I went to the children’s hospital for my therapy cat visit this week. My first visit was a girl in the lobby who was at one of the play stations. She wore a cast with a bunch of signatures written on it, and she was kind of shy at first. Her mother, who was sitting nearby on a sofa, encouraged her to pet me. And once she did, she was so happy that she didn’t stop for a long time.

I also briefly visited a boy in a wheelchair before heading into the exam rooms. I wound up seeing a lot of young patients who had never been around a cat before. One was no surprise, because she was only about a year and a half old. She was fascinated by me! Then there was the boy with the injured foot who looked to be about 16. I was his first experience with a cat, and he really liked me too.

A lot of times, when a kid hasn’t been around a cat before, the parents haven’t spent much time with cats either. So my human gets lots of questions about cats in general, and me specifically. She’s always happy to answer. While one little girl petted me, her parent asked what it meant when my tail was up in the air. So my human explained that’s what I do when I’m enjoying being petted. She also pointed out how I make happy paws too. And the boy with the injured foot we’d seen earlier wanted to know about my fur. So my human told him about ticked tabby patterns, and about the M all tabby cats have on their foreheads.

It was such a nice visit. Even the cleaning staff paused to pet me. I finished up in the surgery area. After visiting with the nurses, my human and I went down the line of prep and recovery rooms, and every patient was asleep. Except for the last room, where a boy was waiting for his surgery. He hadn’t been sedated yet, so he happily spent time with me and took photos to send to a cat loving friend.