While today Jacoby is a veteran therapy cat, that wasn’t always the case.
Everyone has to start somewhere. Jake and I started in 2010.
First I took a class to teach me to be a therapy human.
Then Jake and I went out in public to practice. We did the things we do now, really: went shopping, hung out at Art Beat, the usual.
Finally, we had to pass a test that involved real-life scenarios we might encounter while on a visit.
Our first assignment was at a nursing home in Dedham.
It was a great facility, but it was complicated to get to without a car.
The program director also resigned a month or so after we started, so we started going to a different nursing home.
This one was easier to get to, but it was still a tricky commute on the T’s green line.
It also turns out that Jake’s therapy talents aren’t really geared towards nursing homes. He’s not so much a “sitting on the bed quietly” sort of cat as some other breeds are.
When we went to visit students in the residence hall during finals at RISD (the Rhode Island School of Design), it was clear that Jake had found his therapy niche!
And of course, now, with our regular visits to Tufts Medical Center…
…and special assignments, like our trip last month to visit first responders at the Boston Marathon finish line bombing, it’s clear that Jake is a consummate therapy cat!
