Doing the therapy cat visit at the big hospital on Labor Day was a win for me and my human. It’s easy to drive with almost no traffic, and I get to spend quality time with patients.
Some places, like the Cancer Center, are closed for the holiday, but it’s pretty much business as usual for most of the regular places I go. Things like being sick and injured shouldn’t take a vacation. So I happily spent an hour in Pediatrics.
Of the five patients, I saw four (the fifth was insolation). Three of them were girls, all of them under 10. And they were all very cute and quiet. That’s fine with me — cats don’t need to be chatty. The first and third girls were with their fathers.
The second girl was with her mother — her father was resting. My person does not ask for any details about why the patients are in the hospital. It’s none of his business, of course, but I’m also there to help them forget about hospital stuff, not remind them of it. This mom, however, seems to need to talk a little. She brought her son at 9 the night before and couldn’t sleep. So as I lay next to the woman, my man held space with his mother so that she could express some of her stress.
The fourth visit was a boy, but I never really visited him. He was sedated and could not wake up long enough for a visit. But he has a lot of family there — my guess is both parents, a grandmother, and an aunt (or second grandmother). It’s a full house and they all love cats! So I visited them all for a while. That’s fun.
We had plenty of time left when we were done visiting Labor and Delivery. And that’s fun! Not only were the nurses really happy to see me, some patients also wanted to see me.
Labor and Delivery patients are always the most difficult logistics. It was quite difficult for me to navigate around them in their hospital beds, and I was actually not allowed to walk on them! So most of the time, my man puts me on a little piece of bed, and makes sure I stay there. Both girls are very sweet, and they are with their partners. I especially liked the second one — she really knows how to take care of kittens!
I spent so much quality time with the patients during this visit that we ran a little over time. But it’s okay. My person knows when I’ve had enough for the day, and I’m clearly happy with my patients.