SINGAPORE – Getting group cat Betty to maneuver? Fur-get about it.
Betty is staying put at her old stomping floor – the previous premises of Dover Park Hospice (DPH) in Jalan Tan Tock Seng. After all, she has made the place her home for the final 4 years.
DPH moved on Oct 30 to its larger, extra structured and extra technologically superior location on the Tan Tock Seng Hospital-Integrated Care Hub (TTSH-ICH).
Betty was left behind as a result of cats usually are not allowed within the new sterile setting.
Some readers expressed concern over Betty’s plight after this was reported by The Straits Times, asking why the feline was not moved to the brand new premises when group cats are allowed in hospitals abroad.
An instance is Kolo, a tabby cat that grew to become well-known over the years for walking into the emergency division of Bristol’s Southmead Hospital in Britain to befriend workers and sufferers. The much-loved feline died in April and might be getting a statue in his reminiscence.
Another cat in Britain, a ginger named Leo, is commonly to be discovered cheering up sufferers whereas “doing the rounds” at St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight.
In Australia, a stray cat named Elwood made headlines after he was “hired” by a neighborhood hospital and given his personal ID badge after he stayed across the premises daily for almost a 12 months.
Veterinarian Kenneth Tong informed The Straits Times that the underside line in Betty’s case is the phrase “fear”.
“It depends on the organisational threshold to this ‘fear’, and the willingness to be accountable and take the risks to either put a blanket ban on community animals residing or roaming around the property, or allowing selected pets onto the premises,” he stated.
