Therapy Animals
What is a therapy cat? A therapy cat is defined as 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. Emotional Support Animals or Comfort Animals are often used as part of a medical treatment plan as therapy animals. These animals provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes help with depression and certain phobias, but do not perform tasks that assist people with disabilities. Although dogs have more traditionally been recruited as therapy animals, and horses are the second most favored, cats are now beginning to be used more and more. It has been proven in numerous studies that animals can help people heal. They reduce loneliness, depression, and anxiety. They can improve our heart health and get us to exercise mo