I got to have my therapy cat visit at the children’s hospital this week! My human made sure to bring my bell because doing tricks is always a good ice breaker for the kids.
But that wasn’t going to work in the first exam room we visited — the little girl was scared of me and started crying! At first my human was going to just assume she didn’t want to see a kitty, but something made us linger for a moment. And almost instantly she stopped crying and looked at me curiously. Her mother encouraged her to pet me, and she did. And she gave me a sly smile. It turned out she wasn’t really scared after all.
We didn’t think the second patient wanted to see me either. It was an older teen boy, and he sort of shrugged us off. But again, something made us pause and he changed his mind. So I walked up to him on my leash and he petted me, and my human had me do some tricks for him. He really enjoyed it all and admitted to my human that when he visited friends with cats, the cats always hated him. So in his 16 or 17 years of life, I was his first positive experience with a kitty.
I didn’t have to work to win over every patient. One room had a little boy with his wrist and hand in a cast. He was happy to see me, and so were his mom and sisters. I sat next to the boy and gave him a high five with his uninjured hand. Then both his sisters stood on a little step and petted me too. One had a disability so she needed a little extra help, but they were all delightful.
The last patient in the exam rooms was another young girl who wasn’t sure of me at first, but who warmed up to me. But something was bothering her, and she whispered it to her mother. The mother told us she was worried that I might relieve myself in the exam room! My human assured them that she made sure I used the litter box before going off on our visit. The mother was a little impressed by that.
Did I mention I purred the whole time I was visiting the exam rooms? Because I did.
We also went up to the surgery area. Several patients had nurses working with them so it wasn’t a good time for a visit. But one girl on a gurney had just one nurse and she gasped the moment she saw me. Clearly she needed a visit so my human brought me over. During the visit she told us all about her cats. We spent longer with her than we normally might have because she in a lot of pain. The nurse had given her a dose of strong painkiller and it was taking a while to kick in, so having me there was one way to distract her.
We’ve been doing therapy visits for so many years now that my human instinctively knows when to stay and when it might be better to leave. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I am so happy during most of my visits. Because I do love visiting people when they appreciate me the most.
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[[{“value”:”This was one of my most favorite therapy cat visits!
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Summer’s Fabulous Cat Life