Therapy Cat Tales from 8/21/13

Tabby writes:

Wow!  I got to go visiting again!  We haven't been since June, because of scheduling conflicts and one day Mommy wasn't feeling well.  She's feeling good now, and I've been feeling good all summer, so we got to go to H. and our new visiting place, C.  We went to C. one time in June, but we will be going there regularly after H. every month now, one time a month for each place.

H. now has three visiting animal-assisted activities teams:  two dogs and myself.  We each work with our own person and one staff member, but we each have different staff members!  We also have different days, of course, so that we can spread the love around.

Mommy has heard that Pet Partners and Therapy Dogs, International, two groups that we are not affiliated with, now have policies that stop new teams from unaffiliated organizations from visiting at places their teams visit.  She asked our supervisor about that, and our supervisor said that PP and TDI have no authority to designate who can and cannot visit.  Only the site supervisor and building management have that authority.  Mommy was very glad to hear that!

We heard kitty stories on the way to H. again, as usual.  I also got to demonstrate the commands that I know for one lady who thought that kitties were untrainable.  HAH!  She changed her mind really quickly when she saw what I can do!  A man told us about healing a dog who had a tumor.  I'm not sure if he was telling the truth or pulling our legs on that one, though.

When we were passing by one of the walls of H. on our way to the door, there were strings hanging down and moving!  I sat up straight in the stroller when I saw those and thought about trying to bat at one!  They were bungee cords, Mommy said.  There was also a strong smell of soap, and a few bubbles floated through the air.  I looked at Mommy and she told me to look up.  I looked through the leaves on the tree branches, way up high, but things blended into the sky so I couldn't see what she could.  She's a lot taller than I am, even when I'm in the stroller.  I looked at her and put my paw up to ask her what she saw.  She said there was a man up there on the strings, cleaning the windows!  He was washing them with the soap that I smelled and saw!  Wow!  He was taller than the trees and sitting on strings, giving those windows a bath?  He must be magic, like the man with his head in the ceiling that I saw inside H. one time.

I made my usual rounds, purring for everyone and helping them to feel happier.  One lady was having a rough day, because it was getting near her birthday and she didn't feel well so she really didn't want a party.  She cried while holding and petting me, but that was fine.  I leaned into her hands to reassure her, and she loved that I'd come to visit her.  She was still sad and didn't want a party, but she felt a little better.

I taught R. to play tails with me today!  She was petting me in my stroller, then I flipped around so that I was facing the back of the stroller and started wagging my tail.  She thought she'd offended me in some way and didn't want her to pet me.  Mommy told her that I wanted to play with her instead!  Mommy demonstrated how to grab the tip of my tail gently with two fingers, hold it for a second, then let it go.  Sometimes you grab it, but sometimes you just barely miss it on purpose!  It's a game that I learned from my uncle Skylar, who's now an angel.  He was my favorite playmate, aside from my brother Carbon, when I was a kitten, so he taught me all the good games to play!  I played tails with R. for a few minutes, then turned back around and hid my tail under me.  She petted me all over, trying to find it, but I wanted regular pets so I didn't bring my tail out to play.  She had a good laugh over that!

After we visited at H., we walked to C.  They're pretty close to each other, so we can walk (well, I stroll) between the two.  The lady we had visited the last time at C. wasn't in her room.  She had gone to dinner early.  We found another lady to visit with, though, and right next to the aide station so there was a lot of activity around (i.e. more people to say hi to).  J. talked with Mommy about the zoo a lot, because they found out that each other loved to go there.  I can't go to the zoo, because some of the animals in the exhibits would want to eat me.  Not fun!  I'm glad I can't go there, but it was fun hearing about some of my wild cousins like snow leopards and tigers.  I got to meet some of the people who work at C., too, and that was fun to "surprise" them!  They come around corners and see me, do double-takes, then come over to meet me and ask questions.  Mommy told them when we'll be visiting them next, so hopefully more people will want to meet me and that one lady will be in her room next time.  The man at the counter loved seeing me, too, and another person told us that she has a certified therapy dog.