OFFICE FOR THE AGING HAS GIVEN AWAY MORE THAN 30,000 ROBOT PETS SINCE "ANIMATRONIC PET INITIATIVE" BEGAN IN 2018.

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New York State is giving away robot cats and it's pretty cool.

"I'm going to have a lot of company tonight," Pauline Stacy said in the solarium room on the fifth floor of the Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, New York Monday evening. 

The 71-year-old was contemplating all the attention her new "cat" was going to garner amongst patients that share the fifth floor with her. Most of them are seriously ill, like she is.

Stacy's been in the hospital since January 26. That night she was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room in her hometown's hospital for back pain. Doctors discovered cancer, spread through her body. They transferred her to Champlain Valley, where she's been undergoing chemotherapy since.

"She's almost died a few times," her daughter, Terry, says. 

"It's a miracle doctors kept her alive this long."

Pauline wasn't able to take any of her three house cats with her to the hospital. A neighbor is taking care of them. But she missed her feline companions, especially since she was facing death.

Terry to discovered the New York State Office of the Aging and its Animatronic Pet Initiative during a chance conversation with a friend about her mother's hospitalization. Started with a pilot program in 2018, the agency has since distributed more than 33,000 animatronic pets to "socially isolated" older New Yorkers as of 2023.

Terry's friend described the program this way: "Well you know there's lifelike cats they give to older people."

Her friend put her in touch with Susan Schrader, who works with Community Health Center of the North Country. The group operates four clinics and through a variety of programs delivers healthcare and social services to impoverished residents of Franklin County—the northern border of which is Canada.

"My friend got a hold of her friend," Terry explained. "Then her friend got a hold of someone at the Office of the Aging. And someone at the Office of the Aging called me."

Two months later, a courier dispathed by the Office of the Aging arrived at the small store where Terry works and delivered a box containing one robot cat. 

"All I had to do was give them my mother's name and age," Terry said. "They did the rest."

Officially named the Joy for All Companion Pet Cat, they retail for $124.99. The robots look, feel and sound "like real cats," the Joy For All website says. They make "cat-like movements and sounds." 

They also have "sensors" that "respond to motion and touch." They even make "VibraPurr sounds and feels like real purring."

Even in the box, the robot cat caught the attention of nurses at Champlain Valley.

"Is that one of those robot cats?," one observed in a hospital hallway just before Terry delivered it to her mother. "I've never seen a new one before."

In the solarium, Pauline placed the robot cat on a table and immediately started petting its head. The cat responded with an electronic "meow." More petting and the animatronic cat raised a paw to its face then moved its head to mimic licking like a real cat cleaning its paw might. Slowly the cat lowered the paw and made another "meow."

"Now what to name you," Pauline answered back. After a few seconds worth of thought, she had the answer: "Butterscotch."

Later that night, Pauline texted her daughter.

"Thank you," she said. "He's a hit. Love you."

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