A Northern California veterinary hospital has a pack of perfect employees who offer care and comfort to patients, from goats to chickens to pigs.
Videos of the six rescue cats at Look Ahead Veterinary Services in Oroville have racked up more than a half million followers and 25 million likes on TikTok, plus 100,000 followers on Instagram.
Vet tech Crystal Bessmer said the hospital has always had cats and this batch includes a tabby named Bea, who loves to stick her paw inside the cages to touch animals in the hospital’s care.
“Bea is the most engaged,” said Bessmer. “She is definitely the most curious. So, something’s out of the normal like, ‘Oh, that’s not a dog. What is that?’ She’s the one that’s going to kind of sneak up and check them out. We figured that out pretty quickly once we got her.”
All of the cats came to the hospital as stray kittens, and all had serious medical issues.
Meet the Kitties
OJ loves to greet clients when they come in the door. Because he has a chronic respiratory condition, it would have been it difficult to find a home for him. Hospital staff decided he was already home, and he stayed.
Theo is a snuggler, and his spectacular sleeping habits were on display right away. According to hospital staff, Theo can sense when somebody is sad or needs comfort, and he’ll go sit on their lap.
Elfie had a broken rear leg when she was found. The leg couldn’t be repaired, so it had to be amputated. Now the fluffy ginger cat loves a good box and runs and plays just fine.
Peggy came to the hospital with a severely injured front paw. Her toes were beyond repair and had to be removed. During her recovery she underwent weeks of therapy. Hospital staff fell in love with her and she stayed on, and the other hospital cats readily accepted her.
Uno the calico couldn’t see out of her right eye due to a chronic, painful condition. She was somewhat feral and wasn’t sure how she felt about people. Surgery to remove her eye was performed and she felt so much better her personality was completely transformed. She loves to cuddle and sit on client’s laps.
Bea was just 12 weeks old when she was brought to the hospital with an injured tail that had to be amputated. She is now the head nurse.
Safe and Free, but Supervised
All six cats are free to roam about the hospital, and Bessmer is quick to reassure people who wonder about safety.
“A lot of people worry about spreading of diseases. Generally, if an animal is sick with something that’s going to be spreading to other animals, we have special rooms for them,” she said.
Bessmer said the cats are pretty much kept away from other cats because most cats don’t want to mess with each other. If an animal seems stressed they are put in a separate area away from the cats.
“Most of the time, the cats know which animals to stay away from and which ones are okay to approach,” she said. “Especially dogs…our cats are not usually very excited about dogs. They’re pretty good about being street smart. “
@thehospitalcats Bea and her goat obsession #hospitalcats #vethospital #cats #tiktokcats #goat #rescuecat #animals #funnycats #fyp #fypage
Calming Kitty Energy
Bessmer said most of the farm animals who come in are comforted by the cats because they are already used to cats.
“A lot of farms have farm cats, it’s just something familiar,” she said. “If they’re in a kennel where they can’t see other animals and they can only see us, but then they see a cat or a cat comes up and says hello, I think it calms them a little bit because they’re like, ‘Oh, there’s other animals here, not just me.’”
If an animal’s panicking, but then they see this cat over there sleeping fully relaxed, they kind of feed off of that energy and go ‘Oh well, that cat’s relaxed, and maybe it’s not so bad here.
“If an animal’s panicking a little bit, but then they see this cat over there sleeping fully relaxed they kind of feed off of that energy and go ‘Oh well, that cat’s relaxed, and maybe it’s not so bad here.’ So their calming energy and feeling relaxed and safe sometimes helps.”
But like most cats, the hospital cats spend most of the day sleeping, hiding, and hanging around.
“They’re the most active first thing in the morning, and then in the evening, when we’re kind of wrapping things up. But then, of course, if something interesting comes in, like a goat or something like that, then they’ll definitely come down,” said Bessmer.
Bessmer thinks the cats get along with each other so well because they came to the hospital as kittens. Each time one would join the family, she said, they learned “that they’re not the dominant one, and all the other cats are so easygoing. They’re used to being around animals,” she said.
@thehospitalcats Hospital Cats are a whole different breed (BTW the pig was just waking up from a sedation and used to cats, and the dog was an employee dog who’s also used to cats) #hospitalcats #cats #tiktokcats #pig #goat #funnycats #funnyanimals #fyp #fypシ #foryou
A Hospital in Wildfire Country
The Look Ahead hospital has been impacted by several major wildfires in the area.
“The first one that really affected us was the Camp Fire,” said Bessmer.
In November of 2018, the worst wildfire in California state history raced through the town of Paradise, destroying 18,804 structures and tragically killing 85 people (and an untold number of animals).
“That was literally 10 minutes up the road from us,” said Bessmer. “I’d say a third of our clientele lived up there.”
Bessmer said the hospital was evacuated during the fire and they had animals in their care.
“They already shut the roads down so we were trying to find a way to get the animals back to their owners,” she said. “We were having to walk them up the road and meet owners at the barricades. It was insane.”
Two hospital employees lost their homes in the Camp Fire.
“And even while they’re dealing with that, they’re coming to work every day and helping all these animals that had been injured…even though they were grieving their own losses,” said Bessmer.
Instead of a half an hour for each appointment, we’d set aside 45 minutes for each appointment so we could just sit and talk with our clients, cry with them, and hear their stories. Some of their animals didn’t make it out, or some of their family members.
Bessmer said in the aftermath of the fire, more time was spent with clients.
“Instead of a half an hour for each appointment, we’d set aside 45 minutes for each appointment so we could just sit and talk with our clients and cry with them and hear their stories because some of their animals didn’t make it out, or some of their family members,” she said. “It was just devastating because it was a lot of our clients and friends and family.”
Bea and Her Chickens
@thehospitalcats Reply to @jsacat Here’s the extended version of Bea with the chickens! #chickens #hospitalcats #vetmed #cats #cattok #catsoftiktok #fyp #foryou
The viral video of Bea touching several chickens in a kennel was taken during the North Complex Fire in December of 2020.
Bessmer said the chickens belonged to a co-worker and were brought to the hospital after being found running loose.
“We knew they were good with cats, so they weren’t scared,” said Bessmer. “They’re almost just irritated. They just sat there like ‘Okay, fine.’ “People worried that the birds were really stressed out, but these are ones we already knew.”
Over the years hospital staff has helped care for animals impacted by wildfires.
The cats make us feel much more at ease and bring us so much joy and laughter.
“And it’s not so much during the fire,” Bessmer said. “It’s more so once the fire has gone through is kind of when the animal rescue work begins, where these rescue groups and animal control go in.”
“That’s when we finally get to go in and find the animals that got left behind or lost or ran off,” she said. “And by the time the fire goes through and we’re actually able to get in there some of these animals have been out there for weeks with no food or water, they’ve got burns on them. They’ve got to go somewhere, so they usually go to all the local hospitals.”
Look Ahead covers the cost of their care then holds onto them until their people can be found.
“Because sometimes that takes a while for the owners to figure out where they are, and for some of them months and months go by and we can’t find the owner, so then we end up just adopting them out,” said Bessmer.
Bessmer said the hospital cats have definitely been a huge emotional help for the staff, especially through these challenging times.
“The veterinary field has become extremely overwhelmed over the last two years and most places are understaffed as well, so it’s been really stressful for us all,” she said. “The cats make us feel much more at ease and bring us so much joy and laughter.”