Therapy Cat Tales from 12/28/11

Tabby writes:


Wow, our last visit of this year!  Mommy had a nasty sinus infection for most of December, so we didn't go visiting the rest of the month, but she's feeling better now.  Since we didn't get to visit before Christmas, I wore my "Santa Baby" dress and had the little Christmas lights blinking on my stroller handle today!  Everyone loved all of that, even people on the buses and the MAX light rail train.

It was really cold and rainy, typical December weather for around here, so I wore my raincoat.  I'm so glad I have my raincoat, because the wind was so strong it turned the umbrella inside out!  Don't worry; Mommy had a coat, too, so we both were nice and dry except our heads.  The top of my head got rained on, so I made the coat into a shell, like a turtle, and hid in it from the rain.

On the MAX, a family petted me as soon as they got in, and told us a few stories about trying to harness-train their cat.  Their cat was scared of parks!  Not me; I love the grass and wide space, and all the smells.  On one of our buses, the people a few seats away from us talked about cats the whole ride.  It was fun eavesdropping on their conversation.

When we got to H., Mommy took my coat off and I put my "Santa Baby" dress on.  I love my dress!  It's slinky and form-fitting, so it feels like a light blanket:  so cozy!  I posed for these two pictures, then hopped down.  We went into the office and gave S. and R. the Christmas cards we'd brought for them, then got our list of friends to visit.  S. went with us for a few minutes, but then had to go take care of her husband.  He was sick today.  Some of our friends were sick, too, so our list showed which rooms to not visit because of illness.  That way, no one gets sick from petting me when someone else sneezed on me, or anything like that.  Plus, if there's anything that I could catch, I don't want to get sick, either.  There are some things that humans get that I could get also.

A couple of our friends took pictures of me in my dress, and one family member of a man we visited took a picture of me, too.  They all loved the stroller lights, as well!  One of our friends, C., who works at H., was telling a couple people about my Facebook page.  They thought that was funny but good!

E., who has a kitty neck pillow, loves to see me each time I visit.  She talked to me and petted me, fixing my dress so that it was smooth, then showed me her neck cat.  I sniffed it politely (it smells of lavender) and purred.  G. is a new friend and she has a cat named "Kitty".  Kitty has come to visit her at H. a couple times!  :)  >^..^<  G. had a snowman stuffed toy that she wanted me to see, but I wasn't really interested in it.  Mommy showed it to me, and I just looked at her, wondering what I was supposed to do with it.  Then, Mommy made it touch its nose to mine, so I rubbed my head against it and sniffed it, making friends with it.

The most amazing thing that happened today was visiting a lady who was in a big room with soft music playing.  Her daughter and son were there, sitting in chairs.  We wondered if they would like to visit, but didn't want to disturb them.  They waved us in when they saw me, and told us that the lady didn't have very much longer to live.  The daughter said that it seemed like she was waiting for someone or something, then looked at me and asked if maybe she was waiting for me!  I looked straight at the lady in the bed and stared, concentrating on her.  Mommy felt a wave of peace come over the whole room, like angels were there in the room.  The others said it was ok to put me up on the bed to see the lady, so Mommy wheeled me over and told the lady she'd brought a kitty to see her.  The lady's breathing changed; she made a sound and held her breath, then breathed normally again.  Her right hand moved up and down a little.  Mommy lifted me up on the bed, and I gently stood next to the lady, still staring at her.  I looked at Mommy, wondering why the lady wasn't responding by petting or talking to me, but then it kind of clicked in my brain that it was like when we waited with my auntie Lydia kitty on her last weekend.  This was the same thing, but with humans!  I wanted back in the stroller, so Mommy let me jump down.  I went over and got pets from the daughter and son, sniffed the son's shoe (he has kitties at home) and jumped up on a spare bed that was in the room.  Mommy talked with the others, then brought me over to the other side of the lady's bed one more time before we left the room.  I sat right against the lady's leg, and once again she let out her breath then started breathing normally.  We thanked the daughter and son for letting us visit, and they thanked us.  It meant so much to them to be able to have me visit their mom.  The lady will probably not be there for much longer at all, but we're so glad we got to meet her.

A. and G. were coming to watch tv, so we went in with them.  I sat between them on the chair arms and got pets from both of them.  I was interested in G.'s cookies, but she said they were hers and not for kitties.  Darn!  She didn't have any fig newtons today, either.  Hey, at least I tried!  She loved my dress, and said I was dressed up with nowhere to go.  When she said that, I got down on the floor and lay down!  Well, if I didn't have anywhere to go, I might as well lie down, right?  Everyone laughed at that!  I played tails with G.  She and I love that game, where she tries to touch the tip of my tail and I twitch it for her.  It's a game I learned from my uncle Skylar kitty when I was a kitten, and Mommy and Daddy play it with us, too.


H. (a friend, not the place) had family over to visit today.  He's a new friend, and they were playing cribbage on his bed.  They all love cats, so I hopped onto one of the offered laps and settled in, getting lots of attention.  After a couple minutes, I hopped over to the bed and lay down by the cribbage board, letting H. pet me.  One of his relatives saw my tail move and mentioned it, so H. tapped my tail.  He plays tails, too!  We played tails for a few minutes, while everyone looked and smiled.  H. tried reading my dress, but he was reading it upside down so it was an incomprehensible jumble of letters.  Someone else figured out what he was doing and corrected him, then he read it correctly.  They are a Jewish family, but they liked that I was dressed up for the holidays and that the stroller was decorated, too.  That's what's good about the holiday season.  No matter which holiday you celebrate, you can find joy in other people's celebrations as well.

I visited P. on the other floor.  It was definitely a day for playing tails, because she wanted to play tails, too!  She's almost blind, so she can only feel where I am and not see me, or at least not see me very well.  That means, if I'm walking on the floor and she has her hand over the chair arm, she can pet me but "loses" me when I flop over for tummy rubs.  If I'm close to her feet, though, and flop over, she can find me and give me tummy rubs!  When she was younger, someone in her family had a cat who took over a baby buggy!  The cat slept in it and took rides in it.  P. was pleasantly surprised to hear that I have one that I use for the same things!  She felt my stroller and got an idea of what it looked like.

After we were done with our visits, we went to Furever Pets.  They carry the big bags of Felidae, which is a very yummy food!  Mommy says it's good for us, too.  I said hi to my friends who work at Furever Pets, and they gave me some treats to eat.  I don't like some of the treats, but I did like one kind.  They gave Mommy the rest of the package to share later, too!  We got our two big bags of food.  They even helped wrap the food bags up with a big plastic sheet so that they wouldn't get soaked in the rainstorm!  Thanks, friends!  It worked really well to have the food bundled up like that on the top of the stroller, and kept it safe and dry all the way home.  We were all worried that it might slip off, but it never did!

When we got back home, there was a box waiting for us from Canidae, the pet food company that sponsors us.  It was a tin of popcorn for Mommy and Daddy, a Christmas card, and some nice t-shirts and polo shirts for Mommy to wear when we visit!  Thanks, Canidae!  We love you, too!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to everyone!