A Virginia woman was feeling sad.

Her doctor prescribed her a cat.

Robin Sipe’s eyes filled with tears as soon as her doctor entered the examining room.

“My cat had recently died and I was feeling really sad and depressed,” Sipe said she told her pulmonologist, Earl D. King, whom she’s known for 15 years.

King has treated her for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that blocks airflow and makes it difficult to breathe. Sipe said he’d saved her life three times in an intensive care unit.

So when he asked her what was wrong, Sipe, 67, opened up to him about her loneliness since her beloved cat died over the summer.

“I was really going through a bad time,” she said she told him during her appointment in September.

King mentioned that she should think about getting a new cat. When her checkup was over, he handed her a printed summary of the appointment, with instructions to get a high-dose flu shot in October and a coronavirus shot in November.

Then Sipe’s eyes lingered at the item at the top of the list: “Get a cat,” the doctor wrote.

King wrote down his advice so there would be no mistake about what he told Sipe during the appointment.

“Robin was down in the dumps, crying about the loss of her cat, and I felt that a new cat was the best remedy for her,” he said.

He’d seen the studies showing pets can improve a person’s mental health and help older adults cope with feelings of loneliness. He’d also seen the effects firsthand.

King was serious when he advised Sipe to get a new cat, he said. But he was surprised when Sipe, who has one adult daughter, took him up on it immediately.

After leaving King’s office, Sipe stopped at a farm produce stand for some fresh corn and cantaloupe on her way to her home in Grottoes, Va. While she was browsing, she noticed a black and white kitten romping around.

“She was from a litter of five, and she was missing her front left paw,” Sipe said.

The kitten’s missing paw didn’t seem to affect her ability to play and get around, Sipe said.

She was instantly smitten, and the words “get a cat” were echoing in her mind.

“I asked if I could take the kitty home and told them I could guarantee that she’d be safe and happy inside,” Sipe said. “They had four other kittens they’d need to find homes for, so they said okay. This sweet little kitten was mine.”

“I do believe this was meant to happen with all my heart,” she said, noting that Earlene likes to watch television with her and cuddles up next to her in bed.

“She likes to reach up and rub my face with her stubby little paw,” she added.

Sipe said a kitten was the perfect prescription for her sadness.

“As far as I’m concerned, she was the pick of the litter,” Sipe said.