{"id":7780,"date":"2024-09-10T12:37:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=7780"},"modified":"2024-09-11T17:33:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T21:33:30","slug":"the-upside-and-downside-of-being-owned-by-a-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2024\/09\/the-upside-and-downside-of-being-owned-by-a-cat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Upside and Downside of Being Owned by a Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love my cat, but until now, I hadn\u2019t thought of her as a way to stay healthy. In fact, when I first brought Velvet\u2014a small, feisty black kitty\u2014home, I thought of her as a dog substitute. My beloved dog had died. I longed for another, but cats don\u2019t need to be walked several times a day in all kinds of weather. I was in my 80s, and that was appealing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, I\u2019ve learned that cats come with health benefits that are important for older people. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cat owners are less likely to have minor health problems, like headaches\u2014and major ones, like heart disease and heart attacks. No one knows why, and these findings are somewhat controversial<\/a>, but scientists do know that stroking a cat can lower your heart rate and blood pressure. It releases the hormone oxytocin, which\u2014among other things–relieves stress and anxiety. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty sure that when I\u2019m stroking Velvet, I\u2019m doing good things for her blood pressure and stress level, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cats provide companionship, which can make a big difference to older people who are lonely or depressed. I live alone and don\u2019t feel at all lonely, and I give Velvet much of the credit. She\u2019s good company, whether she\u2019s greeting me at the door or looking up at me with her big green eyes, meowing to let me know she\u2019s hungry. <\/span><\/p>\n

A cat can provide you with a sense of purpose, a reason to get up in the morning. You\u2019re needed\u2014to feed the cat, clean the litter box and take her to the vet from time to time. A neighbor of mine has a sign on her door that reads, \u201cThe cat and her staff live here.\u201d But that\u2019s not how it is. Once my adult children moved out, I was left with unused nurturing skills and a need to be needed. I suspect other people have that too. <\/span><\/p>\n

A cat can be an antidote to insomnia. Researchers report that many people sleep better when sharing their bed with a pet than they do when sharing it with a partner. Velvet doesn\u2019t snore, unlike my husband and my dog, who used to do duets. Occasionally, she chooses not to spend the night with me, and I don\u2019t sleep as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

Older people who have pets get more exercise. When health websites roll out this fact, they generally have dogs in mind, but it\u2019s even true for some cats. Occasionally, Velvet escapes into the hallway outside our apartment and darts away, expecting me to chase her. There\u2019s no way I can catch her, but I pad along in her wake, and she stays just far enough ahead to keep me motivated. When she\u2019s finally tired, she lies down in the middle of the hall and waits for me to pick her up and carry her home. This is good exercise for both of us. <\/span><\/p>\n

A mischievous cat can make you laugh, and that\u2019s possibly the biggest health benefit of all. I can\u2019t help laughing when I have trouble tying my shoes because Velvet keeps grabbing the laces, or when she stretches out on the floor and rolls over multiple times, watching me to make sure I\u2019m watching her. This is how she apologizes for any trouble she\u2019s caused. I\u2019m supposed to applaud and forgive her. I can\u2019t imagine where she learned to do that. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s the situation the cat gets you into that provides the laugh. Velvet once pulled the emergency cord in my apartment twice in one week. Each time, one of my community\u2019s EMTs arrived promptly to make sure I was okay. <\/span><\/p>\n

I could tell these trained medical professionals were getting tired of false alarms when, a day or so later, I accidentally pulled the cord myself while taping it to the wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come to arrest your cat,\u201d said the uniformed man who turned up. There was a twinkle in his eye. <\/span><\/p>\n

I showed him the duct-taped cord and assured him it would never be pulled again. He sized up Velvet and shook his head.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCoffee and doughnuts next time,\u201d he said as he went out the door. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sharing a household with a cat can also have a downside. <\/span><\/p>\n