What is it about Rover and Fluffy that makes us depend on them emotionally often in the same way that we depend on our human relationships? Following is a list of reasons given by experts.
* Unlike humans, pets \o7 really do\f7 love unconditionally. "The one thing that a pet does for you is they love you no matter what," says Ginger Hamilton, a psychologist who works with people and their pets in Bella Vista, Ark. "You don't have to make any explanations to them--they are just there with open paws." Perhaps a woman, who asked not to be identified, characterized it best when she quipped: "Your marriage might not last, but you know that your relationships with your pets will."
* Pet companionship offers concrete health-giving effects. Medical studies prove that pets lower blood pressure, increase survival rates of heart attack victims, give elderly folks raison d'e^tre, decrease visits to the doctor and are therapeutic for the disabled and mentally ill.
* They give order to an otherwise chaotic universe. "They regularize your life," said Stanley Coren, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of "The Intelligence of Dogs" (Bantam, 1995). "The beast has to be let out or fed. Freud said that work and routine are great healers."
* They cue our softer side, sometimes even dissolving walls of silence in therapeutic and familial relationships. Psychologist Herb Nieburg, who practices at Four Winds Hospital in New York's Westchester County, says dogs and cats naturally elicit the human urge to stroke or pet an animal (unless you are allergic to them). Yukon, Nieburg's yellow Labrador often accompanies the psychologist to his office and if that doesn't loosen up his tongue-tied patients, they are invited to bring their own \o7 friend\f7 .
"This adolescent was having trouble coming to see me, so I told him that he could bring a friend," says Nieburg, who co-wrote "The Loss of a Pet" (HarperCollins, 1982). "So he brought in a ferret. And it got loose, it hid behind the radiator and we had to fish it out and it [messed] all over my office. But we got really close because of that ferret. . . . I've had people break engagements over their pets"--such as a fiance who hated cats.
