Therapy Cat Tales from 9/18/2013

Tabby writes:

Arr, Mateys!  Ye be wonderin' what I have in store for you on this Meow Like a Pirate Day?  Ok, I'll drop the pirate accent and tell you!

Yesterday, Mommy took me visiting again.  She's also training Heimdall to be a therapy cat now, but he's only ridden the bus once so far.  I've ridden it tons of times!  Heimdall's not ready to go visiting to actual nursing homes yet, though.

I had a friend who wanted to come along once we left the house.  He met us at the bus stop and got on the bus with us, then hopped away.  Warning:  this may be scary for young kits!

Ready?

Yep, it was a grasshopper!  He flew onto my carrier bag and stayed there while we got on the bus, then hopped under a seat once my stroller was folded down.  I had fun watching him!  Do you see that he's smiling?

Mommy and I were both being silly in the morning, and the silliness continued for me once we got to H.  She had gotten some chai tea, but had finished it.  She was getting ready to throw the cup and sleeve in the trash when I decided I wanted the sleeve!

See?  I told you we were being silly!  I didn't wear my new fashion accessory for long, though, because it pushed the fur around my eyes back and felt funny.  It was fun to try on, anyway!

A few of our friends had passed away during the last month.  That's the downside to visiting where we do, and especially with only visiting once a month like we do now.  However, it also means that we get new friends to visit with, since the empty rooms fill up again.

One room had two people in it, a husband and wife, who had just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary!  Wow!  Mommy wished them happy anniversary, and I snuggled with both of them while the humans talked.  They wanted to know all about my training, how long I'd been working as a therapy cat, and "my numbers", as the husband put it.  He meant my age, weight, etc., but couldn't think of how to say all of that together.  We knew what he meant, though, and that was a perfect way to say it!

I got to see my three favorite friends:  A.M, F., and R.  A.M. knows just how to scritch my chin in the right place and always makes me so relaxed that I simply melt in her lap!  I always climb from my stroller into her lap, then snuggle in her arms while she pets me and scritches my chin, closing my eyes in happiness and purring loudly for her.  When I visit F., I always hop out of my stroller and walk into his room on my own, with Mommy follwing holding my leash.  I sometimes need reminding that he's in his recliner instead of in bed, though.  He has a recliner like Daddy does, so I snuggle on his lap like I do with Daddy.  F. always tells me I'm the most beautiful kitty in the world!  R. loves to tell us stories about her kitty, who ate food out of a spoon and tried to catch birds by climbing out on the limb the bird feeder was on, crashing everything to the ground and running away.  No matter how many times we hear the story, it's always funny!  She calls me the same name as her kitty, but that doesn't bother me a bit.  I know she means me.  I just look so much like her kitty that she forgets my name and substitutes his.

After visiting at H. for a while, we went over to our new visiting place, C.  We've been visiting there for three months now.  We only have one regular, but then we ride the elevator back down to check if there are any other people who want visitors.

At C., there is one man who sits in a big chair in the lobby and greets everyone going out or coming in.  He always likes seeing me.  When Mommy was signing us in, I asked to hop onto the check-in counter.  All of a sudden, the man behind the counter looked up, and I was staring down at him!  "Oh, SNAP!" he said, in a very startled voice!  He then petted me and laughed.

I wanted to walk up the stairs in the lobby, but Mommy reminded me that she couldn't carry the stroller up all those stairs.  I still wanted to do the stairs, because I absolutely love stairs, so she said I could go up to the first landing!  Yay!  I walked up to the first landing, then walked back down.

We went to see the lady we visit each time, but she didn't have very long to visit with us this time.  She had to get a few things organized for her daughter-in-law, who was coming to visit her.  That's fine.  We went back to the lobby, and they told us that possibly some people on two other floors would like to see us.  We went to one of those floors, but no one on that floor wanted a visit.  We tried the other floor, and found a lady who wanted a visitor.  She was feeling very lonely, so having us come brightened up her whole day.  That's why we do this!

On the bus on the way home, we sat in between people who wanted to talk.  There was a man who is a published young-adult fiction author (M.T. Dreams), a lady who feeds and T-N-R's feral cats, and a lady who is interested in buying Mommy's newest book (Three Feral Kittens, just now published and available from Amazon.com).  We will be having a book launch party for Three Feral Kittens on October 12th.  It will be online, but we haven't decided on a time yet.

When we got back home, Mommy checked her e-mail and got some more exciting news!  She is on the mailing list for the NW Pet and Companion Fair that takes place every April.  She had contacted them about doing a talk about my training for their stage shows, and they accepted!  We don't know what time slot we'll be put in, but it will be fun no matter what!