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