My therapy cat visit this week was the day before Thanksgiving, at the children’s hospital. I started purring while my human was putting on my official vest and leash.

It was a busy day, and the lobby was full. Before I even entered the main area of the lobby, a little girl with a glowing smile came up to me. She was so happy to visit! While we were visiting, a mom came by, pushing an older girl in a wheelchair. So I visited with her too.

I saw quite a few kids in the lobby on my way to the exam rooms. I spent a lot of time with three girls who were sitting together on one of the sofas. They were all sisters, and the youngest one, who was about 8, was missing her two front teeth. They were sweet and charming.

We had lots of exam rooms to visit. I saw a lot of younger kids, and one older boy in a wheelchair. The boys are less likely to want to see me, especially the older ones. But the ones that do really light up when they get to spend a few minutes with me. That was the case with this boy and we visited until the nurse came to remove his cast.

One little girl was a bit shy of me, but warmed up pretty quickly. Sometimes really young children are scared of me if they haven’t been around cats before. My human approaches them the same way she approaches a shy cat she doesn’t know — on their terms. And she lets them set the pace.

As for me, I just stand or sit there, and often the child will be curious and come up to me. Then I’m perfectly happy to welcome them. If they are really scared, of course we never push it, and my human will take me to see other patients.

We made sure to go up to the surgery area because the nurses like to see me. And this time they had a couple of patients for me to see. One was a very little girl who was painting on a small canvas with one hand. She petted me with the other hand.

The second surgery patient was a young boy, and the nurse said it was okay visit him on the gurney. That’s always nice, although it doesn’t happen very often. He enjoyed petting me.

At the end of the visit, the boy’s parents thanked us for stopping by, like a lot of parents do. Usually my human says that it’s our pleasure, and she really means it. We are fortunate to get to do therapy cat visits, and being able to do them is high on our gratitude list.

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