Yesterday I talked about the benefits of therapy pets. And I mentioned that even though my cat, Ginny, isn’t officially a therapy cat, she nevertheless is a great way to de-stress. However, there are downsides, as I discovered today.
During my therapy session today, Ginny cat curled up in my lap. The downside of this was that I was literally looking down a lot, which on Zoom probably made me appear to have a very negative affect, when really all I was doing was looking down at my cat and scratching her belly.
“Honestly, therapy lady, I swear that I’m not sad, I just have a cat.” And of course, rather that walking across the camera to show the therapist that she was there, which she loves to do during other Zooms, Ginny instead stayed out of sight. The therapist probably thinks I didn’t even have a cat and was just making up a delusion. Damn you distracting non-therapy cat.
And of course all of this is, at least slightly, said in jest. Because while it might lead to distraction during my regular therapy session, it is important to laugh at it, to laugh at the ridiculousness of my cat interrupting my therapy session, or distracting me from my therapy session, or whatever the cat does. It is important to laugh at it because even more annoying and distracting than my cat, is the Coronavirus pandemic that forced this entire situation. And sometimes we need to laugh at the situations the pandemic creates just to keep from crying.
Because this pandemic, and the fatigue of the precautions we have all learned to live with, are serious. And the therapeutic impact of a distracting cat, of a laugh to keep yourself sane, cannot be understated.
So stay safe everyone. And if you have your own distracting pet, give it an extra hug (and more importantly post pictures of the pet to distract others).
The Dark Tales Project 