A Quiet Day at the Hospital

therapy cat on a quiet day at the hospital

It was a quiet day at the hospital. In fact, it was one of the quietest days ever here. Both Josie, the program’s other therapy cat, and I were working, but we didn’t have a lot of patients to visit! Only a couple of kids were in pediatrics, but they weren’t up for visitors. The patients in Skilled Nursing and Rehab were either sleeping, in isolation, or one lady told us in Spanish that she wanted to see a dog. She did think I was lovely, though! Then we went down to the cancer center, and there were people in the waiting room — but the chemo patient was running late and not there. We finished up in Behavioral Medicine, where only one patient was available to visit with us.

Maybe this sounds like a disappointing day, but it really wasn’t. Well, other than the fact that I didn’t get to snuggle in bed with anybody (my favorite therapy cat activity). Because everybody we did see was important in one way or another. The lady who wanted to see a dog? Her daughter walked in while we were chatting with her and was delighted to see me. She has two cats at home. The cancer center waiting room had one guy who wanted to talk a lot about his three dogs, and the cat he used to have. That one patient in Behavioral Medicine? He spent the whole visit petting me, and one of the staff members was happy to have Josie sitting calmly on her lap. These people all needed us today, and their lives would have been a little grayer if we hadn’t been there. So it was still a good day.

Oh, and later on that day, my human needed to pick up some food at the pet shop down the street. She figured that since I had already been out, I wouldn’t want to come along… but I did! I followed her around as she gathered her purse and put on her shoes, so she bundled me up and took me. And I got some more of those fun bouncy toys I love.

somali cat on leash at pet shop