What are the Health Benefits of Pet Ownership

For a wide range of people pets help fulfill their lives; it doesn’t matter if a pet is part of a large family or not. Many people also consider their pets as part of their family. They love and cherish that pet just like they would a child. In fact how many people do you know who actually refer to their pets as their children? They refer to themselves as the pets’ mother or father and even dress up their “child”.

My family lives out in the country and we have more than one pet; I joke that we have our own little farm because of how many animals we have. We have two dogs, a black lab and a Chihuahua; we also have an indoor cat. Obviously those are some of the more standard pets in our homes but that just addresses our furry indoor pets.

One disadvantage to living out in the country is it becomes a dumping ground for people to get rid of pets they do not want or cannot take care of anymore. In our neighborhood we have seen quite a few cats suffer this abandonment; I guess pets can bring out the best and the worst in some people.

We have kind of adopted a couple of these cats because having cats around helps keep the rodents at bay. A bag of cat food is more than worth it to have these cats keeping an eye on the place. It certainly doesn’t hurt that they are cute and sweet little cats who have really warmed up to us. It took them a little while to overcome their nervousness but now they let us pet them and even rub up against us when we feed them.

Our property is about an acre and we have dedicated portions of the land to our animals. We have a chicken coop with a few hens and one very happy rooster. We let them out every day and enjoy watching them scratch around the yard looking for yummy things to eat. I can also say that you haven’t seen anything until you see a chicken run; it is really one of the most entertaining things to watch.

Multiple times a day we take a peak in the coop to see how many eggs we have gotten for the day. Our local feed store guy told us that the average life span for chickens is around four years. We are assuming that this information takes into account predators and people “retiring” chickens who no longer lay. Our flock of nine chickens has five that are now seven years old, we still get an occasional egg from all of them but one. If you haven’t consumed an egg from your own free range chicken you are missing out, they are delicious and cannot be matched by something at your local supermarket in taste or appearance in the frying pan.

Our farm has some larger animals as well. We have four equines, a quarter-pony, a thoroughbred, a Shetland pony and a white mule. The quarter-pony was a ten year anniversary present to my wife and she absolutely adores Meadow. They have an amazing relationship together and it was one of the best things I have ever bought for my wife.

My daughter was the proud recipient of the Shetland pony named Apache Dancer (Dancer for short). She is a very calm and mild mannered pony who really is a sweetheart. Watching this four hundred pound plus animal follow my daughter around the yard is unreal and a testament to how an owner can benefit from animal companionship.

Our animal variety doesn’t stop there; we also have three dwarf goats, one buck and two does. Our initial plan was to breed both of the females but one developed a rare abscess in her udder and, after surgery, she really isn’t fit for having kids anymore. We recently attempted to breed the other female but that didn’t end too well when the buck was delivered stillborn.

Just like anything in life people show their bad sides when it comes to pets but I believe that, for the most part, people love and appreciate their pets.

Like the cats I mentioned above, people somehow feel abandoning their pets is a solution to not being able to take care of them anymore. Maybe they can’t feed them anymore or have to move and their new residence will not allow pets. For too many people the easy way out is to just drop them off somewhere and let them fend for themselves. This is not a humane solution to the problem.

These house pets are domesticated and are not used to having to find food on their own or protect themselves from other animals. This is one of the primary reasons that animals in captivity, like the zoo, can never be released into the wild; they just don’t know what to do to stay alive.

Our white mule Charlotte was supposed to be a temporary thing but years later we still have her. One of our friends volunteered at a local animal rescue center and Charlotte’s owners we not taking care of her and about a dozen other horses. The shelter seized the animals because they were all in some stage of poor health and/or poor nutrition.

We started feeding her and, after many months, she finally got to what we would consider to be a healthy weight. She came to us with a homemade rope bridal that we had to cut off of her; it had been on her so long that the knots actually had become fused together and we couldn’t untie it.

Don’t be afraid to become the owner of a pet. Sure you will have some work to do but the rewards are completely worth it. Once you establish a relationship with your pet the bond becomes strong and you will probably not know what to do without them in your life.

Pets have some kind of sense that can help you when you had a bad day at work or aren’t feeling too well. Both of our dogs will come up to us and offer their heads after a long day at work and it is such a calming thing to just scratch their heads. We appreciate how they are there for us, regardless of our moods, whenever we need a little help decompressing from whatever we are dealing with.