My Visit Showed Therapy Cats Do Actual Therapy

Even though it was a quiet day at the big hospital, I was actually very busy with therapy cat duties!

My human and I first stopped at Pediatrics, and a nurse told me that there was a teen girl in the playroom who liked cats. So we went there to find the girl, sitting at a table, and hooked up to an infusion stand. I sat on the table to visit, and after a few minutes, a young boy came in, also hooked up to an infusion stand! He was very sweet and I gravitated to him immediately. My human showed off my high fives to both patients, and I even gave my paw to the boy.

Then, as we were walking down the hallway to see if any other patients wanted to see me, we ran across the girl’s room. She was seated in a chair as a nurse was changing her infusion needle. Even though the girl said it didn’t hurt, they had me stay so she could pet me. They thought it would be a good idea to have me distract her while they worked on the tubing. We stayed for quite a while.

When we had finished there, it was time to go over to Behavioral Medicine. They also had just two patients, a man and a woman. The woman was quiet and not very articulate, but she loved petting me, and the man did too. I think they really enjoyed visiting with me. I don’t know all that goes on in Behavioral Medicine, but I’m sure they appreciated the break in their day.

And that was it, the whole visit! On the surface it didn’t seem like much, but I get the feeling that it was actually a lot.