Editors Note: This story was reprinted from the VTSU Johnson newspaper, Basement Medicine. 

 In 2021, Moria Sheridan was in the second month of her practicum in the then Northern Vermont University Johnson Wellness Center when she’d begun fostering a litter of kittens, born in a barn and rescued by a local no-kill shelter. 

Sheridan, the clinical counselor for VTSU Johnson, proposed the idea of bringing the kittens into the Wellness Center to her boss Kate Mccarthy, VTSU’s director of health and wellness. 

“It was kind of magical from the very beginning,” recalled Mccarthy. “We’ve always done work with therapy dogs in Vermont and brought dogs to campus. And then Moria had the idea of bringing a cat.” 

With permission, Sheridan created “Animal Friends,” a group educating students about human-animal relationships and roles that animals play in their lives, starting by bringing the two-month-old babies in for students to interact with. It was the first time that students were allowed to gather in an enclosed space on the campus since the pandemic. 

Sheridan described these first interactions as “kitty chaos.” 

That semester, each visit with the kitties was the same. Students sat together, in a circle along the edges of a tight room in the back of Senators, never more than five at a time, almost always with a group waiting outside. Some sat in the available chairs while others had moved to the ground, cross-legged, wiggling their fingers and holding wooden dowels attached to string and feathers. 

Crumpled newspaper and little plastic balls rolled across the floor as three tiny felines darted around, from person to person, batting them in all directions. On one side of the carpet, a particularly orange one sat inside a cardboard box, swatting playfully at the hands reaching inside. 

“Meeting with Frederic was always very nice,” recalled Johnson alum Zoe Avent, a member of the first group of students who interacted with him. 

“He made me miss my own cat a lot of the time… But I had a good time. It really made my day when I would get to see him,” she said. 

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Because Frederic was a foster, Moria found homes for him and the other two cats. This would have meant the end of the campus’ interactions with them. 

“The person who adopted Frederic had a Chihuahua dog, and they picked him up on a Friday and I went away that weekend,” she explained. 

But the very next day, the adopter called Moria to say that she’d have to take him back. The cat was giving their chihuahua allergic reactions. According to the family, the animals’ interactions resulted in the dog breaking out into hives. They loved Frederic, but they just couldn’t keep him. 

“I’ve never in all my years heard of a dog being allergic to a cat,” Sheridan continued. “It could have been fear induced. Hives can be like that too.” 

She gave the adopter access to her house keys, and when she returned, Frederic was in her basement. 

“I looked in the window of the basement and there he was just walking around, meow, meow, meow,” she said. 

Once “Animal Friends” was established, Moria Sheridan began sending emails to students who signed up for the group. She sent photos of him and other kittens she fostered, hosted contests to see who could guess his weight, and made Frederic stickers and swag for students to hand out. 

At first, students were only able to see the kittens by going down the sketchy, crumbling stairs and following the path beside Sterns Dining Hall, past the two brightly colored plastic lawn chairs to the back of the Senators residence halls where the Wellness Center was located. Then, Mccarthy got the idea to bring Frederic to an upcoming open house. 

Sheridan had an old stroller that she’d used for another cat in the past, and the two decided that taking Frederic out into the Johnson campus would be a great way to get involved. 

And it took off from there. 

Frederic became a campus celebrity; students knew what was coming every time they saw the stroller roll towards them, or sitting with Sheridan beside the Fireplace lounge. 

Today, Frederic has been a full-fledged worker in the Johnson Wellness Center for almost four years now, sitting in both small group and individual sessions with students. 

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Initially, Sheridan worried about how Frederic would adjust to frequent interactions with groups. She says that with animal-assisted therapy, it’s important that the animal wants to be a part of it. Frederic was an anxious kitten, and after long summers of not interacting with as many people, it was possible that he would grow unaccustomed. But every school year, she said Frederic is eager to get back to work. 

“He hears the door to the carrier open and he gets right in,” Moria said. “There’s never been a day that I’ve had to go find him to bring him. He’s ready to go.” 

Before she was a counselor for Johnson, Sheridan had been a veterinary nurse for 30 years. While there aren’t any licenses for animal therapy specifically, after getting her masters, Sheridan obtained a grad certificate in Human-Animal Interactions from Colorado State University, a program that teaches safe and ethical techniques for animal work in therapy and initerventions. Frederic has spots throughout the group room where he retreats should he need a break, a well-known cue to some of his regular visitors. He’s known to be an escape artist, and often times he’ll take breaks by standing in front of the door, meowing for someone to let him out. But sometimes his cues are more “subtle.” Sheridan said that while students are usually good with respecting his boundaries, there have been instances when she’s had to intervene. 

He’s known to be an escap“A lot of him being around people is being able to read his body language, because obviously, our connection with them is nonverbal,” she said. She added that understanding his cues and acting on his behalf is a part of her job “as his partner.” 

Frederic can be rowdy and playful in group meetings, but when interacting with students in solo sessions, he takes a calmer approach. Moria says that when a student is in distress, he decides when and how to interact. Sometimes that looks like taking his time investigating, and other times, he sits with students to help them regulate. 

Before Frederic, Sheridan said that the Johnson Wellness Center had difficulty getting students to utilize their services. For many students, addressing mental health concerns can induce fear or anxiety. Interactions with Frederic may serve as a gateway through which the community gets comfortable with the Wellness Center, and mental health discussions in general. 

While his presence is one factor for the increase in student interaction, McCarthy believes that mental health has grown less stigmatized within the past few years, as more of the students they interact with have greater knowledge about what mental health looks like. 

“I think we are now working with a student population that has the vocabulary around mental health, has the experience with the mental health care system as well,” McCarthy said. 

She believes students are now more aware of their mental health needs, and are learning that they can access them through the Wellness Center. With that, and the recent spike in enrollment across the university, the demand for services is gradually increasing. In order to meet that demand, the Wellness Centers have had to get creative with the services and resources they offer, which has included the incorporation of therapy and service animal visits. 

In April this year, Frederic won the Loudest ‘Bork’ competition for the Vermont National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), making him their new mental health pet ambassador. The contest was a part of their “Make Some Noise. End the Silence VT” campaign, meant to encourage young people to share stories about their struggles with mental health. 

He ran against animals all across Vermont, including fully certified therapy animals. For a long time, he was neck in neck with Xander, a multicolored Australian Shepherd that had been traveling as a therapy dog for over nine years. With support from students, friends, and family, Sir Frederic rose to the top, encouraging students everywhere to “end the silence.”