Rescue Cat of the Year

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A feline NHS volunteer that brings life-enhancing joy to patients on a palliative care ward has been announced as the Overall Winner of Cats Protection’s first-ever Rescue Cat of the Year Award – after also scooping the Award’s Best Friends category!

Despite having every reason not to trust people after being abandoned by her previous owners, this forgiving feline has done her work with considerable care and aplomb since St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey rehomed her a year ago from Cats Protection’s Woking Branch.

Pretty, tabby-and-white Mitzi started her therapeutic career working on a temporary unit for elderly people at St Peter’s Hospital. The response to her was immediate and overwhelming – withdrawn and depressed patients responded with delight to this cat’s obvious love of people. Her fame quickly spread throughout the hospital and, soon, cat-loving staff members were seen beating a path to the unit’s door for a quick cuddle with this gorgeous feline!

Mitzi was inundated with offers of a home when the unit closed last December. It was decided that she would be most fulfilled in another therapeutic role and subsequently moved to her current assignment at Weybridge Community Hospital. She has adapted well to her new environment and continues to happily work bringing comfort and hope to terminally-ill people. As an NHS volunteer, she has her own file, receives volunteer expenses, takes part in appraisals and even has her own personal development plan!

Freda Larham, Voluntary Services Manager with North Surrey Primary Care NHS Trust, was extremely proud to receive Mitzi’s awards. "Mitzi is a wonderful, life-enhancing cat. The impact she has had in bringing pleasure to patients and boosting morale has been immense – particularly for those who have had to give up their own pets because of illness," she explained.

Mitzi is somewhat of a trailblazer as, despite their therapeutic nature, cats are still a relative rarity in a hospital environment. However, a PAT cat now visits an orthopaedic ward at St Peter’s Hospital and the Trust is working with Cats Protection’s Woking Branch to rehome another rescue cat for a unit for patients with mental health problems.

Mitzi’s entry was one of nearly a thousand received from all over the UK for the inaugural Rescue Cat of the Year Award. The Award sought to honour those felines whose stories of courage, survival, fate and transformation inspired the humans who love and care for them.

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

What a gorgeous girl you are Mitzi. Congratulations on being given the Cat of the Year award and I might add very well deserved. What a truely inspirational story.

What a great story! Cats with the right sort of temperament can be great therapy animals! I have a friend with a huge cat named Dustin who will sit in anyone's lap, knead, purr and drool on them. ;) He's a retired therapy cat.