How being a pet owner keeps me healthy

Jungle Kitty is our cat Luna’s nickname – because I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s still a wild beastie and that our house is a primordial jungle through which she stalks her prey. Her prey, of course, being us and small inanimate objects like hair ties, LEGOs and Barbie shoes. (Oh and my water glass – she is RELENTLESSLY tipping over water glasses! I have no idea why. Maybe she just likes the water splashing? If someone would care to explain this weird facet of cat behavior to me, I’d be much appreciated.) But one of Luna’s favorite things to attack is my foot. Specifically, my foot while I’m working out. Behold: IMAG0034 Here I am blissfully doing sliding lunges (put your back foot on a Val-Slide or paper plate and slide it backwards as you lunge – such a great move for your butt!) when my cat goes cougar on my foot! IMAG0037   I asked her, “Do you know how hard it is to get my workout in when you are doing that to my foot??” And this is the look she gave me: Disapproving Cat Glare at its best. IMAG0041   Sometimes she goes for the full-foot bind. She’d be a master at MMA. IMAG0040
Even when she’s done attacking, she still holds on to my ankle which cracks me up. Maybe she thinks I’m doing something dumb and is just trying to keep me from hurting myself? Either way it adds a whole other level of difficulty to my leg work-out! Cat-lunges aside, for me having a cat is part of my overall healthy lifestyle. I’ve talked a lot on here about how much we love Luna and how much she helps my kids (even if she thinks I am a bad mom) and how much she entertains us but at the same time there is a lot that she does to help maintain my family’s physical health. And I don’t just mean grooming my kids.
I have a friend who said she would never own a cat because she just knew it would walk around on her kitchen counters with its litterbox-ed paws while she was gone at work. And I agree that’s a pretty gross visual but interestingly, despite whatever muck they may track in, research has pretty definitively shown that owning pets (as long as you’re not allergic to them) is really good for your health! The scientists found that pet owners have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, lower levels of stress (petting a soft kitty is way better than any stress ball!), improves your immune system, lowers the risk of asthma in children, lowers blood pressure, lifts your mood, and one study even showed that pet owners have less doctors’ visits per year!
So it’s the least I can do to help her be healthy too by feeding her yummy, healthy cat food. Her current fave is the SHEBA® Tuna Cuts Entrée (which is hilarious since she won’t eat regular tuna). I was a little worried about her seafood binge – who knows what goes into cat food, especially when people-fish is so polluted? – but all SHEBA® Seafood Entrees are made with responsibly sourced seafood and fish that follow the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommendations. The biggest brands in the category (Friskies, Fancy Feast) do not guarantee their seafood is sustainably sourced. Plus the price is still really reasonable so I don’t feel like I’m over-paying to give my cat gourmet food.

Do you have a pet? How do you think they help keep YOU healthy?

PS. We had a pretty crazy adventure with Luna today – she got stuck in our car engine and almost died. Miraculously she is going to be fine but you can check out the post below for all the details and pics of her teeeeny tiny kitty casts 🙁 I promise I’m not trying to exploit my poor cat’s near-death experience by having both posts run at the same time – it just happened that the accident happened the same day my last post for my collaboration with Sheba was scheduled to run and I know some of you saw the news on social media and were worried about Luna so I wanted to give you an update on how she’s doing! I’m sorry for any confusion, the whole day was very upsetting and I’m still rattled. 

This program is sponsored by SHEBA® Brand and BlogHer, I was compensated for my writing but all opinions are my own.

8 Comments

  1. “Nature helps us to see and understand God. To all His creations we owe an allegiance of service and a profound admiration.”

  2. My cats love when I workout at home. Especially when I’m doing yoga. “Ooh, look, she’s bent up like a bridge, lets walk under her and tickle her with our tails!” “Oh, she’s not paying attention to us. We should bring out toys up to her and leave them at her head lest she forget we exist. HURRY!”

    My female cat, Olive, LOVES stinky exercise clothes, too. She gets in the stinkables basket (yes, a basket just for my workout clothes) and waits for me to put fresh stinkables in it. She likes to rub her throat and face on them, and will air rub while waiting for the fresh stuff. She’s such a weirdo!

  3. I love my cats. When I am blue, they are the only thing that cheers me up. I literally cannot be sad when one of my babies hops up on my lap or curls up next to me in bed.

  4. Our dog does yoga with me. Well, in his way: When I’m in Downward Facing Dog he’ll deign to roll over onto his back. (Did I mention that he sleeps about 21 hours a day? I swear, he’s a pit bull who thinks he’s a cat!)
    Our last dog (Luna!), used to attack my face with her tongue as soon as I got on the floor for ab work. I pretended it was because she loved me so much, but really it was because I was all nice and salty from doing cardio. 🙂
    I love dogs. And cats. And horses. And birds. And lizards. And even bugs. I’ve learned to appreciate spiders. From a distance.
    I always scratch my head when people say cats aren’t affectionate. I feel badly for those folks, for they have never known the joy of a kitty cuddle.

  5. One of my cats insists on playing dodgeball with the kettlebell. Heart attack city! But if I kick her out of the room she acts like I’ve tried to murder her. I do kick her out, but I feel bad.

    So glad for you that Luna dodged her own bullet.

  6. Oh goodness, glad Luna is safe! You are so right about pets. We have a household of them. My dog is the best though, a lab, and always needs walking, so I’m able to get much more movement in the day because he’s constantly staring at me, wanting me to go out and takes walks by the river (and in the river) behind my house, and I go with him. I definitely agree they lower the stress too, not only because they are sweet and loving and cause us to be like that too, they force us out to get that Vitamin N (nature!) we need and that helps lower stress and anxiety too. We also have a few other crazy pets thanks to my son (bearded dragon, ferret, snapping turtle, garter snakes, betta fish)…I’m not sure they help all that much but Balsam the lab makes up for it. Thanks for your post!

  7. I’ve written about what I’ve learned from my cat! I am amazed at how flexible she is with the positions she can contort herself into 🙂

  8. Pingback:GFE Updates: A crazy road trip, a surprise package, readers doing rad stuff and my cat is healing!