Don’t you feel like you’re a parent when you have a pet to take care of? It’s the drive of emotions, companionship, friendship, love and so much more. Your pets are family and life without them seems impossible.
Even though you’re the one taking care of your pets, they take care of you too! A LOT. The warm snugly comfort, the important lessons of patience and perseverance, some good physical exercise (even if it is forced), and the sense of responsibility that you learn from having pets are some of the ways they take real good care of you.
But if you look closely, there is much more to what your pets can do for you.
Here are some major things in life that your pets teach you –
- The power of physical connection
The touch of your pets is nothing but relaxing and soothing. This is the kind of physical contact that you just can’t say no to after a long stressful day. In a joint study by Cats Protection and the Mental Health Foundation, charitable organizations based in the UK, researchers studied 600 cat- and non-cat-owning people and found out that caring for a cat affected their owner’s depression. 87 percent of cat owners said that their fur babies positively impact their mental health, and one third of respondents said that stroking their cat helped them feel calm.
- Taking a good stroll
A study in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health aimed at determining the relationship between being a pet parent and how much you engage in physical activity (specifically walking) observed the lifestyle habits of over 40,000 adults. It was seen that dog owners appeared to be more likely to walk for leisure compared to non-dog owners.
- Keeping calm under pressure
In a study that was published in the medical journal, Psychosomatic Medicine, pet owners and those without pets were given a task to finish a math exercise within a specific time limit. According to the study’s results, the participants who had cats or dogs to go home to were less likely to have high heart rates and blood pressure levels. Also, interestingly, when their pets were brought into the room, they made fewer math errors than those without any pets.
- Being a good leader
An online survey was conducted by Banfield Pet Hospital and Kelton Research for 857 people in America, and according to the findings, 86% of the respondents who were pet owners gave credit to their pets for their time management and multitasking skills. The survey also showed around 90% people believing that their children would do better in school if they had pets at home to take care of.
These snuggly creatures are just the best. No doubt.
