A Bond Museum

Currently an online entity, the National Museum of Animals & Society addresses all aspects of the human-animal bond which dogs have played a major role.



Why such a museum? Carolyn Merino Mullin, founder and executive director of the museum explains that in virtually every facet of society’s development, animals have played a significant role. "The National Museum of Animals & Society (NMAS) is dedicated to exploring this shared experience, a cultural narrative that has remained largely unexamined and untold and one that continues to unravel at a rapid pace."

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Pets Help People

Tests have shown that owning a pet can help people attain a better level of physical health. Petting your animal, be it dog, cat, rabbit or ferret, can lower your heart rate and your blood pressure and even promote healing. So can riding your horse or watching fish in an aquarium. Also, recent studies show that having pets at work lowers stress levels and makes employees more productive.

But pets can help us in other ways, too. They help us to relax and focus on things other than our problems. No matter how depressed you might be, and no matter how much you want to curl up on your bed and stay there for the day, your pet can coax you out – even if only to feed him and let him out the door. When you have a pet, you cannot drop out of the world; you have to stay involved.

Pets fulfill the natural craving we have for emotional relationships. Whenever we do something for another living thing, we feel better about ourselves. Here are some other ways pets make us feel better:

A Cure for Loneliness

Pets can help us to feel less lonely and isolated. Feeling needed also works to foster positive feelings. Ask the many elderly citizens or people living alone. Pets give a sense of purpose; they always need something – food, a walk, a stroke and a kind word, and they are usually appreciative. As an added benefit, if you leash up your dog and take a walk through the neighborhood or through a dog-friendly park, more than likely someone will talk to you. Studies have shown that people walking with a dog talk to new people far more often than if the dog was not with them.

Coming home to your pet gives you something to look forward to. Dogs may score highest in "greetings," but most pets are delighted to see their owners walk through the door and will show it in some way. If you have a pet, you are not alone.

Someone to Love

If you love your pet, that love comes back to you tenfold. And it is love of the best kind – unconditional and enduring. Animals offer this love, along with reliable companionship – often for a lot less trouble than having a relationship with a human. No matter how cranky you get, your pet always forgives you and continues to show affection.

Physical Contact

When your purring cat sits cuddled in your lap, all is right with the world. Cuddling and stroking your pet is good for you and helps you to forget about your bad day at work or your boredom. Your bird perched on your shoulder, your puppy licking your face, or stroking your horse's mane help to promote a sense of pleasure and calmness.

Someone to Talk To

It is a known fact that talking things out relieves a lot of internal pressure, but just having someone to talk to makes a difference, too. Talk about anything – your pet will listen, and, even better, he will not disagree. Share your thoughts, feelings, troubles, worries – or say something stupid – your pet will still love you. You may find that by talking things out, you may come up with your own solutions.

Sense of Security

Certain animals promote a sense of safety. Your dog will bark to warn you of impending danger, and even your cat will wake you if there is smoke in the house. But the sense of having someone with you is often enough to make you feel less anxious and more secure.

Motivation to Move

If your pet needs to be walked every day, you will be exercising – whether you want to or not. Walking with your dog also helps you to deal with the physical stress reactions you have acquired during your day. Walking gives you an opportunity to get outside and breathe fresh air. Let your pet teach you how to appreciate the outdoors.

The Human-animal Bond

The strength of the human-animal bond is not a myth. Although life with a pet is not always easy, the joy of pet ownership can be a wonderful experience. A snuggle from your cat or a slurpy kiss from your dog promotes very special feelings and creates a human/animal bond that can last for many years.

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday's blog I shared a oouple of stories about my dear dog, Lacey.


I came across a couple of websites which have some helpful information regarding mourning the loss of a pet.

You can add your dog's name to the "Monday Night Candle Ceremony" held weekly at Petloss.com or in-memory-of-pets.com. These beautiful and touching sites allow visitors to add their own pets' names and, if they choose, write some special words about their pets. During each weekly ceremony on Petloss.com is a reading of The Rainbow Bridge, a poem about pets who have crossed over the rainbow and await the coming of those who have cared for them.

The human-animal bond is strong, sometimes as strong as any you may have with a person. When an animal companion dies, it can be just as heartbreaking as the death of a human loved one. Unfortunately, animal lovers are often met with insensitive comments, such as, "It was only a dog," or "Just get another one" when a dog companion dies. The dog's caregiver is left to mourn in private or get emotional support from strangers who might staff pet-loss support lines.

Fortunately on these websites you can find help and support.
I wish you had the option to turn off the music.

Do You Love Your Pet Too Much?

It's Saturday night and your friends call you to go out. Perhaps they want to check out a local live band, or drop by a party someone is having. But, frankly, you'd rather just stay home and play with your dog.

Your friends say you love that dog too much. Could they be right? In other words, is it possible that you love your pet too much?

The answer: It is possible to form unhealthy attachments to animals, but the attachment must become pretty extreme. In the brief example cited above, the answer is probably no. A lot of people would rather forego a night in a smoky, noisy bar for a quiet evening home with doggie, who would certainly enjoy the company.

But if the relationship with your pet excludes meaningful relationships with human beings, then there may be a problem. "People can have unhealthy relationships when they lose objectivity," explains counselor Marty Tousley, RN, MS, CS.


"But it depends on the individual situation."

Tousley notes that human-animal bonds are unhealthy when we expect our pets to take the place of people. While our bonds with pets are beautiful and fulfilling, they should not supplant our desire to be with people.

In an article she authored, Tousley uses the example of a woman who has gone through unsuccessful relationships with men, perhaps a failed marriage or two. "A woman may find it safer, easier and more emotionally fulfilling to focus her relationship with a pet, who is never demanding or critical, and would never leave her feeling rejected or abandoned. In effect, she would be using her pet to mask her own fears of intimacy and commitment with men," writes Tousley.

She offers six points a therapist would consider:

How much you allow your pet to interfere with daily life.

Whether your pet has seriously affected important relationships (spouse, close friends or relatives). This is different from merely wanting to date someone who likes your dog, where you want to find someone who shares interests and priorities.

If you relate to your pet to the exclusion of relationships with family and friends.

Whether you regularly turn down invitations when your pet is not included.

If you spend most of your time thinking about your pet, to the exclusion of other matters (such as your own health).

If you believe you cannot live without your pet.

This last point is very important because most of us will outlive our companion animals. A person who is co-dependent on his or her pet may suffer debilitating depression when the pet dies.

What About the Pet?

Smothering your pet with healthy love really isn't a problem – just ask your pet. But it could be unhealthy in other ways or just downright confusing at times. Your pet may conclude that he or she is the alpha – the leader – by your behavior. This can lead to future behavior problems with the two of you jockeying for the leadership role.

Or they may become so attached to you that they eventually suffer separation anxiety. This is a behavioral disorder that often originates with the pet, but can be made worse by your actions. When you're home, your dog follows you around and insists on staying as close to you as possible.

Although this may seem cute, worse things may follow. When you leave, your dog may urinate on the carpet, howl or destroy property – not out of spite but out of frustration. An animal behaviorist may be need to be consulted in these cases.

Animals Have Feelings

Marc Bekoff, biologist at the University of Colorado, has compiled a new book, The Smile of the Dolphin, (Discovery Books/Random House, $35) in which dozens of animal researchers explain why they believe animals have emotions.

The Grieving Chimp

In one chapter, primate expert Jane Goodall recounts the grief experienced by a chimpanzee child named Flint after his mother, Flo, died in Africa's Gombe National Park. "Over the next three weeks, Flint became increasingly lethargic. He stopped eating, and he avoided other chimps, huddling in the vegetation close to where he'd last seen Flo," she writes.

The sad-eyed mourner made his way to the spot where his mother had lain, next to a stream, staring into the water until he died.

"Chimpanzees, differing from us genetically by only just over one percent, can't be said to weep, for they don't shed tears. Yet...they show behavior that's associated with sadness, depression, and grief in humans: soft whimpering, crying sounds, listlessness, lack of appetite, avoidance of others," Goodall writes.

But are such animals truly "sad," in the sense that they realize something is lost that will never be regained? How can they be said to be happy, sad, or angry if they don't perceive themselves as a separate being?, the skeptics ask. Others say it's credible to count apes as capable of feeling, but a broad stretch to attribute emotions to lions or sheep.

"Does Flint reflect and say, 'I'm sad'? I don't know if he does, but he's behaving as if he's sad, and there's no reason to believe that he's not sad," Bekoff says, adding that anyone who lives with a dog knows when she's happy, sad, or fearful.

Human-Animal Bond

Clinton Sanders, a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, writes that he studied a guide-dog training program to find out more about the social bond between dogs and people.

"For people who depend on dogs for special assistance, knowing their animal companions' thought processes and feelings is central to building an effective alliance," Sanders says. "The visually-impaired people with whom I talked often spoke of the special pleasure their dogs derived from doing the work they were trained for – and, in contrast, the embarrassment they obviously felt when they made mistakes."

Mother-Infant Bond

Jaak Panksepp, an expert in neuroscience at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, says he witnessed the power of the mother-infant bond when his two female cats, a mother and her daughter, each gave birth after building nests in closets on opposite ends of his long, ranch-style home.

The mother cat gave birth first, and the daughter, while awaiting her babies' arrival, took charge of the mother's brood, carrying them to her nest. "Then we had a few days of chaos, as mother and daughter repeatedly ferried the kittens between their domains," Panksepp recounts. "We know many of the neurochemistries that activate these strong (maternal) feelings. At the basic emotional level, all mammals are remarkably similar."

So, what does it mean to believe that animals have feelings? "It means they are not just objects with which we can do what we please," Bekoff says. But the broader implications of viewing animals with more sensitivity could mean dramatic societal changes, like stopping the factory production of meat for humans, or granting animals more rights.

"I think it will have a subtle, slow impact," says Bekoff, who's a vegetarian. "I think the world is going to be different."