My Therapy Cat Visit this week was at Big Hospital and was very quiet and almost eerie. The cancer centre was empty – even the nurses weren’t there. And the pediatrics were empty. The nurse there told me that they had two patients discharged early and one had hoped for later in the emergency. That’s far less than we see there.
So we stopped by to work and give birth. They had patients, but none were available for visits. However, I visited with some nurses. They are always grateful to see treatment animals.
Next, we went to rehabilitation, but only one patient wanted to visit. She was an older Spanish-speaking woman with forearms to cast. She thought that my human being also knew Spanish. Because she has mastered two sentences that she knows very well! Luckily, the woman was caring for a fluent nurse, so she was able to chat between the three of them. The nurse had cats at home and he talked a lot about them! Everyone was having fun and the patients were always petting me.
Our Thursday visit almost always involved a stop in behavioral medicine and they had two patients for me. They were very young girls, just teenagers. One retreated very quietly and she just wanted to sit down and observe. She didn’t want to interact with me or really anyone else. She wasn’t uncomfortable or in a bad mood. The other girls were sweet and happy petting me, but she was very quiet too. My man gave me the swing of her legs and made her give me a treat. I think they were both happy to take a break from their time in the ward.
It was a bit disappointing that no one would come first, but the patients we did ended up seeing more than making up for it.
