We arrived at the memory care residence right on time for my therapy cat visit. But we had to wait a moment to go inside. All my human could see through the glass was a hand clutching at the door on the other side and a couple of other hands pulling. Apparently it was one of the residents trying to open the door when he shouldn’t have. (It’s opened remotely.) Once they got him settled, we were finally able to sign in.
The woman who always follows me around was in the lobby and saw my human. “I recognize you,” she said. “Yes, you do,” my human said, and unzipped my sling carrier so she could see me.
“Oh, what a beautiful cat!” she said. “I have three cats.” She was very confused today. But she was still very pleasant, and this time she didn’t follow us around the whole time.
When we arrived at the big room, the big TV screen had a sign that said “Pet Therapy.” That was cool. I saw a couple of my regulars right away — the lady who likes my high fives and the one who remembers my human’s name.
A couple of women who have visited with me in the past didn’t want to see me. So instead we visited with a very nice man with oxygen tubing in his nose. He petted me with a big smile.
One of the staff members brought my human and me around to the residents in wheelchairs. They were all arranged in a circle, and they were all very different. Well, at least the ones who were awake were.
The first man smiled up at my human, but then he looked at me and blew in my face. So without missing a beat my human immediately turned around and went to the next resident. She was the one we wanted to see anyway.
She had been sitting there looking weepy. My human brought a soft pet blanket for me and set it on her lap so I could comfortably hang out with her. And she petted me and weeped some more. The man on the other side of her kept looking at me and smiling, and he was a very nice visit too. He wouldn’t look at the staff member for a photograph. I don’t know if he didn’t understand or if he just didn’t want to be bothered.
Not every resident got the blanket on their lap, only the ones where my human knew would need some extra time. One was a lady who spoke Spanish and loved having me there. Then the two women who didn’t want to see me at first wanted to see me after all so I got to spend some time with them too.
The whole time we were there we didn’t see the nonverbal woman who loves seeing me. My human was beginning to wonder where she was. But as we were leaving, we saw her sitting in the lobby. So of course my human sat down and let me spend time with her. She used to pet me with such heavy hands, but now she pets me gently and smiles.
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