Heath the hospice cat
Words by Vera Spurr RN | Photos supplied by Hospice SC
He has his own Facebook page and regularly gets fan mail and thank you cards. To mark Hospice Awareness Week this month, meet emotional support worker Heath from Hospice South Canterbury.
Heath arrived at Hospice South Canterbury in 2022 after being adopted from the SPCA, and it didn’t take him long to decide he owned the place. Since then, he has become an important part of hospice life – offering comfort, companionship, emotional support, and occasionally a bit of attitude.
At hospice, people are often going through one of the hardest times of their lives, and Heath has an incredible ability to make things feel lighter, calmer, and more normal. He curls up beside patients, climbs onto family members’ knees, follows staff around the building, and somehow always appears exactly where he’s needed most.
Heath is particularly good at sitting quietly with people when words aren’t enough. Families often say how comforting it is to have him nearby. He has a very gentle way of making people feel less alone.
Officially, Heath’s role involves emotional support, patient liaison, sleep quality testing, and treat management. Unofficially, he mostly supervises people while they work.
Purr therapy
Heath has become a huge source of comfort and connection for patients, families, volunteers, and staff. Even on difficult days, Heath can usually be relied upon to lift spirits, often just by loudly purring on someone’s lap or wandering into a serious meeting completely uninvited.
That said, Heath is not entirely low maintenance.
Despite once being a stray, he is now a very particular gentleman with refined tastes. He prefers Dine cat food, expects treats on demand, and reacts to ‘budget’ cat biscuits with visible disappointment.
He also suffers from recurring ear infections, which means he occasionally requires ear drops. This process generally involves two nurses, one towel, strategic planning, and a game of paper-scissors-rock to determine who has drawn the short straw.
Heath has his own section on the nursing handover sheet to keep staff updated on his health and wellbeing. The community has absolutely fallen in love with him, and we are always incredibly grateful for donations and support for Heath. Every contribution helps ensure he receives the care he needs so he can continue his important work of comforting patients, demanding snacks, and sleeping through staff meetings.
He’s also quite the character. Heath definitely has favourite humans, but he does try to spread the love around. He’s affectionate, nosy, slightly grumpy when inconvenienced, and firmly believes every chair in the building belongs to him.
Feline good
When Heath first came to hospice, he lost a noticeable amount of weight. Looking back, we genuinely think he was grieving patients who had passed away. He forms strong bonds with people and stays faithfully beside them right to the end.
One day, Heath even followed a patient all the way out into the funeral director’s car, seemingly wanting to say goodbye. Sometimes, staff find him curled up on a freshly made bed after a patient has passed away, quietly keeping watch over the room.
One particularly moving moment happened after a patient died just after midnight. The family had been there for nearly 48 hours, with Heath keeping constant vigil alongside them. Around 2am, the family finally went home to rest, but an hour later, the patient’s daughter suddenly woke feeling upset that her father was “alone.” She was so relieved when she returned to hospice to find Heath tucked up beside him on the bed, faithfully standing guard. He really does seem to understand more than anyone can explain.
A study on university students found that petting cats for 10 minutes decreased the amount of cortisol (a stress hormone) in the students’ saliva.
Quickfire with Heath
How do you feel about your human colleagues?
They’re reasonably well-trained. Some are better than others. A few still haven’t mastered opening treats quickly enough, but we continue to work on that.
How do you keep human staff in line?
Mainly through judgmental staring. If necessary, I sit directly on important paperwork, keyboards, or freshly made beds until people improve their behaviour.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Wake up. Demand breakfast. Ignore breakfast because it’s not the flavour I wanted. Have second breakfast. Patrol hospice. Check on patients. Nap. Attend nursing handover. Nap during nursing handover. Patrol again. Demand treats. Sleep under heater. Repeat.
Is it hard to maintain work-life balance when you live at work?
Not at all. I’m a huge believer in self-care. I sleep up to 18 hours a day to avoid burnout. Staff could learn a lot from me.
What’s the toughest part of your job?
Saying goodbye to people I’ve become close to. Also ear drops. Ear drops are unacceptable.
How do you feel about dogs visiting hospice?
I tolerate them. Barely. They usually understand pretty quickly that I’m management.
What’s your favourite way to destress?
Sleeping in the sun. Sleeping under the hallway heater. Sleeping on someone’s lap. Basically, anything involving sleeping.
If someone at hospice is sad, what’s your foolproof ‘cheer up’ move?
Very loud purring. Gentle head bumps. Sitting quietly beside them or on their lap.
Favourite snack: Treats. Any treats. All treats.
For more on Heath, follow him on Facebook @heath.302647
