You throw open the front door and your best friend comes bounding out to greet you. Their tail thumps against the floor, and you smile at the pure joy you can provide for your four-legged friend. Sitting in the still open doorway, you pause and reflect on how lucky you are. Some people don’t have any pets. You hug your treasured, furry friend and think about all the reasons everyone should have a pet. ‘Man’s best friend,’ it has a sort of ring to it and is true in more ways than one. Everyone should have a pet.

The first advantage of having any pet is that they teach you nonverbal communication. Pets have no need for words. They express themselves through expressions. In the same way, we don’t need words to know when people are comfortable with us. Actions speak louder than words. A (hug or a lick) can say more than a year’s worth of words. This is an important lesson to learn as a child because otherwise you end up with socially awkward people that could have been prevented. You all know that person. Pets teach facial communications in the best way possible. In my opinion, there is no other life lesson that comes close to comparing to the magnificence of a pet.
“AHHHHH!!!! NO! I DON’T WANT TO!” Screams echo through the halls of my house. I sigh. I have to, yet again, go calm down my cousin, Kevin. His parents dumped him here four days ago to go on vacation (I’m assuming from him). Since then, the record time between tantrums has been an entire 16 minutes. Collecting myself vigilantly, I go to try and explain to the four-year-old terror that he can’t always get his way. In my house, we do not rotate around the planet that my darling cousin thinks he is. Thankfully, later that day, I hear the glorious sound of a car in the driveway, signaling that his parents have returned. I am free… Two years later, after my family decides to sacrifice a cat for a pet for Kevin, he returns for another couple of days (against my wishes). Cats do not always want to play with you, and they certainly do not want to let you do whatever you want to them. It was a genius. Kevin learned quickly that sometimes others have their own schedules, and he knows now that when Blackie makes an ‘angry face’ you should leave her alone. Two years later, I can confidently say that he has been mostly cured. The world has managed to produce yet another human being with a sense of empathy all because of a single cat. 

Secondly, pets help with your health in many different ways. Erika Friedman, from the University of Maryland Hospital, found that heart attack patients who owned dogs are eight times more likely to be alive a year later than people without dogs. Plus, Swedish researchers found that children exposed to pets within the first year of life had fewer allergies and less asthmas later on, and autistic kids become more interactive. Not to mention that a cat’s purr is at the perfect frequency to heal your bones. Mayo Clinic even has a vibration machine set at the same frequency as a cat’s purr for people will fragile bones to sit with and heal, and that doesn’t even cover many of the other physical benefits a cat’s purr has. It strengthens muscles such as your heart and lungs; it lessens swelling and pain, and it lowers your blood pressure.

I whole-heartedly believe all this due to my neighbor, whom we shall call Ron. Ron’s family has lived on the same farm since the Great Depression, and they have acquired many different types of animals. Their farmyard has cows running across it with mules, horses, and donkeys following close behind. There are deer to tend to, and birds of all kinds from guinea hens to geese to peacocks. There are pigs, both large and small squealing in various pens, and there is consistently about six dogs to trip over. There are orphaned fawns to nurse in the living room, lost goslings to feed in the kitchen, and kittens of all colors playing under the beds that according to Ron’s son “just can’t be left out in the cold.” They honestly should charge people and call it a zoo. They could make serious money. The family lives and breathes animal, and they do a fantastic job of making everything work. I have to believe that is what keeps all the members so healthy. Ron made it to year 26 of his life before he was sick for the first time. Similarly, his younger brother, made it to his late teens before he even found out what a cold was. Their family’s health continues to amaze me as they spend more time outside than inside even during the winter. It is nothing short of a miracle, and it must happen because of the pure amount of animals they spend so much time with.

Pets also make great companions and provide great comfort. Marian R. Banks, from the Veterans Administration Medical Center in St. Louis, completed a study on patients in a long-term facility who got visits from therapy animals. It caused their loneliness to decrease dramatically even if they only got thirty minutes a week. It was also proven by Dr. Rebecca Johnson, the director at the center for Animal Wellness at the Missouri University College of Veterinary Medicine, that pets increase the chemical serotonin (preventive of depression) in your brain. The long term benefit of increased serotonin is that you are more alert, you sleep better, and you are less sensitive to pain. These are all great things. Also, cortisol (a stress chemical responsible for regulating appetite and cravings) was lowered.

Christmas after Christmas went by, each with my grandma doing a little less and sitting a little more. My mother became quite worried about her because before my grandma and grandpa used to go horseback riding quite frequently, and now, it seemed like a struggle to get the pair of them off the couch. “Grandma does have some hip problems,” we told ourselves, but she was using that excuse too much. We couldn’t figure out a way to get her “back into the saddle” without literally getting her back into the saddle. We needed horses she wouldn’t have to exercise as much, and that she wouldn’t feel bad about if she couldn’t ride. Inspiration struck, and my grandma now owns two miniature horses. She absolutely loves her “babies.” They (both the two minis and my grandma) get daily walks, and we get daily calls with new stories on what the two rascals have been up to. Christmastime includes much more laughter now and a traditional walk with the ponies.

No one should go home to an empty house. Everyone should be able to experience the joy that comes from a pet. The work it takes to have that friend is made up a hundred times over. They do so much back for you from nonverbal communication to health to companionship. With so many facts and stories behind the benefits of a pet, there is no reason you should doubt getting one today. You will make memories with them, and it will not be something you will ever forget.