Nonprofit rescue Helen Sanders CatPAWS’ Traveling Feline Comfort and Therapy Show has returned to delight residents of assisted-living homes with playful kittens.
CatPAWS had been bringing kittens to Glen Park Senior Residence in Long Beach for three years when the pandemic hit and put a halt to the program. Now that restrictions have been lifted, CatPAWS is spreading three times as much joy each month.
Besides Glen Park, Sunrise Senior Living in Seal Beach and Westmont of Cypress are receiving furry visitors.
Residents love interacting with the kittens, particularly those who miss having pets of their own.
They dangle wand toys into the playpens where the kittens are enclosed for their own safety—you’ve heard the expression “Nervous as a long-tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs”—and savor the quiet pleasure of cuddling a purring, furry body in their laps. The kittens, all of them adoptable, benefit from the socializing.
The program was inspired by the memory of children’s book author, ardent cat lover and CatPAWS supporter Priscilla Maltbie, who died in 2014. Maltbie lived her final years in an assisted-living home where pets were not permitted, and CatPAWS would bring kittens for frequent visits.
Both the cats and human volunteers help ease the isolation for older adults, which is particularly important during winter holidays.
“Our visits with the Traveling Show are one way in which we give back to our community and bring much needed joy and pleasure to the folks we visit,” said organizer Mitchell Cohen. “I’m reminded of a favorite line from songwriter John Prine’s classic “Hello In There”: ‘Old people just grow lonesome, Waiting for someone to say, ‘Hello in there, hello.’”
Kittens have absolutely no problem doing that.
