Man Who Nearly Died Starts Successful Family Practice Clinic With Therapy Cats

Oct 18, 2019 by apost team

Earlier this month, Dr. William Powers posted a story on Imgur about his brush with death and the loss of his house and beloved cats to a fire.

Dr. Powers was a successful physician who lived in Ferndale, Michigan. He was also the proud owner of three cats, Sirius, Arcturus, and Cygnus. He and his wife, Lauren, had named all three cats after stars. In September 2017, the Guinness Book of World Records announced that they were adding Arcturus and Cygnus to their 2018 edition.

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Arcturus, a Savannah, was declared to be the world’s tallest domestic cat with a height of 19.05 inches at the shoulder. By contrast, the average cat stands about 12 or 13 inches tall. Arcturus also weighed around 30 pounds and ate 1.5 pounds of food a day. At two years old, he was still growing.

Cygnus, a Maine Coon silver tabby, boasted the longest tail on a domestic cat. His tail was 17.58 inches long – which made it at least as long as his body. His super-long tail sometimes caused problems. For example, his owners had to be careful when closing doors to make sure Cygnus’ tail didn’t get caught.

The Powers decided to use their cats’ fame to raise awareness and funds for the Ferndale Cat Shelter that they both ran. Visitors to the shelter would make donations in exchange for having their pictures taken with the cats.

A few months later, disaster struck reports Buzzfeed. On November 12, Lauren left home to make her rounds at the local hospital. William woke up an hour later to fire alarms and found his living room burning. Wanting to save his cats, he frantically searched for them and opened as many escape routes as possible. Eventually, he retreated to the basement where he passed out from smoke inhalation. Firemen rescued him – but his cats were less fortunate. Their bodies were found a few weeks later.

William was devastated, and it took him a year to recover physically and mentally from the tragedy. After being cleared to return to work, he decided to establish a family clinic and build it around the things he enjoyed most: cats and video games. Some of his colleagues tried to talk him out of doing so, as they told him that patients preferred a professional-looking medical clinic.

William decided to go ahead with his new clinic and rented an office space near the ruins of his old house, which is being rebuilt. Far from being a flop, Powers Family Medicine has been quite successful. It welcomes everybody and provides services to the LGBTQ community.

Powers Family Medicine has three therapy cats, Phoenix, Polaris, and Hyperion. They are all Savannahs and Bengals, and all of them are hypoallergenic. Their saliva does not contain the Fel D1 protein that triggers allergic reactions, so people with cat allergies may safely visit the clinic. William told the story of one patient with such severe allergies that she would bring an epi-pen to the clinic. She broke down in tears after stroking Polaris for she loved cats but hadn’t been able to touch one in nearly 30 years.

The therapy cats have all been vaccinated and don’t carry any zoonotic infections. While they are kept out of sterile zones, they otherwise have free run of the office. The cats all keep different office hours. Phoenix works on Mondays and Thursdays; Polaris is available on Wednesdays and Fridays, and Hyperion visits the office on Tuesdays and some Fridays. All three cats are friendly and enjoy saying “hello” to patients. WIlliam described Phoenix as “aggressively friendly” and said he will strategically place himself at the nurses’ station so he can be petted by passers-by.

As for video games, the main lobby has a full-sized custom arcade machine with an apparently new and unreleased game called “The Drs. Powers and the Starcats.” Every exam room contains a classic video game that patients may play while they wait for their doctor.

Some of William’s clients are adult-film actors, sex workers, and other people who don’t always feel they can be honest with their doctor. He has thus devised a way to protect everybody’s privacy. Patients will use their initials to sign in and be given an Amiibo (figurine of a Nintendo character) with the character’s name written on the bottom. The nurse will then call the character’s name and point the patient to the exam room.

Despite the naysayers’ predictions, business is booming at Powers Family Medicine. In an Imgur post written by William himself which has since gone viral, he wrote,

"I expected it would take years for me to develop the practice, as 5-7 years is pretty normal. We've now been open for 6 months, and as of today, we are completely full. We have over 1000 patients in the practice, and we've established a waiting list for people to get on if they want to transfer their care to us. I'm looking into expansion options and hiring some help so that we can continue to accept new patients, but for now, that has to wait."

Have you read this story? Would you visit a clinic that had therapy cats and a video game theme? Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!