therapeutic effects of pets

[Guest guest]

My son has a dog. It was meant to be his service dog but the training just

didn't work out. Long story. Anyway, the thing is even without this dog being

a service dog he is very therapeutic. My son always talks to other people about

their pets and tells them about his dog. He loves animals of all kinds. His

dog sleeps with him so if he wakes up at night he isn't totally alone. If I

suggest to that his dog needs attention it can get away from his

computer which is a tough thing to do. Sometimes will take a break to pet

his dog even if I don't tell him to.

I've realized for a while that pets help but wasn't sure what to do about

getting my daughter one. My husband suggested another dog but the thought of

training and getting our dog to accept another dog was just too overwhelming.

My daughter doesn't have asperger syndrome but she is very anxious and has OCD

and can also be quite sad at times. Medications for anxiety don't work for her

and so far the ones that were supposed to help her OCD have only made her worse.

She's in play therapy now and that seems to be helping but the best thing for

her has been getting her a pet. Well actually two pets. We adopted two rats at

the local animal rescue league. Rayleigh has wanted rats for a while. She's

seen me in pictures with mine. I started keeping rats as pets after I worked

with one in a psychology class. I found they are very smart, friendly and

social.

When we started talking about getting rats Rayleigh searched the animal rescue

league website and found two of them, sisters, who have been together since

birth. I won't adopt just one because they really do need each other. We went

to visit these rats the next day and because they're at the rescue league we

could really sit and play with them for a while. We spent an hour with them and

as the time went on they warmed up to us very well. I pretty much decided we

were going to get them but we needed a good cage to keep the dog out. Rayleigh

did the research on that as well. She found some current rat owners on youtube

by watching videos of pet rats and asked what cages they recommended. 's

Cages was recommended several times and I remember that they were in business

when I was buying cages for my own rats. So we ordered one and then picked up

the rats. We borrowed the cage from the rescue league because they couldn't

hold the rats until our cage came.

So far this rat adoption thing has been a very positive thing. We're enjoying

our new pets so much and Rayleigh is happier and calmer than I think I've ever

seen her. She can sit in her room and they'll climb all over her and if they

get into mischief (eating carpeting, climbing on the bed) she picks them up and

gets them interested in something else. They are already becoming very

comfortable in their new home. We are working on training them to respond to

their names by giving them little treats (sunflower kernels or oats) and saying

their names at the same time.

I have no regrets.

Miriam