I am so glad to hear about Piglets career taking off!!!
That is fantastic and sounds like it is very hard work!
We have had a lot of trouble here with Nofuratu....he is officially a registered therapy pet and has passed his testing, but we cant find a place for him to visit!!
The nearest city is very small with only two hospitals, which allow therapy pet visits but because they are currently visited by st. johns ambulance therapy dogs, they dont seem to want to let another organization in....
Ive found it very frustrating....sounds like I just need to keep working at it though!!!
Congrats piglet! I love the idea of "private piglet"...LOL>..priceless!
Adventures of A Naked Cat
That's interesting that you're having trouble finding facilities for Nofuratu to visit, because Piglet and I have had the same trouble for the past two years we've been doing animal-assisted therapy. A lot of the programs on the American Humane list here in Denver are dog-specific only and cats are not allowed to visit hospitals in Colorado, so that knocked out a lot of programs for Piglet to visit in Denver and especially in Colorado Springs. It seemed that for a long time the only programs that were available to Piglet and I were nursing homes. I had to become really "pushy" -for lack of a better word- with the American Humane organization to get Piglet involved with other programs, so now we are also doing some of the one-time visitations like Shots for Tots, as well as the fundraisers, and visiting the adult day care program in Denver. The Paws to Read and the Ft. Carson programs are not connected with American Humane - I happen to find out about those through an outside source.
All I can suggest is to keep campaigning for more therapy programs in your area to become available to cats or do what the guy who runs the Ft. Carson program did and start a program of your own independent of the mainstream AAT programs. If you can get a major organization like the Delta Society or American Red Cross to back you up, that's all the better. What I've been doing, too, is spreading the word about animal therapy to facilities that I run across in my regular job that may have a need for it, such as assisted living facilities. Good luck to you and Nofuratu...I know all too well what you're going through and frustrations with the lack of cat-friendly facilities out there.