Bea, a tailless cat, is like a nurse that loves to pet and comfort animal patients to make them feel better.
Bea is one of six cats who live and work at Look Ahead Vet in Oroville, California. The stray cats at the animal hospital have since become part of their staff, with most of them serving as therapy animals.
Crystal Bessmer, a vet tech at the animal hospital says: “The girls are Elfie, Uno, Bea, and Peggy, and the males are OJ and Theo.”
“They each were brought to us at various times by different clients. They were all found as stray kittens, and most of them had severe injuries,” she added.
The band of rescued cats has become one big family, and has free rein over the hospital, and plays an important role in helping patients and their owners feel better.
Bessmer said, “It’s a fairly big indoor hospital, so they have lots of room to run and explore. We all care for them throughout the day with love and snuggles, and our clients absolutely adore them. They’ve been very therapeutic for our clients and for us.”
Bea, in particular, has become a sort of head nurse who makes her rounds petting each animal and trying to make them feel better. Bea makes sure to check on anyone. She doesn’t seem to be afraid of even the really big farm animals.
Bessmer says: “She’s always so curious and so gentle. She loves to walk up to them and often just puts her hand in slowly to check them out. Oftentimes she’ll even pet them.”
“She definitely loves everyone, especially the new kitten, Peggy. She’s always been like that, too. She never seems to be afraid of anything either — even the really big farm animals,” she added.
Bea may be the nurse cat of the bunch, but all six kitties work each day to make sure the animal hospital runs smoothly. The vet tech shared the duty of the other cats saying: “Theo’s definitely the comforter … he can sense when someone is really sad, and he’ll go and sit on their lap.”
She says Elfie was the head of security because she likes running towards the madness and is a little bit spicy. OJ is their doorman as he loves to hang out by the door and greet everyone. Uno is the babysitter; she loves to watch puppies and kittens especially and keep an eye on them.
Bessmer added: “Lastly, our new edition, Peggy. She’s still pretty young, so we call her the “hospital Cat in training” or “intern”.
And when the days are long and hard, the cats give their human coworkers some much-needed support.
The human staffers make sure to care for the cats as well and give them lots of love and snuggles. And if anyone needs a gentle pet during the day, they know who to come to.
Bessmer shared: “We’re all very close to them because we work long hours here. Most of us are here more than we are at home, so we treat them like they’re our own, which basically they are.”
Bessmer also has a TikTok account named @crystalbessmer with 265,000 followers where she shares the daily life of the cat nurses.