Blind Cat Helps His Grandma Get Cancer-Free with Hospital Visits and Cuddles
Meet Donny. He's a cat.
He looks dapper in a cap. He's also completely blind.
Donny also has a condition known as cerebellar hypoplasia, "Wobbly Cat Syndrome", a neurological condition which causes him severe balance issues. His mom, who adopted him from foster parent Beth Stern, told the Dodo that Donny doesn't let his condition stop him. “He has no idea he’s different so he does whatever everyone else is doing."
His conditions don't stop him from being an amazing therapy cat.
Donny's main duties as a therapy cat are to bond with patients by sitting in their laps and bringing them some much-needed comfort, and he truly seems to adore his very important job.
Donny regularly visits Alzheimers and dementia patients in nursing homes and hospitals.
“As soon as we get there he is an entirely different cat,” Smith said. “I swear somehow he knows he has an important job to do. If we were at home he would never sit on someone’s lap for that length of time.”
And, sadly, when Donny's own grandma got sick, he knew just what to do.
Donny's grandmother (Smith's mother) was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer and moved into a hospital for a more than a month to receive radiation treatments.
After numerous tests, it was determined that at 88 she was not a candidate for surgery so they were going to give her 5 radiation treatments and send her home to a hospice situation.
Donny's mom immediately knew the perfect candidate to help cheer her up as she fought through intense radiation treatments. Smith started bringing Donny to the hospital regularly to visit his grandma.
And according to the family, it was incredible just how much the sweet, gentle blind cat seemed to help his grandmother heal.
“I immediately started bringing Donny there to cheer her up and it worked. He would lay on her for hours while she petted him, often both falling asleep,” Smith recalls.
The Healing Power of a Blind Cat?
Maybe it's true what they say about the healing power of a cat's purr; because after 17 radiation treatments and weeks in the hospital (and plenty of visits from Donny), Smith’s mother got the amazing news that she is cancer free.
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