Therapy cat

A therapy cat is a cat trained to help ailing humans in a medically beneficial way to take advantage of the human-animal interaction for purposes of relaxation and healing. A therapy cat provides affection and comfort to people in retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, hospices, and other human service care facilities.

Therapy cats come in all sizes and breeds. The most important characteristic of a therapy cat is its temperament. A good therapy cat must be friendly, patient, confident, gentle, and at ease in all situations. Therapy cats must enjoy human contact and be content to be petted and handled, sometimes clumsily.

A therapy cat's primary job is to allow unfamiliar people to make physical contact with it and to enjoy that contact. Children in particular enjoy hugging animals; adults usually enjoy simply petting the cat. The cat might need to be lifted onto, or climb onto, an individual's lap or bed and sit or lie comfortably there. In hospice environments, therapy cats can play a role in palliative care by reducing death anxiety.