Miss Sherry’s Finishing School techniques continue at Cat World
(Picutred is Great Kitty Rescue volunteer Gilla and her "Pahrump pussycat" Billy. Gilla is sharing the finishing school techniques with Cat World. )
As you all may know by now, the cats from the Great Kitty Rescue in Pahrump are in small enough numbers in Rescue Village, that it is time to begin their integration into our World Class housing at Cat World.
This means that socialization classes are opening further by taking a revolutionary and evolutionary step forward and introducing some new social skills to the larger cat population that includes their new “roommates”.
It will be a more open-classroom setting than the Finishing School at Rescue Village but Cat World is embarking on Cat Socialization 102- seeing how the techniques and tools developed during the Great Kitty Rescue can be translated to the rooms at Cat World.
“Our focus will be on encouraging, inspiring and informing people on how to help frightened cats, even frightened cats who appear aggressive, to overcome their fears and be able to have a comfortable future in which they are relaxed around humans,” said Sherry Woodard, Best Friends animal behavior consultant.
Many of the tools and techniques that will be used include brushes and long wands, catnip, the “elixir” of baby food and luncheon meat. “We’ll be using everything to help cats who have been reluctant to trust humans to start building relationships with people,” Sherry said.
Starting this week, one of the core volunteers from The Great Kitty Rescue, Gilla Gidlow, will be in the rooms at Cat World to share the techniques with caregivers and other volunteers. “Gilla used to be one of the people who did not believe that socialization was a possibility for every cat and now she does. She will be looking for help from the caregivers on identifying which cats at Cat World will benefit from the techniques.
“We will be documenting and tracking the cats’ individual progress, just like we did during the Finishing School. And by documenting we will be able to show what methods are working in the ‘open-classroom’ environment. And our belief is what we learn will be helpful to other rescue groups that house their cats in open rooms, similar to the layout at Cat World. This is a revolutionary breakthrough in how we work with cats and will continue to grow and learn for years to come.
“I believe the cats will continue to teach humans, just as they did during The Great Kitty Rescue, what they need and what works” Sherry said.
Please come and visit us anytime, we appreciate help in this very worthwhile program- and the cats like it too! ^ ^