We stayed in this floating feeling with the TTouches and occasionally saying "b-r-e-a-t-h-e" again for a while, hard to know whether it was five minutes, ten minutes. But as one of our TTouch sayings goes, "It's moments, not minutes" that matter. So when I felt it was enough, I told her how good she was, thanked her, and then backed away to let her rest.

I realize that I was taking a risk putting my arm and hand inside her cage, and but sometimes I just have to follow my heart and go forward when I feel it is right. It is important though to remember that when you do that, you need to acknowledge that you are taking a risk and are responsible for that.

That being said, I am very excited to start to see a shift in Val's behavior with me and hopefully soon with other people, and would love to see a shift the way people see Val (because of her past behavior). I keep visualizing her in a positive way. Look forward to seeing you soon, Val!

TTouch and Reiki with Feral Cats: Griffin and Samantha

Griffin and Samantha are two young feral cats who I have been working with for a few months at BARC Shelter in Brooklyn. They arrived hissing and absolutely terrified, and over time they have become more and more receptive to contact. Griffin is the more frightened of the two, so my blog posts up til now have focused on her, but I will discuss Samantha here as well.
For a while Griffin seemed in a little bit of an in-between place where she wasn't sure whether she wanted to use an approaching hand as a toy or to settle into being touched. She has grown much more used to the concept of being touched very gently, so now will just be a bit startled for a moment when I first make contact, but once she feels my hands begin to make the gentle circular motions of the TTouches, she settles into it and relaxes. I first touch her forehead with the back of my fingers, do a few TTouches with the backs of my fingers, then usually turn my hand over for some Raccoon TTouches.

I do Raccoon TTouches (circular TTouches using the tips of the fingers) around her forehead area, as this is a place she is accustomed to and she soon closes her eyes and settles in. And now I have been able to work in TTouches around the outside of the mouth area, which is a wonderful area to work, especially with a frightened animal, as it connects with the limbic system, which affects the emotions.
The catch-22 about the mouth work is that it is a risky area to work if you are in danger of being bitten, so you have to use common sense about what is appropriate for the animal at any particular time. It may be useful to TTouch the outside of the mouth area first with a tool, something with a smaller surface like a small paintbrush or even a toothbrush.

However, I have worked with Griffin enough, and have TTouched her close to this area, so it was not a shock for her to feel my hand touching her mouth area.
Depending on how I am positioned, it is often convenient to do the TTouches using my thumb, while my fingers are in a more stabilized position on her head, rather than the other way around. So this is the way I have been doing the mouth TTouches with Griffin. I started out by sliding my thumb outside of the mouth, then doing connected TTouches going along the outside of the mouth.
As you can see by the photos, she settled right into the TTouches, and I could feel and see the rest of her become more relaxed as a result as well. One can work inside the mouth, on the gums etc but I rarely do this with fearful cats since that can be a bit too close for comfort to the teeth!






Next I worked with Samantha. Samantha is quite fearful as well, but tends to react to people by shutting down rather than swatting, so she has been quicker to be receptive to TTouches. I also began by doing raccoon TTouches on her forehead, then began to do little slides on the outside of her mouth area, then transitioning to doing connected TTouches around her mouth area.


She was very receptive to all this, and began to relax the rest of her body little by little as I did these. I could hear and feel her doing a very quiet little purr! At times recently I have heard little Griffin purr as well.



Samantha is receptive to being touched on her body as well as her head area. Two of the types of TTouches that are comforting to her are the Lying Leopard TTouch, which is a circular TTouch done with the hand very flattened out, which most of the surface of the fingers in contact with her body, and the zigzag TTouch, in which I am opening and closing my hand at the same time that I am moving my hand in a zigzag pattern. Here is a youtube clip of part of my TTouch/Reiki session with Samantha: http://youtu.be/pINP0hAQlv4






I do the Lying Leopard TTouches going down one side of her body then the other, doing a circle and a quarter, sliding my hand a little further down her back, then doing another TTouch, etc. The zigzag TTouches I do going from one side of her back to the other, while going from her neck area down towards her tail. Zigzags can be done going down one side of the body at a time, if you prefer. Please check my youtube site: http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat for demos of many of the TTouches.





At times I would pause and just feel the Reiki energy, which was constantly flowing, be absorbed into her body. I could also see her relaxing on an even deeper level when I would do this, closing her eyes. Her body stretched out more and more as I worked with her.


I make sure to maintain an especially quiet energy with both Griffin and Samantha, as they can become startled so easily. It is also important to make sure your breath is not held, that it is constantly flowing.


It is such a pleasure to see both of these cats becoming more comfortable. Before they would always remain at the back of the cage until we left for the night but now they will come right to the front to eat, etc.


Much love to you Griffin and Samantha - look forward to seeing you soon! xo

TTouch and Reiki with Jinx: Relax and Energize

Above: Reiki with Jinx (photo is a bit hard to make out but I have one hand about six inches in front of his chest, near where his hind feet were, and the other a few inches away from his back.

I went to work with Jordyn's (http://dancingminddesign.com/) cat Jinx today, who has been losing mobility in his back legs, either due to an injury or a tumor. He has been continuing to lose mobility but TTouch and Reiki (combined with a lot of love and contact with Jordyn of course) have been helping him to keep in as optimum balance as he can, given his condition.

I had made a Bach Flower remedy for Jinx, and Jordyn gave it to him right before I came over, so he was in a relaxed mode when I got there. He was resting on his bed, so I sat down near him and started out by sending him Reiki energy from a short distance away. Many, actually probably most cats prefer to have Reiki energy offered a bit off their body as opposed to directly hands-on, as they are very sensitive and the energy can be too intense for them with direct contact. So after a few minutes I did move a bit closer, but remained about 3 to 6 inches away from his body during most of the session. I had one hand near his hind legs and feet, the other hand above the center of his back. As these are two areas which are compromised, I felt guided there and he responded, relaxing more and more, eventually taking a little nap. At one point I put my left hand very gently around one hind leg and then the other, offering warm energy there, as he appears to often have very little sensation. And with my other hand, as I felt guided, I moved my hand over the various chakras on the back, feeling the energy grow stronger as I worked.

When I felt he had enough, I quietly closed the Reiki session and spoke to Jordyn for a few minutes. She felt she had benefited from the session as well - she said initially she felt sleepy but by the end of the session she felt clear and energized, which is great. And as we spoke, we saw Jinx cleaning one of his hind legs and his hind paw, which was wonderful to see.

Then Jinx got up and started to move around a bit. His hind feet can flip over so he is dragging them, but if you help adjust him so they are on the ground, he can start to use them a bit. I also found that, as I have done several times, with my hand gently around his tail (I am not holding the tail at all, my hand is just in a cupped shape around the fur of his tail, barely touching the end of the fur), and moving the tail in gentle, slow circle and a quarter movements, he starts to get a better sense of balance. Connected clouded leopard TTouches going down either side of his spine seem to be helpful as well.

Love you and see you soon, Jinx!