{"id":366,"date":"2018-11-26T16:03:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T00:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999928541"},"modified":"2018-11-26T16:03:01","modified_gmt":"2018-11-27T00:03:01","slug":"catpaws-volunteers-bring-a-kindle-of-love-to-assisted-living-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/catpaws-volunteers-bring-a-kindle-of-love-to-assisted-living-residents","title":{"rendered":"CatPAWS volunteers bring a kindle of love to assisted-living residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photos by Eden Amans.<\/em><\/p>\n

Giving Tuesday concludes the quintet of the holiday season gateway: the gratitude, grace and outright gluttony of Thanksgiving; the mad rush to tussle over door-buster prices on Black Friday and maybe start a brawl in the electronics aisle; the antidote to big-box shopping on Small-Business Saturday; the abandonment of that idea for clicking and buying on Cyber Monday; and finally, like Hope coming out of Pandora\u2019s Box, using whatever you have left of your credit limit to donate on Giving Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Cash, however, doesn\u2019t have to be the coin of the kingdom when it comes to beneficence. It also doesn\u2019t have to take place on a Tuesday, and it certainly shouldn\u2019t be limited to one day a year, but you all know that. The volunteers from Helen Sanders CatPAWS<\/a> certainly do.<\/p>\n

Once a month, generally the third Monday, CatPAWS plans to visit the Glen Park Long Beach assisted living facility, bearing kittens and delighting the residents. On their first visit, in October, they brought two kitties to see how they would work out with a small group of adoring people; the event was so successful that on Nov. 19, CatPAWS brought six to be sure that there was enough fuzzy to go around.<\/p>\n

The residents sat, smiling, in rapt attention as volunteer Beth Lyons greeted them and introduced the kittens\u2014Emmett, Everett, Susanna, Cosmo, Comet and Cyclone\u2014and then presented them for some up-close cuddling. One woman, who said she was allergic to cats and couldn\u2019t interact, sat contentedly on the sidelines and watched with pleasure. The 15 participants, some in wheelchairs, others quite frail, and a good many with plenty of energy and happy to engage, dangled toys for the little guys and gently handled them. It was as warm a sight to see as you\u2019re imagining.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe residents get uplifted\u2014they love the cats being here,\u201d said Glen Park\u2019s activities director Maria Maldonado. \u201cLast time they came, they talked about it for several days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maldonado added that dogs also have their day at Glen Park when volunteers from another group brings therapy pets to visit.<\/p>\n

CatPAWS volunteer Deborah Felin was inspired to bring cats into the lives of the assisted-living residents through the memory of her friend, children\u2019s author Priscilla Maltbie<\/a>. Maltbie, who made her home in Long Beach, interwove cats with historic artists and authors in her books. She died in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had all kinds of medical problems and was in an assisted living house,\u201d Felin said. \u201cShe always had her cats with her. I thought about doing this during the summer and thought it would be nice for the residents as a community outreach. The other volunteers thought so, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

So did the residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very uplifting,\u201d said Cleopatra Latsoudes. \u201cI have a sister who lives in Tacoma, and she has a cat. I love cats, but I\u2019ve never had one myself. Now, I\u2019m really <\/em>enjoying them!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful because we get to play with the cats,\u201d agreed Nancy Palomo, Latsoudes\u2019 friend.<\/p>\n

Not to influence you in any way, but all the kittens in the photo are adoptable through Helen Sanders CatPAWS, including little Everett\u2014or Emmett\u2014seen here with admirer Cleopatra Latsoudes and volunteer Diane Guyett. Follow this link<\/a> to fill out an adoption application. You won\u2019t be depriving the Glen Park residents of any of the kittens\u2014there are always more on the way, and not enough homes for them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giving Tuesday concludes the quintet of the holiday season gateway; this year, consider giving to a pet cause. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":65892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[39],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","tag-scratching-post","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}