I got to visit the children’s hospital for my therapy cat visit this week. Each visit is a little different, and this time I wound up spending more quality time with each patient, even though it was a busy day.
We started off in the lobby, as always, and the first patient I saw was a boy in a wheelchair with his mom. He was happy to see me, and he petted me a lot. The mom was called to reception for some paperwork. Even though there was a guy in a hat watching over the boy, he was on the phone, so my human let me stay with the boy until she was done.
After entertaining some other kids in the lobby with my bell ringing, we visited the exam rooms. They were pretty full! Most of the time when we went in a room, a doctor was with the patient and their parents, but they always invited me in to see the kids.
One of the first kids I saw was a very young girl who had a buckle fracture in her foot. How did I know this? The doctor was explaining it to her mom. Of course, I didn’t pay that much attention. My job was to keep the little girl happy while the doctor chatted about her healing process.
It was the same thing with an 11-year old boy with his arm in a sling. When my human asked if they wanted to see a kitty, he replied with a very enthusiastic yes! So I spent a lot of time entertaining him while their doctor explained the healing process of his fractured collar bone.
Not all my patients were the actual patients. In one exam room, the hospital’s patient was an older boy in a wheelchair. He was having something done to his leg. But mainly my job was to keep his two younger sisters occupied. That was fun. And I did visit with the boy at the end, and he petted me with his long, slender fingers.
My last patient was a teen girl. She was lying down under a blanket when I came in, but sat up immediately to spend time with me. She said she always wanted a cat, but wound up with a little dog instead. I had a lot of fun with her.
One of the best parts of my visit involved one woman — either the sister or aunt of a patient — who asked a lot of questions about my work. And it turned out she had a couple of ragdolls that she thought might be good therapy pets. So my human gave her a card from our organization so she could find out more information. I’m always hoping that one of my visits will inspire someone with a cat to volunteer as a therapy pet partner. We need more kitties!
