Corey is an average-looking, battleship-gray cat living in an Edmonds house. Like any snooty feline, he glides about, seeming to know he’s special.
But the role of this cat stretches far beyond the station of a typical pet.
Corey is adored at Smithwright Services Group Home, which serves eight adults with severe developmental disabilities and medical problems. The group could have lost him — and a fellow resident — in a parallel drama when both recently fought for their lives.
Smithwright offers a true home for eight disabled adults — they have posters on bedroom walls, cutesy-pie blankets, family albums and collections of baseball caps.
Most of them don’t speak. Most are fed by tubes. They communicate as best they can by lifting an eyelid, raising a gnarled hand or making a simple sound.
Of course the staff members were on their best behavior during my visit. But I sensed they operate daily with kindness, even love, as expressed by program director Loretta Kreeger.
“This is my calling,” she said.
The staff truly cares about residents, said executive director Liz Braun.
“The personal challenges of each of those people is a sad fact — and yet, as you say, the warmth is there,” Braun said. “The staff truly care about those residents. The difference between a home in the community and an institution is a profound one that I think has a tremendous positive impact on the emotions of not only the residents, but the staff as well.”
The gang includes two cats who offer lap therapy. Felines add to hominess of the nondescript residence behind a strip mall. Bernice Ferguson has called it home for more than 20 years.
She is all about her buddy, Corey, who recently got sick.
Corey’s eventual surgery came at a good time for Ferguson. She was hospitalized, too, so missing her kitty friend was short-term.
The cat, who had a bladder obstruction, was treated for two weeks at VCA Alderwood Companion Hospital of Lynnwood. Dr. Jill James and Dr. James McGill saved his life, Braun said.
Ferguson survived life- saving surgery to fix an abdominal problem.
The two are merrily reunited. Corey and a friend Lucy, an orange tabby, take human friends in stride. They are unaffected by stilted movements and awkward hands and arms that rub soft fur.
At night, finicky cats select sleeping quarters from an assortment of eight beds.
Kreeger said living in the community is the way to go for these folks.
“Historically they would be institutionalized,” Braun said. “We are a model for care.”
Sixty-two-year old Ferguson bonded with Corey five years ago when he was adopted for the house. Before Corey was placed in her lap during my visit, Ferguson eagerly lifted her red turtleneck to show bandages. Black socks matched black slacks. She wore practical white shoes with Velcro straps.
She has an assembly job outside of the house, operated by Smithwright Services, a nonprofit agency in Snohomish County that provides residential care for those with developmental disabilities and autism.
“The folks there are quite disabled and mostly nonverbal,” Braun told me before my visit. “I know it can be sad at first for some people who aren’t exposed to this.”
It was a bit sad. When I realized this wasn’t a dreary place, it was a home in all respects, I enjoyed my visit.
Family members seemed content, comfortable and adored.
By family members, I mean the pets, too.
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
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