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Retreat & Wellness Center · Bocas del Toro, Panama

Boo & Kat: Connection, Calm, and Healing at Convergence

Boo and Kat are part of Convergence's Retreat & Wellness Center — two therapy goats creating moments of calm, connection, and quiet joy for Veterans, families, and guests.

Meet Boo & Kat Support the Program

A Wellness Program, Not a Petting Zoo

Therapy goats are one of the programs offered through Convergence's Retreat & Wellness Center in Bocas del Toro, Panama. This isn't a novelty experience or a farm-tourism stop — it's a relational, people-centered practice built around two goats, Boo and Kat, who have spent years learning to be genuinely present with the people around them.

Guests don't come to see goats. They come to sit with them, walk with them, and — often without planning to — let their guard down a little. What happens in that time is quiet and real: a slower breath, an easier laugh, a moment of connection that doesn't ask anything of the person having it.

Why Goats

  • The right size

    Small enough to feel safe and approachable, present enough to command real attention — no cages, no distance, no performance.

  • Curious, not needy

    Boo and Kat approach on their own terms, out of genuine curiosity. That gives people permission to do the same.

  • Grounded through touch

    A hand on warm fur, a goat leaning into your leg — simple tactile contact that pulls attention into the present moment.

  • Built-in lightness

    Picture a goat in a tutu on an evening walk, or that indignant head-shake mid-brush. That kind of unscripted silliness breaks tension in a room — and in a mind — faster than words usually can.

  • No performance required

    There's nothing to say, prove, or explain around a goat. That absence of pressure is often the whole point.

For Veterans Carrying Stress and Trauma

Many Veterans carry a level of stress and hypervigilance that doesn't simply turn off when they come home — or when they arrive somewhere meant to help them heal. Boo and Kat don't ask anyone to talk about it. They just show up, curious and unhurried, and give people something to focus on besides their own noise.

In practice, that can look like a slower breath after a few quiet minutes of contact. A genuine laugh at a goat doing something absurd. Hands finding something useful to do that isn't gripping a steering wheel or a phone. A sense — even briefly — of being safe enough to lower your guard.

This is a complementary part of the wellness experience at Convergence, not a replacement for clinical mental health care. It sits alongside the peer counseling and other programs already part of Convergence's work with Veterans — one more way back to calm, connection, and a sense of self.

Meet Boo & Kat

Two purebred Nigerian Dwarf does, part of the Convergence family for six years, and — in the most meaningful sense of the word — real therapy goats.

Boo

Vassar Farm's Grizzly Rose

ADGA #D002060952 · born October 27, 2019 · polled

Boo is the cautious, reserved one. She needs calm, reassurance, emotional stability, and gentleness from humans to be at her best. Because of that, she functions almost like a mirror of the person she is working with. She settles once they do, and not before.

She's become a mother twice and knows how to nurture. She meets whoever's in front of her exactly where they are.

Boo's favorite snacks are banana leaves and popcorn. At night she enjoys coming inside and watching TV with her human family before putting herself to bed at 2130.

Kat

Vassar Farm's Oats and Honey

ADGA #D002070101 · born December 15, 2019 · disbudded

Kat is the welcoming committee. Where Boo waits, Kat walks straight up. In six years she's decided people are worth approaching, and it shows — she's as comfortable with a nervous first-time guest as she is with the Convergence team she's known since she was a kid.

Two moments capture who she is. She'll lower her head into a small child's reach so a five-year-old can brush her back. And she'll fall asleep on the living room couch with her chin flat on the cushion — a prey animal, throat unprotected, inside a house full of people. Goats don't do that unless they feel completely safe, and Kat knows she is.

Kat's favorite treats are bananas and guavas — but she can't eat too many because they're so sugary.

Both goats live at the Retreat & Wellness Center and are part of the same program — available to guests, Veterans, and visiting groups as one of Convergence's ongoing wellness offerings.

Milestone

Panama's First Approved Therapy Goats

Boo and Kat's journey to the Convergence Retreat in Panama was a logistical undertaking. Bringing two purebred Nigerian Dwarf does from the United States, through the approvals required to bring animals into the country, and into recognition as therapy animals rather than livestock took months of preparation and numerous meetings.

Upon arrival, they became the first two approved therapy goats in Panama — a small, specific milestone, and one Convergence is proud of.

More of Boo & Kat

Boo

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Kat

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Boo & Kat

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A Veteran's Experience

What Boo & Kat Have Meant to Mark

“ Boo and Kat originally joined our family in early 2020 and were intended to be part of a mini-homestead. Instead these little part monkey, part dog, part therapist goats taught me more about myself than I ever expected.

They participate in Search and Rescue (SAR) parades, they dress up in costumes for special events and their birthday parties. Every night promptly at 1930 they let us know it's time to put their diapers on and bring them inside so they can climb on the couch and watch TV until they put themselves to bed at 2130. They have become part of the family, and that takes a lot of trust coming from a prey animal. They trust us for everything, and that changes the way you look at them and yourself. In the beginning, I thought they would just be ranch animals. Turns out I was being trained by two very small four-legged therapists. ”

Mark Ford, Co-Founder & COO, Convergence

Part of a Growing Field

Convergence isn't alone in this work. Animal-assisted programs for Veterans and military families have been growing for years — and the research and public examples below are part of why we believe in what Boo and Kat do.

Boo and Kat's work is designed to complement clinical mental health care — easing stress, supporting recovery, and fostering long-term well-being for Veterans carrying the weight of high-risk service.

Animal-assisted interaction can support calm, grounding, and emotional regulation. Veterans often benefit from nonjudgmental animal presence, gentle touch, light activity, and shared moments of connection — and a growing body of research and public examples backs that up. It works alongside the peer counseling and other programs already part of Convergence's work with Veterans, not in place of them.

Further reading

A Line Worth Carrying Forward

The program today is two goats and the relationships they build with guests and Veterans. The program tomorrow is a small, deliberate next generation, raised from birth to the same standard — with a close, loving connection with humans.

Boo and Kat have been part of the Convergence family for six years now. In that time, they've shown us something we didn't fully expect going in: how deep the bond between a goat and a person can run, and how much that bond can mean to someone carrying more weight than they let on.

We don't want that to end when Boo and Kat eventually retire from active work. We're planning carefully for each of them to have one final set of kids to carry forward the same qualities that make Boo and Kat who they are: goats raised from birth to be genuinely comfortable with people, patient with nervousness, and steady in the presence of stress.

It's a small, specific thing to protect. We think it's worth protecting anyway — and we'd love for others to be part of that next chapter with us.

Help This Program Grow

There are a few ways to be part of the therapy goat program at Convergence — whether you're a future retreat guest, a Veteran, a family member, a donor, or an organization already doing this kind of work.

  • Retreat guests & Veterans

    Come meet Boo and Kat in person at the Retreat & Wellness Center in Bocas del Toro, Panama.

  • Partner organizations

    Reach out if you run a therapy-goat or animal-assisted program and want to compare notes or collaborate.

  • Donors & supporters

    Help cover the day-to-day cost of caring for Boo and Kat, and help fund the next generation of the program.

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