A pet needs care, and this allows people to use their abilities and to feel needed and useful. Pets counter depression and loneliness, and can serve as a social bridge to other people. Pets promote physical activity, from dog walking and grooming to playing with a cat, rabbit, or other type of small pet. Pets help satisfy the need to touch and be touched by other living beings. The presence of pets has been shown to lower blood pressure and help people relax, to increase longevity for people who have had heart attacks, and to reduce the number of visits to a doctor by elderly patients.
Pets help to ease loss.
An older person whose spouse has died is less likely to experience deterioration in health if he or she is attached to a pet. All of these factors have special relevance and importance in the life of a senior citizen. Seniors are more likely to be socially isolated and less physically active than other demographic groups, and to suffer more medical problems. Yet, despite the benefits that pets can confer on them, seniors are less likely to own a pet than any other group in our society. I am not alone in believing that many people over the age of sixty-five who do not now own a companion animal could do so, and that they would enjoy and benefit from the experience and make good, caring, owners.