Points on Pets

As we passed the one year anniversary of Covid-19 lockdowns and the disruptions to our lives, I took a moment to reflect on how pets have helped us get through these difficult times. They deserve an extra tasty treat and an extra-long hug for the services they have provided.

The virus took two main paths among the population. Many of us hunkered down as public health officials advised, while others simply lacked that option. People working in retail, construction, and similar areas couldn’t do their jobs from home while the first group adjusted to video meetings and finally getting that home office operational. All of us adapted to a new world of masks, limited occupancy in grocery stores, the practical end of going to movies or live music, and other fundamental disruptions to how we live our lives.

Through it all, our pets were there to help. In a changed world, they forced us to keep some parts of our routines intact as at least an echo of normalcy. We served their dinners on schedule as woofs and meows demanded. We took walks forcing us to leave the house on some kind of regular basis. We played fetch or with the flippy toy. The responsibility for the happiness and welfare of other living beings kept us both focused on a meaningful task and provided a welcome distraction from a constant flood of bad news.

No longer just wishful thinking, researchers suggest our pets can indeed sense our moods. National Geographic noted research suggests dogs use visual and auditory cues to determine when a human is angry or sad and change behavior based on their determination. Less obvious, cats too likely understand human emotion and react to what they sense, according to an article published by the BBC in 2015. It is worth noting that cats are notoriously more difficult to study, and that these experiments only advance the idea of animal empathy toward us rather than “prove” it.

Until we get further proof, we can only rely on thousands of years of anecdotal evidence provided by wagging tails and sympathetic snuggles. Unscientifically, I am absolutely convinced that our cat Loki understood the new stress in “his” house and went out of his way to be extra affectionate for our benefit. Friends tell of similar reactions from their pets. The AARP newsletter reported anecdotes from several people about how their pets – dogs, cats, birds, horses, pigs, and others – have helped their human guardians deal with the pressures of quarantine. According to a November 2020, post from the journal Nature:

“Previous studies indicated that owning a companion animal, such as a dog or a cat, has benefits for good mental health. Interactions with animals may help with depression and anxiety, particularly under stressprone conditions. Human–animal interactions may even improve peer-to-peer social relationships, as well as enhance feelings of respect, trust, and empathy between people.”

No wonder then that the COVID-19 era saw a huge influx in pet adoptions. In January of this year, the Washington Post noted the huge demand for animals to adopt. “We thought people would stop adopting because they would need to conserve their money,” said Cindy Sharpley, founder and director of Last Chance Animal Rescue, a nonprofit animal shelter in Waldorf. “But that hasn’t happened. It’s been just the opposite. They’re going like hot cakes. We can hardly keep them in stock. Time named the rescue animal 2020’s Pet of the Year.

It seems the need for love and companionship outweighed concern for conserving money during the COVID-19 crisis, but