Everyone knows that just having a cat around and petting it can lower your blood pressure and soothe your nerves — right before the cat starts howling and ordering you to feed it as often as possible. So if you have a cooperative cat (which pretty much eliminates 100 percent of the cats out there), […]
A study by the journal Pediatrics finds that children who lived with dogs or cats during their first year of life got sick less frequently than kids from pet-free zones. The study suggests that sharing a home with a pet may be an early form of cross-training for the body’s defense systems. Dirt and microbes […]
Flatulence (which is a nicer word to describe an awful smell) occurs when food ferments in the digestive tract, your cat swallows air after eating too fast or too much, or if there’s a disorder of the stomach, small intestine or colon. A little gas is a natural part of the digestive process and usually passes […]
According to Banfield Pet Hospital, one in four pets (cats and dogs) are overweight. The problem is so pervasive that the Association for Pet Obesity has declared October 9 as National Pet Obesity Awareness Day. Banfield collected data from over 800 animal hospitals over 43 states. While dogs have become 37 percent more likely to […]
A National Institutes of Health Study found that dog and cat owners have a reduced risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The longer the duration of pet ownership, the less chance the individual would suffer from this type of cancer. A separate study found that infants having pets at home suffered from fewer respiratory tract illnesses. “Our findings […]