After the therapy session is complete, volunteers and program staff evaluate the interactions. Each person contributes their observations and assessments of the sessions. The program staff then note clients' interaction on their health care record. Currently, Pets and People uses only pedigreed retired show cats. An important rationale for this selection is that cats from specific breeds can be more efficiently temperament predicted.
Some breeds are more interactive than others.
Also, show cats must be amenable to handling. Our cats are handled from the day they are born. This attention assists the cat to be better prepared for work as an animal therapist. We do not want to imply that shelter or rescued cats would not make good therapy cats. Many of them have.