I got to have a therapy cat visit with my assisted living pals this week! I started off with a couple of my regulars, including the woman who loves my high fives. A couple of staff members followed our visits and took photos of me with the residents, and one took my human and me around to the people who were in wheelchairs. While I was visiting with one man, the woman with heavy hands walked past, and patted my human (heavily) on the shoulder. That was a surprise, as I don’t think we’ve ever seen her walking.
There was one couch with three of my regulars sitting together. I visited with them one by one while a staff member took photos. The lady on the far end was a little weepy, so I made sure to lie down and spend extra time with her. I do have a little bit of a sixth sense about who needs me, even if my human doesn’t always recognize it. Like one guy I sat next to who was by himself on a couch. He was mostly unresponsive, but I gave him a few head butts. He patted me on the head a couple of times and that was the extent of our interaction. It didn’t look like much to the human eye, but I think it was.
I don’t talk about the second house much since it’s pretty quiet and not much really happens there. We usually only spend about 15 or 20 minutes visiting there. But this time was interesting because my human heard disco music in the activity room and couldn’t resist investigating. I’m not sure what they had planned for the residents but they paused the music so I could visit the residents who were sitting around a table.
One woman at the other end of the table cowered and said she was afraid of me. So my human told her not to worry, we wouldn’t come near her. The woman in front of us really enjoyed petting me a lot, which fascinated the scared woman. And the woman on the other side of her wanted to see me, so my human took me over. And the woman wasn’t scared anymore, and couldn’t stop talking about me with the woman who asked to see me! I love when I’m able to win people over like that.
It was a fun visit, and I think I helped brighten everyone’s day.
