Spreading Therapy Cat Love on Labor Day

Doing a therapy cat visit at the big hospital on Labor Day is a win-win for me and my human. She gets to have an easy drive with almost no traffic, and I get to spend quality time with the patients.

A couple of places, such as the Cancer Center, were closed for the holiday, but it was pretty much business as usual for most of the regular places I go to. Things like being sick and getting injured don’t take holidays. So I was happy to spend an hour in Pediatrics.

Out of the five patients, I was able to see four (the fifth one was in insolation). Three of them were young girls, all of them under 10. And they were all very cute and quiet. Which was fine with me — cats don’t need to be chatty. The first and third girls had their fathers with them.

The second girl had her mother with her — her dad was taking a break. My human doesn’t ask for any details about why the patients are in the hospital. It’s none of her business, of course, but also I am there to help them forget about hospital stuff, not remind them of it. This mom, however, seemed to need to talk a bit. She had brought her daughter in at 9 the night before and hadn’t gotten any sleep. So while I laid down next to the girl, my human held space with her mom so she could talk out some of her stress.

The fourth visit was a little boy, but I didn’t actually visit with him. He was sedated and couldn’t wake up long enough for a visit. But he had a lot of family there — my human guessed both parents, a grandmother, and an aunt (or second grandmother). It was a full house and they were all cat lovers! So I visited with them all for a while. That was fun.

We had enough time left when we were done to visit Labor and Delivery. And that was fun! Not only were the nurses really happy to see me, there were a couple of patients who wanted to see me too.

The Labor and Delivery patients are always the most difficult logistically. It’s kind of hard for me to navigate around them in their hospital beds, and I am totally not allowed to walk on them at all! So usually my human sets me up in a small sliver of bed, and makes sure I stay there. Both women were very sweet, and they had their partners with them. I especially liked the second one — she really knew how to pet kitties!

I spent so much quality time with the patients on this visit that we ran a little over time. But it was fine. My human knows when I’ve had enough for the day, and I was clearly having a nice time with my patients.