Tucked up on Mount Sutro is a pretty amazing institution that has its roots in San Francisco's Gold Rush era, and is now one of only a few publicly owned and publicly funded skilled nursing facilities for the elderly and incapacitated. Laguna Honda Hospital just celebrated 150 years in operation last year, having begun as an almshouse for the poor in 1866 with its own farm on which people grew their own food. Starting with donation of a pair of ducks about 40 years ago, Laguna Honda now has a different kind of farm with a menagerie of animals, and ABC 7 just checked in on the in-house petting zoo which doubles as a source of therapy for patients, some of whom have lost the ability to communicate but can still commune with animals.
The adorable video above shows some of this "urban Noah's Ark," which includes goats, sheep, ducks, geese, rabbits, Guinea pigs, chickens, and cats 32 animals in all. If you want to help out with the care of the animals and other programs at the hospital, you can donate here.
Relatedly, UCSF just introduced their therapy cat, Duke Ellington Morris, on their Facebook page, and Duke seems like an incredibly mellow fat cat who gets wheeled around the ICU atop a rolling cart, and lets whoever wants to pet him.
Related: SFO Has A Therapy Pig Now