Staying Calm is as Easy as 1,2,3

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When the tornado warning alert blared from my phone last week on my day off, I wasn't sure how worried to be. Just to be safe, I decided to move our "kids" - Wally and Calypso, our pet rabbit and cat - to an interior room of the house to wait out the storm. Wally got his favorite hay treats in his crate and I knew that would keep him happy for a while. Calypso, on the other hand, is not a fan of thunderstorms. She cried and pawed at the door of her carrier.

To help her calm down, I played relaxing "music for cats" on my phone. She was still anxious and I remembered a trick I'd been practicing with Otto the Great Horned Owl. Just like I did with Otto, I started the 123 pattern game by saying "1, 2, 3" and offering Calypso a treat. 

1, 2, 3, treat, 1, 2, 3, treat, 1, 2, 3, treat.

Any animal, whether they are an owl or a cat, can find comfort in predictability and patterns. Calypso stopped trying to escape her crate and sat down to wait for the next treat she knew was coming. When the tornado warning expired, I released her. I thought she would run upstairs to hide under the bed, but she decided to stay with me to continue the pattern game until her tube of treats was empty. 



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