Therapy Cat Healing Purrs and Happy Paws

My therapy cat visit this week was at the big hospital, and the first place we stopped at was the Cancer Center. I visited with the receptionists for a few minutes before heading to the infusion room. I only had one patient there — a Spanish speaking woman with pretty silver glitter polish on her fingernails. My human set me down on the pillow on her lap. Although it took me a little bit to get settled, once I was comfortable I worked really hard at making her feel better. I purred lots and gave her my best happy paws. I may even have dozed a little. It was a very quiet visit, but sometimes the patient doesn’t need a lot of chatter.

On the way out, we stopped in the waiting area for an older lady. My human was able to tell her a little about me in Spanish and we showed her some of my tricks. That was fun.

Next we went up to Pediatrics. Only one patient was available to see me this time. I knew who it was immediately because as soon as I got close to her doorway on my leash, I could hear her cooing over me. She was a teen girl who was sitting up in her bed. So my human put a sheet on the bed so I could sit next to her. While the girl took video of me on her phone, my human chatted a little bit with her mother about different things. Like about my training for therapy work, and sleeping in the patient’s room, which so many parents do when their children are hospitalized. Since she was the only patient for me in this wing, we got to spend extra time with her.

On the way to Labor and Delivery, I stopped by one of the waiting rooms to visit with people. Sometimes when I’m walking on my leash, my human just lets me direct her, and that’s where we went. That was fun. I jumped on a chair so I could be petted by some of the women waiting.

The one patient in Labor and Delivery who might have wanted to see me was sleeping, but that didn’t stop the nurses from visiting! In fact, one of them announced my arrival on the intercom. The noisy floor cleaning machine was running while I was there, so my human kept giving me treats. That almost always distracts me from unpleasant sounds, and I was able to focus on all the attention I was getting.

Although I didn’t see a whole lot of patients this visit, I really enjoyed seeing everyone!

Here are some of my other visits to the big hospital:

• Small Therapy Cat Visits Make a Big Difference
• Therapy Cat Quality Time
• Therapy Cat Magic Is in the Simple Things