Pet lovers unite
Koda, my four year old pup, has just laid his head on my foot. Earlier today, Demo, the office cat, grabbed my arm while working and just cuddled up with me and slept while resting his head on the top of my hand. It is as if the movement was a calming lull for him. Anastasia, my eighteen year old long-haired calico cat, was asleep on top of me throughout the night and as I am writing this, she is on my lap vying for attention. So comforting. What is it about our pets cuddling up with us that makes us feel like our heart will explode with happiness, love, comfort, etc.? Well, let us find out. While doing some research on this topic to give you all a scientific point of view, I found that a lot of us humans like to discuss what the benefits of having an animal around us are. These benefi ts include lowering stress hormones, increased healing and independence, improved mood, increased physical activity, social connections, emotional support, and the list goes on. These aspects of the human-animal bond are nothing that we don’t already know. Most children ask for some type of pet in their childhood not knowing that they may be asking to seek out this bond. But what truly is the human-animal bond?
According to the Human-Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) the bond is described as, “a mutually beneficial and dynamic relationship between people and animals that is influenced by behaviors that are essential to the health and well-being of both.” So, not only are we receiving benefits from the connection, but the animals are also receiving benefi ts.
Studies show that when we interact with a beloved pet or animal “oxytocin, b-endorphin, prolactin, phenylacetic acid and dopamine, all of which play a role in regulating mental health” are produced, which greatly benefit our well being as well as the animals. So, when your dog or cat cuddles with you or does a happy walk when they see you, you can know their brain is producing the same chemicals as we are and are just as happy to see you as you them. All this happens without the use of spoken language.
Not saying that spoken language doesn’t work with communicating with our pets and animals; however, not all times do we communicate with sounds that our animals would pick up. Body language and the sense of energy that surround us will often make animals react and are more effective than the spoken commands that we give them.
Animals, if we set our egos aside, can teach far more than we think. Maybe that is why we strive to ask for a puppy or kitten (or whatever floats your boat) when we are young. For communication through energy, all is percieved, animals remind us how all can live with harmony.
“How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul.” — Frances Hodgson Burnett
SEEKING
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ONDER
SAMANTHA Y OCIUS PHOTO-TECH
