CATS program

Miami Int’l Airport and the Miami Hound Machine

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The ‘Miami Hound Machine’ – a team of therapy dogs – is coming to Miami International Airport.

Miami International Airport’s new therapy dog program, charmingly called the Miami Hound Machine, is making its debut today.

The team’s five volunteer K-9 Ambassadors – Abbey, Belle, Dash, Donovan and Pico – and their owners will be on site today with airport officials for a press conference. The pups will then go to work inside Concourse D, visting with passengers and being cute.

Members of the Miami Hound Machine are all certified therapy dogs from the Alliance of Therapy Dogs and will be on duty in the MIA terminals during peak travel periods.

Therapy dogs at airports are a growing trend. So are the types of animals on the therapy dog teams – San Francisco International Airport’s Wag Brigade has a pig (Lulu); Denver International Airport’s CATS program (Canine Airport Therapy Sqaud) has a cat named Xeli, and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) often has a small herd of miniature horses stop by.

Have you encountered a member of an animal therapy team at an airport? Thumbs up or down?

Kitty Xeli is the latest stress-buster at Denver Int’l Airport

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To help ease the stress of travel, dozens of airports have teams of therapy dogs and handlers mingling with passengers on a regular basis.  At San Francisco Int’l Airport they let a therapy pig join the team. At Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, miniature horses are regular airport visitors.

Now a cat named Xeli (zell-ee) has joined the Canine Airport Therapy Squad (CATS) at Denver International Airport.

“Our CATS program has been extremely popular with passengers since its inception in 2015, and what a purr-fect way to take the program to the next level by introducing our first feline, Xeli,” airport CEO Kim Day said. “Just like all of our dogs, Xeli will visit passengers on our concourses, bringing joy and comfort to passengers of all ages.”

Xeli is a 12-pound domestic shorthair cat and will begin visiting the airport with her handler on October 13.

Like the dogs in the CATS program, Xeli will leashed and will be on duty to cuddle with passengers, be petted and pose for photos. And, like all the CATS, Xeli will have a trading card with her picture and assorted facts about her life, including her “pet peeves.”