Meet Draven the Medical Cat

You may have come across healing dogs in your travels, but have you ever heard of healing cats? Like dogs, cats can be trained to be therapy animals. Cat therapy and interaction with pets can help people with mental, physical, or emotional problems. Treatment cats may spend time with children and adults in the hospital or visit schools and nursing homes. They are small, soft and affectionate.

What is a good therapy cat?

What cats are considered curative? Love on a Leash (LOAL), an organization that provides certification services for pet owners who want their pets to become medical animals, has compiled a list of recommendations that good medical cats must comply with. In addition to the mandatory requirement to be calm and like to interact with a person, they must also:

• Feel free to travel in the car. 
• Be toilet trained so as not to get dirty in the wrong place.
• Be prepared to wear a harness and leash.
• Be calm in the presence of other animals.

Meet Draven the Medical Cat

Draven was born on May 10, 2012, adopted from the Rainbow Animal Refuge in Pennsylvania. In addition to him, there were two more cats in the family of his new human owners. Although Draven got along with his fluffy sisters, his owners noticed that he appreciates the company of people more. “We started to notice that he had qualities that our other two cats didn’t have: he really liked the company and the attention of people – any people – very much! He was not afraid of strangers in our house and was not distrustful of them, he calmly endured car trips and even purred while in the veterinarian’s office! He was just a very calm, unflappable kitten,” says his owner Jessica Hagan.

Practice, practice, practice

Jessica started researching to see if she could get Draven certified as a therapy cat and found Love on a Leash (LOAL). Even though Draven met all the requirements for certification, he was still too young to formally go through the process. Therefore, the hostess decided to train him in real life and see if he could cope with cat therapy. “We took him with us to visit friends and family and other places where you can take animals, like pet stores and parks, so that he gets used to driving, wearing a harness and being in unfamiliar places surrounded by new people. None of this excited him one bit, so when he was one year old, we started the official application process,” says Jessica. We went to a nursing home

every week and visited his guests in their rooms individually. We also went to the local library a couple of times to chat with the preschoolers during Literary Hour. After all his paperwork was ready and his practice hours recorded, we sent everything to LOAL and he received his certificate on October 19, 2013.”

Draven’s owner is very proud of him: “He likes to see the same people every week at the nursing home. Constantly hangs out in the leisure room and spends time with them one on one in their rooms. When he visits patients in the hospital, he rides in a cat wheelchair so he is level with bedridden patients so they can see and pet him. He even jumps out of his wheelchair to sometimes lie in bed with people he especially likes!

Draven has a busy schedule, as he is constantly doing new things, such as visiting local Junior Girl Scouts and Daisy Scouts. He recently even volunteered to help raise money for the Mercer County Animal Response Team, an organization that supplies animal first aid kits to two local fire departments. You can follow this super busy cat on his Facebook page.

This is one proof that any pet with a love for people can be a great therapy companion. All it takes is a little learning and a lot of love. Even though Draven loves meeting new people, it’s the people who really appreciate the opportunity to spend time with him.