If you’re around cats either in your home or during volunteer work at a rescue or shelter, you very possibly have encountered cats that are very scared. Sara Goldenthal, an experienced animal behaviorist, has written an e-book called No More Scaredy Cat: The easy, step-by-step program that puts an end to stress, fear and anxiety for the cats you love (Mini Kitty Books) to help those working or living with scared felines.
Sara was inspired to develop this program after her experience as a volunteer at a high intake animal shelter. Terrified of any interaction with humans, many stray cats would not stand much chance of being adopted and were in danger of being euthanized. Sara also had a firsthand experience with a very scared cat she later named Tucker. Tucker was a stray that came to adopt Sara’s home as his own, and Sarah was eventually able to coax him out of hiding. Seeing the number of cats with fear issues led Sarah to develop a program to help them.
Goldenthal’s program a combination of flower essences, primarily Rescue Remedy, behavior modification and TTouch techniques to help cats with fear issues. The book describes the successes with many shelter cats, helping them deal with fear issues and eventually leading to them finding permanent homes.
Sara goes into step-by-step detail on how to begin the program for shelters/rescues, including:
- Supplies that will be needed
- Roles and responsibilities of shelter workers that will be part of the program
- What actions to take to begin the program with cats needing help
- Sample progress form
For those unfamiliar with flower essences and how to use them to help fearful cats, Sara provides detailed information on the basis of Rescue Remedy. She also provides very detailed information on how to introduce Rescue Remedy to cats in need of help.
The use of flower essences is one aspect of the program, but the book also describes other techniques to help build trust with fearful cats.
Although Sara has seen very positive results with her program, it doesn’t work 100% of the time, so she discusses what to do if the program doesn’t seem to be working for individual cats.
This ebook provides good detailed information for those wishing to make life better for scared felines. I would definitely recommend it to shelters hoping to increase the number of cat adoptions through helping cats work through fear issues.
If you would like more information on Sara Goldenthal, go to saragoldenthal.com.
This writer was provided a copy of the book but this did not influence any information stated above.
Written by Karen
