Linda Dlugo, 69, of Parma Heights, calls her Jack Russell Terrier mix her “personal trainer.” Moko, a 12-year-old she adopted in July from the Cleveland APL, requires frequent walks. Doing so has helped Dlugo lose a significant amount of weight.
Weight management isn’t his only benefit. “He’s so much fun,” says the former social worker. “He puts a warmth in my heart and a zip in my step.”
Dlugo chose Moko because he reminded her of her previous dog, Floyd, who had passed away two years earlier. Though their initial meeting was lukewarm, she thought she’d give Moko a two-week trial. Minutes later, in the car heading to his new home, Moko was Velcroed to his new owner. He hasn’t left her side since then.
“He’s a cute, sweet little dog,” she says. “Thankfully, he is older so I can keep up with him.”
Linda Klann, 65, of Cleveland, adopted a mature cat to help her overcome the recent passing of her dog. The emotional support has been invaluable. A friendly stray, Sasha was a skinny tabby whose cross-eyed affection won Klann’s heart when she met him at the Cleveland APL. She’s proud that she and Sasha found each other.
“I’m putting energy into a cat that wouldn’t have had a home at all. I feel like these guys deserve just as much love as kittens.”
Companions
Research has shown that adopting pets has significant physical and mental health benefits for older adults.
According to research published by the journal Circulation, “People with pets had significantly lower resting baseline heart rates and blood pressure, significantly smaller increases in heart rate and blood pressure in response to stress, and faster recovery of these parameters to baseline after cessation of stress.”
The Journal of Mind and the Medical Sciences says that companion animals can be a factor in reducing depression and loneliness in socially isolated, homebound older adults. The pandemic proved that when we can’t see each other, a pet is a worthy substitute.
Pets also serve as a social lubricant, facilitating conversation among strangers and providing needed human contact, especially for older adults, other studies have shown.
Heidi Corso, a social worker and community counseling supervisor at OhioGuidestone behavioral health agency, has both read about and witnessed the benefits of pets. “I know, in terms of affecting the brain, our moods and blood pressure, spending time petting a dog or any animal can have a positive effect on breathing as well as levels of serotonin and dopamine.”
Both Klann and Dlugo received small grants from The Pets for the Elderly Foundation, a national organization founded in Cleveland, to help pay for their pet adoptions. The foundation’s mission is to “provide companionship to senior individuals through pet ownership, while saving the lives of companion animals in shelters; animals which might otherwise be destroyed due to lack of appropriate homes, and space limitations.”
Since its founding with two shelters in 1992, the foundation has branched out nationally to 57 shelters in 36 states. Through small grants, it has successfully placed more than 100,000 companion animals with senior adopters. For more information and a list of participating shelters, visit petsfortheelderly.org.