Have Any Pet-icularly Good Ideas?

"Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled" is a non-profit organization that trains capuchin monkeys to be service animals to people with limited mobility - spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis - allowing them to live independently. Among the many things the monkeys are trained to do are flip switches, scratch itches, turn pages and retrieve things pointed to by a laser. The monkeys are raised in foster homes, then trained for 3-5 years. However, they are trained only to assist inside the home. Capuchin monkeys were chosen because they're very social animals and natural tool users - especially "monkey wrenches".

"National Mill Dog Rescue" is a non-profit that has saved and adopted-out approximately 5,000 dogs that have churned out litter after litter. These dogs - ages 3-7 - have received minimal food, care and people contact. The 11,000-square-foot facility has 150-200 dogs in rehab at any time. Pugs, papillons, Shih Tzus, Yorkies, American Eskimo dogs, cocker spaniels - every popular, pet store breed is represented. Most are there after breeders targeted them to be shot or drowned or - in rare cases - euthanized by a vet to make room for more productive dogs. What these breeders also breed is contempt.

Pets are not a new idea, but a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found new reasons why they are a good idea. Psychologists conducted 3 experiments to examine the potential benefits of pet ownership in terms of well-being and individual differences. They found pet owners had greater self-esteem, were more physically fit, tended to be less lonely, were more conscientious, were more extroverted, tended to be less fearful and tended to be less preoccupied. Nevertheless, the study didn't find pet owners were more pettish, petty or petulant.

However, if you are not one of the 62% of U.S. households with a pet, maybe you should consider gardening. A Netherlands study had participants do something stressful. Then half of the participants either read inside or gardened for 30 minutes. The gardeners reported better moods and had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. In a Norwegian study people diagnosed with depression or bipolar disorder spent 6 hours weekly gardening. After 3 months 50% showed measurable improvement. A study following people in their 60's and 70's for up to 16 years found gardeners had 47% lower dementia risk. Maybe we all should let the idea of gardening "grow on us".