Meet Juanita and Lola-Pearl, the human-cat amputee duo helping others through animal therapy

Each morning, Juanita Mengel removes the silicone liner of her prosthetic leg from under a heated blanket so that the metal parts of the artificial limb don't feel as cold on her skin when she straps the pieces together.

The 67-year-old Ohio resident then does the same for her five-year-old dilute tortoiseshell cat, Lola-Pearl, who is missing her left hind leg.

The duo is one of an estimated 200 therapy cat teams registered in the US through Pet Partners.

The nonprofit sets up owners and their pets as volunteer teams who provide animal-assisted therapy such as visiting hospitals, nursing homes or schools.

Pet or animal therapy is a kind of therapeutic intervention that incorporates specially selected and trained animals.

“A therapy animal is an animal who’s been assessed based on their ability to meet new people and not just tolerate the interaction, but actively enjoy it,” says Taylor Chastain Griffin, the national director of animal-assisted interventions advancement at Pet Partners.

The organisation registers nine different species as therapy animals: dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, birds, mini pigs, llamas and alpacas.

As part of her research, Chastain Griffin studies the impact of therapy cats and argues more research needs to be done.

There’s abundant research on other therapy animals like dogs, she says, but there’s often a “shock factor” involved with therapy cats because many don’t know they exist.

“They go into a setting and people are like, ‘Whoa, there’s a cat on a leash. What’s happening?’” says Chastain Griffin.

“It kind of inspires people to connect in a way we haven’t traditionally heard talked about in other therapy animal interventions.”

Owner Mengel says she knew Lola-Pearl would be a good therapy