Kittens.  Yes, kittens.  Cute, cuddly, playful kittens.  Small.  Dependent.

And yet, within those little bodies, they hold special powers.

Powers to elicit conversation in those who rarely converse.  Powers to calm tremors for those who usually shake.  Powers to ease anxiety, loneliness, lack of meaning for those struggling to make peace with the aging process.

Folks living in care communities have left behind many of the responsibilities and opportunities to care and nurture.  Jobs within their life roles in which they spent lifetimes engaged.  And this takes a toll on the meaning and purpose they feel for their day-to-day.

So enters the Kittens at Collinwood Assisted Living program developed by Better People Care LLC in 2017.  Every other Thursday, for 2 hours, dedicated volunteers with the Fort Collins (Colorado) Cat Rescue http://www.fccrsnc.org program bring foster kittens for residents to hold and love….and talk to.

Amazing results ensue.  Folks who normally talk very little, have entire conversations with the kitten on their lap.  Folks connect with one another and the volunteers with warm memories from their past.  Tremors cease.  Anxiety lessens.  Undesirable experiences associated with memory loss mostly disappear.

Kittens.  A real-life chance to nurture and connect with something warm and living and dependent; something that responds to touch and hands that hold, and care.  The folks need this, and so do the kittens.  And the kittens know.  They’re not at all disturbed by sentences that don’t make sense, or tremors that wiggle them regularly until the tremors calm.  They know and they respond by sitting, sometimes wiggling, often purring, mostly sleeping, in the arms of folks who need them.  See our video on “AnimalKind stories on Facebook”, from February 10, now with over 6.6M views.

We need more of this in our care communities.  But we’ll enjoy the glimmers of life we enjoy twice a month at Collinwood Assisted Living in Colorado.  See this video from the Coloradoan Newspaper!