A Virginia woman was feeling sad. Her doctor prescribed her a cat.

[Nevilledog]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/10/18/cat-prescription-virginia-doctor-wellness/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/9gpNy

Robin Sipe’s eyes filled with tears as soon as her doctor entered the examining room.

“My cat had recently died and I was feeling really sad and depressed,” Sipe said she told her pulmonologist, Earl D. King, whom she’s known for 15 years.

King has treated her for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that blocks airflow and makes it difficult to breathe. Sipe said he’d saved her life three times in an intensive care unit at Sentara RMH Medical Center in Harrisonburg, Va.

So when he asked her what was wrong, Sipe, 67, opened up to him about her loneliness since her beloved cat died over the summer.

“I was really going through a bad time,” she said she told him during her appointment in September.

*snip*

[struggle4progress]

1. I've been explaining to my docs how I need a script for chocolate

But I'm not making headway

[BlueCheeseAgain]

10. Most chocolate is available over the counter.

Depending on where you live, you might need mail-order for the good stuff.

[struggle4progress]

11. But I want my insurance to pay for it!

[Maru Kitteh]

2. My depression therapy is on my lap interferingwith my typing as we speak

the striped one. Monte.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

3. Earlene! Awww!

[Midnight Writer]

4. Had a good friend completely turn around after he found a kitten.

He's retired, wife dead, children moved far away. I was really worried about him. Every time I saw him, he was just miserable.

Now, I see him, and I get unending stories about his cute kitten. A true rescue story.

[kimbutgar]

5. My older sister was dealing with a lot of depression due to mourning the death of her asshole husband, and then getting

Disposed with diabetes and ended up getting heart surgery. But her life changed when she got a cat. She had cats before but her late husband didn’t want them. That cat makes her laugh and gives her a reason to get out of bed every morning not be depressed. She laughs more than ever over the cats antics!

[DFW]

6. I think that with us, it's the other way around

One of our neighbors has a very cute and very friendly cat. He spends at least as much time at our house (when we're here) as he does at his own. We can't let him/her into our house because my wife has a bad reaction to shed cat fur. It bums me, because I love animals, but it can't be changed. Still, when we're outside the house and the cat finds we're there, then so is the cat. It's the closest I'll ever come to having my own cat, but it will have to do. It's probably just as well in the long run. I travel so much, I'd have to leave any house pet on its own for more than I'm here, and that just wouldn't be fair. If I ever retire, though, I might be tempted to find another solution. Nothing drastic, just buy one of the houses next door..............

[leftstreet]

7. Wonder if he would have prescribed a cat to a man n/t

[Rob H.]

9. If his cat had just died, why not?

There are men who love cats, too.

[Sky Jewels]

8. When my dad died, my mom started referring to her kitties as "her therapists."

And they were.

I can't imagine my life without cats. It would be a dull, empty, meaningless existence.

[Duppers]

12. Same here.

I need critters, period.
We have a big 95lb yellow Lab and a crazy little orange tabby who shadows me, so much so that I worry if she's not within sight.