Therapy Cat Tales from 5/16/12

Tabby writes:

I'm back to visiting again!  Yay!  I wore a special outfit called a bunad today, because it's Norway's Constitution Day tomorrow.  My bunad is the national costume (national outfit) of Norway.  There are many different variations of the bunad, so not all of them look like mine.  I've got a dress, a shawl, a funny hat that fits over my ears, and a purse!  I wore them for the pictures, but I walked out of the shawl and the hat got in the way, so I ended up only wearing the dress for visiting.  I wore the rest to show a couple friends while visiting, though.

S. was surprised to see my bunad, so I had to show off the whole outfit for her.  Then we got our list of friends to visit with and went to our floor.  Another S. was in the lobby, so we said hi to her.  She was so happy to see me, and said she's missed seeing me.  I missed seeing all my friends, too!

In the tv room, A. was sitting by himself.  His special friend, G., died yesterday.  G. was a very special lady and always lit up when I came.  She'd laugh and play with me, sometimes feeding me Fig Newtons!  I'm going to miss her.  I climbed into A.'s lap, pushed my head into his hand, and meowed softly at him.  He almost cried as he petted me and hugged me!

I saw my friend T. in a bed, when she's usually up and about in her walker or a wheelchair.  That confused me, but I walked right in and jumped up on her bed.  She didn't remember me, but she was so glad I came to visit her!

When we visited R., she'd been eating pretzels.  She put them in a plastic cup before I jumped on the bed, but the bed still smelled of them.  She offered Mommy one, and so I was offered part of one, but I didn't want it today.  I loved R.'s blanket!  It was so soft and snuggly!  I curled up on her hands and on the blanket, listening to stories about her cat knocking down a bird feeder in an attempt to catch the birds.  Her cat also made his way back home after being moved, after she left.  The cat went back, but no one was there to feed him, so he walked across the freeway again and to the new home, where he stayed for the rest of his life.  Pretty amazing!

M. wanted to pet me today!  She used to be afraid of cats, even though her husband had cats the whole time they were married.  She's not ever been afraid of me, though!  She likes me, but she's not sure sometimes what I'm trying to do.  I asked her for pets, and she didn't know what I was doing, so Mommy told her.  Then she petted me.  I guess she just needs training like I was trained.  She wanted to see my full bunad, so Mommy put it on me.  M. thought that was the cutest thing she'd ever seen!  She said I was a very good girl, wearing all of that, especially the hat.

P. was walking without her walker, but she's not supposed to.  She had left it by her bed to answer the door, so she held onto my stroller as we walked in until she got to her walker.  Then she was safe.  She missed me, too, and thought that I'd come without seeing her.  She didn't know I'd been sick and not come at all.  So she was very glad to know that she hadn't missed her visits with me!

While we were waiting for the bus home, there was a baby girl crying.  I was dozing, but popped my head up when I heard her!  The man next to us, who was admiring me, laughed at that.  The mom of the little girl brought her over to see me, and the little girl got to pet me!  She was very gentle, even though she petted the wrong way.  She has a kitty at home, so was making a baby sign for kitty as she was talking with her mom.

When we got back home, the duck family was swimming in the marsh!  I hadn't seen the ducklings this year, so that was very exciting!