A Kids' Eye Doctor Has A Staffmember To Comfort The Kids She Sees — A Cat Named Truffles Who Wears Glasses
Truffles the cat is helping kids feel great about their glasses, despite their im-purr-fect vision.
@truffles_the_kitty / TikTok Being a kid is hard enough without also sticking out because you wear glasses. And when you're still a little tyke, having to wear those weird contraptions on your face can be a bit awkward and daunting.
One eye specialist is changing all that by making the process of kids getting eyeglasses and eye treatments easier in the most purr-fect way, and it's made her and her cuddly assistant and internet sensation.
The eye doctor has an unlikely assistant at her pediatric optician practice: Truffles the cat who wears glasses.
Danielle Crull is certified master optician whose shop A Child's Eyes in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania focuses on children's needs for eye glasses, eye patches, and other accessories for vision and eye ailments. Her clients can be as young as infants, with the average age being about three years old.
As anyone who's ever spent time with a squirrelly toddler can attest, fitting a child that small for glasses seems like it could be quite the herculean task. It's easy to imagine a kid being downright scared by the process or worrying about being bullied for being different.
So Crull came up with the perfect solution — her big fluffy cat, Truffles, who loves to wear glasses.
Crull says the biggest problem with kids who need glasses or eye patches is getting them to comply with wearing them.
Crull says many of the children she deals with have a condition called amblyopia, an ailment where one eye sees much better than the other. One of the treatments is fitting a kid with an eye patch over the good eye, as this helps train the brain to improve the vision in the bad eye.
But she says fitting a kid with an eye patch over their good eye can stir up all kinds of feelings, especially a sense that they're being punished by basically being made unable to see. Crull says Truffles the cat helps kids overcome these feelings.
"Truffles has been really key in helping many kids feel like they're not alone," she says, "because Truffles is wearing a patch too." She said that many of her kid clients say "Truffles is like me" when they see the big floofy cat rocking her eye patch.
Crull has also trained Truffles to do tricks to form a bond with the kids who come into her practice.
Truffles the cat's job at A Child's Eyes is more than just an eye patch and eyeglasses model. She's also a sort of welcoming committee for the tykes that come into the shop.
Crull has trained her to give high fives, shake hands, and she even knows the difference between regular eyeglasses and sunglasses.
And as any glasses wearer knows, for some of us, glasses become an extension of our personality and our outfits — some people own dozens of pairs of glasses that they swap in and out depending on their mood or the look they're trying to complete each day.
It turns out Truffles is not different — she picks out her own glasses every morning, and she is definitely partial to certain pairs over others.
Obviously, Truffles is downright adorable, but she really does have an important job.
Kids not wanting to wear their glasses is actually a common problem for parents.
Roughly 25% of kids wear glasses, according to the CDC, and the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus says that for most kids, just being able to see better is usually enough of a motivation for them to wear their glasses regularly.
But for those that are reticent, encouraging them and trying to make wearing glasses seem cool is key to getting a kid over the hump. Pretty hard to think of a better way to make glasses seem cool than a glasses-wearing cat! (BRB, calling my eye doctor and demanding he get a bespectacled feline by my next appointment.)
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.