Nimbus’ Story
Nimbus was born in March 2018 in Southern California at the cattery Tonkville. Bonnie, who breeds Tonkinese cats, picked him out of a litter of 4 kittens. We wanted a cat that would get along with our rescued tonk, Lacey. (Lacey is a former show cat, whose owner passed away after a long illness. We adopted her in December 2017). Bonnie felt that a friendly outgoing male kitten would be the best match.
Very early on, Nimbus was outgoing and friendly. (see the photo album with his early kitten pictures). We took him to my partner Jude’s workplace, as many of her co workers wanted to meet him. We realized that he got along well with new people, and purred as he met them. He also seemed to tolerate a rather noisy, active workplace pretty well, which is unusual for cats. On the second visit to the workplace, one of Jude’s coworkers who had experienced a deep loss in her family, held onto him for several minutes. This was what gave me the idea that he might bring happiness to people in need, as a therapy cat.
We researched the attributes of a good therapy cat, and spent time over the last part of 2018 acclimating and training him. We got him harness and leash trained, took him out on little trips in the car, took him to Petco to get a photo op with Santa, and tried to introduce him to as many people as possible. I also tried training him to do tricks, and found that he was a very fast learner. I studied the many cat training/clicker training videos on youtube to learn the training techniques. All training was done with positive reinforcement and treats, followed by play time.
Interests
Playing with interactive toys, Temptations treats and kitty yogurt, getting into closets, climbing cat trees, playing with his older sister Lacey, napping. Nimbus also enjoys meeting new people.
About the SF SPCA Animal Assisted Therapy Program (AAT)
The SFSPCA AAT department operates the general AAT Program and the Puppy Dog Tales Reading Program (PDT). Both programs facilitate communication, healing and motivation by sharing the love of companion animals with those facing mental, physical or educational challenges. Nimbus and his humans are volunteers with the General AAT program. The general program sends volunteer teams to hospitals, nursing homes, senior centers, psychiatric facilities, developmentally disabled centers, convalescent homes and youth facilities. Click here for more information.
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