Pets and stress - another thought

I know that pets can be calming...

That was the situation for me until my cat, Sheba, went missing for 4 days. You bet I got stressed by that!

She reappeared at 1 AM this morning - mewing loudly to come in. She was clean, dry and well fed. [This was as opposed to summer of 2006 when she went missing for 21 days and came home hydrated but skinny...]

When she is not home at night the dog lies by the door waiting for her.....and he is stressed...

I know there are those that say keep her in - but have you ever tried to keep an outdoor cat in? If I do try that, she runs under the dog's body when I open a door for him.... and in the Summer out here - all my doors are always open during the day so I'd have to lock her up somewhere - and if you knew my cat - you'd know that would be stress for both us us : - ).

Besides - all the cats in our moorage are out - playing and hunting together...we live in a one main street neighborhood and everyone knows everyone and whose cat is who's - and we don't worry much about cars...

After I sent out an email to friends and neighbors this morning about Sheba's return - I got a return email about a cat I have known for going on 18 years and who has cancer...so I called my friend back East and we cried together about her cat who was diagnosed about 6 months ago and seemed to have been doing well.

She and I have cried about our dead and dying pets for the last 25 years and this was no different. The conversation was more on the lines of when do you decide to "play g-d" and how long and under what conditions do you wait and see. She waited and saw 6 months ago and he perked up.....does she wait again? Is he in pain? Is it fair for her to want a little more time with him?

Tough questions and a lot to cry about and of course a lot of stress

Stress and pets

Do you have a pet? Yes? Great!

Pets are stress reducers..
Having that live entity to care for gives meaning to your life...


Also - getting that unconditional love is great...
Yes - even from those independent cats!

I walk my dog every day - admittedly the walks vary in length depending on the weather and my schedule - but I always feel better after that break - and I know he does! So we both reduce stress. He gets to run and play - so he is happy..and I get exercise in addition to the happiness he imparts to me and everything he sees along his walk.

And when we are out walking, we often meet neighbors and their dogs - so more stress reducers - friends, conversations and exercise - all at the same time.

And when I feel less than super - my dog knows that and stays near my feet. sometimes on my feet!


My cat is a hunter and summer is her "hunting season." But when she deigns to come home and sleep, she snuggles up to me or the dog and purrs like mad...

and that makes us all less stressful.

Stress reduction

Let's chat about eating...

Food is a necessity for life...but not eating properly is a recipe for stress.

Too many of us eat more -and eat more of the "wrong" foods - when we are stressed and all that does is increase the stress level.

I know we have food we call comfort food - it takes us back to when mom took care of all our problems. But that comfort food mom fed us does not exist anymore. The current versions of those foods we loved are filled with chemicals and highly processed and refined "food stuffs."

For reducing stress and overall taking care of your nutritional needs so as to make stress less all the time you need one important nutrient.. And what is the most important nutrient?

That's a trick question - it is the one you are lacking in your diet.

So how do you get all the nutrients you need? By eating supplements. Few dispute the need for supplementing our foods and few dispute the need for anti-oxidants. Why?

As I have said before, we have created a toxic environment and we have depleted the soil of nutrients - the ones it contained when some of us were kids...and eating mom's comfort food.

Do we have greater stress today? I think so - due in large measure to our hurried lives, lowered incomes, and poor foods.....

More on stress reduction next time : o )

We all need less stress

What age experiences the most stress? I'm not sure but I might guess that at any given time some age will "win."
And this is not a good thing to "win" as stress is not good for our bodies...[well lots of stress is not good - some stress can be energizing.]

How do you deal with stress?

These are good ways to reduce stress [in no particular order]:

Yoga
Adequate sleep
Pets
Exercise
Eating properly: right foods - right times
Chat with friends/family

Over the next few weeks, I'll go into each a bit more detail as to why each works.

If we are stressed, we are not functioning at our peak levels, and we then ony increase the stress...
It's a vicious circle.