The Power of Pets in Supporting Aging

During the pandemic we witnessed a significant rise in pet ownership.

Pets helped people deal with the loneliness they felt during lockdown. They provided much needed emotional support and helped people manage the stress and anxiety in their lives.

Their presence made people happy and forced them to stay in the moment and not let their minds wander all over the place worrying about things that were out of their control.

I saw first hand the power of pets when my father passed away at age seventy-two from pancreatic cancer.

I was really worried about my mother living alone in her home. She had plenty of close friends living around her so I wasn’t worried about her being lonely during the day. It was her spending the night alone after so many years that concerned me. I hated the thought of her being scared or lonely and I struggled with how to prevent that.

Lucky for my mother and me the day after my Dad’s funeral, a cat appeared at my mother’s back door and wouldn’t leave. Unable to find it’s owner, Mum took that cat in and gave it a home. Boots, so named because of his four white feet, put meaning back into my mother’s life and they became inseparable. That cat made her happy and gave her a new purpose in life.

It was a win/win: Boots needed her. And she needed Boots.

She loved that cat so much and spoiled him giving him the best food to eat. He turned into a fat cat and I laughed when my mother told me the vet said she had to put him on a diet.

She always thought that my father had sent Boots to her to keep her company and give her a reason for living after he had to leave, and I think she’s right.

The important thing to understand is that loneliness and isolation are killers.

Studies have shown that social isolation increases the risk of premature death by an eye-opening 32% and loneliness by 14%. This means that loneliness might be a more significant health factor than obesity, smoking and a significant risk for higher rates of heart disease, stroke, anxiety and depression.

The sad thing is that today over 42% of people aged eighty-five and over live alone with their TV being their main source of company.

Being lonely negatively impacts our mental, physical and emotional well-being.

We all have a need for love, connection and purpose till the day we die and as I learned from both my mother and the pandemic pets can play an important role in satisfying those needs.