Cats good for your health? I thought this was unlikely, so I did what every serious researcher does: I Googled it.

FutureMedica, a blog which describes itself as “a blog focused on the future of healthcare and biotechnology”, list 17 health benefits of cat ownership, including reducing blood pressure, stress, anxiety, improving mood, and fewer health care visits.

These people have obviously never owned a cat.

I did tell you about my mom’s hospital stay with cellulitis from her cat’s scratch, didn’t ? Yes, I did.

The Center for Disease Control is — shall we say a little less enthusiastic? We shall. They assure us, “you are not likely to get sick from touching or owning a cat“, then list some of the ways in which we might. We can minimize the risk, they tell us, by washing our hands after handling cat poop and avoiding cat scratches and bites. I’m like, “Really, Center for Disease Control? Really? Wow, I never would have thought of that. Your tax dollars at work!”

Mother Earth News says that the health benefits of pet ownership hold true for any kind of pet. It also says that “having a pet decreased a person’s risk of dying by about 3 percent per year”. So now we know why Crazy Cat Ladies are so ancient. If you have 5,000 cats, and each cat decreases your risk of dying….

By the way, here’s a link to a site called Crazy Cat Ladies, of women — and men — who genuinely love cats. Its purpose is to raise money for Best Friends Animal Society and Alley Cat Allies.

So are cats good for your health or not?

Depends on the cat.

~Cue the music from JAWS~

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write about an animal hoarder and his or her rescue.

MA