Sunnyvale cat has therapeutic value for local seniors, homeless
Pliny, a jet-black cat with big, golden eyes, often wears festive collars, bandannas or kitten-sized neckties when he’s out on the town. He’s well known around Sunnyvale, especially at the senior care facilities and homeless shelters where he and his owner, Michiko Cheng, volunteer their time.
The pair volunteers with two pet-assisted therapy programs: Furry Friends, a South Bay-exclusive nonprofit group whose motto is “We lick loneliness!” and the Silicon Valley chapter of Love on a Leash, a nationwide nonprofit.
These organizations, and myriad others in the Bay Area, allow pets and their owners to become certified in pet-assisted therapy services. Volunteers bring their dogs, cats, rabbits and other furry friends to libraries, schools, senior care facilities and homeless shelters—anywhere people could use a little love and attention.
According to UCLA Health, animal-assisted therapy and programs that bring needy communities in contact with animals can produce a bevy of health benefits. Pet therapy programs can reduce anxiety, stimulate memory recall and lower blood pressure. Often, those in need of help may be reticent to connect with other people, but participants show far less hesitation connecting with friendly animals.
Most pet-assisted therapy programs provide services to a wide array of communities, including elderly residents, stressed-out college students and children who are learning to read.
Some Love on a Leash volunteers make regular visits to the San Jose International Airport, where pets hang out in the terminals to comfort weary travelers with long layovers or delayed flights, people who are scared of flying or travelers who just finished an exhausting journey.
The South Bay’s many senior care facilities provide a particularly rewarding visit opportunity for many volunteers.
Love on a Leash volunteers visit Sunnyside Gardens assisted living center in Sunnyvale on the first Saturday of every month. Specifically, they visit the facility’s memory care unit, which houses residents with fairly advanced Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
“Residents who are more progressed in their disease just come alive when they see the animals,” said Molly Young, memory care director at Sunnyside Gardens.
Most residents in the unit, in their advanced states of memory loss, don’t function well in group activities. But with Love on a Leash, each of the 32 residents is able to get one-on-one time with a pet or a volunteer.
Young says there’s a “super adorable” Labrador who comes regularly and has the habit of placing his head in residents’ laps, a small gesture that often allows residents to recall stories about former pets and reminisce with volunteers.
Cheng has seen people react similarly to Pliny when the pair goes to nursing homes. She says the experience “really helped me realize how much human beings need interaction.”
“I’m not a health professional, but I really do notice a flicker in their eye or a twitch in their hand,” Cheng said. “Even something as seemingly small as petting a cat can introduce a positive change in their mental space.”
Cheng, a tech worker in Silicon Valley, says programs like this also bring together people who would otherwise have no occasion to interact. Before hearing about Love on a Leash, she rarely had any reason or opportunity to interact with seniors. And when she did, she says it wasn’t really her strong suit.
But Pliny has provided a bridge for conversation, a sort of common ground.
Cheng brings Pliny around in a stroller, making it easier for wheelchair-bound people to pet and interact with him. He’s a sweet, patient cat, and he took to his volunteer work naturally, passing his certification with flying colors.
Now, Pliny the Therapy Cat has nearly 10,000 followers on Facebook, where Cheng regularly posts pictures and updates from their visits.
Cheng is one of about 15 volunteers with the Silicon Valley chapter of Love on a Leash, which she and Pliny have been with for three years, and one of about 600 volunteers with Furry Friends, which they’ve been with for six.
Similar programs exist across the Bay Area, including the San Francisco and East Bay SPCA chapters, the Peninsula Humane Society and Oakland’s TherapyPets. And they all have one mission in common: to help people through hardship using the unconditional love of an animal.
“When people are sitting there petting a cat, and the cat is purring, they realize the positive effect they’re having on another living thing,” Cheng said. “It ignites their sense of being.”