Our Homes Are Where Our Pets Are

A Caremark live in carer and help you look after your pets

It’s interesting that a comparison of the strength of our attachment to our homes is made with the attachment that we have to our pets. The strong bond that we have with our pets is another powerful reason why people choose live in care. Research conducted by the charity Blue Cross suggests that

Two thirds of UK older pet owners said they would be ‘devastated’ if they had to give up their pet to go into care.

The social isolation of the elderly and vulnerable is one contemporary of Britain’s great challenges. Many pet owners would say you are never alone with a pet, and there is some pretty weighty research to back this up.  A recent report from Mars Petcare and the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) says

There is increasing evidence pets can play an important role in helping people feel less lonely and more socially connected.

To make the point again, pet owners would not need to be told that.

There is a further point to make on the issue of social isolation. Pet owners tend to be more sociable. More accurately, our pets make us more sociable. If you are a pet owner, you will know exactly what this means. Pet owners in general have something in common with other pet owners. More specifically, dog owners have something in common with dog owners; cat owners with cat owners. Lifelong friendships have been known to have been forged because of pets. This is what a piece of American research had to say:

Pets make people more sociable. As noted above, loneliness can be dire; isolation raises the risk of heart disease by 29% and stroke by 32%. An analysis of 70 studies featuring 3.4 million people found that people suffering social isolation had a 30% greater risk of dying in the next seven years. But 65% of the aging pet owners in the new survey claimed that their animals connected them with other people.”

If you speak with almost any pet owner, she will tell you about how her non-human companion helps relieve stress. Pet owners will each have their personal stories to tell; however, you can bet that quite a few will tell you about how their pets make them laugh, keep their blood pressure low and keep their hearts healthy.

For various reasons when we get older, we may feel that our lives lack meaning.  A life without meaning can be devastating for our well-being. Our pets can give meaning to our lives. To quote again from the American research mentioned above:

Pets help seniors stick to a routine. More than half (62%) of the surveyed seniors said that caring for their critters helped them keep a routine, and 73% said their pets provided a sense of purpose.

These are just a few reasons why our pets – and our homes – are good for us. Our pets and our homes – two things to which our emotional attachments are so strong. Is it any wonder that we do not want to abandon either? 

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