Health Benefits of Pet Companionship

Most pet owners would probably tell you that their pet improves their lives. But did you know that data shows tangible health benefits of animal companionship?

  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pets can help manage loneliness and depression with their companionship.
  • Regularly walking or playing with a pet can decrease blood pressure, cortisol levels, and triglyceride levels.
  • Animals can provide emotional support and decrease feelings of anxiety and symptoms of PTSD.
  • For older adults, regular outdoor activities with pets can improve cognitive function.

Source:  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Pet Ownership Trivia

Pet ownership has grown steadily in the U.S. over the years. 70% of U.S. households (90.5 million homes) owned a pet as of 2022.

  1. 69 million U.S. households have a pet dog, compared to 45.3 million with a cat.
  2. 3.5 million American households own a horse, and 2.9 million own a saltwater fish.
  3. From March 2020 to May 2021 alone, roughly 1 in 5 U.S. households acquired a dog or cat.
  4. Pet ownership has steadily risen in the U.S: 56% of households owned a pet in 1988, compared to 67% as recently as 2019.

Source:  Insurance Information Institute

Fun Dog Trivia

  • Dogs only sweat from the bottoms of their feet, the only way they can discharge heat is by panting.
  • Dogs have about 100 different facial expressions, most of them made with the ears.
  • Dogs have about 10 vocal sounds.
  • Dogs do not have an appendix.
  • There are more than 350 different breeds of dogs worldwide.
  • Dalmatians are born spotless: at first pure white, their spots develop as they age.
  • Contrary to popular belief, dogs aren’t color blind; they can see shades of blue, yellow, green and gray. The color red registers on a grayscale in a dog’s vision.
  • Most domestic dogs are capable of reaching speeds up to about nineteen miles per hour when running at full speed.
  • Using their swiveling ears like radar dishes, experiments have shown that dogs can locate the source of a sound in 6/100ths of a second.
  • Domesticated for more than 10,000 years, the dog was one of the first animals domesticated by humans.

Fun Cat Trivia

  • Cats do not have sweat glands.
  • A cat can jump as much as seven times its height.
  • Cats have five toes on each front paw, but only four toes on each back paw.
  • Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
  • A pack of kittens is called a kindle, while a pack of adult cats is called a clowder.
  • An adult cat can run about 12 miles per hour, and can sprint at nearly thirty miles per hour.
  • A cat’s tongue is scratchy because it’s lined with papillae—tiny elevated backwards hooks that help to hold prey in place.
  • The nose pad of each cat has ridges in a unique pattern not unlike a person’s fingerprints.
  • Cats’ bodies are extremely flexible; the cat skeleton contains more than 230 bones (a human has about 206), and the pelvis and shoulders loosely attach to the spine. This adds to their flexibility and allows them to fit through very small spaces.
  • Cats have better memories than dogs. Tests conducted by the University of Michigan concluded that while a dog’s memory lasts no more than 5 minutes, a cat’s can last as long as 16 hours—exceeding even that of monkeys and orangutans.

Source:  petinsurance.com