I have to visit the big hospital for a therapy cat visit this week. My first stop was the Cancer Center. I always try to go there because they often end early. Before going to the infusion room, I stopped by reception. They love seeing the therapy pets, and I’m so excited to adore them.
The last few times I’ve been in the infusion room, I haven’t visited a patient yet, but this time there is. He wasn’t very talkative, so my human had me sit with him and just let me do my cat therapy. I made myself as comfortable as I could and purred a lot for the patient. While I was doing that, the lady was barely conscious of me. He seemed to fall asleep again and again, sometimes smiling slightly. My guy usually ends a session after 5 to 10 minutes, but he let me last longer this time because he felt the girl needed a little more cat power.
After that we headed to Pediatrics, where I saw two patients. The first was a little girl, who had to wear an extremely uncomfortable oxygen apparatus. He doesn’t hate having two pointy little cones in his nose and his mom gives a hard time about it. Meanwhile, I sat on the bed and waited for him to hug me in between fussing…which he did. He had cats at home and he really missed them.
The other girl we saw was an older teenager who was very happy to see me! He was in a large room with many family members around. I got to spend time in bed with him, and within minutes, one of his alarms started going off! His heart rate jumped because he was so happy that I was there. The nurse came in and turned off the alarm, as it was clear that he had no health incident. Funny thing about the alarm. When it rang, my man almost jumped out of his skin…but I didn’t. That comes down to my cat training therapy.
The last patient I saw was in Behavioral Medicine. Last time, they had a meeting during my usual visiting time. This time, they only had one patient who wanted to come to me. Others weren’t ready for a therapy pet visit, which a staff member told my person happens sometimes. But the man we visited – he was in his 20s with dyed blonde hair – really enjoyed my visit. He has pawprints tattooed on his inner forearm and is obviously an animal lover. My man made me give him shakes. He also took an Instamatic picture of himself posing with me, which really came out! He is a sweet, handsome man.
Although the number of patients I saw was relatively small for this hospital, each was a quality visit. I’m so glad I was there for them.
