• A 14-year-old cat, Duke Ellington Morris, is now a remedy animal on the San Francisco Worldwide Airport. 
• He is a part of the Wag Brigade, a gaggle of animals meant to loosen up passengers earlier than their flights. 
• Duke was rescued as a kitten and likewise works as a remedy animal in several California hospitals.

Meet San Francisco Worldwide Airport’s latest remedy animal: 14-year-old cat, Duke Ellington Morris.

The feline has been added to SFO’s Wag Brigade, which, in line with the airport’s web site, is a program bringing “skilled canines to the terminals to make passenger journey extra fulfilling.”

The Wag Brigade has been round for nearly a decade, and whereas it was initially only for canines, lately a pig named LiLou joined the squad, together with a rabbit named Alex, and now Duke. These animals journey across the airport and might be noticed carrying vests labeled “Pet Me!”

Duke’s addition to the Wag Bridge is just not his first foray into animal remedy work. In an interview with SFGate.com revealed Friday, Duke’s proprietor, Jen Morris, spoke about his backstory.

Within the interview, Morris says she adopted Duke, a feral cat present in San Francisco, in 2010 when he was a yr outdated. Given his relaxed demeanor, Morris received him licensed to be a remedy cat, and he began working with sufferers at completely different hospitals.

“He used to go to UCSF for visits on the ICU. And they might wheel him in on a cart and individuals who wished to pet him received approval from their medical doctors,” Morris instructed the location. “They might give them a pleasant scratch beneath the chin.

His work didn’t go unnoticed and Duke was featured in a 2016 KPIX information story about him cheering up sufferers at UCSF Medical Middle’s ICU. He was additionally profiled by the favored animal web site The Dodo.

Per SFGate.com, Duke was initially named Tai Chi Tuxedo, however Morris later renamed him after the jazz legend of the identical title.