I quietly got to see the therapy cats at the big hospital. I stopped by the cancer center, but they had already closed for the day and there was no one there to see them. So I met another therapy cat, Josie, and her owner, and then headed to the pediatrics department.
However, before we got to the pediatric ward, the waiting room was full of medical students, so the owners offered to stop by and chat with them. It was a great idea, because they were so happy to meet me and Josie. Most of the cats wanted to pet us and take pictures, except for a few with allergies. However, one of the cats with allergies was fascinated by me and asked the owner a bunch of questions about me. It seemed like allergies were the only thing that kept him from being a cat lover.
When we got to the pediatrics department, it was mostly empty except for two patients. The mother of one of them said she didn’t want to be visited, but her son asked me a bunch of questions before we left. If we had listened to the station nurses, we might not have visited the other patient. They warned us that the patient was deaf, partially blind, and had developmental problems. But when we went in, his family was there, and they all wanted to meet us. Josie sat on the bed with the patient, and I spent time with one of the family members. She showed us lots of pictures of her cat, who was a stray and even more shy than my friend’s pink cat. But she loved him just the same.
Finally, we went to the behavioral medicine department, which is a regular stop on this visit. There were only two patients there that day, a sad-looking woman who sat there for a few minutes and then wanted to leave. However, the other patient made a big deal out of us and said how glad she was that we had come. The same was true of the staff, and Josie and I had a great time with everyone. I even high-fived the patient.
It may not have been the busiest or most exciting therapy cat visit, but it was still fun to see everyone.
