Strange-looking cats? Maybe.

Pam Moore concedes that if someone is accustomed to long-haired cats, a Sphynx can be off-putting at first. But after a Sphynx curls up in the lap of one of her patients, Moore, a registered nurse at J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation Unit in Muscle Shoals, Ala., says the animal brings about a transformation in the human. "They bring so much peace and happiness to the patients," she says.

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Serene-looking humans? Absolutely.

Sphynx cats love to cuddle with people and are as soft as velvet. "They'll just curl right up on a patient's lap and stay there," Moore says. "That's not the training. That's just the way they are."

The cats are rare – only several thousand exist in the USA. Jak, the first registered therapy Sphynx in the country, belongs to Terry and Sharron True of Muscle Shoals. The Trues breed and show Sphynxes.

Terry True says holding Jak is like holding "a suede hot-water bottle." When the Trues first started doing therapy with cats, they visited oncology units in a children's hospital where patients were undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. "I wanted the children to know you can still be hairless and be beautiful," Moore says. "The kids' eyes would just light up when they'd see Jak."

Physical and emotional benefits

JoAnn Turnbull of the Delta Society, which has registered more than 10,000 animals for therapy work, says the kind of connection Jak offers cancer patients is unique. "People can relate to an animal with the same condition and trust them and bond with them," Turnbull says. "It might also give them the extra motivation to get better."

Research shows petting an animal can decrease patient anxiety, lower blood pressure and help ward off depression. In their new book, Guardians of Being, author Eckhart Tolle and illustrator Patrick McDonnell suggest that animals help connect humans to the divine and make us whole again.

The Trues say they are big believers in holistic medicine, treating the spirit as well as the body. They know firsthand how difficult it is to find peace in a hospital and how animals can heal in a way they cannot as medical professionals. Sharron is a registered nurse who works in the operating room at the Muscle Shoals hospital. Her husband is a family practitioner. "When they're in a hospital, they can't see their own pets," Sharron says. "Research has shown patients get many positive therapeutic benefits from the visiting animals."

Terry adds: "The patients aren't just physically ill when they're in the hospital, they're also emotionally suffering. One of the best ways to alleviate that is to try to return some sense of normalcy to their lives. If you show them pets in the hospital, they're able to focus on returning to their lives at home and a good outcome."

When Sharron read about cat-assisted therapy several years ago in a Cat Fanciers' Association magazine, she knew her cats were perfect for the cause "because of how people-oriented they are." The Trues now have three cats enrolled in therapy work, but Jak broke the ice for them in a dog-dominated world.

"Jak had just retired from shows, where he'd been very successful, and I told him he had to get another job," she says, laughing.

The new job meant Sharron had to take 12 classes with Jak sponsored by Delta Society. The classes teach the owner and animals how to approach patients and how to not be afraid of hospital settings, smells and equipment. Jak was the only cat in his class. There were 25 dogs.

"He wasn't afraid of all those dogs," she says. "He just marched right into the ring and got to work."

Not just dogs and cats

Turnbull says most of the animals they've registered are dogs. "Only several hundred are cats," she says, adding that other pets are giving dogs stiff competition: birds, rabbits and miniature horses.

The effect the animals can have is remarkable, she says. Sometimes a patient, especially a child, will sit still for a procedure if the animal can stay with him. And sometimes patients can share secrets with the animals and bond in a way they can't with humans.

The Trues go to the hospital once a week with their cats. "We go down the hallways in teams, one with a dog and one with a cat, and ask the patient which they'd like to see," Sharron says. "Some are so excited, they want to see both. So we'll take both animals into the room. It makes them calm.

"And when they're calm, they can start to heal."