It’s a two-cat therapy visit day at the big hospital because Josie and her people signed up at the last minute. So we did all our rounds together.
At first, it didn’t seem like we were needed! Our first stop was the Cancer Center, but the waiting room was empty and a chemo patient was sleeping. It was nice visiting with the nurses though, since they love both me and Josie.
Then we visited the Pediatrics Ward…and no kids today! That always makes us happy and sad. Happy because there are no sick children, and sad because I love visiting children. The staff was having a meeting upstairs but they stopped to say hi to me and Josie.
Finally, we go up a floor to Skilled Nursing, and there are patients! The ones I saw all spoke Spanish and little or no English. My guy can’t really speak Spanish, but he knows enough to tell them my name is “verano” in English (that’s the Spanish word for Summer). The first lady we saw was visiting her husband, but she left so I could hug her husband all I wanted. That was nice, and he liked me a lot.
The second patient spoke a little more English, and I snuggled up to her while her daughter (or maybe granddaughter) took pictures and video. They are also kind and I would have stayed longer except for Behavioral Medicine.
Behavioral Medicine is where we hit the jackpot — there are 5 patients there, plus staff, to see! Usually there are a couple of people. And everyone there is adored kitten! we had a 45 minute love fest there in Behavioral Medicine. I’m not really a lap cat, but I still stayed on a patient’s lap for a long time. I also did a round of high fives and paw shakes for some of them. Josie did most of the lap work — she’s good at that.
I just wanted to mention how many people at the hospital, staff, visitors, and patients, are huge cat lovers! Josie and I have a lot of fans and friends there. More hospitals need to overcome myths and prejudices and look at having cats as therapy animals. Only a handful of hospitals on our therapy organization’s roster allow cats to visit, and I think that’s really unfortunate.
Here are other times Josie and I have done cat therapy together:
