July 2021
My sister used to be a performer and she knew a lot about the power of the human voice and how much the right type of breathing influences it. Breathing can keep us calm in stressful situations. And singing promotes the right kind of breathing. I found out with Mitsy, that my voice, provided I used it in the right way, calmed her and even made her go to sleep. It might be that I simply have an utterly boring singing voice 🙂 but let’s look at it from a more flattering stand point…
The first time I saw Mitsy react to quiet singing and humming was when, 3 weeks after delivering her kittens, I was preparing to add a second crate to our feline kindergarten. This was not going to be a silent process: the crates rattle and I had to maneuver some furniture and other stuff around in the basement. And all of this was happening right in front of Mitsy’s cage and I was kind of nervous about that. In order to calm myself down, I was softly singing to myself. Just nonsense songs and nursery rhymes. It did not register with me immediately, but all of a sudden I realised that Mitsy looked very serene and calm, her chin on her paws, her head on the threshold of the carrier. Eyes slowly blinking and closing. She slept through most of my work and because of that, the kittens also remained asleep.
Later I started to experiment with singing an lo and behold, whenever I started singing to her, she calmed right down, gave me a slow blink and often went to sleep! We used the power of the voice often in the months to come and it was super helpful. And cute to see the effect.